Heeding a spiritual call

Ever since her birth, the sounds that have been reverberating in her ears were of Tantra scriptures and temple bells. Though there aren’t any known female priests in temples now, in the Namboothiri community, women do carry out pujas for their home deities, usually called thevaram. Her father, Padmanabhan Namboothiripad, says there are no known women who perform rituals the way Jyothsna does, after getting the right knowledge from a guru. She adds, “I started learning puja and reciting the Sanskrit mantras from my father and grandfather.” When she turned 12, she raised many eyebrows by breaking convention and leading the rituals for installing a consecrated murti of Devi Bhadrakali in 2010, in the sanctum sanctorum of Painkunnikavu Temple in Irinjalakuda. Some of the questions she had to face while learning shastras under the guidance of Veluthedathu Tarananalloor Padmanabhan Namboodiripad were ‘Who is the Tantri of Thriprayar Temple?’ and ‘Is she eligible to learn and practice it?’ As a female, according to Brahmanical tradition, she is not supposed to wear poonool by upanayana, which is one of the traditional systems that mark the acceptance of a student by a guru and an individual's entrance to a school in Hinduism.