Female demons in Indra’s nets. A chapter on witchcraft from the Medieval Tamil poem “Kalingattupparani”

Abstract

Indrajāla (literally “Indra’s net”) has the meanings of “illusion”, “deception”, “witchcraft” and belongs to the basic concepts associated with the magic in Indian culture. The paper offers a translation from Old Tamil and commentaries to a fragment of the poem “Kalingattupparani” by the poet Jayankondar (12th century), containing description of “witchcraft”. In that poem the demonesses (Tamil pēy), who make up the retinue of the victory goddess Kottṟavai, are deceived by a sorceress who creates illusory pictures of the battle. The demonesses, feeding on the corpses of warriors, horses and elephants who died in battle, are so exhausted by hunger that they are glad to be deceived and cannot distinguish a magical mirage from reality. The presented fragment of the poem shows the demonesses as comic characters.