Mariamman in the context of "Weather god"

Kattaikkuttu [கட்டைக்கூத்து] is a rural, Tamil-language based, physical and vocal form of ensemble theatre form practised in the State of Tamil Nadu in South India. It is a form of Kūttu (also spelled as Koothu), a theatre art that originated in early Tamilakam, though we are not sure what exactly the form and content of this theatre. The performers – by tradition only men – sing, act and dance and the musicians accompany them on the harmonium, the mridangam and dholak, and the mukavinai. The terms Terukkūttu [தெருக்கூத்து which translates as street theatre] and Kaṭṭaikkūttu are often used interchangeably. However, historically the two terms appear to have distinguished, at least in certain villages, between two different kinds of performance: while Terukkuttu referred to mobile performances by two actors participating in a procession for the village deity Mariamman, Kattaikkuttu denotes overnight, narrative performances at a fixed performance space acted by an ensemble of about fifteen actors and musicians.

The Coast Veddas (Tamil: கரையோர வேடர்கள், romanized: Karaiyōra Vēṭarkaḷ, Sinhala: වෙරළේ වැද්දන්, romanized: Veraḷē Væddan), by self-designation, form a social group within the minority Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic group of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. They are primarily found in small coastal villages from the eastern township of Trincomalee to Batticalao. Nevertheless, they also inhabit a few villages south of Batticalao as well. They make a living by fishing, slash and burn agriculture, paddy cultivation of rice, basket weaving for market and occasional wage labor. Anthropologists consider them to be partly descended from the indigenous Vedda people, as well as local Tamils. Residents of the Eastern province consider their Vedar (Tamil for "hunter") neighbors to have been part of the local social structure from earliest times, whereas some Vedar elders believe that their ancestors may have migrated from the interior at some time in the past.

They speak a dialect of Sri Lankan Tamil that is used in the region. During religious festivals, people who enter a trance or spirit possession sometimes use a mixed language that contains words from the Vedda language. Most Vedar are Hindu Saivites and worship a plethora of folk deities, as well as the main Hindu deities such as Murugan, Pillaiyar and Amman. They also maintain the ancestor worship tradition of the interior Veddas. Clan divisions, if they still exist, do not play an important role in choosing of marriage partners or place of domicile. Most identify themselves as a caste among the Tamils as opposed to a separate ethnic group. Their economic conditions have been impacted by the Sri Lankan civil war.

Hindu religion and culture in Singapore can be traced to the 7th century AD, when Temasek was a trading post of Hindu-Buddhist Srivijaya empire. A millennium later, a wave of immigrants from southern India were brought to Singapore, mostly as coolies and indentured labourers by the British East India Company and colonial British Empire. As with Malay peninsula, the British administration sought to stabilise a reliable labour force in its regional plantation and trading activities; it encouraged Hindus to bring family through the kangani system of migration, settle, build temples and segregated it into a community that later became Little India.

There are currently about thirty main Hindu temples in Singapore. There were an estimated 172,963 Hindus in Singapore according to the 2020 Census constituting 5.0% of the Singapore's resident population. Almost all Hindus in Singapore are ethnic Indians (99%), with some who have married into Hindu families. Hinduism peaked at 5.5% of the total population in 1931.