There is a phrase in Tamil “ nuni-p-pul mEithal” (நுனிப் புல் மேய்தல்) meant for
referring to people who just graze here
and there but claim to have imbibed great knowledge. Reading the article on Singbonga of
Mundas I find that this phrase is perfectly made for the self-proclaimed sympathiser
of Vedic cause who does not believe in the historicity of Rama and doesn’t
even think that Vyasa ever existed and never loses a chance to abuse the
believers of these basic views of the Vedic society as “madhouse”, as people
with “profoundly wrong-headed nationalism” and those with “Hindu nationalistic
lack of logic”. Knowing our country and
its culture that had come up through countless ages as to be part of a billion
plus people today, cannot happen by reading here and there or talking to some
people of the present times or from comparison of religions. Without being born
in this culture or part of this culture or grown up in this culture and have
observed all around, it is not possible to make meaningful deductions from what
we see in this country. Mr Koenraad Elst had attempted to do that on the basis
of - all the things in the world – the Christian Missionary studies on “The
religious life of the Sarna tribes” the motive of which need not be explained
to us - the “mad-house” people of Hindu Nationalism. The funny part of that essay by
him is that in his hurried grazing
(nuni-p-pul meithal), Mr Elst had overlooked an important custom of the Mundas
– a concept that we have been stoutly defending as originally Vedic – is their
knowledge of rashis!
Everyone including Mr Elst would agree that Mundas have been
secluded from the rest of the country and had been living in isolation for ages
even before the so-called “Aryanisation” penetrated India or before the Mundas
got exposed to outside world which happened only after the British came to
India. One of the main festivals of Mundas is the birth ceremony called “Narota” festival that is celebrated after 9 days
(night nights perhaps – going by the name Narota – nava – rathri– Sanskrit
word!). On that occasion they name the child based on the rashi it is born!
Narota festival in a family of Mundas at Dhatinakhali.
(The inputs and photographs produced in this article are
based on the research study on Mundas’ traditional water management techniques,
titled “Social water management among Munda people in
the Sundarban” done by Chiara Perucca and Krishnapodo
Munda under the auspices of University of
Liberal Arts, Bangladesh – ULAB).
On the birth ceremony of the Munda child done after the 9th
day or if not, after 11th and 13th day, the naming is
done after ‘consultation with the rashi (horoscope)’. How was this possible
given that they were secluded from rest of the society for quite so long, say,
even before Alexander ‘annexed’ Indian territories that paved the way for
Indian rishis to go to Greece and borrow the names and concepts of rashis from the Greeks – as per the
pet concept of the Indologists?
There are specific ceremonies on this day similar to shuddhi
ceremonies as done in any family following Vedic culture. One strange ceremony
on this day involves the grandparents to predict whether they would have cordial
relationship with the new born. It is on this day the naming of the child is also
done. The important info is that the name is chosen on the basis of the rashi
the child is born. How did they know about the rashis? Did someone teach them
after learning them from Greeks in post- Alexander period? Or did they
themselves mingle with the urban society and learn from them how to find out
the rashi of their new born?
No foreigner is ready to attribute anything Vedic to
Mundas. They are keen on separating Mundas from main stream India and Vedic
culture. They are the ones who are keen on calling them as tribes and original
inhabitants who pre-dated the Indian ancestors of the present folks. If that is
true how come they ever know that rashis existed – when there is no way for
them to have contacted the outside world until a few centuries ago?
No one can say that Mundas could have come to know of it
later and started using them for naming their children. Mundas are known for
stoutly resisting any outside influence. There are accounts of how they refused
to be part of a common gathering in the early days of conversion activities by
Christian Missionaries in the 19th century. They have resisted any
change in the way they lived. Their opposition to dressing up Virgin
mary in their traditional style is
an example of their refusal to accept others copying them and also demonstrative
of retaining their individuality and customs.
How then could they be expected to have ‘learnt’ about
rashis from others and included them as a source of naming their children in an
important Narota ceremony?
The obvious inference is that knowledge of rashis had
existed in India even before Mundas as a distinct entity had come into
existence. With their origins going back into unknown times of the past, the
knowledge of rashis in India also goes back into times of antiquity. Not only
rashis, Munda had knowledge about Moon’s movement and stars. They had a
combination of these along with sun’s movement to determine the time of
agricultural activities. This is precisely the oldest use of astrology in the
Vedic society.
