This is in continuation of the article tracing the
connection between ancient Tamil Pandyans known as Tirayans to pre-Hellenistic
Greece. The previous article in this series can be read HERE
In the previous article, we linked the eye on the
forehead of the Cyclops
to the Shiva cult and from there traced their origins to Kaikkola, an ancient
warrior class who were associated with Skanda or Kumara, the son of Shiva. {Different
sub-sects of Kaikkola exist in Tamilnadu today}. This
Skanda alias Kumara was the king of the Pandyan dynasty in whose times Tamil
language was for the first time refined with grammar and a written script. He was known as “Ugra
Kumara” and known for having subdued the ocean (1) His mother was Meenakshi who was wedded
to Sundaresa (Shiva). Most of the first Tamil Sangam compositions were on him
only, hailing his escapades which are same as what is now known as the myths of
God Skanda aka Subrahmanya. These works are lost now but its contents are known
from references found in other later day Tamil works.
The important feature of relevance to this article
is that the painting of the third eye on the forehead is known to have existed
in ancient Tamil lands. The available reference pertains to description of Goddess
Durga worshiped by hunter communities of the Pandyan lands. Whenever the
community experienced hardships, they used to choose a young girl from among
their clan, decorated her like Durga (called as “KoRRavai”) and worshiped her as Mahishasura-mardhini, the
one who killed Mahisha, the buffalo.
(click on the image to enlarge)
One of the decorative features of this girl was that
an eye was painted on her forehead (2).
This girl was praised as Goddess
Kumari among other names such as Amari, Gowri, Samari, Shooli, Neeli and
KiLai (KiLai is the younger sister of Vishnu who is believed to have been born
as Meenakshi of the Pandyan dynasty. The temple of Meenakshi at Madurai traces
its origins to this Meenakshi who lived in the submerged Madurai of the First
Tamil Sangam). The tradition of Kumari
of Nepal who is also decorated with the third eye in her
forehead is of recent origin, an adaptation of the pre-existing tradition found
in South Indian Pandyan lands.
Nepalese Kumari
The source of this practice in hunter community in
Pandyan land is found in Silappadhikaram which was written 2000 years ago.
Their location was near the Western Ghats. One of the main occupations of these
hunters was stealing cattle and distributing them to the people in their
hamlet. At the end of each stealing expedition, this Goddess who killed buffalo
– Mahisha was worshiped with sacrifices.
It was an accepted practice in olden days for the
hunting community located in the periphery of kingdoms to take care of the
people of the periphery regions. One of the sources of income in times of
distress is to steal the cattle in other man’s land. Those who lost life in
such expeditions were worshiped as Hero stones. The guiding deity for them was
Durga (Mahishasutra mardhini). Buffalo was the sacrificed animal. This practice
was seen throughout the Western Ghats. The Mangs of Maharashtra,
Gujarat and Rajasthan were engaged in these activities which were considered as
heroic about 2000 years ago – as we see in Silappadhikaram. Due to the ease
with which they slaughtered buffalos and cleared the left-overs, they were
called whenever dead buffaloes were to be removed. During the time of British
rule, they were identified as stealing castes and were degraded. But there
existed a time for very many years in the past when this life style was treated
as an accepted one.
The main features of those who lived in Pandyan
lands were worship of Durga, stealing, hunting and leading an easy life with
booze and their women.
Looking into further antiquity, I would say that
worship of Durga existed 1000s of years ago in the sunken parts of Kumari lands
which I would call as Shaka Dweepa, because there comes a description of
a place called Durga-shaila in Sanjaya’s description of Shaka dweepa in Mahabharata
(3) . The location
is near the Equator. In chapter 6 of
Bheeshma parva, the circular Sudharshana Dweepa
of which Bharata varsha is a part, is described. On the two sides of
Sudharshana Dweepa, Naga Dweepa and Kasyapa Dweepa are found as ears of a hare. The Naga
dweepa is Shaka dweepa as per the description of Shaka dweepa given in Chapter
11 of Bheeshma parva. It was the habitable Sundaland in olden days but now
looks fragmented due to submergence. The Kasyapa Dweepa is the region around Caspian Sea and includes Scandinavia that looks like
the ear of the hare.
