The Sacred Beyond the Political: Rituals,Authority and Kingship Among Kongu Vellala Paṭṭakkārar and Pāḷaiyakkārar (Chieftains)

Abstract

Political rituals intertwined with sacred symbolism serve as a vital platform for legitimising authority and making power visible. This article explores the role of political rituals in the context of kingship, specifically focusing on the Kongu Nadu Pāḷaiyakkārar and Paṭṭakkārar (chieftains or ‘little kings’; Dirks, 1982, Journal of Asian Studies, 41[4], 655–683) of South India. It argues that political rituals play a critical role in revealing the unchallenged power of sacred legitimacy. While political authority and sacred legitimacy are often seen as complementary, this study argues that the relationship is asymmetrical: sacred legitimacy elevates political authority, but political authority does not confer sacred legitimacy. The sacred is inherently legitimate. By analysing the rituals that support the authority of these chieftains, this article examines how rituals have historically shaped the formation and continuity of political authority in Kongu Nadu.

Keywords

Sacred legitimacy political ritual authority Pāḷaiyakkārar and Paṭṭakkārar Kongu Nadu

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arokiasamy

(1956). The Kongu country. University of Madras.

Beck

E. F. B.

(1972). Peasant society in Konku: A study of right and left subcastes in South India. University of British Columbia Press.

Bell

(1997). Ritual perspectives and dimensions. Oxford University Press.

Breckenridge

(1977). From protector to litigant: Changing relations between Hindu temples and the Raja of Ramnad. The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 14(1), 1–24.

Dirks

N. B.

(1982). The pasts of a Palaiyakarar: The ethnohistory of a South Indian little king. Journal of Asian Studies, 41(4), 655–683.

Dirks

N. B.

(1987). The hollow crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian kingdom. Cambridge University Press.

Durkheim

(1995 [1912]). The elementary forms of religious life (edited and translated by Fields

K. E.

). The Free Press.

Geertz

(1980). Negara: The theatre state in nineteenth-century Bali. Princeton University Press.

Grimes

R. L.

(1982). Research in ritual studies. Scarecrow Press.

10.

Kane

P. V.

(1974). History of dharmasastra. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

11.

Kulke

(1978). Royal temple policy and the structure of medieval Hindu kingdoms. In Eschmann

(Ed.), The cult of Jagannath and the regional tradition of Orissa (pp. 1–16). Manohar Publishers.

12.

Mahalingam

T. V.

(1955). South Indian temples. University of Madras.

13.

Quigley

(2005). The character of kingship. Berg Publishers.

14.

Raheja

G. G.

(1988). The poison in the gift: Ritual, prestation, and the dominant caste in a North Indian village. The University of Chicago Press.

15.

Schnepel

(1995). Durga and the king: Ethnohistorical aspects of politico-ritual life in a South Orissan jungle kingdom. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1(1), 145–166.

16.

Stein

(1980). Peasant state and society in medieval South India. Oxford University Press.

17.

Sundar

(2007). Subalterns and sovereigns: An anthropological history of Bastar, 1854–1996 (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

18.

Talbot

(1994). Political intermediaries in Kakatiya, Andhra, 1175–1325. The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 31(3), 261–289.

19.

Tambiah

S. J.

(1976). World conqueror and world renouncer: A study of Buddhism and polity in Thailand against a historical background. Cambridge University Press.

20.

Turner

(1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Aldine Publishing Company.

21.

Vadivelu

(1915). The ruling chiefs, nobles and zamindars of India. G. C. Loganadham.