78-yr-old woman holds bizzare ritual to mark Sivaratri

Devotees in large numbers thronged the local temples on the occasion of Mahasivaratri to offer worship to their family deities and also performed various rituals.

In Srivilliputhur, the ritual of an old woman taking out sweets (appams) with her bare hands from boiling oil, which has been gaining much media attention in recent times, drew huge crowds. This annual ritual is performed at the Mudhaliarpatti Bathirakaliamman temple in Srivilliputhur. The woman, Muthammal (78), also undertakes a long fast in order to perform this bizarre ritual. She also went on a padayatra to the nearby temples in her region to seek the blessing of the deity.

Muthammal has been performing this ritual for 47 years and she says that there is a need for one to be very pious in order to perform this act. She also claimed that she has never once been scalded by the boiling oil that would start bubbling when she starts depositing the appams.

This year, the performance began with devotees singing a few devotional songs before the vessel was kept on the fire. Later, the ghee was poured into the vessel, in the presence of the temple priests. When the ghee started boiling, Muthammal dipped her right hand into it and drew out some ghee which she applied on her forehead and hands, as if it were holy ash.

According to her, she received the divine calling to perform this work for goddess Amman in her dream. To this day, she does not know how she does it and believes that the goddess protects her against injury. She maintains silence while frying the sweets and talks only after the last one is taken out from boiling oil.

Nearly, 1,000 sweets were cooked by her in a span of five hours from 11pm to 4am and the sweets were kept in baskets and offered to the deity. They were then distributed to the devotees who came from various places including Rajapalayam, Sivakasi, Sattur, Madurai among others.

It is a belief among the people that their family deities like Muthiasamy, Karuppasamy, Sanglisamy and others are all forms of Lord Shiva and they come from various places to offer worship in their local temples. At the Kochadai Muthaiasamy temple, devotees came with bag and baggage and stayed overnight inside the premises. Alagarkoil was another temple that drew large crowds from many southern districts.