Full Text: Chinnapulayan: The Dalit Teacher of Sankaracharya

The full text of the Chinnapulayan: The Dalit Teacher of Sankaracharya is reproduced here verbatim from the original paper by A. M. A. Ayrookuzhiel.

This version preserves the original wording, structure, poetic formatting, and footnotes as presented in the source document. The text includes both the Pulaya version of the Tottam of Pottan Teyyam and the later Brahminised Sankaracharya variant, along with the author’s analysis.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Tottam (song) of Pottan Teyyam
   1. Historical Background
   2. The Song of God Pottan – Pulaya Version
3. The Song of God Pottan - The Brahminised Version
4. The Poem in Modern Dalit Literature
5. Conclusion
6. Notes

Introduction

The Dalits, i.e., the broken people of our country are in a historical struggle, for the last 150 years, to build a new identity within the nation’s existence. The challenge to them is to create a new social order which will put an end to their centuries-old political and economic marginalisation and also heal their religious wounds as untouchables with a new spiritual wholeness. In other words, their attempts to build a new identity has three dimensions: economic, political and religio-cultural interpenetrating into one another.

In the past their economic and political marginalisation was based on their religious identity as untouchables in the Hindu social order. Their struggles in the last 150 years finally resulted in their gaining a decisive voice within the nation’s economic and political life. In other words, the Dalits can now wage their battle for economic and political identity within the broader framework of a democratic and secular Constitution.

As for their religious identity, the search for liberation led the Dalits in different directions in the past. As a result we find them in numerous anti-Brahmanical historical movements of protest within the broader Hindu heritage as well as in religions like Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and Buddhism. But in recent years we find an increasing tendency among Dalit writers to draw inspiration from some of their own primeval myths, symbols, gods and heroes in order to rebuild their distorted religio-cultural identity.

This article is an attempt to give an example of such resources from the socio-cultural history of the Dalits in Kerala. The Pulayas, a Dalit community in North Malabar, from ancient times worships a god called Pottan Teyyam. The song of this god sung during the worship is known as Tottam of Pottan Teyyam. The song is a powerful attack on the practice of untouchability and caste discrimination. The Pottan Teyyam affirms the fundamental equality of all human beings by a number of rational and religious arguments.

There are two versions of the song. First I shall present the Dalit version in full. Secondly, I shall explain the historical circumstances under which changes took place and the nature of the changes. Thirdly, I shall give a brief account of how this song and the underlying arguments figured in the Dalit movement in Kerala in modern times.

Tottam (song) of Pottan Teyyam

Historical Background

The word “tottam” means song. It is a Dravidian colloquial form akin to Sanskrit stotra which means a hymn of praise. The Tottam of Pottan Teyyam¹ is sung during the dance of God-Pottan. Worship by dance is an Adi or pre-Dravidian form, common among the Pulayas of North Malabar region of Kerala. Similar dances among kindred groups in further south of Kerala are known as Patayani (battle dance), in South Kanara by the name Yaksha Gana. It is performed in their places of worship commonly known as Kavu, Kottam, Mundom, Ara, Molam, etc. At present some of these places are under varying stages of sanskritisation and are also known by the name kshetram.² The worship is distinct from the Brahmanical form of temple worship because the dancer is from the Pulaya community or other pre-Dravidian religious dancers such as Velan, Vannan, Malayar. The Velan Veliyaadan — the intoxicated or furious dance of Velan of the hunting god Murukan — is famous in early Tamil literature.³ Idols of gods as in Brahmanical form of worship have no place in the worship of god Pottan. The god descends (Urayuka) into his Kolam (the god-dancer) and acts his story, blesses the people or threatens them with punishment or revenge for some evil deeds like the biblical God.

As the song of Pottan (Tottam of Pottan) in its present form came down through oral tradition, we do not know for certain what kind of changes it might have undergone over the centuries. However it is good to remember that given the conservative religious ethos of the village folk, it is not easy for lyrical renovation to take place. Though this is not impossible — for dancers usually adapt compositions instantly — the song is also exposed to the religious ideas of the wider society around him.

In fact we have two versions of the song. The Tottam of Pottan sung in caste Hindu temples is a Brahminised version both in content and language. The dancer there is a Pulayan. The version used by the Pulaya dancer in their traditional shrines is in ordinary Malayalam used by the community and the arguments against caste discrimination are mostly rational and human.

