Abstract:

This essay is an attempt to look at the early-modern Hindu kingship as they appear in an oral literary genre from North Malabar, south-western India. The genre is known as ‘thōttam songs’ or the propitiatory narratives for the local village-Hindu pantheon. It is widely popular in the Malayalam-speaking region and also in the neighbouring Tulu-speaking South Canara where this genre is called as the pāḍdana. The following discussion is based on the text of a single thōttam which is available in printed form since 1998. It is titled ‘Āippaḷḷi Thōttam’ and it narrates the story of a local male-divinity called Āippaḷḷi Daivam or the God [named] Āippaḷḷi.