There is a popular story about his marriage. Once Khandoba and his men arrive at a hut in the forest, tired after a failed hunt. A girl, Banai, offers them water and welcomes Khandoba to rest there for as long as he wants. Later, he begins to help her and her father around the house. After a year passes, Khandoba asks the girl’s father for the payment for his services, but he is told that the food and shelter were his payment. Khandoba asks to marry Banai, which the father refuses. An angry Khandoba goes and kills all the goats in the pen and demands that he be married to Banai. He claims he would then bring all the goats back to life and make the father’s region prosper. This is how Khandoba and Banai—who is also believed to have had feelings for him—are married.
This theme of marrying the god is an important one. The stories are probably meant to convey how different kuls or families settled in a village. There is a guardian gramadevata associated with any region or sthal and different families marry their daughters or kuldevis to him. Since most of this belongs to the oral tradition, you won’t find stories about them too easily. The Tirupati Devasthanam that is so famous now also has an interesting story. In Vaikuntha, there’s a disagreement between Lakshmi and Vishnu. Lakshmi comes to settle down in Kolhapur as Mahalakshmi. Vishnu follows her but she refuses to speak to him. Vishnu says he’ll stay back on earth till she does. But he does not find a region to stay as they are all taken up by the gramadevatas, so he asks Bhupati, the lord of the earth—who is also Vishnu in the Varaha avatar. Bhupati tells him to stay wherever he sees something like Shesh Naga, the king of serpents. At Tirupati there are seven mountains that are said to look like the heads of Shesh Naga, so Vishnu decides to stay there. As he lives there alone and has nothing to eat, Shiva and Brahma come there as a cow and a calf and provide him with milk.
The local king, Kubera, gets upset that his cow is giving milk to someone else and beats it. Vishnu is angered on seeing this because he is Gopala (a cowherd) too and there’s an altercation between them. Meanwhile, Vishnu and the king’s daughter, Padmavati (a form of Lakshmi), fall in love. The king agrees to their marriage and lets him stay in his domain till he pays off the bride price. They say Vishnu still hasn’t paid off Kubera’s loan and so continues to live in Tirupati.
So, through marriage, people of different communities formed a relationship with the gramadevatas and derived legitimacy from it. Some gramadevatas are bachelors, stay on a mountain away from women, protect the people, are yogis or from the Nath sect like Baba Balak Nath in north India and Ayyappa in south India.
Why is a devi associated with the earth?
The earth is seen as a mother. The gramadevi is a form of mother. A gramadevi’s puja is quite a violent ritual. For example, the bhakts or devotees walk on fire, pierce their tongues or attach a hook to their skin and swing from it—the intention is to express their devotion through pain and suffering. The explanation for this is that human beings torture the earth by cutting down trees, ploughing, dividing and controlling the land and choosing to grow different crops on it. The devi suffers because of all this but allows it because she is a mother.
But once a year she reveals her anger, and we ask for her forgiveness and offer her blood to appease her thirst. So offering sacrifice is commonly associated with the gramadevis. The animals sacrificed are bullocks, male goats and so on, most famously during Dussehra. The crops that grow annually are seen as the mother’s milk, but once a year she wants to drink blood. This is seen as the cycle of life. Kali drinks blood and Gauri gives milk. This cycle of life is depicted in the gramadevis’ rituals. Through the year she is not given much importance, but after the harvest season, after all the celebrations, the sacrifice takes place and the sowing season begins.
Animal sacrifice is legally not allowed any more.
So now it is substituted with, say, a coconut or a pumpkin or mud dolls. You no longer need to sacrifice real animals; you only have to show your awareness that civilization or sanskriti is built atop nature, prakriti. It’s a form of environmental consciousness, a realization that all your prosperity is the result of domesticating the devi.
There’s a puja to appease Kal Bhairava, a form of Shiva. Are all the gramadevatas forms of Shiva or Vishnu?
Yes and no. The gramadevatas are local. Since we see Hinduism in a homogenized way, some have become associated with the Puranic gods. There’s Kaal (time) Bhairava, sometimes there are Kala (black) Bhairava and Gora (fair) Bhairava, associated with Shiva or Vishnu. In a way they become mainstream gods—Shiva, Vishnu, Shakti, Rama or Krishna—whom you find anywhere in India.
