The image of the application form of Mattannur Municipality Library Committee for the Vidyarambham is now embroiled in controversy. It gives options for the letters to write as part of the ritual. The question is what the parents like to opt for their children, from three choices, viz., (1) Hari Sree Ganapataye Nama: (2) Allahu Akbar (3) Yesuve Stuti meaning ‘O Jesus, pranams to you’.
In Kerala, Vidyarambham is an auspicious ritual conducted on Vijayadashami (Dusserah) Day. It is also known as Vidyarambham, in Kerala, meaning ‘initiation into the realm of letters’. It is the day for worshipping Saraswati Devi, the Goddess of vidya, the knowledge. Saraswati is also worshipped as the Goddess of all forms of art. An acharya, a knowledgeable person, like a monk, teacher, poet or writer, seats two and a half to three years old child on his lap; he holds its hand and makes it write ‘Hari Sree Ganapathaye Nama:’ in the grains of rice spread in a plate. Then he writes, with a gold ring, the same on the tongue of the child. It denotes the Vidyarambham of the child.
There are mass ceremonies, on these lines, in Kolloor Mookambika temple in Karnataka state and Kerala temples like Dakshina Mookambika temple in Ernakulam distirct, Panachikkad Devi temple in Kottayam and Thunjan Parambu in Malappuram district. Thunjan Parambu is the birthplace of Thunjath Ezhuthachan, the father of the Malayalam language. Parents cutting across religious and political differences take their children for Vidyarambham. Hundreds of temples host this ritual on Vijayadashami Day.
Valsan Thillankerry alleged that the Mattannur Municipality’s Vidyarambham is a design to disrespect a noble ritual. The ritual, the part and parcel of a culture is pushed into the compartments of religions. And, there is a conspiracy behind this to reduce the ritual into a religious programme.
KK Shailaja MLA, former minister and senior CPM leader, had told last year that Vidyarambham is not a religious ritual hence should be celebrated as a secular one. She reportedly made this comment in her FB post after participating in the Vidyarambham in Mattannur. It was again organised by the very same Mattannur Municipality. There she had initiated several children into the realm of letters. In her post, she made it a point to allege that formerly high class people alone were entitled to obtain literacy.
At the same time, there is an argument that the Vidyarambham for the Muslim and Christian children is a welcome change. Because, whatever verse the children are made to write, after all the parents are accepting a ritual which is an inseparable part of the Bharatiya culture. Therefore, it can be viewed as a deviation from the hard and fast semitic religious frame work and entry into a new horizon.
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