I. INTRODUCTION
Religion has generally formed one of the most important
factors in the life and history of all nations. In India it has
animated social life in an exceptional measure and the concept
of Dharma has commanded universal allegiance throughout the
sub-continent in all its history. It has exerted its influence even
on the followers of alien faiths like Islam and Christianity, which
in their turn have also influenced it, though perhaps not to the
same extent. It is the aim of this little book to trace the leading
religious movements in the history of South India and assess the
contribution made' by their leaders at different times to the
practice of religion and the speculations* of philosophy which
in India were seldom divorced from religion.
By South India we mean the entire triangular peninsula
south of the dividing line formed by the Vindhya mountains and
the Narmada and Tapti rivers in the west and the MahanadI in
the east. This region has been held to be one of the oldest
habitats of man, say from 300,000 b.c. ; this view gains support
from the discovery of considerable numbers of paleoliths, crude
stone implements, in various parts, though not of skeletal remains
of humans. These were followed by microliths, some of which
are thought to be as old as 6000 b.c. if not earlier, though their
use seems to have continued till relatively much later. The
remains of the neolithic age are more plentiful, though not enough
to give a clear picture of its life and culture. Many megalithic
monuments have come to light and these constitute tangible
evidence of the latest phases of the pre-history of South India —
a subject that is being studied systematically only of late.
Megalithic settlements are generally found on the slopes of
hills or amidst rocky outcrops in the neighbourhood of natural
2 Development of Religion in South India
tanks and reservoirs, and it seems probable that the people who
erected the megalithic monuments also introduced the cultivation
of rice by irrigation in South India. They brought also ‘ an
elaborate equipment of iron, wheel turned pottery, and the
custom of burying the dead, sometimes, collectively, after
exposure and excarnation, in megalithic cists with a round port-
hole or doorway in one end’. 1 More or less contemporaneous
with these cists are urnfields where the dead are seen buried in
large pear-shaped urns associated with smaller urns. One of
the best known of these urnfields is that of Adiccanallur on the
Tamraparni river in the Tinnevelly District. In the neighbour-
hood of Madras a terracotta sarcophagus on legs takes the place
of the urns. The urnfields have no megaliths but share many
common features with them. 2 Finds in some sites of Cyprus
and Syria, dating from about 1200 b.c., include iron tridents,
bronze cocks, gold mouth pieces and other articles very similar
to those found in Adiccanallur ; the megaliths of eastern Medi-
terranean and Western Asia also closely resemble those of the
Deccan and South India ; but they have been dated round about
1500 b.c, Facts like these suggest the probability that the
megalithic culture of South India may have been brought by a
western people across the Arabian Sea to South India several
centuries earlier than the post-Asokan period to which Wheeler
has with good reason assigned the artifacts of Brahmagiri,
D. H. Gordon and Haimendorf are inclined to suggest some date
about 800 or 700 b.c. for this event. Considering the manner
in which the Tamil Kingdoms are mentioned in Asokan edicts,
this date would seem to be nearer the truth than any later date.
^ Very plausibly Haimendorf has suggested that this mega-
lithic folk who came into South India by sea from the west were
the Dravidians who in course of time not only imposed their
own speech on the pre-Dravidian population of the South, but
soon became ready to absorb and profit by the Indo-Aryan
influences which began to flow in from Northern India witnin
a few centuries of their arrival. Till recently it was vaguely
assumed that Dravidian speaking peoples were spread over
practically the whole of India before the Aryans came, and that
they were identical with the Dasas and Dasyus of the Rigveda ;
the views of Sir Herbert Risley on the races and cultures of pre-
Aryan and Indo-Aryan India formulated in the early years of
the twentieth century were largely based on this assumption.
1 Wheeler in Smith O.H.P p. 36.
2 Ancient India, No. 9, pp. 110-11.
Introduction
3
The subsequent progress of linguistic analysis and of anthropo-
logical studies has led to very different conclusions pointing to
a more complex picture. The Dasa-Dasyus now seem to be
affiliated to the pre-Aryan peoples of Eastern Iran and Afghanis-
tan and to have occupied a considerable area in the North-west
of India which certainly included the Indus Valley and the
Punjab. Lands lying more to the east in Northern India, the
Gangetic plain and the Vindhyan highlands, were occupied by
Austric speaking peoples who are best described as Ni§adas.
The north-eastern sector of Northern India and more generally
the Himalayan regions formed the home of peoples with a strong
Mongoloid admixture who are now designated Kiratas . 3 Most
probably the Dravidian speaking people whom we now find
confined to South India did not occupy any extensive tracts in
the rest of India though at various times and for specific reasons
they may have spilled over as colonies into the North, like the
Brahuis in Baluchistan. The attempt, particularly by the late
Father H. Heras, to trace the Indus Valley Culture to the
Dravidians and to interpret the inscriptions on the numerous
seals as proto-Dravidian has not received the assent of scholars,
and until the script of these inscriptions is deciphered satisfac-
torily, the genesis and the language of the culture must remain
open questions. The claim that the pre-Aryan Dravidians
enjoyed a highly developed civilization rests only on data drawn
from the literature of the Sangam 4 period, data to which a fanciful
antiquity of several thousands of years is ascribed by credulous
or * patriotic 9 writers . 8 Bishop Caldwell who sought to recon-
struct the pre-Aryan culture of the Dravidians by a relatively
critical study of the words in Tamil, doubtless one of the most
ancient of the surviving Dravidian languages, did not find any
support for the extravagant claims of the writers mentioned above,
but discovered the elements of a culture that had made some
progress towards a settled social and political order, but was
still very far from having attained the complexity of the organi-
zation reflected in the literature of the Sangam period . 6 The
8 S. K. Chatterji : Race Movements and Prehistoric Culture, ch. VIII
in Vedic India — History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. I (1951).
4 The Sangam (Skt. Sangha) was an Academy of Tamil maintained
by the early Pandyas in Madurai' — according to legend dating from the
eighth or ninth century and a copper plate grant of the early tenth
century.
5 cf. P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar — Pre-Aryan Tamil Culture,
6 Caldwell : Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages 3 *
pp. 113-4,
4 Development of Religion in South India
fact remains that Dravidian culture becomes articulate and enters
the field of authentic recorded history only after its contact with
Indo-Aryan. The earliest inscriptions of the Tamil country are
found engraved on stone surfaces in natural caverns slightly
improved by art and just rendered habitable ; the inscriptions
themselves are short records in southern Brahmi characters of
about the third or second century b.c. at the earliest, and already
contain such Sanskrit words as Kutumbika though otherwise
composed of Tamil in its formative stage. These brief records
are generally donative or commemorative in character, and give
the names of donors or resident monks of the caverns who were
probably both Buddhists and Jains. The literature of the Sangam
age, i.e., of the early centuries of the Christian era, appears to
reflect conditions as they stood some three or four centuries after
the period of the short cave inscriptions. That literature is now
accessible only in schematic anthologies made much later. Many
of these anthologies open with an invocatory song in praise of
Siva and His attributes and exploits, and this song is by the poet
‘ Perundevanar who sang the Bharatam \ i.e., translated the
Great Epic ( Mahabharata ) into Tamil poetry. Now, the earliest
extant Tamil Bh&ratam is a work of considerable length which,
like Campus in Sanskrit, uses both, prose and poetry in the
narrative ; it was the work of a Perundevanar who was a contem-
porary of the Pallava king Nandivarman III in the ninth
century a.d. It has been suggested that this poet was the com-
piler of the anthologies. But one cannot be sure of this ; for
we gather from a Pandyan inscription of the tenth century 7 that
the Pandyan kings had the Mahabharata translated into Tamil,
besides establishing the Sangam. This implies that there was an
earlier Tamil version of the Bharatam> and it is prima facie
more likely that it was this author of the Pandyan country that
put together the anthologies as we now have them. The antho-
logies present problems of literary chronology which are similar
to those of the Rigveda and are nearly as difficult of satisfactory
solution.
Tamil the language which possesses the oldest of the known
literatures in the Dravidian languages, occupies the extreme south
of the peninsula and its area now coincides with the state of
Madras with a population of about 30 millions, of whom less
than 4 millions speak other languages than Tamil. It may be
noticed en passant that the reorganization of the Indian States
(1956) has resulted, for the first time in India’s history, in the
7 Larger Sinnamamir plates — Tamil part SII. IT.
Introduction
5
creation of linguistic States ; time must show whether the result-
ing cultural solidarity of the individual states will be duly
restrained or burst the bond of political unity inherited from
British rule and cherished by the Constitution of the Union.
Kerala on the west coast of South India, the home of the
Malayalam language, is a smaller state with a population of
13*5 millions ; the Malayalam literature is the youngest of Dravi-
dian literatures with a history beginning in the thirteenth or
fourteenth century a.d. Mysore contains 14*5 million Kannada
speakers besides five million others ; the extant literature in
Kannada dates from the tenth century, though we have in the
Kavirajamdrga, ‘the Royal Road of Poets’, c, 850 a.d., a
rhetorical work which presupposes the existence of a considerable
body of prose and poetry in the language. A Greek farce
recorded in a papyrus of the third century a.d. is held by some
scholars to contain several expressions in Kannada ; but this
unconvincing claim has not gained acceptance and the beginnings
of Kannada literature must be assigned to rather three centuries
later, if not more. Telugu is the main language of Andhra
Pradesh spoken by about 31 millions ; its literature begins from
the eleventh century, though the inscriptions of an earlier time
contain stray verses in native metres. These are the four prin-
cipal Dravidian languages. There are several others spoken by
small numbers and with no written literature worth the name ;
they are of interest to philologists and not of much concern for
our purpose. Marathi is the speech of 27 millions in Western
Deccan and Oriya of about 13 millions in the north-east of
peninsular India ; these are Indo-Aryan languages — extensions
of North India into the South.
All the modern Indian languages, southern as well as
northern, have developed from the beginning on a common
background of culture furnished by Sanskrit language and litera-
ture, particularly the two great epics and the Puraijas. The
process by which this common cultural background was rendered
acceptable to non-Sanskritic peoples used to be called Aryaniza-
tion and has come to be designated more recently as ‘ Sanskriti-
zation \ not a more satisfactory term by any means. Though
conflicts were not unknown at first, the change was effected on
the whole more by peaceful and steadily pervasive penetration
than by military conquest. This was particularly so in the
South where, unlike in the North, the Dravidian languages have
survived in all their strength and vastly improved under the new
influences, and many facets of the old pre-Aryan culture have
been integrated with the new Aryan, and the integration is often
6 Development of Religion in South India
so complete as to render it next to impossible to separate the
elements of the amalgamated culture. In the sphere of our
particular concern, that of religion and philosophy, the South is.
seen to start with a heavy debt to the North, but more than
amply to repay by her own distinctive contributions to theory
and practice.
Other influences flowed in from outside in the course of
centuries, Graeco-Roman, Scythian, Islamic and so on, and these
were accepted and assimilated to the extent possible and neces-
sary. In this age-long process, the contact with the western
European nations, which began in the sixteenth century and
reached its culmination in the establishment of British rule over
the whole of India early in the nineteenth century, marked a very
important stage. The Portuguese brought to India the chilli,,
potato, and other produce not known in India earlier. The
extent to which the French influenced the daily speech of those
who came into close touch with them can be judged by a perusal
of the pages of the unique diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai. But
the most abiding influence was that of the English language and
literature which began to be felt even before the historic decision
to impart modern education in India with English as the medium
of instruction (1835).
In fact that decision was itself, in part, the result of
the pressure of Indian public opinion voiced by advanced
leaders like Raja Ram Mohan Roy who by their voluntary
efforts had put themselves in close touch with the new
forces and felt their bracing effects. Ideals of national unity,
individual freedom, constitutional government and social equality
and mobility embodied in English literature and thought opened
out new horizons, and the time-honoured institutions and values
inherited from a distant past in unbroken continuity began to
change and reshape themselves under the impact of the new
forces. From the beginning there were two sides to the process.
One was the tendency to admire everything English and Euro-
pean and to condemn everything oriental and Indian ; this aspect
led Macaulay and those of his way of thought to expect that, in
course of time, India would so change that the people of India
would be Indians by birth but Englishmen in all other respects.
That this has not come about is due to the other side of the
effects of the Western impact. This consisted in an attempt to
revalue indigenous traditions and institutions in the light of the
new ideas, distinguish their essentials from superficial accretions,
and adapt them to the extent necessary to make them fit into
modern conditions and to make India a progressive nation like
Introduction 7
the nations of West. Both these trends can very well be seen
in the life and writings of Rani Mohan Roy himself.
The ‘ nationalist * aspect of the development was aided and
strengthened by other factors. There was first of all the recovery,
by the scholarly labours of western savants from different nations,
of the ancient history and civilization of India which had been
more or less completely forgotten in the long centuries of foreign
domination culminating in the disintegration and anarchy of the
eighteenth century on the eve of the establishment of British
rule in India. The power and prestige of western civilization
which stood at its meridian in the nineteenth century suffered
a decline in the twentieth. Japan’s victory against Russia in the
early years of the century first proclaimed to the world that an
eastern nation which sets its heart on it may well emulate and
surpass the western nations in the application of modem science
and technology in the arts of war and peace. There arose critics
of western civilization who like Spengler foretold the Decline
of the West or like the different types of socialists attacked the
glaring injustices of an acquisitive capitalist society or contrasted
the nerve-racking rush of the west and the ugliness of its machine
products with the restful nature of Eastern civilization, its spiri-
tual balance and the artistry of its handicraft products. The
first world war, the alarms and tumults of the inter-war period,
and the catastrophe of the second world war completed the
disillusionment of the East, and spelt the ruin of European
colonialism in Asia. To-day India is a free nation seeking, like
other nations of Asia in a similar situation, to work out her
problems in her own way.
In the sphere of religion, we may distinguish the chief land-
marks in this long history, many passages in which still continue
to be obscure or controversial. Sacrifice, domestic and tribal,
was the most prominent feature of Indo-Aryan religion in the
age of the Rigveda ; that religion was most probably aniconic
and temples were unknown. We have no direct knowledge of
the religious beliefs and practices of the indigenous inhabitants
in the different parts of India at the time ; but we may surmise
with good reason that the gradual spread of the Aryans over
the country brought them into contact with different local faiths
and cults, and this naturally gave rise to a process of mutual
adjustment, and to the modification of vedic religion by the
absorption of many new features. There were doubtless other
changes which came about in that religion by a process of
internal development, for life is nowhere static and change is
its law. The results of both these types of change are reflected
8 Development of Religion in South India
in part in the different strata of vedic literature which is the
only known contemporary record to aid the study of these
changes.
To put the matter briefly and in broad outlines : the
samhitds of the Yajurveda and the Samaveda show that the
religion of sacrifice had become very much more elaborate than
before, while the fourth and last of the vedas, the Atharvaveda,
apparently includes many beliefs and practices drawn from non-
Aryan sources ; it is to be noted that this veda gained recogni-
tion only relatively late, and it long continued to be the rule to
talk of Trayi, the three vedas, alone as canonical. The large
volume of Brdhmana literature which has survived, after much
has been lost on account of diverse reasons, is of the nature of
prose commentaries on their respective vedas, and they also
exhibit further stages in the elaboration of the sacrificial religion ;
they contain myths, stories and speculations, and are often so
jejune as to be justly described as * babblings They also con-
tain many ideas and beliefs that are held to be ultimately of
non-Aryan origin.
The Upanigads come generally at the end of the Brdh-
manas, including the Aranyakas (‘ forest books \ meant to be
studied in forests and not in homes); they are much better
known as they deserve to be, embody a strong reaction from
the religion of sacrifice, and bear witness to the prevalence of
an earnest and fervent effort to solve the problems of high
philosophy. The truly early upani?ads that have survived are
just about a dozen ; their number has been swelled in more
recent times by the addition of new texts, because each new
religious sect as it came up wanted to have its own upani$ad
and produced it ; their present total number is believed to stand
at the sacred figure of 108. The ideas of Karma and transmigra-
tion, unknown to early vedic literature, have become basic
postulates in the upani?ads, and thenceforth almost all religious
systems that came up in India felt compelled to build on this
foundation.
The period of the early upani§ads was a time of intense
speculation and spiritual progress not only in India but in
all the . lands from the Aegean basin to China ; it was also
the period when Jainism and Buddhism were formulated. The
further stages of religious evolution in ancient India included a
long and varied process of syncretism between the vedic religion
and the indigenous cults which resulted in the birth of a rich
pantheon of Puranic gods and goddesses together with a colour-
ful mythology of divine and semi-divine occurrences and the rise
Introduction
•of a strong theistic trend stressing intense devotion ( bhakti ) to
a personal god as the easiest if not the only road to the attain-
ment of mok§a (or release from the cycle of repeated births,
mmsara) \ another trend, already noticeable in the veda, to
which Max Muller gave the name of henotheism, mingled with
bhakti to produce sectarianism of a pronounced character ; this,
in turn, was followed by efforts to blunt the edge of sectarian
animosities and effect a conciliation among the sects.
By the side of these developments there were others of a
more intellectual type which led to the elaboration of separate
systems of philosophy, of which six came to be regarded as most
important in later times, though many more claimed recognition
and got it at the hands of Madhava who wrote in the fourteenth
century a.d. a concise manual of the different systems or darsanas
in his Sarv a-D arson a-Sangraha . The celebrated Bhagavad-gita
reflects a much earlier stage in the history of these developments,
and rightly has it been described as a great eirenicon. All these
changes concern what we may call the higher religious conscious-
ness of India, the ‘ Great Tradition 5 — to adopt a convenient
term suggested by Redfield. The different varieties of popular
faiths and beliefs which varied with time and place and covered
many forms of faith ranging from crude animism expressing
itself in the worship of stocks and stones right up to very refined
forms of philosophic thought and religious practice ; on the
whole this may be called the ‘Little Tradition*. The mutual
reactions between the Great Tradition and Little Tradition con-
stitute perhaps the most fascinating as well as the most compli-
cated chapters in the history of Hinduism, using the term in its
broadest sense so as to include Jainism and Buddhism.
Another important aspect of the Hindu religion was its
concern from the earliest times with all aspects of the individual
and social life of man and its attempt to regulate the social set
up in the light of an accepted philosophy. The concept of
Dharma, the entire system of Vartias (classes) and ASramas
(stages of life), and all the rituals to be observed in daily life
and in the important crises of the life cycle belong to this sphere.
Their gradual adoption, often piece-meal, by new strata of society,
a process which, according to some observers, has not yet come to
an end, is one of the most notable features of the ‘ Sanskritization 5
mentioned above. Not all the rituals are followed by all castes and
groups, but all accept the common ideology underlying ritualism,
and a pronounced tendency towards standardization and unifor-
mity in the observances was at work in all India. Pilgrimages to
sacred spots and shrines distributed over all parts of the country
10
Development of Religion in South India
including its extreme frontiers must be counted as part of this,
ritualism ; it was not the least important among the factors pro-
moting and maintaining the cultural unity of the country ; it is
still a valid force operating among the vast majority of the people.
Hindu civilization as we know it in history may be said
to have taken its definite shape by the time of the Buddha.
Since then foreigners came into India on several occasions
and for different purposes. Till about a.d. 1000, however,
though they sometimes succeeded in establishing political rule
over parts of the country their advent did not mean any
great change in its religious outlook or sociology. They often
adopted one or other of the Indian faiths, becoming, for instance,,
devotees of Buddhism or the Bhagavata cult, and were accorded
a place in Hindu society by being vaguely designated as Ksatriyas
of sorts by the writers of Hindu law books (dharma-sastras ) .
After 1000 India came into massive contact with credal religions
that were exclusive and even intolerant in their outlook; first
Islam and later Christianity. But on the whole Hinduism stood
its ground. Even after six or seven centuries of political and
military domination of the land, Islam was found to have made
a tangible impression only in those corners of the country in
the north-west and north-east which separated from the rest of
the country in 1947 and form Pakistan today. Muslims also
form a substantial minority in the rest of India, but both in India
and Pakistan the bulk of them have retained many Hindu beliefs
and practices; in Java they have done so even in a larger
measure. Though there were extensive changes in all depart-
ments of life as a result of Muslim rule in the North, Southern
India, particularly the region south of the Kpsna river, was kept
on the whole free from the Muslim impact by the Hindu empire
of Vijayanagar ; southern Hinduism has thus been able to main-
tain the continuity of its tradition much better than the northern.
As for Christianity, it has been represented on the west
coast of South India from relatively early times ; the Portuguese
put forth much effort in the sixteenth century to bring about
mass conversions ; and later, numerous missionary bodies, both
Roman Catholic and Protestant, made sustained efforts at winning
over Indians' to their faith, employing education and medical
care as the means of developing contact with the people; the
missionaries shared with Macaulay the view that a short period
of western education and the Bible 4 would not leave an idolator
in Bengal * or India. But these hopes have been falsified, and
though on occasions a measure of success has attended missionary
efforts among the so-called lower ranks of the people in some
Introduction
11
parts of the country, the main effect of the Christian attack on
Hinduism in modern times has been to evoke movements of
internal reform for the abolition of age-long evils, and this has
contributed to strengthen and vitalize Hinduism. The world-wide
activity of the Ramakrishna Mission may be cited ; but who can
decide how much of it is modelled on Christian missions, and
how much harks back to the model of the Buddhist sanghas
of old ?
It will be the aim of the succeeding pages to trace in some
detail these fascinating developments within Hindu society with
particular reference to occurrences in South India and their
contribution to the common fund. The object of this introduction
has been to show that developments in the South cannot be
studied in isolation, but always against the background of move-
ments in the whole country.
II. INTEGRATION OF CULTS AND THE BEGINNINGS
OF HINDUISM. THE AGE OF THE SANGAM
The fusion of Aryan with non-Aryan cults began imme-
diately after the Aryans entered India ; and the process had a
long course lasting over many centuries before the new culture
crossed the Vindhyas to continue the same process in the South,
probably by much milder methods evolved by long experience
in the North. We hear of wars with the Dasyus in early vedic,
literature which praises Indra, the chief of the gods, for protect-
ing the Arya-varna against the Dasyu ; expatiates on his exploits
which, quite obviously, are modelled on those of a tribal war
leader; and describes some battles and alliances of a manifestly
historical nature. There is no record of such conflicts in the
South, The Kamdyana which localizes some of the adventures
of the Prince of Ayodhya in some identifiable spots' in the south
like Pancavafi (Nasik) and Pampa (perhaps near Hampi)
altogether lacks a historical basis ; its monkeys and ogres who
inhabit the South are totally mythical, and one may sooner get
ofi by pressing sea sand than derive light on the Aryanization
of the South from the central incidents of the poem, The talk
of monkey (vanara) totem and vanara-civilization as facets of
pre-Aryan Dravidian culture is altogether misplaced. The poetic
descriptions of asramas (hermitages) which provide the back-
ground of the incidents may, however, be accepted as the reflec-
tion of a stage in the Aryanization of the South as visualized by
the poet, and possibly, though this is perhaps on the more doubt-
M the hmdninces the inmates of the dramas- experienced
from the hostility of the ogres contain a hint of the conflict of
cultures at their first meeting. The earliest stratum of the. arti-
literature of the Tamils, the literature of the Sangam
Ss m cleTr ° f SUCh C0Dflict ’ but oa a,e oth£ * hand
mtern^J?T’ ho " ever > other legends that have plausibly been
rminrf tv. ** Tennmscent of historical occurrences. They centre
r ° UQd ^ Sa S e A W a vedic seer who came to embody t
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 13
himself all the stages of the progressive Aryanization not only
of India, but of Indonesia and Indochina. His abode (aSrama)
which is first located in the Himalayas moves by several stages
to the extreme south of India, the Agastyakufa or the Peak of
Agastya at the southern end of the Western Ghats, and crosses
the seas thence to Indonesia and Indochina. He still receives
special worship in South India which also contains several Siva
temples all designated by the name Agastyesvara, which means
an Isvara (Siva) shrine set up by Agastya. The vedic Agastya
has a miraculous birth like many other * heroes of nations *, but
otherwise he is a historical person, as real as the kings and
tribes mentioned in the Rigveda ; he composes hymns, has a wife
and sister, and perhaps also a son. His life history receives full
treatment in the two epics of the Mahabharata and the Rama -
yana, and many new legends are recorded about him ; the
Puranas and Tamil tradition mark still further stages of this
development.
Three achievements ascribed to Agastya are of particular
significance to the story of progressive Aryanization of South
India and the East. First , Agastya is said to have prevailed
upon the Vindhya mountains to cease growing in height until
he returned to his Northern abode from the South whither
he was going on some business ; but the sage never returned,
and the mountain continues to be stunted. Later Tamil tradi-
tion mentions Siva’s marriage with Parvati in Mount Kailas
as the occasion for Agastya’s southward exodus, and explains
that the exodus was meant to redress the balance of the earth
rudely disturbed by the assemblage of all divinities in the North
for the occasion. Secondly , Agastya is said to have destroyed
the Raksasa brothers Ilvala and Vatapi ; the brothers hated all
Brahmans because one of them „ had refused to grant Ilvala’s
request for a son equal to Indra, and their revenge took a curious
form. Ilvala transformed Vatapi into a ram and offered his
flesh as food to Brahmans, and then recalled him to life, as
whomsoever Ilvala summoned with his voicfe would come back
even from the abode of Yama (Death) ; and Vatapi would come
out laughing after ripping the flanks of the Brahmans who had
eaten his flesh. Thus the brothers killed many Brahmans. Mean-
while Agastya had to satisfy his wife Lopamudra, a princess from
Vidarbha, who had laid down a condition for her fulfilling her
marital duties towards him viz. that he should approach her on
a bed like that which she used to have in her father’s palace,
that he should be adorned with costly ornaments for the occa-
sion, and that Agastya should procure these things without in
14
Development of Religion in. South India
any way impairing his ascetic merit. Agastya approached three
kings in succession ; none of them could meet his demand with-
out detriment to their kingdoms, and so all the four of them
went together to Ilvala, who received them and entertained
Agastya in the usual manner. But when he summoned Vatapi,
there came out only air out of Agastya’s stomach, Vatapi having
been already digested there. Then the saddened Ilvala gave
Agastya twice as much wealth as Agastya wanted, after the latter
had correctly guessed Ilvala’s intentions regarding the gift.
Agastya and' his companions go back, and Agastya duly begets
a son on Lopamudra by name Drdhasyu who relieves the
ancestors of Agastya and obtains for them the lokas (happy
abodes) they desired in the other world. This is the story found
in the Mahabharata. The Ramayana version differs in some
respects; the most important being that after Vatapi’s death,
Ilavala attacks Agastya and is burnt to death by the irate sage,
and that there is no mention here of Agastya’s compact with
his wife or his demand for wealth. Rama, who narrates the
story of Agastya to his brother Laksmana on the eve of their
visit to the aSrama of the sage’s brother, begins his narra-
tion with the round assertion : ‘ This verily is the asrama
of the brother of Agastya who, intent upon the good of
the world, overpowered the death-like demons and thereby
rendered this quarter (i.e. Dandakaranya or the forest of
Dandaka) habitable/ The third achievement of Agastya was
to drink up the waters of the ocean to enable the devas
(gods) to dispose of their enemies (the asuras) who had taken
refuge under the sea. These three achievements have been
understood to represent respectively the crossing of the Vindhyas
into the Deccan by the bearers of Indo-Aryan culture to that
region, the initial opposition to that culture on the part of the
indigenous inhabitants of the South which, however, soon died
away and gave place to a more propitious attitude, and the spread
of the culture to the eastern lands across the sea. There are
several ^scnptions m Sanskrit attesting the prominent place held
TnriZr ya { i ha T a 8Um) “ the P alUheon of Indonesia and
Indochina m the first millennium of the Christian era.
noth . er name that bears an equally close connection with
die Aryanizntion of South India and of the East is that of
fln U A ya ’ W ' ld \ iS like A e ast ya. the name of a gotra
( ndo-Aiyan gens ) . There are in existence quite a number of
copper plate inscriptions in the South Indian languages
ZtfsZ Z **■ t0 me T bei ‘ s of Kaundinya gotru Sg
others, in different parts of the country from different dynastief
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 15
.of rulers. Much earlier than these is a full dress description
of the daily life of religion and sacrifice observed in a Brahmin
household of the Kaundinya gotra (Kauniyan in Tamil) in the
village of Punjarrur in the Tanjore District of the second or third
century a.d. 1 The prominence of the name of Kaundinya in the
foundation myths of the different kingdoms forming the Hindu
colonies of South-east Asia is well known and need not be
reviewed here in detail. 2 3 There can thus be no doubt that the
Agastyas and the Kaundinyas were very prominent among the
adventurous leaders of Indo-Aryan society who spread its culture
in lands originally non-Aryan.
In relatively late Tamil tradition Agastya was recognized
as the family-priest ( kulaguru ) of the Pandyan royal line, and,
what is more important, as the original inventor of Tamil ^nd
the author of the earliest grammar of that language. In Tamil
Buddhist tradition the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara holds the cor-
responding place. But in later times an effort was made to deny
that Agastya established the Tamil language, that he wrote its
first grammar, and that Tolkappiyan whose grammar is the earliest
now extant was a pupil of Agastya. The mediaeval commentator
Perasiriyar discusses that question at some length in his com-
mentary on the Tolkappiyam , the grammar written by Tolkap-
piyan. He says that in his day some scholars held that Tolkap-
piyan composed his work on principles other than those of
Agastya’s grammar ( Agattiyam ) ; but he turns down this view
and appeals to authority and tradition. He says : ‘ This view
is urged by modern authors who go against the authority of the
Veda ; in the past even heretics, not to speak of the wise men
of the three Sangams and the four Varnas, did not say so. How
(is this)? Because the son of Kapakkayanar, Nakklrar of the
last Sangam, who composed the gloss on the Kalaviyal 3 said :
“ The standard for those of the second and third Sangams was
the Tolkappiyam while that for the first was Agattiyam The
author who composed the commentary for later generations also
cited his testimony ; and he, being a monk under strict vows,
was not likely to utter a falsehood/ He then proceeds to quote
three old works in support of the tradition that Agastya was the
founder of the Tamil language and grammar, and that Tolkap-
1 Purananuru No. 166.
2 South Indian Influences in the Far-East — Index s. v. Kaundinya.
3 A short work on the erotics of ‘secret love’ (kalavu) in the form
of about sixty sutras ascribed to god Siva (Iraiyanar) himself. The
commentary on this work ascribed to Nakkirar which is perhaps not
earlier than the eighth or ninth century a.d. is the locus classicus of
the incredible tradition relating to the three Sangams.
36 Development of Religion in South India
piyan was the most celebrated of the twelve pupils of this great
/sage. The difference between the two schools represented here
regarding the position of Agastya in Tamil culture is perhaps
best understood as the reflection of a difference in their attitude
to the Aryan Sanskrit culture of the North. Those who welcomed
it and were ready to acknowledge its good effects stood up for
the traditional view ; others who wished to defend the indepen'
dence of Tamil and minimize its debt to Sanskrit repudiated the
traditional position of Agastya. This difference persists even at
the present day, and we see attempts to expunge from Tamil
all words and letters of Sanskrit origin leading to a tangible loss
of richness and ease of expression. But then it may be pointed
out that even Tolkappiyan who is taken for an apostle of the
independence of Tamil bears a name which means the ancient
scion of the Kavyas i.e. members of the gotra of Kavi (the sage
! Usanas). The truth is that Sanskrit is the taproot of all Indian
culture as we know it in history, and in this respect South India
and Tamil culture are in no way different from the rest of the
country.
The gradual extension of the connotation of the term Arya-
varta (land of the Aryans) is also worth noting in this connec-
tion. The Manusmrti (the code of Manu), the earliest of the
metrical law books of India, probably assumed its present form
in the early centuries before and after the Christian era. Some
verses (17-23) in the second chapter of that work reveal the
stages in the extension of Aryandom. The first of these verses
defines Brahmavarta (the land of the Veda) as the region lying
between the holy rivers of Sarasvatl and Drsadvatl and affirms
that it was created by the gods ; the next verse states that the
traditional usages ( acara ) of that region set the model for others
to follow. Then there was the Brahmar§ide£a (the country of
the Brahman seers) adjacent to Brahmavarta and comprising
Kuruk§etra (the field of the Kurus where the Great Battle of
the Mahabhdrata was fought, the historic Panipat plain) and
the countries of the Matsyas, Pancalas and Surasenas ; all men
in the world should be instructed on their respective mores from
the Brahman bom in this region. The region between the Hima-
layas and the Vindhyas bounded by Vinasana (the place where
the Sarasvatl river disappears in the sands of the Rajaputana
desert) on the west and Prayaga (Allahabad) on the east is
blown as MadhyadeSa (21). Again the entire area between
the two mountains already named and the seas on the west and
east, (i.e. the^ whole of what we now call Northern India) is
described as Aryavarta by the learned (22). The name Arya-
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 17
varta is explained by the commentators as indicating that Aryas
appear over and over again in this region ; and Medhatithi, the
earliest extant commentator (ninth century), states expressly
that though the land may pass for a time under the rule of
barbarians ( mlecchas) > yet it is soon restored to orthodoxy by
the reappearance of Aryas — a comment full of historical import
if we consider his date falling after the first Muslim impact on
North India and on the eve of the definitive Muslim conquest
of the North. Lastly, all lands where the black buck (spotted
antelope) roams about naturally are fit places for the performance
of the yajna (vedic sacrifice), i.e. places where Aryas could
reside; all beyond is barbarian country (mlecchadeto) (23).
Here is a conscious extension of the limits of Aryadesa to lands
other than Northern India ; and whether the test of the natural
presence of the spotted antelope is literally fulfilled or not, there
is little doubt that this last verse includes India south of the
Vindhyas and is capable of application to Indonesia and Indo-
china as well. In this context we are forcibly reminded of the
seven inscriptions from East Borneo engraved on stone yupas
(sacrificial posts to which the animals are tied before being sacri-
ficed), and detailing many vedic sacrifices by name which were
performed for the king Mulavarman by Brahmins who had gone
there specially for the purpose. 4
This expansion of Indo-Aryan civilization was naturally
accompanied by a considerable mixture of races (Vyasa — lit.
compiler, arranger, of the Vedas and author of Mahabharata and
Puranas — was reputed to be a son of a fisherwoman) and
cultures and the assimilation of many aspects of the thought and
practice of the non-Aryan culture with which it came into con-
tact ; as a result the vedic gods and religion underwent several
changes and a new composite religious and philosophical back-
ground was created on which arose the historic Hinduism which
has baffled all attempts at defining it in simple terms or analys-
ing clearly its component elements. The most striking feature
of Hindu society is its cultural pluralism. Peoples belonging to
different grades of spiritual (and material) culture were received
and assigned a definite place in an elastic framework and then
allowed to jostle with one another in the activities and cere-
monies oi their daily lives. The exact details of the stages of
the adjustment will perhaps never be known ; but its broad results
stand out in the clearly mixed character of the chief gods of
* South Indian Influences , pp. 137-40.
2
18 Development of Religion in South India
the Hindu pantheon and in the appearance of new concepts in
the realm of philosophy and metaphysics.
Siva and Visnu are the most prominent Hindu deities, and
constitute together with the more or less anaemic Brahma, the
celebrated triad (Tirmurti) who are believed to create (Brahma)
protect (Vis^u) and destroy (Siva) the universe again and again
in the course of countless aeons. These two gods are by no
means prominent in the Rigveda, and even the name Siva is
unknown in that Veda as the name of a god ; the word being
generally used as an adjective meaning propitious, or, as a proper
name, being applied to a tribe who survived at least till the
time of Alexander as the Siboi of the Greeks, and whose city
Sivapura is also known to relatively late literary sources. But
these gods are seen to have gathered many new features and
become more concrete and important divinities in the later vedic
literature, and there is good reason to trace many of these new
features to syncretism with non-Aryan factors. The Rigvedic
precursor of Siva is Rudra, generally regarded as a storm god
representing more the baleful side of the storm in the destructive
agency of lightning than the fertilizing and cleaning agency of
the rain. The word Rudra has generally been held to come
from the root rud to cry and has been interpreted as the Howler.
But the suggestion has also been made that it is derived from
rud with the conjectural meaning ‘to shine ’ or ‘to be ruddy ’
so that Rudra is the red god. Rudra is also a great healer who
has a thousand auspicious remedies and is the greatest physician
of physicians. If he is described as Siva (auspicious) it is as.
much for this reason, as just to gain his good will and escape
his wrath by flattering him, and Siva thus ‘became the regular
name of Rudra’s historical successor in post Vedic mythology \
He has close association with Agni (Fire). In later times this
divinity was also regarded as Pasupati, Mahayogi and Mahakala.
The first two of these epithets meaning respectively the Lord
of the Animal World and the Great Yogi are anticipated in the
celebrated seal from Mohenjodaro where we find a perhaps
three-headed figure seated in the posture of a yogi and surrounded
by a number of animals viz. an elephant, a tiger, a rhinoceros,
a buffalo and two antelopes with long horns. Even in the Rigveda
Rudra is called pa§upa , protector of animals, and prayers are
addressed to him to spare the domestic cattle of the supplicant
from the shafts of his anger. If, as is generally held, the Harappa
culture and Vedic culture represent pre-Aryan and Aryan strands,
we have here an instance of the syncretism of allied features
from the two cultures into a new amalgam. We may also note that
’> Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 19
an later times, particularly in the philosophy of the Saiva-Sid-
dhanta system, the term pasupati gained another interpretation;
[ an that phiiosophy it was explained as ‘Lord of souls' — Pati
(Lord, Supreme God) and Pasu (individual soul) forming toge-
; ther with Pasa (bond lit. rope) the triple basis of the phenomena
of the universe — a more or less typical instance of new appli-
cations of old forms to be traced throughout the long history
of Hinduism. As for Yoga (cf. yoke) the practice of establishing
increasing control over mind and body by continuous practice of
prescribed exercises (under guidance to start with), it is attested
[ an Harappa civilization not only by the pasupati seal just men-
| tioned, but by a number of other minor antiquities as well. Siva
; as the Great yogi is held in later religious thought to be himself
I; clad in an animal skin ( krttivasas ) while being the bestower of
f high material prosperity on his devotees. The kala (time) aspect
j; of Siva is best typified in the Mahakala shrine at Ujjain; here
i he embodies not only death and destruction, but the power of
regeneration also ; the negative aspect is stressed in his associa-
tion with crematoria and his leadership of groups of bhutas
l (goblins), pretas (the unredeemed souls of the dead), and
pisacas (goblins). The positive side is seen in his representation
i as a phallus ( linga ). The phallic significance of the linga is
I sought to be denied at times and it is taken to represent the
i formless absolute. This sophistic interpretation finds much sup-
\ port in relatively late literary sources and its validity is unques-
? tionable. Nevertheless, it is quite probable that originally some
; primitive fertility cults and practices were absorbed in the growing
J complex of the Rudra-Siva concept; the pejorative reference to
l Sisnadevas (phallicists) in the Rigveda and the realistic model-
1 ling of the lingas in early Indian sculpture alike support this
i view of the evolution of the Siva cult. Siva is often represented
l by a Bull, which also serves as his mount. Closely allied to the
C Kala aspect is that of Bhairava (lit. terrifying) which has many
varieties and forms the centre of many legends. Combining both
l the positive and negative aspects is the more amiable form of
Siva as Nataraja (the lord of Dance), the cosmic significance
of whose rhythmic dance is interpreted in different ways in
different contexts and by different sources. It is not possible
; here to go further into the many forms of Siva and the legends
concerning them ; we must, however, note that these forms and
I legends have furnished the themes of a rich iconography which
I observes a broad distinction between the gracious and propitious
forms ( anugraha miirti) and the dreaded destructive forms
( samhara miirti ) .