Recently, my friend got married. He went to his village with his wife to get blessings from his kuldevata. Who is a kuldevata?
The kuldevata concept is closely associated with the gramadevata. Gram, village, is associated with geography or physical space. Kul, with family. Whenever a family moves, the kuldevata is taken along. Each community has its own kuldevata, like the Saraswat Brahmins have Shanta Durga. After the wedding, the bride is introduced to or blessings are sought for the couple from the kuldevata.
11
Dravida
The Mahabharata is based in Hastinapur and Indraprastha in north India. Rama goes from Ayodhya to Lanka—from the north to the south. Are there any stories that originate in the south?
Yes. When the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were being created in north India, many mahakavyas were being written in the Tamil language. There used to be Sangams (meetings of poets) as far back as 3000 years ago in Madurai, Kanchipuram and so on. Sages and monks would also attend them. There was a rich tradition, a focus on literature, called Sangam parampara. The poems of this time are of two kinds: one is Puram, or poems of the city, and the other is Akam, which talk about emotions. Basically outer and inner traditions. This is also there in the Vedic tradition which had aranya gaan (forest songs) and gram gaan (city songs).
The outer traditions were all about veer rasa, about kings and warriors going to war on elephants and so on. The inner traditions, private conversations, have stories of romance, shringara bhav, women, love and separation. There is a lot of sensuality and energy. There are strong women who play an important role in this tradition. We see gramadevis and devatas being depicted here, and we get a glimpse of the Vedic period. Yagna is spoken of, but in the background. The Buddhist and Jain traditions too are present here. But at the centre are stories of kings and queens, ganikas (courtesans), soldiers, merchants and their wives. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are more about kings and queens. Here, there are stories of the merchant class who had shipping businesses, which was a big tradition in south India. Merchants would sail to South East Asia, Egypt and Rome to sell cloth and masalas. They were never spoken about in the poetry of the north. The wealthy merchant class—today’s Chettiyars who have a long history—was present in south Indian poetry.
There were four main mahakavyas, great epics, from the third to fourth centuries that are worthy of mention. One was Silappatikaram, the story of Kannagi, a merchant’s daughter. Second was Manimekalai, the story of the daughter of a ganika. Third was Civaka Cintamani, the story of a warrior, and the fourth was Kundalakesi, the story of a businessman’s daughter. Three out of these four have female central characters.
Tell us the story of Silappatikaram.
Silappatikaram is about a rich merchant’s daughter, Kannagi, who marries another merchant’s son, Kovalan, in a place called Poompuhar. The boy falls in love with a dancer called Madhavi and blows up all his money on her. In those days, men keeping mistresses was common, but this boy is so carried away that he loses his fortune. One night, Kannagi and Kovalan have an argument about him drinking and wasting money. Kannagi is so upset that she takes off her bangles, which were his anniversary gift to her, and tells him to leave the house and never come back. Kovalan comes to his senses, asks for her forgiveness and promises to turn a new leaf. She gives him her gold anklet, a wedding gift from her father, and asks him to sell it to restart his trade. One day the king’
s men come to arrest Kovalan on the charge that he has stolen the queen’s anklet. He is sentenced to death by hanging in public. Kannagi appeals to the king about her husband’s innocence. She asks to see the anklet, finds it is hers and shows the king his error. Meanwhile, Kovalan is hanged as per the king’s orders. The jeweller who had accused Kovalan is taken away for interrogation and the king asks for Kannagi’s forgiveness.
This power—sati ki shakti, the power of a woman who is true to her husband—is famous in all grand epics. A sati has magical powers. She can walk through fire and her curses become true. In this story, Kannagi burns down the city of Madurai. She is worshipped as a devi. She is a Pattini and her idols are famous in south India as well as in Sri Lanka.
What is the story of Manimekalai?
It is connected with Kannagi’s story. Kovalan leaves the dancer, Madhavi, and goes to Madurai. Madhavi is devastated as she was really in love with him. Her daughter is Manimekalai. She sees how people get destroyed in love and decides to stay out of this worldly (sansarik) life. The prince of that kingdom wants to marry this beautiful, talented dancer. But she refuses, prays to god and an ocean goddess takes her to an island where she meets Buddha and decides to become a bhikkhuni (Buddhist nun). She gets a kalash (pot) called Amrita surabhi and lives a life serving people. This is a story of Buddhist transformation.
