Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7

by Edgar Thurston

There are a few other customary rites observed by agriculturists, viz.:—

(1) Metiyittu-varuka, or throwing the grains of the first sheaf upon another, and covering it with its straw, this being afterwards appropriated by the chief agricultural labourer present.

(2) Koytu-pitichcha-katta-kotukkuka, or handing over the first sheaves of grain fastened together with Strychnos Nux-vomica leaves to the owner of the field, who is obliged to preserve them till the next harvest season.

(3) Kotuti, or offering of oblations of a few grains dipped in toddy to the spirits of agricultural fields, the Pulaya priest crying aloud ‘Poli, vā, poli, vā,’ meaning literally May good harvest come.

As manufacturers, the Izhavas occupy a position in Travancore. They produce several kinds of cloth, for local consumption in the main, and make mats, tiles, and ropes, with remarkable skill. They are also the chief lemon-grass oil distillers of Travancore. In the professions of medicine and astrology, the Izhavas have largely engaged themselves. While it must be confessed that many of them are utter strangers to culture, there are several who have received a sound education, especially in Sanskrit. On the whole, the Izhavas may be said to be one of the most industrious and prosperous communities on the west coast.

The Izhavas form a pious and orthodox Hindu caste. Though they cannot enter the inner court-yard of temples, they attend there in considerable numbers, and make their pious offerings. Over several temples the Travancore Izhavas have a joint right with the Nāyars. In illustration, the shrines of Saktikulamgara in Karunagappali, and Chettikulangara in Mavelikara, may be mentioned. Over these and other temples, the rights that have been enjoyed from time immemorial by certain Izhava families are respected even at the present day. In most places, the Izhavas have their own temples, with a member of their own or the Izhavatti caste as priest. As no provision had been made in them for daily worship, there was no necessity in early times for the regular employment of priests. The deity usually worshipped was Bhadrakāli, who was believed to help them in their military undertakings. The offerings made to her involved animal sacrifices. The temples are generally low thatched buildings with a front porch, an enclosure wall, and a grove of trees. There are many instances, in which the enclosure wall is absent. The Bhadrakāli cult is gradually losing favour under the teaching of a Vedantic scholar and religious reformer named Nanan Asan. In many Central and South Travancore shrines, images of Subramania have been set up at his instance, and daily worship is offered by bachelor priests appointed by the castemen. An association for the social, material, and religious amelioration of the community, called Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, has been started. Its head-quarters is at Aruvippuram in the Nayyatinkara taluk. Every morning, the sun is specially worshipped by the cultured class. In ancient times, the adoration of Anchu Tampurakkal or the five deities, now identified with the Pāndavas of the Mahābharata, prevailed among these people. This worship is found among the Pulayas also. At Mayyanad in Quilon, there is still an Izhava temple dedicated to these five lords. Women visit shrines on all Mondays and Fridays, with a view to worshipping Gauri, the consort of Siva. Male Izhavas devote the first and last days of a month, as also that on which the star of their nativity falls, to religious worship. The Izhavas of Central Travancore pay homage to a spirit called Kāyalil Daivam, or the deity of backwaters. When a village becomes infected with small-pox or cholera, offerings are made to the Bhadrakāli shrine in that locality. The most important offering goes by the name of Kalam Vaikkuka, or pot placing. A woman of the house of the local Panikkan or chief member fasts, and, bearing a pot containing five nalis (a small measure) of paddy (unhusked rice), proceeds to all the other Izhava houses in the village, accompanied by musical instruments. One woman from every house marches to the shrine with her offering of paddy and a chuckram (nearly half an anna). The priest receives the offerings, converts the paddy into rice, and, depositing a portion of it in each of the pots, hands them back to the votaries on the morning of the next day. Another ceremony performed on such occasions is called Desakuruti, when women fast, and, taking all the food-stuffs necessary, proceed to the temple. After the sacrifice of a goat and fowls by the priest, they make an offering of the food to the deity before dinner. Tūkkam, or suspension, is another propitiatory ceremony. A religious observance, known as Mamachchirappu, finds favour with the Izhavas of Central Travancore in the month of Vrischikam (November-December). Every Izhava bathes in the evening, addresses the deities by their names for about an hour, and then makes an offering of tender cocoanuts, fruits, and fried grain. This takes place according to the convenience of each family from twelve to forty-one days.