Coming to the origin of the name or God Singbonga that Mr
Elst is happy to connect with Biblical Creator God (?), the name of a place in
the same region gives a better explanation. I refer to “Singhbhum” in Jharkhand / Chota Nagpur
region, which sounds similar to Singbonga. Singhbhum is interpreted on the
basis of the term ‘Bhumi’. But going by Singbong being worshipped by the people
of the same region for ages, it appears that Singhbhum is connected to Munda’s
Singbong.
Singbong was the considered as the one who created the Munda
tribes. This idea coupled with idea of the special rituals done to Karam tree and
the sacred grove rituals of Sarna, gives a different story that fits with
certain passages from Mahabharata, past records of some places and the
recordings done during the British period. According to Mundas, the Karam trees
saved their ancestors who were fleeing from an enemy. That means their ancestors had hidden
themselves behind the trees or in the trees to escape detection from the
enemies. This had happened on a night time as they do the worship and rituals
to the karam tree at night with Moon and the stars as the witnesses. Their
excess importance to ancestors and spirits of ancestors do reveal a story of a
hard time when their ancestors, the first generation of Mundas were fleeing
from death in the hands of an enemy. At that time Singbonga had safe guarded
them and paved way for them to start a new life.
The name Singbong is separated as Singa – bonga. Singa is a
Tamil word for lion/ simha. Bongo (বঙ্গ) is how “Vanga”
(Vanga desa) is called in Bengali language. So the name is Singa-vanga,
a native of Vanga desa who was valiant like a lion, headed them in their escape from an enemy,
saved them from death and helped them to start a new life in the place where
they had fled – which were remote ones such as mountains or deep forests or
inaccessible areas.
This can be cross checked from two sources. One is that this
has resonance to the story of Parashurama who was out to destroy the kshatriyas for 21 times.
One of the tribes who fled for life from his fury was “Savaras” and another was “Vangas”. Savaras are one of the
communities of the Mundari speaking people. Here is the translation from Mahabharata
14-29 on Savaras
having fled the fury of Parashurama:
“Then, some of the Kshatriyas, afflicted
with the terror of Jamadagni's
son, entered mountain-fastnesses, like deer afflicted by the lion. Of them that were unable, through fear of Rama, to discharge the
duties ordained for their order, the progeny became Vrishalas owing to
their inability to find Brahmanas
In this way Dravidas and Abhiras and Pundras, together with
the Savaras, became Vrishalas through
those men who had Kshatriya
duties assigned to them in consequence of their birth, falling away from those
duties. Then the Kshatriyas that were
begotten by the Brahmanas
upon Kshatriya
women that had lost their heroic children, were repeatedly destroyed by Jamadagni's son. The slaughter proceeded one and twenty times.”
Here is the translation of the verse from Mahabharata
7:68, on Vangas
being vanquished by Parashurama
“The Kashmiras, the Daradas,
the Kuntis,
the Kshudrakas, the Malavas, the Angas,
the Vangas, the Kalingas, the Videhas,
the Tamraliptakas, the Rakshovahas, the Vitahotras, the Trigartas,
the Martikavatas were all vanquished by Bhargava
Rama.”
The Savaras and Vangas had fled under the guidance of
Singa-vanga to Chota Nagpur hills. Many of their tribes were killed by
Parashurama – a reason why the Mundas are overly concerned about ancestral worship
that includes those who died earlier along with those who died in the known
previous generations. They had hidden themselves behind
rocks and trees and inside groves and caves and that is why all these
structures are reverberating with the soul of their departed first generation
ancestors who fell to the fury of Parashurama.
Another cross checking comes from the name of the place
where they are settled for ages. This place is Datinakhali,
a popular Munda village. This name sounds like Dakshina Kali! Dakshina Kali is the form of Kali
who drinks the blood of the people slain in a battle field and dances on dead
bodies in the battle field. (The description of this kind is found in many texts
of Tamil Sangam literature). Her fury is
such that she tramples on her consort Shiva while dancing over the corpses. There
is no Puranic basis for this description of Dakshina Kali. This could have come
up from the Mundas and Savaras due to
the loss of their folks in a war with Parashurama where no rhyme or reason was
followed on who was being killed and why.
There is evidence to show that this Kali was indeed a deity personified
by these terror struck people.
Entrance of the Dakshina Kali temple.
