hence they gave the name of Maayoon to the god whom they had called Ceeyoon in the mountains, and worshipped him under the guise of a shepherd as they had worshipped him in the hills as a hunter. Nature, and their primary occupation, determine the aspect under which this Supreme God is to be worshipped. The cult was not the result of a decision arrived at the time of settling down in the respective regions. They did not say to themselves on entering the pasture-lands, “Here we have come to meadows; they are dark-green; hence we shall call him the ‘Dark-green one’; since we are shepherds, let us worship him as the shepherd par excellence”. Rather, the cult of Murukan was transformed by being subject to the natural law of growth among a people to whom Nature was actually the background of their life, social and literary, as well as religious.12 When the Tamils entered the agricultural regions, they learnt settled life and the arts of government. The idea of kingship which originated in the pastoral zone was perfected in the settlements of the riverine valleys. Hence they called God the king or ruler, Veentan, and worshipped in Him the aspect of kingship, and the power to rule the clouds and bestow the rain on which depended their agriculture. They celebrated him as they would celebrate a sovereign. In the maritime zone the blue expanse of the ocean was constantly before the eyes of the people, and hence they may have named God “The Coloured-One”-since he manifested his greatness in the ocean which was coloured. They worshipped him with the produce of the ocean, with fish, and performed their ritual cleansing by bathing in the sea.13 Paalai too was believed to be inhabited by a god or gods ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12 P. T. SRINIVAS IYENGAR, O.C, p. 25: “I therefore hold that the ancient god of the pastoral tribe evolved into Krishna, and not that Krishna of the Bhagavad Gītā deteriorated into a pastoral god in recent times”. 13 Pattinappoalai, 80-104, T. V. KALYANASUNDARANAR derives Varuna from the word for colour. P. T.SRNIVAS IYENGAR, H.T. p. 82 thinks that Ceeyoon and Kataloon may have been the Tamil names for Indra and Varuna. The Indra and Varuna of Aryan worship are entirely different. On the probability of Tamil influence on the Aryan cults see P.T.S. Pre-Aryan Tamil Culture, p. 21 ff. |