Naranathu Branthan, The Philosopher in Disguise

The entire world had turned materialistic in the past few decades. The concept of life itself has changed a lot from enjoying a peaceful life with lesser requirements to lead a fast and busy life and accumulate as much wealth as one can in his lifespan. At this scenario, story of Naranathu Brandan, the great philosopher in the disguise of a mad man is certainly relevant.

Statue of Naranthu Branthan in Palakkad District

As he has called as “Naranathu Branthan” or the “mad man of Naranathu” his real name is not known. He too is from the famous ‘Parayi Petta Panthirukulam’ and believed to be brought up by an Ilayath family. According to the caste system in Hinduism, especially being practiced in Kerala, ‘Ilayath’ is a subdivision of Brahmins, but will not perform rituals related to temples. Their duty is to conduct rituals related to souls and these rituals being performed on death anniversaries by the wards of the dead.

However, Naranath Branthan was not interested in taking this profession instead of prefers to wander along the village streets aimlessly. His favorite hobby was to roll up big stones to the top of a hillock in the village and at the top, he will leave his hands letting the stones roll down. He will laugh loudly seeing the stones rolling down. When you go through many other stories of this mad man philosopher, we will understand that he was trying to convey the message that life is a silly thing and not to be taken seriously.

Every day he used to practice this exercise till noon and then he will go for begging. On those days, people used to give food articles such as rice, vegetables, etc to the beggars. He too used to collect such articles and wherever he reaches by sunset, he makes the place his shelter for that day. He used to cook there, eat there and sleep there.

One day he reached a crematorium by sunset and he decided to make it as his shelter for that day. People have just left after the cremation and hence there was fire too in the pyre. He took out some logs from the pyre and cooked his food and had it. By that time it was night and he started sleeping. In between, he woke up hearing some strange noises. He saw a few ladies standing a bit far from him.

It was a Friday and it is believed that Goddess Kali will visit graveyards on Fridays along with her friends. It was Kali and her friends who came there as a part of their visit. They saw a man there which they are not supposed to. Hence they came near Naranath Branthan and introduced themselves. Then they said to him that it is their practice to visit graveyards every Friday at midnight and to enjoy dancing. They are not supposed to do so in the vicinity of a human being. They also demanded him to leave the place quickly.

Hearing all their words, Branthan spoke calmly.

“Even I too have some regular practices. I used to stay at the place where I reached by sunset. I cannot and don’t want to change the practice. You can go to some other graveyards or can dance at some corner of this one. I am not at all interested in your dance and I will not sacrifice my sleep for seeing your dance”.

For Goddess Kali and her friends, it was a really shocking experience. Usually, people will get scared at first sight of them. Here a man is quite refusing to obey their orders. Then they started scaring him by disguising in various horrible shapes. Naranath Branthan watched the show with a smile and at the end of it, he asked politely.

“So, have you finished your show? Then please leave me alone. I want to sleep.” Hearing these words they all blushed as they were not able to scare a human being. Then Kali came forward and told him.

“You are not a common man. Mistaking you as an ordinary person, we behaved with you in this manner. We are apologizing for it. Now we do not want to disturb you and we will move to some other place. However, we have a practice to either curse or give a boon to a human being if we come across somebody. You being a holy person, we do not want to curse you. So, please ask for a boon.”

“He refused to accept their boon; still he had to accept their request as they pleaded with him. He asked her to tell when he will die. Kali told the exact time and date of his death. Then he asked her to give him the boon so that he can live one more day. Kali expressed her inability that she is not capable of changing the decision of the creator. Then he asked for a boon so that he will die one day earlier. For this request also she expressed her inability.

Then Naranath Branthan told her that he knew very well that she cannot do anything as far as life is concerned. Anyway, he will ask for a boon to shift the elephantiasis on his left leg to his right leg. She happily did it and left the place.

There are several stories of Naranth Brantha which underlines his philosophy about the life which he had considered a bloody silly thing.

