Tirunelveli in 1890's - THE ROOTS

 Thamirabharani river was angry and ferocious for the last 2 years with severe flooding eating away the banks on both sides for more than a kilometer.Thirunelveli in south taminadu  was in deep turmoil in the 1890's  with floods,famine and contagious diseases like plague .It had just come under the British rule in 1857 from the reign of Nawab of Arcot.The people died of famine and plague in thousands.

         Kongarayarkurichy, a sleepy village on the banks of the perennial river was in noway different. More so as the great Siva temple ,Veera pandeeswaran koil with the special deity of Lord Chattanathar ,the Ugra Rupa of Bhairavas was special.Folk history reminds us Lord Chattanathar ,the Bhairava God ,emerged from Siva to suppress the ahangara of  Lord Vishnu in Vamana avathara who turned in to  Ulakalantha perumal (Thrivikraman) and it seems Chattanathar quelled his ego and wore him as a skin piece and hence the name.

          This temple simply disappeared following a sand storm following the floods in 1890's and the  villagers and shaivite devotees were shell shocked as the temple disappeared into the sand dunes with no trace.

It was here that the Krishna Iyer family( the great grandfather of Kannan) with 4 generations above them had lived in the agraharam close to the temple.After the floods which carried away the agraharams , the family was forced to shift to an agraharam 4 km away at a village called Vallanadu. Krishna Iyer aged 45 lived with his 35 year old wife Kuppuchi.They had no children nor their parents. They were at the crossroads of life.

Krishnan, a great scholar of Sanskrit taught to him by his father Sankara Iyer,  was a naive,meek  scholastic man fully immersed in the study of scriptures and pujas with no interest in outside world and Kuppuchy was just the opposite.His father had blessed him with some land and paddyfields with which the family survived.Now following the repeated floods ,the income from the fields also dwindled.The whole world seemed to conspire against him.He just said ' Siva! Siva ! and resigned to his fait.

Kuppuchi the illiterate spouse was an eternal optimist,obstinate and pragmatic,street smart and was deeply in love with the child within her husband.She was the master of the house.