"KULATHEYYAM: Custodians of the Bloodline" - Publishing Soon!

My upcoming book, will be published soon:

"KULATHEYYAM: Custodians of the Bloodline"

KULATHEYYAM, Custodians of the Bloodline

Our ancestors once walked upon this very earth - breathing the same air, touching the same soil, enduring the same joys and sorrows. Some, through the experience of emotional turmoil and untimely death, came to be revered as guardian spirits. Perhaps, during the transition of becoming a divine entity, they carried with them an unspoken oath: To understand the suffering of those who would come after them, to stand beside their devotees in moments of despair, and to draw them ashore when the floods of turmoil threaten to overwhelm their lives.

But how does one become a guardian, when one could not save oneself?

Do they understand our suffering because they endured it too? Do they witness our struggles from a realm beyond death, watching over those who still revere them in a hope to be saved? Or are they just remembered as embodiments of — courage, humanity, sacrifice, wisdom, or valour they displayed while they were alive? Did they conquer the unseen enemies within—the passions, desires, fears, anger and attachments that bind the human mind to the world? Or are they still under the influence of these? Are they just a quantum of omnipotent cosmic energy? Or the universe just choose them to serve mankind? Why are they obliged to serve a given bloodline?

Across centuries, many indigenous deities have been viewed through the eyes of aryans and westerners, that found the rituals abhorrent and morbid, as their worship often includes animal sacrifice, intoxicants, blood offerings, fierce imagery, and rituals that appear unforgiving, to those who stand outside these traditions. Yet, to their devotees, these very deities are guardians—protective forces believed to stand as a shield between their people and the calamities of life: conflicts, foreign-invasion, disease, injustice, hunger, fear, and the uncertainties of existence.

The rituals at the temple of kula-theyyams ( kuladeivams), like the offering of newborn's hair and a drop blood during the ear-piercing ceremony, is considered a spiritual "registration" of the bloodline. A thanksgiving ritual that says, "This life was offered by you, protect it, guide it, let the child know where it comes from", seeking the blessings and guidance of the divine. Far from a crude DNA transaction, it's a ritual of introducing a new life in the lineage and clan. The guardian watches over the family, while the family remains mindful of their custodian, towards whom they stay devoted.

These ferocious deities were never meant to frighten their devotees.

Perhaps it was meant to frighten away everything that threatened them.

This book is a walk along experience with these guardian spirits—through forgotten stories, living traditions, ancestral memories, and the landscapes where gods were once people, and people became gods.

They loved.

They suffered.

They fought.

They endured.

And then, they shed their mortal bodies and elevated themselves to what we call GODS !