Is Vedic astrology derived from Greek astrology? (Part 24) (Lamps and zodiac - from Tamil lands to Greece)

Previous articles of this series can be read here.

In this post let us see some more connections between Tiryns culture and Tamil culture.

In the last post we saw the Tamil connection to Megaron at Tiryns. There is also a place called “Megara” very close to Tiryns and associated with the son of Pandion king.

Megara was famous as a trade port and was known for export of horses. This information is crucial as the Tamil texts do speak of horses sold by Yavanas! Usually Arabs were known to have sold horses. But a Greek port having resemblance to Tamil culture, located too close to Tiryns and engaged in exporting horses fits well with a long standing connection between the people of Tiryns (Tirayans) who left long ago from Tamil lands and the people of their Mother culture (Tamils). Those who have left their roots and made new homes in Greece, developed new opportunities of trade from the new environs and sent back their items to the Mother country. One is horse and the other item is wine - which is very much mentioned in Sangam texts. We will see the wine part later in this post. 

Another feature that shows Tamil – Indian Ocean connection with Tiryns / Mycenaean culture is shown below. Look at the image on this vase dated at 1300 -1200 from Mycenaean culture BCE

http://www.ancient.eu.com/image/908/

There is a bull and a stork in the painting on this vase. Though storks appear in many regions of the world, the structure and design in the body of this stork looks similar to painted stork. This variety is specific to Indian Ocean regions and South East Asia. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Painted_Stork.jpg

The imagery of storks pricking bulls shows the kind of damp habitat of the tropics of South and South East Asia where this is a common sight.

Yet another connection is the ivory seats used by Etruscans. The earliest mention of ivory throne comes in Etruscan culture of 8^th century Etruria where the kings sat on ivory thrones that could be folded and taken wherever the kings went. From where they got the ivory is a question. The art of making goods from ivory could have originated only in those regions where elephants were found in large numbers. The source of ivory, namely the elephants are largely found in South and South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and not in Greece or its environs.

The Sangam poem on 3^rd century BC Pandyan king called “Nedunal vaadai”, describes the specifications for procuring quality ivory to make furniture. The Pandyan queen’s cot was made of ivory, says that poem. It also says that the ivory used for making that circular cot must have fulfilled certain conditions. The elephants from which ivory was procured must have completed 40 years of age. The legs of such elephants must look like drums. Such elephants must have taken part in wars. Such elephants must have lines on the forehead. Such elephants must have reached a stage when they would no longer be pressed into service in wars. In such a state, the tusks that have naturally fallen from the elephant must be used for carving. The ivory collected from dead elephants cannot be used for carving. (1)

Going be these rules for choice of the ivory, it is obvious that the ivory tusks could have been collected only in India or South East Asia where ancient Tamil population had existed and used elephants for wars. Making furniture such as thrones and cots must have been an industry in these regions. The Etruscan ivory throne that was foldable shows a high level of artistry in making ivory goods. The Pandyan connection to Greece could have made it possible for ivory art to have migrated to Greece since 1500 BC. The Pandyan connection could have enabled the later day Greek or Etruscan artisans to procure quality ivory from Indian Ocean and South Indian Tamils.

On the topic of artisans, it must be pointed out here that the same Sangam text describing the Pandyan queen’s palace says that lamps made by Yavanas were lit in her palace.

யவனர் இயற்றிய வினை மாண் பாவை

கை ஏந்து ஐ அகல் நிறைய நெய் சொரிந்து,        

பரூஉத் திரி கொளீஇய குரூஉத் தலை நிமிர் எரி,        

அறு அறு காலைதோறு, அமைவரப் பண்ணி,  

பல் வேறு பள்ளிதொறும் பாய் இருள் நீங்க;

(Nedunal vaadai – 101- 105)

Lamps known as  “Paavai ViLakku” – meaning “lamps held by woman” made of metal by Yavanas were used in the Pandyan palace. These lamps would look like the ones shown below.

These lamps are different from Indus lamps. The Indus lamp-carrying woman had the lamps in the head. Look at the pictures below. The two side buns in the head of this female are actually lamps to hold oil.

The image below shows how these lamps looked like.

But the Yavana lamps show the woman as carrying the lamps in hands. They are common sight in temple architecture in South India.

Small sized lamps of this type were used by common people in their worship. Some paintings of the 19^th century show such lamps. Here are some those paintings.

