Those of us in50s and 60s would not have failed to see the number of young boys in our villages sporting an ANTHONIYAR PATTAM in our young days.

Anthoniyar Pattam, for the information of those, who have long lost their roots in their ancient and native villages, is a hairy halo in the head similar to the one that you see in the head of St. Antony of Padua in the pictures.

I don’t think any other community except WE sported this pattam, though many other communities venerate St. Antony as much as we do. Nor has this custom been prevalent in any other land except in the places where Paravas lived. One could without hesitation assert that a boy sporting a Pattam is a Parava.

Why is it called Pattam was one of the nagging questions, I used to have when I used to see someone with a Pattam when I was young. The answer seems to be that the word has the same connotation as in GURU PATTAM. It may be recalled that during ordination of priests a bit of the hair is removed. In Anthoniyar Pattam a large chunk of hair from head is removed leaving only a thin line of hair in a circle as in a halo.

The Anthoniyar Pattam was invariably an outward sign of a vow by a devotee for a prayer that he has made to St. Antony. Though in coastal villages and in inland villages where Paravas lived in large numbers the Pattam was taken as a matter of pious routine, I have seen people wondering and at times ridiculing this peculiar hair style. I have also seen a few touching and feeling the hairy halo wondering how it has been made or whether it is anything artificial.

I distinctly remember how donning a Pattam or doffing a Pattam was an important social event with all aunts and uncles being informed and all relatives present and attending the ceremony in the Mandapam of the church when the hereditary barber or Kudimagan, with the newly brought KAUFFMAN razor from Ceylon furrows the hair off the head leaving only the thin circular line of hair.

Recently I was on a tour from Tuticorin to Madurai by Road. On the way , I visited churches and our settlements at Dubashipatty–, where Our Lady of Snows was sheltered during the Dutch occupancy of Tuticorin, where a statue of Our Lady Of Snows is kept behind the alter dedicated to St. Aloysius Gonzaga S.J.–, Keela Vaippar, Sippikulam, Vembar, and Kamuthy. I found hardly any one sporting the Anthoniyar Pattam .

The vogue of Anthoniyar Pattam is vanishing. Along with it the customary closeness of uncles, aunts, cousins, kumbaris and the mirth and jollity that accompanied the Pattam ceremony that coincided the village festival. Also the customary relationship with the Kudimagan who was a part of our families.

With movements inward, with people spreading far and wide, with education in upswing among our people, with obliteration of identity, with side cutting, step cutting, crew cutting , tufting etc becoming the ruling style in hair dressing, it is unlikely that Anthoniyar tonsure will last long.

But can anyone say that he has not prayed to St. Antony in times of his trouble, pain fear or loss or when he needs success.

NOT ONE, I am sure.

by A.X Alexander