When we go through the culture of Savara also known as Saora, Saura and Sabara living
in the hills of Jharkhand and Odisha and coastal Andhra, we come to know that a Savara king by name
Viswabasu (Vishwavasu ) had worshiped Lord Nrusimha! This is a surprise
connection because their saviour was Singavanga or Singabonga – an entity with
the name lion. This Lord Nrusimha was in Neela giri, the place which is now
known as Puri!. This lord was called as Neela Madhabha. The
image of the deity was made of the wood of a tree – a thing that Mundas
considered as having the soul as their ancestors were saved by the trees. The
Savara king had worshiped in secrecy and no one knew where this deity was
housed. {Why such secrecy should happen, if it is not for the reason that the
Mundas and Savaras had been for ages living in fear of being found out and
killed? The fear must have existed initially but later on such secrecy and
seclusion could have become a habit}. In due course the Savara king was duped by
King Indradyumna to reveal the location of this deity but managed to hide it
under the sand. However the deity revealed Itself to King Indradyumna who was pursuing it with devotion. (Read here for the story). That
deity is worshiped as Lord Jagannatha of Puri. This story has been detailed in
Skanda Purana, Brahma Purana and other works found in Oriya language.
{Indradyumna’s connection to Puri / Kalinga desa and worship of Puri deities as
Krishna and his siblings was previously explored by me in this blog.}
Now let us look at the similarities. Puri is the location of
both Dakshina Kali and Lord Nrusimha who was supposed to have been worshiped by
the Savara king. The whereabouts of Nrusimha temple was never known. No one had
ever seen this deity. It was only hearsay that Savaras worshiped Nrusimha perhaps due to their connection with
Singbonga. But the deity that he was supposed to have worshiped happened to be
called as Jagannatha. He worshiped an image made of wood. The image of Puri
Jagannatha is also made of wood. If some
myth makers wanted to weave a story around Lord Jagannatha, they need not have
invented a story with a king of Savaras coming from a previous time of the
actual consecration of Lord Jagannatha. In fact Savaras were not thought of as
elites. It serves no purpose to have invented Savara connection to this deity
unless such a thing had happened in reality.
Another information from Puranas is that Lord Jagannath
Himself was Dakshinakalika. It is also true that a temple of Dakshina Kali does
exist in Puri and is associated with Lord Jagannatha. (read here). Perhaps
to conceal the movement of Savara kings outside their hide-outs, confusing
ideas were floated. But once found out, the Savara king withdrew. The deity he
worshiped continued to exist in another form (Jagannatha) thanks to King Indradyumna.
The period of Puri Jagannatha is such that it must have been certainly before
2000 years. The iconographic details of the 3 deities of Krishna siblings were
already there in place as we find them in Brihad Samhita 58- 35&36.
The presence of Dakshina Kali in the same place cannot be
ignored as a recent development, for, Dakshina Kali had better relevance for
Savaras and Mundas as people who suffered sudden annihilation in the hands of
Parashurama. Parashurama had attacked
kshatriyas again and again for 21 times. Perhaps Puri and its surrounding
regions were the location of Savaras and Mundas before they were attacked by
Parashurama. This location corroborates with the description in Mahabharata
where Savaras are
mentioned along with Kiratas and Yavanas. (12-64-3569, 13-14-1074,
13-35-4170). Of these three people, the location of Kiratas is given in no
uncertain terms that they (Kiratas) were “living on the northern slopes of the Himavat and on the
mountain from behind which the sun rises and in the region of Karusha on the sea-coast
and on both sides of the Lohitya
mountains.” (2-51-2138).
This puts them in North east India of Arunachal Pradesh,
Assam etc. The Vangas occupied present day Bengal and Bangladesh. South – south
west of it was Kalinga where Puri / Dakshina Kali are located. The ancestors of Savaras and Mundas, had they lived in this
region of Kalinga and were killed by Parashurama, then there is every reason to
believe that this place became the place of Dakshina Kali – the Kali who drinks
the blood of people killed in battle and dances on their corpses. Even
after they had managed to flee and take a hiding in Chota Nagpur mountains,
they – who were hell bent of worshiping their ancestors till today- could have
come to this place to pay obeisance to the killed ancestors and appease
Dakshina Kali who was symbolically associated with battle fields.