 

(http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1800_1899/dailylife_drawings/belnos/belnos.html )

Even today these lamps are found in many temples. There is a silver lamp of the same kind but depicting a male figure holding the lamp, seen in the sannidhi of Manavala Mamunigal in the Parthasarathy temple of Triplicane, Chennai. This was unearthed in the 80s when renovation was done. The letters found on the statue shows that this figure was Thondaman, the King of the Kancheepuram region during the Sangam age. This shows that this temple had existed even before 2000 years ago. The presently available inscriptions show that this temple was patronised by Pallavas. The Pallavas must have erased all the signs of the previous patrons, namely Thondaimaan kings and that perhaps explains the reason this statue was found under the ground.

Many similar looking lamps of silver or gold could have existed in the Sangam period but been melted and reused by later / Pallava kings. It would be of interest if we could get the dating done on this lamp at Parthasarathy temple and explore its origins to know whether it was made locally or imported from Greece. Looking from a distance I thought that it was a Greek figure. The hair style resembled so. But upon enquiry I came to know the details which I wrote here. I have requested for a photograph of this statue. Once I get it I will upload it here.

What is of concern to us is that a king had carried the lamp like women. The Sangam text says that these lamps were made by yavanas! The text was dated by me in an earlier article, to 3^rd century BC based on the Mangulam Brahmi inscription. Perhaps until then this workmanship was not available in India. It also shows the close and regular connection between Pandyans and Yavanas – who as per our discourse came in the lineages of migrated Tirayans. The ivory as raw material had gone to Greece even before 6^th century BCE. The workmanship of ivory goods was already available in South India (the Sangam text describing the ivory cot pertains to Pandyan kingdom in present day Madurai). But metal works on lamp- carrying females were procured from Greece!

It is strange that no image of lamp- carrier women of the above kind / style has been found in Greece or anywhere in Europe. Unless the Yavanas were known for making such images, the Pandyans would not have imported these lamps from them. The absence of this kind of lamps in Greece shows that Yavana artisans had made them specifically for Pandyans. For this they must have visited Pandyan lands, observed the local style before making them. This gives them greater scope for imbibing other ideals and Thoughts from Tamil – Vedic society and spreading them in Greece. Moreover the early connection between Pandyans and Tiryns people could have facilitated steady flow of ideas on Gods and astrology to Greece.

On the issue of astrology, the Sangam text that tells about this Yavana lamps is the one which also tells about the painting of the Zodiac with Mesha as its head. This painting was made on the ceiling above the bed of the queen. The bed of the queen was fixed in a round shaped cot made of ivory. The queen’s quarters had woman-with-lamps made by Yavanas! Thus the  description of the 3^rd century BC work of Nedunal vaadai throws up a situation where the yavanas from Greece  had visited the Pandyan land (Madurai in particular), either delivered or worked on the lamps; they could have possibly worked on or learnt the skills of making ivory cots and went back to Greece with the ideas on the zodiac that they saw in the queen’s palace!

Such a migration of ideas – particularly with reference to the zodiac exists. The zodiac painted in the queen’s chamber was not just a piece of art. It also served a purpose. The poem goes on to say that the queen looked at the zodiac having Mesha as its head and took note of the star Rohini. Rohini was an intimate consort of Moon as Moon is always seen moving very close to Rohini than with any other star. The queen thought of this and compared her position with her husband. Her husband, the king was at that time in the battlefield and the queen was suffering from pangs of separation from him. (2)

This narration shows that the painting of the zodiac was made on the ceiling of the queen’s bed as a constant reminder or as a reflection of the intimacy the queen shared with her husband. It was more than a piece of art to remind them of their intimacy that was comparable to a celestial feature or of the heavens. The Yavana artist who happened to visit that palace could in all possibility catch that idea and the image and take it to his country.

Certainly the idea of this painting of the zodiac could not have come from Greece / yavanas because the main idea of the intimacy of Rohini with Moon is completely of Puranic origin of the Vedic society. The presence of this painting in the Pandyan queen’s palace shows that such paintings could have been in vogue even before that time. The Greeks did not conceive the idea of that painting. But there is a greater chance that the Yavana artisans who had frequented the Pandyan kingdom had taken back to Greece the idea of the 12 part zodiac sans Rohini- Moon romance. 

The next most important Yavana connection to Tamil Pandyans is the Wine! We will analyse it in the next post.

