Panbaatu Asaivugal - [By:Tho Paramasivan. Language:Tamil](21Oct02)

I got this book in bookland (usman road).
It is an excellent book about our old tamil culture.

Following is a sample incident from that book.
In the event of a death people used to put the dead persons body at the center hall and all neighbours would gather around and cry for him/her. In such an event in a village in Tamil Nad there was a guy around 30 - 32 died. He was a married guy and all his and his wife's relatives gathered around and crying for the loss of him. His wife who is now a widow was crying by his side. Then a very old woman comes out from inside to the main hall. She was carrying a 'sombu' with full of water with her. There are some 'flowers' floating on the water.
Everybody stopped and watched her in silence.
She came to the center of the hall where she took one flower out of the 'sombu' and placed it on the floor. Nobody said nothing.
Then she took out another flower and put it with the flower on the floor.
There were murmers among the people.
Then again she took out a third flower from the 'sombu' and put it on the floor with the other two flowers.
Now people in the hall started to talk among themselves showing compassion on the dead man and his widow wife.
Then the old woman put all the three flowers back to the 'sombu' and went inside.
Now the author could not understand what happened and what did that mean.
He asked a person among the relatives what it meant. If you felt something on reading the above incident then you can buy this book. There are lot more unknown information about very familiar places in Tamil nad like madurai,Alagar koil,Sreerangam etc. Some more samples..
- Black was the color of beauty for dravidians until 15th century. Why did it change?
- There was an 'alternate meenakshi temple' built in madurai near simmakkal in Tamilch Changam Road in the 1930s. It was there until 1945 and it was demolished after that. This temple was constructed by the brahmin priests of Meentakshi temple who constructed this after the 1939 'temple entry movement' of scheduled people conducted in meenakshi temple.
- How could the habit of 'falling on sombody's feet' have came?
- Paarpaanukku Moopu Paraiyan Ketpar Illaamal Keelz jaathi aanan - What does this proverb mean?
- We boast that Hinduism is so tolerant. In madurai there were 8000 Samana Saints were killed by inserting a sharp rod through the anus (Kaluvilaettrudhal), by a Pandian King in the name of religion? - Navukkarasar wrote in one of his poems that he asks the god to give him the heart to rape the samana women.