The Song of God Pottan – Pulaya Version

In the Pulaya version, the argument is between Chinnapulayan, i.e., the little Pulayan and Chovar, a backward caste man, the task master during feudal times in Kerala. Chovar is an Ezhava and he was the agent of Dalit oppression. One can see that the argument is not between Chandala Siva and Sankaracharya as in the sanskritised version but between the Chovar, the task master and Chinnapulayan. All other people mentioned in the poem such as Machurer (Mason), Elango (Nair), Thandyan (backward caste) and Koik (Mohammedan) are part of the feudal caste society. It is probably a pointer to the historical origin of the song. The Chinnapulayan must have been a great historical ancestor of the pre-Dravidian who inhabited the Wayanad region. It was here the people of the Brahmanical civilization came and attempted to subdue them. It must be the historical conflict of this great ancestor and his people with the people of Brahmanical civilization which is commemorated with this song and dance. In the sanskritised version as we shall see later on, Chovar is replaced by Sankaracharya. Pulaya versions contain no reference at all to Sankaracharya.

The refutation of caste takes place primarily at the level of rational argument. The Chinnapulayan talks of the same red blood i.e., common humanity. The religious argument is that we have a common destiny, that we shall all go to the same Valluvan (God). It has a few lines which could be interpreted as reference to Vedic religion and Advaita. It could be that Chinnapulayan uses the belief of the opponent to refute him. Some scholars and sages⁴ are of the opinion that Buddhist monks used the Brahmins’ own philosophy of advaita to attack them on their practices of caste and untouchability. Buddhism was certainly widespread in South India before the region came under the influence of Brahmanism.

I shall now present the song of Pottan (Pottan Teyyam Tottam) the Dalit god in the form in which we have it today.

The poem begins with an introductory announcement of the coming of god Pottan to the place of worship after having visited on his way all the ten clans of the Pulayas (Pathillam Pulayar). He visits the Nayar family and gives them the right to celebrate the festival. This may be an allusion to the fact that the Dalits as well as other backward caste communities like Tiyyas, who have similar Teyyam dance, have to take permission from their old feudal Nayar and Brahmin masters of the locality, to celebrate their Teyyam dance in the Malabar region. So the god is said to give the Nayar family the permission to celebrate the festival.

This introduction is a kind of prose which does not look like part of the song. It is in this introduction the bearer of the moon (Siva) is said to come disguised to the land of hills. In the poem itself Siva is not said to be the Pottan who stands on the bund in the rice field. So it may have been added in later times when the caste Hindus accepted Pottan God as Chandala Siva, a God who had a non-Aryan origin and was the vehicle of absorption of all folk gods into Brahmanism.

Introductory announcements:

Then begins the invocation to Pottan to come and bless them which is also part of the preparation.

Here begins the actual poem with what is known as “Varavil” which is a praise to the God Pottan and a prayer to him for the prosperity of the village community, the world and everything in it.

The poem begins with a description of different people coming to the Wayanad region. In those ancient days no seed was needed, no nurture was required. The land produced crops without any manure or work with cattle. It is a reference to the pre-agricultural period when different jungle tribes inhabited the region of North Malabar. The tribals believed that it was God Pottan who guarded and made everything grow.

The symbolism is of an agricultural society in which different people have different roles and participate in common agrarian activities. Ponnan in the left, Poliyan in the right, etc., is an example. The symbol of Ganapathy as the yoke and Saraswathi as the ploughshare maybe the influence of sanskritisation and feudal overlordship.

The taskmaster of the caste order asks the Chinnapulayan to get out of his path⁹ but the Pulaya refuses to do it. All the arguments advanced against caste practice and untouchability are rational. Chinnapulayan argues that we have different things but we both have the same red blood, we eat the same rice, we find the same kernel inside a coconut, we both have the same sharp knives. The Pulayan reminds him of his service to the caste Hindu by supplying him fruits, leaves and flowers. It is a pointer to the fact that probably social oppression followed economic and political subjugation of the people without their really being aware of it. This rational approach to life and criticism against irrational religious beliefs and practices was very much the pre-Aryan and early Dravidian cultural ethos.

Here the text:

Then comes an argument from the faith of the opponent, as the Chovar is the agent of Brahminism. The Chinnapulayan says: you believed in thirty-three gods (in Vedic times); now you believe in three gods (Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesvara or Siva). I have in me the flower of the ultimate reality of all these three or thirty-three gods. Why do you then differentiate between you and me. Chinnapulayan says:

Now the Chinnapulayan/Pottan proclaims his own faith, solidly based on common human destiny and asks the caste man why he discriminates on the basis of caste. The image of the boat crossing from one shore to the other is familiar in Siddar and Buddhist literature. The word Valluvan for God is also very revealing. The same word Valluvan also means “priest of the Parayas,” “a sage” and “the priestly groups in general.” There is a sub-caste among the Dalits in Kerala known by the name Valluva even in our own times. The word is used in all these meanings in ancient Tamil literature. Thirukural was composed by a Valluva. The great Tamil scholar G.U. Pope, who translated the epic work into English says about the author Valluvar, “all that we certainly know is that he was a pariah and a weaver.” He further adds that, “the priest (of the Parayas), soothsayers, teachers or prophets are styled Valluvars.”¹¹ The Dalit connection of the word Valluvar is therefore obvious. This is the text:

The poem seems to end here with the prayer to God to be pleased with the offering and to return again next year to hear the Tottam.