20 Development of Religion in South India
Visiiu likewise takes on an increasingly complex form by
the accretion of new features. His solar associations begin from
the Veda and his cakra (discus) is said, in later mythology, to
have been shaped out of the sun. His celebrated three steps,
of which two traverse the earth and are visible to men but the
third and highest is beyond the flight of birds and the ken of
mortals, are generally held to refer to the course of the Sun.
Visnu is the friend of Indra whom he frequently aids in the fight
with Vrtra and in vanquishing demons. But this does not stand
in the way of his being identified with Vasudeva-Krsna whose
opposition to Indra is well marked in many puranic legends.
There is a further growth of Krsna legends when he is endowed
with the features of a ‘ cowherd god 5 (Gopala Krsna) and many
new stories are evolved of his pranks and adventures as a child
or young hoy. The Mahabharata which in different contexts
reviews the whole gamut of Krsria’s achievements is a much more
human document than the Ramayana which has been not inaptly
described as a ‘polished fantasia’. The Great Epic and its
supplement the Harivamsa create a strong impression in the mind
that behind all the distortions and exaggerations of legend, there
must lie a genuine historic core, though it is risky to attempt to
separate it from the overgrowth ; we also get the feeling that
many of the details of the legends bear an unmistakable local
colour and may well be pre-Aryan in origin. The Bhagavad -
Gitd inseparably associated with Kr§na’s name is a landmark in
the history of Hindu thought ; it not only preaches with a new
emphasis the religion of devotion and duty, but adumbrates the
theory of avataras (epiphanies) which shows Vi§nu as the
watchful guardian of the universe, ever intent upon rescuing it
from disaster whenever its existence is threatened. But when
we look into the details of the avataraSt we find, surprisingly
enough, that many of them stem from the Veda, the Rigveda
itself in one instance — the Boar incarnation. 5 Two other
avatdras can be traced to the Brahmanas, though not yet con-
nected with Vi§nu. 4 The fish which in the Satapatha Brdhmana
delivers Manu from the flood, appears in the Mahabharata as' a
form of Prajapati, becoming in the Puranas an incarnation of
Vispu. In the same Brahmana Prajapati about to create off-
spring becomes a tortoise moving in the primeval waters In the
Purtnas this tortoise is an Avatara of Vi§nu, who assumes this
form to recover various objects lost in the deluge.’ Rama, the
Prince of Ayodhya, and Kf§na are, of course, the best known of
5 Macdonell, Vedic Mythology , p, 41.
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 21
f the avataras whose sagas constitute no small part of Hindu
f culture wherever it has spread. The diversity of the sources of
the avataras shows the extreme difficulty of identifying the Aryan
* warp and the pre-Aryan woof in the fabric of Indian culture.
ij
1 We may now mention one further instance of syncretism
{ -of particular import to students of South India. That is the
{ identification of Skanda, Kumara, or Karttikeya with Murug(k)an,
: also called Velan and Subrahmanya, of the Tamils. In the
l North he is regarded as the son of Siva and Parvatl, and Kali-
{i dasa’s poem Kumdrasambhava (Birth of Kumara) is based on
the legend that Siva gave up his penance as Mahayogi, and
wedded Parvatl to procreate a war-leader under whom the divine
f hosts could overthrow the defiant and oppressive Asura (demon)
• by name Taraka ; hence his names SenanI and Mahasena.
| Another stream of legend embellishes the story saying that Siva
emitted his sperm in Fire (Agni) who passed it on to Ganga
where it matured into Skanda in a forest of rushes, whence his
name (Saravanabhava) ; the child was then brought up by the
six stars of the Krttikas or Pleiades, who nursed him by his six
; heads, whence his names Sanmukha (six-faced) and Sanmatura
( (six-mothered) .
> Another form of the story makes him the son of Agni and
l his wife Svaha who assumed the forms of the wives of six Ri§is
l whom Agni loved. In some coins of Kani§ka there are four
; figures with names subscribed in Greek as Skando, Mahaseno,
\ Komaro and Bizago ; they seem to have been regarded as separate
deities even as Patanjali seems to have regarded Skanda and
| Visakha as separate deities. But in course of time they were all
l identified with one another, and in South India with the trans-
f parently indigenous Tamil deity known as Murugan or Velan.
While the entire mythology of Karttikeya-Skanda of the North
5 is fully accepted in the Tamil country, there exist other traits
f peculiarly Tamil in origin. The name Murugan, however, is an 1
\ exact rendering of Kumara (Youth), for muruguy a word of
i unknown affiliation in Tamil, also means tenderness, youth. The
jj other term Velan means the god with the spear (vel), the most /
| characteristic weapon of this deity. He has a cock on his /
l banner, and is believed to be fond of sporting on hill tops. On^
I of his wives ( ValU ) is from the hill tribe of the Kuravas. The
undoubted antiquity of his cult among the Tamils is attested by
the discovery at the pre-historic urn-field at Adiccanallur of
S' bronze cocks, iron spears and mouthpieces of gold leaf similar
to those employed by modern worshippers of Muruga when they
22
Development of Religion in South India
are on a pilgrimage carrying the Kavadi 6 in fulfilment of a vow.
The oldest stratum of Tamil literature mentions a Velan-ddal y
an ecstatic dance by a priest possessed by Velan. The Murugan
cult never lost its popularity in the Tamil country, witness the
stirring hymns of the Tiruppugal of Arunagiri-natha (15th cen-
tury), and may be said to be experiencing a notable revival
under the leadership of one of the leading Brahmin advocates of
Madras who has earned the title of TiruppugaL-mani by his
musical renderings of the celebrated hymns of Arunagiri-natha.
The instances of syncretism cited so far are just a few
leading examples of a large class of facts of the religious history
of India, the systematic treatment of which would, in itself,
require a good-sized volume. While these mutual approaches,
and adjustments were occurring in the sphere of the Great Tradi-
tion, the more popular cults continued everywhere more or less
in the same old way, though not altogether uninfluenced by the
developments in and the spread of the Great Tradition. The
details of the Little Tradition can be gathered by a study of the
contemporary villages of India. Such a study discloses altogether
a new world of village-gods and goddesses, genii of sorts including
Yaksas, Yaksls, Gandharvas, Kumbhandas, Nagas, Bhutas, rivers,
trees and mountains — all being honoured and worshipped in
different Ways which differ widely according to time and place.
It is quite possible that some of these village deities are local
adaptations of borrowals from the Great Tradition which has its
own godlings ; but in the main they date from pre-Aryan times
and were^ in origin, probably Dravidian in the South, and Dravi-
dian, Kirata or Ni$ada in the North. The dominant note in the,
worship of village deities is one of fear, an element not altogether
unknown, as we have seen, in Vedic religion such as, for instance,
in the prayers to ward off the results of Rudra’s rage. The
village deities, and the majority of them are goddesses, inflict or
ward off diseases and calamities, and the rituals of their worship
are crude and in the past involved much drunkenness and even
immorality. Here is a brief account from a work of the last
century : ‘ The sacrifice of fowl, sheep and buffaloes is normal,
and the blood of the sacrificial victim is sometimes drunk, or
applied to the forehead and breast of the worshippers, sprinkled
on the lintel and doorsteps of the shrine, or mixed with rice and
scattered over the fields, streets and bounds of the village. The
w?fh Lex i con defines Kava& as ‘a decorated pole of wood
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 23
eating of the flesh of the victim is also held sometimes to he
part of the sacrifice. In a buffalo sacrifice, the animal is paraded
through the village with a garland round its neck, and after the
sacrifice, its head is cut off and its foreleg is put in its mouth,
the nose is smeared with fat and a lighted lamp is put on its
forehead.’ It is impossible to explain the significance of all these
details and many others not mentioned here that constitute
perhaps the sum of accretions through the ages from many
diverse sources. And in one way or other such rituals mark the
practice of popular religion in all the villages not only in South
India, but in the entire sub-continent. There were two attempts
to explain these features, both made about the middle of the
second decade of the twentieth century. Bishop Whitehead
lived many years in Madras, and though he looked upon Indian
villages and their inhabitants primarily as potential recruits to
the Christian faith, his knowledge of rural institutions was deep,
and his views are entitled to respect. He thought that a primitive
Animism succeeded by Totemism in a later nomadic stage
explained much, if not the whole, of the practices he described.
The ideas of blood relationship among clansmen ; and the unity
of their brotherhood to be extended, whenever possible by
alliances with other clans — each clan with its own animal totem,
and the transition from a nomadic to the more settled life of an
agricultural community, were put forward by him. As agricul-
ture in early ages all the world over was the work of women, the
preponderance of the female element among village deities is
easy to understand. To this he also traced the practice of the
pujari (worshipping priest) occasionally dressing himself as a
woman, sitting in a cart with the animal impaled alive, and being
dragged in procession through the village. Above all he held
that the animal sacrifice as practised in the village was not so
much a propitiatory gift to the deity, as born of a desire for
communion with the totem spirit. The'* killing of the totem
animal which would normally be regarded as the murder of a
kinsman became on the occasion of a solemn sacrifice a ritual
act conducing to the strength of those who partake in the sacri-
fice and the blood and flesh of the animal in different ways.
The liver and entrails were, considered to be the seat of life, and
so the pujari put the liver in his mouth and the entrails round
his neck. The animal sacrificed was the representative of the
spirit to be worshipped and so was honoured with garlands,
turmeric and kumkum (saffron), and its feet washed with
water before sacrifice.
Very soon after, an American scholar, Elmore, criticized the
24 Development of Religion in South India
totemistic theory of the origin of the buffalo sacrifice. The
argument was that current stories suggest a historical origin for
the rites and that the sacrifices symbolize ‘ the dire punishment
and disgrace of a conquered enemy.’ The cutting off of the
head, the putting the foreleg in the mouth, the smearing of the
nose with fat, and the sticking of a lighted lamp upon the fore-
head are intended to express ‘the supreme humiliation of a
feared, despised and defeated enemy.’ So too the procession of
the buffalo with a garland round its neck through the village
before the sacrifice was the ‘ remnant of a triumphal procession
in which the enemy was exhibited before the disgraceful death.’
The sacrifice therefore represents the triumph of the Aryan
invaders over the Dravidian aborigines and their ‘ mad gods \
In the second edition of his book (1925) Bishop Whitehead
rejected the whole of this argument as far-fetched and improba-
ble. The argument, if correct, compels us to assume that the
buffalo sacrifice originated at a comparatively late date, and
contradicts all we know of the origin and meaning of sacrifice
and ritual. The stories relied on by Elmore obviously belong
to a time when the Pariahs, originally a leading clan among the
Dravidians, had been degraded under Brahman influence. But
the worship of grama devatas (village deities) and buffalo sacri-
fice go much farther back, probably to the time when the Dravi-
dians first came to India and settled down to an agricultural life,
say 3000 to 4000 b.c. at the latest ; so we cannot interpret them
in the light of events that occurred 3000 years later. Without
committing ourselves to all the details of the arguments involved
or to the chronology of Dravidian immigration suggested by
Whitehead which few scholars will accept today, we may say
generally that Whitehead has the better of the argument and that
his approach seems to be nearer the true explanation of the
9 surviving village rites, in so far as they are pre-Aryan in their
origin. ""
Whitehead says further that his theory explains the origin
of stones and images as objects of worship. The totem animal
was killed in order to shed the blood and thus secure the presence
of the totem deity at a particular spot, which then became sacred
or Taboo, to violate which would be a grievous offence. Accord-
ingly the spot was marked by a simple heap of stones, or an
upright stone pillar which would perhaps be sprinkled with the
blood. Then Totemism gradually died out and gave place to
higher religious ideas and anthropomorphic conceptions of the
deity. This brings us to the question of the origin and place of
temples and temple worship in Hinduism, but before we proceed
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 25
to consider it, we should notice two other interesting features of
rural worship to which Whitehead refers.
At Pullambadi, a village in the Tiruchirapalli District, the
shrine of the goddess Kulanthalamman serves as a civil court for
the determination of suits concerning civil debts. The creditor
wrote his complaint against the debtor on a palm-leaf and hung
it on a spear in front of the image of the goddess ; the debtor
will contract illness if the claim is just and he does not pay up.
If he disputes the claim, he may put in his counter statement
on the same spear. The deity then decides the truth between
them and afflicts the perjurer with dreams and misfortunes till
the false statement is withdrawn. The debtor pays through the
pufari and the temple takes a commission. The settlements are
usually finalized during the annual festival in April or May.
The temple, says Whitehead, got a commission of Rs. 3,000 in
the thirty years since the system was introduced. Earlier, the
creditors promised a part of the debt to the deity if she helped
in the recovery of it, all transactions being oral. * This \ adds
Whitehead, ‘ to the practical British mind, seems the only really
sensible ceremony connected with the worship of village deities
in South India/ One wonders if this simple method which
depends altogether on the faith of the votaries still continues, or,
if it does, will long continue under the impact of modem
conditions.
Whitehead also records a legend on the origin of two of
the village-goddesses. It is a distorted version of the well known
Puranic story of Parasurama (Rama with the axe) cutting off
the head of his mother Renuka at the behest of his father who
suspected the purity of her devotion to him. In this story the
mother is called Mariyamma, and her head is cut off along with
that of a Pariah woman whom she had embraced for her sym-
pathy. Then when the father granted the boon of recovery,
Parasurama transferred the heads by mistake, and the revived
ladies became Mfiriamma (with Brahmin head and Pariah body)
wanting goats and cocks but not buffaloes as sacrifice, and
Yellamma (Pariah head and Brahmin body) wanting buffaloes.
The former is usually regarded as the goddess of small-pox and
the name of the latter means ‘ lady of the boundary ( ella ) \
* The story says Whitehead, ‘ is an interesting one, because it
probably represents the fusion of the Aryan and Dravidian cults
in the days when the Aryans first found their way into (South)
India. A Pariah body with a Brahmin head is an apt descrip-
tion of the cults of Siva, while a Pariah head with a Brahman
body might well describe some of the cults of the ancient Dravi-
26 Development of Religion in South India
dian deities, modified by Brahman ideas and influences. The-
fact that the deity to whom the buffalo is offered was the one
with the Pariah head shows that the buffalo sacrifice was specially
characteristic of the old Dravidian religion, and suggests that the
buffalo was the totem of the Pariahs’ (116-7).
The rise of temples, temple worship, and images of deities,
is most probably rooted in pre- and non-Aryan forms of religion.
The contrast between the rites of a Vedic sacrifice and of temple
worship is striking and yet both hold an equally important place
in historic Hinduism as we know it. The Vedic sacrifice is a
solemn and formal invocation of the heavenly powers accom-
panied by oblations in fire for their furthering the well being of
the person who performs the sacrifice and those whom he repre-
sents ; the worship in a temple closely imitates the daily routine
in a royal palace, where the king’s daily wants and needs are
attended to with meticulous care from dawn to night by a whole
host oi; servants and slaves ; the deity, like the king, is roused
from sleep with music in the morning and gets his wash, meal,
sport and pastime through the day and is ultimately put to sleep
in his bed room — everything being done with due pomp and
i ceremony and with suitable accompaniments. The Vedic Yagna
is conceived as part of the cosmic cycle calculated to maintain
the rhythm (rta) of the universe by a mutual exchange between
Heaven and Earth, the gods being sustained by the offerings in
sacrifices and the men by the bounties (good seasons and har-
vests) they get in return from the gods. The worship in a temple”
stems from a much simpler world of ideas about the relations
between a ruler and his subjects, and in fact the whole cere-
monial of such worship is generally summed up as Soclakirajopa-
edra, the sixteen attentions due to a king. It is ‘true that in
relatively recent times another set of ideas probably of Mesopo-
tamian origin gathered round the temple which came to be
considered as the sacred mountain (Meru) at the centre of the
world (universe) and served as the abode of the gods, a con-
ception which accounts for the colossal vimanas of some of the
Indian temples and such stupendous monuments as Bara Budur
and Angkor Vat. But in the early period that witnessed the
fusion of Aryan and pre-Aryan cultures in India the temple was-,
perhaps just a sacred spot indicated by an enclosure, a tree or
a stone heap or pillar, and had little to show of architecture or
sculpture. An early Tamil poem 7 contains a short description
apparently reminiscent of pre-Aryan times ; it says that Tudiyan,
7 Purandnuru, No . 335 .
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 27
Panan, Paraiyan and Ka^amban are the only four castes (or f
races, kudi), and that there are no gods (kadavul) to be praised
( paravu ) with offerings of paddy (unhusked rice) unless it be
the stone commemorating the hero who fell in battle while
opposing the enemy and his white-tusked elephant. Here is a
clear hint that some at least of the deities worshipped by the
common people had their origin in the apotheosis of local heroes.
That others arose from the cult of ancestors may be inferred
from the practice that survived into late historical times of
marking by a linga and sometimes also a small temple the sites
where important persons, chieftains or saints, were buried or
cremated ; this class of temple is distinguished in the inscriptions
of the Tamil country by the title palli-padai-kdyiL The name
koyil for the temple is of much semantic interest as it means
both a temple and a palace, which were often erected side by
side in historical times, the most conspicuous instances being
furnished by the celebrated Cola capitals of Tanjore and Gangai-
konda-CoJapuram ; the practice was followed by the monarchs.
of Vijayanagar also. We notice the same feature in the Sanskrit
word Prasada , also meaning both temple and palace. Again,
the word employed for worship in the citation made above from
Purananuru is paravu i.e., praise, same as rc (Rk) from which
we get arcana , a common word for worship in later times. Stress
has been laid on the contrast between yagna (sacrifice) and
puja (worship) and the suggestion made that the former is Vedic
and Aryan, and the latter non-Vedic and pre-Aryan. Accord-
ingly, puja, in Tamil puM, is sought to be derived in one of
two ways : One method is to connect with the words pu, flower,
and sey, do, i.e., an act done with the aid of flowers ; the other
is to connect it with pusu (smear), implying that the smearing
of the object worshipped with the blood of the animal sacrificed
in the act was its central feature. We must observe, however,
that the word puSai does not occur in early Tamil literature of
the Sangam period, and that the Tamil Lexicon does not notice
either of these derivations for the words but simply refers to
the Sanskrit word puja . Worship in temples and the domestic
worship of deities is repeatedly mentioned in the late Vedic lite-
rature of the Sutras. Vedic religion was aniconic, and the objects
that received worship from pre-Aryan peoples in India were
trees and stones which were regarded as the abode of deities,
good and bad, and possibly some animals held sacred for one
reason or another. The beginnings of anthropomorphism can
be traced to an interesting discussion by Yaska (c 600 b.c.) on
the human attributes of Vedic deities and we may assume that
28 Development of Religion in South India (
figural representation of gods became common thereafter, and
a regular iconography began to develop. The accretion of myths
and legends drawn from various sources such as the elaboration
of hints contained in the Vedas, the adaptation of local stories
and traditions prevalent in different parts of the country, led
on the one hand to an increasing volume of Puranic literature
and on the other to a diversification of cults and deities each
with its own particular iconic ideals enshrined in dhyana slokas
(verses in aid of meditation) supposed to embody the visions
vouchsafed to eminent seers who practised the particular cults.
These in turn gave rise to an extensive sculptural art in stone
and metal, an art rich alike in aesthetic and symbolism which,
with many changes, has survived to our own day. We shall
study these developments in some detail later.
The whole of India including the extreme south had been
Aryanized by the fourth century b.c. if not earlier, and a new
Hindu Society marked by certain prominent traits constituted
everywhere. It was a pluralistic society which had found in the
caste system the most expedient method of accommodating
peoples professing differing faiths and following diverse practices,
while ensuring the acceptance by all of a common idealogical
framework. The system is certainly open to attack from the
standpoint of modern egalitarian democracy, and perhaps in the
long run it tended to encourage narrower group loyalties to the
detriment of the wider loyalty to the race or nation. But equality
even in the modem world is more often an ideal rather than a
reality and no system ever realizes in their entirety all the merits
and demerits that are its theoretical concomitants. The Indian
caste system is no exception. In its actual working through the
ages it was neither so good and perfect as the orthodox advo-
cates of the theory of varnatrama think, nor so evil and degrad-
ing as its critics, particularly from among Christian missionaries,
have been prone to depict. How much of it grew out of the
class-system ( varnas ) of the Indo-Aryan Society and how much
was incorporated from pre-Aryan social institutions and practices
will perhaps never be satisfactorily determined. While in the
rest of the Aryanized world the original class system showed no
tendency to harden into more or less self-sufficient and socially
exclusive groups, in India not only did the classes develop into
rigid castes which are mutually exclusive, particularly as regards
marriage and eating together, but the principle of caste fissipa-
rousness became so deep-rooted that even the reformist attempts
to abolish caste ended generally in the formation of new castes
♦of such reformers. Caste has invaded even the Islamic and
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 29'
Christian sections of Indian society, and today, more than a
decade after the attainment of political freedom, the leaders of
the country who mind its unity find the need to inveigh against
‘ Casteism But the roots of * Casteism * still baffle understand-
ing and analysis.
The more admirable on this account was the success of the
early founding fathers of Indo-Aryan society in inventing an
idealogy which was accepted not only in all India, but to a large
extent even in lands colonized by them outside India and which
served as an effective bond of cultural unity. The central idea
was that of the autonomy of the individual soul ; not only
humans and superhumans but all live beings have souls, and the
Jains postulate souls even for the inanimate world ; the grada-
tion of births is regulated by the individual’s Karma (acts), and
the individual can work his way up the scale by good deeds
through many births until at last he transcends the cycle of births
and his soul regains its pristine condition of freedom and happi-
ness. The processes by which the soul gets entangled in the cycle
of births and then works out its release ( mokqa ) are explained
differently by different schools of philosophy, and the common
people who follow each school, though they may not be adepts
in its metaphysics, do not lack an inkling of the truth as their
acaryas (teachers) saw it, because even the routine of their daily
life is replete with nuances answering to the particular metaphysic.
Karma and its consequences, together with the strong appeal to
ethical conduct implicit in the theory, were almost universally
accepted and actively held in the whole of Hindu India, Buddhists
and Jains not excluded. The only exception were the handful of
Cdrvdkas (Nihilists) who never commanded much influence in
Indian society.
The whole pattern of Hindu social thought and conduct was
calculated to ensure a stable society on the basis of this meta-
physic, a society in which each individual would find his or her
place duly defined, a place in which there would be no lack of
opportunity for working one’s way up both here and hereafter.
The emphasis was more on duty than on right, on order and
the continuance of ancestral custom than on innovation and
change. The social order, particularly the Dharma (duty and
function) of the varnas and the asramas (stages of life) was
believed to be divinely ordained, but the code was not inflexible
and changes, necessitated by time, place and circumstance, were
effected by the example and consent of the 61ite of society ; and
this principle applied even to secular matters such as the regu-
lation of industry, trade and the arts by the guilds or groups
30 Development of Religion in South India
concerned. The state had no legislative power and was only
law-guardian and not law-maker ; its main task was to keep the
ring and enable the units of society, territorial (village) or social
(caste, guild), or institutional (temple, college), and so on to
carry on their legitimate functions without hindrance from anti-
social elements. The actual multiplication of castes (jati) was
reconciled with the four varnas of divine ordinance by the theory
of mixed castes (varitasahkara ) , worked out in much detail in
textbooks, but bearing little relation to the facts of life ; but the
books were consulted at times to decide practical issues, and
foreign immigrants were given a place in Hindu society if they
desired entry by being regarded as Ksatriyas of sorts.
All the important stages in the life-cycle from conception
to cremation had their appropriate ceremonies and rituals, which
were marked by endless variations in detail according to locality
and group. These ceremonies ( samskaras ) were believed to be
purificatory and calculated to fit the individual for the higher
life. The words Dharma and Karma covered the whole gamut
of duties, individual and social, and the entire round of cere-
monies, but the details of their content were by no means rigid,
and could always be adapted to circumstances, under the guidance
of the accepted leaders of society at the time. The concepts of
rnatraya (three debts) and purusarthas (the objectives of human
endeavour) may be taken to complete the basic ideas of Hindu
society. A man is believed to be bom with three debts and
he is expected to discharge them duly in the course of his life ;
first is what he owes to his parents and ancestors who gave him
birth ; this he repays by procreating children in lawful wedlock
to continue his line ; second is what he owes to the r$is (seers),
the founders of the culture and organizers of social life, whom
he satisfied by vidyd (education), i.e., by becoming an adept in
the traditional learning and the arts, and if possible contributing
to their development, at any rate securing their being handed
down intact to future generations ; and lastly what he owes to
the gods — the good seasons and harvests, of which he ensures
the continuance by sacrifices, daily and occasional. The aims of
life were categorized as four : dharma (sufficiently explained
already); artha (Goods) — pursuit of wealth, material good in
general ; kdma (Love) — sex life, the foundation of the family ;
and lastly , moksa, liberation from the cycle of births. These
aims were linked to the asramas : dharma was to be pursued
constantly, mok$a was to be prepared for by proper education
during the first stage (Brahmacarya — stage of scholar), artha
and kdma in the second stage that of grhastha householder, and
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 31
tnoksa in the evening of life when he developed detachment from
mundane preoccupations in two stages — vanaprastha, forest
dweller (when his wife could keep him company), and sanyasi
(anchorite). The stage of grhastha was considered most impor-
tant socially as persons in all the other stages of life depended
on householders for their sustenance. Family life including the
earning of wealth and its enjoyment ( artha and kdma) was thus
enjoined as essential duty, and this perhaps needs to be stressed
a little in view of the not uncommon misreading of the Hindu
outlook on life which attributes to it an undue concentration
on the other world to the negation of this one. In fact the cele-
brated Tamil classic, the Kura\ concerns itself only with the first
three objectives of human life — Aram (Dharma), Porul
(Artha), and Inbam (Kama) — -and omits all reference to
Mok$a (liberation). Even in the North the Trivarga (three
ends) were long treated as the norm, and Mokqa got entry into
the group only relatively late. The W eltanschaung thus briefly
sketched had become universal in India several centuries before
the Christian era, but conformity to it in detail was by no means
strict or uniform. The large classes of people who were new
to Indo-Aryan society naturally retained many of their old ways
and gradually adopted whatever they could of the new ones,
and nowhere did they continue to be the same as before the
contact with the new culture. This process of ‘ Aryanization 5
or ‘ Sanskritization * as it has been recently designated is still
going on among the backward tribes in the hills and forests of
India. The state of religion and society that resulted from the
mingling of cultures is reflected in a few early inscriptions and
more fully, particularly for the Tamil country in the literature
of the Sangam period ; and this may be taken to furnish the
starting point for our study of the subsequent religious move-
ments in the region.
In the Deccan, Buddhism was well established by the third
century b.c. and continued to flourish throughout the Satavahana
period ; indeed the first two centuries of the Christian era consti-
tute the most glorious epoch of Buddhism in the Deccan. The
stupa of Amaravati was enlarged and embellished, many new
but smaller stupas came up in many spots in the Kr§na Valley,
and many new caityas and viharas were excavated from rock
in the Western Ghats to the north of Poona and elsewhere. The
contemporary inscriptions mention the names of a number of
sects and of monks of various grades of learning and eminence
engaged in preaching the Law ot the Master to the faithful.
Stupas , the sacred tree, the footprints of the master, the trisula
32 Development of Religion in South India
(trident) emblem representing the three jewels ( triratna ) of
Buddhism, viz., Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha (congregation of
monks), the dharmacakra (Wheel of Law), relics and statues
of the Buddha and other great teachers, Yak?as, Yaksis and
Nagarajas (spirits and godlings) were all objects of worship.
The sculptures of this period show men and women in states
of ecstatic devotion rather than merely kneeling or perhaps
prostrating themselves with joined hands before the objects of
their devotion.
Buddhism, however, did not by any means displace Brah-
manical Hinduism to which adhered most of the Satavahana
rulers (c. 200 B.C.-250 A.D.). The third king of the line per-
formed a number of Vedic sacrifices and even named one of
his sons VedisrI (the glory of the altar). King Hala’s SaptaMh
a Prakrit anthology, opens with a passage in adoration of Siva.
Another king Gautamlputra Satakarnd was a great supporter of
Brahmans, and is said to have emulated the examples of the
epic heroes Rama, Kesava (i.e. Krsna) and Arjuna. The pan-
theon of Hinduism included Indra, Vasudeva, the Sun and the
Moon, Siva, Vi?nu, Kr^a, Gaiiesa, and Pasupati. Temples of
Gauri, the consort of Siva, are mentioned in Saptatotl as also
the obscure Vrata (vow) of fire and water.
The fusion of cultures is seen much more clearly farther
South and we may take a broad view of the conditions not
confined only to the sphere of religion. The. stories of the
Rdmdyana and Mahabharata were well known to the early Tamil
poets and they refer frequently to episodes from these epics.
Each of the three ‘ Crowned Kings ’ ( mudi-ara&ar ) of the Tamil
country, Cera, Pandya, and Cola, claims to have fed the opposing,
forces on the eve of the Great Battle in Kuruk§etra. Among the
myths and conventions of Northern Sanskritic origin that had
already entered Tamil literature may be noted : the destruction
of the three cities (Tripura) of the Asuras by Siva; King SibI
giving away his flesh to save the dove from the Vulture ; Uttara-
Kuru as the land of perpetual enjoyment ; Arundhati as the ideal
of conjugal fidelity ; the concept of rnatraya ; and the beliefs
that the Cakora bird feeds only on rain drops ; and that rain-
drops turn into pearls in particular conditions. The Tolkdppiyam
grammar is avowedly modelled on the Sanskrit grammar of the
Aindra school. The eight kinds of marriage mentioned in the
Dharmautras are known, and the gdndharva form is equated ta
the ka\avu (secret meetings between a young man and a maiden
unknown to their # parents), an originally Tamil convention.
Many popular beliefs and customs mentioned in literature seem
Integration of Cults and the Beginnings of Hinduism 33
to be blends of the North and South. A woman with dishevelled
hair was a bad omen. Fortune tellers plied a busy trade and so
did astrologers. Children were provided with amulets for ward-
ing off evil, and the five weapons (< aimbadai ) of Vi$nu figured
prominently among them. Rites were practised to avert the
mischief of demons (pey), to bring rain, and produce other
desired results. Crows were believed to announce the arrival of
guests by their cawing, and particularly the return of the absent
husband to his lonely wife, and were fed regularly in front of
1 Vi Qi icp Vi rU r\ Th a rtrcWire
34 Development of Religion in South India
worship in the temples. The worship of Murugan was of ancient
origin and embodied some indigenous features like Velan-adal, an
ecstatic dance in his honour. Indra came in for special worship
in an annual festival held in Puhar (Kaveripatnam), the Co] a
port-town, and the story is told that the omission to celebrate
the festival brought about the destruction of the city by a tidal
wave. Asceticism was honoured and tridandi (triple staff)
ascetics are particularly mentioned. There was in vogue a con-
ventional classification of the landscape of the Tamil country into
five regions each being presided over by its special deity ; thus
Mullai (forest land) had Mayon (Visnu) for its deity ; Kuriiiji
(mountain country) had Seyon (Murugan); Marudam (wet land)
had Vendan (King of the Gods, Indra); Neydal (sea coast) had
Varuna; and lastly Palai (desert land) had a goddess Korravai
(lit. goddess of victory or heroism, identified with Siva’s consort
Parvatl). Here we have another conspicuous example of the
blend of Aryan and pre-Aryan concepts resulting in a new
complex partaking of the features of both.
III.
BHAKTI MOVEMENTS IN THE SOUTH
The next epoch in the history of South Indian religions is
the growth of an intense theism marked by a fervid devotion
( bhakti ) to a personal god which found expression in numerous
popular devotional hymns ; these hymns were collected and
edited in a canonical form at a later time, and continue to be
regarded as among the most precious treasures in the heritage
of the country. The period of this development may be said
to have lasted from the sixth century to about the end of the
eighth century a.d. It was heralded by notable changes in the
political map. The Satavabana power came to an end in the
third century and the break up of their empire led, as often in
the history of India, to the rise of a number of smaller kingdoms
in the different parts of the Deccan — the Abhiras and Traikuf:a-
kas in the north-west, the Cujius followed by the Kadambas in
the south-west, the Gangas to the east of them, the Pallavas in
the south-east, and the Ik§vSkus and others in the coastal Andhra
country. What happened in the Tamil country is not clearly
known. The close of the Sangam age which may have lasted
well into the fifth century a.d. was followed by a dark period
of well over a century. A Pandyan copper plate charter of the
ninth century a.d., the Velvikudi grant, mentions that during this
dark period, perhaps towards its close, there occurred a political
revolution as a result of which several kings lost their thrones,
religious endowments were abrogated, and much disorder and
oppression ensued. This revolution was the work of the Kaja-
bhras, a tribe or dynasty of obscure origin. From the contem-
porary Buddhist Pali works of Buddhadatta we hear of a certain
Accuta-Vikkanta (Acyuta-Vikranta in Sanskrit) of the Kalabba-
kula (Kalabhrakula, Skt.) during whose reign Bud dhist monas-
teries were built and Buddhist writers enjoyed considerable
patronage in the Cola country. Much later Tamil literary
tradition avers that Accuta captured and imprisoned the three
! Crowned rulers* of the Tamil land — the Cera, Cola and
Pandya, and some songs about him are quoted by Amitasagara,
a Jain grammarian of Tamil in the tenth century a.d. Possibly
36 Development of Religion in South India
Accuta was himself a Buddhist, and the political revolution which*
the Ka|abhras effected may have been provoked by religious
antagonism. The Colas virtually disappeared from the Tamil
land as a power in this debacle ; a branch migrated to the Telugu
country and became celebrated as Telugu-Colas from the seventh
to the tenth century and beyond ; the main Tamil dynasty lived
obscurely in Uraiyur in the neighbourhood of Trichinopoly, occa-
sionally furnishing brides for the princes of neighbouring king-
doms. The duration of Kalabhra rule and the extent of territory
that passed under their sway cannot be determined, but it is
clear that under them Buddhism (and possibly Jainism) also
made great progress among the Tamils. All references to this
period in later Tamil literature, particularly in the poetical classic
of Tamil hagiology, the Periya-Purdnam of Sekkilar, are loaded
with a deep sense of the danger of the overthrow of orthodox
Hinduism by the rising tide of Buddhistic and Jaina heresy.
Three kingdoms rose into prominence in the latter half of
the sixth century, the Calukyas of Badami to the north of the
Tungabhadra, the Pandyas in the extreme south, and the Pallavas
in the country in between. And the first rulers of all these
kingdoms claim to have overthrown the Kalabhras, among others*
before establishing their sway. The Calukyas who make their
appearance for the first time in the middle of the sixth century
soon succeeded in reuniting the Deccan under one State, though
a little later the subordinate Viceroyalties of Lata (South Guja-
rat) and VefigT (Coastal Andhra) ruled by princes of the blood
royal! developed into virtually independent kingdoms. Farther
south, the Pallavas and the Pandyas kept up a more or less cons-
tant war, and the Pallavas had to fight on two fronts against the
Calukyas in the north and the Pandyas in the south ; naturally
also the Cajukyas and Pandyas sometimes joined hands against
their common enemy in the middle. These political alignments
were, as we shall see, sometimes reflected in the religious prac-
tices of the different states.
The Bhakti cult had its origin in the North. It is primarily
associated with Krsna-Vasudeva identified with Visnu, Nara-
yana and Puru§ottama. A Krsna is known as the composer of
a Vedic liymn (RV. viii 74) and he is called an Angirasa in the
Vedic Index ( Anukra man z). There is also a Krsna DevakTputra
who figures as the pupil of Ghora Angirasa in one of the early
upani$ads ( Chhdndogya in, 17. 6), dating from a time not later
than the seventh century b.c. Legends of early date are found*
and these represent Krsna as a hero not yet divine, though
well on the road to becoming so. About the same time or a
Bhakti Movements in the South
37
little later the grammarian Paiiini writes of Vasudeva and Arjuna
(IV. 3. 98) as objects of worship — being K§atriya heroes per-
haps regarded as semi-divine. Magasthenes (c. 320 b.c.), the
Macedonian ambassador at the Mauryan Court, evinces know-
ledge of Krsna, whom he calls Herakles, and the places asso-
ciated with his cycle of legends ; he says that Herakles was
worshipped by the Saurasenoi (Surasenas) in whose land are
two great cities Mathura (now Muttra) and Kleisobora (Kpsna-
pura(?)> unidentified), and through this land flows the river
Jobares (Yamuna, Jamna of the maps). Epigraphical references
from Central India mark the further stages in the growth of the
cult. About 200 B.c. an inscription from Ghasundi in Rajpu-
tana records the building of a stone wall round the hall of wor-
ship of Sankar§ana and Vasudeva. Vasudeva is of course
Krsna ; Sankar§ana is the name of his brother Balarama ; Pra-
dyurnna was Krsna’s son and Aniruddha one of his grandsons.
‘ It is probable \ says Farquhar, * that these three were local
divinities, that an arrangement was made to bring them into
relation with Kf§na so as to form a combined sect, and that the
doctrine of the (four) Vyuhas (expansions or manifestation) is
a theologism created to give them a permanent place in the
teaching and worship of the community ’ of Satvatas, Panca-
ratas or Bhagavatas as they were variously called. In its final
form the doctrine of Vyuhas held that Vasudeva, Sankarsana,
Pradyumna and Aniruddha were the manifestations of Purusot-
tama. The Besnagar inscription (100 B.c.) records the erection
of a Garuda-Dhvaja (i.e., a Pillar topped by Garuda, the mount
of Visnu) of Vasudeva by the Bhagavata Heliodorus of Taxila,
an ambassador from King Antialkidas to King Kasiputra Bhaga-
bhadra. The Mahabha$ya of Patanjali (150 b.c.) mentions the
followers of Vasudeva, associates Ky?na closely with Sankar§ana,
and speaks of dramatic representations of the story of Krsna,
especially the binding of Bali and the slaying of Kamsa. An
inscription from the Nanaghat Cave (100 b.c.) associates San-
karsana with Vasudeva. The later parts of the Great Epic
{Mahabharata), the Atharva Upani§ads, and some Puranas agree
with the Bhagavadgita in regarding Krsna-Vasudeva as supreme.
