Is Deepavali a festival of Tamils?

Prologue

Hi all, after a long time I'm writing a post here in my blog and that too in English. This a series I posted in my Facebook timeline for nine consecutive days from November 1 to 9 of 2015 (started 10 days before Deepavali and wrote till its eve). I've compiled all nine chapters put together to present it for the convenience of the readers.

This series ultimately focuses on how Deepavali came into existence as a result of conspiracy of the Aryans with some pecks of history  all through the nine chapters. This indeed is a series in which I've consolidated many facts I've read about Tamils, Aryans and Hinduism & its evolution.

The counter ideas and comments on this series can be written to me either personally or in public or even by both means.

Santhosh Mathevan

Tiruchy

November 11, 2015

Day 9:

Who is a Sura? Who is an Asura? The difference between two ideologies

Long back... Almost 2500 years ago Aryans who actually believed to have originated from Central Asia and Europe invaded 'Navalan Theevu' the then name of this land and now it is Indian sub continent. During this invasion they brought certain symbols and households of their culture along with them.

One such symbol is 'Sura baanam' a form of liquor they use to consume regularly (even women consumed says Mahabaratha).

Subsequently, the Tamils of Navalan Theevu who are the native citizens of this land for over 25000 years named them 'Sura'.

There is a common nature in most of the Indian languages. To give an antonym of a word, a prefix would be added to it. For instance, Himsa-Ahimsa. One such prefix is 'Aa' sound('A' when spelt in English).

So, Aryan tribes started to call Tamils 'Asura' as the opposite race of 'Sura' to create a stand that Aryans originated from India, claim Tamil historians.

So, Suras are completely different from Asuras as per history.

Day 8

Is an 'Asura' a bad guy?

It is a general thought seen in most of the believers of myths, that Suras and Asuras are villains. As we said in the last chapter, they were names used to identify the Tamils and Aryans of Naavalan Theevu(present Indian sub continent).

For a very long time Tamils saw Aryans as enemies since the day one Aryans invaded this land. So there were a lots of massacres and assassinations at the end of every war between Aryans and Tamils. Tamils gave Aryans some space to survive in this land. But, the wicked nature of the nomadic Aryans led them to ownership fights.

The results of such ownership fights led to such wars which consequently led to assassinations. One such encounter was massacre of Raavanan, a Tamil emperor believed to have ruled the deep South.

The difference between Sura-Asura ideologies can still be understood with some live examples. The list of Kings assassinated by Aryans consists of Asuras while, the list of massacres by Tamil Kings were Suras.

Examples of Tamil Kings:

RaavanAASURAN by Rama, an Aryan

NaragAASURAN by Krishna, an Aryan.

Example of scenarios where Aryans killed by Tamil leaders:

Still we have a special occasion existing in Tamil Nadu called Soorasamhaaram or Sooravadham or Sooranporu(Destruction of Sura), where believed to be a god by Thesits and an icon of Tamil's bravery by Tamilists, Murugan killed an Aryan for occupying Devar's land for threatening them.

These are the two different encounters which would clearly explain the difference between Sura and Asura. So both Sura and Asura were common men and Kings at the maximum.

Day 7

Why Aryans wicked people?

After their entry into this land, Aryans were not accepted by the Tamils and were hardly allowed to participate in any of their special occasions.

Tamils lived here and grew up with a lot of civilizations namely river Paguruli valley civilization, Cauvery delta civilization, Indus Valley civilization, etc. This was the main reason why Tamils neglected Aryans from entering into their culture as Aryans were so uncivilised.

Following this forbidden state, Aryans tried to portray themselves as native people. For this, they adapted certain identities of Tamil culture and started following them.

For example, for a long time Aryans were consumers of beef(Mahabharata says). When they saw Tamils praising cows as they played a prime part in agriculture, Aryans stopped having beef and started worshipping cows as God.

Similarly, Tamils followed ancestral worship method. On seeing this, Aryans started to develop stories with characters from both Tamil-Aryan race. This was to show that Tamils and Aryans are same. They started to impose those stories into the Tamil community like a slow poison.

This eventually led Aryans to earn a little place in this land. There are some pecks of evidences for this. One such evidence is transformation of Soorapadman, an Aryan into a cock and peacock after Murugan beheaded him. Massacre of Soorapadman was history, the myth added up later to it was a gesture to the fact that Aryans were given a little space to survive here.

Likewise, Aryans developed myths involving both sides. At this time, Buddhism and Jainism emerged out. These two religions started preaching anti-Aryan concepts. On seeing their rapid growth Aryans again feared of losing their space in land.

To overcome that, Aryans came up with a new strategy. The started writing myths which involved all cultures that existed in this land. They adopted Jataka Tales of Buddhism, holy stories of Jainism, ancestral history of Tamils and other stories of mini tribal groups located sparsely across the sub continent.

