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a Hilly environ of hypaethral tree temples for village gods and goddesses, Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai (Tiṇṭukkal)
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A seal of the Indic culture represents a goddess standing close to a tree and receiving sacrifices. Seven more goddesses, hypothetically the Ēḻukaṉṉimār or Sapta Mātṛkā, are linked with the Tree Goddess. The ancient Tamil Caṅkam literature, the Naṟṟiṇai and Cilappatikāram (c.450 CE), mention a goddess of the vēṅkai tree, the Vēṅkaik-kaṭavuḷ. In Tiṭ...
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Maturai was known Nāṉmāṭakkūṭal 'city of four ancient temples' and its Śiva temple as Ālavāy 'poison-mouth'. A hymn in Paripāṭal refers to Maturai as pū muṭi nākar nakar 'Nāga holds the city on its head'. Tiruviḷaiyāṭaṟ Purāṇam introduces the city as Nīlavāymaṇicerkaṇṭaṉ's [Skt. Nīlakaṇṭha 'one whose throat is blue, as he consumed the halahala 'poison'] abode. The above hints mark, Śiva as one of the ancient serpent-god of the region, and in the later period it becomes the attribute of the deity. A similar folklore theme develops aside the main myth and popularly known as Alli-Arjuna story. Both Mīnākṣī and Alli share the Amazonian warrior queen character, Arjuna becomes the archetype of Śiva. The earliest stratum of the protagonist Kaṇṇaki seems to be Nīli myth. It seems there were multiple stories of Nīli both in folklore and in the Caṅkam literature. Zvelebil (1989: 297-303) gives a clear nutshell of the major version of the Nīli myth. All stories of Nīli share some common elements, such as deprival of love, lust, sexual atrocity, denial of justice, injury, revenge, curse, horrific and bloody. The tragic end to Nīli and Kaṇṇaki are the common identity of both heroines, who fought against the injustice and simultaneously both the stories grew together in the next centuries. It is pertinent to recall, the progressive order of folk (lower), regional (intermediate) and national (higher) versions of the myth. The oral-tales and folklores gets transferred into 'regional-literature', from regional it further moves to national 'Purāṇic' forms. This process does not end, sometime these are recycled back to folklores. The Maturai tale is a good example, it absorbs the myth from the Purāṇas, yet the myths are not an exact replication of the Purāṇa. The Maturai tale has a conventional base of the common living derivations, these recast tales are vibrantly chalked into visual narrations of the Maturai temples. The following recycled narrations is a magnum opus:
Popularly known as Mat[d]urai Mīnākṣī kōyil, the temple is āgamically the Mīnākṣī-Sundareśvara. Today we celebrate the temple for its art and architecture, but without the literature, e.g. the talapurāṇam, nothing is important for celebration. The Tiruviḷaiyāṭaṟ Purāṇam is the talapurāṇam (sthalamāhātmya) of the Mīnākṣī-Sundareśvara temple at Maturai. It tells the 64+ sacred sports (Tamil viḷaiyāṭal, Sanskrit līlā) of Lord Śiva in and around the city of Maturai. It deals with the legends of Maturai. A folk theme to begin with, a few of the episodes appear in literary works since the post-Caṅkam period, the Cilappatikāram (Rajarajan 2000, 2012 & 2016), the bhakti hymns of Tēvāram and Tiruvācakam and a 10th century literary compilation, called Kallāṭam (Zvelebil 1974: 178-85).
A Tamil theme for literary compositions, it was adapted to the taste of Sanskrit scholars that recast several works such as Hālāsyamāhātmya, Śivalīlārṇava, Kaḍambavana Purāṇa, and so on. I want to emphasize this point because many scholars and visitors to the temple are not aware of the local legends that are vital to understanding the festivals; and the sculptural wealth of the temple as it may be found on the rāyagopuras, putumaṇḍapa, kiḷikkaṭṭumaṇḍapa, stucco images on the wall of the Sundareśvara shrine, wood-carved chariots and so on.