In connection with the tūkkam ceremony, Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Aiyar writes as follows.[24] “There are two kinds of hook-swinging, namely Garuda (Brahmini kite) and thoni (boat) tūkkam. The ceremony is performed in fulfilment of a vow, to obtain some favour of the deity Kāli, before whose presence it is carried out. The performer of the ceremony should bathe early in the morning, and be in a state of preparation either for a year or for forty-one days by worshipping the deity Bhagavati. He must strictly abstain from meat, all kinds of intoxicating liquors, and association with women. During the morning hours, the performer dresses himself in a garment tucked into the waist-band, rubs his body with oil, and is shampooed particularly on the back, a portion of the flesh in the middle of which is stretched for the insertion of a hook. He is also taught by his instructor to perform various feats called payitta. This he continues till the festival, when he has to swing in fulfilment of the vow. In kite swinging, a kind of car, resting on two axles provided with four wheels, is employed. On it, there is a horizontal beam resting on two vertical supports. A strong rope tied to a ring attached to the beam is connected with the hook which passes through the flesh of the back. Over the beam there is a kutaram (tent), which is tastefully decorated. Inside it, two or three persons can swing at a time. There is a different arrangement in some places. Instead of the beam and the supports, there is a small pole, on which rests a horizontal beam provided with a metallic ring at one end. The beam acts as a lever, so that one end of it can be either raised or lowered, so as to give some rest to the swinger. The rope tied to the ring is connected with the hook and the waist-band. For boat swinging, the same kind of vehicle, without wheels, is in use. For kite swinging, the performer has his face painted green. He has to put on artificial lips and wings in imitation of those of the kite, and wears long locks of hair like those of an actor in a Kathakali. As he swings, the car is taken three, five, seven, nine, or eleven times round the temple. In boat swinging, the car is likewise carried round the temple, with the swinger performing his feats, as in the case of kite swinging, to the accompaniment of music. He has to put on the same kind of dress, except the lips and wings. In pillayeduthutūkkam, or swinging with a child in fulfilment of a vow, the child is taken to the temple by his parents, who pay to the temple authorities thirty-four chuckrams in Travancore, and sixty-four puthans[25] in Cochin. The child is then handed over to the swinger, who carries the child as he swings. These performances are sometimes made at the expense of the temple, but more generally of persons who make the outlay in fulfilment of a vow. In the latter case, it costs as much as Rs. 150 for the kite swinger, but only Rs. 30 for the boat swinger. During the festival, they are fed in the temple, owing to their being in a state of vow. It is the Nāyars, Kammālars, Kuruppans, and Izhavas, who perform the swinging in fulfilment of a vow. In the fight between the goddess Kāli and the demon Darika, the latter was completely defeated, and the former, biting him on the back, drank his blood to gratify her feelings of animosity. Hook-swinging symbolises this incident, and the bloodshed by the insertion of the hook through the flesh is intended as an offering to the goddess.”

