The Disputed Civets and the Complexion of the God in South India

Civet is an extremely pungent, fatty secretion of a gland found near the anus of the civet cat. This peculiar material is not mentioned in early South Asian sources on perfumery and aromatics, though it does appear in texts dating from the later medieval period, where it is represented as a stinking material derived from a cat. Using mainly Sanskrit texts as sources, this paper first presents a short history of civet in South Asia, examining how this strange material was incorporated into the discourses of medicine, perfumery, and into Hindu liturgies. Nowadays civet is still used in the rituals of the large, wealthy temple of Lord Venkateshvara at Tirupati in South India. Here civets used to be kept to provide materials for an anointing ritual that is claimed to maintain the stone of the temple icon smooth and free from cracks. Recently, however, these civets were confiscated by the local wildlife authorities, and this caused a row between the local government and the extremely wealthy, powerful temple management. Having explored civet in South Asia this paper will then consider how, in this dispute, texts and traditions—a sacred history of civet—have been cited in order to justify the return of the temple civets, so necessary to maintain the complexion of the god.