One may come across a stunning triple-breasted Goddess in Mīnākṣī Temple and the Tirupparaṅkuṉṟam Murukaṉ Temple in suburban Maturai. The image may not be intelligible to scholars from the north of India if they do not know the legends of Maturai as told in the Tiruviḷaiyāṭaṟ Purāṇam (TVP). Such an image purports to portray a legend from the TVP in which on the presence of Śiva, Taṭātakai transforms into Mīnākṣī. To unmask the veil, this article is presented, which takes cue from the legends told in literature, rituals of the temple involving the baliberas (processional bronze images), sculptures in wood and paintings in the temple and the region around.
Vālmīki and Kampar stand at the polarities of two cultural traditions, separated by the time and space of nearly two millennia. Vālmīki’s Rāma is a true Āryan and the torch-bearer of its cultural usages. What Rāvaṇa did may be fair from the demonic cultural point of view (cf. Zvelebil 1988: 126-34, viewing Rāvaṇa as a noble Dravidian demon-hero) but what Rāma finally does is to establish the Āryan dharma which is accepted by the monkey (Sugrīva) and bird (Jaṭāyu) tribes, including Rāvaṇa’s brother Vibhīṣaṇa. However, with the lapse of time, Kampaṉ at the other end of the millennium polarity, accepts the Āryan ideology and will not allow Rāvaṇa to touch Sītā. Several other versions of the Rāmāyaṇa (e.g., Adhyātma- and Rāmacaritamanas) indirectly echo the same idea and it is very interesting to find these motifs receiving the serious attention of śilpis through the plastic and pictorial arts of India through the ages. The presentation is in three segments: 1) Literary background of the Rāmāyaṇa, 2) Visual arts with particular bearing on Cinema and Indonesian ballets of Rāma-kathā, and 3) western plastic and pictorial arts
• Myth: Folk, Regional and National
• Define: Androgyne, Androgynous, Androgenize
• Western: Greco-Roman Model: Prototype: Horizontally split (naturally perceived)
• Indian: Archetype: vertical split (from collective unconsciousness ‘Ardhanārīśvara’)
• Pan-Indian: Ardhanārīśvara: Prototype ‘left-breasted’
• Tamil: Ardhanārī: Archetype – Kaṇṇaki ‘right-breasted’ (exceptional): Regional Identity
• Disappearance of Kaṇṇaki Chronicle – living cult in Kerala and Śrī Laṅkā: Sanskritization
• Maturai: Taṭātakai ‘triple-breasted’ – exceptional: Tamilization
• Rise and Pinnacle of Mīnākṣī cult: Sanskritization
A chronological assimilation of the problem, will make the theme logical:
• Folklores of Kaṇṇaki (c. 2nd BCE – 2nd CE), Aṇaṅku in Classical Tamil literature
The ‘twin Epics’ Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa are the legacy of India to world literature; recast in various Asian languages, and translated in western languages such as Deutsch, English and French. If the prefix, “the Great” is added to the Rāmāyaṇa, it is not an exaggeration. Both the Hindu itihasas put together make up the greatest heritage of humanity. Divided into seven kaṇḍas, John Dowson (A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion 1928) says the Rāmāyaṇa consists of 50,000 lines (in 25,000 ślokas). The Mahābhārata is in 110,000 ślokas, and both put together make up a fantastic 270,000 lines something unparalleled in the history of world literature. I may add “the whole of English literature may not be equal to a shelf accommodating the Indian itihāsas and purāṇas (mahā- and upa-) in Sanskrit and Asian languages.
The aim of the present lecture is not to compress in a nutshell all that is told in the Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki (c. 1000-500 BC) and Irāmāvatāram of Kampaṉ (12th century CE), the two eminent Sanskrit and Tamil scholars separated by a gap of more than two millennia. Therefore, what was the sociological notion (e.g. the concept of chastity [Tamil kaṟpu, cf. Cilappatikāram] or an alien touching an orthodox Indian woman, cf. the treatment meted out the Pāñcāli by the Kauravas or Rāvaṇa lifting Sīta in Vālmīki and Kampaṉ; I may emphatically add it a living tradition in rural India) of the first millennium BC could not have been the same in the mid-first millennium CE.