The twin epics Ramayana and Mahabharata came out subsequently. Both epics contented with cultural identities of all religions and native tribal groups with the dominance of Aryan concepts. This lasted until the entry of Islam after which Aryans made up a new story.

Day 6

How did Hinduism come into existence?

As Islam grew rapidly in the sub continent, Aryans were cornered to safe guard themselves from the Islam. For this they had no other go than uniting with the native people of this land.

They saw these new people who came from Arab and Persian belt following a new religion. Till then there was no ideology in the name of religion in this land. There were ways of living which were preached by various people like Buddha, Mahaveera, Muruga, etc. There were lots of little groups of people following such preaching like, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Gaanaapathyam, Aaseevagam, Saivam, Vainavam, Women deity worshiping methods, ancestral worshiping method and tribal groups like Saora(Now Saurashtra), Gondwana, Vaduga, Badaga and others.

To make a concrete base for their survival, Aryans united all these system into a single identity called Hinduism. Earlier, they renovated an existing unstructured language that was in usage along the foot hills of Himalayas and created a new language called Samskritham(Sanskrit when pronounced in English. The meaning of the word Samskritham in that language is 'renovated language'). So the moral stories, holy writings(They call those writings moral and holy) of Hinduism were written in this language. Again, these stories and myths were written with characters representing all these system.

For example, according to Hindu mythology, family of Shiva comprises of Paarvathy, Muruga and Vinayaka. All the four members of this family belong to different forms. Muruga belong to Tamil's worshiping system, Shiva belong to Saivism, Paarvathy belongs to Women deity worshiping system and Vinayaka was the the god of Gaanaapathyam system. Further, they made Vishnu of Vainavism to this family as Paarvathy's brother and added up Ayyappan(Saathan as per Aseevagam) to the list as a child came out of a relationship between Shiva and Vishnu.

However, they could not stop Islam from growing up. The later period kings of Mughal dynasty captured the sub continent almost completely except South India. This is how Hinduism came evolved. Many historians still claim that, the word Hinduism itself should have come into existence only a 300 to 500 years ago until then there were only small groups and system of worships.

One such worshiping system was Tamil's which had many Kings, War Commanders like ancestors portrayed as deities. This was the hardest system to break by the Aryans, for which they adopted a criminal strategy.

Day 5

How Tamil identities faded out in Hinduism?

The uncivilised nature of the nomadic Aryans kept them away from all occasions of the Tamils as we have already seen a lot about it in the previous chapters. Aryans wondered about the system of life style Tamils followed. Be it a marriage or a festival or even a funeral procession, in every occasion of Tamils, every single community that was present in a city or town or village participated irrespective of their profession(Till then the societal structure of Tamils was based on profession. Later on it became a communal structure and as untouchability centered entity).

There were only three options for them at that time for their survival. The first one was to break this structure(which Macaulay successfully did during the British era). The next way was to become a part of the structure by adopting the culture of Tamils in a slow poison effect. The final option was leaving this land.

The first one was mission impossible for them and the last option was what they stayed away from. So, they had no other choice than getting into the structure.

There is a phrase in Tamil still in existence, that Tamil Nadu makes people live who come here for survival. Even many Sangam age literary works quote the hospitality of Tamils as their special character. And this character of Tamils was the key for Aryans to exploit Tamil's societal structure.

These Aryans started depending on food and livelihood(Some Tamil historians say that they opted out begging as their profession). They earned food through this dependency. However, they were not allowed inside temples and occasions due to their nomadic nature.

Even the women brought by the King for his private pleasure were allowed into temples after some point of time in history. They were asked to look after the maintenance of the temples(these women were called Workers of God i.e. 'Devar Adiyarkal' in Tamil. Anyhow this word has become a word of abuse in present day). But, Aryans were never allowed to participate but were just given a little space outside the premises of the temples.

After attaining this little space in Tamil society, Aryans moved a level forward. For this, they used a tool called 'Sanskrit', the language they produced out of renovation of a language which was already in use, along with many Tamil words(Many words of Sanskrit are from Tamil with sounds of Sanskrit added in between them for example Veatti became Veashtti, Vidayam became Vishayam and even some names like Agathiyar became Agasthiyar).

There was a community called 'Odhuvaargal' in every Saivist temple who were employed by the King to recite Saivist devotional literary works standing in front of Siva lingam. This was the way through which Aryans entered into temples.

The alienist nature of Sanskrit was so supportive for the canvas of Aryans among the Tamils to make them believe that Sanskrit is language of gods(Deva Basha). So, they slowly corrupted the minds of people and started reciting devotional hymns in Sanskrit and subsequently replaced Odhuvaargal inside Temples. In the mean time they portrayed themselves like civilised people by changing some of their nature like consuming beef and others.

