The name Pandion, the eponymous hero of ancient Greece
sounds similar to the Pandyan dynasty of ancient Tamils. There was a statue for
this Pandion in Tiryns according to Greek traveller Pausanias.
Of all the sites of archaeological antiquity of pre- Greek civilisation, Tiryns is the oldest one dating
back to 1500 to 1200 BC. The walls of the hill-fort in Tiryns were made of
massive stone blocks supposedly built by Cyclopes who had an “eye on the
forehead”. In the previous articles, we saw information on them linking them to
the Tamil – Vedic culture of Shiva worship. The thrust of these articles and
the current one is that Greek Thought owed its existence to the culture and
Thought brought to Greece by the people of this period (1500 BC and later). The
people of this period bear similarity to the ancient Tamils who occupied the
now-submerged regions of Indian Ocean.
One of the proofs is
the massive walls of huge boulders. The techniques and capability of lifting
massive boulders to build walls were not exclusive Cyclopean traits but are
seen in Australia, Easter Islands and in Peru in South America. It has been
found out that New South Wales in Australia is dotted with many pre-historic
sites of such walls made of boulders. Take a look at the stone walls in NSW
Australia which have come to notice recently.
Compare with this
with Cyclopean walls shown below.
From New South Wales to Easter Island, not much difficulty
is there for this boulder culture to have travelled. The Easter Island may not
have had walls made of boulders, but it does have huge monolithic stone
carvings which cannot be moved by ordinary muscle power. Take a look.
The next stop from Easter Island is Peru where exists walls
of huge boulders, similar to Cyclopean walls. Take a look at Saksaywaman walls in Peru.
These locations showing massive boulder architecture passes
through South Indian Ocean. Take a look at the illustration below.
The Tamil / Pandyan / Tirayan (Tirayan
is another name for Pandyans. It means ‘sea-farer’) had their existence for
more than 10,000 years in the scattered islands of Indian Ocean. Those habitats
were completely submerged in the last sea- flood that occurred around 1500 BC.
The Pandyan king and some of his
subjects managed to survive and shifted to South Indian mainland, though parts
of the south Indian mainland were already under the rule of Pandyan Kings.
During that catastrophe many people of the Pandyan regions got dispersed. NSW
Australia, Easter Island and Peru sector show this stone culture later to this
submergence. The Cyclopean walls of Tiryns also are post dated to this
submergence, but show signs of immediate migration of some powerful Tirayan
lords of the Pandyan clan.
Another important proof of this migration is the presence of
Conch shells – an important item of the Vedic culture and which is important to
Pandyans too – in the artwork. Take a look at this Mycenaean stemmed cup dated
at 1350 to 1300 BC
Look at the decoration on the shells. This kind of decorated
shells (called as Shanku / Conch) is common in Vedic society. These shells have
a special place in worship of deities. Until a century ago, people in Vedic
culture were using shells to bath the deities with water or milk in their daily
worship. The water or milk was kept in stemmed cups like the one above. Take a
look at this painting made in the 19th century of Hindu life life "From Mrs. S. C. Belnos's celebrated work
"Sundhya," published in London, 1851." (web
link here)
Look at the corbelled wall structure behind him. This
corbelled structure found in Cyclopean masonry in Tiryns is already found in Mohenjo-Daro
5000 years ago (see
here )
Coming to the Mycenaean stemmed cup, the cup with a liquid
(water or milk in the Vedic culture) and the conch shell as a vessel to fetch the
liquid from that cup for the purpose of bathing the deity is an ancient concept
of the Vedic society. These two – stemmed cup and the conch shell – go together.
This kind of bathing the deity is known as “Shankabhishekam” – bathing by
shell. This concept must have first started in a sea-side habitat of the Vedic
society. The abundant availability of
these shells is a pre-requisite for this tradition to come in place. How was this combination known to the artisans
of Greece of 13th century BC?
Let me show some of the similar looking decorated shells used in temples in
Vedic society.