(continued)

Notes:

1.From Nedunal vaadai

தச நான்கு எய்திய பணை மருள் நோன் தாள், 115 இகல் மீக்கூறும், ஏந்து எழில் வரி நுதல், பொருது ஒழி, நாகம் ஒழி எயிறு அருகு எறிந்து, சீரும் செம்மையும் ஒப்ப, வல்லோன் கூர் உளிக் குயின்ற, ஈர் இலை இடை இடுபு, தூங்கு இயல் மகளிர் வீங்கு முலை கடுப்பப் 120 புடை திரண்டிருந்த குடத்த, இடை திரண்டு, உள்ளி நோன் முதல் பொருத்தி, அடி அமைத்து, பேர் அளவு எய்திய பெரும் பெயர்ப் பாண்டில்

2.From Nedunal vaadai

  

புதுவது இயன்ற மெழுகு செய் படமிசை,

திண் நிலை மருப்பின் ஆடு தலை ஆக,

160

விண் ஊர்பு திரிதரும் வீங்கு செலல் மண்டிலத்து,

முரண் மிகு சிறப்பின் செல்வனொடு நிலைஇய,

உரோகிணி நினைவனள் நோக்கி, நெடிது உயிரா,

Is Vedic astrology derived from Greek astrology? (Part 23) (Greek Megaron and Athens derived from Tamil )

Previous articles of this series can be read here

Megaron in Tiryns is an old temple structure and is pre-Greek. The structure is again reminiscent of Pandyan Court where intellectuals met and inaugurated their compositions. In Tamil lands, these congregations, called as Sangam assemblies took place in the presence of the deity, Lord Shiva. All the compositions were addressed to Shiva who was known as “IRaiyanAr” in Tamil. In other words, the Sangam assemblies were held at Shiva temple. The temple for Meenakshi in Madurai was the location of the 3^rd Sangam assemblies.

The Megaron temple complex at Tiryns looks like such a temple. This temple fulfils the Vastu sastra requirements. First of all it is aligned to east- west direction. The inner dimensions are 23 by 11.50 m which makes it 2:1. According to Mayamatham chapter 26 – verses 6 to 9, the length of the building to be twice its width is appropriate for temples. For monasteries and hermitages, length more than double the width is good. For ordinary people the length must not be more than double its width. The Megaron at Tiryns fulfils this basic dimension for temple construction. (It must be reminded here that one Mayan inaugurated a Tamil Text titled “AinthiRam” in the 2^nd Sangam Assembly. It was about the control and sharpening of the mind of the architect by concentrating on PraNava –OM)

The structure also looks similar to a Hindu temple in having 3 parts – a front porch, an intermediary ardha mantapa and the inner sanctum sanctorum. The plan of the Megaron temple at Tiryns is shown here.

Schematic plan of a megaron complex. 1: anteroom, 2: hall (main room), 3: columns in Porch and hall.

The following is how it looks now.

This temple looks like “Eka-shala” or single hall structure with a front porch supported by two pillars and a main hall with 4 pillars facing each other. In the middle of the four pillars is seen a circular hearth which fits with the description of Yajna kunda in the middle. In the above picture the central circular fire pit can be seen. The 4 +2 pillar arrangement fits with six-pillared structure called “anuloma” type of pillars. 

 (click the images to see the details)

The entrance is through west so that one faces east when in front of the fire pit. In the case of yajnas, the facing direction is east and this fits well with the western entrance in Tiryns Megaron temple. 

There is supposed to be a throne in the southern wall. This is not so with Megarons in other locations of the Mycenaean culture. Tiryns Megaron being oldest and that which fits the probability of Tirayan Pandyans having migrated here, there is scope to reason out that the south was remembered for their early roots and also for South being the direction of Shiva as Dakshinamurthy. These people had done ancestor-worship too which is also related to Southern direction in Vedic culture followed by Tamils. 

In the other sites of later origin, the throne in the south is missing thereby showing a loss of remembrance of an old culture which the first few generations of migrations would have remembered well.  

The interesting information from researchers of this site is that this temple of Megaron was used for poetry, meetings, feasts and worships. This was the same as in Sangam assemblies where a seat for Lord Shiva was always and the poets delivered their verses in the assumed presence of Lord Shiva. 

The temple was part of the complex which houses the royal court and the king and queen’s chambers. See the picture below that shows the entrance to Megaron from the court. 

This kind of all–in-one place was a feature in the palace of Tamil kings. The king’s palace was called as temple – “Koyil” in Tamil which is the name in Tamil for all temples too.  It means ko+ il = the house of the king / God, as it was the tradition to regard the king as God. In the case of Pandyan kings, the temple or Koyil of Lord Shiva was the location of the Sangam Assembly.

