• Mysore Narasimachar Srinivas published a book called ‘Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India’. It put forward a new approach to study Hinduism. Srinivas took two aspects to distinct various sociological aspects. These distinctions are – field view and book view. He advocated field viewwhich helps in observing and examining things more clearly.
• According to him, we cannot isolate religious beliefs completely from our life. Religious factors always correlate with social norms and values. No religion is autonomous or eternal. He provides an approach for those who do not regard religion as pure and society as corrupt. They have blind faith in intangible things which are not practically accepted. For him, Hinduism is not solitary and inseparable. According to regional transformation, it goes on changing. This field view of his ideology gives a perfect picture of how religious practices and norms are making everybody more engaged with societal norms especially in the case of Coorgs.
• His second distinction, i.e., the book viewof Hinduism has many impediments. This view was accepted by almost every believer. This was based on our historical texts. But those texts are away from the real picture of religion and give false understanding. Those texts were based on idealism but in reality away from realism. Whereas the field view takes us closer to the actual practices prevalent in reality, like caste and joint family.

M.N Srinivas closely observed the social life of the Coorg, particularly their religious beliefs and practices. He argued that religious rituals and beliefs strengthen unity in the Coorg society at various levels.

For a Coorg Hindu, there are three important social institutions.

• They are the okka, the village and the caste.
• Almost all Coorg are members of one or the other okka. Okka is a patrilineal group.
• The village is a cluster of several okka and within the village-there are a number of hierarchically arranged caste groups.

Religion performs specific functions for these three social institutions.

• Most important function of all is the solidarity function. Each okka has a special set of rituals which are performed during festival and other ceremonial occasion.
• In the same way, village celebrate the festival of their patron deity and perform certain rituals.
• The village festival marks the differences between castes but also bring them together.
• At the same time, they bring together several Coorg villages.

Solidarity of the Okka

• Okka is a patrilineal grouping as mentioned earlier. Srinivas writes “A group of agnatically related males who descended from a common ancestor and their wives and children” constitute an okka. Only by birth one can become a member of the okka. In the society at large, individuals are generally identified by their okka.
• Each okka has ancestral immovable property which is normally not divided. A person is prohibited from marrying within the okka. In other words, marriage is generally a bonding of two unrelated okka. A person can be a member of only a single okka at a time.Members of the okka live and grow together. They perform many rituals in unison.
• According to Srinivas “the unity and solidarity of an okka find expression in ritual”.

Village and Caste Solidarity

• The social differences in the village community are expressed during village festivals, when members of different castes serve different functions.
• The collective dance and hand canalise the inter-okka rivalry present in the village, thereby preventing the destruction of social order, observed Srinivas
• villagers take a vow collectively to observe certain restrictions till the end of festivals. The restrictions include prohibition of today drinking and slaughter of animals within the village boundary. The prescriptions include keeping the houses clean, lighting the sacred wall-lamp of the house, and joining the singing and dancing. At the end of the village festival, there is a dinner for the entire village. This village dinner is called urorme or village harmony.
• Caste finds an expression in the village festival. Srinivas point out the instance of Ketrappa festival in Bengur. During the festival the high caste members bring fowls and pigs as offering to the deity. The fowls are beheaded by a Coorg and the pigs by a Panika. Only a Meda can decapitate the offerings presented by the lower castes.
• To take another example, when festivals of certain deities are celebrated, it is customary for certain temples located in other villages to send gifts. Thus religious festivals and rituals unite caste, okka and village of the Coorg society.