SWAMY AKA SWAMACHAR THE GOLD SMITH

SWAMY AKA SWAMACHAR THE GOLDSMITH.

To the south our house next to Vendor Ramanna’s house on the pial (jaguli) there was a room of size Five feet by three feet. This was rented by one Swami AKA Swamachar the gold smith. On the front of theRoom there was an open space of three feet by three feet. Swamy used to come to the shop by around
10-00 A M and and stay there upto 5-00 P M. As soon as he used to come he will clean the room andthe front space by using thr broom and collect all the dust in a cloth bag. This dust used to be purchasedby some people who knew as to how extract the gold and silver dust once in a month. He will lightan oil lamp in front of the” Kali “photo and light two incense sticks . swamy had a small tuft neatly tied
at the back with black dot (saadu) in the centre of the forehead with kumkum over it and a small sandal paste dot over it. He used to wear always impeccable white jubba with white dhothi. He will shift the tools of his trade such as the small forge, an inverted mud vessel whose mouth used to be the base and its bottom half removed which contained mud plaster at bottom and at the topit contained paddy husk and also the charcoal of coconut shell. Also there used to be a castor oil lamp
which when lighted and with an “L” shaped hollow tube was used to braise gold or silver small articles. With this he used to have various sized hammers and wooden hammer and crucibles ofvarious sizes and a small leathere bellow.. With all these things he was ready for the days work. to the open space He was of short height and of average built body.. His speciality was to make ornaments of gold with very
light weight. Now only it is known as “Kerala Jewellery” no such name was there during those periods that is some 65 years back. He also used to tell such ornament owners that it should be worn for occasions and immediately afterwards it should be removed and kept safely. Almost all his works consisted ofremoving the dents in the silver vesssels or articles and braising the gold or silver articles and polishing of silver and gold articles. He used to get work almost everyday as the chaluvamba
agrahar and neighbouring roads consisted of middle class families who did not care to go to “Dodda petai” (Present Asoka Road) for minor repairs to their silver or gold articles. Nobody knew the residential address of swamy and he used to say that he is doing part time job for some renowned jewelers at Dodda peatai.
He was good in fixing of nails to the new wooden tops. He used to charge two paise for fixing of nails to whether it is sharp edged or flat chisel edged. If the nail has to be serrated with chisel edge the charges were three paise. There was one Naga who used to prepare his own tops by using the knots of the mature guava tree which was grown in their compound. For this swamy used to charge
four paisa as it was difficult. The small size nail had to be heated red hot and this had to be gradually be introduced to the place where nail had to be driven. Gradually this will create a hole and into this a bigger nail used to be driven and the edge used to be made into chisel edged and serrated.
Swamy had good reputation and he was not avaricious. Nobody knew about his family life and He never told anyone about it. All of a sudden one evening he came to the room and said that he is Vacating the room. He went to indivicual houses from whom he had taken orders to do various jobs and retuned their articles. Evsery one was taken by surprise. He engaged a horse carriage (Tonga) and loaded with all the articles and locked the empty room and gave the key to the house owner and settled
the balance or rent. He told those who had assembled that he is opening a shop of his own at “Dodda pettai by lane “ and he will come and invite all for the inauguration.
After he left he never came back and those who tried to locate him at Dodda Pettai never succeeded to locate him.. Any way he did not owe any one any money or jewels as he returned them to the owners.
After his departure nobody met him any where in mysore city and nobody knew the reason for his sudden departure. .