This location is close enough to Hehaya location and
Parashurama’s location at Mahendragiri. Puri being the location of Dakshina
Kali could have been the ancestral region of Mundas and Savaras. This location
is close to Mahendragiri associated with Parashurama.
(Click on the image to enlarge)
Kartha veeryarjuina of Hehayas was the main enemy of
Parashurama. His kingdom was in Mahishmati, in present day Maheshwar.
Though Parashurama’s exact place of birth is not known he
was known to have done penance at Mahendra giri in today’s Odisha. The link
between the regions of Mundas (Dakshina Kali) and Mahishmati with Parashurama
is there.
Parashurama has attacked Savaras, Vangas, Angas, Malavas etc
who were all neighbourhood people in this part of the country. He had cleansed
the regions north, south and east of the Vindhyas of every kshatriya living at
that time.
The Hehayas had been completely annihilated. The Savaras
(saura worshipers – on the east coast of Odisha where Konark Sun temple was
established in later days) were killed and made to flee. Their final destination
was Chota Nagpur in Bihar. Later they spanned to Sundarbans.
This dispersal on the wake of threat from Parashurama is
meaningful and reasonable for people living in that region. Vanga Desa
being close-by, Singa Vanga (Singbonga) and
his men had fled with Savaras. He restored order in the new settlement and
enforced do’s and dont’s for the safety of the people.
Compared to them, there are others who managed to survive
and get back their regions. It was possible because their kings and princes had
taken shelter with sages. Mahabharata enumerates them.
Mahabharata 12 – 51, tells about how the various kings and
their children were living in secrecy to escape from Parashurama. They
concealed their identity by not doing anything of a Kshatriya but things done
by other varnas. They are as follows:
(1)
Son of Viduratha of Puru vamsha grew up under
the protection of ‘bears’ in secrecy in the mountain of Rishavaan. This is
situated at a place where river Narmada divides as a fork. Corroboratory evidence to bear connection to
Rishavaan is found in Ramayana where it is said that Jambhavan, the bear (could
be a symbolic reference to bear) lived in Rishavaan!
Location of Rishavaan.
(2)
Another king by name Sowdasa was protected by
Parashara rishi. Mahabharata says that he lived like a Shudra. It means he did
not exhibit Kshatriya qualities or Kshatriya looks and was engaged in
activities of a shudra.
(3)
The next king mentioned is Gopathy, son of king
Sibi. Sibi’s father was Usinara who is mentioned at some places as Kshatriya
vratya. But Sibi was a king and perhaps ruled Sivi, of today that is found in
Pakistan. His area came to be called as “saura” and his descendants as
“sauvira” of whom Jayathrath was a descendant in Mahabharata period. Gopathy,
as this name shows tended the cows to escape the attention that he came from a
kingly family. His region being North West part which is now in Pakistan, one
can gauge the extent of terror for Parashurama at that time.
(4)
The king by name “Anga” (perhaps king of Anga
desa) lived under the protection of Gauthama rishi in the Gangetic region. (Parashurama
killed Angas but this king had managed to survive and live in secrecy.)
(5)
The next king mentioned is Brihadratha, who
lived in secrecy in Kruthra koota. Kruthra koota is the name of the pond
dedicated to Jatayu in a Divya Desa called Pullam Bhootham Kudi in Tamil nadu.
From this it is deduced that Kruthra koota was the place where Jatayu
confronted Ravana. This place is the Dandaka vana in the south of Vindhyas.
(6)
The descendants of Maruttha went to the southern
seas and lived in cognito. This could be the seas south of Prabhas kshetra –
the Arabian sea which was close to the Vindhyas.
These are the names given in Mahabharata as those who lived
in secrecy to escape the wrath of Parashurama and were reinstated as kings after some time.
Those who could not return were the Hehayas of the Kartha
veeryarjuna clan who were the prime targets of Parashurama. The Munda – Savara tribes
too had left their regions never to return. They must have had secret
pilgrimages to Dakshina Kali but that was eventually stopped once Jagannatha
cult started. From then onwards, they must have become totally isolated.
Savara –
Sarna
The name Savara, perhaps came to signify the religious
beliefs as “Sarna”. Savaras, by their name are Saura worshippers.
