Aralvaimozhi

Aralvaimozhi is a small village situated in southern India. It is well-known for being the greatest source of wind energy in Asia. The Muppandal wind farm, the largest in Asia, is located in this village. Aralvaimozhi is famous for a catholic church located in the hill of Kattadi malai. Martyr Devasahayam pillai was shooted there.

DEVASAGAYAM PILLAI

About two centuries ago this story happened in the southern state of Travencore which is currently called as State of Kerala. The famous king Marthanda Varma was ruling Travencore when the capital of the kingdom was at Padmanabhapuram instead of Trivandrum city. This town is situated at 30 miles from Trivandrum city on the Trivandrum Nagercoil road. It is two miles from the town of Thuckalay and the palace is still preserved by the Tourism Department of Kerala State. This was a historical place for many centuries for old Travencore kingdom.

Ramayyan Dalawa was the Diwan of the king at that time. De'Lenoy was the commander-in-chief of the king's army. This De'Lenoy came to the port near Kanyakumari with soldiers in his ship from Portugal and he attempted to conquer the kingdom, but the powerful Marthanda varma could not be defeated, even though they did not have modern guns and gunpowder. In the battle, the king took De'Lenoy as captive and he was thrown in the prison. But after sometime, the king and De'Lenoy had an agreement in peace. Accordingly, De'Lenoy became the new Commander in chief of the Travencore army. He trained the king's army in the modern warfare with guns and rifles for the first time. The dead bodies of De'Lenoy, his wife and his dog were buried in the Udayagiri fort near Padmanabhapuram, about three miles from the town of Thuckalay, which is also a tourist place at present.

Nilakanta Pillai was the son of a Brahmin from Kayankulam in central Travencore and his mother was from Thiruvattar. His house was then located at Nattalam, which is about seven miles from Marthandam town. Our story starts from here. Nilakanta Pillai was from a very powerful family that had relationship with the king. He was working at the palace as the head of the bodyguards for Marthanda Varma. He was also the minister of the home for the king. He used to meet De'Lenoy almost everyday at the palace. One day, De'Lenoy saw Pillai very sad and gloomy. When enquired about the problem, Pillai told De'Lenoy the reasons for his sadness was due to a series of troubles in his family, such as crops failure continuously for years, and all of his cattles were destroyed by some diseases and many such losses there.

The uncle of Pillai was the chief of the family, according to the traditions of the Nair family. The uncle consulted with all of the astrologers and Brahmin priests about the problems. They gave the reason as that of the anger of the family goddess and the anger of the serpents in that area. Therefore puja after puja were performed but never the situation got any improvement. All the pujas were meticulously performed by spending a lot of money, but of no use. Each time the priests would give yet another remedy and prescribe another more expensive puja cermony but Pillai got tired of these rituals and became depressed. He did not know how to remedy the situation. De'Lenoy listened to all of the things Pillai told him.

Then he explained to Pillai about a man called "Job" as described in the Bible, because he was a Portugese Christian by faith. This Job went through a lot of troubles, such as crops failures, the destruction of the cattles, destruction of goats, destruction of his houses, death of sons and daughters etc. This story had some comparison with Pillai's family troubles and De'Lenoy used it to explain how God allowed Job to go through all these trials and sufferings and how Job was faithful to God even in the midst of all these sufferings etc. Actually it was Satan (the Devil) that hated Job because God loved Job for his faithfulness toward him. Satan asked God's permission to test Job to see whether he would deny God and curse God when he would be put to troubles. That was the challenge that Satan made with God regarding this man Job. Anyway Job remained faithful to God and never cursed or accused] God for his sufferings. That story of Job appealed to our Pillai.

After few days, the uncle asked Pillai to stay home for another expensive puja ceremony to appease the family goddess "Durga" and Pillai did not pay attention to have another puja. This infuriated the Brahmin priests who already told his uncle that Pillai became a Christian and that he had secretly taken baptism from a church. The matter was brought to the attention of Ramayyan Dalawa, who ordered an investigation of the matter. Even though the king liked the sincerity of Pillai until that time, he was questioned about the rumours. Pillai was asked to worship the idols at the puja ceremoney, but Pillai did not attend the ceremony and ignored it.

