Mythos of Caste Hierarchy: A Critical Study of Parayipetta Panthirukulam

Myths are often regarded as the fictional articulations of the aspirations of a collective unconscious. They represent the attempts of humanity to find answers for the existential enigmas that haunt them. The folklore of Parayipetta Panthirukulam, in this sense, has played a pivotal role in our culture. The story of the couple Vararuchi (Brahmin) and Panchami (Paraya woman), and the widely disseminated mythical stories of their twelve children who were brought up in twelve different castes, play a significant cultural role in addressing serious social issues such as casteism and untouchability, and offer a solution in the form of the principle of universal brotherhood. The paper is an attempt to examine the etiological function of Parayipetta Panthirukulam as a social critique.