The following is the shell covered with silver that is used
to bath Lord Skanda in Thiruchendur temple in Tamilnadu. Look at the sharp tips
on both the ends. The Mycenaean shell is decorated in a similar way.
This idea was so ingrained in the Vedci society that babies
fed using these shells only. Until a generation ago, the new born babies were
fed with this kind of shells in the Hindu society. Even today shell shaped cups
called as “Paalaadai” made of metals like silver are used as part of tradition
to feed to the new-born babies. This continues in Tamil society even today.
Take a look at the “Paalaadai”.
The image appearing
in the stemmed cup goes well with the idea of milk cups from which milk is
taken in shells to feed the kids. But there is a larger relevance to this cup
having shell designs. Before knowing that let us see whether this kind of
shells are native to seas near Greece.
The shape of this shell painted in that stemmed cup shows
that it is Indian Ocean variety (Turbinella_pyrum).
This variety is in use in India. In contrast, the Atlantic Ocean variety (Busycon contrarium) is
blunt on top and not like the above looking shell. Take a look at the Atlantic
variety.
The Mediterranean Sea is not known to have produced the kind
of shells as painted in that cup. The Tamil Pandyans as sea-bound settlers in
early Sangam periods, were known for shell-diving. Lord Shiva, their presiding
deity was supposed to be adorned with ear ornament made of Shell. Thus these
shells were in widespread use among commoners and for religious purposes in
South Asia, in the Vedic culture. Only a
sea-bound community which uses this kind of decorated shells could have made
the above shown cup with shell- painting.
Coming to the shape of the stemmed cup, it is generally
thought that these cups are widely in use in Europe and in Greece. But this is
the most common cup of the Vedic society used in temples and for religious and
Vedic purposes. These stemmed cups come in three different sizes, namely small
earthen cups known as “Paalika”, medium shaped cups known as Kalanji-kamba and
huge vessels for filling waters or cooked food in temples. The Mycenaean
stemmed cup comes in the medium variety.
That this cup (whatever size it may have) is purely Vedic
related, cannot be disputed. The small ones, known as Paalika
are used in many Vedic functions, both temple festivals and family
functions like marriage or upanayanan (getting initiated into Brahmacharya /
wearing sacred thread). They are used for "AnkurArppaNam"
which means “growing the sprouts” or sowing the seeds. These stemmed cups can
be made of any precious metals or simply mud. Sage Atri has given the details
of the shape, size and details of this cup and how seeds must be grown in that.
In all Vedic marriages, seeds are grown in 5 Paalikas. A
married woman filling the grains in 5 Paalikas in a marriage is shown below.
The cups have a stem and are smaller in size.
There are Veda mantras used to install the 4 directional
deities like Indra, Yama etc in four cups and Brahma in the middle Cup
(Paalika). The grains grown in the Paalikas would be ceremoniously added into
running water after marriage. The Paalika cups cannot be destroyed but kept in
safe custody to be used in another occasion. In temple festivals this is a
grand part of the Vedic rituals.
The second variety of cups are medium shaped and are used
for keeping perfumed or medicated items used for temple puja / worship. They
are called as Kalanji-kambha in Kerala
temples.
They are used to store Kumkum for archana in Tamilnadu
temples. They are also used to store aromatic water as an offering to deities which
was also distributed to the devotees. This stemmed cup was there in every house
as a Puja vessel. (for worship). Take a look at this 1851 painting showing
Hindu way of worship.
Take a look at this stemmed cup used for Goddess Ranganayaki
in Srirangam temple, Tamilnadu.
The following photo shows a collection of temple vessels
from Central India. The medium shaped stemmed cup can be seen.
This cup is a very common one in most of the South
Indian temples. The following pic shows
the deities of the famous Thiruvannamalai temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Look
at the stemmed cups in front of the deity.
The name of these cups sounds similar to Greek names for
these stemmed cups. The
Greek name for these cups is Kylix.