The previous location at Dakshina Kali is a vantage location for Sun worship on
the east coast. The Mundas and others are known for sun worship. To say
Singbong was the Sun god is a corruption of thought over a period of time. But
their worship of sun had stayed on. They worshiped sun and moon and considered
them as pair which is what Shiva – Parvathi pair is about. Their emphasis on
worship of ancestors of various kinds can be traced to the heavy loss of life they
suffered in the hands of Parashurama. The natural features such as mountains,
trees and rocks helped them to conceal themselves from being noticed by
Parashurama who went out 21 times to kill the kshatriyas. That is why those
features also became entities with soul worthy of worship. This is basically
what Sarna religion is all about. The name ‘Savara’
had changed into ‘Sarna’ in course of time.
Now about the name, Munda. There is indeed a reference to
Mundas in Mahabharata 3-51 as those who paid a tribute to Yudhishtra in
the Rajasuya yaaga. But this name comes along with country of women which could
be a reference to Sthree rajya (My article on the location of Sthree rajya at
Straya Maina can be read here).
This puts these Mundas in Kamboja as there is reference to Kambojas with shaven
head in Mahabharata (read
here). But the Mundas we are talking about are in the North – North east of
India.
Analysing the name-cause, one of the tribes of Munda clan is
known as Remo also known as Bonda tribes. They have a story
connected to Sita of Ramayana. Some women of these tribes happened to see Sita
taking bath in a pond and were cursed by her for having seen her bathing. The
curse was that they must have their heads shaven and be naked. Later she
rescinded the curse by allowing them wear a waist cloth. The story may be an
imagination but what we cannot miss is that they have a memory of Ramayana and
had lived even at that time. Parashurama was a contemporary of Rama of Ayodhya.
His presence was there in Ramayana till Rama married Sita. If the Mundas and
other tribes were the ones who went into hiding in inaccessible regions of
forest and mountains, there is scope to believe that these people in the hiding
were secretly following the happenings around. As Rama’s period overlapped with Parashurama’s period, the people who
accidentally got exposed to Sita or anyone from outside would have changed
their looks to avoid detection. Women with shaven head and a waist cloth would
have been treated as some tribals, and their true identity could not have been
known. The name as Remo for these tribes, resembling Rama add substance to this
story.
Remo girl.
This is where the name “Munda”
gets its real meaning. Munda means shaven. On the Narota festival of the birth
of a child, one of the important rituals is to remove the
hair of the child with a razor. The baby is just 10 days old but it would
have its hair cut at that time. This is something unthinkable for anyone unless
there is a compelling reason or rationale among the people. A barber is called in
on the day o Narota and the razor is blessed by the members of the family by
touching it. The use of razor means that it was not merely a hair cut but a
clean shave of the head. Why should they do it so early for a child? Why did it
acquire a collective role for all in the family to have offered their blessing
by way of good luck for the shave?
The probable reason can be traced to the times the tribes
managed to escape attention from Parashurama from annihilation. The initial
survivors must have shaved their heads completely and changed the way they
dressed. The subsequent generations too had maintained that to avoid detection.
Another reason could be that since the clan had lost most of their people, many
kids could have been born after the death of the father while fleeing. Once the
baby had crossed the birth- pollution period, the first duty is to pay obeisance
to the dead ancestor. As it is a practice to shave the head in death ceremony,
the child gets head shaved on the day it is religiously born.
{Here I wish to add a note of the reference to rashi in
naming the child. According to Vedic rituals the baby is given Jatha karma
where the father for the first time calls the baby by the name of the star it
is born. In Nama karma, the father addresses the baby as one born in so and so
star and so and so Rashi and that the ceremony was meant for such a baby. One
would not find the word “rashi” in the sutras, say Apasthambha sutras that I am
referring to, but the word “rashi” does come into use in the mantra-prayoga
during the ceremony. The mantras begin with a sankalpa and an identity of the
person who is going to do that mantra prayoga. The identity lies with the star
that one is born in. As nine stars are split in between rashis, there is a need
to mention the rashi names for those stars. Anyone living in Vedic system would
know that even while doing a puja in the temple, the priest would ask for the
rashi only in the case of the 9 stars that are not wholly present in a rashi. The
identification of a person by the name of the star that he is born is found in
R-VJ 28 and Y-VJ 35.}
One of the tribes of this group consisting of Mundas, is Ho people, known for dancing
and singing. They used musical instruments called Dama, Dumeng and rutu.
