Post No. 11,324
Date uploaded in London – 4 OCTOBER 2022
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Let us continue with more Purana episodes in 2000 year old Sangam Tamil literature: –
Hindus are nature lovers. They believe in optimum use of everything in Nature. As soon as they get up from the bed in the early morning, they recite a sloka saying ‘Oh Ye Earth , please forgive me for putting my feet on you’. When they start farming they call the king to start it and he comes with a golden plough and starts farming, where he also says mantras praising the earth. This is an annual ceremony. On one of those occasions, several thousand years ago, Emperor Janaka of Videha Country, found Sita Devi in the field and brought her to Mithila, capital of Videha.
Whenever Hindus construct a house or a bridge or a temple, they first do Bhumi Puja (Bhoomi poojaa), saluting the earth. All the Tamils do it even today. Even Christians and Muslims do it following Hindus.
So, no wonder that a Tamil poet of Sangam period described Five Trees as Five Gods.
Two thousand years ago poet Perum Katunko saw five trees on the banks of River Vaigai in Madurai. At once he remembered five personalities from the Puranas and Mahabharata itihasa (itihaasa= history).
The reason for such a description is that they had different sized trunks and variety of colourful flowers.
What he said was
Maraa maram/tree looked like Balarama (raamaa);
Serunthi – looked like the Sun God;
Kanchi (kaanchi) – tree looked like Fish bannered Kama (kaama, God of Love, Manmatha);
Gnaazal – tree looked like Manmathan’s brother Sama (saama);
Ilavu – tree looked like Bull bannered Lord Shiva.
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Lord Shiva and his son Skanda( Murugan in Tamil) are always portrayed Red in colour as we see them in the Vedas Rudra=Red= Reddish face with anger.
The beauty is ancient Tamils were so well versed in Hindu Puranas that they always mentioned the colours or the flags or the mounts/vahanas of Gods throughout their poems. Nakkirar in his Purananuru verse 56 described four gods with Vaahanaas and flags. This shows that there was huge bulk of devotional literature at that time. Though we lost all those ancient books, modern Tamil poets in the last few centuries composed several thousands of verses about 18 Puranas .
Before going into details of those modern Tamil Puranas, I will give what Nakkirar (nakkeerar) said in Purananuru verse 56, which is the oldest part of Sangam Tamil corpus.
First, he described four Hindu gods in detail and compared them to the Pandya king Nanmaran (nan maaran).
Siva has Bull flag (Rishaba); he has flame red hair; he has a blue throat; he has a weapon called Kanichchi.
All these are in Siva purana and each has a story. Flags and Vaahanaas (mounts) of gods are interchangeable. Hindus were the one who gave the world Flags, Symbols, Emblems, Ambassadors, Spies etc.
Siva drank poison to save the humanity (both devas and asuras- angels and demons); his wife Uma/Parvati got alerted and stopped it in his throat; so, he became blue throated. Tamil poetess Avvaaiyar also said it in another verse in the same book.
Tiru Valluvar in his Tirukkural also mentioned how Siva saved the world (Kural 580) by drinking poison. It was in Sangam book Natrinai verse 355. Also in Manikkavasagar’s Tiruvasagam. (maanikka vaasagar, tiru vaasagam)
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Then Nakkirar described Baladeva or Balarama. He looked white like the conch shell in the ocean; he has plough.
Baladeva, krishna’s brother was a practical man; he was not interested in Pandava -Kaurava politics; he was so honest that he opposed all crooked plans of Lord Krishna. But Krishna believed in the concept of ‘All is Well that Ends Well’, ‘Ends are more important than Means’; Baladeva alias Balarama took plough on his shoulder and spread agriculture throughout India, while the Pandavas and Kauravas fought in the battlefield at Kurukshetra (modern Haryana). We have hundreds of references to agriculture in the Rig Veda, the oldest book in the world (6000 BCE according to Herman Jacobi and Bala Gangadhara Tilak).
Nakkirar added one more detail about Balarama; he had Palmyra flag. This is in the oldest Tamil book Tolkappiam as well. Palmyra flag is not found anywhere in the world except India in such a remote period.
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Thirdly, Nakkirar portrayed Vishnu as Eagle bannered and bluish black in colour. Vishnu’s association with Garuda/eagle is in all the Puranas. Now even America (USA) has this emblem.
Hindus were so colour conscious that they called even their favourite God Mr Black (Krishna) and the most beautiful woman in the Mahabharata Miss Black (Krishnaa = Draupadi) and the most prolific writer as Mr Black Islander (Krishna Dvaipaayana Vyaasa).
They even allocated differently coloured seats in the theatre for different castes according to Bharata’s Natya Shastra (naatya, saastra).
Even today they sing in Bhajans “Oh Krishna, you Yellow clad, Oh Balarama, you Blue clad” (Piitaambhara/yellow clothed; Neelaambhara/ blue clothed).
They allocated colours for Yugas, Directions, Siva’s five faces etc, which Mayans of South America and Buddhists copied.
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Fourthly Nakkirar sketched Lord Muruga (Skanda, Kartikeya in Sanskrit); he is peacock bannered and peacock mounted ; some commentators described elephant mounted.
Then the poet goes on attributing the virtues of these gods to the Pandya king.
Nakkirar did not stop there. His poem on Lord Muruga/Skanda is called Tiru Murukatrup patai, part of Sangam literature. This book has hundreds of references from the Puranas.
To be continued…………………….
Tags- Purana, Sangam literature, Nakkirar, Siva, Balarama, colour, blue throat, Flags, Banners, Bull, Rishaba, peacock, Muruga
Tamil and Vedas 