Then again we have another 16 lines where human body is compared to a little Dalit hut (chala) with four pillars cut to scale with beams on either side, with nine openings, with two doors to enter and leave, with rafters joined to the long beam, thatched with 96 coconut leaves strengthened with grass over them, with a tile on the top of it, its strength given by the 51 nails. The description ends with a questioning. Who are to inhabit this dwelling? - 21,600 cherumakkal - the Little Ones (Pulayas). When this dwelling will collapse - no one knows when.

The thinking and thought pattern is very similar to what we find in Siddar songs and Buddhist literature. The word Chala for dwelling is very much a Dalit word – Pulachala, Malachala, Mukkuvachala, Vettavachala, etc. This part may have been another independent Dalit song. Being of religious nature it got combined with Pottam song in the Pulaya worship. The author uses symbolism of the human body for the whole society or rather the human society is conceived as a body. It is very much the spirit of the Siddar teachings.

The poem ends with an appeal to the Chovar to allow Kuttan, the Dalit to live in peace in Wayanad and enjoy the fruits of the field. The God Pottan is requested to come in order to protect the Dalits. He is asked to come in the company of the Spirit of the Pulayas and the Great Mother of the Pulayas and accept the offerings and prayers.

This protest song of their ancestor Chinnapulayan was sung with devotion and dance in commemoration of their great ancestor. Probably in order not to unduly attract the attention of others to the rebellious nature of the song they called the God Pottan. It means ‘Joker’ God, ‘Deaf and Dumb’ God. His song would then be the words of a mad man or a fool.

The Song of God Pottan - The Brahminised Version

(In this version Pottan Teyyam (Chinnapulayan) becomes Chandala Siva and the Chovar is replaced by Sankaracharya.)

In the feudal period beginning in Kerala around the 11th century, the various pre-Dravidian tribes were brought under the political and social control of the feudal chiefs who accepted the Brahmanical religious authority as normative. In this process tribes were made to come and perform their ancestral devotional dance near feudal chiefs’ Brahmanical place of worship. This might have been the occasion for absorbing the ancestral gods of different tribal groups in a divine hierarchy corresponding to the socio-political hierarchy of the feudal society. The Brahmins incorporated into their divine hierarchy the Chinnapulayan - the Pottan God of the Pulayas as Chandala Siva. In fact there exists in the writings classified by scholars as the works of the late Sankara, a five stanza hymn “Manisha Panchakam” and a popular story of Sankaracharya’s meeting with Chandala Siva. According to the story, Sankara, the great Acharya has an encounter with an outcaste (Chandala) on his way to Benares. Sankaracharya rebukes him for standing against him in the way and asks him to get out of his path. In the ensuing argument, Sankaracharya is defeated on the grounds of Advaita and is shown the oneness of the self with everyone “be he chandala or twice born.”

These works were composed when Brahminism absorbed the devotionalism of the autochthonous people of South India to which scholars trace the origin of the Bhakti movement.²² Naturally therefore the central concerns of this body of literature conflict with some of the fundamental ideas of Advaita. They are probably attributed to Sankaracharya in order to enhance their authority. The Brahminised version of Pottan Teyyam song is based on the above story, and the poem “Manisha Panchakam.”

I give here the portion of the poem describing the encounter between Pottan Teyyam and Sankaracharya.

Chandala’s reply:

Sankara’s realisation:

The Poem in Modern Dalit Literature

In the feudal times Brahminism accepted the metaphysical unity of all beings on a graded scale without making concessions on social equality. Its concepts like Karma, Svadharma, Adhi-karabheda undergirded the social inequality.

With the emergence of the Dalits into the political scene from the second half of the 19th century, a new attempt to reintegrate the Dalits within the Hindu community started. Kavi Tilakan K.P. Karuppan, himself a Dalit, in 1912 wrote his well-known poem “Jati Kummi.” His literary compositions like “Jati Kummi” and “Udayana Virunnu” played a major role in the social transformation of Kerala society in the first half of the century. The poet K.P. Karuppan uses the poetic imagery of “Manisha Panchakam” and the rational arguments of Pottan Teyya Tottam in his literary composition “Jati Kummi”, which could be called the first piece of Dalit literary work in Malayalam in the modern sense. Poet Kumaran Asan, the poetic voice of Sri Narayana Guru had translated “Manisha Panchakam” into Malayalam and published it in his collection Vana Mala. The poet Ulloor had written “Marr” (Get Out) based on the same source of Manisha Panchakam. There are a number of Malayalam poems by writers in the same vein.²⁴ However these writings have helped only their political and social mobilisation. They have led to very little change in caste Hindu religious traditions. Such a change can happen only when Pottan dancer, the Pulaya teacher and his ancient priesthood are accepted by all. The present tendency is to look at his dance as village or folk entertainment. Will we accept his priesthood and the words from his mouth as the teacher of Sankaracharya? It is the same challenge thrown by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar when he asked the Hindus if they would accept a Dalit as Sankaracharya.

