THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Science, in the form of carbon dating, is on its way to establish the period of the most popular folklore of the state - ‘Parayi Petta Panthirukulam'.The folklore has continued to excite the imagination of Malayalis through ages with all-time favourite stories like ‘Naranath Bhranthan’ rolling boulders up a hill, him being tied to the nux vomica tree, the spitting doll of master carpenter Perumthachan, the jealousy that Perumthachan had for his son, who also excelled in carpentry and so on.With the first few carbon dating results trickling in from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany in Lucknow, historians in the state are upbeat and excited. This interesting work on the family line that started from a high-caste Brahmin scholar Vararuchi, his wife from a lower-caste and their 12 children of whom 11 were adopted by various families, was initiated by Dr Rajan Chungath.Rajan Chungath had conducted a series of studies on the Panthirukulam families, including a Central Govt-sponsored project on ‘Creating history from legend - based on the myth ‘Parayi Petta Panthirukulam’.The samples from traditional implements and wood work, handed down through generations, in the 11 lineages were collected by Rajan Chungath. He had first taken the samples to the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), which was then sent to Lucknow for more accurate dating procedures by RGCB scientist Sanil George.While the carbon dating of the ‘avani palaka’ is set to take at least two months more, what has caused a ripple of excitement in the scientific world is the dating of the woodwork from the Mezhathol Agnihotri’s illam which was converted to temple later on. "The carbon dating puts the date of the wood to be approximately 1400 plus or minus 80 years, which actually coincides with the period of the panthirukulam,’’ said Dr. Rajan Chungath.The Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany in Lucknow has been doing a lot of work on dating of timbers. "The specimens that were sent for carbon dating included pieces from the ‘avani palaka’ shaped in the form of a cow’s hoof, sitting on which the religious rituals are conducted in the family even now,’’ said Sanil George.This wooden board is believed to have belonged to Paakkanar.Apart from the woodwork of the Yagnesawaram temple of the Mezhathol Agnihothri family, bits of the lightning-struck banyan tree, which are to this day used to create fire for yagas, and the much-famed nux vomica, leaning on which Pakkanar took his last breath, also went in for a carbon-dating test.
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