chap32
chapter31.html
chapter32.html
chapter33.html
Vedic Roots of Hindu Iconography
R. Nagaswamy
CHAPTER-32
Worship of Indra in Ancient Tamilnadu
Indra was one of the most popular deities worshipped by the Ancient Tamil people, as God of Cultivated lands including cities and agricultural villages. A great Tamil grammatical work of the Ancient Tamils is Tolkāppiyam written by Tolkāppiyar assignable probably to the beginning of the current era. In addition to it there is a remarkable dramatic poem, Nāṭaka kāppiyam, named Cilappatikāram that gives a detailed description of the worship of Indra and a great festival held in his honour by the citizens of Pumpuhar, the capital of the Chola country. Another companion work, Maṇimēkalai poem also gives the festival of Indra but this is almost a repetition of what is given in Cilappatikāram. The date of these two texts is not precisely known but they seem to be following closely the Saṅgam works and may belong to the 3rd cent.
The city of Pumpuhar was situated on the banks of the perennial river Kaveri, at the confluence of the river with the Bay of Bengal. The city was well known to ancient Geographers as the “Kaberis Emporium” in the beginning of the current era and therefore was of considerable interest to people of Tamilnad. We have seen that the Ancient Tamil grammar holds Indra as the presiding deity of agricultural land. The region around enriched by Kaveri is called the virtual golden bowl of paddy fields and is the land per excellence of the agriculturist. Such lands were called Marutam technically in poetic parlance.
The Cilappatikaram tells us that it was customary to propitiate Indra in a festival in the month of Chittirai when the star Chittira was in conjunction with the full moon. This festival called Indra viḻā was held with great pomp and show with the prayer that the ruling king should prosper and the people of the country should reap plenty of grains and comforts. One whole chapter of the text is devoted to this festival. The then ruler was named Karikāla a well known Chola king of the Saṅgam age. It was organized when the king was returning after leading a victorious expedition to the north.
The city was in two parts, one on the coast called Maruvūr-pākkam and the other in the midst of the fields called Paṭṭinap-pākkam where the Royal palace was located. In the Paṭṭina-pākkam resided ministers, soldiers, Brahmins and high cultivators while in the Maruvūr-pākkam lived artisans, dancers, servant class, foreigners and fishermen and others. In between Paṭṭinap-pākkam and Maruvūr-pākkam was a daily market where all commodities were sold. In the market street was an altar piṭitkai? dedicated to a Bhūta a monstrous spirit, which is said to have been sent by Indra to protect the king and the people. Indra sent this Bhūta when a mythical Chola king, Mucukunda helped Indra in his war against the Aśuras and in return when the Chola was in need of help, the Bhūta used to remove all impediments to the ruling king. It was a bali piṭikai?, sacrificial altar to the Bhūta. People used to offer worship and bali sacrifice on this altar.
On the beginning day of the festival the servant women of the royal palace, went in large numbers and offered cooked grains like Avarai, Tuvarai and other grains as pongal and also meat mixed with blood beside liquor. They sprinkled flowers, showed incense and danced with a howling noise tuṇaṅkai kūttu, (a form of dance in which the women with bent hands beat their sides with the elbows rhythmically, the kuravai dance in which a number of women joined their hands and with rhythmic steps danced around singing, and finally they danced the aṇaṅgu dance in which they got possessed by gods and danced. When they departed came ferocious looking soldiers and men from Maruvur-pākkam with deafening noise and beat of roaring drums, wielding swords, spears, shields made of leather with untrimmed hairs. They wore frightening look with reddened eyes and jerking their bodies violently. They performed a cruel sacrifice shouting “Ye Bhūta! here we are sacrificing our heads and lives. Let our king be victorious and prosperous” and so shouting severed their own heads with swords and placed them on the altars. It is called the head offering. This used to be an awesome sacrifice and scene which they considered as heroic offering of self sacrifice for the sake of the king and country.
