‘Next we see the fire-walking ceremonies still current with us and glibly connected with Draupati Amman, paralleled in the worship of Artenis in Capadocia.

     “Next we meet with the cult of Snakes. It was the totem of the ancient Naga tribes. The association of snake with Siva and also Skanda is indeed reminiscent of the primitive religion. We in South India still worship snakes in the shape of Nƒgakkal. There are a considerable variety of patterns. Some slabs contain a simple snake standing. In others a pair of cobras intertwined. Groups of stones are seen in a temple or underneath a sacred tree, generally a pipal or n…m tree. Though it is popular in South India, it is still more popular in Malabar. It is connected with the fertility cult. There is still the belief that a barren woman becomes big with a child if she offers proper prayers to the Snake Lord. We have representations of the reptile in the Indus cities on painted pottery, tablets and clay amulets. And this cult was one of the prominent religious cults of ancient Crete. It was associated with symbol of the double axe.

     “Another ancient South Indian cult was the worship of the moon largely prevalent in Asia Minor and the East Mediterranean ........The worship of the Moon is definitely mentioned in early Sangam works .... and there was a special shrine dedicated to the Moon (nilakk†——am) in each of the capitals of the Tamil land. A relic of the old cult is the seeing of the moon on the third day after the new moon day, supposed to bring health and wealth ........ curiously, in Babylonian civilization more prominenece is given to the Moon than the Sun. And the Babylonian year is exclusively lunar. The cuneiform sign for the Moon is the numeral ‘30’. Incidentally, I may point out that there are many parallel features of Babylonian religion and customs like the worship of the bull of Ishtar, honouring women of chastity and dedicating girls to temples. Much of them finds mention also in the religious literature of the Hebrews. It is believed that the Babylonian culture flowed into Canaan or there was an actual migration from Ur to Canaan by way of Haran. Further we find a strong resemblance to the mythology of the Greeks, and it is also believed that these features came from Asia Minor. Thus, there was a migration from India to Babylon and from Babylon to Greece and Canaan..................