மூர்த்தி சின்னதானாலும் கீர்த்தி பெரியது - One rupee coin !!

When I think about one rupee coin – few things come to my mind like ottrai ruba yesteryear chartbuster song from Sneha, coin used for Toss during a cricket game, one rupee used to buy Boomer/mango bite/éclairs/chiclets etc., during childhood. I think significance of the coin has not come down even in this Swiggy/Uber era though the monetary value seems to be very negligible. I found prominence of one rupee coin very much great in following contexts. 

Gift of 101/501/1001/2001:

   When someone gifts 100 then it ends with ‘0’ which signifies the end but when someone gifts 101 then it ends with ‘1’ which signifies the beginning. Basically it denotes the receiver to have more in his/her life from the donor. Also giving 100 or 500 makes the number divisible whereas 101 or 501 makes the amount indivisible thereby signifying good wishes, good luck and blessings remain indivisible between donor and receiver. This is all the belief system in a diverse country like India and many believe it and few discard saying this is all superstitious stuff. But the point I want to bring is one rupee coin is very much sought after and have seen host get good amount of one rupee coins from bank before a function so that he can use it whenever need arises.

Pangali and one rupee:

  I don’t think I need to elaborate importance of Pangalis in tamil culture as they form the backbone of relative circle. Any event whether a wedding or funeral their physical presence is mandatory as it adds so much value to proceedings in Hindu culture. In Nagarathar marriages pangalis have the habit of gifting one rupee per family to the couple and one of the pangalis take the lead and record the pangalis in their circle in a notebook. If you take a deeper look this procedure is a fantastic one and our ancestors did this just to make sure there should not be any complexity amongst pangalis as we may have one person owning a Publicly traded company and another person who may have a meager salary. In fact I heard it used to be 25 paise and since 25 paise coins are no longer in practice they have switched over to the lowest denomination ‘One rupee’. Once again the role of one rupee coin is significant though the monetary value may say otherwise.

One rupee coin in Forehead: I am not sure whether this custom is a common practice in every community but in some parts of Tamil nadu it is a ritual to place one rupee coin in forehead of the person who is deceased. From what I heard and understood it sends a message to the visitors that when you leave this world you don't even take a single one rupee coin leaving behind all your wealth and possessions. So whether you own a cul-de-sac in Beverly Hills, LA or a villa in Raja annamalaipuram,Chennai end of the day you don't even take one rupee with you. Once again the point is significance of the one rupee coin.

So one could be be from Ratan Tata family or from a humble background, Dark/Fair, Tall/short but at the end of the day you should make a positive influence in the society you live in. Salt is inexpensive in nature but without salt you cannot have food. From the pictures I see Lord Kasi Viswanathar is small in size but it attracts devotees all over the globe and it is considered one of the sacred shrines. Hence we should not judge the worth of a person by their size, This boils down to the famous tamil proverb மூர்த்தி சின்னதானாலும் கீர்த்தி பெரியது and one rupee coin is a fitting example to this proverb.