KINGDOM OF SITHTHARS

First step in this procedure is to remove the poisonous property in paashaanam through purification process. This is the time taking as well as tedious job to handle and cannot be over anxious. To get the desired result, it is necessary to follow the popular proverb, ‘patience is a virtue’. So, it finally took two whole months to complete the entire purification process.

The clear explanation of purification process is obtained from “Uroma Rishi Maruththuva Vaakadam”, written by Roma rishi and I adopted his procedure in my practical realization. 

"ஆமப்பா இன்னமொரு கருவைக் கேளு

aamappaa innamoru karuvaik kaelu

ஆதியென்ற பாசாணஞ் சுத்தி சொல்வேன்

aathiyenra pasaananj suththi solvaen

சாமப்பால் ஒருகலசந் தன்னில் வாங்கி

saamappaal orukalasan thannil vaangi

கருவான பூரணமும் பூரஞ் செர்த்து

karuvaana pooranmum pooranj serththu

தாமப்பா குருவதனைக் கரைத்து நல்ல

thaamappaa kuruvathanaik karaithu nalla

தருவான பாசாணந் தன்னை வாங்கி

tharuvaana paasaanan thannai vaangi

போமப்பா தோலாந்திர மாகக் கட்டிப்

poamappaa thoalaanthira maakak kattip

பூரணமாஞ் சலந்தனிலே தூக்கி டாயே

pooranamaanj salanththanilae thookki daayae

தூக்கிடுவாய் நீர்வற்ற எரித்து நல்ல

thookkiduvaai neervatra eriththu nalla

சுத்தமுள்ள பாசாணஞ் சுத்தியாமே

suththamulla paasaanj suththiyaamae”

- மருத்துவ வாகடம் (Maruththuva vaakadam)

Let us see the purification process of each paashaanam.

The apirakap paashaanam is placed in lemon according to its quantity. Then, if we do pudam, we will get the purified paashanam.. Hence, for this purification process considerable amount of lemon is required according to the need.

For kar baashaanam purification, equal amount of neem seed milk and milk of yarcum is mixed with kar paashanam and condensed. Care should be taken regarding the accuracy of milk proportion in this  process.

Now the soothap paashaanam is immersed in milk of white yarcum for a day followed by immersing it in lemon juice for a day. Now it is washed with vinegar and dried. Then, drill the root of merukkan, inserting the paashaanm in it and close with its own root. Now make the layer of cow dung over that root and do pudam. Then it is cooled to get the purified paashaanam which is one of the time consuming job also, requires lot of patience.

First cover the thuththap paashanam in cloth and make small hole in lime stone and insert the thuththa paashaanm in it. Cover the entire hole using lemon stone itself. Now boil the above with palmyra toddy for 1 saamam* using 2 type of twigs for burning. Finally we get the purified thuththap paashaanam. Accurate timing and medium fire should be noted during this process. 

On one earthen vessel, vinegar, lemon juice and extract of hibiscus cannabinus is added in equal amount. Along with this, the seelai paashaanam is tied in silk cloth and allowed to condense in medium fire to get the purified paashaanam.

It almost takes complete 2 months for finishing the entire purification process. Next step is making kuzhambu* from the above and allowed to set in mold to achieve the desired paashaanak kattu.

As I have no idea of uploading or sharing this information here in internet while doing this purification process, I did not take any pictures. However, in the next post I will definitely show you the picture of Pancha paashana lingam, a successful outcome of my first practical research work

Stay tuned!!

*Saamam – 3 hours especially at midnight

*Kuzhambu – the liquid of thick consistency (such as sandal paste)

Original – www.siththarkal.com

Translated by Lalithambika Rajasekaran

During October 2010, I wrote this post which kindles my inner interest and becomes the starting point of my practical research. As I was fed up with merely sharing the notes taken from the books I read, I planned to start the practical work in this regard. Definitely this post is not an idea of boosting me out. It is just an outcome of my curious research work.

From the older posts, we learned that, paashaanam is of two types and are highly poisonous forms. Interested readers can refresh the concepts in the concerned older posts.

Siththar’s removed the poisonous property of paashaanam and used the purified form for their medicinal preparations. Even the scientific technology also uses the poisonal foms in day today medicine. Thus, purifying the different type of paashaanam and the process of combining these poison free forms is called paashaanak kattu. The so formed, ‘paashaana kattu’ is full of ample medicinal properties.

As we all know, the principal statue of “Lord Dhandaayuthapaani” in Palani is made up of combined bundle of nine forms of Paashaanam. The abisheka* water of that statue possesses plenteous medicinal values. However, no abisheka is performed for that statue, since most of the backside of the statue is scratched out for its medicinal value.

Due to my curiosity on practical realization of paashaana kattu, I asked permission from my guru first on October 2010, which I got approved on end of May 2011 (this post was originally written on July 2011). In between these deeds, my exams got over and the next crisis started. It was really a big challenge to get permission from my beloved mother. Of course! She has reasons to stop me from handling these poisonous materials. As my mother happened to see the paashaana pudam perfomed by my beloved grandfather and also aware of the poisonous gas emitted during the paashaana pudam which make the performer unconscious. Hence she precluding me from this practice.

As I have to convince my mother to proceed further, I showed and described her, the structure and performance of Face gas mask, which I happened to use during my practical sessions in my medicine classes. As I somehow convinced my lovable mother, I started to gather concerned information. As we already discussed that, paashaanam is of two types; piravi baashaanam, which occurs naturally and Vaippu paashaanm, which occurs artificially and also has practical difficulty in obtaining this artificial one. I have chosen to use natural one rather than artificial. However, confusions continue here too! As there are 32 naturally available paashaanam, among which I have to choose the best for my research.

For this, the information arrived on-hand from book named “Uromarishi Maruthuva Vaakadam”. There, best five paashaanam for statue making is quoted through which I came to conclusion of using 5 paashaanam in my work.

The five paashaanam I have used are;

Apirakap paashaanam

Kar paashaanam

Soodha paashanam

Thuththap paashanam

Seelaip paashaanam

Among these, I easily got soodha paashaanam and thuththap paashaanam from my college lab with supervisor’s cordial permission. However, collecting the rest of the three is really a tedious job and got frozen. With guru’s blessings I got kar paashaanam from my friend in mattakalappai.

I got apirakap paashaanam and seelai paashaanm from store where, apirakap paashaanam costs around Rs. 60/g and seelaip paashaanam costs Rs. 54/g.  As I need 100 grams in each one of the above and this costs around Rs. 11,400. Ofcourse! This is because I froze.

Cheers! Finally, I collected all the five natural piravip paashaanam. Now, each one of these should be purified so as to remove the poisonous property. Then, kuzhambu* must be gathered from each of the above separately and the equivalent amounts of the above five are mixed together. This mixture is then allowed to set on the desired mold to prepare the paashaana kattu.

I have told the procedure very easily. Let us see the practical realization in the next post.

Stay tuned!

*Abisheka – bathing of an idol with water, oil, milk, etc,.

*Kuzhambu – the liquid of thick consistency (such as sandal paste)

Original – www.siththarkal.com

Translated by Lalithambika Rajasekaran