The Shaka Dweepa is mentioned as Naga Dweepa in
chapter 6 where the description is that of the ears of the hare.
The Ninety Degree ridge of which Andaman and Nicobar
Islands are the peaks above the sea level goes further into Indian mainland
where Nagaland is located.
The underwater ridge called as The Ninety East Ridge
experiences a number of earthquakes
according to scientists. From the
description in Valmiki Ramayana of the southern region and Mahabharata of Saka
Dweepa, it is deduced that many peaks of this ridge were once above the sea
level (4). The name
Naga Dweepa to this part of the world as mentioned in Mahabharata indicates
that there were many caves in this ridge connecting different parts of the
ridge. The presence of place-names like Nagercoil and Nagapattinam in the coasts of Tamilnadu in the direction
of this ridge confirm an early land map of scattered islands on this ridge
occupied by people.
In Chapter 11 of Bheeshma Parva of Mahabharata,
detailed description of Shaka Dweepa is given which concur with the locations
on the Ninety East Ridge and Sundaland together.
Coming to the topic of this narration, Durga shaila
was located to the south of Equator (5). There was the mountain of Raivataka in which the star
Revathi (ζ Piscium) was fixated. This is the region
near the Equator.
This star has an important place in Vedic society as
the Yajna of Athirathram is done when Sun is moving
through the Revathi star. Sun’s transit in this star coupled with this yajna
induces plenty of rainfall.
Mount Syama was located just to the north of
Raivataka. Syama means black. Mahabharata explains that the people living here
were black in colour. To the south of Raivataka was Durga shaila. Durga shaila
means ‘mountain fort’ or ‘hill fort’. By this name, it is known that a fort was
built on this hill (a peak of the Ninety East Ridge) and that it must have been
very famous as to have lent its name to the mountain even before the
Mahabharata times (about
5000 years ago).
One must remember that all these are parts of Shaka
Dweepa whose presiding deity was none other than Lord Shiva. This Dweepa had 7 varshas (countries) -something
similar to the way Tamil texts explain the 2nd Sangam age as having
7 regions each of which were divided into 7 sub-parts. Of interest to us is the
name of the varsha of Raivataka (the country where Raivataka mountain is
situated). It is Kaumara! This name is connected
with Kumara (Skanda), Kumari
(the oft talked Kumari Khandam) and Kaumari –
one of the Sapta Matas (seven mothers)
who is also a personification of Goddess Durga.
According to Mayamatham, Kaumari must be depicted as
having a cock and a spear and is mounted on a peacock. (6) All these three are also associated with
Kumara aka Skanda aka Karthikeya aka Subrahmanya. All these are being
told here because we will see them all in pre-Hellenistic Greece of Tiryns and
Etruria! And we see them in Bharatavarsha (India) too.
The worship of Durga must have started in Durga shaila
and from Durga shaila in an undated past, the worship of Durga could have come
to Tamil lands among the Hunter community and then spread throughout India. Read
here
for my detailed article on this topic. The location of Durga Shaila in the
Indian Ocean makes the tradition of painting a third eye a common practice
among early Pandyans who occupied Indian Ocean habitat. Shiva as the presiding
deity of this region justifies the tradition of painting an eye in the
forehead. I would even wonder whether the practice of wearing sindoor or Tilak
originally sprang from the idea of the third eye of Shiva, the Presiding deity
of Saka Dweepa and got modified later. Even Sita was wearing Tilak on her forehead
(7)
The image of Parvathy, (another name for Durga, the
consort of Shiva, when she is identified as the daughter of the mountain of
Himalayas) found in Uttar Pradesh during Gupta dynasty also sports a third eye
on her forehead.
The description of a single eye on the forehead of
Cyclopes sounds similar to these Hindu traditions. Interesting information is
that similar tradition is found among Etruscans too. The
Etruscan origins date back to 1000 BC in pre-Hellenistic Greece and their name
as Tyrrhēni sounds similar to Tirayan! Their cultural dominance was so
profound that the adjoining sea was known as Tyrrhenian Sea.
