അമിനിയിലെ 'പാമ്പിന്‍ പള്ളി'യും രക്തസാക്ഷി സ്മാരകവും

 Though there are no snakes in Lakshadweep, there is a mosque in the name of snake in Amini Island. There is a tale behind the mosque and it will tell us how it got this name. It is said that, during the sixteenth century Portuguese navigators frequently attacked and looted the people of Lakshadweep Islands. They humiliated and ravished the women folk also. When this activity started for many days and it becomes of their frequent activity, the clever ‘Quazhi’ of Amini Island planned to end this nasty play of Portuguese. So he made a fake friendship with the Portuguese navigators and invited all of them for a feast in the mosque. Secretly, the foods were poisoned with the snake poison brought from mainland by the Quazhi. Subsequently all the navigators died.

Then the brave Quazhi became the hero for the people of Amini, but shortly within, the news spread to the other Portuguese navigators and they came to Amini Island to attack and kill the Quazhi. Quazhi with the help of some other courageous men of island resisted the armed navigators with their indigenous weapons like sand, stone, wooden pieces etc. But they couldn’t defend the guns of Portuguese navigators, so they killed the Quazhi and others who defied them. Later on the mosque, in which the Portuguese were poisoned, was known as ‘pambin palli’ and all of the freedom fighters, who fought against Portuguese army, were buried. This is a tale about the freedom fights in Lakshadweep. When the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Amini Island he asked the Lakshadweep administration to build a memorial for the tribute of those great warriors who fought against the colonization.

Still the memorial is a grand symbol of freedom fights of Lakshadweep. It is marked in the memorial that: “This memorial is a tribute to Quazhi Aboobekker and the hundreds of people who fought against the colonization in the islands during the Christian era 1549 (Hijra 966). This memorial is constructed as per the request of Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister, who visited the Lakshadweep on 6^th January 1988”.

“ഒടൽ പുതനാശ” ("odal puthanasha")

“ഒടൽ പുതനാശ” ("odal puthanasha") means ‘Last Wednesday’ or ‘അവസാനത്തെ ബുധനാഴ്ച്ച’. It is a kind of joint sacred sea bath customary among the early folk of Androth Island. All the people of Androth irrespective of caste and gender were took part in that joined sea bath performed every Last Wednesday of ‘Shawal’ month of Arabic Calendar. Males are gathered together in the morning and they offer some special kind of prayer before the bath. Women take part in the holly bath in the evening. This was a kind of ritual conducted to overwhelm all forms of diseases caused by the evil force upon the people. There was a tale behind this ritual. That is somewhat like this, once Prophet Mohammed was caught by a severe illness and he recovered on the date of last Wednesday of ‘shawal’ month. So the ritual is, both, to commemorate the event and to send away all kind of illness they caught in the previous year, as their belief, it can be healed by the blessings of the messenger of Allah.
In recent times it is fading completely form the folk. It was performed during my childhood and I remember the spirit of the day still right here with the beats of my heart. We children gathered up to take bath in the sae after our Madrassa. I think schools were closed on the day. We used to oil our whole body and went for the bath. People of all age will be there. Parents will come with their little kids and the old people were also joined to show their strength. Two or three hours continues swimming and bathing. I can’t express the feel or the spirit we had on those days through words. It was fabulous and fantastic, u just imagine a beach full of people from all age especially all our friends swimming and bathing like anything. Now, I think the very beauty of the day was it brings all the folk intact. It gave us a special strength. After the bath we’ll have our BIRIYANI which will be ready at our home. U people may know the special taste of our biriyani after the sea bath especially. Now it is almost absent. Likewise the spirit of togetherness is also absent.

Kavaratti Hujra Mosque

Kavaratti Hujra Mosque is one of the very attractive mosques which is situated on top of a hill with all its beauty and tranquility which encompass all the genius of early craftsmanship of Lakshadweep folk. There are many tales connected to the Mosque can be found from the legend of Sheik Quasim Valiyulla. He introduced 'ratheeb', a religious ritual famous in the islands, in the Lakshadweep Islands. There is a tale behind its mastery creation of the Mosque. It is believed that the Hujra mosque is build by the demand of Sheik Quasim Valiyulla for prayer. He said one of the local carpenters to make the crafts work of the mosque by observing a leaf of a plant, in which he conjures the sketch of the work that need to be done each day. It is also assumed by the folk that, after the completion of carving works at mosque, the carpenter thought of making the same carving at his house, but a piece of wood hit his eyes on his last day of the work at mosque and he lost his eyesight. Still the Mosque is situated with all its beauty. The Mosque premises always made me a very special kind of feeling that is beyond all the words and you all must experience that, I recommend.

Kalpeni Mohiyuddeen Mosque

There are many mysteries behind the origin of our universe and our existence. Origin of Lakshadweep has also had many assets to add in the account of world mysteries. A very beautiful historic mosque with seven ponds is situated at one of the ends of the Kalpeni very near to the beach. The island folks believe that it is made by some ‘jinnh’, a supernatural being. The mystery of the story is like this, long ago, the people of Kalpeni wished to build a mosque in the name of Mohiyuddeen Thangal. People decided a place and made arrangements in a site to start the construction of the mosque. But on the next day when they came to start the construction, they were amazed to find a new and beautiful mosque constructed far away to the decided place, that too within a single night. Near to the mosque seven ponds were also dig by the ‘jinnh’. Though the seven ponds are situated very near to the seashore the water in the ponds are pure and not saline at all. It is a great wonder for the native people as well as the outsiders. Until now the holy mosque and the seven ponds are considered as sacred by the people. Almost in the entire island such stories, regarding the construction of ancient mosques chiefly by the ‘jinnhs’, are common.