Perumthachan, the great architect

Ego and professional jealousy are always associated with professionals. Most of the professionals cannot withstand the rising of their competitors, even if they are closely related to them. Story of Perumthachan, one of the twelve sons of Vararuchi and Panchami, the parayi too was not different. He was a great architect and as he has been adopted by a carpenter, Perumthachan too engaged in the same profession. Even now there are several architectural wonders in Kerala which are believed to be created by Perumthachan.

Example for Kerala Architecture

When the people of his village, Uliyannoor planned to have a pond near their temple they assigned the work to Perumthachan. When some people insisted to have a pond with a round shape, some others insisted that it should be in square shape. There were several others who demanded a triangular pond and a rectangular pond. Perumthachan agreed to all and constructed a pond which is round shape when looked at it at a specific angle and round in other angles. It is triangular in one angle and rectangular in another angle. However, the problem with this pond was that once we entered it we cannot find the directions. For Brahmins, it is necessary to turn towards east while bathing and it was not possible in this pone. Hence they avoided using it and in due course of time, it became a waste.

There are many other instances that have brought him fame and popularity. He had a son who also followed his profession. In due course of time, people started saying that son is more talented than the father. The talk has reached Perumthachan too. Although he had neglected it in the beginning, his professional jealousy and ego made him take it seriously. Once a village temple authorities invited Perumthachan to construct a temple pond. He selected a specific area near the temple for the compound. Then his son objected saying that people will not be able to use the pond as it is on the other side of the river. In reality, there was no river in between the temple and the spot identified by Perumthachan. So he kidded his son calling him a fool. He did not reply and the construction work finished as per schedule. To everyone’s surprise, the river which was flowing away from the spot deviated from its original path in the next monsoon and started flowing in between the pond and the temple. Everybody started praising the knowledge of Perumthachan’s son.

There was a bridge over the river. Perumthachan placed a mechanized doll on the bridge. It starts climbing down to the river as someone enters the bridge and come out with a mouth full of water. When the passerby reaches the middle of the bridge, the doll will appear there and spit the water in its mouth on the passerby. Fearing the doll people started avoiding the bridge. Perumthachan’s son came to know about it. He placed another doll at one end of the bridge which will start walking towards the middle point of the bridge as someone enters. When the passerby reaches the middle, Perumthachan’s doll spits the water and at the same time, the doll installed by his son will slap on the face of Perumthachan’s doll. As a result, the face of the doll will turn and the water it spits falls back in the river. With this, Perumthachan’s son shot into fame as a better architect than father. This was something beyond the limit for Perumthachan.

Perumthachan thought that his son will create more wonders and in due course, people will forget him and praise his son as the master architect. Although he was a loving father, his professional egos started ruling his thoughts and mind. He decided to finish his son.

One day both of them were working at a temple site where Perumthachan was sitting on the top doing some work. His son was sitting beneath giving shape to different wood pieces. Seeing this as the best time Perumthachan threw his chisel which exactly fell down cutting the neck of his son from the body. Thus once again the professional jealousy won over the blood relation.