The rise and spread of the Bhagavata cult has been the
subject of much learned discussion. We need not review the
discussions here, but, with due reserve, accept that Kr$na, the
son of Vasudeva and Devaki was in truth a K§atriya warrior
and diplomat who played a prominent part in the events recorded
in the Mahabharata. He had his education at the time which
witnessed the rather widespread and speculative reaction against
38 Development of Religion in South India
an overgrown sacerdotalism, and in this reaction which is the
core of the upani?adic thought, K?atriyas had an important, if
not the leading, role. Krsna was initiated into the m_ystical and
moral teaching of the time by his preceptor Ghora Angirasa, a
worshipper of the sun, from whom he learnt ‘ those lessons of
the meaning of sacrifice, the merit of virtue, and the importance
of last thoughts, which reappear in the Bhagavadglta , and which
we may suppose to have been preserved for centuries as the
sacred heritage of the Bhagavata sect* (Hill). We know little
more of Krsna ; the story of his overthrow of the tyrant Kamsa
may have a historical foundation ; the rest including the legends
of his childhood is ‘ unworthy myth *, Kr?na perhaps taught the
worship of the Sun to his followers, but they, like the Buddhists
and the Jains, soon turned their worship to their teacher himself.
Vasudeva worship was still intimately connected with that of the
Sun, and this patronymic name was preferred in the sect as more
significant of the “ radiant lord of Heaven ” than ever could be
the name of Kr?na “ the black ” (Hill) . Kr§na, however, was
still demi-god and not Supreme Deity in the days of Panini who
couples his name with that of Arjuna as objects of devotion.
The district of Mathura was the centre of the cult, and Vasudeva
was revered here much as Herakles was among the Greeks.
Vasudeva’s position as Supreme God is proclaimed in the Helio-
dorus inscription which calls him devadeva , and this is also
reflected in the attitude of Patanjali which marks a distinct
advance on that of Panini. The supremacy of Krsna-Vasudeva
was not, however, accepted by all, and there are indications both
in the Bhagavadglta and in the rest of the Mahabharata 1 that
there were some who would subordinate him to Siva and revile
him and cast aspersions on his character \ Moreover the compre-
hensive tolerance of the new cult of devotion to a personal God
which admitted all and sundry within its fold on a basis of spiri-
tual equality must have been unacceptable to some Brahmans-
who noted the threat to their own proud status and to the tradi-.
tion of caste that the new movement involved. The doctrine of
avatara which makes a rather sudden appearance in the Bhaga-
vadglta was ‘ the necessary corollary to the identification of
with the supreme. Here was Krsna in human form,
Arjuna’s charioteer at Kuruk?etra ; if he was at the same time'
highest God, the paradox could be explained only by the theory
of “ descent God had taken earthly forms in earlier days for
the benefit of Gods and men ; Kr$pa was then the last and
greatest of a series of descents \ (Hill) .
The Nanaghat inscription mentions only Vasudeva and
Bhakti Movements in the South
39
Sankar§apa, and the suggestion has been made that the doctrine
of Vyuhas was still in its early formative stages ; this may well
be so, for the Vyuhas are not known to the Gita. So the bhakti
cult must be taken to have entered the Deccan at a relatively
early stage in its history. Another side of the bhakti movement
of which we have rather less knowledge is that relating to the
worshippers of Siva, gatanjali in his Mahdbhasya speaks of
Sivabhagavatas, who worshipped Siva as the Bhagvat and carried
an iron lance in the hand as the emblem of the deity they wor-
shipped. The doctrines of this school formed the Pasupata
system founded by Lakulisa or Nakulisa perhaps in the early
centuries B.c. * The fact that his rise has been represented by
the Puraijas to be contemporaneous with Vasudeva-Krsna poims
to the inference that traditionally the system was intended to Lake
the same place in the Rudra-Siva cult that the Pancaratra did in
the Vasudeva-Kr?na cult. We may therefore, place the rise of
the Pasupata school. . . . about a century after that of the Panca-
ratra system, i.e., about the second century b.c.’ (Bhandarkar),
We have lost the historical link between the early bhakti y
movement of the North of which we have just traced the outline
and the movement in the Tamil country that began most probably
in the sixth century a.d. and continued to flourish with some
force till the ninth century. We may assume, however, that the
southern movement was in some way inspired by the northern
example. The movement had two wings — one Saiva and the
other Vai§nava. They were contemporary and cooperative- and'
had many close resemblances. They have both left a precious
heritage of popular hymns of high literary quality marked at times
by great philosophical insight and always reflecting the spiritual
exaltation experienced by the hymnists as they stood worshipping
in the shrines of their favourite deities. They have also left a con-
siderable body of legendary history purporting to narrate the life
histories of the saints and gathered together in canonical collec-
tions by their followers of a later age, say about the twelfth or
thirteenth century a.d. As already noted, this hagiology is /
replete with the sense of a great danger to the orthodox faiths
from the spread of the heretical creeds of Buddhism and Jainism.
These creeds offended the Hindu sense of religious decency in
two ways ; they denied the authority of the revealed word, the
Veda ; they also denied God ; Buddhism denied the existence of
the soul also, though in this respect Jainism parted company
with it. These creeds had come into the Tamil country well
before the Christian era and had more or less peacefully co-
40 Development of Religion in South India
existed with the orthodox religious faiths and practices for quite
a number of centuries. We have seen,, however, that these
creeds, Buddhism in particular, seem to have gained an accession
of political power with the advent of Kalabhra rule, and it is
possible that this power was employed to promote actively the
non-Vedic creeds at the expense of the Vedic. We have no
direct evidence to judge the intensity of the danger to orthodoxy.
The only evidence on the subject is the Mattavilasa , a farce
( prahasana , lit., play of laughter) by the Pallava King Mahendra-
varman (c. 620 A.D.). Far from reflecting an atmosphere of
intense sectarian rivalry, the play introduces us to an easy going
tolerance of foibles and turns the laugh against the Kapalikas
(a class of extreme Siva worshippers) as much as against Bud-
dhist monks (bhiksus). But then the play is a farce, and its
author a versatile curious-minded ( vicitra-citta ) monarch who
may have meant the play as an essay in religious reform. We
shall see that there is some reason to think that Mahendravar-
man was himself caught in the religious rivalries of his time.
If we may trust the indications from later legend, this was
a period of great stir. There came up a succession of great
leaders among the worshippers of Siva and Vi?nu, the former
known collectively as Nayanars (leaders) and the latter as
Alvars (divers, into the Divine). They evolved a new type, of
bhaktit a fervid emotional surrender to God which found in due
course its supreme literary expression in the Bhagavata purdna
(tenth century), a bhakti very different from the calm, dignified
devotion of the Bhagavatas of the early centuries before and after
.yChrist in Northern India. An outspoken hatred of Buddhists
and Jains which finds expression in almost every one of the
hymns was among the chief characteristics of the new epoch.
According to the canonical works mentioned above, the rivalry
between the orthodox and heretical sects exhibited itself in chal-
lenges to public debate with the condition that the vanquished
party should give up his creed and adopt that of the victor,
competition in the performance of miracles on similar terms, and
tests of the truth of respective doctrines by means of ordeals.
Parties of devotees under the leadership of one gifted saint or
another traversed the country many times over, singing, dancing
and debating all the way. This great wave of devotional enthu-
siasm attained its peak in the seventh century and had not
spent itself in the midst of the ninth. This indeed was the golden
age of Hindu Revival in South India. The shrines visited by
the saints and celebrated by them in song were deemed parti-
cularly sacred, and princes, nobles and merchants who wished
Bhakti Movements in the South
41
to build and endow temples generally chose them for their parti-
cular attention in subsequent times down to our own day.
Later tradition has recognized the number of nayanars or
adiyars , devotees of Siva, as sixty-three ; most of them were
individuals though occasionally a group of devotees was counted
under one name. The individual saints included a woman fronw
Karaikal, in Tanjore, till recently a French possession, a Pariah
by name Nandan from Adanur, also in the Kaverl valley, and
Siruttondar, a general of the Paliava army, who won distinction*
by carrying out the siege and destruction of the Cajukya capital
Badami (7th century). Nandan’s life, much embellished, is a
popular opera today and forms the subject of Katha kdlaksepams,
oral expositions of legends with music and sometimes a minimum
of acting. But most prominent among them all were Three
Great Hymnists ( Muvar ) whose songs form the Devaram (lit.
songs in praise of God) making up the first seven books out of
the twelve in the entire Saiva Canon ( tirumurai ). The collec-
tion now comprises 795 hymns (Jiianasambandar 384, Tiru-
navukkarasu or Appar 311, and Sundaramurtti 100); they
are, however, only the survivals of a much larger original whose
number tradition, with the usual exaggeration, puts at 103,000
(16,000+49,000+38,000). The story is that the entire collec-
tion had been written on palm leaves and stored in a vault
behind the shrine of Na£araja at Cidambaram, that when Nambi
Ap$ar Nambi, the editor of the extant version, opened the vault,
he found the palm leaves mostly eaten up by termites and was
able to recover only a small fraction. We may not believe this
legend or the figures it gives ; but that not all hymns entered
the canon as we have it was established when some years ago
the Epigraphical Department discovered an entire hymn of Sam-
bandar engraved on the wall of a Siva temple in the Tanjore
District, but not found in the printed collection. The original
song modes seem to have been lost irretrievably.
First among the Devaram Trio was Tirunavukkarasu
(lit. king of the holy tongue) also known as Appar. He
was a Vellala (peasant proprietor) from Tiruvamur, gene-
rally believed to have been a contemporary of the Paliava
ruler Mahendravarman I. Though bom in an orthodox Saiva
family he was attracted to Jainism in his early life, and
joined the monastery at Pajaliputra (near Cuddalore in South
Arcot) as a monk. His elder sister Tilakavati, who had
watched his change of faith with untold regret, implored
Siva’s help. Her prayer was answered ; Dharmasena, that was
her brother’s ordination name, became the victim of an abdomi-
42 Development of Religion in South India
nal disorder, and all his Jain companions could not help him.
Seeking his sister’s aid, he was cured by the grace of the God
of Tiruvadigai and so returned to the Saiva faith. This defec-
tion greatly upset the monks of Pataliputra who trumped up
false charges against Dharmasena and poisoned the mind of the
Pallava king against him. Appar was subjected to many trials
and tortures which, however, by the grace of Siva, caused him
no hurt.' The king was convinced of the superiority of Saivism,.
and himself embraced it. This king is generally identified with
Mahendravarman, mainly on the ground that the Siva Temple
at Tiruvadigai renovated by him bore the name Gunadhara-
iSvaram, and Mahendra himself had a similar title, Gunabhara.
It is quite possible that the title of the temple in Sekkilar’s
poem is a misreading of the title of the Pallava monarch. There
is a verse in the Trichinopoly inscription of Mahendravarman
which furnishes clear proof that the king did indeed return to
Saivism from some other creed which may well have been Jain-
ism. It must, however, be admitted that, as already hinted, the
tradition regarding the persecution of Appar is hard to reconcile
with the spirit of the Mattavilasa. The rest of Appar’s long
life of eighty-one years was spent in pilgrimages during which
he met many contemporary myandrs of whom Jnanasambandar
was the most notable, indeed the greatest of them all.
JnSnasambandar, or Sambandar for short, was a Brahmin
of the Kauntfinya gotrci from Shiyali in the Tanjore District.
There are few Siva temples today in South India where worship
is not offered to him. As a child of three he is said to have
got the milk of divine knowledge from Parvatl (the consort of
Siva) herself and narrated the incident to his father then and
there in song. Realizing the divinity of his child, the father
carried him on his shoulders from one Siva temple to another
until he was relieved by the present from the Gods of a pearl
palanquin for his son’s use. At that time the Pandya country
was almost completely overrun by_ Jainism which had built a
strong centre for its diffusion at Anaimalai (Elephant hill, so
called from its shape) within a few miles of the Papdyan capital
of Madurai. The Papuan queen, a Cola princess by name
Mangaiyarkkarasi (Queen among women), and the minister
Kujacci^ai, both staunch Saivas, sent a pressing invitation to*
Sambandar to come and retrieve the position. The holy man
went over to Madurai, foiled all the nefarious conspiracies of
the Jains against him, vanquished them in debate and converted
the king and his subjects to Saivism. The story goes that on
this occasion 8,000 Jains were put to death by impalement, and
Bhakti Movements in the South
43
a festival in the Madurai temple is supposed even now to com-
memorate the event every year* This shocking legend can hardly
be history. Religious antagonism was sharp at the time, and im-
palement as a punishment of felons is attested by more or less-V
contemporary sculptures and otherwise. Still we can hardly believe
that the intolerance of heresy on the part of the youthful and
gentle saint — he did not live to be more than sixteen — des-
cended to such cruel barbarities. The story is doubtless the pro-
duct of orthodox imagination of a later time animated by a false
scale of values, Sambandar had disputations also with Buddhists
and visited many' shrines which he praised in song. He was the
saintliest of the Ndyanars and had no past to regret. He may
be placed in the middle of the seventh century or a little later
and his Pandyan contemporary was most probably Maravarman
Avanisulamani.
About a century after Sambandar came Sundaramurtti of
Navalur. A child of poor Brahmin parents, he caught, by his>
physical charm, the attention of the local chieftain Narasinga
Munaiyadaraiyan who, with the consent of the parents, interest-
ed himself in the child’s education and bringing up. When:
Sundaramurtti was about to marry a girl of his own caste, the
marriage was stopped by the mysterious intervention of Siva
who claimed him as his slave. A little later, Sundaramurtti fell
in love with two young women, one a Sudra girl of Tiruvorriyur
(near Madras) and the other a dancing girl of Tiruvalur (Tan-
jore District). Their jealousies, it is said, could only be resolved
by Siva himself acting as a messenger to one of them. Like the
other Nayanars, Sundaramurtti is also credited with many miracles
and the contemporary Cera ruler, Ceraman Perumal, was his
friend. They exchanged mutual visits regularly and made their
last journey to the abode of Siva in Mount Kailasa together,
Sundara on a white elephant and Ceraman Parumaj on a horse.
Sundara’s devotion to Siva was that of an intimate friend so
that he was given the title Tambiran-tolan (friend of God). The
hymns of Sambandar, Appar and Sundara constitute, as already
noted, the Devaram and the first seven out of the twelve sections
of the Tamil Saiva canon. They form a varied treasure house
of religious experience which tells of mystical raptures and
ecstasies, of moments of light when there is a vision of God
and the world is transfigured in the light of his love, and of
periods of gloom when all is dark and the blind seeker is filled
with a sense of fear. They are read widely by Saivas in the
Tamil country even now and sung in temples by trained choris-
ters on scheduled occasions.
44
Development of Religion in South India
A little later than Sundara came the illustrious Mapikka-
v&sagar (one whose speech is ruby). Legend makes him the
minister of a Pandyan king, and on his account Siva, the pre-
siding deity of Madurai, is said to have performed many miracles.
His Pandyan contemporary was most probably Varaguna II
(862-80 a.d.) . Manikkavasagar is said to have debated with
Buddhists from Ceylon at Cidambaram and to have utterly van-
quished them. His hymns constitute the Tiruvasagam (The
sacred word) which forms the eighth section of the Tamil Saiva
canon. Another work, Tiruccirrambalak-kovai, 1 is also ascrib-
ed to him. The Tiruvasagam is the expression of confessions
more outspoken and of a devotion more impassioned than those
of the Devaram Trio, whose works were doubtless the source
of his inspiration. That he was an accomplished poet with a
mastery of diction and metres is clear from the Tiruvasagam ,
v He draws freely on the epics, Purapas and Agamas and on the
rich Tamil literature that had preceded him. ‘He knew also
liow to find poetry in local customs and homely stories, espe-
cially the mass of legends that illustrate Siva’s sacred sports.
Over all he threw the glamour of his genius * (Farquhar) . He
gives, striking and frequent expression to his dislike for the
iivedanta, by which we must, of course, understand the system
of Sankara propounded not long before his time. Mapikka-
vaSagar came after the tradition regarding the ‘ sixty-three ’
saints (individuals and groups) of Tamil Saivism had found
their definitive formulation in the Tiruttonclattogai (the collec-
tion of the sacred servants of God) of Sundaramurtti which
became the accepted basis of all later literature on them.
MapikkavESagar’s protest against advaita-vedanta must be^
noted particularly, because it represents the core of the bhakti
cult. The ultimate aim of the bhakta is not to lose his identity
in the impersonal Absolute, but to attain and enjoy for all time
the blissful company of a personal God. The attributes of God,
his relation to the universe he repeatedly creates, protects an<|
destroys, and to the individual soul before and after its release
from the cycle of births and deaths (samsara), are described
differently by different schools of bhakti ; but they are all agreed
in maintaining the fundamental difference between God and the
1 Kovm literally means ‘stringing’, ‘a set arrangement’; it is the
name also applied to a variety of literary composition which treats suc-
cessively the different stages in the development of the love of a young
couple, but suffused with an esoteric significance relating to the quest of
the_ individual soul (the nayika, heroine) for union with the absolute
tnayaKa, hero). The work under reference centres on &iva as lord of
Cidambaram.
Bhakti Movements in the South
45
human soul and the eternal reality of both. They do not subs-
cribe to the identity of the universal soul with the individual
soul which figures prominently in the Mahavakyas (key sen-
tences) of the upanisads like tat-tvamasi (That art Thou), and
which forms the sheet anchor of advaita (non-duality) as ex-
pounded by Sankara. In this respect Manikkavasagar is the true
representative of all the many different schools of bhakti which
flourished in different regions and periods of India’s long evolu-
tion.
Some time between Sundaramurtti and Manikkavasagar
came the mysterious Tirumular whose Tirumandiram (the sac-
red mantra ) forms the tenth section of the canon. This is per-
haps the earliest Tamil work that reflects the theology of the*/
Agamas ; it is a poem of 3,000 verses dealing with practical
religion. The life of Tirumular is wrapped in a fantastic legend.
A siddha from Kailasa, the abode of Siva, migrated to the South
to meet his friend Agastya ; near Tiruvaduturai he entered the
dead body of a shepherd out of compassion for the herd which
had just lost him ; he led the herd back home in the evening,
after which he abandoned the shepherd’s family ; then as a
penance he sat under a tree for 3,000 years composing the work
at the rate of one verse a year. The poem is obscure in many
parts ; it is held in great veneration by Tamil Saivas.
The Vai^nava wing of the orthodox movement is represent-
ed by ten alvdrs for whom tradition has fabricated an impos-
sible chronology. Three of them form the earliest group. They
are Poygai, Pudam and Pey, born respectively in Kanclpuram,
Mamallapuram and Mylapore. A beautiful legend tells how
these three saints sought shelter from the rain in a narrow room
which could just hold them standing, when Visnu himself sought
their company; they felt the pressure due to the presence of
a new companion and recognizing his identity, praised Him in
song then and there. The bhakti of these early saints of Tamil
Vai$navism is a gentle, simple devotion, altogether free from
an intolerant sectarian outlook. This fact together with their
use of the Venbd metre in their songs points to a really early
date for them — not later than the fifth or the sixth century a.d.*
Then came Tirumalisai, who takes his name from the
village of his birth in the Chingleput district. He may well have
been an elder contemporary of the Pallava king Mahendravar-
man I, and thus of Appar also. Legend avers that at his birth
he was a shapeless mass of flesh abandoned by his parents and
brought up by a 3udra. He practised Jainism, Buddhism and
Saivism, before finally settling down as a Vaisnava yogi. His-
46
Development of Religion in South India
poems exhibit a more controversial tone than those of his pre*^
decessors, and this was quite natural to his age. After him came
Tirumangai, one of the most celebrated among the alydrs. He
was a petty chieftain who ruled Alinadu in Tanjore District. He
is reputed to have turned a highwayman in order to carry away
and marry the daughter of a Vai§rtava doctor of a higher caste,
for whose sake he also changed his religion. He is also said
to have stolen from the vihara of Nagapattinam an image of the
Buddha of solid gold to pay for the renovation of the temple
of Ranganatha in Srlrangam — the most celebrated Vaisnava
shrine in South India as it is often referred to as * the temple *
( Koyil ) in Vai§nava parlance. In his hymns which contain
several historical references, he distinctly mentions the siege of
Kanclpuram by Vairamegha, i.e., the first Ra^trakuta king
Dantidurga, and this places him in the middle of the eighth
* century a.d. — a date which discredits the story of his friendly
meeting with Jnanasambandar at Shiyali. His hymns, the most
fhumerous in the Canon, are equally full of good poetry and
■{attacks on Buddhism and Jainism. To Saivism on the whole he
/ evinced a more friendly attitude as to a colleague cooperating
in the war against heresy, and there are many resemblances in
literary form and religious sentiments between Jnanasambandar
J and Tirumangai, which may explain the rise of the beautiful
(^though unhistorical legend of their meeting.
A little later than Tirumangai, about the close of the eighth
and the beginning of the ninth century, came Periyalvar, a Brah-
min from Srivilliputtur in the Tirunelveli district. An untutored
devotee originally known as Vi?nu-citta (one whose mind was
set on Vi§pu) he was enabled by the grace of God to establish
the supremacy of Narayana in a religious disputation held in the
•court of the Banyan king grimara Srivallabha (815-862 a.d.)
and thereby appropriate to himself a large quantity of gold which
the king offered as reward to the most_ successful disputant. He
became the foster father of Goda or Andal, the only woman in
the group though not counted an dlvar, whom he found as a baby
in the flower-garden he maintained to ensure a regular supply of
flowers for his daily puja. The story is that Apdal, when she
attained the age of discretion, used to decorate herself with the
flower garland her father had prepared for his god and admire her
make up in a mirror, and then quietly restore the garland to its
original place for her father to offer it to God. One day the father
happened to see what his daughter was doing, and so did not offer
the garland soiled by use to the deity. That night Vi$nucitta had
a dream in which the God rebuked him for having withheld
Bhakti Movements in the South
47
the garland which was doubly dear to him on account of Andal’s
use of it, and the devotee conformed thenceforth to the God’s
desire. On this account Andal came to be known as Sudik -
kodutta-nacciyar , the lady who gave what was worn by her (in
her hair). The celebrated emperor Kr^nadeva Raya of Vijaya-
nagar made the story the theme of his well known Telugu work
Amuktamdlyade or VisnucittTya, one of the five great kavyas
(epic poems) in that language. In her intense devotion to
Visnu, Andal dreamt of her marriage with the God, and des-
cribed her experience in a hymn which is sung to this day when
a marriage takes place in a Tamil Vai?nava household. This
mystical union was the only one she knew, and she was taken
by her father to Srlrangam where she entered the garbhagrha
(sanctum) of Ranganatha and disappeared, and her father was
•duly honoured as the father-in-law of the deity and then sent
back to his native place Srivilliputtur. The ardour of Andal’s
devotion resembles that of Manikkavasagar, and her hymns are
replete with allusions to Kr§na stories.
To about the same time belonged Tiruppan, a minstrel of
low caste, who was not permitted to enter the temple of
$rlrangam, and was thus the Vai§nava counterpart of Nandan
who had a similar experience in the Nataraja temple at Cidam-
baram ; after worshipping their respective deities for many years,
each in his way, from outside the precincts of the sacred shrines,
they were both miraculously absorbed by the deities of their
devotion. There was also Ton^ar-adi-ppodi (the dust of the
feet of the devotees), a Brahmin from the Tanjore District, whose
real name was Vipranarayana and whose intolerance of Bud-
dhism and Jainism was nearly as great as that of Tirumangai./
Like Sundaramurtti, this alvar fell in love with a dancing girl,
and found that the god of Srirangam did not disdain to smoothen
the path of his love. Kulasekhara, a ruler of Kerala, proficient
alike in Sanskrit and Tamil, was the next alvar who, among
other shrines of Visnu, sang of that at Cidambaram, and after
renouncing the throne, spent the last days of his life in Srtrangam.
Lastly came the celebrated Nammalvar and his pupil Madhura-
kavi. The former was born of a Vellala family of Ajvar-tiru-
nagari, the sacred city of the alvar — apparently so calied after
him, originally known as Kurugur, in the Tirunelveli District.
His personal name was Maran, and he seems to have gained the
title Sathakopa (hater of rogues) at his initiation. He renounced
the world in his thirty-fifth year to practise yoga. His hymns,
the largest in number after those of Tirumangai, are rightly
regarded as embodying the deepest religious experiences and
48 Development of Religion in South India
philosophic thought of one of the greatest seers of- the-
world.
Hiuan Tsang, who visited South India in 642 a.d. when the
Hindu revival was just gathering momentum, did not notice the
new movement, although in speaking of Maharastra he mentions
the worshippers of Deva (Siva) who covered themselves with
/ashes. He mentions with regret that Buddhism, his own creed,
was on the wane, but remarks that it had yielded to Digambara
Jainism. The triumph of the revivalist movement was largely
achieved in the two centuries that followed. Public disputations
which led kings and rulers to transfer their allegiance from one
creed to another did much to bring this about. More important,
however, was the use of the popular speech by the nayamrs and
the alyars in their soul-stirring compositions, and the fact that
these poems were sei to^ simple tunes which the masses loved to
sing. Not only did they thus constitute a precious heritage in
literature and music, but they furnished numerous themes for
dance and sculpture in temples and palaces. Siva burning the
Tripura (three cities) of the Asuras, his destruction of Cupid
(Kama), his bestowal of the Pasupata astra (arrow) on Arjuna,
his forms as the great yogi and the great teacher (Dak$inamurti),
his role as the cosmic dancer (Nataraja) were represented in
superb sculptures in stone and bronze all over the land ; the
bronzes have largely disappeared, but the stone sculptures sur-
vive in varying states of preservation. The Vai?rtava legends
were equally important and gained equally artistic expression.
The avatar of Narasimha (Man-lion) for the destruction of
HirajiyakaSipu was popular and often vigorously sculptured in
stone. Then came Kr$na’s exploits and the incidents of the
Ramayaija. The Pallava rock-cut mandapas at Mamallapuram
about forty miles to the south of Madras contain exquisite sculp-
tures of Kf§pa lifting the mountain Govardhana and sheltering
the cattle and their keepers from the hail storm caused by Indra,
of Durga fighting the asura Mahisa, and other scenes from the
sacred mythology 'of Hinduism.
IV. GODS AND SECTS
The Religious Revival traced in the last chapter was the
work of two of the main sects of Hinduism. It centred round
the numerous temples in all the Tamil Country in which Siva
and Vi§pu were worshipped in one or other of their many mani-
festations known from the rich and colourful mythology that had
grown up round them ; some temples outside the Tamil country
proper, in Kerala, in Ceylon and even in the North up to the
Himalayas were visited by the saints or at least evoked their
hymns by their celebrity. We may now consider in some detail
the history of temple worship and of the growth of religious sects.
There have been two views on the question of the existence
among Vedic Aryans of images of their gods ; several hymns
ascribe human attributes to the gods and describe their activi-
ties in human terms ; this has led scholars at times to affirm that
images did exist. But the better and more widely accepted view
is that such descriptions are merely poetic and imaginative, and
that Vedic religion was in fact aniconic and mostly sacrificial.
The fact that Yaska, as already mentioned, is still found debating
the question whether gods are like human beings or not, would
seem to confirm the correctness of the second view. But this
does not mean that shrines of sorts and worship at them were
altogether unknown in Vedic India. The pre-Aryan inhabitants
must have had many beliefs and practices of animistic nature
and fetishes must have been known. The ‘ pasupati ’ seal from
the Indus Valley and other minor antiquities from the same
region create the impression of the prevalence of some form of
proto-Saivism among the people who reared that widespread
chalco-Jithic culture ; certainty in this matter must, however,
await the proper decipherment of the writing on the seals. The
pejorative reference to Sisnadevas (worshippers of the phallus)
in two contexts in the Rigveda confirms the surmise that worship
of the phallus, whether as representing Siva as in later Puranic
Hinduism or as part of a more primitive fertility cult, was known
to the pre-Aryans. The old Indian commentators on the Veda
explain the term Sisnadevas differently and think it is a refer-
4
50 Development of Religion in South India
ence to libertines ; but this flies in the face of the plain meaning
of the word and is obviously unhistorical linguistic ingenuity.
Likewise the linga received more mystic interpretations as the
representation of the Absolute of monistic (advaita) Vedanta
which had no form and no attributes, with which is allied the
Puranic legend that it is a pillar of fire of which the top and
the base could not be discovered by Brahma who flew up as a
bird, and Vi§nu who burrowed down below as a boar ; this story
received frequent sculptural representation in later times on the
back walls of the sanctum in temples dedicated to Siva. While
such facts deserve notice as marking stages in the later history
of Hindu religious thought and practice, they cannot command
any relevance or validity in the explanation of the data relating
to much earlier times.
There are numerous references in early texts to shrines and
temples of Yak§as ; the shrines were perhaps often no more than
a sacred tree or a tree with an altar, while the temples may have
been structural buildings with images installed in them. That
these became centres of devotion ( hhakti ) becomes clear from
the well known Yak§a statue from Pawaya (near Gwalior) in
Central India which bears an inscription of the first century b.c.
saying that the image ( pratimd ) of Bhagavan Manibhadra was
being established by the guild of the worshippers of Manibhadra
(gau^hya Mariibhadra-bhakta). The images of Yak?as, Nagas
and Devatas sculptured on the railing of the stupa at Bharhut
with their inscribed names also belong to the same stage of
religious development, or at least are reminiscent of it, though
on a Buddhist monument their decorative significance is greater
than the religious import. 1 Such facts go far to prove that the
practice of making images and worshipping them was taken over
by Indo-Aryans from the earlier inhabitants of India and some-
how incorporated into the corpus of their religious beliefs and
practices. The early Aryan aniconism continues to influence
Buddhism also for quite a considerable time when Buddhist art
refrained from any iconic representation of the Buddha, but
indicated his presence only by means of symbols like an empty
throne under a tree, a riderless horse and so on, while they
represented the many popular gods and goddesses iconically on
the same monuments as at Bharhut and Sancl. But by the first
or second century a.d. the situation changes, and the orthodox
Brahminical deities like Siva, Vasudeva and others begin to be
represented by images in the same manner as the more popular
1 See A. K. Coomaraswamy, Yak$as, Part I.
Gods and Sects
51
folk deities. ‘In early Indian Art’, says Coomaraswamy, ‘so
far as cult images are concerned, one monographic type stands
out predominant,. that is the standing figure with the right hand
raised, the left on the hip. . . Of this type are the early images
of Yak§as and Yaksls whether independent or attendant. And
it is also this type which provided the model for the cult images
of other deities, such as Siva or Buddha, when the necessities
of Bhakti determined the appearance of all deities in visible
forms ’.
Literary evidence points to an even earlier origin of the
practice of making images and offering worship to them. Panini
makes a clear reference to the bhaktas (devotees) of Vasudeva,
Arjuna, and the Maharajas — i.e. the guardians of the four
quarters, Kubera in the North, Dhrtarastra in the East, Vidu-
dhaka in the South and Virupaksa in the West ; he also mentions
images which served as a means of livelihood without being sold.
And Patanjali’s comment on this statement furnishes important
data on the history of iconography. He says that the Mauryas
wanted money ( hiranya ) and so set up images (areas) ; it is not
clear whether they made money by selling them or merely exhi-
biting them and charging a fee from the spectators. In any
event, this works in with the statement in Kautilya’s Arthasdstra
that in the centre of the capital city (pura) there should be
erected temples dedicated to Aparajita, Apratihata, Jayanta,
Vaijayanta, Siva, Vaisravapa, Asvins, and Sri Madira (Parvatl?)
the Vastudevatas (guardians of the ground and structures) being
set up in subsidiary shrines (kosfhakalaya) . Patanjali also
mentions images of Siva, Skanda and Visakha made for worship.
Altogether we have here a rather miscellaneous assortment of
deities ; only some of them are vedic, others may be objects of
popular veneration, some even perhaps Jainistic. At any rate
we are as yet far from the Purapic Hinduism of later times and
its categorical and clear cut iconism with its rules prescribed
by the Agamas.
Quintus Curtius states that an image of * Hercules ’ was
carried in front of Porus’s army as it advanced against Alexander ;
this may well have been an image of Siva or Krsna. Besides
the well-known Garuda-dhvaja in honour of devadeva Vasudeva
to which reference has already been made, there are other
evidences of the existence of temples in which Samkarsana and
Vasudeva were worshipped in Rajputana and even in Western
Deccan in the early centuries b.c. The words pratima (image)
and area (icon) occur in the Mora well inscription which refers
to the stone images of the five heroes ( paficavXras ) of the Vrsnis
52 Development of Religion in South India
who were worshipped as divinities. 2 The devices on coins are:
of great interest to the study of the evolution of iconography.
An uninscribed tribal coin of the third century b.c. from
Kausambi shows a Gaja-Laksmi image — a standing LaksmI
between two elephants engaged in pouring water over her from
pots held in their trunks. The same device occurs in many coins
of later date including some of foreign rulers like Azilises,.
Rajuvula and Sodasa. Foucher thought that the figure repre-
sented the nativity of the Buddha. The same motif occurs in
sculpture on many monuments of the time in Central India.
Other coins exhibit Lak§mX alone (without the elephants) seated
on a full blown lotus, or standing with a lotus in her hand. The
same figure on some Indo-Greek coins has sometimes been
wrongly described as a dancing-girl. Like the Buddha being
represented by symbols in early Buddhist art, Siva seems to be
represented just by a humped bull on some early coins and else-
where. The linga (phallus) and the trident, with or without a
pedestal or accompanying tree or trees, are other emblems of
Siva that have been identified on tribal coins of the early cen-
turies b.c. Siva in his anthropomorphic form appears for the
first time, appropriately enough, in coins from Ujjain and its
surroundings. We have also six-headed figures of Karttikeya on
local issues of indigenous coins (e.g. Audumbara, Yaudheya)
and other three-headed figures of Siva on Ku$ana coins. The
former bear on the reverse representations of structural shrines
with the trident or battle-axe standards placed in front of them ;
these are doubtless meant to be Siva temples containing either
images of Siva or lingas. These coins can be dated to the second
or first century b.c.
Figures of Siva with his characteristic attributes like the
trident, battle-axe etc., with or without his mount, the bull Nandi,
and in different postures, can be easily recognized on the coins
of the Saka Maues, the Parthian Gondophares, and the Ru§ana
Wema Kadphises in the early centuries b.c. and a.d. On most
of his coins Gondophares is described as devavrata (vowed to
god), and almost certainly the deva here is Siva. In the coins
of Kaniska and Huvi§ka Siva appears sometimes with three heads
2 Ep, Ind. XXIV, pp. 194 ff. The five heroes, as named in the Vdyu
Pur ana, are Samkai<?ana, son of Vasudeva by Rohini ; Vasudeva (Krsna),
son of Vasudeva by Devakl ; Pradyumna, son of Vasudeva (Krsna)' by
Rukmmi ; Samba, son of Vasudeva (Krsna) by Jambavati — of probably
non-Aryan extraction; and Amruddha, son of Pradyamna. All of them
are known to have been apotheosized and worshipped. The Cultural
Rentage of India , (1956) IV p. 115.
Gods and Sects
53
and four arms bearing a variety of attributes anticipating the
varied iconography of later Puranic Hinduism. Of unique
interest is one gold coin of Huviska described by Gardner as
follows : 6 Siva facing, three-headed, nimbate ; clad only in waist
band, ithyphallic ; has four arms and hands, in which are goat,
wheel, trident, and thunderbolt’. The wheel (cakra) in one of
the hands, together with ithyphallic ( urdhvalinga ) feature, are
suggestive of the line of development which led to the composite
ligures of Harihara (Vi$iiu and Siva in one) or even Trimurti,
already recognized in a Gandhara relief of a three-headed six-
armed figure. 3 Other coins of Huviska bear the figure of Uma
(Ommo), sometimes identified with Nana, either alone or with
her consort, who is described as Isa (Oeso). It is curious that,
notwithstanding the epigraphic evidence cited above on the pre-
valence of the Bhagavata cult and of shrines dedicated to it,
very few representations of Vasudeva-Krgna can be traced in
the coins of the period ; among the few instances known are one
on the reverse of a coin of Visnu Mitra in the Pancala series,
and another on a Ku§ana seal-matrix attributed to Huvi§ka.
Somewhat more common are the Vaisnava emblems of Garuda,
Makara, the tala (palm) capital, and the Sudarsana Cakra
(wheel) . The sun is often represented as a rayed disc enshrined
as an object of worship on certain tribal coins dating, according
to Allan, from 200 b.c. to the end of the first century b.c. —
the coins being those of Suryamitra and Bhanumitra, in the Mitra
•series from Pancala. The symbol is in Suryamitra’s coins placed
on a railed platform between two pillars, which, according to
J. N. Banerjea, ‘is very likely the summary representation of the
fire-altar ’ ; this, according to the same author, is evidence ‘ that
the Vedic sacrificial system had been much mixed up with the
far-reaching religious changes due to contacts with local cults,
and ‘thus it happens that the sun symbol appears in the role
of an area (idol) on these coins \ 4 Figures of the Sun in human
form occur on the coins of alien rulers, the Indo-Greeks and
Kusanas, and the attire of the deity attests his Iranian associations.
R. G. Bhandarkar has pointed out that Rudra-Siva was a
deity whose worship was common to all the Aryas, and who
was not at first a sectarian god. He was in charge of the field
before the Vaisnava or Vasudevic deities came in to contest his
supremacy. The Gfhya-sutras, which give directions as to the
3 A. S. I. 1913-14, pp. 27 6 ff., pi. lxxii a.
4 Development of Hindu Iconography 1 , pp. 153-4.
54 Development of Religion in South India
adoration of Rudra under various circumstances cannot be con-
sidered to belong to any Saiva sect. The images of Siva, Skanda
and ViSakha, mentioned by Patanjali as already noticed, and
sometimes made of precious metals, were kept for common
worship by certain religious persons who derived an income from
them ; they cannot have been meant for the use of a particular
sect. But even in Patanjali’s time sects were not unknown as
he mentions the Sivabhagavatas and the sectarian worship by
the Satvatas of Vasudeva-Kr§na. 5 Even at the time of Panini,.
several centuries before Patanjali’s time, the exclusive devotees
of Siva (Sivabhagavatas) were distinguished by certain external
marks ; they wore animal skins and bore clubs and tridents.
The Greek authors who describe North-Western India at the
time of Alexander’s invasion like Curtius and Diodorus mention
the Sibae or Siboi (Sivas), a tribe in the Panjab who were dressed
in animal skins, had clubs for their weapons, and branded their
oxen and mules with the mark of a club. We may suppose that
Siva was their tribal deity, and this seems to be confirmed by
Patanjali’s mention of a northern village ( udicyagrama ) with
the name Sivapura or Saivapura.
