Bangalore: We found the review of a book in the Statesman (March 30) titled Criminal gods and demon devotees. The book by Alf Hitlerite is published by Manohar Publications, Rs.40. The alien brahminical social order, which stood for injustice and inequality, was always opposed by the Indian races who stood for a just and equitable social order. Those who opposed this unjust order were described as Asuras, Danara’s, Paschi’s, demons, Yadavas, Rakshasas, Vanaras, Bhootas, Pretas, and all sorts of derogatory – words. Ravana was called Rakshasa because he protected Sita deserted by the Aryan god Rama.
The indigenous peoples of India, who today are called SC/ST/BCs and “religious minorities”, never compromised with the invading Aryans who were uncivilized barbarians. So, all the deities of the pre- Aryan natives were condemned by the Aryan writers as “criminal gods” and their followers as “demon devotees”. This book deals with one such set of gods and their devotees. The native people and their gods always challenged the Aryan imposters and this fight is continuing even to this day. The following review refers to one such famous Tamil Nadu pre-Aryan deity. Those who are interested in knowing the glories of Tamil Nadu may read Ellis O Shaw’s book, Rural Hinduism, CLS, 1986 – P.O. Box 501, Madras-3, Rs.10.
Kattavarayan of Tamil Nadu: In the rogue’s gallery. of popular divine or semidivine heroes who figure so. June 1-15, 1991 19 “prominently in the village cults of southern India, the outrageous, protean figure of Kattavarayan occupies a place of enviable eminence. His cult, originally centered, it would seem, in Tiruchirappalli district, extends through Thanjavur and South Arcot (although he is also known further South). His myth is recorded in what is perhaps the longest and most lurid of all such accounts of popular divinities, the Kattavaraya Cuvami sources such as the Kattavarayan Canai. ennum Kattamutiu Nataka.
The hero is persistently identified with Murukan. But Siva cursed him and called him an Untouchable.
I will display my magic tricks and ruin the Brahman’s family, he says.
Anti-Brahminism: Kattavarayan’s magical pranks are clearly directed towards an anti-nomina goal, the destruction of the. Brahman’s family and of the “round-eyed” women he desires; both elements, the hero’s + anti-Brahmanism and his obsession with ravishing * beautiful. women, are persistent features of Kattavarayan’s myth. If Kattavarayan is, as we shall see, a kind of South Indian Trickster, the narrator still finds it necessary to reveal the logic that underlines the role.
The geographical heartland of Kattavarayan’s myth is the villages of Puttur Akam or Puiftakam. A Brahman girl who came to draw water ate the fruit and became ten months pregnant, as she Wes about for throw herself into the water, the child fell from her womb. She abandoned him in sorry and a Paraiya woman found him and took him home, but when her hut caught in fire from the baby’s crying, the child had to be taken back to the Pillaiyar shrine and left there. This Kattavaryan’s first earthly birth. He was next born from the womb of a deer that came to graze beside Kali’s shrine, the “low caste” Valarian Civapputaiyan, servant to King Ariyapurajan, adopted the baby and brought him up the age five. At that point Kattavarayan, already aware of his true identity, announced to his distressed and loving father that he was going to seek his mother. Carrying an ox goad (Teruko), he wandered in the direction of Omantur, where the goddess Kamakahi was standing in penance under an enormous banyan tree on the bank of kampa river…..
Rewrite Tamil history: Moreover, she is in effect adopted by the king, who has an equally high-sounding title, Ariyappurajan. Kaitavarayan will persistently challenge the Brahmins and their royal protector and humiliate them, in his relentless pursuit of Animalia, says the Statesman review.
The book proves that the pre-Aryan Dravidas ana Adi-Dravidas of Tamil Nadu had a glorious history and civilization which the Aryans tried to destroy. In the fight that followed, the Aryans defeated the simple, innocent indigenous Tamils. Our people in Tamil Nadu should now re-construct the history and recover our lost glory.
