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6SAGA OF RAMASIMHAN & MATTUMAL NARASIMHA TEMPLE – II

By: V SUNDARAM vsundaram@newstodaynet.com

Thursday, 06 August, 2009, 03:03 PM

In these columns yesterday (Wednesday, 5-8-2009), I had referred to the sad and chequered history of Mattummal Sri Narasimha Moorthy Temple at Malaparamba and how Tipu Sultan and his jihadi Muslim army destroyed this Temple in 1794. 127 years later the shattered remnants of this Temple were again savagely attacked in the Moplah Rebellion of 1921.

I had also described the heroic role played by Ramasimhan (a rich Moplah Muslim Uneen Sahib who returned from Islam into the fold of Hinduism) in the reconstruction of Mattummal Sri Narasimha Moorthy Temple. The saga of Ramasimhan and his martyrdom for the deathless cause of Hinduism will continue to shine across centuries on the pages of Hindu cultural history, serving as a beacon light of hope, faith and inspiration to the bruised and battered Hindus of India.

Hindu Martyr Ramasimhan – a rare picture

To the south of Malappuram town, over a mile distance away in the Kotoor Amsom in a village called Chemmun Kadavu there lived a Muslim gentleman called Moidu Sahib in the house named Thekke Palliyaali. Rising up from the ranks of daily labourers, by the dint of sheer hard work and tireless exertions, he raised himself to the level of a land owner.

Moidu Sahib had two sons, Uneen and Alippu. Uneen who was comparatively better educated worked in a responsible position in a British-owned rubber estate in Paalappilli, Trichur District. The industrious Uneen learnt the techniques of rubber cultivation, tapping and processing while working in the rubber estate. Uneen, now Uneen Sahib, took on lease from the Kundrackal Nair family, 600 acres of land in Maalaparamba in the Angaadipuram Taluk and established the Moidu Rubber Estate at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

The British colonial authorities conferred the title of ‘Khan Sahib’ on Uneen Sahib as the latter was a tax paying land lord who was on excellent terms with them. Uneen Sahib married the daughter of a prominent timber merchant, Kalladi UnniKammu of Mannarkadu. Uneen Sahib’s close and regular interaction with the British colonial officers created in him a voracious appetite for wine, women and song.

Uneen Sahib and his family stayed in the rubber estate bungalow at Maalaparamba on the Perinthalmanna – Kulathoor Road, between Kulathoor and Angadipuram. On the other side of the road, from the bungalow, stood the ruins of ancient Sri Narasimhamoorthy Temple, now looking forlorn and desolate.

Despite his high social standing, Uneen Sahib behaved like any other traditional Muslim in religious matters. He had the typical supercilious and insufferable air of Islamic contempt for Hindu modes of worship and way of living. He took special delight in displaying the typical Aurangazeb-like jihadi behaviour, fuelled by hate and contempt for the ‘Hindu Kafir. Like many Muslim rulers of medieval India, Uneen Sahib used the damaged, yet beautiful, engraved colonnades and beams from the temple ruins in the construction of latrine of his spacious bungalow. His real intent was to humiliate the Hindus by committing what was the ultimate act of contempt and sacrilege to the Hindu Deities.

Calamities after calamities — an unending wave of divinely ordained visitations — started descending upon Uneen Sahib after he used the temple relics to construct the latrine in his bungalow, giving him no rest or peace of mind. An incurable searing stomach-ache troubled him ceaselessly. On being advised by the local Hindus, Uneen Sahib consulted a Hindu Siddha ascetic and some prominent astrologers who then advised him to reconstruct the Mattummal Sri Narasimha Moorthy Temple, restoring it to its original glory and grandeur of ages past.

By virtue of his close and intimate association with the Hindu Siddha ascetic , the character and personality of Uneen Sahib underwent a dramatic change for the better. Uneen Sahib’s chronic stomach aliment came to a sudden and dramatic end. He started experiencing the joy of wholesome good health. As an act of thanksgiving, he became vegetarian and started practicing yoga and meditation.

Uneen Sahib became more and more Hindu-like in his thoughts words and deeds. He appointed two Hindu Brahmin cooks — Narayana Iyer from Angadipuram and Raju Iyer from Trichur. Besides, Uneen Sahib started replacing Muslim employees with Hindu employees in his rubber estate.

The rubber estate bungalow which had once enjoyed a colourful Western reputation for

wine, women and Western song was transformed beyond imagination. Large pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses came to adorn the bungalow, creating an ambience and aura of fervent Hindu devotion to the Almighty. The place which had resounded to the incantations of verses from the Kuran and where ritual killing of animals had taken place, now started resonating with the sweet strains of the mellifluous renditions of puranas and itihaas. All this he did even while remaining within the religious fold of Islam.

This sudden and rapid spiritual transformation that had taken place in Uneen Sahib totally perplexed and vexed the Muslims to no end. Many of the fundamentalist Muslims were infuriated by the heresy of Uneen Sahib. Determined and organised efforts made by many Muslims clerics and other Muslim friends to bring Uneen Sahib back to the Islamic way of living, met with dismal failure. Frustrated by their failure they spread the rumour that Uneen Sahib had gone insane. Under the influence of the powerful Muslim clergy, Uneen Sahib’s father-in-law, the wealthy Unnikammu took away his daughter, Uneen Sahib’s wife.

