Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 5 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 5 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
Now the procession starts out from the temple,
issuing from the northern gate, and for a moment confronts a being so
strange that he demands description. Of the many familiar demons of
the Malayalis, the two most intimate are Kuttichchattan and Gulikan,
who are supposed to have assisted Kali (who is scarcely the Kali of
Brahmanism) in overcoming the Asura, and on the occasion of this
festival these demons dance before her. Gulikan is represented by
the Vannan and Kuttichchattan by the Manutan who have been already
mentioned, and who are under like restrictions with the nine Tiyans. I
saw poor Gulikan being made up, the operation occupying five or six
hours or more before his appearance. I asked who he was, and was told
he was a devil. He looked mild enough, but then his make-up had just
begun. He was lying flat on the ground close by the north-east entrance
of the enclosure, where presently he was to dance, a man painting
his face to make it hideous and frightful. This done, the hair was
dressed; large bangles were put on his arms, covering them almost
completely from the shoulder to the wrist; and his head and neck were
swathed and decorated. A wooden platform arrangement, from which hung
a red ornamented skirt, was fastened to his hips. There was fastened
to his back an elongated Prince of Wales' feathers arrangement, the
top of which reached five feet above his head, and he was made to
look like nothing human. Kuttichchattan was treated in much the same
manner. As the procession issues from the northern gate of the temple,
where it is joined by the elephants, Gulikan stands in the northern
entrance of the enclosure (which he cannot enter), facing it, and a
halt is made for three minutes, while Gulikan dances. The poor old
man who represented this fearful being, grotesquely terrible in his
wonderful metamorphosis, must have been extremely glad when his dance
was concluded, for the mere weight and uncomfortable arrangement of
his paraphernalia must have been extremely exhausting. It was with
difficulty that he could move at all, let alone dance. The. procession
passes round by east, where, at the entrance of the enclosure,
Kuttichchattan gives his dance, round by south to the westward, and,
leaving the enclosure, proceeds to a certain banyan tree, under which
is a high raised platform built up with earth and stones. Preceding
the procession at a distance of fifty yards are the nine men of the
Tiyan caste mentioned already, carrying kalasams on their heads,
and a crowd of women of the same caste, each one carrying a pewter
plate, larger than the plates used when encircling the fire pit,
on which are rice, etc., and the burning wick as before. The plate
and its contents are on this occasion, as well as before, called
talapoli. I could not make out that anything in particular is done
at the banyan tree, and the procession soon returns to the temple,
the nine men and the Tiyan women following, carrying their kalasams
and talapoli.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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