Village Deities of Tamil Nadu in Myths and Legends: The Narrated Experience

Abstract

The article discusses religious narratives about the village deities of North Tamil Nadu that can be conceptualized as myths, legends, and memorates according to a folkloristic taxonomy of genres. These narratives confirm the power of deities to assist people in hardships and give warning examples of supernatural sanctions that follow the breaking of norms. Village priests (pujaris) are the religious authorities who control both deities and oral traditions (aideegam) about them. There is a widespread belief in the studied region about encountering the deities at night, when they ride around their territory to protect it from evil powers. Such experiences are narrated both in legend and memorate form. Religious folklore genres thus form the border zone in which the social world of humans and mythical realm of deities are merged into one textual space of mutual interaction. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]