Kylix were popular in the Mycenaean period of 1400 to 1200 BCE. It is believed
that these cups were used for drinking wine, an intoxicating item.
The Malayalam word for these types of cups “Kalanjkambha” is derived from Tamil word “KaLanji + Kambam”.
KaLanjam means “Intoxicants”
and “KaLanjiyam” means “place for things” (mostly edible ones). Kambam means “pillar”.
It is used to refer to the stem of the cup. Perfumed things
used for Puja and things such as Tulsi (holy leaves) and holy powders such as
Kumkum, sandal, turmeric, cardamom powder etc are kept in these cups. Aromatic
water (eg- mixed with cardamom power) was kept in this cup and used while offering
food to the deity. This water was also distributed to the devotees.
This idea of the Vedic society had gone to Tiryns / Mycenae
as early as 13th century BC. The use of this cup in successive
periods in Europe had centred on drinking intoxicants. But its religious
purpose was remembered as seen from its use as Chalice .
One can see a similar looking stemmed cups to offer perfumed
smoke or incense to God in Karnak sun temple of Egypt.
The similar KaLanji cup is used obviously for showing the
perfumed / incense smoke to God in Vedic society. This is common sight in South
Indian temples too. The usage is in Vedic ritual. The name has been there in
Tamil that has a deep antiquity. The Greek name resembling the Tamil name and
the usage of these cups in Tiryns period gives another proof of our contention
that people had migrated to Greece from Tamil regions in the Indian Ocean.
The 3rd type of stemmed cup is large and is very
much in use in all olden temples in Tamilnadu. Even today one can see it in old
temples kept near the deity. The main purpose was to store water. Look at the
huge stemmed vessel made of silver belonging to the famous Srirangam temple in
the picture below. The conch shaped vessel also is shown with an arrow mark..
During the bathing ceremony of the deity, water would be
filled in the huge stemmed vessel. The Conch shaped vessel would be immersed in
that water to fill it and then poured on the deity through the nozzle. This
tradition is antiquated and cannot be said that Greek vessels were replicated
in Indian temples. May be our opponents would have said so had they known the
similarity. Everything or every practice
in the Vedic culture comes with a rationale. Bathing the deity with shanku or
conch – known as Shankabhisheka-
is a special ritual. The water is collected from holy rivers and tanks for
bathing the deity. The huge stemmed vessels are used for storing that water. The
stem or Kambam (in Tamil) helps in keeping the vessel elevated so that the
priest could easily take the water with the conch vessel and pour it on the
deity in quick succession. In olden days they did not use any bench or table
inside the sanctum sanctorum to keep the vessels elevated. (Today they do so).
The stemmed cup helps in storing water or ritual items within hand’s reach.
The Mycenaean cup with conch design, looking similar to
these vessels and their use with conches in temples, shows the connection to
the Vedic society and Tamils in particular - in having its name Kylix, closer to Tamil word KaLanjam! The use of Kylix
degenerated in course of time to serve wine and liquor.
KaLanjiyam refers to edible things. The same vessels are in
use in temples for storing food items also. The following photograph shows
temple cook carrying this vessel. He and others are seen going around the
temple with cooked food in their vessels to be offered to all the deities
installed in the temple. This is from the famous Srivilliputthur temple in
Tamilnadu.
Thus we can see specific uses for the stemmed cups in Vedic
culture. The usage had been remembered with the associated shells by the
Pre-Greek society but got degenerated in course of time into the idea of
serving intoxicating beverages in the Greek society. Later it had a rebirth in Christian faith. Which
came first, Vedic or Mycenaean? Who got it from whom?
An item of temple use and Vedic use from small Palikas to
huge stemmed vessels, the logical deduction is that many Vedic rituals, Vedic
ideas and Vedic deities had gone to Greece along with migrant Tirayans.
As if to show this is true, there stands a testimony in
Tiryns in the form of a great hall called in Greek as Megaron. We will analyse that
in the next post.
(continued)
