Human's have always had worshipped since the day they discovered fear, many authors generally agree that the process of deification starts from the root of fear. The fear of every element that didn't make much of the sense due to lack of science , took shape into a form of deity. And then those deities have to be pleased from time to time to get the desires of people as boons. This can be as simple as worshiping lord Indra for rain and a good monsoon , to as complicated as Rites such as of Atharvanic rituals which include bewitching a person and making certain someone fall in love with the preparator. The benefits of a cult or religion however gives the laypeople psychological and emotional support despite being the gleaning effects of fear. The fear of Nature, environment, war, plague, fertility, famine and other natural calamities made the lay people turn to the belief of superior someone who out to save them from all such things if properly pleased. In a way it paves way to continue life even after a devastating phenomena.
The story of Deification differs from each deity , the purpose of such deity, the circumstances which led to such occurrences all play major role in it. The folk deities around tamilnadu , the family deity ( kula deivam), Guardian deity ( kaval deivam) spring mostly out of an incident where those deities once being human have sacrificed their lives for the village or the family and henceforth should always be remembered and worshipped. In the contemporary world the worship of folk deity ( grama deivam), the Guardian deity ( kaval deivam ), family deity (kula deivam ) can be seen for gaining prosperity, fertility and protection from all the evil.
One such personal experience of such worship for prosperity and warding of " evil eyes" has always passed down in my family forever. The worship of Kateri- all black goddess who is fond of blood and meat, but when pleased will grant our wishes has been passed as a tradition in my family. The deity in our case is not a kula deivam but kaval deivam. while she is kula deivam for some families across tamil nadu , she is guardian deity for others. However as said before people worship her from time to time when something is needed by offering a Bali ( sacrifice). In our family the worship of kateri has happened when there's a marriage or when a new house is brought , or when we need prosperity. The participants are usually the family and heirs of the family working in similar fashion of gotra system. while the son who is married can attend the ritual with his wife and kids, the daughter who is married is considered not part of the family so she should not participate. If the daughters are unmarried then they are included in the rituals.
A particular date is chosen and our neighbors and friends are informed not to visit since we are going to worship her. once the house is completely washed that's when the quarantine starts, no one outside the family is allowed to visit and no one from the participants can visit anyone outside the family. No outside food is consumed and no other deity is worshipped apart from kateri and Muni. The whole ritual takes place at the backyard or courtyard of the house but not inside the house. The ritual begins with the worship of muni.
Worship of Muni:
The Male god Muni is invoked in three bricks by anointing Turmeric and Pattai/thiruneer/bhasma( ash ) in three consecutive rows. on the central row sandal dots and vermilion dots are anointed resembling bindi . several turmeric threads which are supposed to be tied by the participants are placed on the head of such bricks. Flowers are also used to adorn the dieties.
offerings such as panagam( drinks) are placed in front of the Muni that's invoked. The panagam consists of tender coconut, jaggery watter, buttermilk, turmeric water, liqour. Along with this a cigar and traditional Thadi Adai ( thick flat pancake). Then like all other gods banana on beetle leaf is also offered. But here they add a lump of basma on the beetle leaf. meanwhile the Ven pongal( white pongal ) is made, when the pongal rises milk is added three times to it , symbocally the rising pongal rises happiness within the family . The container that contains pongal is also anointed with turmeric and basma.
parallelly a pyre is lit and a cock anointed with vermilion and turmeric is shown around the pyre in clockwise and anticlock wise fashion. Finally a coconut is offered and a dhoop is lit with camphor which is used for arti to the Muni, the cock is then given as bali. The blood aswell is spilt as an offering to the muni. This is again cooked as kari kozhambu( chicken curry) and then offered to the god with the ven pongal. After which the family has the yellow thread tied on hand followed by consumption of the sumptuous meal. The remainings of the cock and the left overs are thrown in a pit which is freshly dug.
fig 1: preparation of ven pongal
fig2: after the bali of cock , note the muni invoked
in bricks along with the panagam offerings.
Worship of Kateri :
The goddess is generally worshipped on the nights or after the sunset. It starts with a bali too. A black hen is brought and then anointed with turmeric and vermilion dots is just shown around a sambrani in clockwise and anticlockwise and then given bali. A lavish non veg meal consisting of Egg fry, meen kozhambu( fish curry), kozhi kari ( chicken curry made after the bali ), meen varuval( fish fry), murungai keerai poriyal( moringa sabzi ), kozhukattai ( a sweet made out of jaggery ), rice is prepared. Then a house layout is built based on the locally available soil and 9 lumps are orderly placed along with two pairs of lumps . the first pair of lumps near the gate of the house are the gaurdian deities that are invoked and the next pair is the lord ganesha and all the rest of the 9 lumps are kateri and her forms which are invoked. the center most one is kateri the rest are attendant deities or her other forms. The gate of the house faces east.The flowers along with vermilion and sandal wood is used to adorn the deities. Then 9 banana leaves are placed infront of each deity which is invoked in a lump of soil containing bits of each dish that was prepared. A circle is built in the center where a bigger leaf is placed with the same dish along with a black saree on the rear end with inverted fan folded form ( like the red ribbon symbol).
