Masi Magam, an auspicious day in the Tamil calendar, is celebrated across the State with religious vigour. The festival also holds significance for the Irular community, for whom the occasion is deeply tied to their culture and collective identity. Members of the community often live on the margins and in some places as bonded labourers. In the days leading up to Masi Magam, members of the community from across Tamil Nadu gather in their thousands on the seashores of Mamallapuram, a historic coastal town known for its ancient rock-cut temples, stone sculptures, and monuments built during the Pallava dynasty.
The occasion offers them an opportunity to perform rites of passage, including marriages, naming ceremonies for children, ear piercing, tonsuring, and rituals in fulfilment of prayers offered to their patron deity Kanniammal. In fact, they come to the seashore in search of Kanniammal, who they believe had left them, to persuade the deity to return home with them. “There is a strong belief in the community that prayers offered to the deity will be answered and all rituals performed on Masi Magam are spiritually potent and effective,” said E. Tamil Selvan, guest lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Madras, who has been studying the community.
