Chapter 2: Birth Ayyappa, Myth or Fact
Myth about the birth of Lord Ayyappa:
Siva and Maha Vishnu were two male Gods of India. Lord Ayyappa was born to Mohini avathara oru Mahavishnu and Siva, and the Pandalam King got This Child from the banks of Holly river Pamba and brought up by the king ,this is the story existing with the believers. But these these story has some mismatch while considering historical evidences about Pandalam Kingdom life history of Ayyappan.
What historians says about Ayyappan’s birth:
After Padya raja From Madurai created the kingdom of Pandalam(‘read previous part for more details about creation of Pandalam Kingdom and Udayanan ‘pandya-chola war and pandalam dynasty) Kaampilli Panikkar was the commander for that kingdom.When he was aged he decided to handover his son and he practiced him for this.At this time Plunderer from Tamilnadu named Udayanan attacked Avalokteswara temple at Sabarimala and he made a plan to attack Pandalam for treasures. One day the young commander, son of kaampilli panikkar was somewhere away from the palace and that day Udayanan attacked the palace the aged commander failed to defend these plunderer and Udayanan took away the Princes from the palace who was the only sister of the king. When the young commander went back and heard this news and decided to attack Udayanan. He immediately created a troupe with available Nairs and attacked the Udayanan’s camp.
Unfortunately lack of light at the night made them failed to conquer the camp ,but the young commanders emotion over the princess made him more powerful and he entered the camp alone and fought for the Princes and managed to take off the princess back to Palace.At that night they realized their emotions on each other, on the way back to Palace through the jungle ,the Princess felt that when the went back Palace their relationship will lose the honor of the palace and the kingdom, so they decided to be together and hide somewhere away from the palace and thus the started a life at that jungle. The name Pandalam was derived from the concept of Padma Dalam which means ten villages, and one of these villages were Ponnambalamedu in the forest.The princes and the commander settled at this ponnambalamedu which was away from the pandalam Palace. Months and years passes on around 14-01-1095AD they were blessed with a baby boy.and they named the boy Ayyappan. They happy life in that jungle the little Ayyappan used to play with animals like tigers and leopards and he was mingled with a wild life.
Years passed, one day the king of punjar state Manavikraman was passing through the jungle and he was surrounded by the troupe of Udayanan at Vandiperyar which is now known as pulmedu. He failed to fought against the troupe, at that time an young boy who went their by riding an elephant defeated the plunderer’s troupe and let the king go safe to palace,That bay was Ayyappa.
Once Pandalam King had a journey to the same forest for hunting and he found his sister and the former commander and he asked them to return, but they refused to do so, then the king requested to let the boy Ayyappa who was the nephew of the king to go with him and he offered the throne and the Kingdom, finally he went back the Palace with Ayyappa from the jungle.
continue reading introduction part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4
Note:This article series is on the basis of collected information from various historical books such as “Elavarsevampettu”, Kesari Balakrishnan Pillai’s”followers”, Nalankal Krishnapillai and Dr.S.K Nairs Book
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