This is a video talk by me to a group of people for
a question “Why Sri Ganesha is popular than Sri Muruga
in Tamilnadu”. Please bear with me for any audio disturbance and my jet
speed in talking to make up for the time due to a late start.
Anywhere you look around there are more Ganesha
temples than Muruga temples in TN. This comparison comes from the premise that
Muruga is considered to a Tamil God while Ganesha is not!
First we should understand this is politician’s
version and can be outwitted by a simple logic that – if
Muruga is a Tamil God, then Ganesh also is a Tamil God, in his capacity as the
elder sibling of Muruga. So this talk on one as a Tamil God and the
other as the imported God is without logic.
So I am looking at the question as why Ganesha
worship is more popular than Muruga worship.
For this I am first looking at the iconographic evidences of Ganesha – to know from when Mūrti
of Ganesha started appearing in Tamilnadu. The earliest mūrti of Ganesha found
so far is in Srilanka in 1st century BCE.
The next one appears in Indonesia in 1st
century CE. These two are similar to how Ganesha appears now.
Chronologically the next place is Afghanistan where a standing Ganesha with two hands is
seen in 5th century CE. The style is unusual
to us. By 6th century CE many Ganesha forms appear in art too in China, of all the places! The imagery is not familiar
to us. There is even a twin Ganesha embracing each
other found in China and Japan. Ganesha appears in other poses too which are
totally different from the Ganesha we know. Buddhism was
the cause of spread of Ganesha of this kind of weird forms. This form of Ganesha
was worshiped for tantric purpose.
There is a Ganesha look-alike found in Harappa 5000 years ago –
an image of an elephant face with human like eyes and a crown.
It was only around the 6th
century CE, the first Ganesha appears in Tamilnadu. It is in Pillaiyar patti! This image is the continuing one and
also resembling the Ganesha of Srilanka and Indonesia. The hint on the
background story of this Pillaiyar comes from the Tamil
Brahmi writings at the base giving the name of the sculptor. So this is
the work of a migrant from the Harappan, the region of Afghanistan.
Actually Tamilnadu is expected to show early signs
of Ganesha worship than from any other place, since he is supposed to be the
elder brother of Muruga. This takes me to surf through old Tamil Sangam texts
only to find out that Muruga was the only son of his parents, but Ganesha
entered the scene sometime later.
When I dig up further I found that Muruga had his favorite royal elephant by name “PiNi Mukham”. Sangam
texts often speak of this elephant as a daring, powerful one because of whom
Muruga was able to score victories over his enemies. Moreover Muruga lived in Kurunji – the hill tracts – where elephant was a
carrier useful in transportation of goods and as a vehicle. You can imagine Muruga
always moving around mounted on his royal elephant.
This elephant helped him in his love affair too. Kanda puranam narrates that Muruga tricked to make Valli fall in love with him by making his brother
Pillaiyar appear as an elephant frightening her and the trick worked. Interestingly
we come cross references to this event in Tamil Sangam texts when the heroine fell
in love with the hero in whom she took refuge when chased by an elephant; the
hero saved her like Muruga from the elephant.
The elephant connection to Muruga is found in Sangam
texts of women visiting Muruga’s temple doing ‘puja’ to the elephant of the
temple treating it as the elephant of Muruga. Only women did this puja by
smearing kumkum on the head, face and trunk of the elephant poured water and
flowers on the elephant, fixed fans on the ears and placed umbrella on the
head! Then huge balls of food were given to the elephant and it was a practice
to eat the left overs as prasada!
The purpose of this worship is also given in the
texts, that married women were blessed with a long married life while unmarried
women got married soon! The women had worshipped the elephant of Muruga to be blessed
with a happy and long married life. Before we dismiss this as something odd and
not in vogue today, let me point out a version from Vinayaka Puranam where
Vinayaka blessed the planet Mars as getting a name “Mangal” for having
witnessed the marriage of Vinayaka with Siddhi in his auspicious form of red
colour!
So we find a connection between Vinayaka in red
(auspicious) in his marriage with Siddhi (Siddhi Vinayaka) and Mars the planet
having Muruga as the lord becoming a signifactor for Mangal – which in ordinary
parlance we relate with Mangalyam! The olden Tamil practice of women worshiping
the elephant with kumkum for Mangalyam (stability of married life) seems to be
the precursor to this story in Vinayaka Purana.
Since the elephant of Muruga had facilitated the fructification
of the marriage of Muruga with Valli and a happy married life thereafter,
elephant worship in temples of Muruga started initially. This must have been in
vogue right from the time the time of Muruga, who lived 12,000 years ago. Since
elephant was found in plenty in Kurinji lands, keeping the elephant in the
temples of Muruga must have been an oldest practice which spread to other
temples in course of time. The upkeep of many elephants in temples of Kerala
even today must have been a remnant of this practice as Kerala is predominantly
hilly / mountainous terrain.
The elephant of Muruga being very dear to Muruga,
came to be regarded as the elder brother of Muruga and in due course depicted as
a deity with elephant face. The red faced Vinayaka (made so by kumkum as a mark
of auspiciousness during his marriage) appearing with his wives is Siddhi
Vinayaka, now popularly present in Mumbai, but the concept of is in the olden
Tamil lands!
The worship of elephant in olden Tamil lands must
have given rise to the name “Pillaiyar”. Pillai
means child or son. Like a little son the elephant is mischievous, fat and fond
of eating. Even today we have the practice of offering food (fruits mostly) to
temple elephants and receive its blessings by the placing of its trunk on our
head. The food balls offered to the elephant in the Sangam age had become the ‘Modak’ or ‘Kozhukattai’ made
of rice. The iconography of Pillaiyar must have evolved from this.
