Surya Kalady, Another Master Tantrik From Kerala

Kerala is believed to have eight families engaged in Tantric rituals and all these eight families have been appointed by Lord Parasurama to perform tantric rituals as he taught them. Kalady, a Brahmin family residing in a small village Nettassery does not belong to these eight families, still had the luck to give birth to an all-time revered tantric, whom people used to address as ‘Surya Kalady’.

The surname of male members belong to this family was ‘Bhattathiri’ and as a common practice prevailing on those days, people used to address them as ‘Kalady Bhattathiri’. Once, a Bhattathiri went to participate in Thrissur Pooram, a great festival which has been celebrated even today in Kerala with grand fanfare. Thrissur, the place where this festival happens is about 200 kilometers away from his village and on those days when there were no motor vehicles, it used to take a weeklong walk to that temple. Hence he started almost ten days before the ‘Pooram’. He has been accompanied by a friend who was known as Nampoodiri.

After two or three days, they reached an isolated place and it has become dark by then. As it is not wise to travel during night time, they started searching for some houses to get a shelter for one night. Suddenly two beautiful women appeared in front of them with alluring smiles and asked about them. They narrated the story and mentioned that they are searching for a house to take rest in the night time. Then one of the ladies told them that their house is near and both of them are staying there alone apart from some servants. They also invited both travelers to their house.

Happy to have the company of two beautiful women for a night, both of them accepted the invitation and went to their house. There they received a royal reception by many beautiful maidservants and after taking bath all the four of them had dinner together. Then each of the men went to the room arranged for them and each one has been accompanied by a lady.

Although the Nampoodiri sat on the coat and asked his companion lady to come nearer him she did not do that. Instead, she asked her to remove the book which he kept on the coat. Nampoodiri was a staunch devotee of Goddess Durga and the book he was carrying were ‘Lalitha Sahasranama’ which contains one thousand names of Goddess Durga. Nampoodiri developed doubts about her behavior and listened to the adjoining room which was closed. He heard certain typical noise and the laughter of a lady and screaming of a man. Now everything became clear for him.

These ladies are Yakshis (the female evil spirits who appear as beautiful women to seduce men and finally kill them to drink their blood) and the one who went inside the room with Kalady Bhattathiri has killed him. The other one cannot come near the Nampoodiri because of the power of Lalitha Sahasranama. Somehow he spent the night and next day when he wakeup he did not see any sign of a house there, instead, he saw a huge palm tree. Fearing more attacks and sad with the demise of his friend, he decided to skip pooram and went back to his village and informed the family members of Bhattathiri about the whole incident.

Bhattathiri’s wife was pregnant at that time and after a few days, she gave birth to a boy child. In due course of time, he came to know about the fate of his father and decided to take revenge. He learned tantric rituals, especially for that purpose. After completion of his course, he underwent penance worshipping Sun God. One day Sun appeared in front of him in the form of an old man and handed over him a book that contains many holy hymns and powerful tantric methods. Since then the young Bhattathiri used to known as ‘Surya Kalady’. Days have passed and he practiced the rituals at different places and earned a reputation as the master tantric. This enhanced his confidence and finally decided to fulfill his wish. He started a special ritual where huge quantities of milk and ghee were offered to holy fire with chanting many holy and powerful hymns. With the power of those hymns, all the Yakshis in the world appeared in front of him. He asked them to reveal the truth about the killer of his father. Everybody denied their role. Then he asked them to pledge upon the holy fire. All except one took the pledge and when he asked that Yakshi once again, she agreed that it was she who killed his father. She fell on his feet and requested to pardon her. But, being blind with anger and revenge, Young Bhattathiri did not heed ears to her request. He burned her in the holy fire. Before losing her last breath, she cursed him that within forty-one days he will die of suffocation.

Bhattathiri did not take that curse seriously, instead started living as nothing has happened. After two or three days of this incident, King of Malabar invited him to his palace. The reason was that his wife is suffering from a strange disease. When Surya Kalady went there and checked up the patient, he understood that it was not a disease but the effect of an evil spirit entered in her body. He identified it as a ‘Gandharva’ (the male counterpart of Yakshi). He started his rituals and asked the Gandharva to come out of her body. He was not ready for that and he accused Surya Kalady of killing his wife yakshi. As he did not have any other way to satisfy his lust he entered this beautiful queen's body. But Surya Kalady was in no mood to listen to any excuses. With his powerful tantric rituals, he forcibly drove out the Gandharva form queen’s body. At that time the Gandharva too cursed him that he will die within seven days with the blockade of urine.

Although he left the palace with many valuable gifts, he started worrying about the two curses. Both the forty-first day mentioned in the curse of Yakshi and the seventh day mentioned in the curse of Gandharva falls on the same day. This fact disturbed him further. He decided to spend the entire day in a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. On the previous day of Surya Kalady’s arrival, a few devotees who have gathered at the temple along with the priests heard a voice from the sky saying that the temple should be closed before noon tomorrow and nobody should be there in the temple premises after the closing of the temple.

Believing those are the words of Lord Shiva, they did accordingly. When Surya Kalady came there, the temple was closed and nobody was there on the premises. He straight away went to the temple pond to get fresh. Suddenly he felt like get filled and went to the side of the temple for urinating but nothing happened. He came back to the pond and again he got the call of nature. This repeated several times and by continuously walking up and down the pond he developed suffocation also. He understood that the clutches of both the curses are getting tightened around his life. He felled on the steps of the pond and prayed to Lord Sun (Surya).

“I have done nothing which is not mentioned in that book. Then why I am suffering now?”

“Then he heard a voice from the sky asking him whether it is mentioned anywhere that he should whatever mention in that book. Realizing his mistake of becoming more selfish and using the holy rituals to satisfy his selfish motives, he begged the pardon. But by that time Sun God has turned to the other half of the globe leaving Surya Kalady to his fate.