In Northern India, then, the iconographic representation of
deities and the erection of temples for their worship had become
well established by the beginning of the Christian era. It was
the complex result of the concurrence of many factors. Ideas
which animated the religious practice of the Indus Valley people
and found expression in the ‘ Pasupati * seal doubtless furnished
the background, though it seems possible that they were not
received very favourably at first in Indo-Aryan Society — witness
the hostile references to Sisnadevas in the Rigveda. The Rig-
vedic practice of exalting one particular god above all others
and treating him as the Supreme Being, which was described by
Max Muller as Henotheism, must also have contributed to the
formation of sects distinguished by intense and perhaps exclusive
devotion ( bhakti ) to particular gods. The popular worship of
local godlings dating most likely from pre-Aryan times and
finding its manifestation in symbols, shrines and images of sorts
was a third element.
The origin of the Buddha image has been a subject of some
discussion ; Foucher made out a plausible case for ascribing it
to Gandhara and Greek influence ; others have sought to derive
it from an early school of art in Mathura and the Yak§a primi-
tives. However this may be, there can be no doubt that the
5 Vai^navism, Saivism etc., pp. 115 and 9.
Gods and Sects
55
foreigners who came into India in considerable numbers after
the fall of the Mauryan empire, the Greeks, Sakas, Pahlavas and
Kusanas, played a notable part by adopting the religious beliefs
and practices of Indians and by giving a varied and artistic
expression to them in beautiful iconographic representations of
the deities on their coins and seals ; though possibly the temples
proper were reared by Indians, they could not have altogether
escaped the influence of the new aesthetic resulting from the
mingling of peoples and cultures.
The corresponding developments in South India are attest-
ed only by literary evidence for the early period from which
practically no material remains have survived. The South at
that time maintained active contact not only with Northern India
as throughout its history, but with the Roman Empire in the
west — a temple of Augustus is said to have flourished in the port
town of Musiri (Muziris of the Greeks) on the west coast —
and with the Hindu colonies that were coming up in the eastern
lands beyond the sea. In the Sangam literature we read of the^
performances of Vedic sacrifices by kings, of domestic rituals
by Brahmins, of temples and the worship offered in them to a
colourful pantheon and of other forms of popular worship,
including folk dances accompanied by song, to celebrate a joyous
occasion or to ward off an evil signified by portents. The preva-
lence of Buddhism and possibly of Jainism too is attested.
Karikala, the Cola king, is said to have established a temple
wherever he set up a colony of his subjects. In a long descrip- J
tion of the city of Madurai the poet mentions temples of different
faiths. Every evening worship was offered to the shining gods
with the offering {ball) of fragrant food to the accompaniment
of music ; the gods were headed by the great God who created v
the (five) elements (water, earth, fire, air and ether— akato)
and who bore the battleaxe and the sword as his emblems ; the
crucial expression malu-vdl~nediydn though generally interpreted
as meaning Siva may well apply to Vi^nu also, and at least in
later parlance nediyon (the tall one) was exclusively applied to
Vi§nu. Then there was the Buddhist shrine visited by young
women carrying their tender children together with flowers and
incense to worship and pray for their well being. There was
also the Brahmin temple which rose like a hillock at which were
happily settled kindly virtuous men distinguished for their clear
recital of the Vedas and qualified to attain heaven in due time as
a reward for their pure living. Lastly there was the Jain temple
which shone like a group of several hillocks, surrounded by
wonderful beds of fragrant flowers, whose painted walls looked
56 Development of Religion in South India
like being made of copper — a remarkably cool temple into
which crowded laymen (Savakar i.e., Sravakas) who came to
worship with full blown flowers and incense, and wise ascetics
with their gogglets, ascetics who knew the past, present and
future, and all that is in heaven and on earth, and were ready
to impart their knowledge to the world.
We find reference to periodical festivals in temples lasting
for many days and the special ritual performed on specified days
during the festival. We hear of the search for stone of proper
quality for carving the image of a deity, which means that
anthropomorphic figures of gods had become common. But
beyond the verbal descriptions of contemporary poets, we have
no other means of ascertaining the appearance of the temples
or the deities enshrined in them.
Poygai, one of the earliest djyars, gives a valuable hint of
the methods of worship prevalent in his day; he says that the
devotees praised Visriu, each in his own way, saying this and
this (form of Vi§nu) is my Lord ; and among the forms (muni)
which they painted on a wall or leaned against it, that which
measured the universe (in its strides i.e., Trivikrama) stood
first. An old poem (No. 167) included in the anthology known
as Ahananuru (the Aham 400) refers casually to the ruins of
a temple ; its brick walls and wooden beams had crashed down,
and the god beautifully painted on the walls had long deserted
it — which is striking confirmation of Poygai’s reference to the
painting on a wall of the deity to be worshipped. Another poem
(No. 369) in the same collection mentions a beautiful wooden
image of the deity painted in bright colours and fixed on the
wall (of the temple). Again, the recent excavations in the
NagSrjunakonda area in the valley of the Kr§na river have
brought to light a very interesting inscription of the third or
fourth century a.d. recording the consecration of a wooden
(udumbara) image of Astabhujasvamin (the eight-armed god,
here Vi?nu — as the associated finds clearly attest) in the ninth
year of an AbhTra king. The structural remains in the area
comprised three shrine chambers with a dhvajastambha (flag
staff, c.f. Heliodorus’s dhvajastambha in Besnagar near Bhiisa)
opposite one of them. Two inscribed conches, one bearing in
addition an incised cakra (wheel) on a pedestal flanked by
anku§a (elephant goad) and chhatra (umbrella) on either side,
were also found ; one of the inscriptions reads bhagavato atha
bhujasdmisa meaning ‘ of the adorable god with eight arms \ A
gold plaque with a nobleman holding a lotus and standing in
the posture of adoration was among the antiquities recovered
Gods and Sects
57
from the area . 6 From these data, literary and archaeological,
we can surely draw the conclusions that the early temples were*/
built of perishable material, that the deities were either painted
on walls or carved in wood and leaned against or fixed in a wall
in the shrine for worship, and that the devotees ( bhaktas ) were
free to choose the particular form of a god that appealed to
them most and make that the centre of their devotion ( bhakti ).
The transition from wooden and painted images employed
In worship to the carving of stone images for the same purposes
in South India is rather obscure. There are indeed fairly early
references to memorial stones ( nadu-kal ) erected to commemo-
rate heroic deeds of soldiers who laid down their lives in war
or more often in the defence of their respective villages against
cattle-raiders and other depredators ; these stones were also, as
we have seen, worshipped in the old pre-Aryan way with offer-
ings of unhusked rice (paddy). Whether these early memorial
stones carried any sculpture of the hero or a written record of
his achievement like some of the relatively recent ones is not
clear ; most probably they did not. References to the search
for a stone of suitable quality for the carving of divine images
occur only in later strata of Tamil literature. Some of the
earliest instances of the use of stone for this purpose come front
the Andhra country. They belong to the fifth or sixth century
a.d. at.the latest. One of them is a small stone plaque preserved
in thegSiva temple in the village of Madugula in the Macherla
area of the Guntur District. The carving presents a lively
picture of Siva with his family. He is seated at ease, and has
four arms, with one of his back arms holding the trident ( siila )
and the other a serpent ( naga ) ; his matted hair ( jata ) is
gathered up in the shape of a turban (usntsa) on the head, and
there are iiowers and the crescent moon adorning it. His ear
is adorned with a circular ear-ring, of the type known as patra-
k undata. The third eye is present though he wears a smile of
bliss and composure. Around his neck is a necklace of pearls
and he wears the sacred thread (yajnopavlta). A fat dwarf
(one of the ganas) supports his seat. We see the Nandi, the
bull mount of the god, lying to his left, and the god is caressing
the horns of the bull with his left (front) hand. Parvati, the
0 Indian Archaeology , 1958-9, p. 8. The inscription, however, is not
quite clear. The operative passage has been read differently and inter-
preted to mean that the image was painted with the best ochre : but this
seems a less plausible interpretation of an admittedly difficult phrase.
The inscription opens with salutation to Narayana described as bhagavan,
deva, parama-deva (supreme god) and puraija puru?a.
1
58 Development of Religion in South India I
consort of Siva, is standing to his right, holding his right arm ;
in her left and supporting their child, the baby Skanda, on her |
hip. She wears the usual ornaments on her head and neck. \
The family is completed by the presence of Ganesa with his
elephant head seated on the left of Siva. There are also devotees
worshipping the divine group, and the flying couple at the right
top corner may well represent Manmatha, the Indian Eros, and
his wife Rati. 7
Not quite so artistic but much more interesting to a student
of cults and iconography, is the stone plaque from Peddamudi-
yam in Cuddapah District of about the same period. In it there
is a representation of several deities which furnishes a notable i
instance of an early rapprochement among the different cults
within the fold of Hinduism. In this plaque are represented in
order from the left Ganesa seated on a lotus pedestal in the
manner common in early Javanese sculpture, viz., with the soles j
of his feet meeting ; the four-faced Brahma (creator) ; the Man-
lion avatar of Visnu (Narasimha) ; the Siva-linga on a tall lotus ;
pedestal ; Vi$nu ; Devi (Goddess) ; Uma-mahesvara (i.e., the !
Goddess Parvatl and her consort Siva) together with the Nandi, i
their bull attendant and mount, Laksmi — the goddess of pros-
perity and consort of Vi$nu represented here by the Srlvatsa
symbol ; and lastly Mahi§asura-mardinl i.e. the goddess Durga-
Parvati engaged in the fight with the Asura (demon) named
Mahisa (buffalo, because he had a buffalo face). 8 Only the
last named goddess engaged in a contest with the enemy has
four arms ; all the others, including the multifaced Brahma, have
only two arms. These and other fragmentary pieces from the
same area are with good reason held to belong to the period ■
of Vi§nukundin rule, i.e., the fifth and early sixth centuries a.d. :
They show clearly the almost completed development of ortho-
dox PurSnic Hinduism with its multiplicity of gods and its
colourful mythology. In the century or two that followed this
development was continued further and the Deccan, which
enjoyed the beneficial effects of political unification under the
Cajukyas of BadSmi, served as a bridge between the North and'
South of India, and promoted the free exchange of influences, ;
religious, artistic and literary, to their mutual advantage and the
cultural unification of India as a whole.
In the far south, the first temple in durable material of
r 7 b C. Sivaramamurti, Early Eastern Chalukya Sculpture, pp. 12-13 &
6 Ibid,, p. 12 and Pt. II A.
Gods and Sects
59'
which we have record is dedicated to the Trinity of the Hindu
Pantheon, Brahma, Vi§nu and Siva. It is a rock cut cave temple
scooped out by the Pallava Mahendravarman I (a.d, 580-630)
at Mandagappatju (a village in South Arcot district) ; this ✓
remarkable king calls himself Vicitra-citta (inventive minded)
and was fully conscious of the innovation he was making ; in
the short dedicatory inscription in the temple he says that he
had made without the use of brick, timber, metal or mortar,
a temple ( dyatana ) dedicated to Brahma, Isvara (Siva) and
Visnu. Unfortunately it is not possible now to say exactly how
these deities were actually represented in the three shrine cells
at the back of the rock-cut cave. The latest report, based on
a careful inspection in situ of this and other Pallava rock-cut
temples of Mahendravarman’s time, reads : ‘The shrine cells
in all cases are now empty and do not contain either a rock-cut
linga (as is common in the Calukya, Pandya and Muttaraiyar
Cave temples, or is seen at Bhairava-kon^a, where the linga
pedestal is at least rock-cut) or any appropriate Siva or Visnu
image. Often there is a slight relief of a pedestal cut at the base
of the back wall indicating that the deity in worship was either
a wall painting ( bhitti-chitra ) or was picked out in stucco from
the plastered wall, above the line of the pedestal. Tell-tale traces
of painted plaster extant in many places, as also the absence
of any original water-outlet in the cell, would confirm this.’ 9
From the reign of ParameSvaravarman I (672-700) the
painting of stucco relief of the image on the back wall of the
cella seems to have given place to a carving on the stone wall
itself of a bas-relief of Somaskanda 10 i.e. of Siva and Parvatl
seated together with their little child Skanda in between. This
feature was repeated even after the practice of building temples
out of cut stone came into vogue and after stone lingas were
installed capable of being bathed with water in the course of
worship. The Panamalai temple (South Arcot District) dedi-
cated to Talagirlsvara (the lord of the palm-mountain) of the
time of Rajasimha (695-722) contains in the main cella a
Somaskanda bas-relief on the back wall, and a dhara-linga (i.e.
a linga for being washed with water during worship) on the
floor. A general feature of Pallava structural temples, as of the
monolithic rathas (chariot-shaped temples), is the absence of
the water-chute ( pranala ) usually found on the northern side
9 Ancient India , No. 14 (1958), p. 122.
10 This compound word splits into sa — with, Uma — Parvatl, and
Skanda and applies to the representation of Siva with his consort and
child.
,<50 Development of Religion in South India
of the shrines of a later time and calculated to draw oft’ the
t abhi$eka (ceremonial bath) water from inside the sanctum. In
the few instances where they occur, they are seen to be not
part of the original design but later insertions. This furnishes
1 clear indication that the object of worship inside the cella was
generally a painting or stucco relief that could not be bathed
in daily worship ; whether this also implies that abhiseka (bath-
ing) of the image was a later innovation cannot be decided
without further study. Even where lingas were installed, the
practice at first would seem to have been to collect the bath water
in vessels inside the cella and distribute it to the devotees or
dispose of it otherwise. In any case, the lingas seem to have
V been secondary for some time after Rajasimha’s reign, and the
Somaskanda panel to have held the chief attention in worship.
Towards the close of the Pallava period, however, say from
I some time in the ninth century a.d., this panel gradually dis-
appears from the back wall of the Siva shrines, and the objects
of worship, generally linga in Siva shrines and other forms else-
where, find a place on the floor at the centre of the cella and
are free of any particular relation to its back wall.
There is a notable difference in the iconography of the
Pallava temples so far mentioned and that of the contemporary
Pandya temples farther south which are also rock-cut. Ganesa
in his Valampuri form (i.e., with his trunk bent towards his
proper right) is invariably found in the latter while he is un-
known in the Pallava cave temples and monoliths. Into the
relatively late temples of the Pallava country, he is generally
regarded as an importation from the Calukya capital, Badami
(VStapi). The Pandyas and Cajukyas were often allied toge-
ther in war against the Pallavas, and it seems probable that this
political alliance led to the adoption of Ganesa worship in the
Pandyan country somewhat earlier than in Pallava dominions.
Likewise, the Sapta-matrkas (Seven Mothers), who were parti-
cularly worshipped by the Cajukyas, are also frequently found
in the Pandyan cave temples. They are first found in the Pal-
lava country in the celebrated Kailasanatha temple at KancI-
puram built by Rajasimha (eighth century).
By an evolution of which the stages can no longer be traced
in detail, there came into existence a considerable body of reli-
gious opinion and practice which sought to outgrow the acer-
bities of sectarian animosity within the Hindu fold and establish
harmony among the various groups, a development that belongs
more to the sphere of popular practical religion of daily life
than the higher speculative side of it. The new practice inaugu-
Gods and Sects
61
rated by some unknown genius consisted in the regular daily
worship of five gods, viz., Siva, Vi?nu, Devi, Surya and Ganesa
in what is called Paiicdyatana pujd, i.e., five shrine worship. This*
worship is done at home with the aid of symbols 10a represent-
ing the deities and those who practise it are known as Smartas
or Traditionalists. Some of them believe that Sankara Acarya
introduced it and others ascribe it to Kumarila who preceded
him by less than a century. Yet others hold, perhaps correctly,
that the practice was of still earlier origin. It is impossible to
give a definite date. It must be noted also that the five gods
are representative of the whole pantheon and are by no means
the exclusive objects of the devotion of the Smartas. Note that
of the four male gods two are Saiva and two Vaispava, while
the Devi (goddess) is common to both as mythology makes
her the wife of Siva and the sister of Vi§iju. In South India '
the term Smarta implies not only the worship of the five gods,
but allegiance to Sankara’s Vedanta as well ; whereas in North
India the Smarta is free in philosophy. In the domestic worship
(pujci) of the five gods, the image or symbol of the god whom
the worshipper prefers, his istadevata, is placed in the centre,
and the other four are so set as to form a square around the
central figure — a quincunx. In addition to this worship the
Smartas observe also the Sandhya, i.e. the offering of prayers
three times a day — at dawn, midday and sunset.
Despite this move towards sectarian harmony and some
others to be noticed presently, the sectarian outlook did not
altogether fade out. It is not possible or necessary to describe
the numerous sects and the differences among them. The general
situation may, however, be illustrated by a brief reference to
the differentia of the two main subsects of the Sri Vaisnavas
as the devotees of Visnu came to describe themselves after the
time of Ramanuja (1050-1137 A.D.), if not from the time of
Nathamuni (c. 1000). ‘After Ramanuja’s death,’ says a modem
J§rlvai?nava scholar, * differences arose in interpretations, and
this led to differences in doctrines and observances. At first the
differences were only in philosophical explanations, but as time
rolled on the differences became larger and larger in number
and at last when Pijlai Lokacarya (end of 13th century) and
Vedanta Desika (c. 1380) appeared, the Sri Vaispavas became
sharply divided into the two sections, Tengalais (Southern school)
and Vadagalais (Northern school), the former recognizing PiJJai
Lokacarya and the latter Vedanta Desika as their leader? Both
10a See Farquhar, Outline , p. 293, n. 2.
•62 Development of Religion in South India
schools recognize the validity of Sanskrit and Tamil scripture ;
but the Southern uses Tamil and the Nalayira Prabandham in
.that language much more than the Northern. Both use a white
U mark with vertical red line in the centre (the ndmam) as
the sect mark, that of the southern school has a light prolonga-
tion of the white from the bottom of the U down the nose.
Widows belonging to the southern school do not undergo ton-
sure. From the early fifteenth century Manavala Mahamuni
(1370-1443), called Ramya-Jamatrmuni in Sanskrit, became
the special Acarya of the Tengalais after Ramanuja, just as
Vedanta DeSika was for the Vadagalai, and the two subsects
honoured each its own separate succession of Acaryas in general.
Other notable differences between them were : for the northern
school Lak$ml, the female consort (Sakti) of Visnu is in every
way equal to him and shares all his Vibhutis (powers), and co-
operates with him in the protection of the universe ; but accord-
ing to the southern school Sri or LaksmI is definitely inferior
to Narayana, in fact just one of the created lives ( jlvakotis )
with no pretence whatever to the divine powers (vibhutis).
While both schools agree that surrender to God ( prapatti ) is
the means to salvation they differ on the place of individual
effort in the process. The northern school holds that a great
deal of preparation on the part of the individual is a necessary
preliminary to the surrender; the southern school denies this
and affirms that as God’s love is spontaneous, a mere act of
■surrender is enough. The difference is summed up in picturesque
similes — the* northern view being described as the law of the
young monkey (markata-kisora-nydya) which actively clings to
the mother’s body when it is being carried about, and the sou-
thern view as the kitten rule — (mdrjardkisora nydya) by which
the young one is picked up by the mother in its mouth and
carried about from place to place. The Sri-vaisnava hermits
(sanydsis) have a tridanda (three bamboo sticks tied together)
as their staff, and not one bamboo stick like the sanydsis of the
advaita (Sankara) school ; they also retain the Sikha (tuft on
the head), perform the daily prayers of the Sandhya, worship
god, and perform other daily rites unlike their counterparts of
the advaita school.
In Saivism, by the side of the pure bhakti represented by
the three saintly authors of the Devdram and by Mapikkavasagar,
there existed other types of worshippers of Siva whose tenets and
practices are gruesome and repellant to modem taste. Among
such groups must be counted the Paisupatas^ (adorers of Pa£u-
pati), Kapalikas (skull-bearers), Kalamukhas* (black-faces), and
Gods and Sects
63
.others whose presence in large numbers at different centres like
KancTpuram is evidenced by inscriptions and literature from the
seventh century onwards ; they claim to have been established
either by Pasupati or the more tangible historical figure of Laku-
llsa (first century a.d.). In the Deccan a copper plate charter
of the time of Pulakesin II (acc. a.d. 610) records the grant
of a village in the Nasik District for the worship of the Kapa-
lesvara, i,e., the lord of (the weavers of garlands of) skulls, and
for the maintenance of the Mahavratins residing in the temple ;
the name Mahavratin, ‘observer of the great vow’, designated
the Kapalikas or Kalamukhas ; ‘ the greatness of their vow says
Bhandarkar, ‘ consists in its extraordinary nature, such as eating
food placed in a human skull, besmearing the body with the
ashes of human carcasses and others which are attributed to
the Kalamukhas by Ramanuja.’ 11 Whatever the mutual relations
among these different sects, all of which were marked by such
horrible practices, the ordinary people do not seem to have made
a sharp distinction among them. It must be observed, however,
that these demoniacal sects, which perhaps included an ascetic
class as well as a class of lay followers or householders, perhaps
formed all together only a small fraction of the large numbers
of the worshippers of the ancient divinity of Siva. Some of
these sects, if not all, were addicted to the worship of the female
principle — of which more will be said presently, and the wor-
ship tended at times to degenerate into licentious orgies. The
practice of the devotee ( bhakta ) offering his own head as a
sacrifice to the goddess is shown clearly in the sculpture and
literature of the age of the Pallavas and Colas.
Among the more benign developments in the fold of Saivism,
two deserve particular attention — viz., the growth of Vlra-
Saivism (stalwart Saivism) or Lingayatism 12 and of the very
similar Aradhya Saivism in the Telugu country. The Vira Saiva
sect was founded on the borders of the Karnataka and Maha-
ra§tra country in the twelfth century, and spread rapidly in the
south in the Kannada area. The sectarians claim a hoary anti-
quity for their creed, but historically it is not traceable farther
back than about 1160 a.d. when Basava, the Prime Minister
of Bijjala, the Kalacuri king of Kalyani, gave his powerful sup-
port to the new creed started by Ekantada (exclusively devoted)
Ramayya of Ablur whose career is recorded in detail in a con-
11 Vaisnavism etc., p. 128.
12 So called because each votary carried a lingam on his body,
usually encased in a small container suspended from the neck. It is
known as the jangama linga, mobile linga.
64 Development of Religion in South India
temporary inscription. Tradition traces the foundation of tile-
sect to five ascetics of hoary antiquity who sprang from the five
heads of Siva and founded the five original monasteries
( mafhas ) of the faith at Kedamath in the Himalayas, at Siisaila
(Kurnool district), Balehajli (West Mysore), Ujjini (Bellary
boundary of Mysore) and Benares, and Basava was only the
reviver of this ancient faith. But literary evidence is clear that
the five ascetics named were all contemporaries of Basava, some
older some younger. In every lingayat village there is a monas-
tery (mafha), which is affiliated to one or other of the five ori-
ginal ones named above. Every Lingayat must have a guru,
who initiates him into the faith and guides him generally, and
must belong to a mafha. Lingayats hold Siva to be the Supreme
and worship no other deity. Elaborate worship (with all its
sixteen upacaras or attentions) is paid to the guru when he visits
the house of a devotee, and the daily observances of the Lingayat
resemble, with some differences, those of the Smartas. They
bury their dead, and are strict vegetarians and abstainers. On
the whole the Lingayats are a peaceable race of Hindu puritans
who deny the supremacy of the Brahmins. There is more or
less complete social equality among the sectarians, and this has
been traced to the influence of Jainism and Islam. Caste res-
trictions are, however, observed in marriage, though not in dining
together. The Lingayats reverence the sixty-three nayanars of
the Tamil country whom they recognize as elders ( Purdtanas ),
and also 770 later saints including Manikka-vasagar, Basava,
and his chief disciples.
4 The Aradhya-Brahmins of the Kannada and Telugu coun-
tries are best regarded as semi-iingayats, half converted Smartas
who wear the sacred thread and the linga and worship Ganapati.
They adopt Lingayat forms in private worship, but intermarry
with Smarta Brahmins, and will not dine with other Lingayats.
They followed Mallikarjuna Pandita Aradhya (aradhya is a
Sanskrit word meaning * adorable ’), a contemporary of Basava, in
refusing to accept the latter’s rejection of the Veda and renun-
ciation of caste. They are numerous in the Northern Circars,
less so in Cuddapah and Kurnool Districts and in Mysore.
Their tradition regards four Aradhyus, viz., Revana, Manila, Eko-
rama and Pa^ita as successive avatars and precursors of Basava.
They do not take prasSda (food offered to the deity) from the
temples, because it cannot be offered to the linga, as they are
bound to do before eating anything. They bury their dead, and J
have no Sraddha (death anniversary) proper, but only an ara-
dhana (worship) with no apasavya (reversal of the sacred thread
Gods and Sects
65
so as to carry it on the right shoulder instead of on the left as
usual), no sesamum, no darbha grass and no homa (fire obla-
tion) or pinda (ball of rice), all of which are essential to a
srnddha. Their widows do not shave their heads. In spite of
their differences, the relations between the Aradhyas and Linga-
yats were friendly and in the fourteenth century they joined
together to resist the inroads of Islam and prepare the way for
the glories of Vijayanagar.
The worship of the goddess Durga and her varied mani-
festations gave rise to a number of sects of which a special
mention is necessary. These sects which adore the female prin-
ciple have their roots both in the pre-historic tradition of the
Mother Goddess and also in the principle of the Great Tradi-
tion which sees in the female Sakti the active generative, dynamic
impulse in the manifestations of the Absolute in the universe.
The Mahdbharata celebrates Durga, the slayer of the Buffalo-
demon (mahi$asura-mardim) , as a virgin goddess, who dwells
in the Vindhya mountains, delights in wine, flesh and animal
sacrifice, is the sister of Krsna and like him dark in colour, and
wears a crest of peacock feathers. Elsewhere in the same epic
she is no longer regarded as a virgin, but definitely identified
with Uma, the wife of Siva, and is also identified with the Vedas,
Vedanta and many other things. She is also regarded as the
Brahman of the upanigads, the one Reality set far above all
other divinities. Here we see clearly the results of syncretism
of many elements including a virgin goddess worshipped by the
wild tribes of the Vindhyas, parts of the Kr§iia myth, and ideas
from the mythology and philosophy of the veda and upani§ads.
Many indeed are the forms in which the goddess (Devi) is wor-
shipped in different parts of the country ; they vary according
to the groups of worshippers and occasions of worship, and we
cannot stop to review any of them in detail. Some forms
peculiar to the South may, however, be briefly mentioned. The
village deities, grama devatas, who have already been mentioned
as worshipped with the sacrifice of animals — goats, cocks
and sometimes buffaloes, and as belonging to the Little Tradi-
tion, are all regarded generally as manifestations of the goddess.
Then there is the tradition regarding the Mothers, whose number
and names vary with the context. The Early Calukyas of
Badami (sixth-seventh century a.d.) described themselves as
descendants of HaritI, nurtured by the Seven Mothers — -Haria
putranam sapta mdtrbhirabhivardhitdnam. In the Brhatsamhitd
of Varahamihira we find the monographic rule that Mothers are
to be made with cognisances of the gods corresponding to their
5
66 Development of Religion in South India
names — Indrani for instance being represented with the elephant
Airavata, Vai$navl with the discus ( cakra ) and the conch
(fankha) and so on. The Mothers indeed form an indefinite
group (gana), an assemblage of the Saktis (female counterparts)
of every male divinity, of whom seven were chosen as most
representative by a widely accepted tradition. These are often
carved together in relief on a single rectangular stone slab and
are found flanked by Virabhadra and Ganesa on either side. The
Matrka slabs are common in South Indian temples. One of the
earliest and finest of these is found in the Kailasa temple at
Kahclpuram.
Sometimes the male deities are conceived as inseparably
associated with their saktis and the two are worshipped together
in specially prepared icons like those of Lak§mi-Narayana,
Lak§ml-Nrsimha, Radha-krsna, Ardhanarlsvara (the hermaphro-
dite form of Siva), of which we get an early example in the
Dharmaraja Ratha at Mamallapuram (seventh-eighth century
a.d.), and so on. These composite images and the combined
worship offered to them may also be regarded as indicating an
effort to bring closer together saktism (worship of female prin-
ciple) and the more ordinary form of worship of male deities.
Another remarkable attempt at transcending the sectarian out-
look and ensuring religious harmony resulted in the concept of
Hari-Hara or Sankara-Narayana, and the cult images of this
creed consist of composite forms of the deity in which one half
of the body is figured as Saiva i.e„ bearing the marks of Siva
like matted hair with Ganga in it, the antelope, the tiger skin
for robe and so on, the other half being Vai§riava with the jewel-
led crown ( kirjta ) on the head, the conch, the discus, the Sarnga
bow, or the mace in different hands. This rapprochement between
the forms of Siva and Visnu calculated to proclaim that all divi-
nities are just different manifestations of the Supreme to suit the
different contexts, seems to have come about very early in the
Christian era ; Harihara images are very common in the Hindu
colonies of South East Asia where they are met with perhaps in
larger numbers than in India.
What is the exact role of the idol or image in the practice
of Hinduism ? The view accepted by the majority of Hindus is
that it is a symbol of god, an aid to the mind of the devotee to
concentrate itself on the divine and become one with it ; prayer
and worship are directed in fact not to the idol as such but to
the spiritual power which directs the universe and is conceived
by the worshipper in the particular form that makes a special
appeal to him ; the idol is only a concrete symbol ( prafika )
Gods and Sects
67
jneant to aid the concentration of his mind. The worshippers
.of Visnu, however, take a different view of the matter ; there
are two traditions ( Agamas ) among them which are called
Vaikhanasa and Pancaratra ; the first name is derived from that
of a founder Rishi (sage) named Vikhanas ; the derivation of
Pancaratra (five nights) is uncertain — being connected by some
with the sacrifices performed by the original adherents of the
cult five times a year or with their observation of some vows
according to five ratras or seasons ; others connect the name with
a sacrifice performed by the cosmic purusa (man) or Narfiyana
over a period of five ratris (nights). These two traditions differ
from each other in many small details such as the description
and disposition of subsidiary deities ( parivara devatas ) in tem-
ples. Again the Pancardtras have admitted innovations unknown
to the older and more conservative Vaikhanasa tradition — such
as the consecration of Andal and other women devotees who are
believed to have attained the status of the Lord’s consort ( nacci -
yar in Tamil) like Lak§mi, by the practice of the nayika-nayaka
(loved and lover) type of bhaktu Despite such minor differences, /
the two traditions are agreed in regarding the image {area) of
Visnu as one of the real forms of the Lord, an avatara, an epi-
phany witnessing the easy accessibility of the Lord to the devotee,
who finds his surrender ( prapatti ) rendered easier thereby. The
Vaikhdnasas, again, lay more stress than others on service to
the area as the primary duty of the devotee, and do not fritter
their energy on the worship of the alyars and dcaryas whose
images, however, are set up sometimes in Vaikhanasa temples as
in the Pancaratra. Other differentiae of the Vaikhdnasas are
that they do not brand their bodies with the Vai?nava emblems
of Cakra, Sankha etc., as the other school does, nor do they
recite the Tamil hymns of the Prabandham during worship.
To complete this brief and selective sketch of the principal
religious sects of South India, some account must be given of
the non-vedic and non-Hindu faiths which flourished in more
or less strength alongside of those so far mentioned. Jain tradi-
tion claims that the first Mauryan emperor Candragupta abdi-
cated the throne when the Patriarch Bhadrabahu foretold a
twelve years’ famine in Magadha and migrated fcvith him to the
South where in due course he terminated his ascetic life by the
orthodox rite of sallekhana (starving unto death) on a hillock
in Sravana Belgola in the Mysore country. This tradition is
repeated in relatively late inscriptions from the tenth century
onwards at Sravaria Belgola, and there is no other clear account
of the actual end of the first Maurya emperor. In any event, it
.68 Development of Religion in South India
seems probable that. Jainism gained an early foothold' in S, India?,
and some of the natural caverns of the Tamil districts with stone.’
beds and short Brahml inscriptions must have been occupied by
Jaina ascetics. Tradition credits Vajranandi with having esta-
blished the Dravida Sangha in Madura about a.d. 470, and this-
seems to fit in very well with the accounts of the ascendancy of
Jainism in the Pan<Jya Country before Sambandar went over and
put it down at the instance of the Pandyan queen and minister.
The spread of Buddhism in the Deccan and the farther South ,
is better attested by the inscriptions of Asoka in which he claims-
to have sent missions to four Tamil countries for preaching the
Dhamma and for establishing hospitals for men and animals,
and by monumental remains such as the caityas (temples) and
vihdras (monasteries) cut into the Western Ghats in the neigh-
bourhood of Poona and the numerous stupas of the lower Krsna
valley in coastal Andhra country. Hiuen Tsang noticed the
decline of Buddhism in the seventh century, and the intense
activity of Hindu saints, the ndyandrs and alyars, in the seventh
to ninth centuries a.d. must have adversely affected the fortunes
of both Buddhism and Jainism. The renascent Hinduism of
^Andhra began the worship of the Buddha at Amaravati as an
incarnation of Vi§#u and converted .many other Buddhist centres
into Hindu shrines. But both the religions survived the storm
and continued to flourish for quite a long time, and there are
still in existence some noteworthy centres of Jainism. Some
large centres of religion and learning like Ellora and Kanclpuram
cherished institutions belonging to all these creeds side by side
and produced remarkable achievements in architecture and
sculpture, painting, literature and the other arts.
The Jains found patrons among the royalty and merchants of
the Kannada country in particular, and both Kannada and Tamil
literatures count remarkable contributions from Jain authors.
Buddhist writers of Tamil continued to be equally important till
the fourteenth century or so,, and great logicians and divines like-
Diftnaga, Dharmapala and Dharmaklrti came from Kanclpuram
and its neighbourhood. There were Buddhist settlements of
considerable proportions in Negapatam on the east coast and in
Srlmulavasam on! the West. Negapatam was the first port of call
for travellers to India from Malaya and Indonesia, and a King
of the Sumatran empire of Srlvijaya erected a large monastery
there (c, 1000 a.d.) for the use of his subjects when they visited
South India. In north-western Deccan also new Buddhist Viharas
were coming up late in the ninth century ; in 853 a monk from
Bengal built a -great monastery in Kr § nagiri (Kanheri) for the
Gods and Sects
69
-use of the sangha and endowed it with one hundred gold
drammas (cf. Drachma). In the same neighbourhood a medi-
tation hall was constructed for monks in 877 and other endow-
ments are recorded for the regular worship of the Buddha. The
Jain temple at Aihole built by Ravikirti in 634 is said to have
been the abode of all excellences, and Jain temples and monas-
teries continued to be built everywhere in the extensive dominions
ruled by the Calukyas and the Ra§trakutas» seventh to tenth cen-
turies. Ra§trakuta Amoghavar$a I (814-80) found solace by
retiring to a Jain monastery more than once in the course of his
long reign. The Western Gangas generally and the Eastern Calu-
kyas on occasions also patronized Jainism. E. Calukya Amma II
t(mid-tenth century) built two Jinalayas (temples of Jina) and
established sattrcis (feeding houses) attached to them where
kramaiyas (Jain monks) of all the four castes were to be fed.
Jainism was closer to Hinduism in its beliefs and practices ; thus
in 812 a Jain temple was endowed for the removal of trouble
•caused to a Calukya Vimaladitya by the planet Sanaiscara
(Saturn). In Jain grants we find donees required to use the
proceeds of the endowment for their daily rites and observances
in terms identical with those employed -in Hindu endowments.
Influential guilds of merchants often included a strong Jain wing
in their membership. Soon after the establishment of Vijaya-
nagar, the Jains complained to King Bukkaraya of persecution
by the Vai§navas ; the monarch interceded (1368) and decreed
that both parties should practise their respective religions with
equal freedom and without mutual interference. Though perhaps
steadily losing ground, Jainism has not altogether disappeared
from the country like Buddhism. Buddhist values, however, are
experiencing a new vogue in independent India which has adopted
Asoka’s Lion pillar of Saranath as its emblem.
The Ajlvikas were another sect outside the pale of ortho-
doxy which continued to count some adherants in South India
long after its disappearance elsewhere. Founded by Gosala
Maskarlputra, a contemporary of the Buddha and Mahavlra, this
strictly deterministic school was influential in the Mauryan period
in North India, and Asoka and his successor Dasaratha presented
fine rock-cut cave dwellings to them. They believed in an
inexorable Niyati (Destiny) which man was unable to counteract.
The South Indian Ajlvika monks practised severe asceticism, and
probably influenced by Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, came
to look upon Gosala as ‘ an ineffable divinity * ; they also deve-
loped the ‘ view that all change and movement were illusory, and
that the world was in reality eternally and immovably at rest \
70 Development of Religion in South India
The inscriptions show that they were sometimes subjected to at
special tax levied on them at least by the Colas.
The Muslims : With Islam South India came into touch,
much earlier than the North ; this was due to long established-
trade connections with pre-Islamic Arabia which continued almost
unaffected by the religious revolution in that country. A Muslim,
fleet first sailed in Indian waters in 636 a.d. when a governor
under Caliph Umar sent an army to Thana ; but Umar disapprov-
ed of this. Muslim traders, however, continued the contacts of
pre-Muslim days, settled in several ports on the Malabar coast,
married the women of the country, and created the class of
Mappillas (lit. sons-in-law) or Moplahs, whose unruly fanaticism
has occasionally led to serious disturbances to the peace of the-
country, the last instance having occurred as recently as 1921,
The Muslim traders were encouraged by the Hindu Rajas who
bought the horses they imported and employed them and their
progeny for manning their fleets. An Arab writer who knew India
at first hand in the tenth century, Al-Ishtakhri, says that there
were Muslims and Jumma Masjids in the cities of the Rastrakuta
empire. A doubtful legend relates the conversion to Islam of
the last of the Perumal rulers of Kerala, Ceraman Perumal. He
is said to have made the pilgrimage (Haj) to Mecca (a.d. 825)
and to have directed from there the rulers of his homeland to
receive Muslims hospitably and to build mosques for them. But
another and perhaps more likely tradition makes him, as we have
seen, the friend of Nayanar Sundaramurti with whom he jour-
neyed to KailSsa, the Himalayan abode of Siva. In fact Ceraman
Perumal seems to have been one of those truly spiritual men-
whom every religion proudly claims as its own — Jainism, Chris-
tianity, Saivism and Islam in this instance. Travellers like
Masudi (916) and Ibn Battuta (fourteenth century) testify to'
the presence of Muslims and mosques all along the west coast.