The Brahmins were very much infuriated at his behaviour and they went to complain to Ramayyan Dalawa about him. Consequently, Pillai was dismissed from his job first. He was asked to forget about his faith in Jesus Christ but he refused that request. Therefore he was thrown into the prison for few days, because the king gave his some time to think about the consequences. But they realized that Pillai was very strong in his faith and that it was true that he had taken baptism from a church at Vadakkankulam, which is located in Tinnevelly District in Tamil Nadu at present. Hence some more severe punishment got to be given to him as a lesson for others to see. Ramayyan Dalawa agreed with the suggestions of the Brahmins.

Within a short time, Pillai was accused of treachery against the kingdom and he was accused as a spy for Europeans (which was not true). Then his body was painted with black and red spots as the punishment prescribed in those days for severe criminals, and he was seated on a buffalo and the people took him on a procession from Balaramapuram to Kanyakumari through the coastal area, where there were a large number of Catholic Christians. The motive was to intimidate the Christians and other Hindus who would think of converting to Christianity. If anybody tried to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, even if he was a minister of the king, it would be the punishment they wanted all the people to know it.

At several places the procession stopped and then Pillai was beaten publically in the market places for all the subjects to see it. As you can see, Pillai came from a wealthy and famous family of Nattalam. They could not tolerate the shame of Pillai taking baptism from a church and becoming a Christian. Therefore the elders of the family supported the torments that were given to Pillai and agreed with the Brahmins, who controlled the king and the Diwan.

Still Pillai was not willing to give up his faith in Jesus Christ, and he was not willing to worship the idols of the Hindu gods and goddesses. Therefore, more severe punishment was prescribed for him to change his mind. He was finally brought to near Thuckalay and he was tied to a wooden pole outside the house of a military leader (like centurion of the Roman army) and his food was given on the ground. Sometime he was tied to a cow-shed and later he was chained to the pole. But after few days, the pole began to blossom with leaves, flowers and fruits. This instantly attracted the attention of all the Christians and Hindus in that area. Huge crowds began to visit Pillai and comfort him in his sufferings. People got encouraged at the sufferings and at the courage and conviction of Nilakanta Pillai, who had been born as a Hindu, but would not abandon his faith in Christ, even at the stage of losing his position with the king, prestige, reputation, family and friends. Pillai used to talk to the visitors very kindly about the Lord Jesus and maintained that he wanted to worship only the true God, and not any idols any more. He was ready to face anything as a price. He was willing to be like "Job" in the Jewish Bible.

Pillai's sufferings got the attention of many Catholic Christians, who secretly planned to rescue him out of his pains and wanted to help him get out of Travencore. But Pillai rejected all such offers of help and refused to become a coward to run out of the kingdom. He was determined to die for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore no Christians could really rescue him out of the troubles. But the Brahmins became more revengeful and wanted to torment him even the more to teach him as a lesson for other Hindus out there!

Then it was decided to whip him every day 30 stripes. But certain thorns were taken from a bush and they attached the thorns to the chords of the whip, so that each time he was beaten, the thorns would pull the flesh out of his body. This kind of whips were used to whip Pillai everyday. Nilakanta Pillai was just about thirty five years old, when these things have happend to him. Black pepper is plenty available in Kerala for centuries and one of the reasons for the Europeans to visit India was to get spices from India and Kerala is the place for many spices. After beating Pillai with the whip, they applied powdered black pepper upon his body to make the pain unbearable for him. Then, it was planned that during the hot sun at twelve O'clock, daily the beating was done when he was imprisoned near Thuckalay. To increase the sufferings of Pillai, another plan was hatched.

That was to take him to a rock near Udayagiri fort for the beating and for pepper powder application on his body. Oneday, after beating him 30 stripes, and after applying pepper on his body, he was asked to sit on the hot rock at mid afternoon in the sun. Pillai was extremely tired, with great pain all over his body, and felt very thirsty. When he asked for water, they fetched him water from the gutter. The smell of the water that was offered did not let him drink it. In that agony, Nilakanta Pillai looked at the sky for few moments, knelt down on the hot rock and knocked at the rock with both of his elbows. Suddenly water rushed out of that rock with great force. Pillai thanked God and took that water to quench his thirst. This place is still kept as a sacred place by the Christians, and it is located near Udayagiri fort, on the public road at a place called Villukury, on the Trivandrum Nagercoil road.

