A PRIMITIVE CULT

Among the religious faiths of the Dravidians of South India, the spirit –cult or worship semi-drive sprits appears to be the most primitive one.  Through it is practiced in different parts of the Sub-Continent  including Sri Lanka, it is the Dakshina Kannada district along with the adjacent areas of North  Kerala that has well preserved this ancient form of   worship in all its purity and elaborate formality with music dance and rituals as well as oracles and miracles associated with it in the form of the interaction between human beings and divine beings. 

                                                        As the civilization and customs observed in our cultural centres present a unified picture of our classical civilization, we have to turn  towards villages to observe the relics of such original customs.  After influence  and the Brahminical  from of worship in more important urban centres the earlier forms of  worship and  rituals are confined to remote villages.  But fortunately for us, in areas like Dakshina Kannada this ancient custom can be observed in sophisticated urban centre also.  Here, it is still continuing as a living  reality and a vibrant , well – guarded and fully patronized tradition.

Singing  of folk-epics or ballads (paad-danas) depicting the story of the spirit  concerned, the spectacular dance by the priest – impersonator possessed by the spirit, wearing gorgeous  customers, masks and high crowns of halo-like structure and making awe-inspiring cries and performing miracles and heroic feats and delivering  the message of the divine spirit, curing diseases, and settling village disputed – all these make a festival of grand pageantry leaving a lasting impression on the spectator even if he is a  non-believer.

            The cult is translated into English as ‘devil worship’ by modern scholars in the absence of a better term in English.  But  the spirits worshipped here are not to be identified with ‘devils’, nor is the rituals associated with them to be equated with witch-craft, black magic or propitiation of ghosts.  To the votaries, bhutaaraadhanaa is nothing but  devaaraadhanaa praying to heavenly deities.  It was perhaps due to the fact that in many  other parts of India as well as elsewhere the bhutaas are ferocious and alignant spirits bent upon harming human being and their job is only to bring harm to the people to extract offerings from them. 

But the spirits of the Tuluvas are divine beings and though stand next to puranic gods in a lower rank in the  hierarchy they are benevolent spirits showering mercy on their votaries.  They officiate as tutelary spirits of certain families or villages or regions.  They treat human beings as their foster-children, safeguard their interests, grant  them fear, protect their cattle and crop and look after their health and welfare.  In return, they expect their devotion and customary offerings.  It is only  when man transgresses the limits of dharma righteousness  and truth  and insults the spirits by not offering the customary oblation, or fails to fulfill a vow that the enraged spirits do harm to teach a lesson to the errant devotee.  Hence this punitive attribute of the spirits need not be much exaggerated since the protective attributes.  Even a mother has to punish her children when they go wrong.

            Thus the people of this area follow a dual religious life of worshipping puranic gods  as well as local spirits.  The puranic gods worshipped in temples under the leadership of Brahmin  priests are silent spectators receiving offering and they cannot be approached directly.  On the other hand these spirits are the localised and    personalized deities who influence the lives of the devotees in a more intimate relationship.  Human beings are surrounded by these spirits as their guardian angles and conscience keepers.  They have certain fixed spheres of influence.  The aim of a Tuluva is to live in harmony with these spirits associated with their family or village or region and offer them periodical oblation, who in turn protect  them, talk to them and warn them as and when necessary.

Antiquity of the Cult

            The exact date of the origin of this cult cannot be estimated.  But there are evidences to believe that it is pre-Aryan and quite indigenous to this part of India.  The cult provides a good source material for the study of Tuluva history and culture.  The fact that the spirit impersonator wears a gown made of palm leaf and decorates his head-gear with palm leaf and bamboo sticks indicates that the cult has been in vogue when the pre-historic man had not yet invented cloth.  Even today palm leaf has very important place in the ritual and all decorations of the pendal, area and the shrine are made from this leaf.  Certain ballads depicting the birth and prowess of the spirits describe the characters like the mother of the spirit  wearing leaves to cover her body. 

We  also have a reference to Spirit worship and human sacrifice in the legend of one Bhutala Pandya, a king who is supposed to have ruled the district in early Christian centuries.  When the king Devapandya wanted to launch a new cargo-ship the spirit by name Kundodara demanded a human sacrifice.  The queen refused to offer any of her sons.Then Devapandya’s sister came forward to offer her son. The sprit was pleased with this gesture of the sister and withdrew its condition and saved the sister’s son must inherit the kingdom.

Accordingly Bhutala pandyaInherited the kingdom and introduced the matriarchal system in Tulunad. Many prominent ancient communities of this area follow this system even to this day until the new social laws came into force after the country gainedIndependence.

Many scholars believe in the historicity of this regime it can be concluded that the cult is more than two thousand years old.

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