Folk Deities as Social Borderlands: Caste, Culture, and Historical Negotiations in Northern Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The Hindu society in India is built on layers of mythology, ritual, and belief that have shaped its social and cultural consciousness for a long time. The caste system is a big part of this structure. It is not just a social hierarchy; it is also a cultural framework that tells people how to live, worship, and interact with the holy. Each caste and subcaste has its own gods, rituals, and holy places, all of which show its historical status and social identity. In this larger context, folk deities play an important role in Tamil Nadu’s religious life. These local gods, who are often not part of the Brahmanical temple system, represent the lively traditions, memories, and problems of rural communities. They are not distant gods, but nearby beings that protect, restore, and embody the essence of those who worship them. In Northern Tamil Nadu, the worship of folk deities serves as a social structure that maintains and defines caste divisions. The positioning of shrines, the ritual duties assigned to particular families, and the inherited roles of priests all demonstrate that worship reflects social hierarchy. These rituals bring people together to celebrate as a group, but they also subtly reinforce differences in purity, pollution, and privilege. In this context, worship serves both as a unifying tradition and as a mechanism of exclusion, perpetuating inequality within the discourse of devotion. This study employs frameworks from folklore and subaltern studies to analyze the interrelation of caste, culture, and history in the reverence of these deities. Folklore is viewed not solely as a compilation of archaic narratives but as a dynamic discourse of power—a mechanism through which groups interpret their surroundings and construct their identity within them. The myths and rituals associated with folk deities exemplify how, historically, dominant groups have sanctified authority, whereas oppressed castes have reinterpreted these traditions as manifestations of assertion and resistance. This study views folk deities as sociocultural constructs that reflect and sustain the caste hierarchy of Tamil society, rather than merely as religious figures. They are ever-changing symbols that connect faith to power, belief to hierarchy, and history to identity. By looking at them, I can see how everyday devotion keeps up (and sometimes challenges) the cultural lines that define Tamil life.