Similar sounding people are Haha
and Huhu people who are classified along with Tumvuru and Narada known for
musical skills. They fit in the bill with Ho people who also managed to escape
Parashurama’s fury. Though Haha and Huhu lived at the time of Mahabharata, Ho
could have come in a sister clan and were on the run.
The Savaras are being mentioned in Mahabharata as those who
became Kshatriya vrratyas due to the rage of Parashurama. The Savaras and
others who fled had to live on whatever they could lay their hands on. They had
to subsist on anything that they can catch hold of , say a frog or rat. Mahabharata
18-135 says,
“By accepting food from a eunuch, or
from an ungrateful person, or from one who has misappropriated wealth entrusted
to his charge, one is born in the country of the Savaras
situated beyond the precincts of the middle country.”
This is to say that one would get degraded food in Savara
areas which was beyond the Madhya desa – of Saraswathi basin. Though Savaras
existed in seclusion, their existence was known to people in Mahabharata times.
But their rules of exclusion advised by Singbonga initially had stuck with them
and they continued such an existence. Their previous region must have been in
the southern side, near Puri in Orissa which made them name their settlement as
Datinakhali and look for their deity in Orissa region.
The name as Munda meaning “Mandai” or head in Tamil fits with their frightened
beginnings of danger to head, as beheading was common mode of killing in wars. Thurston’s
recording of the castes of South India contains a name “MandapOtho” who were found in Ganjam district and were roaming in the streets of Puri!!
These places are connected with Mundas as per our analysis. To strengthen our
analysis, we find that these people used to bury their heads as a way of attracting
people to give them alms. Manda in MandapOtho means ‘head’ (Tamil word), Potho
means “bury”. The Manda or Munda referring to head seems to be the name
associated with a people of this region in Puri and Ganjam. Munda in Tamil
means “headless body”. The MandapOtho people had exhibited headless body by
burying the head in sand. All this goes to show that people with a name
connected to Manda (head) or Munda (shaven or headless) were in existence in
this part of the country.
Corroboratory evidence comes from Kocch- Mandai people of Bangladesh or
Bengal. The Kocch- Mandai people must have been those who lived near river Kosi
or Koshi.
A Kocch Mandai woman.
Here comes the important link with
Parashurama times.
In the census record done in 1881 in the British
India, the Suraj-bansi or Surya-vansi tribes of
East Bengal had identified themselves as Kocch Mandai
people but took up an identity as Surya vanshi – as Chattri (kshtraiyas) who
threw away the sacred thread to “escape from the death-dealing axe of parashurama”. The identity
as Surya vanshi is important as that is how the Savaras or Sauras were known
as.
In the census of 1901 also, the “Mongoloid Kocch of Northern Bengal” also identified
themselves as Raj vanshis and as Vratyas or Bhanga (Broken) kshatriyas who were
made so in trying to escape the wrath of Parashurama.
In the census of 1881:- “The
Aroras claim to be of Khatri origin. The Khatris, however, reject the
claim. Sir Greorge Campbell is of opinion that the two belong to the same
ethnic stock. They say that they became outcasts from the Kshatriya stock
during the persecution of that people by Paras Ram, to avoid which they denied their caste,
and described it as Aur or another, hence their name. Some of them
fled northwards and some southwards, and hence the names of the two great
sections of the caste, Uttaradhi and Dakhana.”
In the same census record, the Wanjaris
of Maratha origin claimed that they were the
allies of Parashurama in his war against Kshatriyas. “They assert that with other castes they were allies of Parasurama when he ravaged the Haihayas and
the Yindhya mountains, and that the task of guarding the Vindhya passes
was entrusted to them. From their prowess in keeping down the beasts of prey
which infested the ravines under their charge they became known as the Yanya-Shatru, subsequently contracted with Wanjari. To
confound them with the Banjara carriers castes, whose name “Vanachari” means
“forest wanderers,” is to give them great offence”
These references also speak about the way how varieties of ‘castes’
were developed over time. The basis of the formation of these castes was not
religion – Hinduism. There are familial, social, economic and political reasons
for people to have lived in groups as distinct from each other and perpetuated
them in due course. Only in a country of 1000s of years of past history, this
kind of numerous varieties of such groups (called as castes) could have come as it
is now with a billion plus people.
The fear of Parashurama resonated upto Pumpukaar of the
Chola kingdom that the reigning king Kanthan handed over the kingdom to his son
born to a concubine thinking that Parashurama would not consider him to be pure
kshatritya race. (my
article here).
