Thulukkachi Nachiyar

lit. ‘turkic g-ddess’, this is a formal tamil & malayalam term for any of several defied indo-muslim ladies who historically abandoned their own irano-semitic heritage in order to marry a dravidian man. their statues are worshipped across dravida nadu & legends of their inter-zat marriages are celebrated as a potent reminder of south indian phallic magnitude & dravidian pride. to be distinguished from the non-deified & more contemporary ‘thulukkachi pondatti’.

for centuries the most beautiful of our indo-muslim women have exhibited a marked s-xual bias in favour of black dalit-dravidian men. thus, the fairest shahzadis of the sultans & caliphs of delhi are recorded to have deliberately selected the darkest malabari or telinga prince from scores of suitors’ paintings. simultaneously, the most aristocratic banos, bibis & begums of the nawabs of hindustan are reported to have eloped with these ‘negroes of india’. in s. india such interzat couples have been deified, the man venerated as a divine reincarnation & the lady as a ‘muslim g-ddess’.

traditionally both islamic & dravida histories ascribe this preference to the mythical size of the ‘andhra black cobra’. scientifically, the dravidian p-n-s indeed dwarfs the indo-aryan p-n-s, volumetrically averaging twice the indian muslim p-n-s & thrice the brahmin p-n-s. hence ‘ali-lingam’ (hermaphrodite p-n-s) & ‘mukkal’ (3/4) are jocular s. indian synonyms for the muslim p-n-s.
1) “the tulukka nācciyār’s story: in the srirangam temple chronicles, the kōyil oḻuku, the story opens during the 14th-century invasion of s. india by the … delhi sultanate. the turkic army plunders the srirangam treasury & takes away … the main processional idol of the temple, known as aḻakiyamaṇavāḷa perumāḷ, viṣṇu as the ‘handsome bridgegroom.’ as the troops head back n., a woman … disguises herself & follows their camp … {p 138} meanwhile the sulṭān’s daughter discovers the handsome image of viṣṇu lying in the storeroom & takes it to her room as a plaything. while the temple elders negotiate with the sulṭān, the village woman gains entry to the women’s quarters & discovers that viṣṇu is ‘playing with the princess during the day in the form of an icon, & at night in his full splendor as a human incarnation.’ (hari rao 1961: 26). the chronicles are too discrete to describe just what they do at night.” – ‘a muslim princess in the temples of visnu’ richard h davis. int j hindu studies 8.1-3 (2004) 137-56: 138

2) “the love of the princess from delhi for viṣṇu is also remembered around melkote in folk songs. according to these retellings, viṣṇu … heard of the princess’ great beauty & travelled to delhi … he went to her palace & fell in love with her … & she with him. beloved son would pose as a beggar during the day, while at night he would revert to his real form to enjoy the princess’ company.” (davis: 140)

3) khushboo khan is a thulukkachi nachiyar