[Reader-list] Fifth Post.

[Rajesh Komath]

Dear Friends,

Here is a myth behind a form of Teyyam and its relation with caste.

Muchilott Bagawati: This Teyyam is one of the popular mother goddesses of
Malabar. The myth reveals that Bhagawati was a female member of a
Namboothiri family (Illam). Namboothiris of the Illam used to have
discussions on various issues. One day, discussions went on around
sexuality and consequently a question emerged. Which ‘rasa’--taste of
human emotion – gives highest pleasure to a human being? A female member
of the family came from inside and answered that it is ‘Kamarasam’- sexual
emotion, which provides umpteen pleasures. Male Namboothiris got annoyed
and suspected her purity and later assumed that she should have sexual
relation with somebody. Consequently, she was excommunicated from the
Illam. She offered prayers and sought blessings from all kinds of ‘Gods’,
but none removed her sorrows.  Ultimately, she decided to commit suicide
and jumped into fire. She begged people passing along the side of the fire
to pour oil into it. All of them went away and finally a Vanian poured oil
into the fire of death. Later, he realized that the bottle, from which he
poured oil into the fire, is full. Bhagawati has been deified and later
became the caste Teyyam of Vanians in north Malabar, known as the
Muchilott Bhagavati. The caste Vaniar has also faced a kind of identity
crisis in the sense that they were treated as lower caste by Nairs and
they tried to be the part of Nairs at least in front of other lower castes
such as Tiyyas. So they have taken the patronage of this deity and thereby
tried to establish their social status in society. It can be seen as an
assertion of the Vanias against castes hierarchically above them

Regards
Rajesh Komath.














>
> mailia
>
> "Rajesh Komath" <rajeshkumar at cds.ac.in> wrote:
>> Dear Friends,
>>
>>Ooruvilakku or Banishment:
>>
>>Ooruvilakku means denying a performer to perform in shrines. For example,
>>a performer named Padmanabhan Panicker, Kotakad, has revealed that he was
>>denied the right to performance because a ‘crime’ has imposed upon him.
>> It
>>was alleged that he took more money from devotees without giving any
>> share
>>of it to the shrine-authority. The charge against his brother was that,
>> as
>>a performer he had behaved badly towards the shrine authority. Next year,
>>the shrine authority bargained with a performer and conducted a
>>performance. The misdemand charged against on the performer may not be
>>true, but it become evenful bane for enacting of his shrine authority to
>>bargain for the reduction of reward for the performance. Because of
>>competition within the community of Theyyam, they could easily exploit
>> the
>>performers according to their will. And, in the case of many performers
>> in
>>the Village of both Karivallur and Chirakal, they had the same problem.
>>They agreed to perform at the invitation of the Asia Games help in Delhi
>>in 1984 as these performers were going to perform outside the shrine
>> where
>>they could perform freely without the element of casteism and on such an
>>occasion they receive an identity (pride) of being artists. Moreover,
>> they
>>could get reasonable remuneration too. But, most of the performances
>>outside the shrine, mediated by intermediaries and take lion’s share. The
>>performers could receive only a small share. Intermediaries are people
>> who
>>made contact with national and international Programme co-ordinators.
>> This
>>is what is the new folk- art lovers are doing by exploiting these artists
>>while they arrange programmes on spaces different from the traditional.
>>This also resulted in the Ooruvilakku to those who went to perform
>>outside. Because of fear of Oruvillaku, many good performers are now not
>>at all willing to perform outside the shrine even if they get good
>>opportunity to perform. So, social mobility of the performer faces many
>>hurdles, and they experience these disadvantages from the society as well
>>as the community due to the psychological, cultural and traditional
>>attachment to the rituals.
>>
>>[Sorry for late posting]
>>
>>
>>Rajesh Kumar.K.
>>Doctoral Scholar
>>Centre For Development Studies
>>Prasanth Nagar, Ulloor
>>Trivandrum- 695011
>>Kerala, India
>>Ph : +91-471-2442481
>>Fax: +91-471-2447137
>>Mobile: 9895056659.
>>
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>


Rajesh Kumar.K.
Doctoral Scholar
Centre For Development Studies
Prasanth Nagar, Ulloor
Trivandrum- 695011
Kerala, India
Ph : +91-471-2442481
Fax: +91-471-2447137
Mobile: 9895056659.