Uneen Sahib decided to lead a pure life, studying Hindu scriptures and philosophical texts. Uneen Sahib and his brother Alippu decided to re-convert to Hinduism. As the culmination of this holy quest he went to the Arya Samaj at Calicut along with his brother and sons and got converted into Hinduism under the ritualistic shuddhi offered by Buddha Singh, a gentleman from Punjab in 1946.

On coming back to the fold of Hinduism, Unnen Sahib was given the new Hindu name of RAMASIMHAN while Alippu his younger brother was renamed as DAYASIMHAN. Ramasimhan’s sons changed their names to Fateh Singh and Jorwar Singh, the sacred names of Guru Gobind Singh’s two valiant sons who were murdered on the orders of Aurangazeb on December 12, 1705 for refusing to accept Islam. R.S.S Malabar prachaarak Sri Shankar Shastri made all the necessary arrangements for the Hindu Homecoming of Uneen Sahib and family.

Now it only remained for Ramasimhan to undertake and complete the sacred unfinished task of reconstruction of Mattummal Sri Narasimha Moorthy Temple. Under the instructions and guidance of two scholars of repute, one, Kanipayyur Namboothiri, a renowed expert on tachchu-shastra and the art of temple building and the other, a tantri by the name Kaaladi Vasudevan Namboothiri of Padinjare-edathu Mana, the massive project of re-building the Mattummal Sri Narasimha Moorthy Temple was started by Uneen Sahib in right earnest. After the Temple was rebuilt and re-established in accordance with the norms of tantra-shastra, daily worship and ceremonial rituals were started and continued to be performed conscientiously with unfailing devotion from. Easwaran Embraantiri of Angadipuram was appointed as the chief priest of the Temple.

Another significant development took place in Ramasimhan’s family. At the request of Ramasimhan some of the learned Namboodiri Brahmins agreed to convert Dayasimhan to a Namboodiri Brahmin and his name was changed to NARASIMHAN NAMBOODIRI. Probably they needed an experienced man in their midst who could understand the mindset of the jihadis and stand up to them in the new changed situation. They even got Dayasimhan married to a Namboodiri girl named Kamala – a very extraordinary and bold act on the part of the orthodox Namboodiri Brahmin community, which had remained insular for centuries.

When a fundamentalist Muslim scholar criticised the conversion as a great fault of Ramasimhan, he retorted: ‘I have not committed any mistake. It was my grandmother who, on being captured by Muslims, committed the fault of converting to Islam. I am re-converting to Hinduism to rectify for the fault and atone for the sin of my grandmother .’

In the Muslim strong-hold of Malappuram, the conversion of a wealthy and prominent Muslim family of Uneen Sahib filled the Muslims with astonishment and trepidation. The

Muslim clergy trembled at the thought that many more Muslims seeking liberation from their tight suffocating grip and escaping to the liberal environment of Hinduism. They were convinced that they will be left with fewer and fewer adherents if the Muslims become aware of the greatness, glory and grandeur of the ancient Hinduism.

On coming back to Hinduism Ramasimhan, became a champion of peace. He had earlier been an excellent hunter. Yet now he hung up his double barrel guns and six licensed revolvers and became an adherent of the doctrine of ahimsa. He returned his licensed guns to the government. Ramasimhan’s act of surrendering his guns to the government served as a boon to the terrorist Islamic assailants — MOPLAH Muslim Marauders — on the midnight of 2 August, 1947. On that fateful night, a pack of hate-filled diabolical jihadis armed with deadly weapons entered the house of Ramasimhan and in a dastardly act slaughtered the sleeping Ramasimhan, his brother Narasimhan, his wife Kamala Antarjanam and their cook Raju Iyer, in cold-blood.

Within two weeks of martyrdom of Ramasimhan, the savage Moplah Muslim vandals demolished the beautiful Mattummal Sri Narasimha Moorthy Temple and its side walls. They then threw the divine moorthies into Temple wells and Temple ponds. The Moplah Muslims slaughtered a cow and an ox on the spot where the Temple once stood, in an attempt to reduce the easwara-chaitanya of the Temple. The terrified Hindus of the locality even feared to retrieve and give a funeral to the bodies of the slain Ramasimhan and family. For a long period of time the blood stains of the slain Ramasimhan and his family were seen on the walls of the Rubber Estate Bungalow.

What is inspiring to note is that a new temple committee, consisting of enthusiastic, public-spirited and courageous men of faith, has been constituted to rebuild Mattummal Sri Narasimha Moorthy Temple at the same site. This committee has armed himself with a suitable order of an appropriate Civil Court to undertake this secret task of reconstruction. The President of this committee is Sri C.P. Janarthanan.

(To be contd...)(The writer is a retired IAS officer)

e-mail the writer atvsundaram@newstodaynet.com