For this, they adapted the stories and histories of Tamils and other groups like Buddhists, Jain, etc and wrote epics and holys books in Sanskrit to resist these people from letting know it. All these happened simultaneously over a period of time.

The next step after replacing Odhuvaars, their target was getting into the sanctorum of the temple. Their holy preaching in Sanskrit and the professional setup of the society were the two factors which assisted them in this step.

As people believed that Aryans could speak in Deva Basha, they became messengers of God at one point of time and it was during this time, the concept of untouchabliity entered into the professional structure of the society and converted it into a communal structure.

These Aryans became the highest community of the society as they were believed to be in a direct communication with God and thus a hierarchical set up was imposed into the societal structure with respect to the significance of the profession taken up by a community.

Day 4

Aryanisation of Tamil Culture: First Step

Until the invasion of Aryans, Tamil culture did not have issues like untouchability, women slavery, communal clashes, superstitious beliefs and all such unwanted concepts that are itching the country right now.

As these Aryans were in lack of Astronomical, Scientific and Physiological knowledge, they could not co-exist with Tamils in this land. Tamils have already defined and have researched larger phenomena such as, Planetary arrangements, Celestial motions, Human Physiology, Marine Sciences, Ocean Navigation, Civil Architecture and many others long before Aryan invasion. Many of those science concepts defined by Tamils are still in an unreachable distance for modern science which is uncertain in most of its explanations and still struggles even in formulating the area of a circle.

Aryans found it very difficult to survive amidst this intellectual society. Tamils were very clear in the conceptual bondage between God and Science. This was the hardest factor Aryans struggled to break.

To overcome this, Aryans over wrote these science concepts with images of Hinduism in order to make knowledge of Tamils blunter. One such overwritten concept was portrayal of planets as gods(Shani Baghwan, Guru Bahwan). To make believe Tamils that these planets are gods, they roped in idols of these planet gods into Temples. Till then Tamils portrayed planets in form of spheres and hemispheres inside temples (Evidence: Still some ancient Saivist Temples in Tamil Nadu has planetary arrangements in form of spheres and hemispheres).

Even the ancestral worshiping method was also had serious effects of Aryanisation in it. Many women deities, and images of ancestors who fasted unto death(Vadakiruthal in Tamil, where a King or a Leader when he feels fulfilled with his life, retires from rule, leaves his land conferring the empire to his successor and fasts unto death) were converted into Hindu gods.

Many such Tamil identities and scientific definitions vanished in shades of Hinduism and at some point of time Hinduism occupied the entire landscape and Tamils way of living no longer existed.

Whenever a society's way of living and worshipping changes, ultimately, its agenda of festival celebration also changes. Yes, Tamil's festivals too witnessed a total change due to Aryanisation. Let us see how.

Day 3

A total change in the agendas of Tamil festivals

We have already seen in the previous chapters about how Aryans worked out to dilute the minds of Tamils with respect to their wide knowledge on the relations between Science and Religion. Once the structure of a religion or a system of living changes, ultimately the total agenda of that religion or system meets a change including the worshiping methods and festivals celebrated by the system. Various Aryan concepts were imposed into Tamil festivals during the aftermath of Aryanisation.

For example, Thai Pongal was a festival celebrated to mark the harvest of paddy and as a thanks giving ceremony to the resources that were employed in cultivation. This is still now celebrated in most of the ancient civilised countries in the Northern hemisphere of the globe in different names during the same season(December to February). So, it was completely a profession based festival.

But, after Aryanisation the professional image of Pongal totally changed into a holy image and the concept of God entered into this all of a sudden. Thus, in post Islamic entry into the sub continent Pongal was resisted within the Hindu religion.

While, this was one factor imposed, the next one was addition a Bogi in the eve of Pongal festival on the last day of Tamil month Margazhi. During Bogi, a custom of burning old house hold items in order to buy a new set of articles for the upcoming cultivation season is followed. However, many Tamil historians claim that Bogi was imposed to burn research reports and literary works that were written in palm leaf to erase the left out identities of Tamils.

Every festival of Tamils was based on such seasonal changes, lunar transitions and agriculture and had no shades of religion or god. But, Aryanisation gave these two shades to all special occasions of Tamils.

As Tamils were so expert in Astronomy, their day and month calculation was completely depending on the lunar transitions. They strongly believed that lunar transitions have greater effect than the transitions of all other celestial bodies including the Sun. So, the major festivals of Tamils fall either on a full moon day or a new moon day.

But, most of the festivals of Aryans fall on other days like Ashtami, Navmi, Dasami, etc. So to isolate the festivals of Aryans one can easily point out those fall on days other than full moon and new moon. Still, Aryanisation was done to overcome this isolation.