Of the hook-swinging ceremony as performed a few years ago at the Kollangadu temple in Travancore, an excellent account is given by the Rev. T. Knowles,[26] from which the following précis has been compiled. In front of the temple was a booth containing the image of the goddess Bhadrakāli, a cruel deity, who is supposed to delight in blood. At a little distance was the car. The bottom part of this was very much like a lorry used when transporting large logs of timber by means of elephants. There were four solid wheels of thick timber, with a frame work, like a railway waggon on a small scale. To this were attached two thick cable ropes. Joined to the sides of the car were two upright posts, about 15 feet high, strengthened with stays and cross-pieces. On the top was a piece of thick timber with a hole in it, and the bottom rounded, which fitted into a cross-piece, and allowed the long beam on which the men were swung to move up or down. This beam was 35 or 40 feet long, and about 9 inches in diameter. It was placed through the hole in the piece of timber on the top of the upright frame, and balanced in the middle like a huge see-saw. At one end of the hole was a covered canopy, and at the other long ropes were fastened, which trailed on the ground. The whole arrangement of the car was such that, by lowering one end of the long beam to the ground, and fastening a man to it, and then pulling down the other end by the ropes, the man could be raised into the air to a height of some 40 feet or more. The whole car could then be dragged by the thick cable ropes round the temple. While the subject was being prepared for swinging, a mat was stretched above his head, partly to do him honour, partly to protect him from the sun. His head and neck were richly ornamented, and below he was bedecked with peacock’s feathers, and clad in a loin-cloth, which would bear some, if not all the weight of his body. Amid the firing of mortars, beating of tom-toms, the screeching of flutes, and the shouts of the crowd, the canopied end of the long beam was lowered, and the devotee, lying prone on the ground, was fastened to the beam by means of ropes passing under his arms and around his chest. To some of the ropes, hooks were fastened. The priests took hold of the fleshy part of the man’s back, squeezed up the flesh, and put some four hooks at least through it. A rudely fashioned sword and shield were then given to the man, and he was swung up into the air, waving the sword and shield, and making convulsive movements. Slowly the people dragged the car round the temple, a distance not quite as far as round St. Paul’s cathedral. Some of the men were suspended while the car was dragged round three or four times. The next devotee was fastened in the same way to the beam, but, instead of a sword and shield, the priests gave him an infant in his arms, and devotee and infant were swung up in the air, and the car dragged round the temple as before. Some children were brought forward, whose parents had made vows about them. The little ones were made to prostrate themselves before the image of Kāli. Then the fleshy parts of their sides were pinched up, and some wires put through. This done, the wires were placed in the hands of the relatives, and the children were led round and round the temple, as though in leading strings. It is on record that, when the devotee has been specially zealous, the whole machine has been moved to a considerable distance while he was suspended from it, to the admiration of the gaping multitudes.”