The house where Branthan believed to have grown as a child

Once He was sitting on a roadside, counting ants that were going in line. One person approached him and asked how many ants have gone. He replied that already 500 have gone and 500 more are there. Everything will be clear if that 500 also goes. The man who asked the question was a rich person who had almost 1000 acres of land and he was suffering from a strange stomachache. He sold almost 500 acres of land for his treatment and other tantric rituals to recover from the ace but went in vain. Now he is left with 500 more acres and the man understood what Branthan meant. He sold the rest of 500 acres of land too and dispersed the amount between many poor people. Once that money is exhausted, he got relief from the pain.

Even this story indicates that according to this great philosopher, life means the joy in living and it should be turned to an effort to amaze physical wealth.

Pakkanar and the Legend behind Ivy Gourd

Packanar is another legendry son of Vararuchi of the famous Parayi Peta Panthirukulam. He has been brought up in a Paraya family, which is coming in the lower strata of the racial hierarchy followed on those days. The traditional profession of Parayas was to collect bamboo leaves from the forest and to make baskets and bags using that. By selling those articles they used to earn for their family.

There are many stories about Packanar which proves that he is a holy person. Once he went to his elder brother Agnihotri’s house. AS mentioned in the earlier episode, Agnihotri was a Brahmin. Both the brothers engaged in serious discussion after exchanging pleasantries. At that time Agnihotri called his wife on some pretext. Although she heard that, she did not turn up as she was busy with some household work. Then, Pacakanar kidded his brother about the obedience of his wife. Packanar further claimed that no women

other than his wife have ‘Pathivrathyam’ (respect towards husband and to be obedient). Agnihotri shot back that the women belong to lower cast will not have ‘Pathivrathyam. Packanar asked his brother to follow him to his house and experience it personally. Accepting the challenge, he accompanied Packanar. When they entered the compound, Packanar’s wife was drawing water from the well using a bucket tied to a long rope. As soon as she heard the call of Packanar, she left the bucket half the way and came near him. To the astonishment of Vararuchi, the bucket stayed back there in that position instead of falling into the well. Then Agnihotri agreed that it is because of the power of Pathivrathyam and he agreed that it is difficult to find out a woman with this much pathivrathyam.

As mentioned earlier, all the ten brothers except ‘Vayilla Kunnilappan’ and the lone sister used to assemble at the house of elder brother Agnihotri’s house to perform the yearly ritual for their dead father. During that time each one will bring something which will be used in preparing the feast after the rituals. Once, Packanar brought some Teats of cows on that day. Agnihotri’s wife got shocked to see bleeding teats when she opened the packet. Being a Brahmin, non-vegetarian foods are totally banned there. She threw the teats away but did not mention it to anybody.

After rituals, brothers and the lone sister ‘Karaykkalamma’ sat for lunch. Lunch has been served as usual and all the items brought by other brothers and the only sister have been served as delicious dishes. Packanar enquired about the item he brought as the same has not been served. Agnihotri’s wife did not tell anything in the beginning but revealed the truth after continued pressure from her husband. She also told firmly that, such things cannot be brought into a Brahmin’s house. Then Packanar asked her what she did with those teats. She replied that she threw it away. Then Packanar asked her to go and look at the place where she threw the teats. She did so and to her surprise, she saw a plant grown up there with fruits on that which resembles the teats. She informed the same and Packanar asked her to get those fruits and prepare curry and serve. Ivy gourds that resemble cow teats are believed to be formed like that.

Even now it is believed that there is no need to do yearly rituals for the people who are dead when there are Ivy gourds or cocks in the house. When Ivy gourds are there the souls of the dead will be pleased even without the rituals and when there are cocks and hens, the place will be always dirty and no ritual will give you the desired result. Ivy Gourds are an important component in the yearly rituals being done for the dead in Kerala, especially in Hindu customs.

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.