சுவாமி ஐயப்பன்

Introduction :
Swamy Ayyappan always has a predominant place in the Hindu religion. The main reason behind this is Swamy Ayyappan is the last Human Incarnation of god in kaliyug. Bhagawan Ayyappan is in married posture with Shri Pushkaladevi of Sourashtra community in Aryankavu. The marriage festival is held in Aryankavu every year and the marriage rituals are the same as in the Sourashtra community.Every year under the invitation of Trivancore king and Devasvam Board, the people of sourashtra under a sangam called 'Aryankavu Devasthan Sourashtra Mahajana Sangam', go as the sambanthi for the Lord Ayyappan. For the marriage they carry all the essential things as we carry for any marriage to Aryankuva from Madurai.

Incident at Aryankavu :
In earlier days the Sourashtrians sold silk dresses to the Trivancore king. One such business man went to sell silk dresses to Trivancore with his virgin daughter. On his way he reached Aryankavu by night, so he had to stay there.The next morning after freshing up he was ready to start, when his daughter requested him that she wanted to stay back there and keep praying to the Lord Ayyappan. She was impressed by the Lord and devoted to him. The people of the place also suggested not to take his daughter with, as it was a dense forest journey and they promised to take care of the girl. The businessman impressed by his daughter's bhakthi towards Lord Ayyappan, left her in charge of an archakar in that temple.

Lord Ayyapan's Dharshan :
After completing his business in Trivancore he returned towards Aryankavu. As he was nearing Aryankavu, a big one horned elephant came threatening towards him. The businessman was terribly afraid of this sudden appearance of the elephant and started praying loudly 'Ayyappa help and save me'. At that time a well-built hunter appeared suddenly and shouted towards the elephant to go. On hearing that the elephant went away like a magic The businessman was impressed and told to the hunter," you have saved my life and my family like a god". In a token of appreciation, the businessman gave a rich silk cloth to the hunter. The hunter wearing the cloth around his neck asked the businessman 'How do I look?'. The business man replied 'You look like a beautiful bridegroom'.On hearing this the hunter asked him, " will you marry your daughter to me.?" For that the business man said "why not? you have saved my life and if you wish I will marry my daughter to you".The hunter felt very happy and told that he will meet the businessman at the Aryankavu temple and he disappeared. The businessman was surprised that how could a stranger would know that I had a daughter for marriage and with confusion, he reached Aryankavu temple.

Archakar's Dream:
At the same time the temple's archakar had a dream in which Lord Ayyappan appeared and said ' wake up my devotee, a sourashtra business man, is waiting at the entrance of the temple. According to his wish I have united his daughter Pushkaladevi with me. The girl who was in your custody is now my wife and she is in a statue form on the left side of me in the temple. I will appear along with Pushkaladevi from today. Every year I want the businessman and his community to come here and celebrate this day as our marriage festival. After that the Archakar woke up from his dream and went to the temple along with people. There he saw the businessman. As he opened the temple door he saw all the lights of the temple lit and a small statue of Pushkaladevi was seen near the Lord, both in a married posture. The silk cloth given by the businessman to the hunter was found around the neck of Ayyappan. On seeing that the businessman knew that it was the god who had saved his life in the forest now his daughter was married to the god.

King's Dream Comes true :
On the same day the king of Trivandram had a dream in which lord told all the happenings and wanted him to treat the Sourashtra businessman and his community as his 'Sambanthis' and asked him to be the relative for Lord during his marriage.The king rushed to Aryankavu and felt happpy that his dream was true. He treated the businessman royally. He also wanted the businessman to come with his people every year and celebrate this festival. The king ordered that there should be a 'Eleven day grand festival' every year and the customs of the Sourashtra has to be followed for the marriage. So from then onwards and till date, every year the Government of Kerala's representatives come here as Lord's relatives and the Sourashtra people as the sambanthi to the lord, to celebrate. Every year, on this occassion a well decorated Portrait of the last king of Trivancore, Balarama Varma is kept. Before this photo the engagement ceremony takes place. And in the temple, there is a 11 day festival, with each day in different posture of the lord.

