Abstract:
This study sets its background in which depressed caste groups and high caste groups who
maintain non-Agamic temples in their communities have been engaging in the process of
Sanskritization. Overall objective of the study is to describe the tendencies of the process of
Sanskritization followed by high and depressed caste communities and its implications on the
religious situations. This descriptive study is based on ethnographic details collected from four
non-Agamic Amman temples in Batticaloa district. Depressed caste community people did not
want to change the non-Agamic rites in their temples though they changed the architecture of the
shrines because other caste people came to their temples without considering untouchability and
this tendency is seen by them as a reputation for their community people. The high caste
communities wanted to emulate the agamic rituals than changing the architecture. Sanskritization
of architecture in non-Agamic temples is intended to make meaningful changes in the perceptions
of people and therefore, functions of the symbols are not depended on the whole system of the
temple ritual; symbols can be understood separately from the entire temple system. Symbols in
rituals bear certain meanings and it could be understood in relation to religious needs and the
interpretation of the religious experience of the people. As the religious situations are formed and
determined by the devotees, the symbolic meaning of their experiences is interpreted by them.