There were Muslim settlements on the east coast also, of which
Kayal-Paftanam (Tirunelveli District) and Nagore (Tanjavur
District) were the most important. Islam, we learn, was actively
preached in the neighbourhood of Trichinopoly (Tiruccirapalli)
early in the eleventh century by a Sayyid prince of Turkey,
Nathad Vali, a missionary who spent his last years converting
many Hindus ; his tomb is still pointed out in the city. Ibn
Battuta affirms that the army of Hoysala Ballala III included
20,000 Muslims. Vijayanagar had to recruit Muslim infantry
and cavalry for more effective defence against the Bahmani
kingdom and its successor states. At the beginning of the
sixteenth century Duarte Barbosa estimated that one-fifth of the-
Gods and Sects
71
population of Malabar comprised the Mappillas ; but the arrival
of the Portuguese checked the growth of Muslim power and
named the Arab trade. Under Bahmani rule (1347-1527)
numbers of foreigners — Persians, Turks, Arabs and Mughals —
came in search of trade or office, settled in the Deccan and
formed unions with the women of the land. Later came the
extension of the Mughal sway over Bijapur and Golkonda, and
the rise of Nizam’s state of Hyderabad in the eighteenth century
— a state which continued intact till 1956 when it was disinte-
grated and added to the States of Bombay, Andhra Pradesh and
Mysore on a linguistic basis. All the same, the bulk of the popu-
lation continued Hindu, and the number of Muslims in the former
‘ Hyderabad State ’ never exceeded fifteen per cent.
How far did Islam influence the religious thought and
practice of South India ? Some traits of the Hindu revival, such
as the increasing emphasis on monotheism, on emotional worship,
on self-surrender, on the need for devotion to a spiritual teacher,
and the growing laxity in the observance of caste rules and
indifference to ritual at least among some sects, have all been
held to be in some way or other the result of Islamic influence.
But these developments may well be explained from the internal
history of Hinduism itself, and there is no direct evidence of the
influence of Islam on their growth. Perhaps, after all, it is not
an accident that sects grew ‘ more definite in doctrine and orga-
nization especially among Visnuites, as Hindus became more
familiar with Islam’ (Eliot).
The Jews : The Jews are found mostly on the Malabar
coast. When they reached there is hard to determine since their
old records were destroyed by the Portuguese when they attacked
their original settlement in Cranganur in 1565 and when later
they plundered the Synagogue in Cochin as they suspected the
Jews of having aided the Dutch against them. In the eighteenth
century, captain Hamilton recorded in A New Account of the
East Indies (1744) : * the Jews (of Cochin) can show their own
history from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to the present time.’
Logan, in his Malabar Manual says : 4 the Jews have traditions
which carry back their arrival to the time of their escape from
servitude under Cyrus in the sixth century b.c.’ ; and Sir W. Hun-
ter speaks of Jewish settlements in Malabar long before the second
century a.d. They possess charters given them by the Malabar
inlers in old Tamil (Vafteluttu) characters of probably the
eighth century a.d. The Jews themselves say that Mar Thomas,
the apostle, arrived in India in a.d. 52, and themselves in 69.
At Cochin the Jews seem to have enjoyed full freedom, religious
72 Development of Religion in South India
and civil, and to have remained without attracting any opposition
or persecution for many centuries, till in the sixteenth century
they fell victims to the attacks of fanatical Moors and Christians*
The Cochin Jews are generally divided into two classes, the
White and the Black. The Black Jews claim to have been the
earliest settlers, while the White Jews came later. But the latter
assert that the former are pure natives converted to the Jewish
faith. Even historians and antiquarians are quite as divided on
the questions of priority of settlement and purity of race between
the two sections. About a.d. 1170 Benjamin of Tudela, who
refers to the Jews of Cochin and Quilon, found no White Jews
among them. But Linschoten (c. 1590) mentions Jews who
were rich merchants and the nearest counsellors of the king of
Cochin and who were most white of colour like men of Europe
and had many fair women and were supposed to have come from
Palestine and Jerusalem, The White Jews who prospered under
the Dutch have dwindled to less than 200 in number now.
Although the White Jews are fair, some of them are certainly
not quite white, nor are the Black Jews quite black ; some
of the Black Jews are hardly distinguishable from their white
brethren. Their customs, ritual, and religious observances are
the same.
The Black are still the ones that make use of the privileges
granted in the copper plate charter. They still carry a silk
umbrella, and lamps lit at day time, when proceeding to the
Synagogue on the eighth day after birth of sons. They spread a
cloth on the ground, arid place ornaments of leaves across the
road on occasions when their brides and bridegrooms go to get
married. After the wedding is over, four silk sunshades, each
supported on four poles, are borne, with lamps burning in front,
as the bridal party goes home. The Black Jews say that the
White Jews use none of these, and never have done so ; but the
White Jews say that they used them once but have discontinued
them. Jealousy and strife between the two sections on matters
of intermarriage and equal privileges seem to have existed during
the time of the Portuguese and Dutch, and Canter Visscher
alludes to them in his Letters from Malabar (No. 18), The
White Jews appear to have maintained the purity of their race
by declining inter-marriage with the Black Jews. The Jews at
one time had numerous slaves, whom they converted to their
faith. They are said to have had former fugitive connections
with the women of these converts, and brought into existence a
mixed race of Dravidians and Semitics. But we cannot infer
from this that all the Black Jews are the descendants of converted
Gods and Sects 73
-slaves or half castes, as it would be unreasonable to suppose that
.all of them are the descendants of the original settlers.
In recent years the Black Jews have developed a new dis-
tinction between Brown Jews and Black Jews, the former claiming
to be the genuine Jews with surnames, the true descendants of
the Cranganur or Singli Jews. The White Jews are generally
known as Paradesis (foreigners).
The Jews wear a long tunic of rich colour, a waistcoat
buttoned up to the neck, and full white trousers. They go about
wearing a skull cap, and put on a turban when they go to the
synagogue. The Black Jews dress more or less like the native
Muslims. Many of them put on shirts, and have skull caps like
the Jonaka Mappilas. They generally wear coloured clothes.
The Jews invariably use wooden sandals. These, and their locks
brought down in front of the ears, distinguish them from other
sections of the population. The Jewesses always wear coloured
.clothes. Hebrew is still the liturgical language, and is studied as
a classic by a few, but the home language is Malayalam. The
White Jews celebrate their marriage on Sundays, but the Black
Jews still retain the ancient custom of celebrating them on Tues-
days after sunset. Though polygamy is not prohibited, mono-
gamy is the rule. The males generally marry at the age of 20,
while the marriageable age for girls is 14 or 15. Marriages are
generally celebrated on a grand scale. The festivities continue for
seven days, in the case of the White Jews, and for fifteen days
among the Black Jews, who still make use of some of the ancient
privileges granted by the charter of CheramSn Perumak The
Jews of all sections have adopted a few Hindu cus.toms. Thus,
before going to the synagogue for marriage, a tali (marriage
badge) is tied round the bride’s neck by some near female rela-
tive of the bridegrooin (generally his sister) in imitation of the
Hindu custom, amidst the joyful shouts (kurava) of women.
Divorce is not effected by a civil tribunal. Marriages are dis-
solved by making good the amount mentioned in the kethuba or
marriage document. In regard to their funerals, the corpse is
washed, but not anointed, and is deposited in the burial-ground,
which is called Beth Haim, the house of living.
Like their brethren in other parts of the world, the Cochin
Jews observe the Sabbath feasts and fasts blended intimately
with their religion, and practise the rite of circumcision on the
eighth day, when the child is also named. The Passover is cele-
brated by the distribution of unleavened bread, but no kid is
killed, nor is blood sprinkled upon the door-post and lintel. The
other feasts are the feast of Pentecost, feast of Trumpets, and
74 Development of Religion in South India
feast of Tabernacles. The day of atonement, and the anniversary
of the destruction of Jerusalem, are observed as fasts. On the
day of atonement, the Jews pray in the synagogue from 5 a.m.
till 7 p.m. The Jewish fasts commence from 5 p.m. on the day
previous to the fast, and end at 7 p.m. next day. Their days,
begin and end with sunset. The feast of Tabernacles is observed
with more pomp and ceremony than other feasts. 123
Christians : The origins of Christianity in South India centre
round the sea ports — Cranganore (Muziris of the Greeks) and
Goa on the West Coast, Tranquebar on the east. The Syrian
Christians have a tradition that Apostle Thomas (Mar Thoma)
after visiting Parthia and the Kingdom of Gondophares in North-
west of India, landed in Cranganore (c. 52 a.d.) preached the
Gospel, and established several churches on the Malabar coast,,
before he moved to the east coast where he fell a martyr to the*
faith at St. Thomas Mount. The authenticity of this tradition has
often been questioned, and it is over thirty years since Farquhar
wrote : ‘ Thirty years ago, the balance of probability stood abso-
lutely against the story of the apostolate of St. Thomas in India ;
today the balance of possibility is distinctly on the side of histori-
city’. Somewhat better attested is the arrival about mid-fourth
century a.d. of a body of Christian immigrants from Persia and
Mesopotamia who fled from persecution by Sapor II ; they were
led by one known as Knae Thomman, i.e., Thomas the Mer-
chant, and they found welcome at the hands of the Hindu King
of Cranganore where they landed. The Alexandrian merchant
Cosraas Indicopleustes (voyager to India) travelled in India in
the second quarter of the sixth century a.d., found a community
of Christians, both clergy and laity, in Ceylon, and said : ‘ Simi-
larly in Male (Malabar, perhaps more particularly Quilon)
where pepper grows, and in the place called Caliana (Kalyan
near Bombay), there is also a bishop who receives imposition
of hands from Persia \ The Christians of Ceylon and Malabar
were Nestorians. From the sixth to the sixteenth century there
were different waves of immigrants from western Asia to Malabar,
and they seem to have had a cordial reception. Copper plate
grants of the eighth and ninth centuries show that many natives
had accepted conversion, though they were not yet very nume-
rous. In these copper plate grants and in the inscribed Persian
crosses found at St, Thomas Mount, Kottayam in Travancore
and elsewhere we find the use of Pahlavi attesting their connec-
12a This account of the Jews is based on Thurston — Castes and
Tribes of Southern India > Vol. II.
Gods and Sects
75
tion with the East Syrian or Nestorian church. Among visitors
to the Malabar church who have left notices of it were Marco
Polo, the Venetian traveller (1293), Friar Jordan of Toulouse,
a Dominican (1302), and John de Marignolli (1348) ; all of
them make it clear that the Malabar Christians were not only
good traders but patriotic soldiers and administrators. The
Christians of St. Thomas are now known as Syrian Christians on
account of their connection with the Syriac speaking churches in
the East and the use of Syriac as their ecclesiastical language.
The Roman Catholic church came in with the Portuguese,
and though for a time its relations with the old Syrian church
were friendly, soon relations became strained and at the end of
the sixteenth century at the Synod of Diamper (Udayamperur)
the Syrian church was obliged to promise obedience to the Pope
and merge itself in the Roman church. But later with the help
of the Dutch the Syrian church renounced the authority of the
Pope and regained its independence (1653) and placed itself
under a bishop sent out by the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch.
In the nineteenth century the Syrian church gained new life by
its contact with the many active Protestant Missions that came
in to work in South India. The Syrian Christians of the west
coast are now about two millions in number and are divided
into four or five sections including one section who are members'
of the Church of South India, until lately closely connected with
western churches, but quite an independent organization since
September 1 947 ; though at present it does not include even all
the non-Roman Christians in the South, still it is likely to exert
its influence for unity and co-operation in the social activities
of the churches in the field of education, medical relief, creative
literature and so on.
The sixteenth century, when Portuguese power was well
established in the Indian ocean, was the period when Roman
Catholic Missions became prominent in the South. With Goa
and Cochin and Tuticorin as their bases, Portuguese missionaries
preached the gospel to the fisherfolk on the coasts and later went
into the interior. Francis Xavier (1506-52) was the first Jesuit
missionary to reach India and he was one of the greatest in the
whole history of the Church. Robert de Nobili (1577-1656),
born an Italian nobleman, led the life of Sanyasin, adopting his
dress and ways of life, and attracted many from the higher classes
by his habits and ideals as well as by his erudition. He too
belonged to the Society of Jesus which led the van in the seven-
teenth century, established seminaries, and encouraged liberal
education. Jesuits brought the first printing press to India about
76 Development of Religion in South India
1550 and a Spanish lay brother cast the Malayalam types with
which a catechism was printed in 1577. Missions sponsored by
-other orders — Franciscans (1517), Dominicans (1578), Augus-
tinians (1572) and Carmelites (1656), followed. The contribu-
tion of Catholic missions in the field of education of all stages
is a notable one, and perhaps to-day they form the largest single
private interest in the field.
Tranquebar on the Tanjore coast became the birth-place of
Protestant Christianity in South India when some German Luthe-
rans landed there in 1706 under the protection of the king of
Denmark who owned that coast town. Ziegenbalg’s translation
of the four Gospels (1714) is one of the earliest specimens of
mode'rn Tamil prose. C. F. Schwartz (1726-97) who has been
compared to C. F. Andrews of recent times was the trusted
friend and counsellor of the Raja of Tanjore and the mediator
between Haidar Ali and the British East India Company; he
also saved many people from famine during the Carnatic wars.
In the nineteenth century when the East India Company adopted
a more liberal attitude to missionary work in response to pres-
sure from British public opinion, a number of other Protestant
missions were established in various places in South India ; they
came from Great Britain, Europe and the U.S.A. Since 1900
the growth of the church was specially marked among the under-
privileged in Madras and Andhra States. In 1947 there were
over 150 missionary societies at work in India and a fair pro-
portion of these was represented in the South. In that year most
of the societies merged themselves in the newly formed Church
of South India. In modern times the missions have taken a
broad view of their work and have not been content to preach
the gospel, but to work for a fuller life for- all. Agriculture,
sanitation, handicrafts, the entire rural economy in general have
enlisted their interest in addition to education and medical relief.
The long contact between Christianity and Hinduism has
naturally led to transformation due to mutual influences which
are naturally more apparent where the contact has been longest.
The Syrian Christians of Malabar approximate the Nairs in some
of their social customs, and the system of caste which began to
prevail in sections of the church had to be fought down stre-
nuously, and it may well be doubted if the fight has quite suc-
ceeded. Some good things in Hindu literature and religion have
sometimes been traced to the influence of Christianity. The
Kural, generally regarded as the Bible of South India, and the
Bhagavad-tgita as well as the Bhakti movement have been held
to demonstrate the influence of Christian ideas ; this has been
Gods and Sects
11
denied by others. Grierson may be taken to sum up the true
position ; he says : 4 But it was in the Southern India that Chris-
tianity, as a doctrine, exercised the greatest influence on Hinduism
generally. Although the conception of the fatherhood of God
and of bhakti were indigenous to India, they received an immense
impetus owing to the beliefs of the Christian communities react-
ing upon the mediaeval Bhagavata reformers of the South *. On
the other hand, the Indian Christians are responding to the call
of Nationalism. They seek the independence of their church from
the domination of foreign control and modes of thought. They
wish to rethink Christianity in terms of Indian thought and life
and to express its genius in Indian modes and patterns. They
have started a movement for the establishment of Christian
asramas (hermitages) beginning with one started at Tirupattur
(North Arcot) in 1921 and leading to the establishment of a
dozen others elsewhere ; they all stand for the same ideals of
communion with God and fellowship in the service of humanity.
The chapel at Tirupattur is built in the style of South Indian
temple architecture. Indian tunes and Indian musical instruments
find increasing use in Christian worship in the aSramas. This is a
revival of de Nobili’s policy on a wider front, on an institutional
instead of individual basis. Whether this will result in larger
numbers of Hindus adopting Christianity remains to be seen. 13
Parsis : The Parsis who follow the religion of Zoroaster are
concentrated in Bombay and Gujerat. Iran felt the impact of Islam
when it was new and vigorous in the seventh century ; Zoroas-
trianism could not hold its own and was nearly wiped out of the
land of its birth. A few who clung to the ancient faith, left
their motherland and found refuge in India (a.d. 936). These
Parsi ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ brought with them the sacred fire of
ancient Iran. They erected a temple for it on Indian soil, and
after many vicissitudes, the sacred Iranshah fire has now been
established at Udwada, a small town about eighty miles north of
Bombay. There are now about 100,000 Zoroastrians in India
and about 12,000 in Persia. The Parsi community while retain-
ing their ancient religion and its ritual observances, have been
quite friendly to the other communities including Europeans.
They distinguished themselves in ship-building in the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries, and took the lead in the modem
Industrial Revolution of India. The first steel-mill in Jamshedpur
was a product of the imagination of a Parsi magnate Sir J. N. Tata.
13 The section on Christianity is largely based on Rev. C. E. Abra-
ham’s contribution: ‘The Rise and Growth of Christianity — India’ in
Vol. IV of The Cultural Heritage of India (1956),
78 Development of Religion in South India
The community produced eminent political leaders in Dadabhai
Naoroji, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, D. E. Wacha and others. The
Tatas have maintained their leading role in trade and industry
including aviation. A leading Parsi scholar claims : * The exter-
nal truth which Zarathustra proclaimed ages ago in Iran are
still kept alive as living ideals among the Parsis in India/ 14
14 The Cultural Heritage of India , iv. p. 546. Farquhar places the
Parsi migration into India at the beginning of the eighth century, more
(than a century earlier than Dr. I. J. S. Taraporewala.
V. PHILOSOPHIES IN RELATION TO RELIGION
In India philosophy has always stood in close relation to
religion and life. It has generally laid stress on the spiritual
nature of man and sought to relate him in one way or other
to a universe also essentially spiritual in character ; the only
-exception was the minor materialistic school of the Carvakas or
Lokayatas who do not seem ever to have been influential. Indian
philosophy has gained depth and power from its close association
with religion, and the purpose of philosophy has been to regulate
life. The Indian philosopher aims in fact not merely at know-
ing the truth and formulating a system of ultimate truth as he
conceives it, but of realizing it, becoming one with it so to say,
.and living it every moment of his life. Moral purification has
generally been recognized as a necessary preliminary to the entry
-on philosophical search, and Sankara formulated this demand as
-comprising four requirements, viz., an enquiring mind which has
become dimly aware of the distinction between the transient and
the permanent and seeks to explore it further ; a renunciation
of all desire for personal gain or advantage ; qualities of self-
control and faith, and a desire for spiritual liberation (mok$a).
While accepting the usefulness and validity of Reason, the intel-
lectual process, as means to discovery of truth, the philosophy
of India holds that intellectual knowledge so gained is not enough,
mid that the truth must be realized and actually experienced by
intuition; this is implied in the very name dartona (vision)
applied to a philosophical system in India. All Indian systems
except the materialist Carvaka, agree that this direct perception
or experience of ultimate reality is beyond the reach of reason
and superior to it. From this peculiarity flows the consequence
that the authority of scripture, Sruti or revelation, is accepted
as the authentic record of the experiences of the seers of the
past. This respect for authority is, however, no bar to the freedom
of its interpretation as is evident from the diversity in the atti-
tudes of different darsanas to fundamental metaphysical prob-
lems. Thus 6 the original Samkhya says nothing about the possi-
ble existence of God, although it is emphatic in its doctrine of
the theoretical undemonstrability of his existence ; the Vai£e§ika
and the Yoga, especially the latter, admit the existence of God,
but do not consider him to be the creator of the universe ; the
80
Development of Religion in South India
Mlmamsa speaks of God but denies his importance and efficacy*
in the moral ordering of the world \ 1 Unlike Western philosophy
which is analytic in its approach to reality and experience, Indian
philosophy is essentially synthetic. Its basic texts treat not of
any one phase of experience, but of the entire sphere. ‘Meta-
physics, epistemology, ethics, religion, psychology, facts, and value
are not cut off one from the other but are treated in their natural
unity as aspects of one life and experience or of a single com-
prehensive reality’.*
The ultimate aim of all schools of philosophy in India is
the practical one of moksa (liberation); even the Carvaka is
interested not in theory, but in a life of material enjoyment, since
he holds that the world is conducive to. that kind of life and
no other. All the schools which fall within the elastic frame-
work of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, accept some basic
concepts, particularly those of Karma and rebirth, as the means
by which the moral order of the universe works itself out in
the life of man. They all accept escape from this cycle of births
(samsara) as the true goal, though they differ about the nature
of the road to such liberation, and about the nature of the libe-
rated state ; some hold that it is only cessation of suffering while
others describe it as a state of positive bliss, the achievement of
a richer and fuller life, eternal and free from entanglements. The
road to the goal lies through ethical conduct, comprising the
suppression of the possessive and acquisitive instinct, friendliness
and compassion to all, and the performance of duty without any
selfishness or attachment to the things of the world.
In philosophy as in religion South India derived its initial
impulse from the North, but in the course of centuries made
striking contributions to thought and practice. The Veda and
the Agama constitute, broadly speaking, the sources respectively
of philosophy as systematized in the darsanas and of temple
worship together with its philosophic background. The two lines
of development reacted on one another and were never fully
separated, much less antagonistic to each other. The darsanas
are historically developments of the religion of sacrifice and
ritualism which becomes complex and overgrown in the Brah-
mapas, and provokes a speculative reaction reflected in the
Upani$ads ; the Upani§ads, particularly the early ones, which are
not more than a dozen in number, form the records of an age
of earnest spiritual quest, philosophy in the making so to say*
(1957K p°xxv B0 ° k Inciian Philoso Pliy> Radhakrishnan and Moore
2 ibid., pp. xxv-xxvi.
Philosophies in Relation to Religion
81
eloquent and mystic utterances in prose and verse describing the
visions of many seers and 'schools. They are the Vedanta, end
of the Veda, which gives its name to the most influential of the
clarSanas. The philosophy of the earlier phase of the Veda and
its ritualism is the Mimamsa (meaning investigation), sometimes
called the Purva Mimamsa to bring it into organic relation with
Vedanta, which from this standpoint is called XJttara-Mimamsa .
The contribution of South India in both these fields was most
significant and this must be described in some detail. The other
four dar&anas comprising the two pairs of Nyaya-Vaigegika
and Samkhya-Yoga, while they are important in the general
history of Indian philosophy, are not of much direct concern
to us.
We must note, however, that the Buddhist Tamil poem
Manimekalai (Canto 27) portrays the different schools of philo-
sophy that were in vogue in the Cera capital Vanji (Karflr)
about the sixth or seventh century a.d. It mentions the schools
of Pramana (means of valid knowledge) which traced themselves
to Vedavyasa, Krtakoti and Jaimini and accepted ten and eight
and six pramdnas respectively ; it concludes this section on pra~
manas with a terse statement naming six schools with their
founders in the ascending order of the number of pramdnas they
recognized among the six current ones, viz., Lokayata by
Brhaspati (one pramana ), Bauddha by Jina (here a name of
the Buddha) (two pramdnas ), Samkhya by Kapila (three),
Naiydyika by Aksapada (four), Vai§e$ika by Kanada (five), and
Mlmamsd by Jaimini (six). Then there are mentioned in order
along with their doctrines in more or less detail the Saiva, the
Brahma, the Vaisnava, the Vaidika, the Ajivaka whose position
as set forth by the work of Maskari ( markali-nul ) is described
at great length (11. 106-65), the Nirgrantha (Jaina, called here
Nikanda) ; the Samkhya, the Vaise^ika, and lastly the Bhutavadi
(Naturalist). We are not in a position to decide if this interest-
ing account of the different schools of philosophy with the expo-
nents of which Manimekalai came into- contact at Vanji can be
accepted as representing the general situation at the time in the
whole of South India, or whether it is just an academic exercise
of the poet. It is remarkable that the expositions of the followers
of the three great gods of Hinduism are the briefest, counting
only a few lines each, while the Ajlvika and the Nirgrantha get
many lines each. The omission of Buddhism from this canto
is easy to understand, as Buddhist philosophy gets a whole
canto (xxix) to itself later and the whole poem is unmistakably
Buddhist in its trend. The evidence of the poem is clear that
6
82 Development of Religion in South India
all the main schools of philosophy were already well known in
the South.
The chief contributions made by South India to Indian
philosophy lay, however, in the fields of the Mlmamsd and
Vedanta. By the side of the widespread popular bhakti move-
ment led by the Nayanars and Alvars, the more speculative and
philosophic foundations of Hinduism were strengthened by the
two great Mimdmsd writers Prabhakara and Kumarila and the
superb Vedantist Sankara. Though a general historical account
like this is not the place for a detailed exposition of their doc-
trines, some account of their life and work will not be out of
place. Both Prabhakara and Kumarila expounded their ideas
mainly in the commentaries they wrote on Sabarasvamin’s bhasya
on Jaimini’s Mlmamsd-sutras. Sabarasvamin belonged to North
India and perhaps to the fifth century a.d. His great commen-
tary ( bhasya ) is written in a supple concise style following an
archaic dialectic method. While following closely the original
sutras of Jaimini, Sabara may be said to inaugurate the polemic
against Buddhism which continued ever after to be a distinguish-
ing trait of Mimdmsd. It is, however, with Prabhakara and
Kumarila that the system takes a definitely speculative turn.
Though they both expounded Sahara, they differed perceptibly
in their interpretations and became the founders of rival schools.
Though tradition makes Prabhakara a pupil of Kumarila, his
date is uncertain and modern criticism considers it very likely
that he rather preceded Kumarila by some years, and lived per-
haps in the seventh century a.d. Prabhakara was also known as
Guru, and wrote two commentaries, the extensive Brhati and the
shorter LaghvT on Sahara, both somewhat archaic in style and
both carrying forward the polemic against Buddhist theses.
Kumarila also called Bhajta came in the eighth century and by
his penetrating and daring interpretations welded the sutra of
Jaimini and the bhasya of Sahara into a vast doctrinal system.
His work included (1) a verse commentary on the first quarter
(pada) of the first chapter ( adhyaya ) of Jaimini, known on that
account as Slokavartika ; (2) the Tantravartika on the remain-
ing three quarters of the first chapter and the second and third ;
and (3) the Tupfika much briefer notes on the remaining nine
chapters of Jaimini’s original.
He is free in his criticisms of Sabara, and irreconcilably
hostile to Buddhism. In spite of his difficult style, his works
are lively and alert, and the Tantravartika is rich, in linguistic
data and local usages. Both Prabhakara and Kumarila maintain
the original atheism of the system and hold that Karma produces
Philosophies in Relation to Religion
83
its fruit without divine intercession. Later writers like Khanda-
deva (c. 1650) recoiled from this atheism and were profusely
apologetic even for their restating the original doctrine. Both
Kumarila and Prabhakara also hold a realistic view of the uni-
verse. They differ on the nature of the soul, whether it is pure
consciousness or not, and on the nature of pramaqas (means of
valid knowledge). Epigraphic evidence goes to show that Prabha-
kara was more commonly studied at first in South, India at least
in the age of imperial Cola rule ; but in the long run Kumarila
proved the more influential .both within the school and without.
He is said to have used all means to discredit and weaken the
Buddhists in the course of his extensive and scholarly journeys,
and even persuaded the civil power to act against them. If this
tradition contains any historical truth, it only means that Kuma-
rila acted in accordance with the spirit of his age, the age of
the Nayanars and Alvars, who were ardent enemies of the non-
vedic faiths of Jainism and Buddhism. We have seen that tradi-
tion also credits Kumarila with the organization of the Smartas
and their practical outlook in daily religion expressed in the
worship of the five deities (pancayatanapuja) . It must also be
noted that the notion of moksa or final release first appears
in the Mlmamsa system with Prabhakara and Kumarila. In the
original Mlmamsa doctrine, the fruit of good karma was taken
to be a happy existence in Heaven of which the duration
depended on the extent of the merit of the karma. ‘ During the
interval between Jaimini and these thinkers \ says Farquhar,
‘Release had become a matter of such moment to the Hindu
mind that it could no longer be evaded. They teach that release
is won when both dharma and adharma disappear, and that he
who desires release should therefore perform only necessary
duties’ (nifya karma) , and refrain from the sacrifices and other
acts to which special rewards are attached in scripture. Vedic
religion, however, was nearly played out by the time of these
thinkers, because temple worship became more popular, and the
sentiment against animal sacrifice gained strength from a new
emphasis on ahimsd. All the same, sacrifices did continue to be
performed occasionally almost up to modern times, and Prabhg-
kara and Kumarila had many generations of successors in the
field of Mlmamsa literature, at least to the end of the seventeenth
century if not later ; the names of the authors and their works
are of no general interest and need not find a place here.
We turn now to Sankara whose commentary on the Veddnta
or Brahma-sutras of Badarayana is the earliest extant exposition
of that often annotated text. There must have been many earlier
84 Development of Religion in South India
glosses and commentaries in the centuries that elapsed between’
the composition of the Sutras and Sankara’s day, and Sankara
himself quotes some of them though not always by name. The
Brahmasutras themselves sum up a long development of the
doctrine at the hands of successive scholars of whom no fewer
than seven are named in the Sutras. Though the Upani$ads.
teach no settled system but are just a record of many guesses
at truth from various points of view, the Sutras of Badarayana
proceed on the assumption that the entire Veda is the Reve-
lation of a harmonious system of truth. Very soon the Sutras
themselves came to be looked upon as inspired work and seem
to be mentioned in the extant text of the Bhagavadgita . Some
of the Sutras refute Mahayana Buddhist doctrines and this indi-
cates a relatively late date for the work ; they may be regarded
in. any case as later than the Mtmdmsa sutras of Jaimini. The
Brahmasutras are the most concise of all the texts of its kind
expounding the darsanas and are so enigmatic as to lend them-
selves to an extraordinary diversity of interpretations. Thibaut,
who translated the bhdsyas (commentaries) of both Sankara
and Ramanuja, expressed the opinion that while Sankara’s expo-
sition stands closer to the teachings of the Upanigads, Rama-
nuja’s is closer to the Sutras themselves. For many centuries
now, perhaps beginning from a time anterior to Sankara, the
Brahmasutras together with the Upanijads and the Bhagavad-
gita, have been regarded as the Triple Source of Vedanta
philosophy — prasthana-traya , and in spite of its transparent
electicism the Gita has been interpreted by each great Acarya
from his own particular standpoint. It is worth noting that the
three distinct theories of the relation of the individual soul to
the universal soul or Brahman which distinguished the great
schools of Vedanta started by Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva
had been adumbrated in principle, even before Badarayana’s
time by other thinkers cited by him. To these later Scaryas
however, belongs the credit of having erected finished systems
out of hints thrown out by the earlier teachers. 3 Sankara’s
system was anticipated more immediately by Gaudapada (mid
eighth century) the teacher of Sankara’s teacher according to
tradition ; his poem known as the Maiidukya-karito or Agama -
idstra (a free commentary on the Mandukya upani?ad) forms
the first concise though at times obscure statement of the strict
monist doctrine afterwards fully developed in Sankara’s works ;
here occurs the famous image of the circle of fire seen when
3 See Farquhar, sec. 145.
[ Philosophies in Relation to Religion 8 5
j .a brand is whirled rapidly ( alatacakra ) — a symbol of the mani-
/ festations of the phenomenal world without any real basis. Some
scholars hold that the work reflects and criticizes Madhyamika
; (Buddhist) doctrines in its last (fourth) section which refers
to the Buddha by name in the penultimate verse, while others
! think that Gaudapada’s aim was to reconcile Vedanta and Bud-
dhism. Some see good reason to place Gaudapada in the fifth-
1 sixth century a,d. and this if correct, would contradict the tradi-
; tion mentioned above, that is, if we accept the date usually
assigned to Sankara, 788-820. Ramanuja’s theistic interpreta-
tion of the sutras was also anticipated likewise in three works
j (no longer extant) cited by both Sankara and Ramanuja, viz.,
Rodhayana’s Vriti, Tanka’s Vakya, and Dramida’s Bhasya, all
I commentaries on the sutras,
j Sankara was a master-mind of undoubted originality who
f was content to claim for himself the humbler role of elucidat-
j ing doctrines handed down by earlier masters. He gave the final
| shape to monistic Vedanta and its central doctrine of Maya,
and also settled by example and precept the main features of
| the daily religion of the smartas. There are several traditional
l biographies of the great man, but few details of his life are
known beyond doubt. He is generally taken to have been a
Nambudiri Brahmin from Kaladi on the banks of the Alwaye
river in North Travaneore, to have lost his father early in life,
j and to have turned Sanyasin and assumed the name Sankara,
[ with Govinda yogin, a pupil of Gaudapada, as his guru . He
became a brilliant scholar and preacher and produced a number
I of philosophical works marked by great intellectual capacity and
! an extremely eloquent style. In his relatively short life he tra-
I veiled all over India propagating his new philosophy and achiev-
ing triumphs in public debates with the protagonists of rival
doctrines. He reorganized the ascetic order of sanyasis perhaps
borrowing points from the organization of the Buddhist Sangha,
and founded a number of mathas in different parts of India for
the continued study and propagation of his doctrine. The best
known of these mathas are those at Spngeri where he himself
is believed to have spent several years, Dvaraka, BadrinSth, Puri
and Kancl. Within a short time of his death, a pupil of
his, Sivasoma by name, was spreading his philosophy in distant
Kambuja across the seas. Sankara’s works include commentaries
on the V edanta-sutras , the Bhagavadglta and the principal
Upani§ads. A number of vedantic works and stotras mostly in
verse pass under his name ; the chief among the former is Vpa -
idesa-sahasrl a summary of his doctrines in verse. Numerous
86 Development of Religion in South India
Sakta works in prose and verse also bear his name. There 1
can be no doubt that most of these minor productions are
not really his, and much more critical scientific study of them
would be required before the genuine ones can be identified
satisfactorily.
i Sankara holds strongly that while works {karma) may
prepare the soul for the discipline of knowledge Qhdna ), it is
only the latter that leads to and constitutes release {moksa).
Hence when a man becomes Sanyasin, he gives up sacrifices
and other daily duties of a Hindu completely, only seeking know-
ledge as a means of release ; this is typified by the laying aside
of the sacred thread in the ceremony of initiation into a Sanya-
sin’s life. In this respect Sankara differs from other teachers of
Vedanta who before and after him sought to give karma and
jhdna a coordinate status as direct means to salvation. Sankara
recognizes that the Upani?ads contain two streams of thought ;
but he holds that one of them which affirms the reality of diver-
sity is just a concession to common modes of thought and
expression in the work-a-day world. The essential teaching of
the Upani^ads is that of unity. It is not, however, bare unity
which cannot exist apart from variety ; the true description of
the position is non-duality ( advaita ) rather than monism strictly
so called. Vacaspati, one of the great commentators on Sankara,,
has said that he only denies the many but does not affirm the-
j one. The ultimate truth as realized by a liberated soul ( jivan -
mukta) denies the reality of the world, but not of the individual
soul ( atma ) which in a state of release gets free of the limiting
adjuncts ( upddhi ) and exists as Brahman. ‘ We cannot therefore
say that the individual self is false ( mithya ) as we may say that
the world is false. We can only say that it is not truly the agent,
the enjoyer, etc.’ To put the matter in other words : 4 Brahman
is the sole reality, and it appears both as the objective universe-
and as the individual subject. The former is an illusory mani-
festation of Brahman, while the latter is Brahman itself appear-
ing under the limitations which form part of that illusory
universe ’ 4 Again, * the individual self is Brahman itself, and its
supposed distinction from it is entirely due to the illusory
adjuncts with which it identifies itself. Man’s ultimate aim in
life should accordingly be to know and realize this truth’.
Formal study ( sravana ), reflection ( manana ) and meditation
( dhydna ) form part of the discipline calculated to serve the end.
Opinions differ as to whether a man should formally. become an
4 The citations are from Hiriyanna : The Essentials of Indian Philo-
sophy, pp. 157-8; 169.
Philosophies in Relation to Religion
87
ascetic ( sanyasin ) or not before entering upon this course of
discipline. Liberation comes finally by the grace of God.
Sankara distinguished between supreme truth ( paramar -
ihika ) and the truth of experience (vyavaharika) . Some modern
scholars hold that this doctrine of double truth has been drawn
from Buddhist thought. Again, besides the supreme (para)
Brahman, there is recognized a lower ( apara ) Brahman wrapped
In limitations and attributes (saguna), who is the world soul
and a personal God. From this lower standpoint, the sutras
recognize all the main features of orthodox Hinduism, and
Sankara accepts and supports them with arguments. Among
such features Farquhar enumerates : * the inspiration of the
Puranas, the permanent presence of all the traditional gods, even
though each is a transient being, the visibility of the gods to
the rsis in ancient time, the eating of the sacrifice by the gods,
the assumption by a god of many bodies so as to be present
at many sacrifices at one moment, etc.’ Thus is popular religion
sought to be reconciled with the highest metaphysic.
Sankara commanded great respect in his day and the vast
body of smdrtas in the South, in Gujarat, and many throughout
Northern India became his disciples and acknowledged him as
their religious head, and his apostolic successors have continued
to command the same position more or less to this day. The
literature of Advaita after Sankara is very extensive ; it starts
with the work of his direct pupils and their pupils and goes
on in an unbroken stream till the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies ; it comprises mostly commentaries, super-commentaries
and manuals which elucidate and restate the doctrine, and some-
times add new refinements of detail and is not of much interest
to the general reader. An exception may be made in favour
of the prolific scholar Madhava (brother of the erudite Vedic
exegetist Say ana) who composed the Sarvadartonasamgraha in
the fourteenth century, which summarizes the doctrines of fifteen
philosophic schools arranged in an ascending order of values and
beginning with the materialist Carvaka system. One of the most
recent works in the same line of general philosophical manuals
is the Saddarsana-siddhantasangraha (summary of the findings
of the Six systems) of Ramabhadra-dlk?ita and a group of authors
at the behest of the Maratha sovereign of Tanjore, Shahji (1685-
1711).
The Vedantic school most memorable after that of Sankara
is that of Ramanuja, the founder of 5rivai§pavism, who flourished
about 1100 a.d. He received his early philosophical training
in Kanclpuram from Yadava Prakasa, a teacher belonging to
88 Development of Religion in South India
the school of Sankara. Ramanuja disagreed with his teacher
and preferred the doctrine called Visistadvaita (modified monism
or better, qualified non-dualzty) which was being developed by
a succession of teachers including Nathamuni and his grandson
Yamunacarya and of which he was himself to become the classical
exponent. Ramanuja was still young when Yamunacarya died ;
but he had already reached eminence as a Vai§nava scholar, and
was invited to succeed Yamunacarya in the pontificate of
Srlrangam. Very successful as teacher and writer he spent over
twenty years in Srlrangam. He wrote three philosophical works
of importance : the Vedarthasangraha (summary of the import
of the Veda) calculated to show that the Upanisads did not teach
a strict monism as Sankara held, a bhdsya on the Bhagavadgita*
and the celebrated Srlbhdsya on the Vedanta sutras. Ramanuja
seeks to reconcile in an integral system a non-dualist metaphysic
with devotion to a personal God. The system is perhaps best
stated in Farquhar’s summary from Thibaut :
e There exists only one all-embracing being called Brahman,
who is endowed with all imaginable auspicious qualities. The
Lord is all-pervading, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful ;
His nature is fundamentally antagonistic to all evil. He contains,
within Himself whatever exists — material or immaterial — and
is the “ internal ruler ” ( antarydmin ) of all. Matter and souls,
as forming the body of the Lord, exist in two different, periodi-
cally alternating conditions. During the period of world-rest,
matter and souls being apart from bodies, their intelligence is in
a state of contraction. The Lord is then said to be in his causal
condition. When the period comes to an end, creation takes
place owing to an act of volition on the Lord’s part. Unevolved
matter then, evolving, acquires its sensible characteristics, while
souls enter into connexion with bodies, and their intelligence
undergoes expansion.
