Hindu Gods.

Rajesh Dear,

I was reading and re-reading your letter so that I could respond to it in a proper manner. I don’t know you and anyone else should feel rootless in ‘a foreign country’. I think that my family and I also should feel like outsiders in Mumbai since we left our original home while we were out of our teens. If you mean to say that religion, region, or language defines your roots, the same will have to be taken true for people all over the world. Archeology, anthropology and sciences have established that human race is one and the same having trekked up down the several continents thousands of years back from the original home in North African deserts. During their trekking, they picked up several traits making them different in their physical and mental make up. The Australian aborigines and tribes of Andaman & Nicobar Islands were from the same roots but did not go beyond a stage while so many others progressed up several steps in the ladder. I for one am against differentiating people on any basis. Unfortunately, today people are being divided and discriminated in almost all countries around the world on these really fictitious grounds by people supposed to lead them ie. Politicians mainly and sociologists in general. I would like you to read some writings of Richard Dawkins, Karl Sagan and others on the evolution of humans. Evolution is not a lineal process but multifaceted and moving back and forth-in line. Some progressed and slid back in more occasions than one. Only in this sense, human beings are seen different. Therefore, while everyone’s root is same they branched off into several shapes, sizes and colours. The families in Mauritius are insular as the case in many other groups. This has resulted in inseparable differences among religions through historical times ending in mutual killings that has yet to see an end.

Man evolved from his animal ancestors and carry vestiges of that origin and tradition. I have a slim book titled “Naked Ape” by Desmond Morris a zoologist, where in he has convincingly mapped the evolution from ape to man. I have also copy of “Ancestors’ Tales” by Dawkins, which starts from present to back in time through evolution. Another one (just now, I don’t recollect the title & author) which details the life from its beginnings as single cell organism to present day human.

The term Hinduism is an indefinable word. While other religions could be defined more or less precisely Hinduism is an amalgam of several ways. The most earliest seem to be based on Vedic rituals and practices. It was prevalent for some centuries. In time it slowly under went a transformation to be philosophical during the years of Upanishads. Crude Vedic rituals were refined and some of them diminished. The third stage starts with several separate sects claiming authority to separate gods based on Puranic lore or may be that the puranic came into being after the sects. In between the second and third there were several prophets who advocated their views completely in contradiction to earlier two. The main trends were that of Jain and Buddhism. According to historians, these two dominated most of land from north to south. However, the Brahmanical Hinduism gained again after Ashoka and Mauryan dynasty collapse. The Puranic face also had several sectarian conflicts in it. There were efforts at isolating one another since the kingdoms were in conflict mode after the great Gupta period. Todays Hinduism is the results of conflicts and conciliations among all sects facing with foreign invasions.

Now let me try to explain my own understanding about the gods of Hindus. The Vedic corpus are a collection of family hymns supposed to have been heard (Sruti) from the mouth of Brahma which is not specifically mentioned in any texts at that time. The later texts attributed such an origin. The Rigveda hymns are not of uniform view. There are several versions of the origin or creation. There are down to earth prayers to obtain wealth of cattle. There are praises of chieftains for bestowing wealth and cattle to Brahmins. There are some which a discerning reader might find evasive about life here in earth. A few are some kind of exorcisms from perceived evils. There are hymns with sexual connotations etc.

There is no Brahman mentioned in the earliest Rigveda. The word Brahma occurs very rarely as compared to the word Prajapati. Prajapati is the priest of the gods born much before the gods. The Vedic gods are Indra, Agni, Varuna, Soma, Maruts (seven in number), Rudras (eleven), and Adityas (twelve) and so on. None of these gods remained in their position in later day Hinduism. Instead some selective ones like Vishnu, one of the Adityas, Shiva one of the Rudras and some goddesses. Each of the Puranas upheld one or other of these deities as the sole and omnipotent etc.

