The Wedding with a Stolen Goddess: The Ethnography of a Cult in Rural Tamil Nadu

The paper provides a critical overview of the perspective that stratifies society in India into a series of different classes, resulting in the mobility of particular castes or social groups. For this purpose, the study presents ethnographic material concerning the foundation and development of a non-Brahman temple in the Tamil low-caste settlement of Line Kollai, which is in a neighbourhood close to the city of Krishnagiri. The presented ethnographic material shows how a religious folk cult has been established on the grounds of actualized and modified motives in the vernacular environment. In this line, the study analyses wider contexts of social and religious demands articulated through possession mediumship and ritual performance, culminating in the annual celebration of the wedding between Goddess Yellamā and her consort Nagaraj. The significance of attempts to integrate socio-religious activities into the network of social relationships and the system of local beliefs is explored through the narrative and practices prevalent among the participants of the cult. The presented evidence suggests that, rather than highlight a distinction in belief and practices among different social groups, it seems more appropriate to understand the social strategies within the system or relationships embodied in the power discourse.