"This is the God, this is the God of humans"

“Kannan ennum karum deivam”

“karumanikkam en kannuladaagume’

“Roopa saavala sundara”

“Saavale sundara roopa manohara”

The Alvar poetry, very many verses, time and again dwell on the beauty of the “black God”, the beautiful black Krishna. The idea of looking at the Gods housed in the south Indian temples as black Gods never occurred till one saw the flawless white marble idols in the north. Then came the Panduranga Vittala, a black God who again gets specifically invoked as the beautiful black deity. Many have gone into analysis of the “white” and “black” and the colours of our Gods. 

Coming from where I am the black God was just what He or She was, there was no big thought process behind the worship. The familiarity with the granite or the saligrama moolavar murtis, and the bronze utsavar murtis were something not “researched” upon. Very few moolavr murtis one sees, the “sudhai” stucco creations painted in vibrant colours like the Tiruthankal Appan or the Vatapatrasayi at Sri Villiputhur - but that didn’t take away the attraction to the black Arangan or Varadan.

But, what was it for an outsider, someone who was from a place where the black and white were so stark, where there wasn’t a concept of black God. Seeing the headlines about an India-West Indies cricket match at Trivandrum after 30-yrs there was a throw-back to a series which probably took Alvin Kallicharran to Trivandrum in the 70s and his ultimate trip to Tiruvattaru.

Some years ago, a friend shared a blog Tamil writer Jeyamohan had posted. A day at Tiruvattaru temple when by accident he encountered Kallicharran. It is an amazing story, but raises so much more curiosity, and to know more. For Jeyamohan’s account is short, crisp and deeply emotional.

JeMo talks of his frequent jaunts to Tiruvattaru in his childhood where his paternal grandmother lived, his own native town where his ancestors were the servitors of the lord. On one such occasion, a morning that brought an unexpected visitor. A black ambassador car brought a foreigner, but a dark skinned man to the temple. He wanted to know if he could enter the temple as he was denied entry into Trivandrum temple which he so desperately wanted to see for he had heard the temple housed a dark toned God. He asked JeMo if the Tiruvattaru God was also black. First the man in charge of the temple says no to a “foreigner” for he is deemed to be not a Hindu and hence no entry into the temple. Later, JeMo intervenes to show Kallicharran’s passport to say, see he is from West Indies and a Hindu.

Kallicharran entered the temple saw the sculpted beauties of rathi, attendant deities and asked if the deity inside was also as dark. JeMo told him He indeed is even darker. Kallicharran then gets the vision of the he giant Seshasayee Vishnu, the Adikesava Perumal, through the three doors, for the reclining God can be seen only in parts through the giant doors. Kalicharan was stunned, and was silenced into disbelief. "Do they apply black paint?" "No that is granite" replied JeMo. JeMo didn’t know who was Kallicharran, for he had no insights into the world of cricket. Kallicharran was dazed and he was in no mood to explain who he was beyond asking searching questions as to whether JeMo really didn’t know who he was …. But, that story is so fascinating. I am still thinking of what was going on inside Kallicharran’s mind. Why did he go looking for the Anantapadmanabha Swamy or the Adikesava Perumal? What kind of an experience was it for him to see a jet black image enshrined, worshipped?

JeMo asked him “what do you think about our God? “This is the God, this the God of humans”, Kallicharran replied. JeMo says he rubbed his face again and again and kept murmuring “what a colour, how black”.