The 18-day Koovagam festival, a grand celebration for the transgender community, is underway in the Koovagam hamlet in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district.
Following the beauty pageant, the event of thali-tying was held on May 2 in the evening as part of this popular festival. Many transgender people, assuming Lord Aravan as their spouse, performed the thali-tying ritual.
Originally hailing from Virudhachalam in Tamil Nadu, Transwoman Priya from Mumbai spoke to News18. She said that she had attended the Koovagam festival for the third year in a row.
“We view the Koovagam festival as a means of letting go of our losses and hardships. We eventually appeal to society to accept us, as this festival is something we anticipate every year,” Priya added.
Another transwoman Rekh, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, said that she has been visiting Villupuram for 20 years to worship Lord Aravan during the Koovagam festival.
“Neither our mother nor our father is with us, so it’s soothing to meet our community people and friends at this festival. We appeal to the Tamil Nadu government to assist us by providing food, shelter and restrooms during the annual festival,” Rekha said.
The history behind the thali-tying ritual goes back to the era of Mahabharata, which claims that Arjuna’s son Lord Aravan is not his biological child. In exchange for getting married first, he agrees to be offered as a sacrifice to Goddess Kali to end the battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas.
As nobody wants to marry a man who is about to be sacrificed, Lord Krishna takes the form of Mohini and marries him. After the ritual, he surrenders himself voluntarily to the goddess.
Subsequently, it is commonly claimed that Sri Krishna’s Mohini avatar was given to him for this marriage, and so transgender people are said to be the ‘Aspect of Lord Krishna’.
Transgender women regard Aravan as their spouse and tie the thali (Mangalsutra) with the priest’s hands. Today’s ‘Koothandavar Chariot’ has taken place which is considered to be the conclusion part of the popular festival, where the transgender people remove their thali and don white saris to indicate the sacrifice of Lord Aravan.
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