This made Pillai instantly very famous all over the country. People began to flock from everywhere to have a look at this Hindu convert who performed this kind of miracle and got water from the rock. Both Hindus and Christians considered Pillai as a holy man indeed. Large crowds came to visit him and patients were brought to his for his blessings. Pillai used to preach to them and blessed the patients. People also gathered the leaves from the tree to which he was tied and used the leaves for healing patients with diseases. This made Pillai very well known all over Travencore. The Brahmins got really disappointed at these turn of events. What they tried to control the growth of Christianity, got into real paths leading thousands to Christian faith through the life of Nilakanta Pillai. It made them feel rather embarrassed. They wanted to kill him, but were not willing to do it because of the fear for the popularity that Pillai enjoyed among the people.

Brahmins again approached Ramayyan Dalawa and asked him to help them in their dilemma. They asked to remove Pillai from Thuckaly area to another secret location near Kanyakumari. People enquired about him and went there to see him. Then finally he was moved to Arambully town, which is on the border of Travencore with Pandy kingdom, which is Tirunelvelly District of present day history. At this place Nilakanta Pillai was placed in a prison. Regularly everyday hundreds of people gathered there to meet him at the prison and to listen to sermons. People got much blessings through his words and he healed many sick people simply by blessing them. This extreme popularity among the people angered the Brahmins and other upper caste people. They wanted to get Pillai killed, but were afraid of civil war on account of the fact that Pillai was a religious man and he was charged falsely as a spy etc. But finally they decided to kill him secretly and instructed the soldiers to do the job. On the day before he was executed, Pillai asked his wife to leave for Vadakkankulam and also asked the visitors not to come to see him the next day, as he was going for a long journey soon! Somehow Pillai already knew their plan for the next day. As arranged he was taken to the nearby wooded forest, Pillai was taken by the soldiers and they tried to shoot him but the bullets would not come out of the gun.

But after learning about the problem, Pillai took the pistol in his hands and blessed the gun. Then he gave it back to the soldiers to do their job and this time they could easily shoot him five times. Pillai was killed and his dead body was thrown for the animals to eat and the soldiers tried to keep the story extremely secret. But something very strange happened later. There was a caravan of forty bullock carts going from Pandy kingdom to Travencore. Right before approaching Arambolly border checkpost, the bulls on the carts became wild and they went out of control and began to run extremely fast. The cart drivers could not control them and yet finally the bulls came to a sudden stop in the woods, and when the men got out of the carts to see the problem, they saw the dead body of Pillai lying down there. They recognized the body and they took it to the Catholic church in Kottar in Nagercoil town and handed over the body to the priest there. The body was buried inside the church there and even now the buried area is visible inside the church for visitors.

Later another caravan men got the turban of Pillai and a blood-stained dhothi from the same woods where Pillai was killed. These things were given to the Vadakkankulam church, where Pillai was baptized. Till today these things are kept in glass boxed for visitors to see them. Pillai's personal sword was with the Pillai family until recently but later it was handed over to the Christian bishop of Kottar by his family members at Nattalam. All these incidents can be verified with the history of Travencore, from the diary of the British officer who was stationed at Travencore and through various biographies written by several persons. Today the place near Udayagiri fort is considered as a pilgrim center by Christians in that area.

We hope you enjoyed reading the life of Nilakanta Pillai, who got the new name of Deva Sahayam Pillai after his baptism. It is rumoured that in the Nattalam Nair family, for the last 200 years always one man becomes mentally deranged in every generation among them and it has been going on for many generations. Is it the curse of God that is still following the Pillai family for what they did to Pillai or is it the wrath of the "goddess"? But Pillai was a brave soldier till the last day of his life, and died like a martyr with peace and willingness to suffer for the gospel of Christ. Not many Christians of India have this kind of bravery and strong conviction that a Hindu Nair convert showed at the face of severe persecution.