Who is Chellattamman? : Relational Divinity, Substantial Divinity and Metamorphous Beings(<Special Theme>Anthropologizing Moving Assemblages)

<p>Goddess Chellattamman's visit to the Minakshi temple, which is an episode of the delegation of power from a superior god to an inferior goddess-and which at the same time is a story of an unconsummated marriage-is used as an example to illustrate relational divinity (hierarchy) viewed from below and substantial divinity (transcendence) viewed from above in C.J. Fuller's The Camphor Flame. In this paper, I offer a different reading of the event by (a) situating it in the context of a South Indian ontology, and (b) analyzing it not in terms of structure, but assemblage. A person in South India, according to an old logic of beings "excavated" by David Shulman et al, is an individuated but fluid being. Moreover, a person is continuous with other persons. Seemingly antithetical beings, such as Shiva and its foe Mahishasura, for instance, can be each other's double, respectively. I argue that a person folds other persons within as an internal difference (intension). Such internal difference has the potential of external individuation (extension). For that reason, I use the imagery of assemblages on the move to describe such beings and their milieu. Once a year, Chellattamman, a "village goddess" whose temple is located near the northern gate of the Minakishi temple, comes to this great temple expecting to marry to Sundareshwara (Shiva) in a minor ritual known as her coronation. Yet the great vegetarian deity does not allow the inferior meat-eating (and hence polluting) goddess enter his chamber. The enraged goddess returns to her temple and receives a nocturnal animal sacrifice. Chellattamman's love for Sundareshwara is deflected in the ritual in such a way as to transform it into the power to protect Minakshi temple's northern gate. Viewed from the structural perspective, the episode exemplifies the hierarchical relationships between superior and inferior deities, and the transcendence of great divinities. Is the nature of Chellattamman, then, antithetical to that of great Sundareshwara and his consort Minakishi? If one places the episode in the unifying structural frame of reference of Dumont et al, Chellattamman and Minakishi are conceptualized as separate parts that constitute the structured whole. That method enables one to present a coherent view of the relationships between different deities with reference to hierarchy, complementarity and transcendence. Yet there are remnants that cannot be explained away by the holistic model. In the ritual calendar, Minakshi is not always a consort of Sundareshwara. The goddess metamorphoses herself into the slayer of the buffalo-demon Mahisasura during the Navaratri festival. I therefore propose to look at the deities not in terms of hierarchy, of which the degree of relative purity and pollution is the index, but in terms of the durational metamorphoses of the nature of deities. Fuller and Logan note that Minakshi changes from the submissive married mode to the powerful and destructive single mode during the Navaratri festival. The number of arms, which indicates the state of power of the goddess, also changes from four on the first night to eight on the eighth night to two on the ninth night. On the eighth night, Minakishi, as the slayer, is dressed in a red sari, and an animal sacrifice is offered to the goddess. Nevertheless, the actual sacrifice is offered to Chellattamman. On the ninth night, the goddess is dressed in a white sari and is seen worshipping Shiva. The white sari indicates that Minakshi becomes a widow after killing Mahisasura. On the following morning, the hair of the goddess is washed to remove the sin and the pollution. It is evident that Minakshi is heavily polluted after the battle. There is a similar myth in North Kerala. Kundora Chamundi (a consort or daughter of Shiva) was created by Shiva to kill the buffalo-demon Darikan. Chamundi successfully killed the demon</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>