தமிழர் சமயம்

14. ROLE OF INDRA IN ANCIENT TAMIḺNAḌU________________________________________
Indra was one of the most popular deities worshipped by the ancient Tamiḻ people. He is described as the God of cultivated lands and the region including city and agricultural villages. The great Tamiḻ grammatical work Tolkāppiyam written by Tolkāppiyar is assignable probably to the beginning of the current era. In addition to it, there is a remarkable dramatic poem Nāṭakakāppiyam, named Cilappatikāram that gives a detailed description of the worship of Indra and the great festival held in his honour by the citizens of Pūmpuhar, the capitol of the Cōḻa country. Another work Maṇimēkhalai a companion poem also gives the festival of Indra but this is almost a repetition of what is given in Cilappatikāram, The date of these two texts is not precisely known but they seem to be following closely the Saṅgam works and may belong to the 3rd century. The city of Pūmpuhār was situated on the banks of the perennial river Kāvēri, at the confluence of the river with the bay of Bengal. The city was well known to ancient geographers as the Kaberis Emporium in the beginning of the current era and therefore was of considerable interest to people of Tamiḻnāṭu, we have seen that the ancient Tamiḻ grammar holds Indra as the presiding deity of agricultural land. The region around enriched by Kāvēri is virtually called the golden bowl of paddy fields and is the land per excellence of the agriculturists. Such lands were called marutam technically in poetic parlance.

The Cilappatikaramm tells us that it was customary to worship Indra in a festival in the month of Cittirai when the star was in conjunction with the full moon. This festival called indra-viḻa was held with great pomp and show, with the prayer that the ruling king should prosper and the people of the country should obtain plenty of grains and comforts. One chapter of the text is devoted to this festival. The then ruler was named Karikāla a well known Cōḻa king of the Saṅgam age. It was organized when the king led an expedition to the north victoriously and was returning.
The city was in two parts one on the coast called Maruvūrpākkam and the other inside around the fields called Paṭṭinappākkam where the Royal palace was located. In the Paṭṭinappākkam resided Ministers, Soldiers, Brahmins and high cultivators. While in the Maruvūrpākkam lived artisans, dancers, servant class, foreigners and fishermen and others. In between Paṭṭinappākkam and Maruvūrpākkam was a daily market where all commodities were sold. In the market street, there was an altar dedicated to a Bhūta which is said to have been sent by Indra to protect the king and the people. A mythical Cōḻa king Mucukunda helped Indra in his war against Asuras and in return Indra sent a Bhūta when the Cōḻa was in need of help. The Bhūta used to remove all impediments to the ruling king. It was balipītikai to the Bhūta. People always used to offer worship and Bali on the altar.
On the day of the beginning of the festival the servant women of the royal palace, went in large numbers with material and offered cooked grains like avarai, tuvarai and other grains and also meat mixed with blood and liquor. They sprinkled flowers, showed incense and danced with howling noise tuṇaṅgaik-kūttu, ( a form of dance in which the women with bent hands beat their sides with the elbow rhythmically, the kuṟavai dance in which a number of women join their hands and with rhythmic steps move around singing, and finally aṇaṅgu dance in which they got possessed by gods and danced. When they departed came fierce looking soldiers and men from Maruvūrpākkam with great noise and beat of roaring drums, wielding swords, spears, shields made of hairs and leather. They had frightening look with reddened eyes and shaking their bodies wildly. They performed a cruel sacrifice shouting “Ye, Bhūta! Here we are giving human sacrifice of lives. Let our king be victorious and prosperous”, and so shouting cut their own heads and placed them on the altars. It is called as head offering. This used to be an awesome sacrifice and scene which they considered as heroic offering of self sacrifice for the sake of the king and country.
Besides the Bhūta’s altar there were five common religious yards (manṟam) in the city which consisted of spirits that protected the people from evils. One was a merchants’ quarters where they stored their commodities marking each bundle with the name, number and the quantity of goods kept in the bundle. They were well protected and any theft or robbery was severely punished and publicly disgraced. The second was a sacred pond in which the peope affected with leprosy, and other incurable diseases, hunch backs take bath and were cured immediately. Those who were bitten by poisonous snakes, are possessed of goblins and other evil spirits and consumed poison inadvertently were cured in the third manṟam. The fourth one had a high stone post representing a Bhūta which caught any wrong doer like pseudo monks, or a debauch, or a women who hides stealthy behaviour from her husband, any who went after another man's wife, rendered false evidence in courts and the like used to be caught with a noose in its hand and thrashed him on the ground and ate him. There was the fifth one with an image who used to shed tears when the king committed any mistake, the ministers did wrong, Judges gave wrongful verdicts and others. Special worship to these entire five sacred centre in th city were performed on that day.
There were three temples connected with Indra in the city, one was Vajra, the weapon of Indra; the second was the white elephant named Airavata, which was the vehicle of Indra and the third was a tree in which Indra is said to have stayed when he came to the City. Besides there was another temple dedicated to Indra probably a carved image of him. The Festival drum which was to be sounded was kept usually in the temple of Vajra. On the day of the festival it was placed on a decorated elephant and brought to the Temple of Elephant where the beginning of the Festival is announced stating from that day the festival starts and will lost for so many days. The festival lasted for 28 days. This ritual is akin to Temple festivals mentioned in Āgamas and practiced to this day under the name Bheritaṇḍana. Then a flag drawn with a figure of Indra's elephant Airavata and other eight auspicious symbols like drum, Pūrṇa-kalasa, Pālika (sprouting vessel), pair of fly whisks and lamps etc., and this flag brought to the temple of Indra’s, a tree was hoisted on a pole marking the start of the festival. This flag hoisting was marked by a great procession passing through main Royal street, which was decorated with makara-toraṇas, lamps, golden kalasas etc., each house exhibiting such festive decorations. The royal princes, the merchants, the ministers, the representatives of the royal assembly, soldiers, Brahmins, judges and high cultivators and others on horses, elephants, and chariots accompanied by vocal musicians, Instrumental musicians, and dancers accompanied with drum beats.