The third story is of a warrior.
It is called Civaka Cintamani. There’s a hedonistic king who spends all his time frolicking with his wives and courtesans. Taking advantage of this, his minister kills him and wrests his power. The pregnant queen runs away from the palace to a faraway place. She delivers a baby in a crematorium and leaves him at a merchant’s house. The boy grows up to be a great, strong, handsome man who has many lovers and wives. He has many adventures after which he finds out who he is and how his father, a king, was betrayed. He goes to his father’s kingdom and defeats the treacherous minister. He takes over the kingdom and lives a life of splendour, fights wars, wins women, almost like a Hindi film. But eventually he leaves everything to become a Jain monk.
It appears that the Tamil epics have stories about ordinary people unlike the Ramayana and the Mahabharata which are about kings and sages.
Yes, that is a big difference. In the north Indian epics, the tension between the life of bhog (world) and yoga (asceticism) is depicted. The former includes enjoyment, dancers, kings, lovers and heartbreaks—that is, shringara and vatsalya rasas—but it’s a life of sorrow which is rejected by the Shraman parampara and can be called yoga bhavana. There’s a common theme of renunciation in these stories where you adopt the path of dharma and control your desires (vairagya bhava).
Sangam literature also has a lot of passion about life when it talks of dharma (duty), artha (prosperity) and kama (desire) but when the thoughts of Buddhism and Jainism started becoming influential, when their monks travelled south, the concept of moksha or liberation from the worldly life started emerging. Sangam texts wanted to show that not everything is worldly; people should think of another world where there is no sorrow, where there is peace and stoicism.
There are no stories of gods and goddesses.
No, but there are gramadevis and devatas. There are places where Murugan is mentioned: a handsome, virile god who stands on a mountain. Such scattered mention is made of gods, but there is no talk of bhagavan or ishwar. It’s not a dominant theme. There isn’t a lot of discussion on self-realization as on renunciation or vairagya.
Rama and Krishna are forms of god and are the important characters in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. In Tamil poetry, there are no such characters.
Rama’s story in the Ramayana and Krishna’s in the Mahabharata have not been directly associated with gods. Later, in the Puranas, they have been called gods. Probably, earlier, these were tales of brave warriors (veer gatha) who gradually became avatars and then gods. This transformation is seen in the Veda parampara or what is known as Hindu parampara. But this is not the case in Buddhist and Jain paramparas. There are mentions of maha purusha, great men, although characters like Kannagi, Manimekalai, Jivaka, Bhadra and Kundalakeshi are ordinary people. These are perhaps stories of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis which became famous.
I’ve heard of the Tamil Vedas. Did they come with the Vedas?
The Tamil Vedas are a piece of literature called the Tirukkural. Kural means doha or couplets that are full of knowledge. There are almost 1300 dohas which talk of dharma, artha and kama, and they have been written in beautiful verses using simple words. After the epics of the Sangam period, there emerges the story of Kamban, of Ramavataram, which is the first time the Ramayana is written in a local language—Tamil. Hindu ideas start coming in. Alwar (Vishnu kavya) and Nayanar poetry (Shivji kavya) become famous, which sows the seeds of the Bhakti tradition in India. These ideas and the Kamba Ramayana gradually start travelling north. Buddhism and Jainism came to the south from the north while the bhakti rasa travels to the north from the south. The Bhagavad Gita has the word ‘bhakti’, but I believe that the bhava, the feeling, and the poetry associated with it, through which India is linked, originated in the south.
Many characters travelled to the south from the north, such as Rama and Agastya Muni. Are there any characters from the south who travelled north in our mythology?
There is Meenakshi, Madurai’s queen, a great warrior who conquers the entire country with her army, including the Jambudweep and northern areas. When she reaches Mount Kailasa in the north, she meets and falls in love with Shiva who promises to come to the south and marry her. Even today her image is married to Shiva who is called Soma Sundaram. There is a big festival to celebrate this wedding.