The following figurine is from Etruscans.
This is similar to Kumari of Nepal and the
description of the girl decorated as Durga in Silappadhikaram. For a comparison
let us see another image of Kumari of Nepal.
The Etruscan image has the horns and ears of a
buffalo! The Silappadhikaram description of decorating a young girl with a
third eye on her forehead says that she is personified as Mahishasura mardhini
– the slayer of the Mahisha, the buffalo. In Nepal too, buffalos are sacrificed
for this deity. The Etruscan image with the buffalo horns and ears indicate the
presence of the same tradition or a continuity of a tradition by a community
that was displaced from its original home in the Indian Ocean.
The Tirayan Pandyans were dislocated from the Indian
Ocean habitat around 1500 BC. If a group of them had gone to these
Mediterranean regions, they must have carried their culture with them. Etruria is the name of
the region where they were located. Eyittriya (எயிற்றியர்) is
the name of the females of the hunter community who conducted the Kumari
worship in Tamil Pandyan lands. The males were known as Eyinar (எயினர்). Look at the resemblance in the names!
Silappadhikaram which
has a full chapter describing this worship says that they were ancient tribes.
The speciality of this tribe is that they used to count the number of heads
they had cut of their enemies rather than allowing their enemies to count their
heads – meaning to say that they could not be easily defeated by others but
they always succeeded in defeating their enemies by cutting their heads. The
girl from such a community that comes from ancient times was chosen as Kumari /
Durga, so says Silappadhikaram (7)
The Etruscans also were
known for fierce battles and cutting the opponents heads. The Gorgon motif which is a prominent
feature of the Etruscan images is similar to the head of Kali. In Part
3 of this series, a note was made on this.
The Kali face with a
Tilak on the forehead.
Durga shaila means hill
fort. The Etruscan and Tiryn forts were all hill forts. There was no big
advantage from these hills as they were only a few meters high.
Etruscan walled town, Civita di Bagnoregio.
The Durga Shaila
connection is seen in these constructions. Durga shaila was surrounded by water
as it was constructed on a peak of the Ninety East Ridge. The people living in
that ridge would have certainly opted for constructing high on a peak and
surrounded by walls. The same concept must have been running in their minds if
the people from that habitat had shifted to surface region. They had looked out
for hillocks or raised lands and set up their habitats and forts. In India too,
the Kumari worshiping and buffalo sacrificing people had finally settled down
in the Ghats
Many aspects of
Etruscan life bear resemblance to early Tamil’s life. Early Tamils living in
Indian Ocean were tormented by Sea God, Varuna
as they faced sea-floods. Therefore the main festival was Varuna festival
called as “Munneer vizhavu” (முந்நீர் விழவு ). There is mention of
this in a Sangam text that talks about the festival at a place where river
PahruLi joined the sea. (9)This
river existed in the 2nd Sangam age and was submerged in the last
sea-flood (around 1500 BC). (It is because Varuna caused hardships, he was
considered as an Ashura). The image of Varuna is as follows in Vedic pantheon.
He is mounted on Makara.
Similar looking image
is found in Etruscan art too. The animal is supposed to be dolphin.
The man or boy in this
painting is blowing a pipe. Generally Etruscans were known to have liked music
and used musical instruments. The Mangs of India who sacrificed buffalos were
also good at music.
Mang musicians with
pipes and drums (1919 pic)
The kind of music and
dance that accompanied the sacrifice of the goat in Etruscan was similar to how
it was described in Tamil texts – which are associated with Skanda cult called
as “VElan veRiyaattam” (வேலன் வெறியாட்டம்
).
In the above Etruscan image, the person on our left
is playing a drum. This is similar to “PaRai” – by name ‘Thudi-p-paRai’ (துடிப் பறை) which was popular in Skanda cult
for inducing an effect and even trance.
Like this there are many similarities. My purpose here is not to go into
those details but to show that a pre-Hellenistic cult that existed and
influenced Greek Thought later was connected with Tamils who followed Vedic
culture. They took the ideas of this culture from Indian Ocean region to
Greece.
