The Temple Goddess
N J Ravi Chander
One of my earliest memories of Fraser Town (Mootocherry earlier) was the Mootomariamman shrine, which stood on 51 Standage Road. The deity derived her name from the locality; the shrine came up on encroached land. A Thigala (traditional growers of flowers and vegetables) ran the unauthorised shrine.
People trusted the town deity to rid them of diseases or bail them out of their travails. During my childhood days in the 1960s, I recall accompanying my parents for the special Friday pooja, and the deity decked in finery was a sight to behold!
The poojari would chant mantras and gently stroke our heads with holy neem leaves – these were always placed beside the goddess – to ward off the evil eye or drive away sickness. We had easy access to the kovil through a small gate on the parallel street behind our house on Maiganda Deva Mudaliar Road. Old-timers living in the area recall that the temple existed even before the 1940s.
The property belonged to a Mudaliar family – the community held large parcels of land in Bengaluru – but for decades, nobody dared to question the erection of the unauthorised structure. An elderly Thigala man performed sacred rituals. Following his demise, his significant other, Dhanakotiammal, doubled as a poojari – a rare sight in days of yore.
Over time, the shrine gained popularity, and devotees flocked to it. A visit here always gave me an adrenaline rush because of a snake burrow that existed. I longed to glimpse the reptile but never got to bump into it. As the years rolled on, the shrine became a part of our lives, but suddenly one day, a drama unfurled!
It all began when the owner sold the property to a member of the minority community. The new owner showed great heart in requesting the temple authorities to move the shrine to a corner in the compound, but they refused. They wanted possession of the entire property, claiming it was temple land, sacred space and the works.
The owner braved many pressures and threats as miscreants close to the temple management hurled false charges that included a case of grabbing temple land. The case dragged on in the courts for fourteen long years before the landlord reclaimed his property.
The unexpected turn of events made the landlord furious, and post-closure of the case, he took the drastic step of evicting the idol and dumping it on the roadside. The deity found temporary refuge on 7 Standage Road before moving to a makeshift shrine near the Tannery Road- Bore Bank Road junction close to the Sweepers Colony. She hung on there for a few years before the temple authorities scrambled to find a new spot to house her.
The goddess who had developed the reputation for ‘going places’ finally found refuge in a building situated atop a storm-water drain on Kenchappa Road Cross. Adorned in gold and garlands, she is placed upon a wooden chariot and hauled through the town on festive nights for the devotees to offer worship.
The devout still flock to her for favours, offer prayers or seek solace during troubled times. The descendants of the Thigala family continue to run the temple, as Mootomariamman sits pretty in her fortress. But the ordeal of shuttling from pillar to post in search of refuge would continue to haunt her!
(The author is a former banker who has taken to writing as a past time activity. His features appear in various national, regional and local publications)
