Fest boosting feminine energy

VILLUPURAM: “It is believed that Shiva was cursed to hold on to one of Brahma’s five heads, but Parvati played a trick and crushed the head into the ground. So, an angry Saraswati cursed Parvati to take home in the crematorium. Later, a demon was sent to destroy Parvati. But the Goddess took a gory avatar and killed it brutally. The avatar was idolised as the fiery god named Angalamman. As a gesture to quench her rage, people offer rooster, goat and hen to the Goddess in the name of Mayana Kollai festival,” says Indira, a transwoman and priest who banishes evil from devotees at Angalamman temple in Gingee.

Over one lakh people from all over the State and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka gathered for Mayana Kollai (looting a graveyard) festival at the temple on Wednesday. The festival is celebrated a day after Maha Shivaratri, symbolising Parvati’s resort to kill the devil, in saviour of womanhood. 

It is celebrated at all Angalamman temples in Arcot districts – Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore and Villupuram. Angalamman means goddess of bones/skull, so there is a speculation among people that the festival is about feminine energy (Shakti) to reclaim power, strength and anger against negativity. 

Unlike a usual temple festival, stores near the temple were selling products ranging from animals for sacrifice to their skin as a saviour. Tribal people were selling  hair and skin of rats, rabbits and boars due to a myth that it would ward off the evil eye. While, roosters and goats were sold to make offerings, mounds of dried fishes were kept for sale along the way. Also, devotees stamped and crushed lemons before entering the temple in a belief of leaving evil inside them outside the temple.

“Unlike many Gods that relish vegetarian oblations, Kali here loves flesh and blood. So, devotees buy dried fish in large quantities from here. The Melmalaiyanur recipe has its own fame,” says Shanthi, who has been selling dried fishes at the temple for 40 years.Transwomen were seen beating devotees with bamboo sticks and neem leaves with a belief that they will remove sickness and keep away from evil spirits. “We are the reincarnation of Ardhanareeswara, an avatar of Shiva, and so we clean diseases and devils away from people,” said Kasturi.

Having quite an expertise on gory festivals, professor Palamalai, retired head of Tamil department at Villupuram arts college, says, “Farmers offer their harvest by throwing it up in the air, while some sacrifice roosters and goats for better health and life. Some men disguise themselves as the Goddess and bite roosters. Some believed to have possessed by spirits too come here.”

“Such temples are found alongside coastal districts in the north, in and around the parvatha hills. Some priests belong to the fisher community, and so fried fishes are sold around the temples,” he says, adding that Parvati means a tribal woman and she is  believed to have settled in this area as Angalapar