The cause of death of Tutankhamun, the famous Pharaoh of Egypt's 18th dynasty has now been ascertained through forensic science. Researchers of Cranfield Forensic Institute have said that the injuries in the body of the 19 year old Pharaoh match with a computer simulation of a chariot hitting him when he was on his knees. As a result, his left side ribs and pelvis were shattered and his heart was crushed. Tutankhamun was the only Pharaoh whose body is found without heart. This shows that during mummification, restoration of his heart could not be done as it was shattered beyond repair.
Reading this news in Archaeology news network, I was reminded of the death of the young Cholan prince by the order of his father to have a chariot run over him. The reason for this tragic end was that the prince had accidentally run his chariot over a calf. In order to give justice to the mother cow and to punish his son, the Cholan king ran a chariot over his son. There is record of this incident in many olden Tamil texts but no record of the name of this Cholan king or his son or the time period when this happened. But by what he did, the Cholan king earned a name "Manu neeti chOlan". Manu neeti ascribes maximum punishment to higher varnas for an offense. A king or a prince ought not to have harmed any life but only protected every life under their regime. By having killed a young calf, the prince had to pay by his life. The King who handed out this punishment, stood up to the rule of Manu and hence acquired the title as Manu Neeti Chola.
Recently an inscription found out in Thiruvarur temple, Tanjore confirmed the historicity of this incident and even gave out the name of the Cholan prince as one "Priya Vruddhan" (பிŕ®°ியவிŕ®°ுத்தன்)
This incident carved in stone is seen in Thiruvarur temple and is supposed to have been installed by king Vikrama Chola of the 12th century CE. (Read the report in Tamil here)
The stone sculpture of the chariot hitting the prince in Thiruvarur temple
The inscription gives the narration of the incident in the course of tracing the lineage of one Chandra sekara Adhi Vidangan to whom a grant was made by Vikrama Chola. Chandrasekara's forefather was Ubhaya kulamalan who was the minister in the court of Manu Neeti Chola. The inscription further says that this minister was asked to punish the prince by running the chariot over him. But unable to carry out this order of the king, the minister killed himself with his sword. It was then the king himself ran the chariot over his son. The period of this incident is not known, but this incident is immortalised in post Sangam texts like Pazhamozi nanuru and Silappadhikaram. This episode is folklore in the Tamil society.
Of the 3 dynasties of Tamil lands (Chera, Chola and Pandya), only Cholans had earned the name as Manu neeti cholans. The Thiruvalangadu copper plate inscriptions trace their genealogy to Manu. Until Mandhata, the Cholans shared the same lineage with Rama as told in Valmiki Ramayana. After Mandhata, Muchukuntha's name comes and new names appear until Sibi. Cholans drew their title as Chembian from Sibi. Down the line after Sibi, Cholavarman came to Pumpukar and founded the Chola dynasty.
Thus we find a connection to Manu's lineage for the Cholans. Another Cholan king to have got this title existed at the time river Kavery was brought for the first time from the Kodagu hills in the Western ghats. He killed his 2 sons for having misbehaved with women. His period far outdates known periods of recorded history. A study of the Kavery basin would reveal the time period when it started flowing and would help us to date the period of this king. After that, recently, say about a 1000 years ago, it was KulOtthunga Cholan –I who called himself as one who stood by Manu neeti. This is written in his inscriptions found in a temple at Tanjore.
Coming to Tutankhamun, it is surprising why he must find such an end in the wheels of a chariot. The nature of injuries shows that he was in a kneeling down position.
# Why should a Pharaoh get hit by a chariot first of all?
# Why should he be in a kneel-down position in the route where a chariot was coming?
This looks odd and impossible given his stature as a Pharaoh. The Cholan incident makes me think whether Tutankhamun's end was an intended one – he being made to kneel down and a chariot being made to hit him. If so, why did he get such an end? It also makes me wonder whether a system of punishment of the kind of Manu existed in Egypt at that time.
With these questions in the backdrop, if we look at the period of Tutankhamun, we get some surprising similarities with Vedic practices. It seems the 18th dynasty of Tutankhamun somehow got introduced to the ideas of the Vedic or even Cholan society and followed them.
The 18th dynasty starting from approximately 1500 BC to 1300 BC coincides with the period of growth of civilisation at Tiryns (Tirayans). This period saw the peak of Egyptian civilisation, prosperity and power. Many commercial expeditions were undertaken during this period, making it possible for them to have come into contact with faraway lands on other parts of the globe. India was not far off from Egyptian empire of that time. The marine capabilities of this period made it possible for them to have travelled through Red sea and reach India from the Arabian Sea.
Closer home, Tiryns and Mycenaean were brimming with glory during the same time. In my upcoming article, I will be explaining this side of the story of Tiryns. But the fact of the matter is that the Egyptian kings and Mycenaeans of the same period did not seem to have had any rivalry. This is surprising unless they enjoyed some common thread between them to keep up the goodwill. The common thread is that they both acquired the legacy of Vedic culture.
It was during the reign of this 18th dynasty, a major and conscious change in the religious belief was made. It has been acknowledged by historians that contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the kingdom during this period. An important change witnessed in this period was that the king came to be called as Pharaoh, which was originally a compound word of 'pr-aa'. This sounds similar to "Para" of Vedic thought which signifies the Ultimate God, the one who is omni-present. The Pharaoh was also considered as God.
