The Mischievous Child Kept as a Household Secret

Shiva took the form of a tribal man and went into the forest, and there he was with a woman of that forest, and she bore him a son.

The boy was given a grand name. Vishnumaya, the illusion of Vishnu.

Nobody calls him that.

What people call him says more. Kutti means a child, a small boy. Put it in front of Chathan, which is his own name, and you get Kuttichathan. Little Chathan.

He earned it honestly. He is small and round, he looks about fourteen, and he is never going to look any older than that. He does not age.

What he is for, and what he is like

Kuttichathan is a kshetrapala, a guardian. He looks after households and territory, and people go to him for prosperity and for blessing, the way they go to guardians all over Kerala.

But he is not like the others, and the difference is sitting in that grand name nobody uses.