Abstract
Pancha Pakshi Shastra is one of Tamil Nadu’s traditional systems of time reckoning. Its basis is choosing the right time for an action from the activity states of five birds: the vulture (valluru), owl, crow, cock and peacock. Focusing on the crow (kaaga pakshi), this study examines ethnographically how practitioners, and the people who say they choose times on its basis, put the belief into practice in their everyday decisions.
The study works on five levels: (1) textual explanations of the crow bird, (2) time-selection practices, (3) the influence of family tradition, (4) narratives of experience and (5) differences between generations. It sets out a research framework located in the Erode, Tiruppur and Coimbatore areas of the Kongu region, using participant observation, in-depth interviews and life-history narratives.
The central hypothesis is that the rules of the traditional texts are not followed unchanged in practice; they are reinterpreted through the practitioner’s explanation, family custom, the needs of one’s occupation and new media such as mobile phone apps. The study does not set out to judge the belief as true or false; its aim is to understand it as a cultural tool that people create to face uncertainty.
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