I would like to add here we find two different stages in retelling the Rāmāyaṇa annals in Tamil (see bibliography listing the publications of the present author):
Vāhanas are vehicles of the Hindu gods and goddesses that are taken in ulā “procession” during annual festivals. These are mostly in the zoomorphic form of animals or birds, trees, palanquins and above all chariots, called tēr “temple car” (Kalidos 1989). The vāhanas and chariots in wood as a recognizable theme for research was the pioneering work of Raju Kalidos whose thesis (Madurai Kamaraj University 1981) was commended by the experts Mario Bussagli (Rome), Pierre Sylvain-Filliozat (Paris), S. Settar (Dharwad) and Maurizio Taddei . I come to know earlier a French scholar, by name Rita Regnier, evinced some interest in the subject but I do not find any authentic report by this scholar in English (Kalidos 1988: 98n) . Following the articles of Kalidos 1986 & 1988 in East and West and JRAS, George Michell 1992 edited a book for the Marg in which he wrote on the temple cars. In the same volume of Marg J.P. Waghorne wrote on the vāhanas under note. Michell in his bibliography has noted Raju Kalidos 1986 & 1989. J.P. Waghorne seems to have not collected a thorough bibliography on the subject of her research because the author fails to note some important works, that has presented an exhaustive account of the vāhanas in addition to tērs with many useful illustrations and clues from literature and epigraphy (Kalidos 1989: 45-47, figs. 6-12). Later Anna L. Dallapiccola 1994 wrote an account of the Rāmāyaṇa sculptures in the Rāmasvāmi temple car at Kuṃbhakōnam, which is a mere charting of the programme of images with no critical analysis. This was followed by another meticulous documentation of the Kūṭal Aḻakar tēr at Maturai by R.K.K. Rajarajan 1998. A British scholar of the SOAS who devoted his attention to the methodology of Nāyaka art that published the same article twice has not even noted the tēr of the Kūṭal Aḻakar temple (Branfoot 2000, 2000a), which is a splendid monument of the Maturai Nāyakas. Rajarajan (2006: 199-201) also presented a diagrammatic presentation of the Rājagopālasvāmi Āṭi tēr in his doctoral thesis.
A seal of the Indic culture represents a Goddess standing close by tree, and receiving sacrifices. Seven more goddesses, hypothetically the Ēḻukaṉṉimār or Sapta Mātkā, are linked with the Tree Goddess. The ancient Tamil Caṅkam literature, Naṟṟiṇai and Cilappatikāram (down to 450 CE), mention a Goddess of the vēṅkai tree, Vēṅkaik-kaṭavuḷ. Tiṭṭakuṭi in south Ārkkāṭu district is the venue of a temple for Vaidhyanāthasvāmi, the Goddess called Acaṉāmpikai or Vēṅkai-vaṉanāyaki, cf. Dārukavana or Vaiṣṇava divyadeśa-Naimisāraṇya. The presiding Goddess of Tiṭṭakuṭi according to the sthalapurāṇam is ‘Mistress of the vēṅkai Forest’, based on oral tradition (twelfth to the eighteenth centuries). Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai (district Tiṇṭukkal) at the foothills of Ciṟumalai, the Sañjīvi-parvata (Hill of medicinal herbs and trees) associated with Hanumān of the Rāmāyaṇa fame, is a centre of folk worship. Recently, scholars claim to have discovered some pictographic inscriptions resembling the Indic heritage. Several hypaethral temples for Caṅkili-Kaṟuppaṉ (the Black tied with iron chain), Ēḻukaṉṉimār (Seven Virgins) and [Ārya]-Śāsta (equated with Ayyappaṉ of Śabarimalā) are under worship. People from the nearby villages congregate on certain occasions to worship the gods and goddesses, and undertake periodical and annual festivals. It seems a “sacred thread” links the archaic traditions of the Indic culture (c. 2500 BCE) with the contemporary faiths of Tiṭṭakuṭi and Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai. The article examines the story of the Tree Goddess, the neo-divinity (vampat-teyvam) or numen (cf. Vedic devamāt-Aditi) with reference to the Caṅkam lore, datable since the third century BCE (cf. Aśoka’s Girnar Edict), Vēṅkaikkaṭavuḷ, Acaṉāmpikai of Tiṭṭakuṭi and the Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai vestiges. Why the invisible folk cults are linked with the invincible Vedic is an open secrecy or question!