‘ Owing to former actions, souls are implicated in the
process of transmigration ; and from this Release is possible only
through true knowledge of the Lord, which rests on a study of
the scripture and consists in constant devotion ( bhakti ) to him
and meditation ( upasana ) on him. The released soul enters
paradise and enjoys intercourse with the Lord for ever.
* The Lord is a personal being. Brahman is but another
name for Narayana-Vi$nu, the god .of the Vai?nava sect \
‘The final teaching of the Upanisads,’ according to Rama-
nuja as Hiriyanna puts it, * is that while Brahman, the soul and
the physical world are all different and equally eternal, they are
at the same time quite inseparable . . . The three entities are
Philosophies in Relation to Religion
89
^different, though they stand in a peculiarly close relation to one
another . . . Brahman as embodied in or inspiring the souls and
matter is one. The latter viz., souls and matter are not identical
with it or with one another. If we like, we may interpret the
term “ Vi£i§tadvaita ” as signifying that there is nothing outside
the embodied whole ’. Again, ‘ God exists for himself, while
eventually matter and souls exist for his sake. The same obser-
vation, we may state by the way, applies to the individual soul
and its body also. In other words, god together with the souls
and matter is an organic whole, just as the soul with its physical
body is an organic unity’.
Ramanuja assigns equal importance, as already stated, to*'
Karma and Jhana and to both the sections of the Veda dealing
with ritual and Brahman. He holds that the two are parts of one
single doctrine, the first expounding the ways of worshipping
God, the second dealing with His nature. This goes of course
against Sankara’s view that the two sections of the Veda are
different and meant for different sets of persons — the earlier for
those who are preparing for Brahma knowledge by cultivating
detachment ( vairagya ) through karma , the later for those who
uim directly at knowledge or realization of Brahman ( Jrnna ).
Ramanuja draws more upon the Puranas for support to his
doctrine than Sankara. Another difference between them is that
while Sankara holds that the teaching of the Agamas is not
entirely in agreement with .the teaching of Revelation of the
Vedas, Ramanuja places both on the same footing.
Ramanuja’s Sribhasya is a work of magistral dialectic
imbued with a passion much unlike the serenity of Sankara.
The commentary on the first sutra in itself comprises a com-
plete treatise setting forth fully all the rival theses and their
refutations.
The Sribhasya was the first sectarian bhasya and became
the model for many others that followed. The suggestion has
been made that Ramanuja linked his sect with Vedanta to get
rid of the reproach of heterodoxy that had attached to the
Pancaratra worship in the temples of the Bhagavatas which lacked
Vedic roots and stemmed apparently from ancient forms of
worship traditional among Sudras or even perhaps pre-Aryans ;
his own scrupulous observation of caste rules about eating and
intercourse with other castes may well have been intended as
aids to the same result. Though he held that the Sudras and
outcastes may not read the Upanisads and the Veda, he was
eager to spread the doctrine of bhakti among them in the manner
of the Ajvars of old, and in certain temples he arranged that the
90 Development of Religion in South India
outcastes should have the privilege .of visiting them one day ini
the year.
Ramanuja travelled throughout India to disseminate his.
system and the great influence his doctrine commanded in North
India in later times was doubtless due to the great success of
his propagandist travels. Tradition has it that the contemporary
Coja king, usually taken to be Kulottunga I (1070-1120 a.d.),
started persecuting Vaignavism, and Ramanuja had to withdraw
into Mysore territory where he won over the Hoys ala prince
Vi?nuvardhana (a name he assumed after he abandoned Jainism
which he had originally professed) and organized a strong centre
of Vai?pava learning and propaganda at Melkote. He returned
to Srirangam some time after Kulottunga’s death and himself
met his end in 1137. He is worshipped as an incarnation in-
temples.
Madhva (1199-1278 or some forty years later according to>
another computation) was the founder of the first sect directly
based on the Bhagavata-purana. Born at Kalyanapura near
Udipi in South Kanara District, he was named Vasudeva by his
parents. Like Ramanuja he received his early training in the
system of Sankara. But soon he developed violent differences
with that doctrine and began to consider the great dcarya an
incarnation of a demon while he looked upon himself as an
avatar of Vayu. Tradition credits him with a great capacity for
physical endurance, and he became a sanyasi when he was quite
young and came to be known as Purpa Prajna (fully enlightened).
In his writings he calls himself Ananda Tlrtha. A debate at
Trivandram with an clcdrya of Srngeri ended in his discomfiture,
and he was robbed of his library and subjected to much annoy-
ance and persecution. He toured Northern India where he had'
encounters with robbers, wild beasts, and hostile chieftains in the
course of his journeys. After resting for a while at Hardwar he
retreated into the Himalayas for communion with Vyasa and
published his commentary on the Vedanta-sutras on his return.
Back at Udipi again he built a temple of Kr§pa and spent his
time preaching, converting and defeating * illusionists \ After a
ministry of nearly eighty years and at the age of ninety-six he
disappeared as he sat teaching and was seen no more. The-
centre of his religion is bhakti to Kr§na as taught in the Bhaga-
vata, R&dha having no place in it, though she had gained a place-
as Kona’s consort in Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda and in the teach-
ings of NimbSrka a little before and after Madhva’s time. All
other avataras of Vi$nu are revered, Siva is worshipped and the*
v five gods’ ( panedyatana ) are recognized.
Philosophies in Relation to Religion 91
Madhva’s chief works are his Bhasya and Anuvyakhyana r
both on the Vedanta-sutras. The Bhasya, a relatively short work
in prose, is frankly dualistic in its interpretation, and contends
with the aid of texts drawn from the Rg. Veda, the Upani§ads,
and the Gita, but more particularly from the Puranas, the
Vaisnava samhitas and other late works, that Madhva’s explana-
tion of the sutras is the only correct one. He also wrote com-
mentaries on ten Upani?ads, and an exposition of the Bhagavata
called Bhagavata-tatparya-nirnaya and a companion volume on
the Mahabharata — all of which are held in much esteem by his
sect called Madhvas. Jayatlrtha of Malkhed (1365), who-
became head of the sect more than half a century after Madhva’s
death, wrote commentaries on Madhva’s works which are also
among the chief books of the sect. Jayatlrtha was a soldier as*
well as a thinker. Another Dvaita thinker of note was Vyasa-
tlrtha (1460-1539).
Madhva’s theology is similar to Ramanuja’s. He taught a
Vaisnavite faith where deliverance is the result of a direct per-
ception of Visnu who decides whether souls gain deliverance or
remain for ever in Samsara or lastly are condemned to an eternal
hell. Brahman directs the delivered souls to Brahmaloka, while
Vayu incites the others to seek deliverance. The Madhvas are
confined to the south of the Vindhyas, mostly in Mysore, and
their numbers in the North were never great.
4 Madhva holds that God, selves, and the world exist perma-
nently, but the two latter are subordinate to God and dependent
on Him : Brahman or God possesses all perfection and is
identified with Vi§nu. The supreme directs the world. He is
endowed with a supernatural body and is regarded as transcen-
dent to the world as well as immanent in it, since he is the inner
ruler of all selves.
‘ Madhva’s system, as contrasted with other schools of
Vedanta, is noted for its doctrine of five fundamental differences ;
(1) between God and the individual self; (2) between God and
matter ; (3) between individual selves ; (4) between selves and
matter ; and (5) between individual material substances.
‘ For Madhva, everything on earth is a living organism.
The self is not an absolute agent, since it is of limited power
and dependent on God. It is by nature blissful, though it is
subject to pain and suffering on account of its connection with
a material body due to its past Karma . So long as it is not freed
from impurities it wanders about in changing forms of existence.
No two selves are alike.
* God cannot be approached directly, Vayu, whose ancestry
92 Development of Religion in South Indict
can be traced to the vedic air, being in Madhva’s system the
mediator. The divine will is free. It sets men free or casts
them into bondage.
‘ Salvation, for Madhva, consists in the perpetuation of the
. individual self in the condition of release, where the self takes
delight in adoration and worship of god \ s
Though difference (bhteda) is fundamental to the doctrine,
it does not necessarily mean the independence of the objects
distinguished : ‘ Particularly is this so in the case of God and
the world. The difference between the two does not mean that
the world has nothing to do with him and can exist in spite of
him. That is taken to be independent here which can of its own
accord, be, know and act. Such an entity is God alone. Every-
thing else exists, kriows, and functions finally at his will \ 5 6
Another development of Vai§navism based on the Bhaga-
vata was the rise from the close of the thirteenth century of a
number of poet-saints whose popular songs stirred the life of
Maharastra as those of the ndycmars and alvars had stirred the
Tamil country centuries earlier. The earliest of them was
Jnanesvara, popularly called Dnyandev or Dnanoba, a pupil
according to some accounts of Vi?nusvami who was a dualist
and founder of a sect of his own. Jnanesvara was the author
of an extensive work in Marathi verse on the Bhagavad-giffi ;
it is known as Jndnesvari, runs to 10,000 verses and bears the
date 1290. It is advaitic in tone, but lays much stress on yoga.
JnaneSvara was also the author of Haripdth, a collection of
twenty-eight Hbhangs (hymns) in praise of Hari (Vifnu).
< Tradition makes him the greatest of a group of saints. His
poems are philosophical in tone and full of reflective thought,
and have had' a great and lasting influence on the educated
classes. There need be no doubt that he was the coryphaeus
of the whole bhakti movement of the Maratha country’ —
(Farquhar). He was a true Bhagavata honouring 5iva as well
as Visnu and following Sankara in philosophy. He also wrote
an advaita philosophical work Amrtdnubhava in MarafhT verse.
The movement he thus began continued through a succession of
saints to Tukfir&m, the contemporary of Sivaji.
Vai§navism continued to be one of the dominaiit forces
influencing the life of the people. Occasionally the cult, espe-
cially that of Radha, tended to degenerate into excessive eroticism.
This is particularly true of the followers of Vallabhacarya (1479-
1531), a Telugu Brahmin contemporary of Caitanya. He was
5 Cited from A Source Book of Indian Philosophy . pp. 508-9.
6 Hmyanna, Essentials, p. 19 0,
Philosophies in Relation to Religion
93
born in Benaras, wrote several works in Sanskrit, including a
commentary called Anubhasya on the Vedanta-sutras and became
the founder of a system called Suddhadvaita, i.e., pure non-
dualism as against Sankara’s advaita which was soiled by the
* demonic * doctrine of Maya* He exalted Bhakti above knowledge
and is reputed to have vanquished smarta scholars in debate at
the court of Kr§nadeva Raya of Vijayanagar. The acaryas of
the sect called themselves Maharajas and lived luxurious lives
particularly in Western India. The highest ambition of the
followers of Vallabhacarya, both male and female, was to become
gopls (shepherdesses of Brndavan) and sport eternally with
Kr$na in his heaven called Vyapi-Vaikunfha where there is a
heavenly Bnidavana and glorious forests, an ideal which in
practice corrupted the relations between the Maharajas and their
. disciples. Such occasional aberrations apart, Vai§uavism was in
general a sweet and noble influence in social life. The Rayas of
Vijayanagar were great patrons of Vai§navism ; in 1556 Sada-
siva, at the request of his minister Rama Raya, gave thirty-one
villages for the maintenance of the temple of Ramanuja and the
institutions attached to it at Srlperumbudur (near Madras).
The philosophy of Saiva Siddhanta is based on the Agamas.
Their origin is obscure and it is not known if they arose in
Northern India or the South. These are the Saiva Agamas to be
distinguished from the Vai$nava Agamas known as Samhitas and
the Sakta Agamas or Tantras. They are said to be twenty-eight
texts in all, of which ten are held to be good (sat) Saiva, and
the rest bad (asat), classed as raudra (fierce). There are also
a number of commentaries and upagamas (subsidiaries) making
a total of 198. Like the Samhitas and the Tantras, the Agamas
are encyclopaedic in their contents ; for instance they describe
the construction of temples, the iconography of images of all
kinds, the details of daily religious observances, of magic, of
medicine and what not. They are generally in verse, though the
earliest and least sectarian, the V aikkanasdgama already men-
tioned, is in prose. They are all in Sanskrit and are taken to
date from fifth, to seventh centuries a.d. (Farquhar) or even from
before the fifth century (Schomerus). The Agamas are first
mentioned by Sundaramurti, and the Tirumandiram of Tirumular
(ninth century) is the earliest work to reflect the theology of
the Agamas in Tamil. Agamic tertninology is also found in the
writings of Mr M \ :■ r who frequently speaks of the
Agamas as v .■ Vv v-. and gives open and strong expres- ^
sion to his dislike of the Vedanta of Sankara.
The first formulation of the philosophy of Saiva Siddhanta
-94 Development of Religion in South India
.in Tamil was in the work of Meykandar (lit. seer of Truth) a
pious Vellala (farmer) who lived early in the thirteenth century V
on the banks of the Pennar river, south of Madras. He is
reputed to have received instruction from saint Paranjoti (efful-
gent light) who was sent down from Mount Kailas, the abode of
£tva, specially for the purpose. Meykaridar’s Sivci-J nana-Bodam
(Instruction in Knowledge of Siva), a translation into Tamil
verse of twelve Sanskrit sutras from the Raurava-Agama, is
looked upon as the fountain head of the dogmatics of the
system. The author has added vdrttikas which explain and
illustrate the argument of each of the sutras. The scheme of the
work is simple ; the first three sutras affirm the existence of the
three entities — God (pad), bondage (pah), and soul (pafu) ;
the three next define and explain their nature and interrelation ;
the third triad deals with the means of release, and the last with .
its nature. The Bodam gave rise to a considerable body of
expository literature which need not be noticed in detail here.
But three names stand out and constitute together with Mey-
kandar himself the four Santana Acaryas (teachers in a conti-
nuous series) of Tamil $aivism. They are Arulnandi, Marai-
nana-sambandar and Umapati. Arulnandi is reputed to have
been first the guru of Meykandar’s father, and later the disciple
of Meykandar himself. His Si va-nana-tittiyar written altogether
in verse is an important statement of the doctrine following the
order of the sutras in the Bodam ; this is preceded by a critique
of rival systems of which no fewer than fourteen, including four
schools of Buddhism and two of Jainism, are passed under
review. Umapati Sivacarya (end of the thirteenth and early
fourteenth century), was the author of eight works which, with
the two works just mentioned and four others, complete the tale
of the fourteen Siddhanta Sdstras.
The progress of discussion led to the growth of different
schools within the fold of the Saiva Siddhanta. But in the main
the system sought, like other philosophies of religion, to deter-
mine the relation of God, matter, and the soul. It is realistic W'
and pluralistic like the Vai$ijavism of Ramanuja and Madhva,
and declared that matter and souls were, like God, eternal. The
Absolute, through its ‘grace form’ is for ever engaged in the
rescue of souls from the bondage of matter and the three stains
(malas) which defile their purity. 1 As body and mind together
form a unity, so God is the soul whose body is the universe of
nature and of man. He is not identical with either ; He is not
their substance, but he dwells in them and they in Him. Advaita v
is not oneness, but inseparability. To realize this union is the
Philosophies in Relation to Religion
95
high calling of the soul \ It is for the guru or teacher to let in
the light, but Siva is the source of all enlightenment, sole embodi-
ment of intelligence and grace and hence the true object of all
devout aspiration. The system transcends caste and ritual, and ^
calls for inner devotion. According to one writer contentment,
justice and wisdom are the flowers of worship.
It may be noted by the way that the Saiva literature of
ancient Java portrays a stage in the development of the doctrine
midway between the pre-sectarian Saivism of ancient India and
the Saivasiddhanta.
There was also a body of Sanskrit literature of Saivism the
first notice of which occurs in Madhava’s Sarva-darfiana-sangraha .
But the most noteworthy book of the school was the $aiva-bha$ya
of Snkanth a-Sivacary a (c. 1400) on the Vedanta sutras. The
tradition that Srikantha was a friend of Govinda, the guru of
Sankaracarya, and that he defeated the latter in controversy
deserves no credit. We do not hear of the $aivabha?ya from any
source for centuries after Sankara, and what is more, the work
itself draws manifestly on the Sribhasya of Ramanuja and seems
definitely to have been inspired by it. The author meant clearly
to do for the Saiva Agamas and Pasupata theology what Rama-
nuja had done for the Vai§iiava samhitas and the theology of
the Narayaniya section of the Mahabharata. His philosophic
position is the same as Ramanuja’s and described by the same
name Vi£i$tadvaita. The bhayya was commented on extensively
in the Sivarka-mani-dipikd (the light of the gem of the Saiva
sun) c. 1600 a.d. by the celebrated polymath Appaya Dik$ita.
Another sectarian bhdsya of Saivism on the Ved&nta sutras
was the &nkarabha$ya attributed to Srlpati Panditaradhya ; tradi-
tion assigns him to the twelfth century when the Lingflyat faith
was established, or according to the Lingayat tradition, revived.
But the bhdsya remained unknown till quite recently and its date
is uncertain. Its standpoint is described as Sakti Vi&stddvaita.
Beginning from about the thirteenth century, but most pro-
minently in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there
flourished in the Tamil country a monotheistic puritan creed,
that of Sittar (Siddhas meaning the perfected) who denounced
idolatry and whose history is rather obscure. Their teaching may
well have been the outcome of Muslim and Christian influence
on Hindu thought and practice. Sivaprakasa (Light of Siva) of
the early seventeenth century is known to have met a Christian
missionary for a disputation and to have composed a polemic
refuting the Christian creed — Esumadanirakaranam (refutation
of the creed of Jesus), no longer extant. The chief singers among
96 Development of Religion in South India
the Sittars are known by the curious names Ahappey (the inner
demon) and Pambatti (the snake charmer). Many of the hymns-
of the Sittar are collected in the anthology known as Sivavakyam
(Siva’s utterance) which contains also some orthodox lyrics. On
the other hand a number of beautiful lyrics which now pass
under the name of the tenth century poet Pattinattu Pillai show
the unmistakable Sittar spirit. Tattuvarayar who wrote against
idolatry in the seventeenth century may also have been one of
the Sittar. What relation, if any, there was between these Sittar
and those who are adepts belonging to a school of medicine
(Siddha-Vaidyam) is not clear.
VI. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS
In this chapter we shall give some account of the institutions
of organized Hinduism, viz., the temple, its priests and daily
routine, the festivals and vratas (vows) observed in temples and
households, the mathas (monasteries) and orders of Sanyasis
(monks) and so on, and describe briefly some of the more
celebrated shrines of South India. What the caitya and vihdra
were in Buddhism that the temple and the matha were in Hindu-
ism, and as the two religions were more or less competing for
popularity and patronage, there ensued a great deal of assimi-
lation in the observances and practices of both. Without attempt-
ing to trace the obscure details of the stages of this process,
our account will set forth the position reached finally in what
may roughly be described as mediaeval Hinduism of the South.
The temple stands at the centre of popular Hinduism./
Almost every village of any importance has at least one temple
of higher Hinduism ( Sfikoyil as it is called in Tamil inscriptions)
situated in the middle of surrounding streets or in some other
prominent place, besides the shrines of village deities generally
located outside the village near its boundary. The latter class
of shrines where cocks and sheep are generally sacrificed on
Tuesdays, Fridays and some special occasions are most likely
survivals of indigenous pre- Aryan religious practice ; but even
this sometimes takes on features from the higher religion by a
process of ‘ Sanskritization ’. For the understanding of the
temples we have the surviving monuments themselves in con-
siderable numbers and the various builders’ manuals or silpa-
sdstras. These are relatively late works often written in
incorrect Sanskrit, but they are records of an undoubtedly
much more ancient oral tradition handed down for centuries
by word of mouth from master craftsmen to their apprentices.
The Agamas and some Puranas also have much to say on temple
architecture and iconography. The choice of sites for temples,
the materials to be employed in their construction, and the
rituals to be observed at every stage, the kinds of images to be
installed in the different parts of the temple, together with the
materials and modes of their fashioning, are alt prescribed in
detail. This apparently rigid control of the creative imagination
of the architect and sculptor did not, in the best days of the
7
98 Development of Religion in South India
arts, prove an impediment to originality of conception, or result
in a dull uniformity in the temples constructed and sculptures
produced. A code and a discipline of mind and hand are no
more obstacles to creativeness than the rules of cricket are to
expertness in playing the game.
The Hindu temple architecture found its maturest expression
in the countries of South-East Asia which accepted Indian cul-
ture with alacrity * and cherished it for many centuries. The
stupendous mandala of Boro Budur (eighth-ninth century a.d.)
in Central Java with its innumerable sculptures of the jdtakas
and the life of Gautama Buddha and many another sacred legend
and the rows of seated Buddha images lining the galleries and
toratias leading the devotee to the summit of the monument and
of supreme wisdom is a veritable epitome of all that is best and
most edifying in the religious thought and experience of India.
Likewise the famous Vaispava sanctuary of Angkor Vat, twelfth
century a.d., is a colonial version so to say of the great con-
temporary Co] a temples of South India. This great temple, how-
ever, is dedicated not to the ancient Hindu god Visnu, nor even
to any of his traditional incarnations, but to King Suryavarman II
(a.d. 1118-1150) of Kambuja, identified, after his death, with
Vi§pu, consubstantial with him, and residing in his mausoleum
fully adorned by gracious figures of apsarases just as Visnu
resides in his celestial palace. That the extensive Angkor Vat
temple like Boro Budur represents a cosmic design and links
up this world with the other can be seen from its very plan with
its wall, its moats, its central temple and its gates, the temples
in the form of pyramids crowned or not by a quincunx of towers,
the bridges across the moats with the naga balustrades, and the
monuments so complicated as Neak Pan and the Bayon. Here
we have obviously the translation in stone of the grand myths of
Hindu cosmology, calculated to realize here below in our world
and on a terrestrial scale, the whole or part of the divine world.
The mention of Angkor Vat and its funerary significance
serves as a reminder that the Hindu temple is a complex insti-
tution of multiple origins. Sometimes it is the continuation of
a prehistoric shrine with animistic or totemic associations ; else-
where it is worship offered to a dead ancestor or a hero fallen
in battle, and it is to this class that we must perhaps assign
the temples of South India built over the bodily remains of saints
and princes often referred to in inscriptions as palli-padai kdyil
funeral te’mple, as also the shrines in South-East Asia, particularly
the candis of Java and temples like Angkor Vat in Kambuja
which are regarded as the posthumous abodes of kings apotheo-
Religious Institutions
99
sized at their death or even during their life-time ; the rest are
the temples proper dedicated to divinities or epic heroes often
on spots where particular myths or legends were localized by
the imagination of the people ; such spots would appear in many
instances to have been chosen for their natural beauty or for
their historic associations. The capitals of great kingdoms and
empires naturally attracted extensive royal patronage and came
to possess great temple complexes. Kancipuram, Aihole and
Pattadakal, Tanjore, Gangaikondacolapuram and Madura are
conspicuous examples, among others, from South India.
There is also a symbolic aspect of the temple which is *
somewhat esoteric and not very widely known or regarded, but
which merits at least a passing mention. It is that the temple
is a microcosm £ a kind of magic replica of some unseen region
or sacred being \ The proportions and the motifs employed are
governed by this mystic necessity to conform to an ideal pattern
calculated to secure ‘the harmony of the structure with the
cosmos that it reproduced J . In such a conception, the emphasis
on the vertical in * the Sikhara or spire, is literally meant to
point to God to be the very embodiment of that magic axis that
pillars apart heaven and earth and is variously symbolized by
the mountain, the tree, or the universal Man — Puru§a ’. ‘The
temple or vimana is at once the house and body of the deity, its
fabric the very substance of the divinity \ 1
Though Buddhist art, perhaps as a result of Asoka’s magni-
ficent lead, used stone freely in architecture and sculpture and
developed to a high degree of perfection the art of scooping
caityas and viharas out of live rock, the use of brick and timber
seems to have been continued for many centuries later in orthodox
Hindu structures. This may have been due partly to the respect
for the practice of Vedic Aryans who used only these materials
for the construction of Vedic altars and partly to the prejudice
against following the lead of the heretical faith in its innovation.
Whatever it was, no Hindu stone monuments, rock-cut or struc-
tural, are found in South India dating from a time anterior to
the sixth century A.D., though stone had come into use even as
yupas (sacrificial posts) in distant Borneo at least a century
earlier. The boyish glee with which Mahendravarman I Pallava
announces at the end of the sixth century his achievement in
having made a shrine to the Three Gods of Hinduism without
the use of brick, timber or metal by scooping out a rock, and
seems to describe himself as curious-minded ( vicitra-citta ) on
1 The citations are from Rowland. Cf. Kramrisch, The Hindu
Temple , Part III.
100 Development of Religion in South India
that account, gives a measure of the reluctance to change that
prevailed at first. But such resistance gives way sooner or later,,
and once the barrier is broken, the change sweeps in like a flood.
Soon building temples with cut stone became the rule and the
art of excavating rock almost completely went out of fashion
some time in the eighth or ninth century.
The two last and most impressive achievements of Hindu
rock-architecture were the Kailasa temple at Ellora and the
temple of Siva Mahadeva at Elephanta. The former was a crea-
tion of the Ra§trakuta King I<r?na I (757-83); the date of the
latter which cannot be far removed from this was perhaps
included in an inscription which was destroyed in the ruthless
desecration of the temple by the Portuguese in the sixteenth
century. It is now taken to have been an excavation of the
latter part of the seventh century a.d„ by the Kalacuri kings of
N. W. Deccan. The Kailasa temple is reared on a most specta-
cular podium consisting of a row of deeply carved elephants,
representing the Caryatids of the universe, as it were ; * nowhere
has more adequate and dignified expression been given to the
majesty and grandeur of the elephant. In these figures there is
an intimate feeling for the character of the elephant, at once
realistic and monumental, testifying to the long and close com-
panionship of the Hindu with this mighty beast’ (Zimmer). The
main shrine itself is an incredible achievement alike in archi-
tecture and sculpture, and there are besides several lesser
sanctuaries dedicated to the river goddesses and other Hindu
deities ‘forming an almost continuous cloister, around the cir-
cumference of the great pit in which the principal temple is
isolated’ (Rowland). Sculptures of £aivite themes, most cele-
brated among them being the Descent of the Ganges, and the
giant Ravana uprooting Mount Kailasa — the abode of Siva,
and episodes from the Rdmdyana cover almost the entire wall
space of the temple. The entrance to the temple is on the west,
and its main body measures roughly 150 feet by 100 feet, with
projections at intervals throughout the entire height of the
structure. The substantial plinth is itself 25 feet high and marked
by heavy mouldings above and below the elephants (and lions)
already mentioned. The stately vimana over the sanctum with its
prominently projecting gable front and surmounted by a shapely
cupola reaches a total height of 95 feet. The achievement as a
whole was unique in its excellence and contemporary inscrip-
tions evince a vivid consciousness of this fact. The architect is
said to have declared that he could not produce another monu-
ment like the Kailasa, and the gods of heaven in the course
Religious Institutions
101
•of their aerial journeys in their Vimanas are said to have stopped
their progress for a while and declared that such excellence as
they saw below in the temple was decidedly unearthly in its
character. The temple at Elephanta is a cruci-form hall (130 feet
by 129) with three entrances. The temple proper is a pillared
hall roughly ninety feet on a side with six rows of columns sup-
porting the roof of the cave. The main object of worship is
attached to the back of the hall and pradaksina (circumambu-
lation) is impossible. The temple excels all others of its kind
in sculpture, particularly those on the back wall. There are
three large square recesses separated by pilasters each bearing
a huge dvdrapala (door keeper). The panel on the left contains
a representation of Ardhanari, the hermaphrodite form of Siva,
while the corresponding one on the right contains figures of Siva
and Parvati. In the central recess is the famous colossus, a three-
headed bust long called Trimurti, but in reality a representation
of Mahesa. This great sculpture, one of the greatest in world’s
art, has evoked many appreciations, and from our standpoint,
the description of Rowland may be accepted as one of the latest
and best amo’ng them ; { This triune conception presents the
supreme form of Siva Mahadeva as the central of the three
faces ; at the left, in profile, is the skull-crowned head of Aghora-
Bhairava, Siva the Destroyer ; and, balancing it at the right, the
face of Uma, the Beautiful wife or sakti of the third member
of the Brahmanic Trinity. As in some of the reliefs at EHura
(Ellora), the figures are set in an enormously deep, box-like
niche, so that they seem to emerge from an unlimited and nebu-
lous darkness. The three gigantic heads are perfect embodiments
of the monographic concept they signify ; the impassiveness and
august serenity of the supreme Siva made manifest ; the moving,
satanic countenance of the wrathful Aghora-Bhairava ; and the
youthful peace and beauty of the face of Uma.’
The beginnings of Hindu temple architecture in structural
temples as distinguished from excavations in live rock are best
traced in the Calukya temples at Aihole and its neighbourhood
from about the middle of the fifth century a.d. Aihoje in the
Bijapur District is a city of temples and contains no fewer than
seventy of them, mostly of moderate size. The work started there
was continued in the neighbouring towns of Badami and Pattada-
kal (coronation stone 2 ). Today Aihole is a squalid little village
2 It is perhaps worth noting that the form of Pattadakal which
found entry in several standard works on Indian art (not Rowland’s) is
wrong. Patfa means diadem or coronation, da is genitive suffix, and kal
means stone.. The word is Kannada (Kanarese).
102 Development of Religion in South India
in rather wild country overgrown with prickly pear. The plan
of the Aihoje temples is a natural development of that of two-
caitya halls built in brick about 450 a.d., but surviving intact
to this day perhaps because they were turned to BrahminicaF
uses after the decline of Buddhism ; these are now known as the
Trivikrama temple of Ter and the Kapotesvara temple of
Chezarla ; their names show that the former is a Visum shrine
and the latter one of Siva. The usual caitya hall is preceded
by a mandapa, a porch carried on pillars, sometimes walled in
as at Ter. The mandapa in front became a regular feature thence-
forth of sanctuaries of all types, Hindu and Buddhist.
The temple at Aihole known as Ladh Khan, usually assigned
to the fifth century a.d. is a low flat-roofed building fifty feet
square, with a small square cella and a porch set on the roof,
at a later time to form an independent shrine of the sun. Of
the main temple three sides are completely enclosed by walls,
two of which carry stone windows perforated in a variety of
beautiful designs. On the fourth side, which forms the eastern
front, there is an open porch on the pillars of which are figures
of the river goddesses. The interior is a pillared hall containing
c two square groups of columns one within the other A large
nandi (bull) fills the central bay, and the cella at the farther
end is not a separate chamber leading off from the main hall,
as one would expect, but built within it against the back wall.
The entire disposition is totally inadequate for the purposes of
a temple, and Percy Brown suggests that it was just an Indian
village meeting hall ( santhdgara ) converted into a temple. Very
different is the Durga temple, another experiment seeking to
adapt the Buddhist caitya to a brahminical temple. The temple,
perhaps of the sixth century, is an apsidal structure (60 feet
by 36) with a large portico 24 feet deep on its eastern front
making an overall length of 84 feet. The temple stands on a
high plinth with many mouldings. The top of its flat roof is
30 feet from the ground. A sikhara rises above the garbhagrha
in the apse and there is a veranda roofed with sloping slabs
carried on massive square columns with heavy brackets, and
this forms the pradaksina path.
The origin of the Sikhara (pyramidal spire or tower) is
disputed ; some hold that it is a development from the stupa ;
others that it is a stone version of the procession car of wood ;
yet others sec in it an imitation of the kirita, the towering head-
dress of Vi$nu ; lastly Coomaraswamy suggests more plausibly
that it was due to the piling up of successive floors or talas, a
suggestion supported by the figuration of the crowning amalaka
Religious Institutions
103.
finial at each level of roof. The sikhara is generally curvilinear
in shape in Northern India, but in the far South it rises by
square terraces of diminishing size. In the Deccan both, styles
were used, sometimes the features of both being combined in one
sikhara . The sikhara of the Durga. temple is perhaps a later
addition in the northern style.
Another temple very similar to the Durga temple is the
smaller and simpler Huccimalli-gudi which contains one new
feature, namely a vestibule or antarala between the cella and
the main hall. This became more or less the standard design
for all later temples, irrespective of their size.
We need not follow the details of the evolution of temple
architecture but just note the chief epochs in the history of
temple construction. The next stage in the development of
Calukyan art is marked by the temples at Paftadakal, about ten
miles from Badami, the Calukyan capital. There are ten temples
here, four in the northern style and six in the southern. The
Papanatha temple (c. 680) was perhaps one of the first attempts,
not quite successful, to combine the features of the two styles
in one structure ; the temple is too low for its length of ninety
feet, its tower in northern style too small and stunted, and its
antarala too big. The Virupak§a (c. 740) is a vast improve-
ment in design and execution, most likely the work of artisans
imported from Kanclpuram ; it was built by a queen of Vikra-
maditya II who invaded the Pallava capital and left a Kannada
inscription there on a pillar in the celebrated Kail&sanatha temple
of which the Virupak$a is a close imitation. The inscription
records that Vikramaditya, though he defeated Nandivarman If
and occupied his capital for a time, did no damage to the city,
pleased its people by his liberal gifts, and restored to Kailasa-
natha and all other temples the heaps of gold that belonged to
them. It is reasonable to suppose that the conqueror carried
away with him some expert workmen who helped him adorn
his own capital with a replica of the temple he admired so much
in his rival’s capital.
In the far South, as has often been hinted before, the Pal-
lavas bridge the transition from rock-architecture to structural
stone temples, and their architecture and sculpture constitute a
most brilliant chapter in the history of Indian art. One remark-
able open air sculpture though not strictly in the line of temple
development, calls for special mention. It is found in Mamalla-
puram (vulgo MahSbalipuram ) , and, after having been long
known as Arjuna’s penance, is now generally taken to represent
the Descent of the Ganges (Gangavataraija) from Heaven to
104 Development of Religion in South India
Earth, in response to Bhaglratha’s penance and calculated to
redeem his ancestors from the curse of Kapila. 3 Whatever it may
be, this vast sculpture in high relief, nearly 30 yards long and
23 feet high covering the sea face of a cliff seems to have been
connected with a carefully designed system to supply the town
with fresh water drawn from the Palar river and distributed to
all parts of the port. There is a cascade in a natural fissure
in the middle of the rock in which a band of Nagas and Nagls
sport and symbolize the sacred waters, and on both sides are
sculptured figures of deities, human beings and animals of all
kinds approaching or facing the fissure in attitudes of adoration.
‘ In this wonderful relief ’, says Zimmer, ‘ as in the Indra relief
at Bhaja executed some centuries earlier, the rock transforms
itself into a telling procession of animated figures, drifting by,
fleetingly passing, like a flock of luminous clouds. The anony-
mous, undifferentiated substance ( prakrti ) manifests every kind
of being. The figures produced and animated by the divine
essence, the mirage personages of the cosmic dream of the God,
are radiant with a blind delight in life, the enchantment of the
spell of mayd. The heavenly couples of the gods and goddesses
are borne along lightly. They do not share the bulk and weight
of earthly creatures. They are made of subtle mind stuff ( suksma )
such stuff as composes the figures of our dreams and phantasies,
or the divine apparitions that come before the concentrated inner
vision of the yogi and devotee. They are angelic figures full of
sensual spirituality of a subtle, unearthly voluptuousness. Shining
forth from them is their delight in the glorious impalpability of
their bodies. Their corporeal incorporeality is a sublime form
of Maya. The melodious, musical character of bodily charm is
rendered through a delicate articulation and joyous vitality of
their limbs and contours. Distinctive bodily features are as far
as possible ignored ; the male and female figures resemble each
other as closely as sex difference permits ; they are like twin
brothers and sisters, conceived in the one spirit of subtle charm
and unearthly bliss \ 4
Among the free standing rock-cut rathas of Mamallapuram,
popularly known as the Seven Pagodas, the Dharmaraja is a
good example of the vihdra as against the caitya type. It is a
small square hall in the centre with pillared verandas below and
a pyramidal Mkhara above. Its plinth has many strong mouldings
and its porticos with lion pillars gfeatly improve the appearance.
Its niches carry superb sculptures of gods and princes, includ-
3 See the Ramayana, Cantos 38-44 of Balakan^a.
4 Myths and Symbols, pp. 120-21,
Religious Institutions
105
ing one of the earliest representations of Ardhanarisvara known
in the South. ‘This type of design’, says Brown, ‘is not only
an effective production in itself, but it is a storehouse of pleasing
forms and motifs, besides being replete with potentialities \
Among the structural stone temples of the Pallavas, the
most noteworthy are the Shore Temple at Mamallapuram, the
TalagirlSvara temple at Panamalai in South Arcot District —
(Skt Talagiri and Tamil — Panamalai both mean the Palm-
mountain), and the Kailasanatha and Vaikunthaperumai temples
at KancTpuram — all built in the eighth century. The imperial
Colas of Tanjore were the inheritors and continuators of the
Pallava traditions in temple construction. They built numberless
stone temples throughout their kingdom which extended over the
whole of South India below the Tungabhadra, but to the end
of the tenth century the structures were not very large. The
many small and medium-sized temples of the Pudukotfai region
enable us to trace clearly the transition from the Pallava to Cola
art forms in the different aspects of temple construction. In the
reign of Rajaraja I (985-1014) larger temples came into vogue,
and among these the most remarkable was the TiruvalTsvaram
in the Tiranelveli District, unique for the wealth and details of
the iconography of the superb sculptures on its Mharu or viinana
as it is called in the South. The maturity of Cola architecture
found its expression in the two temples in the Co]a capitals of
Tanjore and Gangaikondacojapuram, the former completed by
Rajaraja about 1010, and the latter twenty years later by his even
more illustrious son Rajendra I. The Cola style continued to
flourish for nearly two centuries more and expressed itself in a
very large number of temples, of which, however, only two can be
said to bear comparison with the great temples of the two capitals
already mentioned ; these are the Airavatcsvara at Darusuram
(Tanjore District) of the reign of Rajaraja II (1146-73), and
the Kampaharesvara at Tribhuvanam near Kumbakonam (also
in the Tanjore District) of the reign of Kulottunga 111 (1178-
1218).