Finally Parashurama crowned the one born to a Haihaya
princess whose father was killed by him while his wife was pregnant with this
child. Parashurama crowned him somewhere in Konkan region near a hill called
Mooshika (in Tamil “Ezhil malai”). This king was called as Rama kuta Mooshika – one crowned by Rama of Bhargava
kula. The so-called Indologists of foreign origin would flip this as a myth and
even disregard Parashurama connections. But proof exists in many ways including
in inscriptions that say that King Rajendra Chola I
captured this crown given by Parashurama. This means till 1000 years ago, the
people connected with Parashurama had
lived; till a century ago people with memory of their past connection with
Parashurama had lived.
A corroboratory connection to Konkan exists with the Munda
clans. The Kurukh or Korku
clan among this groups located in North east India have been found to have come
from Konkan region according to Indian Anthropological Society. The
Saraswads were brought to Konkan by Parashurama and this shows that the
original inhabitants had left Konkan to evade trouble from Parashurama. The Indologists
may attempt to mark this migration of Saraswads to a recent past, but what
cannot be denied is that Kurkus have been there in North east for very long.
Attempts will be made by foreign Indologists to say that
Mundas and their co-habitants were non-Hindus. The wiki page writer on Savaras that gives the
narration of the Savara king worshiping Lord Nrusimha in Puri did not think
about his integrity and the absurdity when he wrote in the same article that
Nationalist Hindu groups are working towards converting them to Hinduism! These
tribes are already Hindus and a proof of continuity of Vedic tradition and
historicity of Parashurama. One of the main deities worshiped by Mundas is Monsa. She is none other than Goddess Manasa Devi who appears
with a child in her hand and found under the hood of snake.
Mahabharata recognises the child as Astika who was
born to release the ancestors. This aspect of the Devi might have been in the
minds of these people for whom ancestor worship is foremost. But then it can be
argued that Mahabharata post-dated Parashurama times. However there are Puranic
allusions to her existence as a Goddess. The same idea of a Goddess with a
child under protection is there in Tamil nadu also by the name Isakki amman.
This Goddess is found in many regions of Tamilnadu where
some valorous women in the deed of protecting a child could have been deified
as Isakki. There is mention of Isakki as Iyakki in the 1st century
AD text of Silappadhikaram, thereby establishing this deity as a continuing
concept. By the name Iyakki, it means that she is one who drives the world /
souls. She is Iccha shakthi of Creator God. That is identified as Manasa Devi.
This original idea must have been there since long even before Parashurama’s
times. Otherwise a secluded tribe worshiping this Devi is not possible. In the
dream interpretations for which Mundas have their own ideas, sighting a snake
in the dream was considered to be related to Monsa / Manasa Devi. This is proof
of antiquity of Manasa Devi, whose image is recognised as Maari amman in Tamil
lands.
The belief in Karam God and Dharam God and the superiority
of Dharam God over karam God is another proof of Vedic past of the Mundas. The
seven step procedure in marriage ceremonies, use of vermillion and conduction
of marriage in Godhuli lagna in autumn season are also reminiscent of their
early roots in mainstream Vedic society. In the absence of connect with
Brahmins – which they could not do for fear of getting exposed – led them to discard
Vedic rites as they had to be confined into the mountains for thousands of
years. In this backdrop, a foreigner’s foray into their past with no grasp of
any of the basics of our culture or the diverse links in the surrounding
regions is fit to go in the way of Wendy Doniger’s work.
- Jayasree
On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 4:08 PM, Lalit Mishra wrote:
Dear All,
In his one of the researches, Koenraad Elst who is
still appreciated much by Indian indologists, for his having a foreign face in
the list, recently stated that Munda's ritualistic practice of SARANA and Munda
god "Singbonga" looks a bit like the Biblical Creator-God.
Sniffing such things, I had said that Elst is driven by
Church under the carpet and his new act, proves it.
Pls refer to :
// Singbonga, looks a bit like the Biblical
Creator-GodTribal religions generally believe in one God, in a Supreme Being
who goes by such names as the Great Spirit, the Great One, the Creator, the
Mighty Spirit (...), etc. Although at times God is identified with the rain,
light, dawn, fire, water, hills, the Supreme Being of the tribal people is usually
independent of the material or astral world. (...) He has dominion over the
entire universe." (p.44)
//
