THE STORY OF TRANSFORMATION OF OTHERS TO THE GODDESS OF TAMILS-GODESS KALI WORSHIP AMONG TAMILS
1
Fourth Annual Tamil Studies Conference – Organized by the Centre for South Asian Studies,
Prof. S.Maunaguru
The story transformation of the Goddess of others, Kali to the Goddess of the Tamils is interwoven with the socio cultural history of Tamils.
It is observed in history that many attempts have been made to bring down the goddess Kali , considered as another form of Sakthi, under the male god Shiva but on the other hand the physical appearance of Kali portrayed by the artists ( painters, sculptors and poets) has shown the refusal of the female to submission.
Through the ages the beauty and the aesthetic aspects of the Hindu female god is constructed by the Hindu tradition in a manner portraying the goddess as soft, dedicate modest and beautiful with fair complexion.
But the constructions of the physical appearance of the goddess Kali by the artists is entirely different. The figure portrayed with dark in complexion, horrible winsome appearance with long hair and naked body. The skirt is made out of limbs of men’s hands and beheaded male’s heads, trembling the lying trunk of the man by her left feet. The appearance of the goddess Kali provides a gruesome and cruel picture of the god. I t resembles the destruction of the evils. She symbolizes the rebellious nature of the female against the male domination. The scriptures related to sculpture records that the temple
of the Kali has to be constructed at cemeteries or at the dwelling places of the depressed caste people.
The Cholas ruled Tamilnadu from 9th century to 13th century is called the golden age. But the recent research reveled that existence of social differences, injustices and oppression of the Tamil society against the depressed people. The scholars categorize the society into three. People in the centre, middle and in periphery. The kings, landlords, Brahmins come under the centre. The artisan soldiers in the middle and the depressed and the working class in the periphery. The people who live in the centre are called themselves “Thamar’.(Ourselves) and the others who lived in the periphery as Pirar (Others).
The so called Tamil culture is constructed the religion and culture of the people who live in the centre. During this period worship of Goddess Kali prevailed among the people who lived in the middle and the periphery.
In the evaluation of the history the people in the centre were attracted towards the Kali worship which is considered as the other worship by the same.
There were lot of temples for Kalii built by them; Kali became the subject matter of the classical Tamil literature. Kalingathupparani an epic written by the royal poet of king Kulothunga chola portrays her features and glorifies her. Later on the worship of goddess were very popular among the upper caste as found among the lower caste.
As such one can observe that worship of Kali cut across caste system of the whole Tamil society.
Attempts to understand the changes held in Kali worship among Tamils is made in this essay.
(The above is the translation of the abstract of my paper which would be presented at this bilingual conference)
Comments
Post a Comment