The Coja period was also remarkable for its sculptures and
bronzes, many of which, are masterpieces of technical skill and
aesthetic excellence. Many complex pieces listed in the Tanjore
inscriptions as portraying scenes of Saiva hagiology have dis-
appeared, but quite a good number still survive and can be seen
not only in the temples of South India but in all the big museums
of the world that carry an Indian art section. Among these, the
images of Nataraja, Siva as the Cosmic Dancer, are in many ways
the most remarkable. Some of the best and biggest of these
106 Development of Religion in South India
Nataraja bronzes are still in worship and therefore inaccessible
to the art connoisseurs of the modern world. What Zimmer says
of the Nataraja bronzes is well worth reproduction : ‘ In these
figures the contrast of the blissfully dreaming silent countenance
with the passionate agility of the limbs represents, to those ready
to understand, the Absolute and its Maya as a single trans-dual
form. We and the Divine are one and the same precisely as the
vitality of these swaying limbs is one and the same with the
utter unconcern of the Dancer who flings them into play ’. 5
Under the Pandyas who followed the Cojas in the thirteenth
century in holding a supreme position in the Tamil country*
and the empire of Vijayanagar that followed them in the four-
teenth to seventeenth centuries, the builders began to divert their
attention to the outlying portions of the temple. They sought
to emphasize the sanctity of the shrine by making the entrances
to the enclosures containing it into vast towered gateways of
imposing size and appearance, and thus the gopuras (entrance
towers) came to form immense piles and provided a basis for
a wealth of sculptured embellishments. Generally the two lowest
storeys of the gopura are vertical and built of solid stone masonry,
a stable foundation for the high pyramidal superstructure of brick
and plaster. These gopuras are some of them firm and rigid in
their contours with straight sloping sides while others have some-
what curved and concave outlines imparting to them an impres-
sive upward sweep. In the latter class the sculpture is also of
a more florid character.
The temples built in the western Deccan under the Calukyas
of Kalyani (973-1250) developed features which received their
most mature expression in the Hoysala temples in Mysore. These
temples often had their principal entrances not at the front but
at the sides, and the decoration of their external walls with
architectural motifs dividing the wall into well proportioned
areas tended to be singularly graceful and restrained, while their
vimanas (sikharas) were a compromise between the plain, »
stepped storeys of the early Cajukyas and the closely moulded
tiers of the Hoysala style. The doorways, both at the entrance
and of the shrine-chamber, were very elaborately carved with
fine detail and finish. Among the numerous examples of this
style spread over the entire area of the Calukyan empire, the
temples of Ka£i Vi£ve£vara at Lakkund 1 *, of Mahadeva at Ittagi,
and of Mallikarjuna at Kuruvatti are perhaps the most
typical.
5 op. cit p. 156.
Religious Institutions
107
The builders of Hoysala temples invariably used a dark
stone of much finer grain than the large unwieldy blocks ot
sandstone used by the early Cal.ukyas. The change of material
made it possible for the masonry of the Mysore temples to be
better finished and the sculptures to be carved in more minute
and exquisite detail. In general, the Hoysala temple comprises
a central structure surrounded by walls containing a number of
cells with a pillared veranda or cloister in front The main
building contained the cella with a vestibule in front ( sukhamsi )
and connecting with a pillared hall ( navaranga ). In front of this
there was often an open pillared pavilion, the mukhamandapa.
In many cases, the Hoysala temples are not single but double,
having all essential parts duplicated ; indeed they are frequently
even built in triplicate, quadruplicate, and occasionally even
quintuplicate. Another notable feature was the star-shape of the
external walls of the main shrine, set on a high platform, the
sides of which project or recede with lines and angles parallel
to those of the building it supports. The platform is much wider
than the temple, leaving a flat surface all round to serve as the
pradaksina-patha (circumambulatory path) for which there is
no provision inside. The general treatment of wall surface is
marked by a large number of horizontal friezes imposed upon
one another. The walls of the sanctum are divided into three
horizontal divisions while those of the pillared hall have only
two ; but a wide continuous cornice binds the two parts of the
structure together. In both, a high and almost vertical basement,
nine or ten feet high, is made up of a number of sculptured
animal friezes running right round the building. The lowest band
is usually a procession of elephants ; the next of horsemen. Then
after another band of spiral foliage, and on a level with the eye,
is a wider frieze depicting a succession of Puranic scenes executed
with great effect and a considerable wealth of detail. Above
this is a border of yalis (mythical animals) with spirals^of foliage
issuing from their mouths, and crowning all is a frieze of hamsas
(swans). The basement of the pillared hall is terminated above
by a ‘ sloping seatback * ( dsana ) above which rise the external
pillars of the hall with their moulded shafts at regular intervals,
the spaces between the columns being filled by perforated
screens.
The three horizontal divisions of the sanctum are even more
ornate than the two of the hall. The basement which is conti-
nuous with that of the hall is just the same. Above it, the broad
square space corresponding to that taken up by the pillars and
screens of the hall is adorned with ornate niches containing
108 . Development of Religion in South India
images of gods under foliated canopies, each one so elaborately
chiselled (and often signed by the sculptor) as to constitute a
more or less distinctive work, The rich effect of all this statuary
is enhanced by the star shape of the structure which produces
vertical planes like facets and provides an abundant variety of
light and shade. The tikhara separated by the wide projecting
cornice from the body of the temple below keeps the stellate
formation, but its vertical lines are balanced by horizontal
mouldings so that the whole tower appears as an orderly succes-
sion of diminishing tiers terminating in a low finial having the
shape of a parasol at its apex. Miniature shrines and niches
adorn each of these tiers. These Hoysala temples of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries though basically developments of the
South Indian style, represent an art which applies to stone the
technique of the ivory worker or the goldsmith, and is comparable
to the art of the toranas (entrance gateways) of the great Sane!
stupa going back to the early centuries b.c. The wealth of
jewellery borne by many of the figures, the variety of head-
dresses and other details, are well calculated to give a fair idea
of the social life of the times. The temple of Hoysalesvara at
Hajeb'fd, now half in ruins and lacking its entire superstructure,
was perhaps the highest achievement of the school.
In the Kalinga kingdom (Orissa) many temples were built
from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries by the rulers of the
Eastern Ganga dynasty, all in the North Indian style. Bhuva-
nesvar contains the main group of over thirty temples ; but the
Jagannaih at Puri and the Sun temple at Konarak are the largest
and most important. There is also a small group to the south
of Mukhalingam on the coast of the Ganjam District ; this group
shows traces of both Cajukya and Gupta influences in its decora-
tive features. The Orissan temples are in general characterized
by the plain treatment of the interior contrasting strikingly with
the profusely ornamental surface of the exterior.
A variation of the Northern style flourished also in the north-
west of the Deccan from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries,
Ambamath in the Thana District, near Bombay, contains one
of the earliest examples (1060) ; the temple is delightfully
located by the side of a long deep pool ; its two essential parts
are both set diagonally astride the axis making an attractive plan
90 feet long and 75 feet wide ; the temple is covered with intri-
cate decoration of a lavish but tasteful design. In the latter part
of the thirteenth century and early fourteenth were built in the
same region a number of temples marked by their heavy propor-
tions and a scarcity of external figure sculpture ; they are known
Religious Institutions
109'
as Hemadpanti from Hemadri or Hemadpant, the celebrated
minister of the Yadavas of Devagiri, the reputed builder of
several of these edifices and author of an encyclopaedic digest of
religious and social laws known as Caturvarga-cintamani (the
wish yielding jewel of the four aims of human endeavour).
Examples of this style are found in the Berars also.
Under Vijayanagar (1336-1650) temple architecture and
sculpture attained a fulness and freedom of rich expression in
keeping with the general consciousness of the great task of the
empire ; namely the preservation and development of Hinduism
against the onslaughts of Islam. Temples now became very
elaborate both in structure and organization. Old temples were
amplified by the addition of pillared halls, pavilions and other
subordinate structures. The most notable of such additions was
the Kalyanamandapa (marriage-pavilion) generally placed on the
left in the courtyard of the temple as we enter it from the east.
This is a very ornate pillared structure, open on the sides, with
a raised platform in the centre for the reception of the deity
and his consort at the annual celebration of their marriage
ceremony. The goddesses invariably came to have separate
shrines of their own in the precincts in the temple, a development
which began in the late Cola period. Another feature was the
so-called 4 thousand-pillared mandapa’, a huge hall with many
rows of pillars. In fact the varied and complicated treatment
of the pillar was the most striking feature of the Vijayanagar
style. The shaft becomes just a core round which is grouped
a vast amount of statuary of great size, sculptured in the round ;
the most conspicuous element is a furiously rearing horse,
rampant hippogryph or other upraised animal of a supernatural
kind ; the whole of it, pillar and sculptures, is carved out of a
single block of stone. Another rarer type shows a cluster of
miniature pillars encircling the central column and so carved as
to give out, when struck, the seven different notes of Indian
music. The tall entrance towers, gdpuras f begun under the
Pandyas, were further developed in this period. Vijayanagar
buildings are scattered throughout the country south of Tunga-
bhadra, but the finest and the most characteristic group are still
to be found in the ruined capital city now known as Hampi.
The principal temples here are those of Vitthaia (Visnu) and
Hazara Rama. The former is by far the most ornate ; begun
in the first half of the fifteenth century, parts of the temple were
still under construction nearly a century later, and it was never
quite finished. The more modest but perfectly finished HazSra
Rama (Thousand R&mas) is most probably of the time of
110 Development of Religion in South India
Virupaksa II (1465-85) and scenes in relief from the Rama-
yarn decorate the inner walls. The last stages of Vijayanagar
art are known as the Madura style, the Nayaks of Madura being
their most reputed patrons. In some ways it was a revival and
continuation of the Pandyan style. We may note here in parti-
cular the provision of additional prakaras by means of concentric
outer walls of enclosure, each prakara wall having generally four
gopuras at the cardinal points, and enclosing important adjuncts
to the temple like a hall of thousand pillars, a sacred tank and
so on. Srirangam, for instance has seven such concentric
rectangular enclosures, the outermost one being 2,880 feet by
2,475. There is also a tendency to multiply the pillars wherever
possible, and some of them begin to bear on their shafts more
than life-size statues of deities or donors including ruling princes
and their consorts.
The temple of Madura is, perhaps, the most typical of the
Nayak style, though Srirangam and JambukeSvaram — both on
an island in the river Kaverl near Trichinopoly, Tiruvannamalai,
Ramesvaram, Cidambaram, Tinnevelly, Srlvilliputtur and Tiru-
valur are also well known. The Madura temple is a double
structure, one dedicated to Siva as Sundaresvar (the beautiful
Lord) and the other to his consort Minak§I (the fish eyed
goddess) ; the two shrines take the largest space inside the main
enclosure, an area 850 feet by 725 feet within a high wall, with
four large gopuras towards the centre of each of its four sides.
Outside the main enclosure but in axial alignment with the
eastern gbpura and separated from it by a street is the Pudu-
maridapam (New Pavilion) known also as Tirumalai’s choultry.
This is a large open hall 350 feet by 105 feet, divided longitudi-
nally into a nave and two aisles by four rows of pillars, all very
elaborately carved. The pillars towards the centre of the hall
bear life size statues of the Nayak kings of Madura, the latest
being that of Tirumalai Nayak, the builder of the mandapa. The
temple of Ramesvaram, planned and constructed on a unitary
plan like the Madura temple, is remarkable for its impressive
pillared corridors which completely surround it besides forming
avenues leading up to it. These passages vary in width from
17 to 21 feet and are about 25 feet high ; their total length is
estimated to be about 3,000 feet.
A word may now be said about the main image in the
sanctum (garbhagrha) of the temple and the disposition of sub-
sidiary deities in relation to it. The main image {mula vigraha')
in a Siva temple is usually a Linga while in a Vai§nava temple
it is usually one of Vi?nu’s manifestations ( avatars ) or Visnu
Religious Institutions
111
himself modelled according to one of the many monographic
forms prescribed in the Agamas. In a temple dedicated to other
deities like Kali, Durga, Subrahmanya etc. it is their respective
icons that form the main image. All temples of any size contain
shrines of subsidiary divinities connected in some way or other
with the mythology of the central deity. These minor gods are
enshrined either in subshrines erected in the same enclosure as
the main temple, or in niches on the exterior of the walls of the
garbhagraha. The positions of the sub-shrines and niches for
these deities are prescribed in detail in the Agama texts. The
vimdnus ( sikharas ) over these minor shrines should in no case
exceed half the height of the vimana over the sanctum. In the
course of centuries the number and description of the minor
deities, and even their location in relation to the Central deity
underwent changes, and it is easy to find differences in these
matters between different localities and centuries. To give one
instance : in the SundareSvara (Siva) temple at Tirukkaftalai in
the Pudukkottai area, built circa 850 a.d., there are seven sub-
shrines dedicated respectively to Surya, the Saptamatjkas (seven
mothers), GaneSa, Subrahmanya, Jye$fha — the elder sister of
Lak§mi and usually regarded as the goddess of ill-luck and
sought to be propitiated for that very reason, Candra, and
Candikesvara. The multiplicity of subshrines is a characteristic
of early Cola temples. In course of time the Saptamatfkas and
Jyestha, and in some instances Surya and Candra also are omitted,
and new gods brought in in thei: places like Harihara, Daksina-
murti, Nataraja, or any of the canonized saints. The Devi came
to have a separate shrine to the north-west of the main shrine
from the eleventh century. The temples of Subrahmanya have
generally eight, twelve, sixteen or thirty-two parivara devatds
(subsidiary deities). Planets and R§is also appear among such
devatds in the later temples, and there are always local legends
( sthalapurdnas ) to account for their presence.
Repair and renovation of temples have continuously engaged
the attention of princes and nobles, and failing them, the general
public, at subsequent times. No new temples comparable in size
or art to those of earlier periods have come up. Some new
temples, relatively modest structures, use new material like
cement concrete blocks and conform more to modern ideas of
lighting and ventilation caring little for the ‘ dim religious light *
bordering on semi-darkness even in broad daylight characteristic
of the temples in the older tradition. Several temples have lost
their ancient land endowments, and got instead a relatively
meagre money allowance for their use from government. Govern-
112 Development of Religion in South India
ment also seeks now to control and regulate the administration 1
of Hindu Religious Endowments which are still of considerable
size.
Hinduism is still a live force and there is no sign of its hold
on the minds of the bulk of the population weakening in any
way as a result of the impact of modern science and technology.
Famous shrines like Tirupati, Srlrangam, Srlsailam, Raraesvaram
and Pandbarpur (Mahara§tra) continue to attract pilgrims in
large numbers throughout the year, and collect a large revenue
in the shape of offerings from devotees. The practice is growing
of diverting the temple surpluses to modern secular uses parti-
cularly in the educational sphere such as scholarships to
deserving poor students, feeding them, or even making substantial
annual contributions towards the maintenance of schools, colleges
and, in some instance, even universities. The temple continues
to occupy an important place in the social life of the surrounding
community. Its daily routine, including the recitals of sacred
texts and hymns during the daily pufas and on a larger scale on
festive occasions, engages the attention and provides the means
of livelihood of thousands in the country. Expositions of epics
and puranas, and dance, drama and music have not altogether
lost their traditional association with the temple, though they are
finding other and perhaps more popular and therefore lucrative
avenues in the growing cities of the land.
Before we take leave of temples and their organization, a
brief reference to the different classes of temple priests will not
be out of place. As a rule Brahmin priests who conduct worship
in temples are socially not as high up as the other Brahmins who
devote themselves to the practice of domestic ritual and sacrifice
on Vcdic lines (the footriyas as they are called) and pursue careers
of learning and teaching or even state service and other occupa-
tions. The SmSrta and Vai§nava priests recognize the three chief
gods (Trimurti) Brahma, Vi$pu and Siva, though the active
worship of the first is not much in vogue, Brahma figuring more
often only as a subsidiary deity on the exterior of the walls of
the sanctum in Siva temples. The Saivas, however, at least some
sections of them, hold Siva to be the only god. Both Saivas and
Vaisnavas attribute personality and qualities to the Supreme
Being and all temple worship is directed to him. The priests in
Siva temples are generally known as Gurukkal and those of
Vi§nu temples as Arcakas, Pancaratra or Vaikhanasa as the case
may be. In Vi§mi temples Brahmins repeat the Veda and
Tiruvdymoli during worship, while in Siva temples though the
Veda is recited by Brahmins, the Devdram, or Tiruppadigam
Religious Institutions
113
as it is described sometimes, is recited, generally to the accom-
paniment of music, by oduvar (reciters) who are generally
panddrams (non-Brahmin priests, of whom, more presently)
specially trained in schools maintained for the purpose. The
temples generally have a fixed image of stone, wood, or stucco
in the sanctum ( mula vigraha) which receives the main daily
worship, and an utsava vigraha (festival image) of metal which is
also offered daily worship but which is meant primarily for being
taken on processions during festival days. Temples of any size
have usually an annual festival for about ten days, the Brahmdt-
sava, which generally ends with a car festival ( rathotsava ) in
which the metal image is set upon a big wooden car which is
dragged along the streets surrounding the temple by the people
of the township, all castes joining in the task. The Pancaratra
worship may be conducted by any Brahmin priest, but the
Vaikhanasa only by arcakas specially trained to it TulaM
(basil) is specially sacred to Vi§nu and bilva (bael) leaves to
giva. Brahmins generally ignore the lower deities, though for
gaining particular ends they occasionally offer special worship
to some of them in forms prescribed by astrologers or adepts in
the occult lore (mantravadis) . Thurston has listed no fewer
than twelve divisions or sub-groups among the Smarta Brahmins,
four among Vadagalai Vai?navas and six of the Tengalai group.
In the Deccan under the Calukyas of Badami and the
Ra?trakutas (750-950) both Saivism and Vai?navism flourished,
the former being perhaps the more favoured creed. For the
temples they erected at Badami, Pattadakal, Mahakuta, EllSra
and elsewhere, they imported Saiva arcakas (temple priests)
from among the acaryas on the banks of the Ganges, and richly
endowed the daily worship and the periodical festivals to be
conducted by them. At the same time Vedic sacrifices were not
neglected, vratas (religious vows) were observed, and danas
(gifts) made. The worship of Karttikeya attained much pro-
minence in the Bellary region in the tenth century, and two
tapovanas (penance groves) were dedicated to him as the
supreme- deity, a development initiated by some teachers from
Bengal (Gau^adesa) as recorded in contemporary inscriptions.
It is possible that several other facts like these have escaped the
records, and that developments in Hindu religious practices in
different parts of India reacted on one another much more
intimately than we realize from the extant sources.
The DIkgitars of Cidambaram claim to have come down
from Benares, three thousand of them including their leader who
was no other than lord Siva-Nataraja Himself, and settled in
8
114 Development of Religion in South India
Cidambaram, They enjoyed the prerogative in olden days of
crowning the Cola emperors. They wear a top knot of hair on
their head in front like the Nayar and Nambudiri of the West
Coast. They take turns in the service of the Nataraja temple and
live on the perquisites of the temple which they own and manage.
They marry early in order to qualify for a share in the perqui-
sites. The temple has no lands, government grants or endow-
ments ; but the* regular flow of gifts of devotees from all grades
of society enables it to be fully supplied with sumptuous food
offerings both during daily worship and on special festivals.
There are at present about 250 shares claimed by the DIk§itars.
The temple is exceptional in this respect, as Siva temples usually
distribute only holy ashes as prasadam (lit. grace) unlike Vi§nu
temples where tasteful food of different kinds is regularly offered
to the deity and then distributed among the worshippers. Twenty
Dlksitars are always on duty for twenty days at a time, and
perform their function in five parlies of four doing the pujd for
four days each in the different shrines. The Dlksitars claim this
monopoly of worship for themselves and do not permit even the
Sankara-acaryas (successors of the great founder of Advaita) to
offer worship to the deity directly — a privilege which they enjoy
in every other temple.
Similar to the Dlksitars in some ways, but very different
from them, are the Soliyars who are in charge of the Tiruvanaikka
temple and of whom there are six sections. They wear front
locks and take turns in the puja like the DTk$itars. Like the
Gurukkajs they have an initiation {diksa) enabling them to enter
on their duties as piijdris or arcakas , but otherwise have little
general education. They count about 300, men and women and
children, and the arcakas do not intermarry with other Sofiyars.
Another group of Soliyars are in another shrine Avudaiyarkoyil.
CS^akya is believed to have been a Soliya and a Tamil proverb
says that the tuft of a Soliya doe_s not shake in vain, implying
that his exertion is never wasted but invariably has a puipose
which it generally achieves. Other priestly sections with
noticeable peculiarities of their own are the Mukkanis of Tiru-
ccendur, Cochin and Travancore ; the Sanketis of Mysore who
speak a strange mixture of Tamil and Kannada, and the Aradhyas
of Northern Circars, found also to a less extent in Cuddapah,
Kurnool and Mysore, who wear both the sacred thread and the
linga and worship Gapapati.
The Paqdarams who have been briefly mentioned before
are the most important among the non-brahmin temple priests.
They are recruited from among the Saiva Sudras and are known
Religious Institutions
115
-to drink liquor and eat meat furnished by any respectable Sudra.
Tirattani (Chittoor District) is an important centre for them.
■One section among them known as Tirumanjana (bathing)
pandarams bring water for bathing the deities in temples.
Tambirans form another section who act as managers of temples
and heads of mathas .
There is another caste also known as Pandarams who are
staunch Saivas and strict vegetarians, lead a celibate life, wear
the lingam, and accept initiation from Diksitars. There are two
classes among them distinguished by the epithets abki$eka
(corresponding to Tirumanjana) and deMka. There are also
mendicants drawn from all castes who eat meat. The Lingayat
pandarams are different from the true Lingayats who venerate
the Jangam (ascetic) and use water with which his feet have
been washed for abhiseka to the lingam, and observe no pollu-
tion — all respects in which they differ from Tamil Lingayats.
Several derivations have been suggested for the word Pandaram
in this context — one tracing it to Panduranga, another to
Bhandara (treasury) and a third to a yellow powder called
pandaram kept in a little box and given in exchange for alms ;
but the powder may well have got its name from its users. In
some Siva temples Brahmins function under the control of a
Pandaram who is the head of the organization. It is a question
if the Pandarams are or are not Lingayats . There are numerous
married Pandarams who have kudumi (tuft), and wear ashes
and sandal pottu ( tilak ) on the forehead ; the less numerous
celibates wear orange robes (Mfdya), carry iron tridents ( trifrda )
and dandayudha (lit. stick-weapon) and sing popular Tamil
hymns. Married men also beg with a bell metal gong and a
wooden mallet. Both classes bury the dead and erect a linga
on the burial spot. The Pandara Sannidhis, heads of Maths ,
are celibate and scholarly, being well versed in Puranas and
Agamas. They are the Tambirans proper ; but the title is often
usurped by uneducated beggars ; the Vairavis are a sub-caste of
Pandaram.
The Palps or Vanniyans claim descent from the K§atriyas
■of Agnikula (fire-race) and Pallavas. Kulagekhara alvar is said
to have been the king of the caste. The Pallis have an annual
ceremony in the Parthasarathi temple in Triplicane (Madras)
and some other temples ; and make camphor offerings in the
Mylapore Siva temple. There is a Papigopuram in the Ekamra-
nathar temple at Kanclpuram. Vanni is the name of a District
in N.E. Ceylon, and Sambhus and Sambuvarayas (mediaeval
-chieftains) are said to have been connected with them. To the
116
Development of Religion in South India
Vanniyans belongs the privilege of fire-walking in the temple at
Tirupporur near Madras. They are priests in the Draupadi.
temples in South Arcot District, Draupadi being the common
wife of the five Pandava heroes of the Mahabharata, currently
worshipped as a goddess in the * Little Tradition 5 ; in these
temples fire-walking and recital of a part of the Great Epic
(Mahabharata) are part of the Draupadi festivals both here and
in Madras city. Some sections of Vanniyas wear the sacred
thread and even claim to be Brahmins, forbid widow remarriage
and are vegetarians. Palli Poligars, feudal chieftains, with high-
sounding titles were known. The Pallis of Kumalam, a village
in S. Arcot, are known as Kovilar (templars) and priests of the
PaUis ; like the Bhatfar (priest) Brahmins they are well versed
in temple ritual, and the Veda ; they claim to be K?atriyas and
adopt the titles of Rayar, Nayakkar, Varma, Padaiyacci, Kandar
etc. ; others call them Kumalam Brahmins. They belong to the
left hand section of castes , 6 and are generally Saivas or Vai§na-
vas ; but they also practise dcmonolatry, and worship village
deities like Mutyalamma, Mariyamma, Ayyanar, MunTsvara etc.
Sakti worship with bloody sacrifices is also known. They use
the Karagam, a pile of seven pots set one upon another and
decorated with flowers and garlands, in their festivals. They
practise both burial and cremation. The Pagans, a division of
Pa^aiya (drummers) are said to be related to them.
By the side of the temple, the matha (monastery) which
corresponded to the vihdra of Buddhism, was an important
institution basically religious, but with many ramifications in the
intellectual and economic life of contemporary society. The life
of the ascetic had a strong appeal to the imagination of the
people, and one of the most common forms of religious charity
was to provide for the feeding, regular or occasional, of ascetics
in temples or mafhas. Vai$navism was on the whole moderate
in its practice of the ascetic ideal, and did not give rise to the
bizarre manifestations of it associated with Saivism. The
Vai$nava endowments generally provided for the feeding of Sri
Vai?$avas and tddar (dasas) or of Brahmins who had a perfect
mastery of the Veda. The dasas are itinerant Vai$nava mendi-
cants, reinforced by idle Sudras, branded by gurus of the Tirupati
and other shrines as dasas; they sing sacred songs and keep
young bulls trained to perform tricks. They are generally Ten-
6 In South India the Castes were grouped as two confederations, so
to say, of the Right Hand and Left Hand, and the differences among
them, generally over religious or social trifles, often led to violence as is
seen from frequent entries m the Records of Fort St. George (Madras)
Religious Institutions
117
•galais and wear garlands of tulasi (basil) beads; there are six
subdivisions among them who neither eat together nor inter-
marry. Tradition avers that Sankara found the Vedantic ascetic
orders in confusion and regulated them, dividing them into ten
groups each placed under one of his disciples and named after
them ; all of them came thenceforth to be known as Dasnamis,
Sanyasis of ten names . 7 There are also Sanyasinis (nuns).
Srngeri matha of which Sankara was himself the head is the chief
monastery, and its ruler is the supreme pontiff of all advaita
sanyasis. It may be noted that the dualist Madhva Sanyasis also
adopt these ten suffixes, Madhva himself being a Tlrtha. Sri-
vai?nava sanyasis, an order to which only Brahmins are admitted,
carry a triple dat)da in contrast to the single dandz of the advaita
sanyasis, and hence they are respectively known as Tridandis
and Ekadandis . Saivism was in marked contrast with the
Advaita of Sankara.
The ascetics owned no property themselves but their mafias
often owned vast estates earmarked for their maintenance and
the encouragement of learning and the arts. The climate of
opinion has always been favourable to the ascetic ideal and a
fair, though varying proportion of the population has at all times
taken to the life of pious, if not uneasy, poverty. All religious
systems applauded it. The well-to-do householder has ever been
ready to make gifts ( dana ) to the orders, because he was assured
of a good berth in the other world as much for his dana as the
ascetic for his renunciation and austerity. There was no doubt
many a hoax masquerading under the garb of asceticism who
often became the butt of a good joke among the populace whose
shrewd common sense got at the truth in such cases. But it is
only very recently that in the name of economics we have come
to look upon each man as a hand and a mendicant as an idle
hand; By and large, the ascetic ideal did much good to the
people by stressing the higher values of the spirit and by giving
them a ready-made philosophy with which to face the hard
realities of life. It is still cherished by the masses of the people
in the villages, though perhaps not so much in the big cities.
Tire history of the mafias and guhais (as they are some-
times called in the inscriptions) has not been studied as much
as it deserves to be, and cannot be pursued here in any detail.
Their origin is definitely some centuries anterior to the reign of
Rajaraja I, but their number and influence steadily increased
under him and his successors. Starting from important centres
7 The ten names are : Tirlha, Asrama, Sarasvati, Bharati, Vana,
Aranya, Parvata, Sagara, Giri and Puri.
118 Development of Religion in South India
where one or more mathas were established in the first instance,,
the movement spread all over the land until almost every
important temple came to possess one or more mathas function-
ing in close proximity to it. In course of time they grouped,
themselves around a limited number of santdnas or successions
of gurus , each having a central matha which was looked up to
for guidance by a number of subordinate mathas in different
places. Many of these, the Tamil Saiva mathas proper, were
confined to the Tamil country. Others, however, maintained
Voider contacts and prided themselves on their connection with
Aryadesam (North India), Banaras, or even Kashmir. Some
Northern mathas like the Golaki commanded a considerable
following in the South. Both epigraphy and tradition point to
a fairly large immigration of Bhattas from North India to
important religious centres in the South, particularly to Srlran-
gam ; immigrants from Kashmir (Kagmlradesam) are specially
mentioned in Srirangam as in other places in the Chingleput
and Ramnad Districts. Generally the mathas which maintained
their North Indian contacts belonged to the various schools of
Pa&ipatas, Kapalikas and so on. Mathas often helped religious
pilgrims in their progress from one shrine to another by supplying
salt, medical help and other specific services as required, and
there were endowments ear-marked for these services. The
mathas , like the temple, had a strong multi-purpose social side
to their work and the ascetics inhabiting them often devoted
themselves to feeding the hungry, tending the sick, consoling the
dejected, and educating the young ones ; in the process several
Buddhist shrines and vihdras were turned to Hindu uses when
Buddhism ceased to be an active force in the land.
The mathas are still continuing to be active agencies for the
promotion of traditional learning and social welfare. Modern
conditions are perhaps growing steadily adverse to their work
and outlook, and the State has begun to claim and exercise the
right of supervision and control of all religious endowments by
legislation and executive action. Even in ancient days surplus
funds owned by these institutions were invested with merchants
for fixed rates of interest or advanced as working capital to agri-
culturists on agreed terms ; there is therefore no new principle
involved in the diversion of surplus funds to modem uses like
the award of scholarships to pupils in modern schools and col-
leges, and even supporting the institutions themselves, provided
the main activities for which the mathas were originally meant
and which they are still keen on carrying out are not starved on
this account. Among the mathas still actively functioning in
Religious Institutions
119
South India may be mentioned : the Advaita mathas of Srngeri
and KancI, the Vaisnava mathas of Ahobalam (Kurnool) and
Parakala (Mysore), both Vadagalai; those of Vanamamalai
(Tirunelveli District), Srlperumbudur (Chingleput District) and
Tirukoyilur (S. Arcot) — all Tengalai ; the Madhva mathas
include the Kr§na Matha at Udipi (South Kanara District) with
its eight branches, the Vyasaraya Matha, the Uttaradi Matha and
the Raghavendraswami Matha ; and among the Tamil Saiva
Mathas those of Tiruvaduturai, Dharmapuram and Tiruppanan-
da], all in the Tanjore District. In their turn the mathas are try-
ing to take account of the impact of modem forces and move
with the times, but without in any way departing from their
original raison d'etre. They seek to combine a modicum of
modern studies with traditional studies in the educational insti-
tutions in their charge. They seek to distinguish the essentials
of religion from the externals, and bring about a common under-
standing and co-operation among mathas of different schools —
a thing undreamt of in the old order. They seek to check the
forces of division in the Hindu fold and secure a fresh and vital
unity on a ground of social philosophy and ethics commonly
accepted by them. It is too soon to judge the results of these
reformist endeavours.
VII. MOVEMENTS AFTER A.D. 1000 : THE ROLE OF
VIJAYANAGAR (1336-1650) : REFORM AND MODERN
HINDUISM
Under the Cojas of the house of Vijayalaya (acc. 850 a.d.)
may be said to commence the Silver Age of South Indian
Hinduism. Precise dates are difficult in the present state of the
evidence ; but we may still be reasonably certain that the sacred
hymns of the ndyanars and alyars, in many ways the most
characteristic product of Tamil religious experience, were
arranged in canonical form sometime in the eleventh century.
Nambi Andar Nambi, the author who arranged the Saiva
canon substantially in the form in which we now find it, was
most probably a contemporary of Rajaraja I (985-1014) and
his son Rajendra I (1014-44). The account of his life and work
given in a short Tamil Puranam attributed to Umapati Siva
Acarya (early fourteenth century) seems to conserve, in the
midst of many legends, a fairly correct account of the growth
of the canon in the hands of Nambi himself and his successors.
The inclusion in the canon of Nambi’s own poems and those
of other writers (e.g. Karuvur Devar) manifestly later than
Rajaraja’s time, and the titles Abhaya (fearless) and KulaSekhara
(head ornament of the family) given by Umapati to the Cola
king who was Nambi’s contemporary, may well imply a later
date for the redaction of the canon. Even in Nambi’s time
difficulty was felt in making the collection complete as may be
seen from the hymn of Jnanasambandar on Tiruvidaivayil which
finds no place in the canon but is found engraved on stone in
the temple concerned ; as is common in such conditions in India,
a legend was invented to cover up the incompleteness of the
collection, and it was said that the bulk of the palm leaves on
which the poems had been written had been destroyed by
termites in their original store room behind the Nataraja temple
at Cidambaram.
The practice of reciting these hymns in temples had come
into vogue long before the time of Rajaraja from the late Pallava
period when the inscriptions begin to- include the reciters among
the regular employees of the temple. The inference is clear
that the hymns had gained the status of divine literature by that
Movements after a.d. 1000 121
.time. From the time of Parantaka I (907-55) Cola there is a
regular series of endowments recorded in the epigraphs of the
Cola — and Tondaimandalams (i.e. roughly Madras, Chingleput,
S. Arcot, Tanjore and Trichinopoly Districts) for the recitation
of these hymns in temples to the accompaniment of instrumental
music. The mention of a Devaranayakam, Superintendent of
Devaram, in the reign of Rajendra I, implies a regular State
department regulating this work and securing its proper perform-
ance ; the same department may have looked after the dance
and music performances in temples which were also often
separately endowed.
Lyrical hymnology continued to flourish in the early im-
perial Cola period, and Pajtinattu Pillai, who probably lived in
the tenth century, was the author of some beautiful devotional
verse. Pattinam or Kaveri-ppum-pattinam was the place of his
birth and hence his name meaning the Pillai (son) who belonged
to Pattinam. His hymns are five in number ; which along with
the work of ten minor authors and the ten hymns of Nambi
Andar Nambi himself constitute the eleventh book of the Saiva
canon. The Tiruttondar Puranam or Periya Puranam of Sek-
kijar, a long hagiology in epic style composed in the reign of
Kulottunga II (1133-50) constitutes the twelfth and last book
of the Canon. To complete the account of the Saiva canon, it
may be noted that the ninth book comprises hymns by nine
authors. Among them figures a Cola king Gaudaraditya (Sun
among heroes), son of Parantaka I ; both he and his queen
Sembiyan Mahadevi (the great queen of the Coja) have a better
place in religious than in political history. We must also notice
Karuvur Devar (the lord of Karuvur, the place of his birth, in
Trichinopoly District) who is reputed to have been Rajaraja’s
spiritual adviser and who has hymns on the temples of Adit-
yeSvara in Tirukkalandai, the Great Temple of Tanjore, and
its counterpart in Gangaikondacojapuram — all constructions of
the Cola kings more or less contemporary with Karuvur Devar.
In the hymns of the ninth book, the largest number celebrate
Koyil (Cidambaram),
The history of Vai?pava hymnology in the period is quite
similar. Tradition confers upon Nathamuni, RanganEthamuni is
the full name, the honour of having done for Vai^ava lyrics
what Nambi Andar Nambi achieved for the Saiva ones. The
Anbil copper plate grant of Sundara Coja’s reign (956-73)
mentions a Srlnatha ; he may well be the same as the Vai?$ava
saint Nathamuni (i.e. Saint Natha) who thus finds a place early
in the tenth century. This record provides a good glimpse into
122 Development of Religion in South India
the role of Vaignavism in the social life of the time, for it bears,
testimony to the strong Vai§navism of the family of Aniruddha,.
the minister of Parantaka II Sundara Cola ; the glory of Anirud-
dha’s father was his great learning and the number of his pupils ;
Aniruddha’s mother and her father were staunch devotees of
God Ranganatha; his great grandfather Ananta extended con-
siderable support to the poor and the indigent. Nathamuni was
the first of the great succession of Acaryas who carried forward
and completed the work started by the Alvars of an earlier time.
His birth place was Viranarayanapuram (South Arcot District)
the place is now known as Kattu-mannar-koyil (i.e. the temple
of Kr§na in the forest) , perhaps the original name of the village ;
ViranSrayana was a title of Co}a Parantaka I (907-55) as also>
of a slightly earlier Paiidya king, a contemporary of the father
of Parantaka I ; we may therefore assume that Nathamuni
belongs to the late ninth or early tenth century. The story is.
that Nathamuni once heard some visitors to his place from Kuril-
gur (Tirunelveli District) recite a hymn of ten verses from the
Tiruvaymoli, the 1000 hymns composed by Sathakopa, also*
called Nammalvar. Captivated by the melody of the hymn and
noticing from its last verse that it comprised only ten out of a
thousand verses composed by Nammalvar, Nathamuni undertook
a journey to Kurugur, the birth place of Nammalvar, in the hope
of discovering the whole collection there. Kurugur, it may be
mentioned by the way, has the alternative name of Alvar-Tiru-
nagari, the sacred city of the alvar , in memory of the great saint
and composer. After worshipping Visnu in that city, Nathamuni
resorted to the foot of the sacred tamarind tree of the place in*
his desire to meet the alvar ; great was his grief and disappoint-
ment when he found his yogic powers unequal to the task of
invoking a vision of Sathakopa (Nammaiv&r). He then adopted
the plan of reciting 12,000 times the hymn of Madhurakavi (lit.
sweet poet) on his guru Sathakopa ; pleased by this, both Satha-
kopa and Madhurakavi appeared before Nathamuni and imparted
to him the knowledge of the works of Sathakopa with their full
import together with all the rest of the hymns. Thereafter
Nathamuni stayed at Kurugur meditating upon the new know-
ledge he had acquired until he was summoned by Vlranarayana
Krs^a, the god of his native place, to go back to it. There he
collected a band of disciples and made them sing these hymns,
to divine tunes. All this is, of course, legend, but typical of the*
Indian way of keeping fresh the memory of great men and their
deeds. We may infer surely that the Vai§pava canon was
arranged and its musical modes settled by the first great Acaryai
Movements after a.d. 1000
125
of the second great division in the history of Vai§navism in
South India, the one that falls between the creative age when
the hymns were sung and that of the great commentators who-
came long after Ramanuja. We have epigraphic evidence that
at least from the time of Rajaraja I Cola the hymns were recited
in Visnu temples during worship and in festivals just as the Saiva
hymns were recited in Siva temples. One inscription of a.d. 1242
mentions a choir of fifty-eight Brahmins reciting Tirumoli (sacred
word, short form of Tiruvdymoli) in Kanclpuram.
Besides arranging the Tamil canon, Nathamuni wrote a
number of works in Sanskrit expressing the clear need he felt
for the support and guidance of a living God, and pointing the
way to a philosophical justification of the path of love ( bhakti ) .
