Kāttavarāyaṉ katai

„Kattavarayan katai“, is the story of Kattavarayan, a folkdeity of Tamilnadu, South India. The story relates how Kattavarayan, though born to low-caste parents, attempts to marry the high-caste Brahman girl Ariyamalai. Like many other folk gods of India, Kattavarayan too is connected to the greater Hindu tradition by being made a son of Siva. Neither Siva’s, nor his mother Kamaksi’s protests prevent Kattavarayan from pursuing the forbidden alliance. During his adventurous journeys and while dealing with the other women proposed by his mother as brides, Kattavarayan takes various disguises and uses these to make fun of Bahmans, kings and pan-Hindu gods like Visnu. The present translation of the „Kattavarayan katai“ is meant to show the kind of language typical of this genre of folk stories, and it hopes to generate an interest in folk religion and in other texts of this genre. The book contains the English translation and the Tamil text. „Kattavarayan katai“, die Geschichte Kattavarayans, handelt von den Abenteuern eines tamilischsüdindischen Volksgottes, der trotz seiner niedrigen Herkunft das Brahmanen-Mädchen Ariyamalai heiraten will. Wie andere indische Volksgötter ist Kattavarayan auch ein Sohn Sivas, lässt sich aber weder durch diesen, noch durch seine göttliche Mutter Kamaksi davon abhalten, seinen Willen durchzusetzen, und stellt dabei die Regeln der Gesellschaft auf den Kopf.