[IndianCivilization] Winds of change - Nanditha Krishna

[Guest guest]

[An excellent article by Dr Nanditha

Krishna.]http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SEC20040403221854&eTitle=Columns&rLink=0Sunday

April 4, 2004Winds of changeNanditha KrishnaOn April 4th, when the asterism

Uttiram appears in the month of Panguni,Tamil temples dedicated to Shiva

celebrate the thirukkalyanam or divinemarriage of Shiva and Parvati. The

wedding is preceded by 10 days ofprocessions and celebrations, commemorating

the 10 days when Devi fasted andprayed for Shiva to marry her. On the 10 day,

or Panguni Uttiram, Meenakshiweds Sundareshvarar at Madurai, Karpagam weds

Kapalishvarar at Mylapore(Chennai) and Kamakshi weds Ekamreshvarar at

Kanchipuram. These threetemples are famed for their grand celebrations, but all

temples of Shivacelebrate the wedding.Each town has a local legend with a reason

for the divine association. AtKanchipuram, Kamakshi built and worshipped a mud

(bhoomi) Linga andprotected it from a flood, for which she was rewarded with

marriage toShiva. At Mylapore, Parvati was distracted by a beautiful peacock

(mayil)during Shiva’s discourse, and was cursed to become a peahen. She

fasted andprayed till Shiva appeared and married her. Meenakshi was a local

princessof Madurai who succeeded her father to his throne and even defeated

Shiva’sarmy. Then she met and was charmed by Shiva, who married her.

These arethree of many stories where Amman or Devi is as powerful and

independent asShiva.Each of Shiva’s devotees - including Nandi, Ravana

and the 63 Tamil Shaivitesaints (Aruvathimoovar) - is given the honour of

becoming a vahana orvehicle for a day and carrying the exquisite bronze statues

of the Godsaround the locality during Panguni Uttiram. Every tribe, caste

andsub-group - no caste is unrepresented in the Nayanmars - is integrated

intoHindu society when their devotees marry the local form of Devi to

Shiva.These are marriages made and blessed by people on earth, and fulfilling

veryearthly motives. Added to this diversity is the utsavam itself,

whendevotees irrespective of caste and class come together to pull the

vahanasand the massive ratha or chariot, making the occasion a massive melting

potof Hindu society.This festival becomes very important when we consider the

on-going debate onthe “Sanskritisation” of the tribals and lower

castes. Many commentatorswould have us believe that this is a new phenomenon

invented by the BJP togarner votes. Not so. Upward mobility - social and

economic - is as old asIndian civilization, and always attractive: the BJP has

merely identifieditself with the process, a clever move that speaks well for

the party’sunderstanding of Indian society.The Mother Goddesses of Indian

villages protected their people from disease,ensured human, animal and plant

fertility, and so on. As the population grewand villages became towns, the

village goddesses were identified withParvati and Lakshmi and, as their

incarnations, married Shiva or Vishnu.Karpagam the peahen was an

anthropomorphic goddess, while Meenakshi was adeified princess. When the

goddesses married Shiva or Vishnu, primitivepractices like blood sacrifice

ceased and the ritual became more sattvik andmainstream Hindu.The 10 days of

prayer by the goddess reflects the “transformation” process,when

the female deity realizes the inevitability - even superiority - of

thealliance, and her cult followers join the mainstream. At the end of

theperiod, each retains his or her importance: Meenakshi and Kamakshi are

thepatron deities of Madurai and Kanchi with their own temples, while

Karpagamhas her own shrine in Shiva’s temple. Most Shiva temples have a

separateshrine for Amman, a creation of the Chola period. During Panguni

Uttiram,the Goddess “enters” Shiva’s temple and marries him,

thus sealing analliance through matrimony, a common feature among past

dynasties. Theseweddings represented alliances between different local cults

and mainstreamHinduism.Whenever this amalgam of the village goddess and

Shaivism happenedhistorically, it was not termed as

“Sanskritisation” or “Aryanisation”, norwas any

opposition created against it, as the Congress is trying to createamong some

tribal groups in Central India. It was a natural process, aresult of entire

communities moving voluntarily into the mainstream.Absorption and acculturation

have been dominant features of the Indiansub-continent, and have been

responsible for the diversity of Hinduism. Ithas nothing to do with caste, and

everything to do with economic progress.I have seen the process happen very

naturally in Tamil Nadu, away from theeyes of the media. CPR Environmental

Education Centre has an on-goingprogramme of restoring sacred groves. Seeing

the emerging forests, gardensand water bodies, the local people in most sites

have renovated theirtemples for the goddess of the grove, choosing to reject

primitive cruelrituals such as animal sacrifice and preferring more

sophisticated forms ofworship. The priest of the Amman temple is generally the

local potter.Occasionally, the potter-priest has even become vegetarian,

adopting asacred thread and changing the rituals. I would not be surprised if

he werehailed as a Brahmin in a few years. Upward mobility is a very

naturaldesire, and society does facilitate it. We are very proud of

ourmobile-toting farmers and cooking gas using Self Help Groups, a part

of“India Shining”. With economic prosperity comes a natural sequel

- thedesire for social equality and acceptance.When Vedic society degenerated

into the primitive, a public revulsionagainst bloody sacrifices and the rigid

caste system resulted in thephilosophic debates of the Upanishads, Buddhism and

Jainism, and a religiousand spiritual revival. This gave the trading class

position and powercommensurate with their wealth. The ultimate winner was the

bhakti movement,when devotion was concentrated in a personal deity, Shiva,

Vishnu and Devi,who were acceptable to all social forces. Their local forms

were absorbedinto mainstream Hinduism.In this context, it is a pity that the

Tamil Nadu Animals and BirdsSacrifice Act (1950) was repealed for electoral

reasons. The DMK objectedwhen the Act was enforced, and the AIADMK responded by

removing the Actitself. Today, as Hinduism is reinventing itself, practices like

sacrificerepresent a primitive past that Hindus want to change. I do not think

thatthe Act will give either the DMK or the AIADMK any extra votes.An

agricultural society worships female fertility deities, while industrialor

urban societies revere powerful male gods. But agricultural societies

aredependant on industrial societies for technology, while the latter depend

onthe former for food. The mutual dependence results in social

coalitions,sealed by religious coalitions.Religion is dynamic, not static, and

an economically dynamic India will seemore religious dynamism and more change.

>From time to time, Indian societyhas gone through inner upheavals resulting in

change. A political party maybe the immediate beneficiary in the 21st century -

as several dynasties werein the past - but the churning is from within. New

religious coalitions arebeing thrown up every day, in response to the

fast-changing socio-economicscenario. The religious dynamic of the present is

one such churning. Divineweddings are among the many expressions of human

coalitions, when two sidescome together voluntarily, in the past or in the

present.The author may be reached at nankrishna (AT) vsnl (DOT) comTo change your

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