The sacred anthill of Desainagar

A colourful mound on the M4 near the Desainagar circle has a long history inside it and a sweet story behind it, which few follow and not many know.

Driving through the narrow and rather daunting sugarcane path parallel to the M4 takes you to a few oddly placed pillars and a little wooden crate gate.

An interesting character in a grey jacket and pants with a faded yellow shirt opens the gate, with five little dogs rushing out to greet you.

This is Sungaran Moodley, a nature lover, who leads a simple yet happy life in a small room with a big garden and a puthu.

His late parents had a puthu, the Tamil word for anthill, which is believed to be sacred as the snake goddess takes on the form of the anthill and lives in the hill.

Moodley never took note of his parents’ puthu, until he had a change of heart about two years ago, when his daughter, Maggie, and his son, Sydney, both suffered from illnesses that doctors struggled to cure,

“My daughter had measles and had sores all over her pretty face and my son had terrible pink eye and could not open his eyes,” said the kind, gentle man.

Moodley came across the puthu on the side of the road, behind his home and had a thought.

“If you look after my children, I will look after you, ” he told the puthu.

Shortly afterwards, he spoke to his children and both of them felt much better and recovered quickly.

From that day on, every Saturday at about 3am, Moodley dresses in yellow and makes his way to the puthu, where he lays flower garlands. He makes the garlands from flowers he grows in his garden.

“Yellow is the Goddess Mariamman’s colour, so I painted the rocks that I got from the ocean yellow and put them around the puthu as a border. When people walk around it, they stay on the sacred land,” he said. The puthu is open to the public and community members leave milk, eggs and other offerings in little bowls in front of the puthu.

The prayer ceremony itself is quite an acrobatic act, as the 80-year-old spring chicken nearly does the splits and puts his head on the ground several times in front of the puthu during the prayer. .

“I always pray for three things: food, shelter and health until He takes me,” said Moodley.

The former Comrades runner still goes for a slow jog on the beach with his dogs in the dark hours of the morning, chasing crabs and enjoying life and nature before returning to his garden, where he enjoys his flowers and visits the puthu.