The Dravidian
system of worship was idolatry, i.e., puja (Poo –sai – Neri) to a
concrete religious symbol that enables an average man to love, perceive and
comprehend his God. The Dravidians used to worship God with water, leaves and
flowers. The Aryan system of worship was ‘yagna’, the imageless worship. The
Aryans lit fire and threw animals into it to propitiate their God. They
believed that the fire was the messenger who carried their message to their
God. This is the fundamental difference between the religions of the Aryans and
the Dravidians.The Himalayas with its splendid, dazzling, magnificent and
awe-inspiring aura, overwhelmed the hearts of the Dravidians of the
pre-historic age to a great extent that they revered it as the abode of their
God.During their day-to-day prayers and festivals, they used to prepare the
image of the abode of their God for their worship. That image depicted the
plain land, the mountain over it and the river that flowed from the mountain
over the plain. As everyone was permitted (in sharp contrast to the way the
Brahmins had later appropriated to themselves the right of access to
the deity) to prepare such an image for one’s own worship, and given the fact
that all the people were not sculptors, the image, in due course, took the
present form in which it is installed and worshipped in the Siva
temples.Such transformation in shape had taken place in the Indus Civilisation
period itself.It is worthwhile to mention here that the practice of preparing
such an image, though not in accurate shape, with turmeric paste or cow-dung,
is still prevalent among us,during festival occasions. The origin of this
practice can be traced only to the aforesaid worship of Lord Siva of
pre-historic origin.(That the image is now called as Pillaiyar does not
contradict the fact, as this story of Pillaiyar was due
to the
later-day evolution of modern Hinduism which even then held that the said
Pillaiyar belonged to the same Saivite cosmic family of Lord Siva).Besides, the
Dravidian custom of regarding and respecting the mountains as the abode of
their God is still held in high esteem in the tamil land or south India that it
gave birth to the adage, “Kundram Irukkumidam Kumaran Irukkumidam”
(Kumaran, the Lord Muruhan, being another deity of the same cosmic family) This
belief of Tamils in venerating the mountains as the abode of God can also be
traced only to the concept of the Kayilai of Lord Siva.The tradition
of the Dravidians to visualsze their God to be at the highest place, even in
the material sense is, therefore, of pre-historic origin. Their religion was
Siva-ism, the Saivism. And, the seals found in the Indus Valley include the
Mother Goddess, the Siva form, and a male God seated in yogic posture. It,
therefore, becomes crystal clear that Siva worship, in its present form, had
been practiced during the pre-Aryan Indus Civilisation period itself.The
earliest reference to the people who worshipped Siva in this material form is
found in the Rig Veda. But, these Rig Vedic references were only in the context
of deriding the symbol and not in the context of expounding its
concept,Here,The Lord Siva is derided as ‘Sisnadevata’ in Rig Veda.
Given the fact that
these two peoples,Diravidians and Aryans, were so ill-disposed towards each
other, such derisive remarks against the religion of the Dravidians by the
Vedic Aryans are understandable.An analysis of the world history shows that the
antagonism of the Vedic Aryans towards the religious symbols of the Dravidians
is matched only by the antagonism displayed by the Aryans of Germany towards
the religious symbols of the Jews.The abominable manner in which the Germans
desecrated them is of recent history. ‘Sisna’ in Vedic language
meant the private part of the males. The words ‘linga’ also means the same
thing. In English it came to be called as ‘phallus’. The Vedic Aryans
were the first people in the recorded history of the world to offend
the feelings of the other religious group in such a repulsive manner which is a
crime under the present day Indian Penal Code Section 125.The Vedic religion
which had thus derided the Siva-cult originally, absorbed it into its fold only
during the period of Upanishads [600 B.C]. But, even then, the Vedic religion
did not become idolatrous. Idolatry gained ground in Vedic religion only during
the post-Upanishadic period. However, because of the absorption of Lord Siva
into its fold, the Vedic religion was made a composite one. As the references
in the Rig Veda against the Siva worship as ‘Sisnadevas’ and
