Sanskritisation

There was a very interesting article in the September 21 New Indian Express, 'Sanskritisation: The new ritual?' by B. Kolappan. Unfortunately, I didn't find it on the Express website, so I'm posting the first half of it here (the second half mainly concerns relations between Hindus and Christians of the Nadar community - another story). But first some background:

According to the newspapers, there has been a law against animal sacrifice on the books since the 1950's. But, mainly in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu, where the oldest forms of religion are strongest, animal sacrifice has been practised in the temples of 'village' or 'folk' deities since ancient times. The animals sacrificed today are goats, pigs and chickens, and they are eaten after the sacrifice. In the last few weeks, the government has begun to enforce the law, stopping temple festivals in several places, and preventing the shamans of some temples from performing rituals connected to animal sacrifice. (This is not an issue at all, as far as I know, in the cities, where ritual offerings include milk, ghee, flowers and fruits.) The issue immediately became politicised. Opponents of the government claimed that enforcement of the law was aimed at suppressing Dravidian culture, and discriminates against the lower castes which have traditionally carried out this practise. One (brahmin) politician said that if animal sacrifice was banned, the upper caste offerings (milk, ghee, etc.) should also be banned. At the same time, others praised the government for stamping out a primitive practise, and for preventing cruelty to animals. It's a vexed issue.

Meanwhile, the process of assimilation between the dominant strain of Hinduism which came down from the north, and the indigenous religion, has been going on for many centuries. One method was to connect local gods to the Vedic gods by family relationship: the Tamil goddess Meenakshi was married to the Vedic god Shiva. The Tamil god Murugan was identified with one of Shiva's sons, Karthikeya, etc. This article brought the past into the present for me:

Sanskritisation: The New Ritual?

Will the Tamil Nadu government's ban on animal sacrifice pave the way for the entry of Vedic culture into folk temples?

by B. Kolappan

Appi, a trance-dancer at a temple devoted to folk deity Sudalai Madan, is the protagonist of the short story Maadan Motcham, by noted Tamil writer Jeyamohan. The story is about how the upper caste Namboodiris from Kerala appropriate Sudalai Madan and sideline Appi.

When they are invited to perform rituals, the first thing the Namboodiris ensure is that non-vegetarian food is not prepared. Sudalai Madan, who devours non-vegetarian food after consuming litres of arrack or toddy has to content himself with the sweet prepared by them. The smell of the vegetarian food makes him sick and he feels like throwing up. He complains to Appi, who is more of a companion to him. But, Appi is helpless.

As the angry Sudalai Madan, holding his weapon, tries to jump from his pedestal to take revenge on the Namboodiris he realises that he too is under the spell of the powerful Vedic mantras and cannot move an inch.

Jeyamohan's story captures the process of Sanskritisation, a term coined by sociologist M N Srinivas. It describes the way the lower castes tend to imitate the customs and rituals of the upper layers in order to gain social respectability. The Tamil Nadu government's recent ban on animal sacrifice in temples could be called an attempt at imposing Sanskritisation on the non-Brahmin communities. Such a ban can cut off the umbilical chord that links a Sudra [member of a low caste] with his own god as happens in the case of Appi. Critics argue that it will pave way for the entry of Vedic culture and Brahmin priests into the folk temples. It may also lead to the assimilation of folk deities with Vedic religion.

This Sanskritisation process is already going on at a frenetic pace in Kanyakumari district, the most literate region in the state. And various social upheavals are taking place there. To start with, folk gods are being fast replaced by Vedic gods.

Vedic and folk gods are poles apart. Except for the Brahmins, every other community has temples dedicated to their favourite folk gods and goddesses. Madan is a generic name and there are a whole lot of Madans, like Sudalai Madan; Pula Madan and Esaki Madan. Goddesses include Mutharamman, Sandhana Mari Amman, Muppidari, Kali and Durgai. The priest of the temple is usually from the community that owns the temple.

These deities are different from the Vedic ones. They are gruesome and evoke fear in the minds of their devotees; not love. They have to be propitiated at regular intervals. Festivals are organised twice a year and animal sacrifices are an integral part of these celebrations. The sacrifices are known as Muppali (killing of three animals, generally goats, fowls and pigs).

The idols are made of sand and lime. Even the temples housing such deities look quite ordinary, a simple structure under tiled roofs, with nothing to distinguish them from the devotees' residences. In many Sudalai Madan temples even the roofs are a luxury. There is no such thing as a sanctum sanctorum in these temples, clearly differentiating them from the Brahminical concept of ritual purity.

But all this is changing now. Sudalai Madan, his fraternal deities and their temples are undergoing a dramatic transformation, signalling the arrival of the Brahminical culture. This, in a region where the dominant, Nadar community, a backward caste, has fought a running battle against the atrocities of the varnashrama dharma [the caste system]. The irony is that today concrete miniatures of Vedic temples, with gopuram and a vimana above the sanctum, are coming up everywhere. Granite images of gods and goddesses are replacing the structures erected from sand and lime. The purpose of installing a granite structure is to perform abhishekam (ritual pouring of liquids) as done in Vedic temples. Once the construction of a new temple is over, kumbabhishekam, consecration, is by Vedic scholars, totally alien to the folk gods and those that worship them. The gods and goddesses who once evoked so much fear are now referred with a prefix "arul migu" (merciful), a misnomer. Every Nadar village has a magnificent temple modelled after Vedic temples. Economically a dominant community, they lavish a lot of money on temple construction and other festivals.

Once derisively referred to as the chanars (toddy tappers), the womenfolk of the community were never allowed to cover the upper portion of their bodies. Their plight was considered worse than that of Dalits [untouchables]. The struggle to get the rights to cover the breasts is etched in blood in the annals of the community and described as the historic "thol seelai (pullav) struggle." The oppression by the upper castes in fact led to large scale conversion to Christianity....