Thai Poosam and Tamil Renaissance

"Any ethnicity that doesn’t have elaborate cultural events to cherish will eventually fizzle out as a political force and be condemned to subsistence living"

(Kavadi Attam - Thai Poosam, Singapore)

The first full moon day in the Tamil month of Thai (mid-Jan to mid-Feb), which also usually coincides with the occurrence of the Poosam Star, is called Thai Poosam. Legend has it that the Tamil warlord Murugan was handed his primary weapon ‘the spear (Vel)’ for the first time on Thai Poosam Day by his mother Kottravai. Over time, Thai Poosam has become an event that symbolically guarantees the safety and prosperity of the masses. Further, the efforts of the Nayanmars of the Bhakti Movement (8th - 10th century AD), integrated the Murugan cult into a larger body of beliefs, which took shape as Tamil Shaivism. Till this day, Tamils all over the world hold prayers and grandly commemorate Thai Poosam. Apart from piercing spears (vel) in flesh, devotees celebrate the carnival by carrying Kavadies, which is an ornamented semi-circular wooden structure, that is carried on one’s shoulder as he/she walks many miles to reach the deity’s solace.        

(300 Km Trek to Palani, Tamil Nadu, India)

Despite being a major festival for the 11 crore of the 12 crore ethnic Tamils all over the world, Thai Poosam isn’t a government holiday in any part of India, including the state of Tamil Nadu. In contrast, the Tamil minority in Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka, have secured a national holiday for Thai Poosam, although all of these are non-Hindu majority countries. Considering that over 10 crore of the 12 crore Tamils live in India as Indian citizens, this presents a perplexing case. The answer to this probably lies in the nature of politics that has taken root  in Tamil Nadu thus far. 

(Regions where Thai Poosam is celebrated)

In the initial years of the 20th century, when Congress was emerging as a people’s movement, it was mostly people who were ideologically brahminical who ruled the roost within the party. Thus, being a non-brahminical tradition, Thai Poosam got little attention in mainstream politics, which contrasted with how the politics of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore evolved at that time. Eventually, with reformist movements taking the electoral route, many sidelined religious traditions started getting political traction. The story of how Onam emerged as a pan-Malayali festival cutting across religious affiliations is a direct fall out of such political churns. In fact, the very legend of Onam has undergone considerable change over time to give itself a non-brahminical makeover.

Tamil Nadu too had a very strong and vibrant reformist movement in the Dravidian Movement, which was pungently anti-brahminical in tenor. But unlike most reformist movements that were directing people to alternative faiths, like the nudge of Dalit Panthers towards Buddhism, and that of SNDP (in Kerala) towards a sense of inner awakening that disregarded the Varna system, the Dravidian movement was strongly atheistic. The steadfastness of the Dravidian reformers as the antithesis to everything that the Brahminical religion stood for had unintended consequences. In popular perception, their actions ended up stigmatizing worship as an act that is incongruous with rationality. Notably, this was despite the Dravidian Movement's bellwether friendship with non-Brahminical Tamil religious sects.

  (Periyar - The chief architect of the Dravidian Movement) 

The offshoots of the Dravidian movement have dominated the politics of the state for well over 5 decades. Despite the the accommodative and centrist nature of the Dravidian polity, the Tamil aspirations for a more relatable native faith never got its due voice. Further, even though there is a huge repository of religious literature and a long Bhakti Tradition, Tamil as a language of worship doesn’t hold primacy in most of the major temples of the state today, which contrasts with the Veera Shaiva and Lingayat sects of Karnataka, whose rituals are largely in Kannada. Nonetheless, the desire for a revival of the Tamil religious tradition has been kept alive by some splinter groups consisting of monks and religious experts well versed with the Bhakti movement’s literary work. Due to a lack of strong political backing thus far, they’ve been waging an uneven war to reclaim the major religious sites. Here, it is to be noted that the multitude of Hindu organisations operating within Tamil Nadu have largely aligned themselves with the Brahminical Hindutva that is being promoted by the RSS, thereby making them see the demands for Tamilizing rituals as a Dravidian conspiracy to degrade the Hindu faith. 

          (Tanjore Peruvudaiyar Temple) 

This being the case, lately, there has been considerable social churn that is seemingly questioning the status quo. Recently, an ideological think tank called ‘Tamil Desiya Paeriyakkam’, brought most ‘Shivanadiyaargal’ (Tamil Shaivite saints) under a single umbrella called ‘Tanjai Peruvudaiyar Kovil Meetpu Kuzhu’ (Team for the revival of Tanjore Peruvudaiyar Temple). They managed to win a court verdict that allowed the recitation of Tamil hymns along with Sanskritic ones during the Big Temple’s recently concluded ‘Kumbabishekam’ (a ritual that happens once in about 12 to 25 years). Considering the significance and the grandeur of the Tanjore Big Temple, this is indeed a milestone event for those envisioning to establish Tamil as the language of faith.

Inspired by this success, it is likely that these organizations will continue to push the boundaries in their quest, and ‘Thai Poosam’ is likely to become a nucleus for further consolidation. Declaration of a state holiday for the festival isn’t a contentious issue and all that would be needed to achieve it is a strong clarion call for the same. Nonetheless, the religious awakening that such mobilizations would trigger will likely pose a significant and direct threat to Sanskritic traditions throughout the state. In the coming decades, we'll have to wait and watch how these conflicting strains play out.