Iravan - Worship - Kuttantavar Cult Rituals

Kuttantavar Cult Rituals

Aravan is known as Kuttantavar in the cult which bears his name, and in which he is the chief deity. His main temple is in Koovagam, Tamil Nadu. Here, the marriage of Aravan and Mohini, Krishna's female form, and her widowhood and mourning, after Aravan's sacrifice, forms the central theme of an 18-day annual festival either side of the night of the full moon in the Tamil month of Cittirai (April–May). The day of the full moon is the central day of the festival, when Aravan's sacrifice is ritually re-enacted.

Alis, who call themselves Aravanis or Thirunangais (திருநங்கை) in this geographic area, take part in the Koovagam festival by re-enacting the marriage of Aravan and Mohini. The Alis participate in similar Kuttantavar festivals, of smaller scale, in other villages like Tevanampattanam, Tiruvetkalam, Adivarahanattum—5 miles (8 km) north-west of Chidambaram—and Kotthatai (all in Tamil Nadu) and also in Pillaiyarkuppam, in the Pondicherry. Although local Alis have been part of this festival for many years, since the 1960s, a large number of Alis have come to the festival from further afield: from throughout Tamil Nadu, from the whole of India, and even from as far away as Singapore. About 25,000 transvestites, including the Alis, visit the festival. Francis's account of 1906 records men dressed as women, from Vanniyar and other Sudra castes, becoming part of the festival—a "popular feast of Sudras", but there is no explicit mention of Alis. It also records that the ritual marriage of the men to Kuttantavar and their widowhood occurred on the last day of the festival, unlike the present form of the festival, which has the marriage ceremony on the 14th day, and the widowhood ceremony on the 16th day.

During the first six days of the Kuttantavar festival, Aravan's head (cami) is "danced" around the streets of Kuvagam, with music and fireworks accompanying it. Each household offers a puja (a kind of devotional ceremony) to Aravan, with lamp-waving, coconut-offerings and other rituals. Traditionally, goats and chickens are sacrificed. On the 13th day, Aravan's "soul" is ritually transferred from his head to a pot, and the head is repainted. On the evening of the 14th day, a 20-foot (6.1 m) high post is erected on a processional chariot. The post will support Aravan's head and body later in the festival. After the post-setting ceremony (kampam niruttatal), young and middle-aged men (farmers and traders from Koovagam and surrounding villages) who have vowed to marry Aravan purchase thalis—the traditional mark of a married woman, in this case a pendant with a piece of turmeric at its centre. The priest, representing Aravan, ties the thalis around their necks in the inner sanctum of the temple. Even married men and men afflicted with diseases, all dressed as women, are described as ritually "marrying" Aravan in the festival, to please the deity.

The Alis arrive in increasing numbers from the 14th through the 16th day. Late on the 15th night, they dance with the flower-crown (karakam) of Aravan, which is believed to possess his power. After this dance, the priest marries the Alis to Aravan through the traditional thali-tying ceremony. The Alis then conduct sex work, symbolic of consummating their ritual marriage. A "night of wild revelry and sexual promiscuity" follows for the Alis. However, the villagers who married Aravan are not described as having sex in any of the accounts. While Alis wear women's clothes and jewellery, villagers marrying Aravan on account of wish-fulfilment vows made to him retain their ordinary men's clothes.

Early on the 16th day, the "soul" of Aravan is transferred back to his repainted head and the cuvami tirukkan tirattal ("opening of the god's holy eyes") ceremony is performed with painting of the pupils. The head is then paraded around the village on a portable platform called a ketayam. The ketayam is accompanied by two other platform-chariots, one holding the chest plate and epaulettes of Aravan—without which the festival is considered incomplete; the other carries his flower-crown. The ceremony ends with a sacrificial offering of roosters. Aravan's head is fixed on the post, with his large epaulettes and chest plate fixed to his body, which is made of straw and surrounded by a garland. The image is then paraded across the village in preparation for his kalappali and ritual re-enactment of his death on the eighth day of the war. At noon his chariot turns north, a symbolic gesture representing his kalappali and then he is turned to face the ceremonial Kurukshetra battlefield, symbolizing his entry onto the battlefield to die at the hands of Alambusha. On arrival in Kurukshetra, the garlands are removed, indicating the removal of his flesh and his defeat on the eighth day of war.

Returning from the battlefield, the chariot turns towards the location prepared for the ceremonial mourning rituals, the "weeping ground" (alukalam). The "widowed" Alis, with their hair dishevelled, lament the death of their "husband" as he performs the kalappali. The garlands from Aravan's image are thrown at devotees one by one, symbolizing his gradual loss of vitality. At this "weeping ground", the Alis mourn Aravan's death by breaking their bangles, beating their breasts and discarding their bridal finery, like the legendary Mohini-Krishna. They cut their thalis, which are flung at a post erected for the ceremony (vellikkal). After bathing, they put on white saris as a mark of their widowhood. The Alis bear these signs of widowhood for a month before re-adorning themselves with bangles and coloured saris again.

At mid-afternoon, as the chariot reaches alukalam, Aravan is stripped to his skeletal straw body. Most Alis have left and men wedded to Aravan also break their thalis and bangles and perform all the rites of widowhood (the vellikkal rites) before the image of Aravan. Meanwhile a paratiyar (Mahabharata-reciter) tells the story of the culmination of the war, symbolic of Aravan fulfilling his wish of seeing the war. Hiltebeitel suggests that while the Alis weep for Aravan's kalappali, the villagers weep for the death of an ancestor, as life leaves Aravan's head at the end of the war.

Also at the alukalam, a symbolic sacrifice of cooked "blood rice" is distributed in honour of the deceased Aravan. This rice is believed to make childless women conceive. After the death rites at dusk, the chariot is now considered a "house of death", and the lifeless head is removed from the frame of its skeletal body, then covered by a cloth, and finally paraded around the village as though at a funeral. The head is taken to the temple of Kali, where is it "revived". In a ceremony called vitaiyatti ("the return dance"), the head is once more danced around the village, right up until early morning on the 17th day. On the 18th and final day, the head is decorated and paraded around the village a final time. In the evening, the pujari ("priest") as Yudhishtira (Dharmaraja) crowns Aravan's head in a coronation ceremony held in the inner sanctum of his temple.