Social forms of religion in wayanad a historical study 1800 2000 ce

Abstract

This is a study of the religious beliefs and practices prevailed among the people of Wayanad of Kerala in India. Religion comprises two basic forms; forms of faith and forms of practices and rituals. Religion possesses potentials to molds social relations and social identities of human beings. The study however seeks to delineate the influence of ecological, economic and social influences that the religion absorbs and accommodate so that it changes in accordance with it. Wayanad region in Kerala is a meeting place of many religions like Jainism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and tribal religion. It is also an area where people from around migrated to it. Nestled in the Western Ghats mountain ranges, the area is also ecologically significant. It had already been argued variously that the forms of religion are shaped by material world. Ludwig Feurerbach, Karl Marx, Max Weber and many others following them had been engaging with the same theme. Thus the social form of religion in the present study connotes how the material conditions including ecological settings, conditions of productions and conditions individual choices determined the religious behavior of the people of Wayanad. Social form also implies change. As the material world is in constant motion, the society might also be changing accordingly and is the religious beliefs and practices. The social form of religion therefore also involve the depiction of successive changes in the realm of socio cultural life of the people. The geographical context of the area also call for a keen consideration of the ecology and environment. The present study therefore draws upon the concept of ‘mode of resource use’ as it is more suitable to discuss the environmental and religious life of this area in a tribal and ecological factors plays a more visible role. The study pursued with and fulfilled the objectives including studies of geo- eco- historical setting, contexts of the tribal religion , the impact of migrations on the Socio-religious life of the area of study, the eco-social influences on religion, and tracing the changes in the religious beliefs and practices through time. The study follows historical method and has benefitted from the methodologies of other domain wherever it is called for. At some levels the study used representative data to do justice to time and the theme.The study confirms that there is a correlation between the stages of social life based on different modes of resource use determines many core areas of religion of the people. The changes of the settlements and subsistence from malayoram based on hunting gathering to vayaloram based on settled agriculture and then to vazhiyoram based on the industrial mode of life had corresponding changes in the social life and institutions that shattered and reconfigured the livelihood as well as ideological horizon that provided new edges in the existing set of beliefs and practices that resulted in an ultimate transformation of the religious life of the people. The changes thus propelled produced a change from simple, direct, cheap and syncretic forms of rituals and practices of religion to a more complex, mediated, expensive and monolithic forms of religion. This is visible among all the religious communities lived in the area of study.