How many of us know the root of lord ayyapan, this is the history, lord ayyapan was the clan deity of pandya kingdom. As it was familiar in Tamil history there was a constant rival between three major settlers (chera,chola and pandya). When the pandhyan king was thrown out of his kingdom, he ran to chera kingdom and took refuge in travancore. Later on the Travancore king became good friend of pandhya who took refugee and made him as king of pandala which was a part of Travancore and ayyapan belongs to pandala king who was a pandaya by origin. So by history it’s clear.
Now if we go to any temple, we can find the kodimaram(the wooden flag tree) over there, we can find the vehicle of the respective god. if we go to Shiva temple we can find bull, in Vishnu temple one eagle alwar ,similarly if we go to ayyapan temple we can find horse over the kodimaram. Lord ayyapan has got no relation with horse then why there is a horse in kodimaram? There must be a tiger in kodimaram. But instead, there is a horse. We can identify the owner by his vehicle. In every ayyapan temple sastha( is the moolavar) is the god in sanctum, who is the clan deity of pandya kingdom. Ayyapan was one of the princes of pandhala kingdom who renounced the crown and went for ascetic life. This religious group with fanatic attitude changed the statue and posture of ayyapan externally, but pooja’s and rituals are carried out for sastha, that’s why we find horse in kodimaram, remember one tamil rural incident that I narrated about sending the force(he told, I sent my Whitehorse). Basically there are eight guarding spirits for eight directions; sasta is one of the guarding spirits of eight directions.
Now why this change? If the priest is really not powerful he can’t sit near to the yaga pit and perform the yaga, as high the flame as powerful must be the priest, sasta the powerful guarding spirit was made as a child in meditation, though can’t underestimate, it’s easy to play with kid than with the man. Anyway we know the story of ayyapan killing mahishi. I used to ask my mom about the ayyapan devotees in her childhood days and I was stunned by her narration. Those people who take sabarimalai woes were highly spirited people , 40 days they lead a strict ascetic life. This is the real incident, a man had a fight with his wife and wife suddenly holding his maalai (ayyapan rosary) and pluck it, so that to stop him to go to sabarimalai, he warned twice but the fight was increased, suddenly this man sliced her throat and ran into forest, he never came for any of the cremation ritual and his co-ayyapan devotees are asked him to withdraw from the sabarimalai woes because of death ceremony. He told nothing doing, I will not withdraw because it was not my mistake and I am not aware of what I had done. Then he told further if our team not ready to take me, then I will go with another village team. Actually others were scared, he might die in sabarimalai forest, and there were incidents like that. He was so strong and told if it was my mistake let me die there itself. He went to sabarimalai and returned safely to village,everyone was surprised by him. This was about 40 years before, my recent visit to sabarimalai made me to feel very bad because of huge money flow and other factors.
Whenever I close my eyes I see ayyapan romaing in a forest garden and there is no huts and building except a small Dias and I heard a voice ayyapan went to ponnambala medu the old temple spot. Devotees are true and ayyapan is true only his office is moved to old place because of too much of noise pollution and air pollution.
