Aravanअरावान्

Aravan (अरावान्) is a hero of the Mahabharata, the son of Arjuna and the serpent princess Ulupi, who in Tamil tradition became a god. Known in his cult as Kūttāṇṭavar, he is worshipped principally in the Villupuram region of northern Tamil Nadu, and he holds a singular place in Indian religion as the divine bridegroom of the Aravani, the Tamil transgender community, who take their very name from his.

The tradition

Tamil tellings of the epic give Aravan a decisive role: before the great war he offered himself in kalappali, sacrifice to the goddess Kali, to secure victory for the Pandavas. Tradition grants him boons in return, among them a heroic death, the ability of his severed head to watch the entire war, and, most consequentially, marriage before his death. Since no woman would wed a man doomed to die at dawn, Krishna assumed the female form Mohini, married Aravan for a single night, and mourned him as a widow. It is the head of Aravan, large-eyed and moustached, that is worshipped in his temples and carried in his processions.

Koovagam

The centre of his cult is the village of Koovagam in Villupuram district, where the annual festival in the Tamil month of Chittirai (April–May) re-enacts the divine marriage. Aravanis travel from across Tamil Nadu and beyond; each is married to the god by the temple priest, receiving the marriage badge in his name, and after the ritual death of Aravan they break their bangles and mourn as his widows. The festival, which has grown into one of the largest annual gatherings of transgender people in India, is at once a religious observance of standing and an important public occasion for the community. Aravan also figures as a guardian deity in the temples of the Draupadi Amman cult, whose festival cycle stages his sacrifice.