In connection with the religion of the Ilavars, the Rev. S. Mateer writes as follows.[27] “Demon worship, especially that of Bhadrakāli, a female demon described as a mixture of mischief and cruelty, is the customary cultus of the caste, with sacrifices and offerings and devil-dancing like the Shānārs. Shāstāvu and Vīrabhadran are also venerated, and the ghosts of ancestors. Groves of trees stand near the temples, and serpent images are common, these creatures being accounted favourites of Kāli. They carry their superstitions and fear of the demons into every department and incident of life. In some temples and ceremonies, as at Paroor, Sarkarei, etc., they closely associate with the Sūdras. The Ilavar temples are generally low, thatched buildings, with front porch, a good deal of wooden railing and carving about them, an enclosure wall, and a grove or a few trees, such as Ficus religiosa, Plumeria, and Bassia. At the Ilavar temple near Chākki in the outskirts of Trevandrum, the goddess Bhadrakāli is represented as a female seated on an image, having two wings, gilt and covered with serpents. Twice a year, fowls and sheep are sacrificed by an Ilavan priest, and offerings of grain, fruit, and flowers are presented. The side-piercing ceremony is also performed here. A temple at Mangalattukōnam, about ten miles south of Trevandrum, at which I witnessed the celebration of the annual festival on the day following Meena Bharani, in March or April, may be taken as a fair example of the whole. In connection with this temple may be seen a peculiar wooden pillar and small shrine at the top, somewhat like a pigeon-house. This is called a tani maram, and is a kind of altar, or residence, for the demon Mādan, resembling the temporary shrines on sticks or platforms erected by the Pulayars. On it are carvings of many-headed serpents, etc., and a projecting lamp for oil. For the festival, the ground around the temple was cleared of weeds, the outhouses and sheds decorated with flowers, and on the tani maram were placed two bunches of plantains, at its foot a number of devil-dancing sticks. Close by were five or six framework shrines, constructed of soft palm leaves and pith of plantain tree, and ornamented with flowers. These were supposed to be the residence of some minor powers, and in them were placed, towards night, offerings of flowers, rice, plantains, cocoanuts, and blood. The Ilavars who assemble for the festival wear the marks of Siva, a dot and horizontal lines on the forehead, and three horizontal lines of yellow turmeric on the chest. They begin to gather at the temple from noon, and return home at night. The festival lasts for five days. Some of the neighbouring Sūdras and Shānārs also attend, and some Pulayars, who pay one chuckram for two shots of firework guns in fulfilment of their vows. Offerings here are generally made in return for relief from sickness or trouble of some kind. The pūjāri, or priest, is an Ilavan, who receives donations of money, rice, etc. A kind of mild hook-swinging ceremony is practised. On the occasion referred to, four boys, about fifteen or sixteen years of age, were brought. They must partly fast for five days previously on plain rice and vegetable curry, and are induced to consent to the operation, partly by superstitious fear, and partly by bribes. On the one hand they are threatened with worse danger if they do not fulfil the vows made by their parents to the dēvi (deity); on the other hand, if obedient, they receive presents of fine clothes and money. Dressed in handsome cloths and turbans, and adorned with gold bracelets and armlets, and garlands of flowers, the poor boys are brought to present a little of their blood to the sanguinary goddess. Three times they march round the temple; then an iron is run through the muscles of each side, and small rattans inserted through the wounds. Four men seize the ends of the canes, and all go round in procession, with music and singing and clapping of hands, five or seven times, according to their endurance, till quite exhausted. The pūjāri now dresses in a red cloth, with tinsel border, like a Brāhman, takes the dancing-club in hand, and dances before the demon. Cocks are sacrificed, water being first poured upon the head; when the bird shakes itself, the head is cut off, and the blood poured round the temple. Rice is boiled in one of the sheds in a new pot, and taken home with the fowls by the people for a feast in the house. At Mayanādu, the Bhagavathi of the small temple belonging to the Ilavars is regarded as the sister of the one worshipped in the larger temple used by the Sūdras, and served by a Brāhman priest; and the cars of the latter are brought annually to the Ilavar’s temple, and around it three times before returning to their own temple. At the Ilavar’s temple, the same night, the women boil rice in new earthen pots, and the men offer sheep and fowls in sacrifice. In further illustration of the strange superstitious practices of this tribe, two more incidents may be mentioned. An Ilavatti, whose child was unwell, went to consult an astrologer, who informed her that the disease was caused by the spirit of the child’s deceased grandmother. For its removal he would perform various incantations, for which he required the following, viz.:—water from seven wells, dung from five cowsheds, a larva of the myrmeleon, a crab, a frog, a green snake, a virāl fish, parched rice, ada cake, cocoanut, chilly, and green palm leaves. An Ilavan, who had for some time been under Christian instruction, was led away by a brother, who informed him that, if he built a small temple for the worship of Nina Mādan, and offered sacrifices, he should find a large copper vessel full of gold coins hid underground, and under the charge of this demon. The foolish man did so, but did not find a single cash. Now the lying brother avers that the demon will not be satisfied unless a human sacrifice is offered, which, of course, is impossible.”

The headmen of the Izhava caste are the Chānnans and Panikkans, invested with these titles by the Sovereigns of this State who have been already referred to. The limits of their jurisdiction were generally fixed in the charters received from them by their rulers, and even to-day their authority remains supreme in all social matters. The priests, it may be noted, are only a minor class, having no judicial functions. Chief among the offences against the caste rules may be mentioned non-observance of pollution, illicit connection, non-performance of the tāli-kettu before the age of puberty, non-employment of the village barber and washerman, non-celebration of ceremonies in one’s own village, and so on. The headman comes to know of these through the agency of the village barber or washerman, and also a class of secondary dignitaries known as Kottilpattukar or Nāluvitanmar. In every village, there are four families, invested with this authority in olden times by the rulers of the State on payment of fifty-nine fanams to the royal treasury. They are believed to hold a fourth of the authority that pertains to the chieftain of the village. If, on enquiry, an offence is proved, a fine is imposed on the offender, which he is obliged to pay to the local shrine. If the offence is grave, a feast has to be given by him to the villagers. In cases of failure, the services of the village priest and washerman, and also the barber, are refused, and the culprit becomes ostracised from society. The headman has to be paid a sum of ten chuckrams on all occasions of ceremonies, and the Nāluvitanmar four chuckrams each. There is a movement in favour of educating the priests, and delegating some of the above powers to them.