Traditions come alive at Auroville Tamil festival

Puducherry: How many of us know that there was a rice variety called ‘mappila samba’ which was exclusively given to grooms during the marriage time? What about playing ‘aadu puliyattam’ which can be called as father of chess? Which plant can be used to cure heavy headaches? All these and much more fetes are available in Auroville Tamil cultural festival.

The festival, which is organized by Mohanam Center for Culture and Heritage and supported by department of tourism, celebrates the Tamil culture and traditions that rapidly disappear.

“Earlier rice cultivation took 7 to 9 months and we were even having varieties which was 5000 years old. Those rice varieties were rich in medicinal values and almost disappeared now, it is genetically modified plants farmers using now which wont even take 90 days to get cultivated,” says Kavithai Ganesan who was working with as quality control deputy manager at Tamil Nadu civil supplies corporation. He is having a stall in the fest where more than 100 traditional varieties of rice, 60 varieties of other grains are displayed. He is also having unique collection of vessels, instruments that people used centuries before.

Selvam was busy introducing the different herbs, their specialty medicinal values etc to the visitors and people of Adhiyan tribe attracts visitors with their collection of colourful  ‘surukku pai’ a traditional bag item.

Not only this, the best of folk traditions, music, dance, crafts and cuisine are arranged in the fest and also puppet shows, story telling, street play, traditional art forms like thappattam and sport items like kabbadi, kho kho, thaayam are ready to entertain the visitors in the two day cultural fest.

“The rich culture and tradition that Tamil Nadu was having undergoes tremendous change now. we feel that it is necessary to educate people about this losing tradition,” said S. Elumalai, coordinator, Mohanam Center for Culture and Heritage.

Mohanam Center for Culture and Heritage, which was established in the year 2001 promote richness and diversity of Tamil culture and educate people about that.

Tired of walking in sunlight, women are ready with their traditional snack varieties and local soft drinks. Have it relax and enjoy the fest, which will surely be a feast for you to savour.