Day 2

Aryanisation of the full moon and new moon day occasions.

The relation between lunar transition and human beings was believed to be a very significant factor in marking the festival days of a year by Tamils. The astronomical knowledge of the Tamils was so tremendous that they were able to establish their calendar based on the lunar transitions so that a particular star day or a constellation day of the respective month will coincide with the full moon day of that month. And this full moon day will be called in the name of the month with the star of the month in its suffix. For example, Thai poosam, Maasi magam, Vaikaasi Visaagam, etc are those days on which full moon transition occurs.

These combinations of months, full moon and star day are marked as special days of the month and a festival depending on the season in the month falls is also celebrated. For example, during Vaikaasi Visaagam, every year in the down South regions of Tamil Nadu, a food item made of Mango is cooked and served. And it is during the Tamil month of Vaikaasi summer will be in its penultimate phase and mangoes would be available in a large amount as the fruit's season will be in peak.

Similarly, Tamils marked the other side of the lunar transition i.e. on every new moon day. And the examples of this are during the months of Aadi, Aippasi, etc the new moon day will be celebrated in a grandeur way.

The astronomical explanations behind Aippasi's new moon day celebrations is that every year, during this day, one of the four quadrant of Earth's revolutionary path starts. While the rest three falls on the new moon and full moon days of Tamil months Chithirai, Aadi and Thai. And that is why still Chithrai's full moon day, Aadi and Thai's new moon days are considered as days for special occasions. And one has to keep in mind that none of these calculations and celebrations belong to Hinduism and these are completely days marked by ancient Tamil astronomers in the name of Science and not religion.

Coming back to Aippasi new moon day, as this day is on the starting point in one of the quadrants of Earth's orbit, it was also marked as special day. And Aryanisation of this day is in fact resulted in evolution of Deepavali as this is said to be the day on which Krishna slayed Naragaasuran as per Aryan mythology.

While, Tamils marked it with an astronomical background and Aryans marked with a mythological background, Jainism has a different reason to mark this day and that too with a historical background.

It was during the new moon day of Aippasi, founder of Jainism, Mahaveer is said to have died and this ought to be mourning day for followers of Jainism as per the religions history.

Yet, Aryans' mythology over played both Jain and Tamil culture on this day.

Day 1

Is Deepavali a festival of Tamils?

This obviously is the last chapter of this series. We have seen how Aryanisation totally changed the shades of Tamil culture and history and also how identities of Tamils faded out in Hindu mythology.

As said earlier, Asura was just a name used to call Tamil race and so is Sura for Aryans. Raavanaasuran, Naragaasuran were Tamil emperors during various period of times. These kings resisted Aryans from killing the Tamils invading this land becoming a great threat to them.

Due to this, Aryans portrayed Asuras with a villain image in their epics and mythology. In due course of time Hinduism emerged out as a religion by integrating all religions and life style methods that existed here in which Aryan mythology became Hindu mythology and their epics became Hindu epics.

This eventually ended up the post Hinduism Tamils to believe that those Asuras were threat to Hinduism.

However, Aryans couldn't make change in certain customs that Tamils followed for a long time. One such custom was 'oil bath'. One could witness even today that Tamils take oil bath on Deepavali morning. Having an oil bath is a long time custom followed by Tamils in a house when someone dies. So, this oil bath taken by Tamils every year on Deepavali is to mark the death of their great ancestor Naragaasuran. A supporting evidence for this is that, such an oil bath custom on Deepavali exist only in Tamil and its sub category cultures like Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

Similarly, in Jainism this was the day when the religion's founder Mahaveer died. During his death Mahaveer made his last wish. According to his wish, every year, on his death anniversary, Jain people were asked by him to arrange an array lights(Deepam) in their homes to mark his death(the word Deepavali in Sanskrit means an array of light Deepam+Aavali).

But, the crooked nature of Aryans even overplayed Jain history who were once a greater enemy to Aryan race since the day one these Aryans stepped into this land. Nowadays, Jain people too celebrate this festival which supposed to be their black day.

The third reason and most important one to be taken into notice. More than a festival of culture, Deepavali is a festival of commerce. None of the identities of Deepavali belong to this land. For instance, the chemical used in fire crackers doesn't belong to this land and it came into this land only during the 18th century says history.

To market their products, many foreign traders used Deepavali as a tool with the support of Aryans. Every point of time in history, Aryans were those, the main cause for traders to dominate and take a control over this land. Be it pre-historic era or British era or even the recent days.

If all these are put together, it ultimately results up in saying, Deepavali is not a festival of this land but, a festival which came out as a result of nomadic Aryans' mythologies and conspiracies.

The End