domain. Moreover, all of their subordinate chiefs similarly had their own
teyya ̄t.t.amshrines, with similar amalgams of family and local teyyamgods, and
the festivals of these regional and sub-regional pantheons were calendrically
coordinated in conformity with political precedence and boundaries of religious-
political jurisdiction throughout northern Kerala. Further south of old
Ko ̄ lattuna ̄t.u, in the territory of the more powerful Sa ̄mu ̄ tiri or “Zamorin” of
Calicut, that king presided over a similar network of deities called tir
̄
as, which
most people do not distinguish from teyyams, and whose forms have regularly
migrated into the teyyam region, where they have intermingled with the
teyya ̄t.t.ampantheons.
Despite royal patronage of a number of local gods represented in teyyamform,
some of whom are apotheosized chiefly warriors, one of the centrally organiz-
ing social facts ofteyya ̄t.t.amis that all of the actual performers are from castes
traditionally considered polluting, the avarn.ar, or Kerala’s former “Untouch-
ables.” This means that much in the teyyamdeities’ liturgies, costuming, and
ritual forms was authored by and is in the custody of communities that Indian
researchers today might label subaltern or Dalit, in other contexts. Indeed, since
the substantial numbers ofavarn.acastes in Kerala (perhaps a numeric majority
in some locales) were all excluded from entry into Brahmanically regulated
temples,teyyamshrines and temples were theprincipal institutional form of reli-
gion for all these peoples. Teyyams were their only manifest gods, and teyya ̄t.t.am
was their form of “Hindu” worship.
Since the caste constituency ofteyyamworshippers covers a far wider spec-
trum of society than that of the actual performers, however, it means that the
social provenance ofteyyamdeities is similarly wide. While we have thus seen
that some deities are of higher caste origins, representing socially powerful war-
riors or their tutelaries, others find their origins among the lower castes, being
the apotheoses of local avarn.aculture-heroes and heroines, as well as their ver-
sions of more sui generissupernatural spirits and powers. The result of this is
that the associations ofteyyamgods to caste, both as to their particular origins
and worshipping communities, weave complexly across the whole of Kerala
Hindu society, drawing sharp social distinctions in some cases, while articulat-
ing a larger ritual order across the lines of pollution-status in others.
The legend of how the current form and distribution ofteyya ̄t.t.amwas estab-
lished in the Ko ̄ lattiri’s domains illustrates something of the caste and status
mediations and the challenges these posed in Kerala’s late medieval social order.
The creation and establishment of the 39 chiefly teyyams of this realm is attrib-
uted to one Man.akka ̄t.an Gurukkal., a powerful sorcerer-magician of the then
Untouchable Washerman caste, the Van.n.a ̄ns. His fame was such that his chief
disciple and attendant, against the norms of caste-pollution, was even a member
of the chiefly Na ̄yar caste.
Eventually the notoriety of the Gurukkal.’s supernatural accomplishments
brought him to the attention of the Ko ̄ lattiri Ra ̄ja, who summoned him to his
palace. While en routeand at court, Man.akka ̄t.an was subjected to a number of
natural and supernatural tests by the king and his agents, in all of which he
310 rich freeman