When we decided to take the road trip, our personal health was one of the biggest considerations. Both of us had difficult experiences with our health in our past few years especially while living in the Delhi metropolis. We tried our best to start our journey with relatively healthier versions of ourselves and also vowed a lot of health commitments to ourselves as well to each other.
We tried our best to stick to the health routines during the trip. However some of the cities that we passed through were known for such intense health gods that it was no wonder that we came out of the trip in pink of our healths.
We travelled to a small coastal church town of Velankanni, on the Coromandel coast (Coromandel is the Portuguese version of Cholamandalam i.e. realm of the Cholas), in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. Velankanni is one of the biggest centers of Catholic pilgrimages in India. However the pilgrims are from multiple faiths, religions and nationalities and not only Catholics. The town houses the 16th century Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health, which is revered as the goddess that can cure the severest of the diseases. People who get cured, gift metallic (steel, silver and gold) replicas of the cured body parts. We went through a gallery that has the collection of hundreds of such gifts and letters thanking the deity. The annual festival is between 29 August to 8th September and we visited a few weeks before and hence the place was starting to wear a festive look.
Trichy, which was our next destination after Thanjavur, has one of the oldest and biggest living temple complexes in the world after Angkor Wat. Located in Srirangam along the Cauvery river, this temple complex is spread over almost 160 acres with a perimeter of 4 kms, the temple makes for a stunning site when viewed from atop the Rockfort temple in the Trichy. The main entrance or Rajagopuram is rises up to an astounding 72 meters, 6 meters higher than Brihadeeswera temple’s vimana. This temple complex has a separate temple for God Dhanvantary, who is the deity of medicine and health and revered as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Dhanvantary temples are spread across India but this is one of the biggest and most important temples. Here also we were told of a belief that people pray for good health and offer replicas (probably wooden) of body parts that need to be cured.
Yet another temple was Mariamman Temple in Trichy in the nearby Samayapuram. Devotees believe that the Goddess has great healing powers and here also people buy metallic replicas of various body parts that need to be cured. Mariamman is also similar to the Shitla devi, a deity worshipped in northern India for her healing powers over small pox and other epidemics.
A bit north in Andhra in the city of Nellore, we found yet another religious center, and this time a dargah, though healing ailments is one of the powers it is believed to have. The Bara Shahid Dargah is known for the celebration of the Rottela Panduga or Rottiyan ki Eid. People exchange Rotis during this festival and the belief is that their wishes will come true if they visit Dargah during the festival. Devotees make different wishes related to education, health, business, marriage alliances and so on.
People whose wishes have been fulfilled leave a roti in Swarnala Cheruvu (Nellore Tank) and the ones making a wish take these rotis. Health roti, Job roti, house roti, marriage roti and few others are the most sought after rotis.
While traveling through most of these places, we felt what it might feel to be in a secular environment. The colour and shape of clothes and caps didn’t turn people hostile to each other and the beliefs of one didn’t conflict with the others. These beliefs are common minimum beliefs of these people irrespective of their religion and they know that there is no harm in adhering to them as they might only gain something (good health) and not lose at all. In the world we live in, this common minimum has been constantly eroding and there is a forced belief of a common maximum where one wants the other to believe and follow everything they believe and follow. We kept driving with yet another hope that the all of us keep experiencing the Gods through the people He created instead of the Gods people created.