Conclusion

On the basis of his humanity, the Chinnapulayan confronts the religious belief of Sankaracharya who denies him his right to walk on the same footpath. The Chinnapulayan’s arguments against his opponent’s religious practices are based on common human nature, common life experiences, and common human destiny. He says that their different modes of life is no ground for discrimination against him.

The challenge of the Dalits today to the religionists in our country is essentially the same. Do they recognise their humanity and facilitate their struggle to redeem their sacred human dignity, of which the Dalits were robbed when they lost their struggle for territory and freedom in the past?

The Dalit poets and singers use the figure of the Great Buddha,²⁵ Christ²⁶ and other historical sages to condemn the religion of their followers. In addition, one finds them drawing inspiration from their own symbols of a primeval Mother Goddess,²⁷ their own heroes and victims²⁸ of caste struggles in the past.

We are asked what kind of religious identity the Dalits will build in the future? The Dalits will build their religious identity in those religions whose followers are on their side in their struggle for their humanisation. If the nature of the process is humanisation, the agenda for Dalit theology is the engagement in the process in all its forms, economic, political and religious.

In Christian theological circles in India, there have always been tendencies to understand the mystery of Christ in terms of Indian schools of thought such as Advaita, Dvaita, Karma and Bhakti. But when one looks at the use of the symbols of Christ in creative writings, both among Christians and non-Christians he appears on the side of the oppressed and he is their comforter. Philosophical categories are secondary if not irrelevant.

One important task of Indian theology is certainly to discover many Chinnapulayans and Chandalas who were on the side of the oppressed and were comforters of people in our long historical heritage. It is part of the discovery of the Word incarnate in India and the universal love of God which we affirm in faith.

Notes

1. Teyyam is folk use of the Dravidian word Theivam, meaning God. ↩
2. The word used for temple in Brahmanical circles. ↩
3. Murugan was later identified with Subramaniyam and was Brahminised. ↩
4. Example: Narayana Guru. ↩
5. Kerala Bhasha Garungal, comp. Chirakkal T. Balakrishnan Nair (Trichur: Kerala Sahitya Academy, 1976). Trans. Paul Chirakkarode and Abraham Ayrookuzhiel. ↩
6. Pulamarut - the Spirit of the Pulayas. ↩
7. Pulachamundi - the Mother Goddess of the Pulayas. ↩
8. Kottam - a place of worship of the Dalits. ↩
9. The religious practice of the obligation of the untouchables having to give way on a common path may be a symbolic expression of the initial conflict. ↩
10. Thirty-three trees: The reference is to 33 gods worshipped in Vedic times. Three of them sprouted. I have the flower of those three trees - "ParaBrahman". ↩
11. G.U. Pope, Tirukkural (Madras: The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, 1973), Introduction, p. xvii. ↩
12. Both you and we perform the same activities. When we cross the ocean of Samsara, we meet. ↩
13. Two legs and two arms. ↩
14. Nine apertures. ↩
15. Inhale and exhale. ↩
16. Ribs. ↩
17. Spinal chord. ↩
18. Principles (skin). ↩
19. Hair. ↩
20. Letters. ↩
21. Kuttan: the young of an animal or human being; also used to refer to Dalits. ↩
22. Tde J. Solomon, "Early Vaishnava Bhakti and Its Autochthonous Heritage," History of Religions, Vol. 10, University of Chicago Press, 1970. ↩
23. Kerala Bhasha Ganangal, comp. Chirakkal T. Balakrishnan Nair (Trichur: Kerala Sahitya Academy, 1976). ↩
24. Mahakavi M.P. Appan, Kochu Thampurayum Pulkodiyum (Kottayam: Sahitya Pravartaka Sahakarana Sangam, 1973). ↩
25. Kumaran Asan, Chandala Bhikkshuki. ↩
26. Poykail Appachari's poetic works and related Dalit literature collections. ↩
27. K.K. Govindam, Arukolakattam and related works. ↩
28. Ekalavya and Shambuk as symbols of caste oppression in Dalit literature. ↩

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