NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/soc/culture/indian/38017

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-23 | 4.0 KB

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Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!ames!agate!agate!mani
From: [e-mail] (Mani Varadarajan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Re: Saivism. Vaishnavism and Casteism
Date: 23 Nov 92 13:26:18
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In-reply-to: cco.caltech.edu!vidya's message of 21 Nov 1992 01:58:37 GMT

In article <[e-mail]> cco.caltech.edu!vidya (Vidyasankar Sundaresan) writes:
   In article <[e-mail]>
   [e-mail] (C.R.Selvakumar - Electrical Engineering)
   writes:
   - I am posting the following as requested by Dr. Srinivasan
   -
   - -------------------------------------------------------------
   - Subject: Saivism Vaishnavism and Casteism
   -
   -           A FEW WORDS ABOUT SAIVISM, VAISHNAVISM, CASTEISM etc.
   -
   - There is a tendency to associate casteism and the introduction of
   - Vaishnavism in the South. It is possible that Vaishnavism was
   - introduced in the south just like Christianity was. It is also well
   - known that history is full of personal opinions, and biases.
   - There is no point in arguing about what was the 'truth'.


   It is not very possible that Vaishnavism was introduced to the South. On
   the other hand, the South is the birthland of Vaishnavism. It is thought
   by most researchers in Hinduism (Re - A Survey of Hinduism -Klaus K.
   Klostermaier, Univ. of Manitoba) that Vishnu is originally the ancient God
   of the Tamils Mal. Tamils still use the words 'Tirumal' and 'Perumal'
   solely with regard to Vishnu.

While it is certainly true that the Alvars, Ramanuja, and his
followers provided a solid emotional and philosophical basis
for Vaishnavism, there is very little evidence (from what I
have read) that indicates that the mythology of Krishna/Vishnu
originated in the south. Rather, all the evidence (cf. "Viraha
Bhakti", by Friedhelm Hardy, Oxford University Press) indicates
that the Tamil names Mayon, Mayavan, and Mal refer only to the
northern Krishna/Vishnu, (like Andal's phrase "mayanai ... vada
madurai ...")

The Mayon mythology, of course, came to the South in the Sangam
or pre-Sangam era.  But since Krishna is essentially a
historical and mythological god, we have to conclude that
Mayon = Krishna from the north and nothing else. (Also note
that the Gita and the Harivamsa predate references to Krishna
in Tamil literature.)

   If you read about temple ritual, you will see that Vedic Brahmins have
   very little to do with them. Temples are always controlled by Brahmins of
   a special category, those who claim the Agamas to be superior to the
   Vedas. Read the studies of the Madurai Minakshi Temple by C.J. Fuller and
   the Triplicane Parthasarathy Temple by Arjun Appadurai. What Ramanuja did
   was to accept non-Brahmins as his disciples. Since he was a priest of the
   Varadarajaswami Temple at Kanchipuram and later at the Srirangam temple,
   this must have upset not only the Vedic Brahmins but also the Agamic
   Brahmins who believed they had sole right over temple ritual.

Indeed, Ramanuja accomplished a unique synthesis of Tamil and
Sanskrit, brahmin and non-brahmin, and vedic and agamic, and I
don't think it would be exaggerating to see that this was
a revolutionary change at that time in social history.  I
believe it was the strength of his personality that kept these
diverse groups together.  This is also indirectly attested to
by the fact that many of these reforms were lost after Malik
Kafur invades Srirangam and ransacked the temple.  After the
image of Ranganatha was reinstalled many years later, the
temple "forgot" many of its reforms and reverted back to much
of its old customs.

   S.Vidyasankar

Mani