‘Sisnadevata’
could not be erased overnight, the Vedic Aryans sought to justify
it by floating various theories of “Naadha Vindhu Kalaadhi”. The
Vedic Aryans had no other choice for their survival through easy
means. the tribal deities being equated to standard Brahmin gods, or new
Brahmin scriptures written for making unassimilable gods respectable”The
pro-Siva group of Aryans, took over the title ‘Iyer’ and have occupied the Siva
temples and driven Tamil out and introduced their Sanskrit as the language for
the mantras. They told the Dravidians that the latter was nor required to know
what we utter as mantras. The Dravidians believed whatever the Aryans said Over
the years, it became a tradition and Tamil lost its place in temples
After aryans
migrated towards India from central Asia & conquered the
dravidians, causes changes to ancient dravidian's religion as well.Many of the
ancient tamil deities assumed fresh characteristics and were equated with
similar deities or gods of ancient Aryan, like Murugan→Skanda or Subrahmanya, Siva→Rudra, Mayon→Vishnu, Kotravai→Parvathi...........ie
Murugan,a Tamil god, son of the wild goddess Kotravai, became identified with
Skanda,& become son of paramasivan & parvathy by Aryans.Aryans who
invaded India and destroyed the existing Dravidian Civilization,successfully
used common tactics/Strategy of Conquerors over the conquered races[
Dravidians/Tamils] by integrating cultures such as equating ancient tamil
deities with their similar vedic deities by giving new characters,Introducing
varnas[cast system/social classes] etc.Also these deities assumed Sanskrit
names.Murugan and Skanda or subramanya seem to be identical but different
deities who were later merged into one as said above. Murugan is always
associated with youth and wisdom.His consort is Valli (Devayani,was a later
addition..when he was associated with Skandha]. Naturally Murugan was both the
deity of those who desired wisdom as well the deity of those who were
warriors.Tamils still call their kurinchi land division deity as Murugan , but
ariyanised Kerala & Kannada people call him as Subramanya
Swamy.Even Tamil
hindus do not understand that murugan & Skandha or Subramanya are in fact
different.The Integration of Dravidian Murugan and Aryan Skanda has taken place
when Pallavas came to Tamil Nadu.The Brahmins have spearheaded this
integration.The Aryan god had a father but no mother and Dravidian god has
mother but no father.The Dravidian mother Korravai was identified with
Kali,Durga or Amman as early as Sangam age.Since Kali /Durga were identified
with Parvati the consort of Shiva, Murugan was identified as son of Shiva.The
myth also was made up to represent two kind of marriage, Kalavu – love marriage
(a Tamil/Dravidian tradition- Valli and Murugan) and Karpu – arranged marriage
(Brahmin tradition- Theivanai and Murugan).There after,they introduced
relationships among god as elder brother,younger brother,sister,cousin etc so
that common people could understand easily.Now Pillair & Murugan are
children of Siva,Thirumal cousin of Siva,...Korravai was the sanga period
ancient
tamil's victory goddess.The real connection
between Indus valley mother goddess & sanga period's Korravai was not
clear,but we can assumed that there should be a possible close connection
between them.This ancient tamils Korravai ,may be tranformed in
to goddess sakthi or siva's sakthi in Saiva Siddhanta.many tamil
literatures shows murugan as maternal diravidan god as it indicates only the
relationship by the mother's side such as: "வெற்றி வெல்போர்க் கொற்றவை சிறுவ",
"மலைமகள் மகனே","இழையணி சிறப்பிற் பழையோள் குழவி"There
is no mention in the earlier Sangam poems of Murukan being a son of Sivan,But
it says only that he is a son of Korravai.It clearly shows that sangam tamils
had a society that are matriarchal.[a society in which females, especially
mothers, have the central roles ],now mostly lost after the aryan inversion
& we are now mostly paternal society.when you analyse the lives of sangam
period based on close connection or relationship between the people
& deities,we can come to the conclusion that siva did not had enough
influence like other deities such as Korravai as the goddess of victory or
velan [or Murugan] as the God of the hillock,During the Sangam Age,Buddhism and
Jainism also flourished together, but were subordinate to the Brahmanical Vedic
religion. The Tamils of the Sangam Age were aware of certain spiritual and
philosophical truths, such as concepts of body and soul, superiority of
destiny, dying for a noble cause and so on.