12
Ravana
Ravana may be Indian mythology’s greatest villain. The story of the Ramayana is as much about Ravana as it is about Rama. Even Valmiki was undecided whether to name it after Rama or Ravana. Let’s talk about him today. He is a very interesting character. He was a Brahmin and a rakshasa. How come?
Brahma had many sons. One was Kashyapa Muni who had many wives and begot devas and asuras. Another was Pulastya who begot rakshasas and yakshas. There’s a rakshasa kanya (daughter) born to Pulastya called Kaikesi who marries a Brahmin called Vishrava. Their son is Ravana. He has Pulastya’s blood, rakshasa blood, and Vishrava’s blood. So he’s both Brahmin and rakshasa. Rakshasa is an ethnic group whereas Brahmin is a caste identity. Brahmin is a social construct whereas rakshasa is about lineage and descent.
There’s some confusion about the two words rakshasa and asura. What’s the difference?
In the Puranas, the asuras battle with the gods. They live under the earth in Patala while the gods live in heaven in the sky. So this is a vertical alignment. The rakshasas battle with human beings. They live in forests and follow matsya nyaya (jungle law). Human beings try to follow dharma, guided by rishis. There’s a horizontal altercation here. Daityas (Diti’s sons) and Danavas (Danu’s sons) are called asuras. These words are used interchangeably. So asuras are below the earth and rakshasas are in the jungles. In the Mahabharata, asuras have been called rakshasas. Hidimba is called asura although she seems to be a rakshasa as she lives in the jungle. People say rakshasas are south Indians and Rama is from north India. That’s when these words become divisive, like Blacks and Whites. The British brought in these racial divisions that a lot of people still believe in. Nothing of the kind has been written in our Puranas.
Ravana is a Shiva bhakt. What was this connection?
The Ramayanas written after the eleventh century in Tamil (Kamba Ramayana) and Telugu (Ranganatha Ramayana) gave a lot of importance to Shiva. During those times there used to be a rivalry between the Shaiva and Vaishnava paramparas. Tulsidas wrote the Ramcharitamanas 400 years ago. He noticed this tension too. He says Rama and Ravana both worship Shiva who does not distinguish between the two. This idea that everyone worships Shiva spread everywhere. Rama worships Shakti on Sharad Navaratri. Ravana too worships Shakti. There are stories of
Ravana trying to meet Shiva in the Himalayas. He meets Nandi first, who curses him that a monkey will defeat him one day. One story is about how Ravana cuts off his ten heads and offers them to Shiva. Shiva is pleased and gives him a boon that he’ll have a sword which, whenever he uses it, will give him victory. It’s said in some stories that his ten heads represent how knowledgeable he is. Another story is that he composed the Rudra stotra and made the Rudra veena by cutting off his arm and using his nerves as strings. When he sings for Shiva, he is so pleased that he asks him what boon he would like. Ravana says he wants to take him to Lanka so that nobody can defeat Lanka. He then lifts the Kailasa mountain. Shiva’s family gets scared. To cut Ravana’s ego down to size, Shiva presses his foot down and the mountain crushes Ravana. He worships Shiva again, sings the Rudra stotra and asks for his forgiveness. All these stories show Ravana as a bhakt and an arrogant student; it’s almost a guru–shishya relationship. It’s said that Ravana acquired knowledge of astrology from Shiva. He wrote the Lal Kitaab or Ravana Samhita. A book on Ayurveda is also associated with Ravana. So the picture of Ravana is of a very educated, literate and cultured man who is also a good warrior. The negative stories depict him as a man who throws his brother, Kubera, out and takes over his kingdom. Lanka was created by Kubera. Ravana also tries to seduce a yogini, Vedavati, who curses him that she’ll be reborn as a woman who will be the cause of his death.
So it’s hard to depict him as a hero or villain. Most stories show him as a villain though.
Yes. On Dussehra, we even burn his effigy. This became popular around 500 years ago along the Gangetic plains. Some communities in India believe they are descendants of Ravana or that Ravana’s wife, Mandodari, is from their clan. In the Puranas, no one is fully positive or negative. While he may have a negative trait, he also has good qualities. In our world too, there’s no one who’s 100 per cent evil. Everybody should be seen in context.