Daithya Sudan

History of Sourashtra

Though there is little historical evidence available to support the argument that the Saurashtrians lived in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat in Western India, folklore, and recent linguistic and genetic researches have been able to establish that this region was indeed once the habitat of the Saurashtrians. However, their language has more similarities with Marathi and Konkani, both Indo-Aryan languages of Western India, than it does with Modern Gujarati, the language of present-day Gujarat. Linguists have been able to explain why it is so: Both Saurashtra and Gujarati branched off from a common parent, and have since taken completely different paths to modernity. Gujarati came under the influence of Hindi, Persian, and Arabic, whereas Saurashtra, taking off from Gujarat before it had made any Muslim contact, was influenced by Marathi, Konkani, Kannada, Telugu, and finally, Tamil. It has been acknowledged that Persian and Arabic have had only limited influence on Marathi and Konkani, and this is why they still retain a good amount of vocabulary and grammar derived from Sanskrit, as compared to other daughter languages of Sanskrit. It is possible that the vocabulary and grammar shared between Modern Saurashtra and Marathi is what was originally derived from Sanskrit.

The southward flight of the Saurashtrians seems to have been triggered by the frequent Muslim invasions of their homeland and the instability caused by it. No details are available whether it was a mass migration and when it took place. They found safe haven in the Vijayanagar Kingdom, with its capital at Hampi in present-day Karnataka, which was then expanding southwards. Weaving being their traditional occupation, they were able to win the attention of the Emperor and were soon elevated to the position of royal weavers. Telugu and Kannada were the court languages, though other languages such as Sanskrit and Tamil were also in use. It was during this period that Saurashtra started absorbing Telugu and Kannada words into its lexicon.

Vijayanagar rulers had the practice of appointing Governors, known as Nayaks, to manage far-flung regions of the empire. When Madurai and Thanjavur were annexed to the empire, Governors were appointed to administer the new territories. A part of the Saurashtra community may have moved to Madurai and Thanjavur at the time to serve the Governors.

The Vijayanagar empire collapsed after more than two centuries of rule, in 1565, after the Sultans of Deccan Confederacy won the battle of Talikota, thus opening up southern India for Muslim conquest. Soon afterwards, the Governors of Madurai and Thanjavur declared themselves the new rulers of the respective territories.

The Saurashtrians had to migrate again since they no longer enjoyed the royal patronage they were used to, and so, once again, were on the move. As there were Saurashtrians already present in Madurai and Thanjavur, it was only natural that they migrated further south to join their folks living there. The language would undergo one last alteration, this time influenced by Tamil, to bring it to its modern form. To this day, Saurashtrians are densely populated around the Royal Palace of Thirumalai Nayak, the greatest of the Nayak Rulers that ruled Madurai. There are good number of people staying in Mumbai(Maharashtra) in a place called Cheeta Camp and also in other parts of the city.

It is important to note that the Marathi-speaking community in Thanjavur should not be mistaken for Saurashtrians. The Marathi community arrived in Thanjavur during King Serfoji's reign and they are culturally and linguistically distinct from Saurashtrians.

The greatest of the Nayak Rulers had great liking for silk wears and as the Saurashtrians were specialists in the weaving trade, they were invited the KIng for weaving special silk clothings for the palace dwellers and that is how they settled around the palace of Thirumalai Nayak.

Writing System

The language has had its own script for centuries, and is said to have had many literary works. Unfortunately, all literary pieces barring a few modern ones have been irretrievably lost. This language is not taught in schools and hence has been confined to being merely a spoken language. Most Saurashtrians are bilingual in their mother tongue and Tamil — which displaced Telugu as the second language when they migrated to Tamil Nadu — and are more comfortable using their second language for all practical written communication.

There is an ongoing debate within the Saurashtra community on what the writing standard should be going forward. The contenders are: An adapted Tamil Script with superscript numbers and a colon to show sounds not used in Tamil, which is currently used in most Saurashtra publications, but presence of superscripts render it unsuitable for fast reading and writing; Devanagari Script, which is by far the most suitable script given its ability to represent most Saurashtra sounds, but is sparingly used since not many Saurashtrians comprehend it; Saurashtra script, preferred by the Purists, but whose restoration and promotion is an arduous task in itself given its disuse for centuries; and, Romanized Saurashtra Script, popular amongst netizens and youngsters, and can be fairly accurate in its representation of Saurashtra sounds, but is frowned upon by the Traditionalists who see it as a foreign influence on their language.

Dialects

Each of the traditional Saurashtrian settlements has its own dialect. Since there is not a central linguistic body governing the rules, and establishing what is standard and what is not, each dialect speaker considers his own the standard form. The dialects share lexical similarities varying between 77% and 96%.

சௌராஷ்டிரா இன் விக்கிபீடியா

Spoken in:	Tamil Nadu (India)
Total speakers:	310,000 (1997)
Language family:	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Western Indo-Aryan Gujarati Saurashtra
Writing system:	Saurashtra script

Rare Photos in Sri NatanaGoapla Nayagi Swamigal's

சௌரஷ்ற்ற கடவளின் வலைத்தளம