STAMP VENDOR RAMANNA

Stamp Vendor Ramanna

Vendor Ramanna was our neighbour some 65 years back on the south of our house. As
I remember he was quite aged.
During those days it was not easy to get licence to sell stamp papers. It appears that the police
verification was strict and they used to verify the not only the antecedents but also verify the
the antecedents of his relatives and neighbours and persons with impeccable history only
used to be given licence. At that period the other nearest stamp vendor was Sri Narasimha Iyengar
who was at Rama vilasa Agrahar presently known as Ramavilasa road and another one was a muslim
who ws at the Masjid near Devaraja Market.
Vendor Ramanna not only knew his trade inside out and also knew how to draft conveyance
Papers and also knew some of the civil laws. There were people who used to consult him
and he used to get the fees for it. He lost his wife when he was middle aged . He had
a son and a daughter who were quite young. He could have married for the second time as he
was quite rich but did not do so. He went to somewhere near the present Maharastra Karnataka border and
and as he himself told his friends purchased a lady who was in her late teens. No one new the
terms and conditions of this deal except that the lady used to go to her place during
“Yellama Festival” for a 15 days in an year.and promptly return after the 15 days festive period.
The name of the lady was Smt Jayamma. She used to look after the boy and the girl. Whenever there
Was some orthodox function in the house which Vendor Ramanna used to celebrate Jayamma
Used to be in a room and never used to take part in the festivities. When the daughterof Vendor
Ramanna came of age she was married to a distance relative of Ramanna who got some job
at Mysore city. In the course of time he got a son and jayamma used to take care of the all
the family members as if they are her own.
When ever Vendor Ramanna had to replenish his stamp paper he used to engage a horse cart
And in a big steel trunk used to carry an amount of not less than rupees five hundred which was a
huge amount during those days. He will also carry with him the list of different denominations
of stamp paper required. He will engage Pehelwan Bandikeri Chikkanna a wrestler of repute in that
area who was nearly six feet six inches tall with good physique. This chikkanna used to follow the
horse carriage running all along until it reached the “Attara Kutcheri” where the stamppapers
used to be given in bulk to the stamp vendors. Vendor Ramanna will hand over the list of his
requirement of different denomination stamp papers and also the amount for the same.
This will be checked by the officer in charge at “Attara Kutcheri” and Ramanna will leave the
Steel trunk at the office. Usually the stamp papers used to be delivered after 2 to 3 days
Again on the dte of delivery chikkanna will be present at the residence of Ramanna.
Once again Ramanna will travel in the horse carriage and chikkanna will follow by running behind
the carriage.. The stamp paper in ths steel trunk will be brought by Ramanna. Chikkanna will
be given suitable financial compensation for the work of safely seeing the amount and stamp paper
are safely taken and brought . ususlly lots of crowds can be seen in the front of the house of
vendor ramanna as not so many stamp vendors were there. So the business was good for ramanna.
As he was not only a stamp paper vendor but also a sort of civil suit advisor and also good in
drafting conveyance papers.
When evser there was some function in the neighbouring houses they used to invite jayamma also.
She used to attned these functions and used to take part without any inhibitions.
When sheshu the grand son of vendor ramanna was aged about six years due to mysterous disease
daughter of vendor ramanna died. This had a sort of shock on Ramanna. Added to this his son in law also died
within a period of six months. This had a very adverse effect on the health of vendor ramanna.
So vendor ramanna decided to get his son married and after mutual consent got him married to
A girl from Bangalore. The name of vendors son is subbu and I do not know other names.
Jayamma was all the while taking care of sheshu and vendor ramanna and also the new bride
and subbu. So every one who thought that jayamma will leave ramanna did not leave him
Due to the death of vendor ramanna’s son in law and daughter ramanna’s health deteriorated.
He fell ill and did not recover from it. Within a period of about 3 months ramanna died.
Until his death jayamma took care of him like anything and evseryone was surprised at her
Behaviour. After ramanna’s death subbu told jayamma in no uncertain terms that she can leave
the house as her service was no longer required and he cannot afford to take care of her.
Jayamma left the house and the only thing she wanted to take with her is the photogaph of
vendor ramanna . this subbu obliged. The only soul which was really sad at ehe departure
of jayamma was shechu who did not know as to why jayamma should leave. He actually
considered jayamma as his grand mother!!!
Subbu fell inot not so good company and he started to borrow heavily for his habits.
Even his wife could not prevent him from his bad company. He had a decent job and due to his
frequent absence his services were terminated in the company.
So he pledged the jewels and then the house and he could not redeem it.
The house came for auction . about this I have already mentioned in one of the blogs
as how sri Rangajosyer prevented our father from purchasing the house in auction as it was on the
south of our house. this house was purchased by one Jain business man and their progeny are
living happily. As far as subbu is concerned it was said that he went to some realatives house at
Bhadravathi and nothing is known about him or sheshu.
Threee years after Jayamma left our opposite house Sme Sharadamma told our mother that she met Jayamma at the Mysore Dasara Exhibition (the old building which is at present attached to the preent Mysore Medical college) and she ws with an young man and a girl aged 2years. This Jayamma introduced as her husband and the girl as her daughter. She also told Sharadamma that her husband had not seen Mysore so far and so she brought him along with their daughter to see the tourist spots around Mysore . Jayamma also told sharadamma that she would like to meet all those known to her at Chaluvamba agrahar (the old residence of Vendor Ramanna) and talk to them.This was eagerly awaited by all the ladies but alas Jayamma did not turn up.
That was the last anyone saw or alked with Jayamma.

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