This title was for the first time used to address, Tutankhamun's father, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). (Amenhotep sounds like Amara Devan / Amardev). He was instrumental in introducing a new cult of Sun worship which they called as Aten, with the result that the king himself came to be called as Akhenaten. It is also spelt as Echnaton which sounds similar or Eka Nathan. Sun as the one and only luminous body being responsible for life of / on earth, it is suitable to call it as Eka Nathan.
The name Aten refers to the disk of sun which is similar in sound to a Tamil word Athan. (ஆதன்) This is Sangam age word commonly found in names of poets and kings (Vaazhi Athan, Athan azhisi, Athanungan, Paali Athan) and places (Adhanur- vaishnavite Divya Desam). Athan in Tamil means blind person. Why should people have a name as Athan if it means blind? The probable reason is derived from Bhaga, one of the 12 Adityas. There is a Puranic lore that says that in his fury to destroy Daksha-yaaga, Shiva ordained Veerabhadra to attack the Adityas. Three of the Adityas, namely Aryama, Pusha and Bhaga were attacked by Veerabhadra. Of them Bhaga lost his sight in the attack. (1)
This idea that Bhaga is blind has found resonance in the Sangam age poem of Kaliththogai (25) (2) where the blind king Dhritharashtra is compared with Bhaga. In reality Bhaga is the name given to the sun when in a year, the sun scorches the earthlings without any discrimination. It is as though Bhaga is blind and therefore fails to discriminate good from bad and sheds heat on everyone alike. Such a person is Athan, the blind one. Since the reference is to Sun, people of Sangam age had taken up this name for themselves. In Tamil there is another similar word for Sun, as Athavan (ஆதவன்). It is possible that this name got shortened to Athan.
The adoption of the name Athan by the Egyptian Pharaoh and its identification with Sun as the sole God, makes me wonder whether the Egyptian king got this idea and indoctrination from Pumpukar, the sea shore capital of Cholans of that time or the western coast of Tamil lands where Cheran names such as Vaazhi Athan were in common use. The seafaring people would have become the carriers of these ideas from Tamil lands to Egypt.
The striking similarity with Sun of Vedic lore is that the Aten of Egypt, rode on his chariot! This is found mentioned in the city of Akhetaten which is popularly known as Amarna. This city was founded by Tutankhamun's father, Akhenaten in his bid to popularise the new faith Aten, that he had introduced. The description written in the burial site in this city states that the Pharaoh Akhenaten mounted on a chariot like his God Aten, the Sun who drove across the sky.
"His Majesty mounted a great chariot of electrum, like the Aten when He rises on the horizon and fills the land with His love, and took a goodly road to Akhetaten, the place of origin, which [the Aten] had created for Himself that he might be happy therein." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna )
A similar reference to Sun travelling in a chariot in the sky is found in Amarna letters of the same period.
""Hale like the Sun..."
"And know that the King-(pharaoh) is Hale like the Sun in the Sky. For his troops and his chariots in multitude all goes very well...."—See: Endaruta, for the Short Form; See: Milkilu, for a Long Form. Also found in EA 99: entitled: "From the Pharaoh to a vassal". (with addressee damaged)"
This description is a significant clue because the Sun God of Egypt has always been Ra who used to travel on a boat and not in a chariot!
Ra on the Solar boat.
The Egyptian faith that was in existence until this king introduced Aten had Ra as the Sun God. It must be noted that there was no connection of a chariot with Ra or any other God. Sun as a traveller in the sky in a chariot is very much a Vedic thought which was totally absent in Egypt until Aten was introduced by Akhenaten whose period is dated between 1352 and 1334. This idea of Sun as Aten was alien to Egypt and hence it is deduced that he received this idea from somewhere in India. The probable location could have been Cholan or Tamil lands, given that a name with similar phonetic sound existed there.
A striking similarity with Tamil culture is that the King was considered as God and his palace was also called as temple (Koyil). The King and the queen enjoyed primacy. Similar thought was introduced by Akhenaten. Researchers working on the hymns of Aten say that the focus was on the King who had a primary connect with Aten and served as an intermediary between the people and Aten. One can see many Tamil verses of the Sangam age depicting this feature. The hierarchy is such that God blesses the king and the King blesses the subjects. There are ritualistic lines in many poems hailing the king as their protector who in turn was protected God. Similar idea was introduced in Atenism. Egyptologists think that Atenism redefined the relationship of god and king in a way that benefited Akhenaten. It was said that "Amarna religion was a religion of god and king, or even of king first and then god."
Egypt was not new to worship of the sun. Already Ra worship was there. Karnak had a temple for Sun. Inspite of these that Akhenaten had thought of introducing the same Sun with a different set of rules as Sun-only-for- worship shows that he had come into contact with the idea of sun worship that was in existence in Vedic culture. In common parlance it was called as Saura worship. But philosophically speaking, it was called as "Madhu Vidya" by Upanishads and Brahma Sutras. In Madhu Vidya, the worshiper "meditates on the Light of Light as life and immortality" (Br. Upa. IV. Iv. 16) which is the Sun. (Brahma Sutra commentary by Ramanujacharya = 1-3-30, 31 & 32). Such meditation will be exclusive on the Sun with the total rejection of other deities. Then only such mediation would bear fruits. Atenism as promoted by Akhenaten is similar to this concept.