Social Communication in Dravidian Ritual

Abstract

Throughout the Hindu cultural universe, rituals carried on by village folk seem to display a fundamental distinction between the rites of the great Hindu deities, in the custody of pure Brahman priests, and the rites of lesser godlings or goddesses, worshipped via the ministrations of non-Brahman--and often impure--ritual functionaries. This essay examines the utility of the notion that, underlying the patterning of Hindu ritual and the social order of castes, there is a single principle asserting the specialization and interdependence of the pure vs. the impure. The broader issue examined is whether ritual can profitably be compared to a language as a system of social communication.