Then fresh and fragrant waters were brought from the sacred Kāvēri river that had witnessed 1008 such abhiṣekas performed on the heads of previous kings. This abhiṣeka is meant for the health and prosperity of the ruling king. This anointment is called the indra-viḻa. Immediately following the flag hoisting, special worships were conducted by fire offerings (homas) accompanied by the Vedic hymns (mantras from Vedas) that were given by Brahma, in the Temples of Mahadeva (Śiva), Ṣanmukha, Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma and also Indra. Besides these gods there were offerings to eight Vasus, twelve Ādityas, eleven Rudras, and the two Maruts and Gandharvas, Siddhas, Caranas, Nāgas, which are grouped as four class of Devas and eighteen groups of Gaṇas. There were also in the city, Jain paḷḷis, Bauddha paḷḷis and other sacred centres where the respective dharmas were expounded and Purāṇas studied. It clearly suggests that Vedic mode of worship was followed in the time of Cilappatikāram. Also please note the main gods so worshipped were all Vedic gods. Even to this day Vedic fire sacrifices (homas) are performed in all the classical temples daily and especially on festival days. The flag hoisting is also done in exactly the same manner today which goes by the name dvajārohaṇam on the day of the start, though the authorities now cited are from Āgama. The city witnessed great music and dance filling all the streets. The day after the lowering of the flag, the last day people thronged to the Sea coast and after a special worship to the God of the Sea, Varuṇa, all bathed in sea and had a daylong celebration. This is like what is now called in temple festivals tīrthavāri.

We have seen that another but companion text Maṇimēkhalai also describes in detail the indra-viḻa almost verbatim as Cilappatikāram and shows the role of Vedic worship in ancient Tamiḻ land.