The Forgotten Physicians of Ancient Kongu

One day, a Vettuva Naavidhar (A barber serving the Vettuvar, an aboriginal community of Kongunadu) was shaving the face of a man from the Kongu Vellalar community. A Vettuvar man, who crossed past this scene, asked the barber to follow him. Then the barber left the work incomplete and followed him. The Kongu Vellala man, tired of waiting for the return of the barber, called his elder son and asked him to complete the work, which had been left incomplete by the barber. The tale says that, later on, the descendants of the elder son took up the profession of hairdressing and shaving to the members of the Kongu Vellalar community and came to be called ‘Kongu Naavidhar’ (Kongu barbers).

“The Kongu Vellalars regard the Kongu Naavidhars as their sons. The two communities in Kongunadu have still been in a father-son relationship” says C.Subramaniam, former Vice-chancellor, Tamil University, Thanjavur, who authored the book Kongunaattu Mangala Vaazhthu Paadal. The book, which was his M.Phil dissertation on the ‘Mangala Vaazhthu Paadal’- a traditional song performed by the barbers in the weddings of the Kongu Vellalar community, narrates the above tale. 

“The Kongu Naavidhar, who is called by different names as Kudimagan, Pandithan, Mangalan and Maruthuvan, ought to perform different ceremonies in the weddings of the Kongu Velalar Community like inviting the kin to the wedding, proclaiming each of the ceremonies to be performed on the occasion and singing the traditional Mangala Vaazhthu Paadal,” writes Subramaniam in his book Kongunattu Mangala Vaazhthu Paadal.

As read from such different names of the Kongu Naavidhar community as Pandithan, Mangalan and Maruthuvan, its members were traditionally physicians before the advent of modern medicine.

“As many think, people from the barber community are not hairdressers by generation but they were made so in course of time after the advent of modern medicine. What's more, their women too were well trained in midwifery and indigenous obstetrics. Evident to this, many copper plates and epigraphs discovered in Kongunadu mention the barber community as‘ Maruthuva Kulam’ or 'Vaithiyar’” says noted Kongu historian Pulavar Se. Rasu, who is also the former Head, Department of Archaeology and Epigraphy, Tamil University, Thanjavur. 

“A king, who ruled Kongunadu before 9th century CE, had given his only daughter in marriage to a prince of a neighboring country. The princess, who later came to her parental home for the delivery, had complications in the vaginal delivery of the child and experienced severe labour pain. It made everyone think that both the mother and child would meet their doom. Though many indigenous surgeons camped in the king’s palace, none of them was sure about saving the mother and child. The worried king announced attractive rewards to the surgeon who saves his daughter and the child in the process of delivery. Heard about the king’s announcement, a Mangalai (Kongu Naavidhar woman) from Narayur Nadu, a division in ancient Kongunadu, visited the King's palace at Skanthapuram (Dharapuram) and assured him that she would save the princess and her child. The Mangalai sought permission from the king to perform a surgery by making an incision on the abdomen of the pregnant princess and taking out the foetus alive. Shocked at her words, none in Skanthapuram believed that the mother and child would escape death. As the king had no other option, he permitted the Mangalai to go ahead with her ‘operation’ finally” Rasu narrates in his book. 

“The Mangalai made the princess lay on the bed in a private room and made a cut in her abdomen, and carefully removed the foetus from the uterus. Soon after the operation, she applied some medicine on the cut and gave necessary medications to the mother, and soon brought her back to her senses. The king, as he promised, rewarded the Mangalai by presenting her plenty of agricultural lands as Irayili (Tax-free) and also founded a village in her name as ‘Mangalapatti’ near Kangeyam “ adds Rasu.

“The Mangalai was well-read in the ancient texts of gynecology and obstetrics of Kongunadu. In Annanmar Kaviyam, the famous folk epic of Kongunadu, the twin heroes Ponnar and Shankar were said to have been born from the right and left ribs of their mother Thamarainaachi respectively. It is believed that their birth too could be through such a surgery like the one performed by the Mangalai on the princess” informs Rasu.

The seven-volume Madras University Tamil Lexicon defines the word Mangalai as the woman of barber caste. Besides, the lexicon provides its other meanings as ‘a married woman’, ‘Goddess Lakshmi’, ‘Goddess Parvathi’, and ‘Goddess Durga’. 

Edgar Thurston in his comprehensive work Castes and Tribes of Southern India says that a barber combines himself in three useful vocations of hairdresser, surgeon and musician.

“By long practice the barber becomes a fairly skillful operator with the knife, which he uses in a rough and ready manner. He lances ulcers and carbuncles. It is the barber who takes away cricks and sprains, procures leeches for those wishing to be bled, and otherwise relieves the physical ills of his patients. The barber woman, on the other hand, is the accoucheuse and midwife of the village matrons.” Thurston informs.