Another interesting feature of this Megaron was that the ground features of the throne shows that libations were done. The following picture shows cuttings on the ground in the floor for the throne with libation hollows and channels for water to run off. Pouring libations or bathing the God or the King is a feature of the Vedic system. 

The early Tamil kings under their preceptor sage Agasthya were known to have been always engaged in doing Yajnas and getting bathed by the sacred water. There comes such a reference in the 6^th chapter of Raghuvamsa written by Kalidasa that a Pandyan king who attended the Swayamvar of Princess Indumathi (who later married Aja, the grandfather of Rama) was seen wet due to the abhsiheka water (libations) poured by Sage Agasthya after conducting the yajnas for him. 

In the Megaron complex at Tiryns there exists a small room fitted with a slab showing an exit channel for water to drain off. The exit channel slopes towards North east is information of interest to us. See the picture below. This is as per Vedic vaastu. 

On the topic of water use, there exists a place close to Megaron temple within the Palace complex which was used only for washing the feet! (read here). This is something strange to find outside the Vedic society. Only in the Vedic society washing one’s feet before entering a premise, particularly if it is a temple is practiced even today. Such a practice in Tiryns Megaron, can be connected to the practices taken by Tirayan Pandyans in the new lands they settled. 

Now coming to the name Megaron, it does have a Tamil connection. MAgha is the name of the 10^th star of the zodiac. In Tamil, it is pronounced as Magam. This word ‘Magam” also means Yajna in Tamil! There was a “Maga viNmeen kOttam” – meaning “temple for Maga star” -  in Pumpukaar as per the Sangam text of Pattinappaalai. Please note that the temple itself was known by the name “Maga” and not by the name of any deity. The Maga temples must have been popular in ancient Tamil period – either for Maasi Maga festival (better known as Kumbha mela) or as a place for doing Yajnas (Vedic sacrifices). The Megaron as it is known in Greek seems to be the place for Maga (yajna) established by Tirayan Pandyan. From Magam or Maga, the word had later altered into Megaron. The statue of Pandion reportedly found in Megaron by olden travellers of Greece, gives a strong connection to ‘Maga’ yajna shala brought to Greece by Tirayan Pandyan kings.

With this background I am going to bring to the attention of readers an important feature found in the Room of idols in the citadel. It is the “a scarab of Queen Tiye of Egypt, who was married to Amenhotep III” ( read here). Why was this kept here? What was the connection between this queen of Egypt and Tiryns?

This queen was the mother of Akhenaten, the Pharaoh of the 18^th dynasty of Egypt who introduced the new cult of Sun God called Aten. Until then Ra was worshipped as the Sun God by Egyptians. But Akhenaten introduced Aten whom he came to know from his marine connections, say the researchers. Readers may recall my earlier article on Tutankhamun (Read here ) where I had shown that Aten was in fact Athan (ஆதன்), the Tamil word for Sun as Bhaga, the blind one. Athavan (ஆதவன்) is how Sun was called in Tamil. This Sun travels in the sky on his horse driven chariot. But Ra, the Sun God worshiped in Egypt until then was depicted as travelling in a boat.  Aten introduced by Akhenaten was similar to Tamil – Vedic Sun God.

This cult of Aten existed briefly during the time of Akhenaten and his son Tutankhamun but was given up sooner by the powerful priests of Egypt. It was only during the time that Atenism was in use, we find the ear piercing habit (of the Vedic society) among the Egyptian Pharaohs and their men. Details can be read in the article I have given in that link.

Akhenaten’s mother’s image in the scarab found at Tiryns of the same period raises the possibility of her coming from Tiryns people. This mother’s name was Tiye and her image also shows her wearing an ear ornament. See the image below now housed at Berlin Museum Her period was 1398 BC – 1338 BC coinciding with the period when Tiryns was at the height of civilisation. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%84gyptisches_Museum_Berlin_027.jpg

According to scholars, her name was non-Egyptian and she was foreign to Egypt. Her features also were not Egyptian. They were also not Greek but her image on scarab found at Tiryns and the ear piercing habit shows that she could have been related to the Tirayan Pandyans. Her name also sounds close to Tirayan / Tiryns.

The Vedic altar at Megaron showing the presence of Vedic cult at Tiryns at that time does indicate the prevalence Vedic Thought and Vedic deities in Tiryns. This woman’s connection to Egypt shows that those ideas were taken up by her son and introduced as a cult of Aten in Egypt. 