Also.the sangam
literature like Tholkappiyam,ettuthogai,paththu paaddu
..and silappathikaram & manimekalai does not have any
direct reference to word "Siva" or "saivam",There were
many indirect reference to "Siva " . even though
we had many evidences about Siva &
sakthi worship in Sumeria & Indus valley
,Well before aryans ,Saiva Siddhanta, as a system of
philosophy, first assumes a palpable form only in 5th century AD.
Despite the
multiplicity of godheads one encounters in Hindu mythology, a closer study of
the Thevaram poems would indicate that, in fact, the reverse was true. All the
saints were stressing the oneness of the Supreme in no uncertain terms.
Manikkavachakar's pleads in his Thiruthellenam(திருத்தெள்ளேணம்) ,
"For One who does not have any name or any form, why not we give thousand
different names and hail His greatness"?(ஒரு நாமம், ஓர் உருவம், ஒன்றும் இல்லாற்கு, ஆயிரம் திருநாமம் பாடி, நாம் தெள்ளேணம் கொட்டாமோ!).Also,Saiva philosophy
neither advise nor create any caste system .The basic principle
of saiva philosophy is "One race & one
God"Hence any principle which is contradict to this is not a saiva
principle.Please note that the caste system and untouchability by Brahminism
designed to undermine and destroy Tamil culture just like the old apartheid
system of South Africa.Our Saints Appar and Sambanthar fought against the
imposition of Sanskrit and the caste system.Saints Appar Said:Why the
meaningless chatter about the scriptures? What do you really gain by the
meaningless castes and lineages?["sathiram pala pesum salakkarghaal,
kothiramum kulamum kondhu en seiveer?/
சாத்திரம் பல பேசும் சழக்கர்காள் / கோத்திரமும் குலமும் கொண்டு என்செய்வீர்?"],Why
bathe in Ganges’ stream, or Kaviri? Why go to Comori in Kongu’s land? Why seek
the waters of the surrounding sea?will not do any good if they do not think
that Civaṉ[GOD] is
omnipresent.["Gangai aadilen kaviri aadilen ?
engum yeesan enaathavarkku illaye?/கங்கை யாடிலென் காவிரி யாடிலென்,கொங்கு தண்கும ரித்துறை யாடிலென்,ஒங்கு மாகட லோதநீ ராடிலென்,எங்கு மீச னெனாதவர்க் கில்லையே."] A
religion should be based on justice, love, humanity and equal rights & as
well as religion should satisfy human nature and does not discriminate between
his creations whether white or black, high and low, rich and poor, and so on."Where
there is love there is life."Only after the 5th century that the
indigenous Dravidian religion completely fused with Vedic religion.The word
Samayam[Religion] seems to have entered common usage in the later period
only.For long it was 'Dharuma vazhi' or 'ara vazhi'[Righteous way/ a way of
just] only.Disastrously, The Sanskrit sources also contributed another element
for this religion. ie the Vedas,Sanskrit puranas and epics &
these were presented to the Tamil people as Tamil religions This was
made possible by religious synchronism.murukan becomes identified with Skanda
and karttikeja and related to Siva as a son, korravi becomes identified with
uma, Siva's consort and as murukan s mother, and majon becomes identified with
Vishnu etc. Saivam,which is now part of the Hinduism become a popular religion
of Tamils today.However The type of worship found during the bhakti[devotional
]period ,along with equality & worship in Tamil are
missing now.Hence,there is a gap between Tamils & saivam
.If Thirumoolar write Thirumanthiram today Will he say :"The
Lord made me, my task assigned,In sanskrit His Glory to expound." instead
of sweetest Tamil ??
[ஆக்கம்:கந்தையா தில்லைவிநாயகலிங்கம்/By:Kandiah
Thillaivinayagalingam]
முடிவுற்றது/Ended
பி கு/NB:இணைத்த படங்கள்/Pictures
attached:korravai's son[வெற்றி வெல்போர்க் கொற்றவை சிறுவ],
Remains of Murugan Temple of Sangam period ,Sculpture of the god Murugan,chola
temple,Bronze Statue of Shiva,building temple and worshippers
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