The third eye on the forehead of Cyclopes was an
idea associated with Shiva and Durga cult. The region in the Indian Ocean was
protected by Lord Shiva whose weapon as axe (மழு). The Etruscan kings used axe as their symbol of power and used it to
establish righteousness.
According to Mahabharata, Shanthi Parva, Danda neeti
or the Justice system was first given by Brahma to none other than Shiva, the
presiding deity of Shaka Dweepa. (10). Danda Neeti of Shiva
was the oldest Dharma sastra of the Vedic culture. Manu neeti came much later.
The axe of Shiva is the symbol of his rule. In Vedic lore only two
personalities are associated with the axe. One is Shiva and another is
Parashurama. The association of axe with Etruscan rulers as a show of rulership
and justice lends further credence to the links with early Tamils (Pandyans) whose
family deity was Shiva.
This Shiva transformed into Zeus and his consort as
Hera. Hera was mounted on a peacock, a bird not found and not known in Greece.
Earlier in this article we saw that Kaumari was mounted on a peacock. Along
with Zeus and Hera a whole lot of deities of the Vedic pantheon were remembered
vaguely by that community and passed on down the generations. That is how the
Greeks got hold of the Gods that resemble Vedic Gods. Ares, the son of Zeus and
Hera signifying Mars was but the remembered version of Skanda or Kumara who was
identified with Mars and Mesha (Aries). When there is such great scope for
pre-Hellenistic culture spanning from 1500 BC to 600 BC to have derived their
roots from Vedic system followed by Sangam age Tamils, there is absolutely no
point in the claim of our opponents that Vedic society borrowed the idea of
Mesha from Greeks.
These Etruscans were not at all same as the Greeks.
The genetic studies show them as strangers to that part of the world. They and
those who occupied Tiryns were sea farers and were even thought to be sea
pirates. All this fits with Eyittriya communities under the rulership of
Tirayan Pandyans.
The following is the statue of an Etruscan person who
bears no resemblance to Greek features.
It must also be told here that kings by name "Pandion"
have ruled Greece! The name Pandion is new to them. There is no way to link
that name with any Greek derivative. But the fact is that there existed a king –
considered as a Hero- by name Pandion. There were 2 Pandions as Pandion I and Pandion II. There was a
temple for Pandion in Tiryns and Tiryns is the oldest hill fort site of this
culture that coincides with the period of last deluge in Pandyan habitat in the
Indian Ocean, namely 1500 BC. What explanation our opponents have for this
Pandions? Who were they? Why were known
as Pandions? There is more to tell from
Tamil connection to Greeks than the other way round.
More in the next post.
(continued)
Notes:
1. Four
sources in Tamil literature and Sinnamanur plate inscriptions. The literary
sources are (1)ThiruviLaiyaadal puranam by Thiruvaalavayudaiyaar (6th viruttham
in 21 st chapter)
(2)Silappadhikaaram (11-17-20)
(3) NaLa venbha (chapter on Swayamvaram -137)
(4) Villi Bharatham by Perum dEvanaar(18th verse in the chapter on the 15th day of war).
(2)Silappadhikaaram (11-17-20)
(3) NaLa venbha (chapter on Swayamvaram -137)
(4) Villi Bharatham by Perum dEvanaar(18th verse in the chapter on the 15th day of war).
2. “நுதல் கிழித்து விழித்த இமையா நாட்டத்து” (Silappadhikaram 12- 55)
3. Mahabharata
– 6-11
4. Valmiki
Ramayana 4-41
5. Mahabharata
-6-11
6. Mayamatham
Chapter 36 – 220 to 222
7. Valmiki
Ramayana 5-40-5
8. “இட்டுத் தலையெண்ணும் எயினர் அல்லது
சுட்டுத் தலை போகாத் தொல்குடிக் குமரியை” Silappadhikaram – 12 –
21& 22
9.
Purananuru – 9
10.
Mahabharata – Shanti Parva chapter 58
onwards.
