Chennai: Every December 24, Jayalalithaa would visit the MGR Memorial on Marina Beach where her political mentor lies interred. This year she reached the spot 18 days early, in a casket, to be buried by his side.

Her body was lowered into an 8x4ft pit just behind MGR's marble rectangular tomb. Another tomb will be built at the spot.

Many Tamil Hindu communities bury their dead but Brahmins, like Jayalalithaa, are cremated. But that would have required a blood relative of hers to light the pyre.

One of those who could have done it is the son of Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa Rajkumar, but the late chief minister's friend Sasikala was presumably against it.

Deepa was not allowed to visit Jayalalithaa at the hospital or to see her body at the leader's Poes Garden home last night.

It was hardly likely, therefore, that Sasikala would have let Jayalalithaa's family take the lead at her funeral, having kept them away from her friend all these years.

However, in a last-minute concession, Sasikala got Deepa's brother Deepak to perform some basic Hindu ceremonies along with her at the burial site.

"This was to pre-empt any charges of sidelining Jayalalithaa's family completely and to neutralise Deepa's protests," an insider said.

While Sasikala had kept Deepa away from Jayalalithaa, she had silently drafted Deepak in when Jayalalithaa was put on ventilator. The idea was to avoid any legal complication if a blood relation's consent was sought at any time during the treatment.

Deepak had been living with one of Sasikala's family members and was easier to control than his sister.

Officially, the party said that Jayalalithaa, being the leader of a Dravidian party, needed to be buried like her mentor MGR.

Indeed, most leaders and icons of the DMK and the AIADMK, including Periyar and Annadurai, were buried although neither party imposes any such official rule, and their cadres usually follow their own communities' funeral practices.

One historical reason for the tradition could be the Dravidian parties' allergy to Hindu orthodoxy. Another possible factor is their tilt towards political optics, as reflected in their weakness for statues and memorials.

"Cremation reduces the body to ashes but during burial, the physical form remains intact and that last image of the leader remains ingrained in one's memory," a former DMK parliamentarian explained.

The choice of the MGR Memorial compound for Jayalalithaa's burial served two purposes. One, having one memorial for the party's two biggest leaders made sense.

Two, the Coastal Regulation Zone rules ban any construction on the beach (when MGR was buried near his political mentor and DMK founder Annadurai - their memorials are adjacent - there were no such coastal regulations).

It was therefore decided to utilise the space behind MGR's tomb to make one for Jayalalithaa as it was already a built-up area, spread over 8 acres with gardens and fountains.

"We took the law secretary's permission to use the space. We only had to remove a few granite slabs to dig the pit," a minister said.

Jayalalithaa's last journey began from Rajaji Hall, a British-era building 2km away where her body had lain in state atop its expansive flight of stairs.

It was here that Jayalalithaa had begun her battle to take control of the AIADMK after MGR's death in December 1987.

For two days, December 24 and 25, she had stood steadfast behind her hero's head, visible to the lakhs of mourners filing past the body and the many more watching on Doordarshan. It was her way of letting the world know who MGR's real political heir was.

The gambit turned into a test of courage and stamina for her. Members of her rival group, led by former minister R.M. Veerappan, used every tactic from prods to pushes to pinches to unsettle her and get her to leave.

But she stayed put, going home on the night of December 24 only to return the next morning to resume her post.

On December 25, when MGR's body was placed on a gun carriage for the final journey, Jayalalithaa climbed on top of it, hoping to travel with it through the city's thoroughfares packed with lakhs of party supporters.

But at a signal from Veerappan, party lawmaker K.P. Ramalingam and a small-time actor, Vijayan, rushed towards the gun carriage and shouted at Jayalalithaa to get off.

While Ramalingam was urging the officials to remove her, Vijayan climbed up the gun carriage and pulled Jayalalithaa down.

She landed on her side, got up, walked to her car and drove home, the choicest of abuses from Ramalingam ringing in her ears.

Jayalalithaa later lodged a police complaint against Ramalingam and Vijayan, saying they had assaulted and abused a Rajya Sabha member.

No action was taken then. But when Jayalalithaa came to power in 1991, the two men were arrested on a different complaint lodged by a party supporter.

= The Telegraph, Calcutta