The God and His Friend Vavar

When Manikandan, the prince of Pandalam, was grown, there was trouble in the hills. A warrior was raiding the forest country with his men; some say he had come from across the sea. His name was Vavar.

The people came to the prince.

"He takes what he likes," they said, "and no one can stand against him."

"Then I will go and stand against him," said Manikandan.

He went into the hills and found Vavar, and they fought. It was a long fight, and a fair one, and at the end of it Vavar was on the ground and Manikandan was standing over him.

Vavar looked up at the young man who had beaten him, and saw something he had not expected.

"Who are you?" he said.

"Ask me again when you know me," said the prince, and gave him his hand, and pulled him up.

Vavar stayed. He did not go back across the sea. He put down the life of a raider and went with the prince through the hills, and in all the stories of Ayyappa's wanderings after that, Vavar is beside him, his friend and his lieutenant, a Muslim walking with a Hindu god.

When the time came for Ayyappa to take his seat on the hill of Sabari, Vavar went too.

"Where will you be?" asked Vavar.

"Up there," said Ayyappa. "And you will be at the foot of my steps, where everyone who comes to me must pass you first."

So it is. Vavar has his own small shrine on Sabarimala, close to the eighteen steps, and pilgrims bow there before they climb.

And down in the town of Erumely, where the forest path begins, there is a mosque named for Vavar. Every pilgrim season, the great companies of pilgrims arrive there with their faces painted and their bodies covered in colour, carrying bows and arrows and branches, and dance through the streets in the Petta Thullal.

There are two great companies, one from Ambalappuzha and one from Alangad. The Ambalappuzha company waits until a Brahminy kite is seen circling in the sky above the town, which they take as the sign that the god is with them, and only then does the dance begin. The drums start, the coloured powder flies, and the dancers move off through the streets towards the mosque.

At the mosque the dancers are received by the people of the mosque. They go into its courtyard and walk round it, and only then do they go on into the forest towards the god. A visit to Ayyappa, in this country, begins at his friend's door.