KURAVA'S SACRIFICING

     In the post-modern world, our secular culture has lost the notion of the sacred. The Kuravar are one of those communities who view much of life as sacred: conception, birth, death, hunting, dreams, harvests, kingship etc. Ritual is an intersection of the profane and the sacred. The drinking of animal blood by the priest is simultaneously profane and sacred.

     The ritual of animal sacrifice serves to create a sense of community among its member participants, reinforcing their communitarian values which they believe hold their community together. The culturally coded objects in the ritual continually reinsert the participants - the priest and others, into the liminality stage of the ritual that reinforces their sense of community, a sense of which they can take back with them into everyday life.

Kuravas Origins:

     Kuravas one of the most ancient nomads in India, they are migrated to the Tamil country (South India) from the western part of India, mainly Gujarat and Rajasthan in the 7th Century, their caste system, their modes of worship and their ceremonies differ very much from the common practices in Tamil Nadu. The Kuravas speak an Indo-Aryan language. Their main occupation today is catching animals & birds and selling beetles and cloth needles, their caste system, their modes of worship and their ceremonies differ very much from the common practices in Tamil Nadu. The Kuravas are broadly sub-divided into two sub-divisions: the Jambalavala or buffalo-sacrificers and Nandevala or goat-sacrificers.

     At the time of the 'ritual' or worship the head of the family unties his hair and spreads it out. The buffalo was sacrificed in front of the goddesses kali and their given the blood bath to the goddesses kali. The priest and the head of the family dance in front of the goddesses and drink the buffalo blood. The Kurava people getting blessing from the blooded priests.

Text: Ravichandran