We used to participate in the Sharddha of the ancestors and the Purohit used to chant the names of 5 generation of ancestors at that time. I was curious to know their names and used to here in child hood. My grand parents were from Shertallai in Kerala a growing municipality of south Kerala. There are meaningful number of Gouda Saraswath Brahmins in Shertallai.
Our ancestry goes like below==>
Manoj Kumar Narasimha Pai (my name) & Smitha Pai
Narasimha Rama Pai & Valsa Pai
Rama Narasimha Pai & Yamuna Bai Pai
Narasimha Aravalem Pai & Name not known
Arvelam Pai & Name not known (It may be a nick name)
We are not sure of the previous generations and their name, as most of the records are damaged due to the time. They used to repeat the name of grand parents to the grand children.
Usually names of characters of Hindu scriptures were used to be named after the new born. So Arvelam Pai may be a nick name of that time, as they were from Arvelam in Goa.
The Gouda Saraswat Brahmins were basically Smarthas following the Kaivalya Math of Goa. Kaivalya Matha are followers of Advaitha vedanta. They were allowed to worship all forms of god to attain the moksha and all purusharthas.
This mutt is also know as Goudapadacharya Mutt in Ponda Goa. In this gurus name the followers brahmins were know as Gouda Saraswath Brahmins. Once they migrated to Kerala, North and South Karnataka & South Maharashtra, they adopted different philosophies or some continued to follow the same Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Far south with almost no means of communication and travelling, our ancestors adopted Vaishnavism. They were guided and given deeksha to Vaishnavism by one of the guru from Kumbakonam Mutt who visited the south Kerala long back.
There used to be wind powered ships in that time and not steam, petroleum powered ships.The Goan GSB had lots of ships as they were venturing on foreign trade. They landed from Goa to sea shores of the Shertallai.
Arvelam was basically originated from the name Harvalem honoring HARA = Shiva. There is a grand temple in Goa of Rudresh Mahadev in Arvelam.
The temple holds a Shivalingam. This is our ancestors temple located in North Goa. They migrated to Kerala to keep the dharma intact around 1500 A.D.
If one questions the antiquity of this temple, there are still older cave temples here in Arvelam of Shiva. They were made by Pandavas while they were in exile.
These caves hold 5 Shiva Lingam each installed by Pandavas. Also a kitchen which was used by Draupati.
There are 5 similar Shivalingam in this cave temple. Worshiped by Pandavas. So it is very clear that at least for last 5100 years there was worship of Shiva in Arvalem.
This temple is near the well know Arvelam Falls, which is emerged as a tourist destination these days.
After leaving the Goa our ancestors were living in Shertallai near a Shiva Temple called Thiruvizha Tample. Later shifted to the present place. At least for last 5-6 generations this is same place where the ancestors were staying. Few of the ancestors were good in Ayurveda and I still have the palm leafs of the Ayurveda.
Later books I saw mix of Ayurveda and Siddha Medicine. Siddha medicine was prominent in Kerala and Tamilnadu. Grand father was a practitioner of Ayurveda and siddha medicines. He was making own medicines manually and had a lab with lots of medicines. I still have with me a stone which is a siddha medicine which will suck the venom of snake byte from human body. The venom sucked from the human body will be released when the stone is dipped into cow milk. They were masters of alchemy. I am not sure what are all medicines they had and for what purpose they were used. The palm leaf are in the form of Vattezuthu (older form of Malayalam). Only scholars can read this language.
Some ancestors were good in manufacturing Brass and copper vessels. They had foundry and were designing and manufacturing large brass vessels. They used to transport to far away cities these vessels through vallam (a type of boat seen in Kerala). There were more than 100 types of tools in the manufacturing area. Now only 1-2 tools are left. All other tools are missed over the time.
Ancestors were also masters of Mantra Yoga. they had siddhis to heal various problems and diseases. They used to do Puracharanama of various mantras. One of the Yoga Danda is still with me in my pooja room.
Later due to all south Kerala GSB migrants adopted the Vaishnavism our ancestors also accepted Vaishnavism. They become ardent devotees of Vishnu. There after started the worship of Salagramas, Tulsi etc. I still have in my possession the salagramas of ancestors with me. My grand father died when I was 2-3 years. So could not pass on the message of the type of salagrama we have. Later identified from the experts in Kochi.
Pattabhirama, Hiranyagarbha, Bhuvaraha are few of them. Later I have added a few our of influence from Iskcon and Madhwa mutts.
Vastu purusha's legs are in south west corner. There is a Sarpa Kavu (Snake Forest Temple) in our land in Shertallai, Kerala. This represents the lower dimensional deities like nagas (2D), Yakshas (less than 2D) etc. They are worshiped every year on naga panchami day.
My father was a Govt of Kerala employee and Mother a Govt of Kerala Teacher. They migrated to emerging port city Kochi for better prospects. I was staying in a GSB Brahmin agraharam in Kochi. Much much bigger than that in Shertallai.
There were around 1000 houses in this agraharam and many small and big temples. Including the deities brought from Goa were installed in various temples. There is a large Vishnu temple. All the streets of the temple and surrounding of agraharam were in festival mood almost for 200 days any year. Every alternate home has salagramas pooja in their home.
After my B.Tech / Management, I migrated to Bangalore seeking better prospects. I found Bangalore have more spiritual vibes than all cities I had been. Seeking self realization, meeting sages and gurus who used to come to Bangalore frequently.
Many more generations to come....
II DHARMO RAKSHATI RAKSHITAHA II
II AHAM BRAHMASMI II