The word Brahman comes in the upanishads and later in Vedanta philosophy. The other strands of philosophical thoughts do not subscribe to any Brahman. Nagarjuna the scholar of Mahayana Buddhism conceived the world as Sunya (void) which then borrowed by Sankara to mean Maya or false image. For centuries, the philosophies were debated using rhetoric among great scholars. However all these debates and discussions were confined to learned Brahmins in the main. The vast majority of the populations were denied access to any literacy and they were innocent of learning those philosophies.

But people cannot be kept out of thinking for themselves for too long. This might have been the reason for puranic lore to spread among common people. Lore was the making of Brahmins mainly though some contributions might have come from others. It is also possible for local lore of deities getting mixed and absorbed by Brahminical ones making those Puranic gods and goddesses. Still, the literates were Brahmins the contours of these lore became Brahminical, There seems to be a lot of mix up which we are unable to unravel. For example, for years no one outside Kerala seems to know or understand the origin of Sabari Mala Ayyapan.

(The legend is that a chieftain or king of Pandalam a very small region in Kerala prayed to gods for a heir in his family. His queen remained childless for too long. Once king went on a hunting trip as usual, found a baby boy abandoned in that forest. He took the boy as a gift of the gods and presented him to the queen to care. He was growing with lot of love and care bestowed on him. The boy was christened Ayyapan. As years passed, the queen became pregnant and delivered a boy. The love and care changed from forest boy to her own. But she was not satisfied. She expected the king to bestow the kingdom to Ayyapan. Then she pretended to be sick and restless. Ayyapan took note and asked the queen about getting some medication. She told him that her sickness would not go without taking tigress milk. It is said that Ayyapan went inside forest and brought a herd of lactating tigresses riding himself on a tiger. King, queen and all people present were astonished and prayed to Ayyapan to calm himself and protect them. Ayyapan conveyed that he has finished with the kingdom and going back to the forest. He got a friend named Bava a muslim to accompany him and keep guard at the foot of the hill Sabai Mala.)

The legend completely Keralite transformed as Brahmanic in the form of Shasta a son to Vishnu as Mohini and Shiva. Similar is the transformation of Murugan or Andavan of Tamils into Kumara or Karthikeya etc.

As I said earlier gods and rituals differ from region to region and caste to caste. I might refer to another Kerala ritual. Almost all the Kerala temples celebrate an annual festival with caparisoned elephants with elaborate accompaniments on them. Trissur Pooram is biggest show of them. They are taken in procession accompanied by drummings that are specific to Kerala alone. Panja Vadyam & Chenda Melam. You have to witness it to know its specifics. This system of temple celebrations were adopted in Tamil Brahmin temples in Kerala. Such celebrations did not go anywhere outside Kerala.

Just completed Navaratri/Dassera celebration, though spread all over India; has differences from region to region. It is observed as Durga Puja of nine days in Bengal ending with immersion of murthies in rivers or ponds. Little further, west it is celebrated as part of Ramayana battle against Ravana. On tenth day evening the effigies of trio ie. Ravana, his brother Kumbhakarna and son Meghnad burned publicly to the delight of the people with fire works added. In Gujarat the nine nights of group singing and dancing are performed. Women alone take part in Garba Dance while Dandiya is for the mixed men and women of young and elders. Nowadays all these are commercialized. In the south the Nava Ratri is performed more soberly, people visiting all nearby temples. At home they prepare a Kolu an exhibition of metal and ceramic figurines of animals, birds, humans and gods. Neighbors and families visit each other in the evenings. The ninth day is observed as Sarasvati puja when books and manuscripts are gathered from shelves and made puja for them. Tenth day morning is auspicious for initiating children to start learning. It is called Vidyarambham. In Kerala, they conduct Aayudha puja devotion to weapons. I have not conducted any investigation on many other ways of celebration in other regions. The concepts of gods and goddesses so varied among Hindus, it is impossible to list them all by any group of individuals.

You could find more of my thoughts in the blog.

N B. For Trissur Pooram photos try click in google.