The whole ritual moves around the woman folk of the family, they invoke the deity, prepare meal and also build the home for the worship. After all of this is done finally the men folk joins to do the worship. A lamp is lit and Arti is shown using dhoop. During which the marriage invitation or things that need blessings are kept near the structure , symbolically receiving blessing from the goddess, in hopes of warding away the evil and preventing any form of unthinkable mishappenings. After prayers the feast is consumed. the leftovers are again thrown in the same pit and completely burried. The black saree is worn by the person who is getting married or the oldest person of the house during the feast. It is only removed in the morning.
In the night no one leaves the house nor goes to the stairs. As its believed that kateri would come to wander. In the morning the house is washed away and the whole house is cleaned where the quarantine ends.
The whole practice is esoteric, not much talked about. more likely forbidden. It is believed traditionally the blood loving goddess prefers human blood.
fig 3: House of the kateri being built
fig4: The house of kateri along with the offerings before placing the black saree
Story of Kateri :
The famous folk lore is connected with parvati. Where the Brahmanical pantheon's Shiva one of the trimurty takes part in the story. One day when shiva was sleeping along with parvati he found that his wife was missing and he went in search of her. The search was futile where he couldn't find his wife parvati. when she returned he asked where she went. Parvati hid her whereabouts with a lie that she was wandering as she couldn't sleep. This lie wasn't convincing for shiva , so he secretly decides to find what she does at the middle of the night. The next night he pretends to be asleep and waits for parvati to move. This time he finds her going to a graveyard and changing her form into a very terrific form. And then he witnesses parvati consuming corpse, she pulled them out of their graves to consume them. After which she dragged a corpse out of the funeral pyre and started consuming it too. He learned that she had an appetite for the human flesh and that's why she visited the grave at the middle of the night. He returned only to hatch a plan to catch her red handed. Another night just before parvati's arrival on the pathway towards the grave shiva digs a huge pit and covers it with leaves and twigs. Parvati who was so consumed by her hunger didn't notice the pit and she falls into the trap. She couldn't get out of the pit after much struggle, that's when shiva appeared and confronted about her lie. she said she was ashamed of her cravings and hid it because he would be furious . she asked him to forgive her. However, shiva refused to bring back a corpse eating wife. Upon parvati's continued pleas he asked to bury the terrific displeasing form within the pit so he could take his wife away from it. He then pulled parvati out of the pit leaving back her terrific form inside the pit. which he then covers by the soil. So kateri believed to reside inside the pit shiva dug. That's why the worship of kateri involves digging pits or making houses that resemble pit like structure. The Muni who is a form of shiva is considered to be the husband of kateri. Therfore, both are worshipped together.
She is also known by the name Irisi , Irisi is so similar to that of the sangam Kotravai who was worshipped in Palai region, who demands blood and human sacrifice in turn for the wishes she grants. Irisi supposed to mean a young maiden who could never attain womanhood was the kateri. The worship of irisi, kateri is much older then what might be known. Probably acculturation has resulted in association with the main hindu pantheon over the story of shiva.
Her worship is always done outside the house premises, near lakes , under trees usually with a pit or structures. And rituals usually initiated by the older woman of the kula(family).
Thiruvannamalai, Nellur, Chittooor, Vellore, Chennai, Vizhupuram, Pondicherry, Nagapattinam are some of the places in Tamilnadu where the worship of kateri as a kula devata happens to this date. In Melseesamangalam of seyyar taluk in Tiruvannamalai district a group people who belong to the nadukothu caste have kateri as kula devata and even celebrate a special festival for her. Her worship isn't as prominent as the other goddesses for it vows to the very esoteric nature of worship, which lets not the people to talk much about it.
For me however, the whole ritual always connected our family together and I always remember the worship for the laughter and participation of my family with this eerie feeling. The amount of ordinance that was followed was always something I wondered about and also wondered why didn't other people worship her too? And as a full grown adult I just smile at all those memories. And as said before she is worshipped to ward away evil eyes and pacify it's likely to happen again and again despite of us living in the heart of chennai city.
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