A seal of the Indic culture represents a Goddess standing close by tree, and receiving sacrifices. Seven more goddesses, hypothetically the Ēḻukaṉṉimār or Sapta Mātṛkā, are linked with the Tree Goddess. The ancient Tamil Caṅkam literature, Naṟṟiṇai and Cilappatikāram (down to 450 CE), mention a Goddess of the vēṅkai tree, Vēṅkaik-kaṭavuḷ. Tiṭṭakuṭi in south Ārkkāṭu district is the venue of a temple for Vaidhyanāthasvāmi, the Goddess called Acaṉāmpikai or Vēṅkai-vaṉanāyaki, cf. Dārukavana or Vaiṣṇava divyadeśa-Naimisāraṇya. The presiding Goddess of Tiṭṭakuṭi according to the sthalapurāṇam is ‘Mistress of the vēṅkai Forest’, based on oral tradition (twelfth to the eighteenth centuries). Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai (district Tiṇṭukkal) at the foothills of Ciṟumalai, the Sañjīvi-parvata (Hill of medicinal herbs and trees) associated with Hanumān of the Rāmāyaṇa fame, is a centre of folk worship. Recently, scholars claim to have discovered some pictographic inscriptions resembling the Indic heritage. Several hypaethral temples for Caṅkili-Kaṟuppaṉ (the Black tied with iron chain), Ēḻukaṉṉimār (Seven Virgins) and [Ārya]-Śāsta (equated with Ayyappaṉ of Śabarimalā) are under worship. People from the nearby villages congregate on certain occasions to worship the gods and goddesses, and undertake periodical and annual festivals. It seems a “sacred thread” links the archaic traditions of the Indic culture (c. 2500 BCE) with the contemporary faiths of Tiṭṭakuṭi and Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai. The article examines the story of the Tree Goddess, the neo-divinity (vampat-teyvam) or numen (cf. Vedic devamātṛ-Aditi) with reference to the Caṅkam lore, datable since the third century BCE (cf. Aśoka’s Girnar Edict), Vēṅkaikkaṭavuḷ, Acaṉāmpikai of Tiṭṭakuṭi and the Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai vestiges. Why the invisible folk cults are linked with the invincible Vedic is an open secrecy or question!
A seal of the Indic culture represents a Goddess standing close to the tree, and receiving sacrifices. Seven more goddesses, hypothetically the Ēḻukaṉṉimār or Sapta Mātṛkā, are linked with the Tree Goddess. The ancient Tamil Caṅkam literature, Naṟṟiṇai and Cilappatikāram (down to 450 CE), mention a Goddess of the vēṅkai tree, Vēṅkaik-kaṭavuḷ. Tiṭṭakuṭi in south Ārkkāṭu district is the venue of a temple for Vaidhyanāthasvāmi, the Goddess called Acaṉāmpikai or Vēṅkai-vaṉanāyaki, cf. Dārukavana or Vaiṣṇava divyadeśa-Naimisāraṇya. The presiding Goddess of Tiṭṭakuṭi according to the sthalapurāṇam is ‘Mistress of the vēṅkai Forest’, based on oral tradition (twelfth to the eighteenth centuries). Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai (district Tiṇṭukkal) at the foothills of Ciṟumalai, the Sañjīvi-parvata (Hill of medicinal herbs and trees) associated with Hanumān of the Rāmāyaṇa fame, is a centre of folk worship. Recently, scholars claim to have discovered some pictographic inscriptions resembling the Indic heritage. Several hypaethral temples for Caṅkili-Kaṟuppaṉ (the Black tied with iron chain), Ēḻukaṉṉimār (Seven Virgins) and [Ārya]-Śāsta (equated with Ayyappaṉ of Śabarimalā) are under worship. People from the nearby villages congregate on certain occasions to worship the gods and goddesses and undertake periodical and annual festivals. It seems a “sacred thread” links the archaic traditions of the Indic culture (c. 2500 BCE) with the contemporary faiths of Tiṭṭakuṭi and Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai. The article examines the story of the Tree Goddess, the neo-divinity (vampat-teyvam) or numen (cf. Vedic devamātṛ-Aditi) with reference to the Caṅkam lore, datable since the third century BCE (cf. Aśoka’s Girnar Edict), Vēṅkaikkaṭavuḷ, Acaṉāmpikai of Tiṭṭakuṭi and the Caṅkiliyāṉpāṟai vestiges. Why the invisible folk cults are linked with the invincible Vedic is open secrecy question!