The umbrella placed on its head continues to be
customary in the temples of Kerala and in the Vinayakar
Chaturti Puja we do at home. Without the umbrella Vinayaka is not worshiped
in Tamilnadu even today. This practice absent in other regions but compulsory in
Tamil lands clearly indicates a long standing practice from the Sangam age of worshiping
the elephant of Muruga, regarded as the elder brother Muruga in his temples.
There is an opinion that Vinayaka Puja was made
widespread only following Tilak’s efforts, but no. The Journal
of Literature and Science in
an issue published by the British before the birth of Tilak refers to Vinayaka
Caturthi festival in Madras Presidency as it is celebrated today. Note the name
‘Vinayaka’ – it was not Ganesha! This is the only festival when the deity made
of clay is freshly bought for the festival and immersed later. The only
difference between then and now is that people avoided looking at the moon on
that night under the belief that they would be falsely accused if they looked
at the moon. The Journal continues to say that Krishna
was accused because he looked at the moon on Vianyaka Cathurti day!
So the celebration of Vinayaka Cathurti had been in
vogue since Krishna’s times!
It was so even from Rama’s
times as we come across a verse in Valmiki Ramayana in Pattabhisheka
sarga that ‘Vinayaka’ and similar deity would stay
fixated in the houses of those who recited Ramayana!
Vinayaka festival/ worship is a household festival/ worship
aimed at getting auspiciousness, while worship of Muruga is a temple festival as with
Skanda Shashti.
With the beginnings coming from Tamil Sangam age for
Vinayaka worship, we find a change in concept in Puranas that refer to ‘Ganesha”. Ganesha means ‘the lord or commander of Ganas of Shiva’. Though there
are many stories of origin of Ganesha, a particular one found in Vayu Purana talks about short and stout Ganas, the attendants
of Shiva and Parvati.
Once when king Divodasa was ruling from Kashi, Shiva
wanted occupy Kashi. He asked Ganesha also known as Nikumbha (remember Nikumbhini, the female guardian
deity in Lanka in Ramayana?) to facilitate his entry into Kashi. Nikumbha
appeared in the dream of a barber asking him to install him outside the city
and do the worship. People started coming to Nikumbha for boons and Nikumbha
gratified all. When Divodasa himself came to him seeking boon for getting
progeny, Nikumbha didn’t oblige. This infuriated Divodasa to abuse him which
resulted in Nikumbha to curse him to leave the city. It happened so, following which
Shiva entered and occupied the city.
The concept of Gana and Ganesha appears from then
onwards. One can see a number of ganas including the
elephant faced Ganesha - all short and stout and mischievous – under the
panel of Shiva- Parvati in temples. One can see Veerabhadra at one end and
Ganesh at the other end with sapta mata in between. Normally Muruga is
associated with sapta mata-s that was explained in one of my videos. Mother
goddess, Muruga and Ganesha had evolved together as Shaktam, Skandam and Ganapatyam. In these
forms, shamanism and Tantricism were chief causes for
worship. Many of the Ganesha in strange forms found in other parts of
Asia including the one in Angkor Wat were indicative of tantric practices
associated with Ganesha worship.
A relic of it is still in vogue with us in breaking coconuts for Ganesha. The chief aim was to
drive out evil, spirits and enemies. Tantric practices associated with Ganesha
were at its peak till 12th century throughout India promoted by Kāpālikas, Kālāmukhas and Paśupatas – all heretic
sects. In contrast the Tamil Pillaiyar or Vinayaka (meaning – supreme leader)
was auspicious and confined within one’s home or as elephant worship in temple.
Till 2000 years ago this was so – the Sangam age
practice. After that the first appearance of Pillaiyar in iconography happens
in 6th century in Pillaiyar patti. The sculptor was ‘Erukkaattoor Perum Thacchan’ – erukku in this name
signifying the special flower Erukku that is used only for Vinayaka even today
in Tamil lands. There are Tamil verses in Sangam text of worship by using
Erukku flower. This must be an indication of worship of Pillaiyar – the elephant
or an image of the elephant. It changed over to the current form in the Common
Era.
Pillaiyar is installed wherever there are certain trees such as peepal (arasa maram), water way, and anthill where snakes reside. These are
the places the hero of the Sangam had to cross to come to meet his lady love. The
heroine would be worried about his safety through these troubles. We don’t know
what deity she worshiped, but seeing the presence of Pillaiyar in these places,
it sounds logical that she had prayed to the elephant of Muruga – Pillaiyar to
safeguard the hero and help in the success of their love affair.
In due course wherever water ways were there,
Vinayaka was installed, partly to safeguard the water
ways from pollution and partly to protect the trees and anthills that served as
markers to identify underground water ways.
In this way numerous Pillaiyars have sprung up all
over Tamilnadu. The worship of a deity is related to the
boons associated with that deity. Pillaiyar is for auspiciousness, removing obstacles and protection
from evils. All these are needed for everyone at all times. So Pillaiyar
continues to have a wide following.
In contrast Muruga was a warrior god, a commander in chief.
The soldier going on war would raise the slogan “Veera
vel, Vettru vel”. Kausalya prayed for protection
by Muruga when Rama went on exile. Krishna identified
himself with Muruga as the chief among commanders. So the popularity of
a God lies in what we gain from him, I may sound clumsy, but it is true.
Pillaiyar worship is popular because of the benefits
supposed to be granted by him. Also there are no great rules in consecrating
him. Just a lump of clay or mud or turmeric is enough to consecrate him
anywhere. His power doesn’t diminish because of this. For this reason Ganesha
temples are more in number compared to any other deity all over India!
