ABSTRACT
In sharp contrast to south India, Jaffna seemed intent on preserving the Brahmanical element in temple worship—an element that Maviddapuram epitomized, given that it is one of the very few Brahman-owned Hindu temples in Sri Lanka. In Vellalar-sponsored domestic and temple rituals, Vellalars oblige their Untouchable servants to remove from Vellalar premises, and later to imbibe or discard, offerings which are believed to have become afflicted with the substance of highly disordering spirits or demons. The Vellala Tamils will not permit Tamils of the depressed classes to draw a bucket of water from a well or enter a temple. If Arumuka Navalar's reforms diminished the status-degradation functions of Vellalar-sponsored household and temple rites, they also provided Minority Tamils with a potent and convincing rationale for temple entry. The temple entry campaign, for instance, occurred right on the heels of a particularly obnoxious irruption of Government power in Jaffna.