His grandson Alavandar, also called Yamunacarya in memory
of his visits to the sacred spots of Kr§na’s youth on the banks
of the Yamuna (Jamna) river, was the next great name in the
succession before Ramanuja. In his early years he was a man
of the world, but a follower of Nathamuni called him to the
higher life. He then turned ascetic and led the life of a religious
teacher, gathering disciples round him and preaching, writing
and conducting debates. In his Sanskrit writings, often cited by
Ramanuja, ‘he sought to establish the real existence of the
supreme soul, and the eternal independence of the individual
soul k 1 Yamunacarya is said to have met Ramanuja as a young
student studying in KancI the philosophy of Sankara ; but
unwilling to disturb his studies, he simply uttered a prayer for
the increase of Vai§navas and went back to Srirangam, Then
Ramanuja developed differences with his guru Yadava Prakasa
which led him to the Srlrangam school of philosophy.
In religion, as in politics, the age of the Imperial Co] as
(950-1250) was marked by a notable expansion of external
contacts and a remarkable mutual tolerance and respect among
the different religious denominations as a rule. An important
exception is the persecution of Ramanuja and his followers by
some of the later CoJas, of which Vaispava tradition has pre-
served a rather vivid memory. Rajendra I (1014-42) provided
for the annual supply of a large quantity of grain as acdryabhfigct
to Udaiyar Sarva Siva Pandita, who was performing worship in
the Tanjore temple, and his pupils, and their pupils, whether
they lived in the Aryadesa, Madhyadesa or Gaudadeia. In 1214
we find the Kolla-matha of Benares represented by its disciples
in the Chingleput District in the Santana of Lak$adhyaya
1 ‘ Perpetuity which is a form of time is different from eternity which
is timelessness ’ — Radhakrishnan, The Brahmasiitra (1960), p. 185.
124 Development of Religion in South India
Iravalar ; the Bhiksa matha of Benares is likewise represented
in the Tanjore District three years later. There is also a tradi-
tion that Rajendra I imported large numbers of Saivas from the
banks of the Ganges and established them in several parts in
the Co|a country. The kings as a rule patronized all persuasions
without discrimination. The sculptures of Rajaraja’s Great
Temple in Tanjore include both Vai^nava and Buddhist themes.
His sister Kundavai built three temples- — -one to Siva, one to
Vi$nu and a third to Jina — all in one place Rajarajapuram
(now Dadapuram) in the Tanjore District, and her gifts to all
these shrines are recorded in one inscription ; it contains one of
the earliest known references to several namams , (the Vai?nava
caste-mark) made of gold, in the list of jewels of the Visnu
temple. Many temples contained shrines both of Siva and Visnu,
the most conspicuous instance being the Cidambaram (South
Arcot) temple ; the relative positions of Nataraja (Siva) and
Govindaraja (Visnu) in this temple is brought out with great
precision in a verse in the Tirukkovaiydr (attributed to Manikka-
vaSagar) which depicts Visnu as lying in front of Nataraja,
absorbed in the contemplation of the foot lifted in his dance
by Nataraja (the lord of the Dance) and supplicating him for
a view of the other foot as well. In later times this proximity
*of the deities led to acrimonious disputes between the devotees
in which Govindaraja was pulled out of his place by Kulottunga II
(1133-50) and thrown into the sea; the image was restored to
its place in the reign of Acyuta Raya in the Vijayanagar period,
and in more recent times became the subject of litigation in
courts of law when the renovation of the two shrines was in
progress. 2 The history of the two shrines thus briefly summa-
rized furnishes a conspicuous instance of the difference to prac-
tical life made by religion proper and religions as sects. It would
be wrong to infer, however, that all was narrow sectarianism after
Kulottunga II. In the short reign of Adhirajendra (1067-70)
we find an inscription recording the rebuilding in stone of a
shrine of Varadaraja (Vi§nu) originally built of brick by
Koccoja in the precincts of a Siva temple at Tiruvakkarai (South
Arcot District). This late reference to Koccola i.e. Cola Sen-
ga$an (Red-eye) having built a Visnu temple is remarkable,
because the great Vai§pava saint Tirumangai has praised that
king in his hymns for having constructed seventy beautiful
temples dedicated to fh: r' 1 *:-- "\\1 Isa (i.e. Siva). Senganan
lived in the interval ivi.\ of the Sangam age and
2 T. V. Mahalingam : Administration and Social Life under Vijaya-
nagar, p. 325, n. 86. '
Movements after a.d. 1000
125
the Hindu revival of the Pallava times (seventh, century). At
that time Hinduism was still an attitude to life as a whole and
had not lost itself in the arid desert of sectarian rivalries. But
at all times, even in the worst days of sectarianism, there were
some, perhaps a very small minority, wedded to true religion
and rising above the narrow sectarianism of the day.
The role of Vijayanagar as the defender of Hinduism in
the South against Islam has been stressed more than once already.
The foundation of the empire was the culmination of a strong
wave of religious revival and political excitement caused by the
Sultanate of Delhi seeking to impose its sway on the Deccan
and farther south in the early fourteenth century. The first rulers
of Vijayanagar proclaimed their special mission to the world,
among other things, by commissioning a syndicate of scholars
headed by Sayaiia Acarya to compose commentaries on the entire
Veda, and this monumental work which has survived almost in
its entirety has been appraised differently by different Western
scholars who have taken to vedic studies on modem philological
lines. An earlier commentary on the Rgveda known as Rgartha
dipika (light on the meaning of Rks) and composed by Venkata
Madhava on the banks of the Kaverl river, likewise coincided
with the inauguration of the Cola empire in the tenth century
under Parantaka I. Again, Sayapa’s brother Madhava was ano-
ther prolific author whose works command great authority even
now. His commentary on Para&arasmrti known as Paratora
MadhavTyam is an erudite work which restates the social code
and includes an independent treatise on Vyavahara (secular law)
which was neglected in the original text of ParaSara. He also
wrote the Jaimimya Nyaya maid (the garland of the rules of
Jaimini) and its Vistara (explanation), an abstract in verse and
an explanation in prose of the subject matter of each section of
Sabarasvdmirts bhdyya on the Mlmamsa-sutras of Jaimini. His
Sarvctrdarsana-sangraha gave a succinct survey of the principal
systems of philosophy including several non-vedic systems. His
Dhdtuvrtti , a commentary on the Dhdtupdtha (list of roots)
ascribed to Panini is a distinct contribution to Sanskrit linguistics
and suggests the derivation of quite a large number of words
whose origin is not given in any other work.
Vaisnava. tradition preserved in the Snrangam temple
chronicle known as Koyil-olugu (chronicle of the temple) and
other works avers that the Ranganatha temple of Srlrangam was
sacked twice by the Muslim invaders, once during the invasion
of Malik Kafur about 1310-11 and again during the Tughlak
inroads of 1327-8, The different accounts differ much in details
J26 Development of Religion in South India
.and include a number of miracles. But the main incidents that
concern us and are not in any doubt are that on both occasions
the defenders of the temple suffered considerable loss of life and
property, that the movable subsidiary idols of the temple had
to be hidden away, while the main images were carried over
to other places, and that after Kumara Kampana’s overthrow of
the Sultanate of Madura, his commandant Goppana brought back
the two main idols to Srlrangam from Singavaram near Gingee
and from the foot of Tirupati hill and had them duly installed
in the renovated temple in 1370-71. The destruction of the
tyrannical Sultanate of Madura (1334-71) is celebrated by the
wife of the victor Kampana by name Ganga Devi in her exquisite
Sanskrit kavya (epic) Madhuravijayam. This conquest and the
consequent restoration of Srlrangam must be counted as impor-
tant landmarks in the history of South Indian Hinduism. 3
The Rayas of Vijayanagar (particularly those who. came
after the first Dynasty of Saivas) were generally Vaisnavas, but
tolerant in their outlook. Their attempts to reconcile sectarian
conflicts and ensure harmony have been noticed already. Even
Kasivilasa KriyaSakti, a Pasupata saint, who rivals Vidyaranya
in the support he gave to Vijayanagar and the cause of the
Hindu revival and who is acknowledged as their guru by several
princes of the First Vijayanagar Dynasty, was very tolerant in
his general outlook and not only approved of his disciples sup-
porting Advaita and Vai§pava institutions but himself made
.endowments and grants to temples of Visnu. All types of reli-
gions found encouragement from the Rayas. Sometimes public
debates were held in open court like that in which Vallabhacarya,
the founder of a Vai?pava sect, is said to have vanquished smarta
scholars in the reign of the celebrated Kr?nadeva Raya. Royal
patronage was extended even to Islam, though neighbouring
Muslim rulers sometimes bitterly persecuted their Hindu subjects.
Devarflya II (1422-46) built a mosque in his capital for the
use of his Muslim soldiers.
A staunch Vai^pava himself, Kr$nadeva Raya repaired and
rebuilt the temple of Virupaksa (Siva) at Hampi very soon after
his accession. He made handsome gifts to the Saiva as well as
to Vai$pava temples. The temples of Kanci, Tirupati, Simha-
calam and Ahobalam (all Vai§pava) as well as those of Tiru-
vappilmalai, Cidambaram, Kalahasti, 5ri6ailam and Amaravatl
(all Saiva) received liberal grants of land from him. Smartas,
Vai§pavas and Jains were found in his service. A fanatic Vfra
3 The details are set forth fully and discussed by S. Krishnaswami
Aiyangar m his South India and Her Muhammadan Invaders.
Movements after a.d. 1000
127
;§aiva chief of the lingayat community paid the extreme penalty
because he massacred several Svetambara Jain priests in the
belief that thereby he was making an easy road for himself to
heaven. Duarte Barbosa records : ‘ The king allows such free-
dom that every man may come and go, and live according to
his own creed without suffering any annoyance and without
inquiry, whether he is a Christian, Jew, Moor or Heathen. Great
equity and justice is observed by all *. The same policy was
continued by Kr?nadeva Raya’s successor Acyuta Raya. The
famous Rama Raya (son-in-law of Krsnadeva) who wielded the
real power in the state after Acyuta Raya, caused the Quran to
be placed before him in the Audience Hall in order to reconcile
his Muslim soldiers to the act of making obeisance to him when
they came to pay their respects ; this had also been done by
Devaraya II earlier. He allowed them to build mosques and
offer worship according to their practice as in a Muslim state.
He even risked the displeasure of his Hindu subjects and of his
own brother Tirumala by refusing to adopt their suggestion that
the Muslims should be forbidden to slaughter cows in the Turu-
Icavada (Muslim quarter). The Vijayanagar sovereigns and the
Nayaks of the empire often made substantial endowments to the
Dargas of Muslim saints where miracles were believed to be
performed and horn (horoscopy) was studied. Venkata II, for
instance, renewed certain grants of villages to the Darga of
Babayya at Penugonda in 1638-39. Mangammal, the Nayak
queen of Madura, gave some villages near Trichinopoly in
1701-2 to the darga of Babanatta as the reward for a prophecy
foretelling success in the state business of Tanjavur (Tanjore).
Some records seem to mention even a Christian Divan of
Deva Raya II as early as 1445. After the coming of the Portu-
guese, the Jesuits made converts from the people especially from
among the Paravas of the Pearl Fishery Coast who were eager to
escape the oppression of the Muslim monopolists of the industry
by transferring their allegiance to Christianity and seeking the
protection of Portugal. Robert de Nobili’s attempts, not very
successful, to gain converts from among Brahmins in Madura
by leading the life of a Hindu Scmyasi have been noticed already.
Venkata II patronized the Jesuits after the manner of Akbar
and organized debates between them and Hindu leaders. He
allowed them to establish their churches at Candragiri and
Vellore, and settled upon them an annual income of one thou-
sand gold pieces which they employed in maintaining the Candra-
giri mission and a college at St. Thome near Madras.
Vaispavism, however, naturally received special patronage.
128
Development of Religion in South India
and Tirupati, to which the emperors made frequent journeys even,
in the midst of the most arduous military campaigns, became
the most important centre of Vai?navism in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, and continues to retain its place to this day.
Telugu Vai$nava tradition is eloquent about a Tatacarya who'
was the guru of Kr§nadeva Raya. The Jiyars of Ahobalam
matha played an important part in spreading Srivai§navism, and
Van Sathakopa JTyar, the founder of the matha , was apparently
in close touch with the court. He was the guru of Allasani
Peddana, the poet laureate of Krsnadeva Raya. Several Vai^ava
families, like the Kandadai and Paravastu, took to regular mis-
sionary work in the cause of Vai?navism, secured a large number
of new disciples, and made Vai^avism. the most infl uential faith
in the country. The other branch of Vaisnavas, the Madhvas,
also increased their numbers and influence as they produced great
teachers like Aksobhya Muni, Brahmapyatlrtha, Vyasa(raya)
tirtha and others. The great saint Purandaradasa, said to have
been a convert of Vyasaraya, enriched the faith by the hundreds
of devotional songs he composed and set to music in the most
popular tunes. Vyasaraya himself was the greatest expounder of
the faith and deserves to rank as its second founder. A pupil
of Brahmanyatlrtha, in his early years he was attached to the
matha at Mulbagal, and then migrated, acting on the advice of
his guru , to Candragiri where Saluva Narasimha was holding
court at the time before his accession to the throne in 1485-6.
He then spent twelve years at Tirupati acting as pujari (wor-
shipping priest) in the temple of VenkateSa, probably at' the
bidding^ of Saluva Narasimha. When Narasimha became king,
Vyasaraya went over to the capital Vijayanagara along with him,
and became spiritual adviser of successive kings after the demise
of Narasimha (1492). In Kj-snadeva Raya’s reign, it is said,
that the king vacated the throne temporarily in favour of Vyasa-
raya in order to avoid the evil effects of an inauspicious conjunc-
tion of the planets, and Vyasa is said to have taken' the title
rdya m commemoration of this incident. Vyasaraya survived
Krspadeva Raya and died at Vijayanagar about 1532 ; his tomb
is still pointed out to the pious pilgrim on an island called Nava-
brndavanam (new sepulchre) in the Tungabhadra river about
a ? lIe the east of the site of the great city. Though
Madhvaism failed to attract many adherents in spite of the great
eachers it produced, it made a notable contribution to popular
religion by attaching very great importance to the worship of
Hanuman, the aide and devotee of Rama. Madhvaism lost its.
importance after Kpujadeva Raya.
Movements after a.d, 1000
129
The Telugu and Kannada countries maintained quite a
number of Lingayat mathas, the most important of which were
located at Srlsailam, Sangamesvaram and Ummattur. The monks
who lived there propagated the Lingayat faith and spent their
time in studying the agamas and allied literature that had grown
up since the days of Basava in the twelfth century. They used
the local languages in preference to Sanskrit in their propaganda.
Jainism continued to be important in some centres, parti-
cularly in the Tuluva rajya, within which lay the important city
of Sravana Belgola (lit. the White Tank of the Jains). There
was an important Jain matha here and another at Kanclpuram
in the Padaividu rajya.
The head of the matha had absolute authority in all matters
including the selection of his successor. This holds good of the
mathas of all faiths. The inmates of the mathas had no voice
in their management and were under the complete control of the
respective heads. As a rule the mathas were centres of learning
and took a prominent part in promoting education, both religious
and secular, and morality among the people in the neighbourhood.
Harihara II (1377-1404) had a minister Irugappa Dai$a~
nStha, who was a Jain and pupil of Puspasena ; he built a Jain
temple in the capital, the extant Ganigitti temple at Hampi,' and
another at Gutti for Par£va Jinanatha. He also patronized the
Jain colony at Tirupparuttikunru near Kanclpuram. And Deva-
raya II (1422-46) built a temple for Arhat ParSvanatha in the
Pan-supari-bazaar (the market street where betel nuts and leaves
were sold) at Vijayanagar. Kr§nadeva Raya and his successors
also continued to patronize Jainism as occasions offered them-
selves. Of Buddhism, however, we hear very little in the period
of Vijayanagar.
The historic role of Vijayanagar and the increased stress on 7
theism due to the spread of Vai$navism and LingSyatism gave a
fresh impetus to temple building and organization ; and the
temple entered even more intimately into the social economy and
the daily life of the people than ever before. New temples were
built and old ones enlarged, and all were enriched by fresh
endowments in land and cash. The daily routine of terfiple
worship became more elaborate and its assimilation to the routine
of the palace of a king or chieftain was completed. The number
of persons who found their livelihood in their participation in
the holy work of the temple increased proportionately with the
increase in the temple’s resources ; musicians, dancers, florists and
perfumers, pipers and drummers, goldsmiths and jewellers found
more or less regular employment in the palaces and temples, and
9
130 Development of Religion in South India
found exceptional opportunities of profit during festivals, monthly
and annual. With the large increase in gifts of land, cash, etc,
to the temples both from the state and the devotees temple
management became a complicated and responsible duty, and we
begin to hear more and more in the inscriptions and records of
the time of the stkanikas or temple-trustees either acting singly
or as boards though the exact manner of their appointment is
not easy to ascertain. Some may have been imposed by govern-
ment, others chosen by big donors, or the consensus of devotees ;
the children of a single trustee (stkanika) may after his death
have divided the duties among themselves and thus grown into
a board. In any event the government exercised a general
supervision over all temples and their administrations and did
not hesitate to interfere through the agency of a special staff
when things went wrong. But the regular cultivation of temple
lands including the regulation of tenancies and leases and invest-
ment of temple monies as well as the control of the temple staff,
which included a considerable number in large temples vested
in the sthdnikas . The temple office or cdvacli engaged accountants
(karnams) who assisted the sthanikas, and all offices tended to
become hereditary, so long as the incumbents continued to give
reasonable satisfaction all round by their capacity and conduct.
Sometimes specific taxes were assigned to a temple and their
collection was part of the duties of the officials of the temple.
The salary of the officials generally comprised a daily share in
the prasadam (food offerings) of the temple and a periodical
payment in cash or kind. The chief executive officer of the
temple is often called Parupatyagdr or Manigar, terms borrowed
from the revenue administration of the village, but there is little
information on the mode of his choice or the range and limits
of his duties. We can only surmise that the office was taken by
turns among the sthanikas where there were more than one.
Each important temple had necessarily to maintain a well guarded
strong room as its treasury ( Sribhcmdara ) where the cash and
jewellery of the temple were stored. The school, the dharma-
sana (court of justice) ; occasional meetings of castes and guilds ;
hostels and hospitals — all were accommodated in the extensive
premises of the temple without prejudice to its primary objects
in the religious field.
To complete the picture of religious life and practices in
the Vijayanagar empire, we must advert to the village deities of
the Little Tradition and to the conditions of travel attendant on
pilgrimages to holy places which became increasingly popular.
The 4 village deities * generally of the female sex and regarded
Movements after a.d. 1000
131
ns manifestations of Durga did not stop with the villages, but
found a place in specific parts of cities, and even in the Capital
city of Vijayanagar. Their worship involved animal sacrifices
with which the slaughter of animals for food also got mixed up.
The Portuguese chronicler Paes records : * At the door of one of
these (temples) they kill every day many sheep ; for in all the
city they do not kill any sheep for the use of the Heathen, or
for sale in the markets, except at the gates of this pagoda. Of
their blood they make sacrifices to the idol that is in the temple.
There is present at the slaughter of these beasts a yog/, who has
charge of the temple, and as soon as they cut off the head
of the sheep or goat, the fogi blows a horn as a sign that the
idol receives that sacrifice \ If Paes has recorded the facts cor-
rectly, and we have no reason to doubt it, the temple he had
in view was both a place of worship and the abattoir of the
capital city. But the most important festival of Vijayanagar was
the mahanavami celebrated in honour of Durga herself (along
with Lakshml and Sarasvati) for nine days. ‘ The first day } , says
Nuniz, another Portuguese chronicler, ‘ they kill nine male buf-
faloes and nine sheep and nine goats, and thenceforward they
kill each day more, always doubling the number 5 . The ninth
day must have witnessed a veritable holocaust in which 2304
animals of each of the three varieties mentioned must have perish-
ed. Paes, however, puts the figures differently and says that the
sacrifices on the last day were 250 buffaloes and 4,500 sheep;
this butchery took place before the eyes of the Raya and his
nobles. 4
Another grisly aspect of Vijayanagar religion was hook-swing-
ing which took place in almost all village Jatras or festivals and
caused much excitement among the rural population. The women
anointed their heads in lukewarm oil and bathed in water mixed
with the yellow turmeric powder ; then they put on new clothes
and visited the temple built in the rice fields outside the village.
People from neighbouring villages, particularly the Reddis
(headmen), attended with their spouses. Goats were slaughtered
in numbers and liquor flowed in large quantities ; the uproar of
the gathered crowd filled the air. Several women chose the
occasion to fulfil their vows ; some swung from beams by hooks
which tore into their flesh in the loins, blood dripping down
their legs ; others plunged in a ‘ fire-river ’ — a long narrow pit
filled with blazing charcoal ; a third group entered a pandiri-
gunda or a circular pit of fire with a temporary shed over it;
4 For more details of festivals see T. V. Mahalingam, op. cit., pp»
338 - 44 .
132 Development of Religion in South India
others offered to the deity bits of flesh cut off from their shoul-
ders. There is no reason to think that these details gathered
from the literature of the time at all exaggerate the position in the
field of popular religion ; the testimony of foreign travellers con-
firms them in almost every detail. We may also recall the sculp-
lures of the late Pallava and imperial Cola times depicting devo-
tees offering their own heads to Durga to propitiate her by exhi-
biting their devotion in this strange manner; some years back
1. Ph. Vogel drew pointed attention to the sculptures and the
practice they commemorated in a contribution to the Bulletin of
the London School of Oriental Studies.
Pilgrimages to holy places became more common than ever
before in the Vijayanagar empire and they were also attended by
much risk of the pilgrims being robbed on the way, even though
they travelled in company. The Rayas themselves and their
numerous feudatories set the example by their frequent pilgri-
mages and it was followed extensively by the lesser people who'
were by no means so well off. Contemporary literature and
copper plate grants are full of lists of holy places pilgrimages to
Which and mahd-ddnas (great gifts) made at which ensured a
passage to heaven. One copper plate grant for instance mentions
Cidambaram under the name Kanakasadas (Golden Hall)
Srlkakulam, Kalahasti, Venkatadri (Tirupati), KancI, SrTsaila,
Sonasaila (Tiruvannamalai) , Harihar, Ahobalam, Sangamesvar,
Srlranga, Kumbakonam, Mahanandi, Gokarna, Anantasayanam
(Trivandrum) and Ramesvara, a list which includes both Saiva
and Vai?riava shrines. The pilgrims thus traversed long distances,
and many did it on foot for greater merit. They were helped
by the rest houses and prapas, places where water and dilute
butter-milk with condiments were supplied free to refresh travel-
lers ; these places were located at relatively short intervals on the
route and endowed by charitable persons. The keepers of prapas
were generally Brahmin women, and some literary writers have
a fling at the travellers lingering too long in prapas where the
attendants were attractive young women. Often carts drawn by
bullocks, or the bullocks themselves, and horses were hired by
travellers who could afford to pay. V.I.P.s as we should call them .
now, travelled with the aid of palanquins carried on the shoulders
of bearers. A small store of articles of food and change of clothes
and a shawl or two in cold weather formed the usual baggage of
the common wayfarers. They began the journey well before sun-
rise and stopped it for the day before it became too hot. Shady
groves and fresh water tanks on the way gave added amenities
en route on some roads, a spreading banyan tree often serving as
Movements after a.d. 1000
133
a fairly crowded camp. Strict caste rules were very much relaxed
during travel as is evident from the common saying pathi Sudra-
vad dcaret, one may adopt the ways of the sudra when one is
travelling.
The traditions and practices of Vijayanagar were continued
almost to the end of the eighteenth century in the South by the
rulers of the subordinate states of Gingee, Tanjore, Madura,
lkkeri and Mysore which continued to support the old religious
institutions in a liberal measure even after they became virtually
independent. But the mantle of Vijayanagar as the Defender of
Hinduism against Islam fell upon Sivaji who' linked up his political
work with the great bhakti movement in Mahara§tra by accept-
ing Ramadas as his guru. That movement goes back to the end
of the thirteenth century when Jhanesvara’s work gave an impetus
to the ideals of mysticism and bhakti in Western India. His
brothers and his sister also contributed to the development of the
mystic life and literature of the time. A century later came
Namdeva (c. 1430), a tailor by birth and occupation, who, how-
ever, spent most of his time in composing hymns of high quality
in Marathi and Hindi, and propagating the bhakti cult in Maratha
country and the Panjab ; his hymns show clear traces of the
influence of Islamic thought, particularly in their deprecation of
idolatry, and are found in the Granth , the sacred book of the
Sikhs. The next eminent name is that of Eknath (d. 1608), a
Brahmin from Paithan and a monist in philosophy who opposed
caste and translated parts of the Bhagavata purdna into Marathi
verse which is still sung in the temple at Pandharpur ; he has
also left a collection of twenty-six dbhangs called Haripafh. A
petty shop-keeper Tukaram (1608-49) who took up the thread
was a contemporary of Sivaji in his youth ; he was passionately
•devoted to Vithoba of Pandharpur and wrote some of the most
moving devotional hymns in his language which are replete with
his vivid consciousness of the omniscience of his god. His hymns
have been judged to have been the largest religious influence in
the Marfltha country. His own religious life fully occupied his
soul, and when Sivaji invited him to his court to be his
guru, he sent him a few verses in reply and advised him to become
a disciple of Ramadas. The original name of Rflmad&s was
Narayana. Born in 1608 and orphaned of his father when he was
twelve, he left home soon after and realized God by his penance
at a place near Nasik. After wandering throughout India for
another twelve years he finally settled at Chaphal on the banks
of the Kf$na where he built a temple. He assumed the name
Ramadas evidently under the influence of the Ram&nandi move-
134 Development of Religion in South India
ment started by Ramanada (c. 1430), a follower at first of
Ramanuja’s Srlvaisnavism. Ramadas was more practical than
Tukaram and better fitted to be the guide of Sivaji. He
organized an order of ascetics and established monasteries
throughout Mahara§tra. His abhangs have not the same
wide appeal as Tukaram’s, but his Dasabodha synthesizes his
vast knowledge of various sciences with the spiritual principle.
From about 1650 he exercised great influence over Sivaji. The
Ram-dasis, still form a small sect perpetuating the name of
Ramadas ; they wear a sect-mark and use a secret mantra of
their own. They have their headquarters at Sajjangarh (near
Satara) where there is the Samddhi (tomb) of Ramadas, a temple
to Rama, and a Ramadasi matha. The renascent Hinduism of
Mahara$tra brought about the formal recognition, after solemn
ceremonies, of Sivaji as a K§atriya king and the celebration of his
coronation ( abhiqeka ) with Vedic rites and officiating Brahmins.
Though the Maratha state under Sivaji thus formally signified its
particular concern for Hinduism, under his successors including
the Brahmin Peshwas, it assumed, outside Maharasfra proper, an
incurably predatory character which showed no inclination to
spare Hindu temples and mathas from being robbed of their
accumulated properties and treasures.
The religious movement was represented early in the
eighteenth century by a Brahmin poet Sridhara who presented;
the stories of the two epics, Rdmdyana and Mahabhdrata, in
stirring Marathi verse which attained much popularity. A little
later Mahlpati wrote the lives of the devotees and saints of
Mahara^ra in a number of works such as Santa Lilamrta (1757)
— the nectar of the sports of the saints ; Bhakta Vifaya (1762)
— the triumph of the devotees ; Bhakta Lildmrta (1774) — the
nectar of the sports of devotees ; and Santa Vijaya, the triumph-
of the saints.
The Saiva tradition in the Tamil country waxed strong both
in literature and in the field of practice. At the end of the four-
teenth century and beginning of the fifteenth came Svarupananda
Desikar and his pupil Tattuvarayar. Both were asectics and
authors of many devotional poems and songs remarkable for the
simplicity of their diction and their wide appeal to the common-
man ; the songs were of the nature of ditties which created many
new models for subsequent composers. The teacher and pupil
were also responsible respectively for the compilation of a large
(2824 verses) and a smaller (half the larger) anthology in Tamil
on the philosophy of Advaita which together conserve much of
the religious and philosophical literature of the silver age of
Movements after a,d. 1000
135
Tamil Saivism, which might otherwise have been lost. Even wider
in its appeal was the Tiruppugdl (the Holy Praise) of Aruna-
girinatha, over 1360 songs in various metres handled with the
utmost skill and characterized by a charming lilt. The diction
is highly sanskritized and the imagery vivid. The author’s inti-
mate knowledge of the sacred lore of Hinduism is evident in
every song. His mention of Praudhadeva Raya (of Vijaya-
nagar?) places him in the fifteenth century. His songs betray
evidence of a youthful life of libertinism followed by remorse.
He accepted Muruga or Karttikeya as the supreme deity, and in
philosophy he followed the Saiva Siddhanta system. He seems
to have visited all the shrines of Muruga and been particularly
attached to Palani which figures largely in the Tiruppugal . He
was perhaps also author of shorter devotional poems, all in
praise of Muruga. Tayumanavar is another great Saiva saint
who belonged to the seventeenth century and is still a living force
in South Indian religious life. A Vellala by birth, he was at
first attached to the temple of Vedaranyam (Tanjore District).
His learning and character soon got him high office under the
Nayak ruler of Madura ; when the ruler died, the widowed queen
tempted him with the offer of her hand and kingdom. This
was the turning point. After giving her much good advice,
Tayumanavar left her service to become a seeker of God and
Truth. His hymns constitute a simple and moving record of his
experiences and are still popular, being often sung in musical
concerts. He tries to reconcile Advaita and Saiva Siddhanta by
playing down their differences often over-emphasized by contro-
versialists. Another group of five saints, also of the seventeenth
century, professed adherence to the Lingayat faith ; they were
Sivaprakasa I, Santalinga, Kumffiradeva, SivaprakaSa 11, and
Cidambara Svamin, all men of high spiritual attainments and
authors of hymns and treatises.
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed the grow-
ing impact of Western ideas and civilization on the East as a
result of trade contacts at first, soon replaced by colonial con-
quest and exploitation. The printing press, the Christian missio-
nary, and the rapidly improving means of communication are
notable elements. Bentinck and the younger officials who came
out to India in the twenties of the nineteenth century were under
the influence of the humanitarian reform movement and felt that
they had a moral mission towards the people under their rule as
representatives of a higher civilization and a better religion —
another factor in the attack from the West. Different sections
of Indians reacted differently to the changing situation. The un-
136 Development of Religion in South India
successful rising of 1857 was an attempt to deal with the pro-
blem on a physical plane and by force. A rebel proclamation
found in Lucknow in 1858 affirmed that the British wished to
destroy caste and convert Hindus and Muslims to Christianity,
that in their eyes the low castes were the equals of nobles, that
they disgraced the nobles in the presence of the ignoble, and
summoned to their courts the gentry, Nawabs and Rajas at the
instance of Chamars and disgraced them. India was still far
from accepting democracy and the rule of law as ideals. On
the mental and spiritual plane the reactions were more complex.
For a time western rationalism captivated forward minds' and
promoted an excessive iconoclastic zeal. Traditions, ancestral
practices and beliefs were denounced, and India’s salvation was
held to depend on their total abandonment. Several adopted
western ways of life wholesale, and even went over to Christia-
nity ; and Macaulay’s belief that the new enlightenment would
kill Hinduism and make India Christian appeared to be plausible.
This was, however, only a passing phase, and it received a check
from the growing strength of other phases of the reaction. The
great body of the people were conservative and orthodox, eager
to retain the status quo and suspicious of innovation, though
ready to avail themselves of the new methods of organization
and polemics, and to resort, not to violence, but to the new law
courts in defence of their cause taking full advantage of the
crown policy of non-interference in the religious and social tra-
ditions of the people. They formed the Dharma Sabha, the
predecessor of the Hindu Mahasabha of today, and opposed re-
formist legislation which abolished Sati, raised the Age of Con-
sent, or permitted the remarriage of widows.
But the future lay, as time was to show, with the small
body of intellectuals who were stimulated by the new knowledge
into reforming Hinduism and Plindu society from within, enabling
it to meet the new challenge by blending all that was essential
and true in the old and the new cultures. Raja Ram Mohan Roy
was the first and by far the most celebrated member of this group.
He supported the abolition of Safi and the introduction of west-
ern education through the medium of the English language.
While acknowledging the value of Christian ethics, he offended
the Serampore missionaries by questioning the divinity of Christ.
Like Luther taking his stand on the Bible, he appealed to the
purer Hinduism of the earlier scriptures, the Vedas and Upani-
$ads. In 1828 he founded the Brahma Sabha and opened a
mandir (temple) dedicated to Brahman, the impersonal absolute,
with no image in it. The Brahma SamSj founded in 1845 by
Movements after a.d. 1000
137
Maharsi Devendranath Tagore, the father of the poet Rabindra-
nath Tagore, was the outcome of Ram Mahan’s work. We need
not pursue in detail the history of this movement, but just note
that it gathered a few adherents in South India in the latter half
.of the nineteenth century and was at no time an influence of
much power.
In the nineteenth century we are once more in a period when
powerful forces of an all-India character are at work, and it is
not easy to isolate specifically South Indian developments as such.
Reform on distinctly Hindu lines was carried forward by Rama-
krishna Paramahamsa (1835-86), mystic untouched by Chris-
tianity or Western education and a devotee of the goddess Kali.
But after he attained realization of Truth on orthodox lines, he
undertook experiments in other faiths and discovered that all re-
ligions are at one in their core, thus adding his personal testi-
mony to the age old truth which had determined the general
•tolerant outlook of Hinduism. His religion was animated by a
vivid social consciousness ; ‘ who dare talk of showing mercy to
fellowmen ? 9 he said * not mercy, but service, service for man,
must be regarded as God’. His celebrated pupil Vivekananda
(1862-1902) institutionalized Ramakrishna’s ideals of social
service. He surprised America by his eloquent and lucid pre-
sentation of Vedanta and Hinduism at the Parliament of Reli-
gions at Chicago in 1893 and on other platforms. He had more
to do with South India than his 'guru and spent some time in
the city of Madras on different occasions. He organized the
Ramakrishna mission, a potent agency for the regeneration of
Hinduism and for social work both in India and abroad ; the
Mission runs a Matha, a Students’ Home, a college and several
High Schools in Madras. Vivekananda laid stress on the broad
basis of Hinduism, its tolerance and catholicity. The Arya
Samaj of Dayananda Sarasvati (1824-83) founded in 1875
takes its stand on the Vedas as interpreted by the founder, repu-
diates the hereditary caste system and untouchability and admits
the remarriage of widows. It has been more influential in
Western and Northern India than in the South. It has aimed
at reclaiming to Hinduism those who had left it for Christianity
and Islam by organizing the Suddhi (purification) movement. This
movement of proselytization was particularly successful in Malabar,
Rajputana and Uttar Pradesh ; some Samajists fell martyrs to
it becoming victims of the fanaticism of rival creed of Islam.
The Arya Samaj maintains several colleges which combine a
‘Western’ curriculum with Hindu religious teaching, besides its
CJurukula near Hardwar and girls’ schools free from a foreign
138 Development of Religion in South Indict
atmosphere. The Prarthana Samaj, started in 1867, was the
West Indian counterpart of Brahma Samaj, and enlisted such
leaders of thought as Justice Ranade, Sir R. G. Bhandarkar and
G. K. Gokhale among its members ; it laid more stress on social
reform than on religious reconstruction as such. The Theoso-
phical movement began in India (after an insignificant American
phase) in 1878 under Madam Blavatsky, and her pupil
Mrs. Annie Besant carried the exaltation of Hinduism as against
Christianity one stage further, but was not altogether free from
obscurantism ; the Central Hindu College founded by Mrs. Besant
has developed into the Benares Hindu University. Tilak’s inter-
pretation of the Bhagavad Gita as the Gospel of an activist ethic
was perhaps not uninfluenced by the West. Besides giving a
fillip to the political movement which had been gathering force
since the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885, it
did much to convert modern Hinduism into an ethical code with
a wide social outlook. The writings of Sir S. Radhakrishnan
have offered an integral reinterpretation of Hindu religious;
thought and philosophy in a manner which is at once authorita-
tive and couched in language more readily followed in the West
than translations of texts like those in the Sacred Books of the
East edited by Max Muller with the collaboration of several
scholars. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and Mahatma
Gandhi (1869-1948) also did much to divert attention from
distinctively Christian influences. Tagore was more a poet and’
thinker than a prophet or man of action ; his forceful writings
extending over an unusually long stretch of time drove home his
rational and humanitarian outlook combining all that is best in
eastern and western thought ; he was a citizen of the world, with,
a deep love for whatever was racy of the soil. Gandhi was on
the whole a traditionalist and perhaps owed more to Marathi
mystic poetry and the Bhagavad Gita, than to Thoreau and
Tolstoy, Islam and the Sermon on the Mount. His emphasis on'
human solidarity and brotherhood, his compassion for the poor
and the outcastes, his ascetic passion for the simple life, his stress
on a positive experience of God and a life of service and sacri-
fice, his message of Truth, Love and Ahimsa (non-violence), and
his insistence by example and precept on the efficacy of vicarious
suffering were all derived from Hindu precedents. But their
integration into a social and political gospel of dynamic power
which attached as much importance to the purity of the means
as of the ends was his personal contribution. His life’s work
conferred a new value on old concepts and helped India to dis-
cover her true self. There were other forces in South India
Movements after A/D. 1000
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working in a similar direction though less influential such as the
life and work of Ramana Mahar^i of Tiruvannamalai, of Auro-
bindo Ghose at Pondicherry and of others. Though the West has
influenced Hindu thought only to a small degree, its challenge
has led Hinduism to reconsider its social practices and restate
the fundamentals of its faith in terms of the present world con-
text.
A notable contemporary of Ramakrishna in South India
was Ramalingasvami, a saint on the old model and a prolific
hymnist in Tamil. He had little learning, and poetry was his
natural gift which he employed to translate his vision of god (as
Murugan) to the world. He was grieved at sectarian differences
and was a staunch advocate of the path of harmony ( samarasa ) ,
At Vadalur in South Arcot, the place of his birth, he built a
shrine in which the flame of an oil lamp was the only object
of worship. He exhorted all to transcend caste, creed and scrip-
tures, and to realize the oneness of God through love and com-
passion for all living beings. He disappeared mysteriously in
1892 and people believe he may come back. His hymns are
still very popular.
The present position in the world of Religion and the
Indian reaction to it have been succinctly summed up by
Radhakrishnan : ‘ Many of the Living faiths are passing through
self-criticism, are getting infected with secularism and humanism
and the loss of the vision of God. Many of the leaders regard
themselves as priests of a new religion. We need not a new reli-
gion but a creative vitality in the practice of the old, the recog-
nition that the Kingdom of Heaven lies within man, in his
depths, in his integrity, in his inmost truth. God is the potentia-
lity of every man