Aten – must have been a original deity of Athens too – given that they sound similar. Athens, is the seat of pride of Greeks of later times. Our opponents are foolishly saying that we Indians borrowed ideas from Greeks after Alexander’s invasion. But look at the time of 15^th to 13^th BC Greece. The name Aten had existed in the not so far away land of Egypt. The root word for Athens is not Greek according to scholars. Then what was it?

Let me explain. Athens was a plural word Athēnai in Ancient Greek. But in Homeric Greek it was a singular word, Athēnē. Similar to this is how the Mycenae – the civilisation that existed in Tiryns in 15^th to 12^th century BC was called. It was a singular name “Mykēnē” during Homer’s times. 

It was written as m-w-k-i-n-u and pronounced as Mukanai by the Mycenaeans.  

This was how it was in the Late Helladic Period

when Tiryns was enriched by Mycenaean culture,

when the cyclopean masonry was at its peak thanks to the  cyclopes who had an eye on the forehead,

when  Crete (pronounced as Kiriti  - the corrupt form of Kiratas of the Mahabharata period) was enriched by Minoan culture and

Egypt was having Atenism introduced by Akhenaten who followed the Long Ear tradition of the Vedic society.   

The Mycenaeans at Tiryns called themselves as MukAnaI – phonetically as MukAna. There is even an inscription found in Egypt that mentions a place called Mukana (here). MukAna seems to be the original name by which the people who occupied Tiryns were called. This name – MukAna- sounds like a Tamil name – MukkaNNa.( முக்கண்ணா).  It means 3-eyed. Lord Shiva is known as ‘Mukkannan” (முக்கண்ணன்) in Tamil lands. (moonRu+kannan = . mukkannan = three- eyed person) as He had an additional eye in the forehead. 

The Mycenaean culture is known for Cyclopes, the people with eye on the forehead. In Part 20 of this series I showed that Cyclopes could have been the Kaikkola of Tamil lands, the devotees of Lord Shiva who painted an eye in their forehead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polyphemus.gif

If that society was a Tamil society, then they would have called them as “Mukkanna” – meaning “three-eyed” – a name by which Lord Shiva is called. 

Mukkanna became Mukana and changed by later Greeks with Greek letters that was spelt as Mycenae.

The same change has happened with “Athan” ஆதன் – the Tamil name for Sun. (a – is pronounced as “a” in auspicious). This name was very common in the Sangam age and there are many Athans in Tamil texts. The Egyptian Pharaoh carried the concept of Athan as Aten to Egypt. Like Mukkana, it was Athana or Athan in pre-Greece of the Mycenaean period. It became Athens later.

The Greeks think that Athena was the patron Goddess of Athens.  A 1sr century BC sculpture of Athena is given below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Athena_Parthenos_Altemps_Inv8622.jpg

Look at her pose – her hands. This is the characteristic posture of none other than Lord Rama of the Solar dynasty of Ayodhya! The raised hand of Athena must hold the bow and the lowered right hand must hold the bow. Let me show the same pose of Lord Rama of the famous temple of Vaduvur in Tamilnadu.

The deity without the weapons in hand is shown above. The hand posture can be compared with Athena’s posture.

Shown below is the same deity with the weapons in the hands. 

From Athan  to Sun connected to Rama of the Solar dynasty – whose name was popular throughout Europe as seen from many names of places with Rama or Ram in them – must have either been worshiped in Tiryns or more probably in Crete, the land of Kiratas who along with Yavanas shifted from North East India to Greece (analysis in another article) – this posture of Rama was retained in Athens / Athana of  the Pre-Greek society but transformed into a female form in the pre-Hellenistic Greece. Take a look at Athena’s face in the tetradrachm silver coin  of 499 BCE. She is seen wearing ear ornament!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SNGCop_039.jpg

This is unusual to expect in Hellenistic Greece. This shows the previous tradition of ear boring that the Tiryans or Mukkanai brought from their parent culture. This also shows that pre- Greece or what we may call as Proto-Greece was peopled with those who carried the memories of Gods of the Vedic society. One of the routes of this memory is through Tirayan Pandyans who settled down as Pandions, Etruscans and Mycenaeans. The Minoans of Crete had a different route and they came along with Yavanas whose early location was North east India.  But by their name Minoan, it is known that they also had Tamil connection. With so many indicators for a transfer of Thought from Vedic society to Greece, the claims of opponents are anything but childish. We will see more proofs in the next article.

(continued)