Besides the Bhūta's altar there were five common religious yards in the city which were inhabited by spirits that protected the people from evils deeds. One was a merchants' quarters where they stored their commodities marking each bundle with the name, number and the quantity of goods contained in the bundle. They remained well protected. Any theft or robbery was severely punished and publicly disgraced. The second was a sacred pond in which the people affected with leprosy, and other incurable diseases, deformities like hunch backs, took bath and were cured immediately. Those who anticipated imminent death by poisonous snake bites, possessed by evil spirits, consumed poison inadvertently were cured in the third maṉṟam. The fourth one had a high stone post representing a Bhūta (probably Kṣetrapāla) which caught any wrong doer like pseudo monks, or a debauch, or a women who had a shady and stealthy behaviour from her husband, any who went after another man's wife, rendered false evidence in courts and the like used to be caught with a noose, dragged and thrashed on the ground and ate him. There was the fifth one with and sculpted image who used to shed tears when the king committed any mistake, the ministers did wrong, the judges gave faulty verdicts and others. Special worship offered on the Indra festival to these five sacred squares in the city.
There were three temples in the city connected with Indra one was the Vajra the weapon of Indra, the second was the white elephant named Airavata, which was the mount of Indra and the third was a tree called Taruk-kōṭṭam in which Indra is said have stayed when he came to the City. Besides, there was another temple dedicated to Indra probably a carved image of him. The Festival drum which was to be sounded, was kept usually in the temple of Vajra. On the day of the festival it was placed on a decorated elephant and brought to the Temple of Airavata where the beginning of the Festival was announced declaring that from that day the festival had started and will last for so many days. The festival lasted for 28 days. This ritual is akin to modern temple festivals mentioned in āgamas practiced under the name bheri tāḍana. Then a flag drawn with a figure of Indra's elephant Airavata and other auspicious symbols called aṣṭa maṅgala like drum, Pūrṇa kalaśa, Pālika (sprouting vessel), a pair of fly whisks and lamps etc., and this flag was brought to the temple of Indra's tree (Taruk-kōṭṭam) was hoisted on a pole marking the start of the festival. This flag hoisting was marked by a great music and dance procession passing through the main Royal street, which was decorated with makara toraṇas, lamps, golden kalasas etc each house exhibiting such festive decorations. The royal princes, the merchants, the ministers, the representatives of the royal Assembly, soldiers, Brahmins, judges and higher cultivators and others on horses, elephants, and chariots accompanied by vocal musicians, Instrumental musicians, and dancers with drum beats.
Then fresh and fragrant waters were brought from the sacred Kaveri river that had witnessed 1008 such abhiṣekas performed on the heads of previous kings. This abhiṣeka was meant for the health and prosperity of the ruling king. This anointment is called the Indra viḻā.
Immediately following the flag hoisting and the abhiṣeka to Indra, special worships were conducted with homas accompanied by Vedic mantras expounded by Brahmins, in the temples of Mahadeva (Śiva), Ṣaṇmukha, Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and also Indra. Besides these gods, there were offerings to Eight Vasus, Twelve Ādityas, Eleven Rudras, and the two Maruts who are called the Four classes of Gods (nal vahai dēvar) and other groups called Gandharvas, Siddhas, Cāranās, Nāgās, which are grouped as four class of devas and known as Eighteen groups Gaṇas. These eighteen groups were Vedic gods frequently mentioned in the Vedas. There were also in the city, Jain paḷḷis, Baudha paḷḷis and other sacred centres where the respective dharmas were expounded and Purāṇas studied. It clearly suggests the temples of Śiva and other deities mentioned followed Vedic mode of worship in the time of Cilappatikāram. Also please note the main gods so worshipped were all Vedic gods. Even to this day Vedic homas are performed in all the classical temples daily and on festival days. The flag hoisting is also done in exactly the same manner, these days which goes by the name dvajārohanam on the day of the start, though āgamas are cited as the authority now. The city witnessed great music and dance filling all the streets. The day of lowering the flag people thronged to the Sea coast and after a special worship to the God of the Sea, Varuṇa, bathed in the sea and had a day long celebration. This resembles what is now called Tīrthavāri in temple festivals.
We have seen that another but companion text, Maṇimēkalai also describes in detail the Indra viḻā almost verbatim as Cilappatikāram and shows the role of Vedic worship, in Ancient Tamil land.