Tracing An Archetypal Journey of Protagonists Towards Reforming the Parayar Dalit Identity

Abstract

Vanmam centres around the lives of the Tamil Dalit Christian community, Parayars, in the Kandampatti village of South India—a space dominated by the people following the Hindu religion, that is, the so-called upper caste, Naickers and Tamil Dalit Hindu Community, the Pallars. The researcher would trace the archetypal journeys of the protagonists, Saminathan and Jayaraju, by employing the structure of the monomyth as given by Joseph Campbell. The heroes of Vanmam engage themselves towards the upliftment of their community, for which they keep a common goal in mind. This goal is to unite the two Dalit communities, the Parayars and the Pallars, which are divided on the lines of religion. The Parayars cherish the Ambedkarite ideologies that invigorates them to aim for the positions of power and authority. The first step towards this aim was to win the post of president through the village panchayat elections. This was crucial in reforming their identity and strengthening their sense of self. The stages of monomyth help in determining the various aspects of the narrative that are in alignment with it and those that are not. Campbell’s structure of monomyth is an established tool of analysis of the narrative, and the researcher would examine to what extent it can be applied to trace the journeys of the protagonists in Bama’s novel Vanmam.