Hunt without hunting : the reflexivity of all the stories behind Paruveta (Hunting Festival/Procession) in Ahobilam

The article discusses the composite storyline behind the forty-day-long Hunting Festival/Procession (Paruveta), held annually in the Śrīvaiṣṇava centre of Narasiṃha (the Man–Lion incarnation of Viṣṇu) worship in Ahobilam (Andhra Pradesh) from the mid-January onwards, as a medium which-in the framework of a Hindu temple festival-expresses the coexistence of various groups at the site. As I argue, the scenario’s reflexivity (in the sense inspired by Ramanujan 1989) is instrumental in this regard, and is achieved in answer to local beliefs related to the Chenchu hunter–gatherer concepts of hunting and the forest. However, as the product of mutual influences aimed at expressing the reconcilement of the local and the Brahmanic communities, the myth behind Paruveta highlights chiefly the erotic aspect of the ritual hunt, aspect which is brought about through creative reference to the locally rooted legend of Narasiṃha marrying a Chenchu huntress he met in the forest near Ahobilam