Friday, January 20, 2012

Good Tamil Brahmin girl's curriculum

So here is my mother's idea of a good Tam-Bram girl 's curriculum -is more like a daily schedule

1) Get up early. wash face,put bindi, go out and sprinkle gobar water on the verandah, and put kolam (rangoli)
2) take bath, light diya
3) say shloka
4) eat tiffin, go to school
5) after school, wash hands and legs, change clothes, help mother in household activities- folding and putting away clothes, keep vessels inside the cupboards, cut veggies
6) In the evening, a tutor comes home to teach music, or for imparting Veena lessons.
7) Light diya, say a prayer
7) Study
8) Eat dinner at 8ish
9) Sleep


* My mother is a an ex-maths teacher and likes order and method in her life, so her response is systematic. Based on my understanding of her life and my grandmother, I'd like to add a few points.

Life for my grandmother revolved around the Hindu calendar. Meals, daily variations on whether she ate or had upvas or what she cooked depended on the calendar. Cooking and the kitchen was the centre of her life. So it is fair to venture that mastering cooking according to the religious calendar was a focus of the good Brahmin girl's curriculum.

My grandmother was always neatly put together, hair never unkempt, and I remember her with her beautiful pattu sarees and neatly tied hair...I've never seen her looking untidy...so cleanliness was a huge thingy in her life. The idea of pollution was very ingrained in her, so she would take a bath in the morning, and we could not touch her if we had not taken a bath ourselves. A bath after going out and coming back was also mandatory. So ensuring the household cleanliness and cleanliness of self and family members was a major part of curriculum.

Prayer in various forms - in shloka (for eg. learning the Sahasranamam or 1000 names of Vishnu and Suprabhatam were a given), or music training, or as participant in a singing group- religious rituals and music another mandatory part of the curriculum.
Regular visits to the temple and especially during festival days a part of life.

1 comment:

  1. Ok - but it would have been interesting to read some comments about what such a curriculum enabled and in what ways did it constrain. How was this curriculum imparted?

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