Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 70

66
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MARCH, 1913.
Brahma-hatyá over again, for Vritra was the son of a Brâhman god. Indra fell into a sort of dementia and wandered abont, Orestes-like, pursued by his Nemesis and the relentless Furies. He had no peace of mind. He hid himself in a pool of water, for, the Furies could not pursue him. into that element. They stood on the margin waiting for him to come out.
Brihaspati, the offended priest, was somehow appeased by Indra's forlorn queen. He was prevailed upon to go in quest of the absent god. The priest traced him to the lake. Thither he repaired. He called out to him. But Indra was afraid to come out of the water. He knew that the Furies were in waiting. Brihaspati, by the potency of his incantations, managed to get them cut of the way. Indra was encouraged to come out and did so. The Furies, indeed, were got rid of, but not the Nemesis. Indra felt the weight of the incubus, and prayed to his priest to help him out of it.
Brihaspati took Indra with him from one sacred place to another, at every one of which the latter had a ceremonial bath with the spiritual ministration of the former. But the sin was not washed out of him. At last, the pilgrim, footsore and famished and little thinking of his approaching deliverance, turned his wearied steps in the direction of the future location of Madura.
When he neared the place, he found, to his astonishment and relief, that the load of sin, with which he had been oppressed so long, dropped down suddenly from his back. He was again a free god. He proceeded apace and reached the brink of a pond, where he observed a Siva-linga of stone. He was certain then that be stood on sanctified ground and that his deliverance was due to the grace of the Bethel that stood there, looking quite innocent.
bathing in the pond, he made puja to the stone-god as well as the time
He lost no time, but and place allowed of it. Over the spot where the Linga stood Indra put up a shrine. The god Siva was pleased with Indra's devotion. He revealed himself to Indra and questioned him as to what he would have. The request of Indra was an humble one, that he should be allowed to stay there and worship the Linga day after day. But the All-merciful did not wish to take so much service from him. He vouchsafed to Indra that he might go back to rule his own kingdom, and that, if he worshipped the Linga on a certain day of the year, it would be accepted as equal to daily and hourly worship.
[We must take it that the shrine raised by Indra was subsequently added to by the monarchs of the Pandya dynasty and that as the result we have the great temple now standing there.
The fable of Indra's Brahma-hatyá is a very old one and drawn from Sanskrit sources. The point of the tale in the Tamil Purana is that the compiler locates the deliverance at Madura, and ascribes it to the god worshipped there. In this the compiler was amply justified by the example of the Sanskrit Puranists, who connect this purgation with almost every important place of worship in India; giving rise, very frequently, to the most contradictory accounts in the body of one and the same Purana.
The attempt to enhance the sanctity of the temple by ascribing its foundation to the god Indra appears on the surface. ]
II.
There is some foundation for the belief that the original capital of the Pândya chieftains was located on the eastern coast of the Madurâ District, at a place which tradition records by the name of Mañalûr. The name is suggestive, It is Tamil, and means the sandy town.' It would appear that, at a subsequent period, when probably the kingdom extended westwards and north, embracing the inland cantons, the necessity of shifting the capital to a central locality in order to secure the consolidation of political and administrative control occurred to the rulers.
The change in the seat of the government may be gathered from a tale recording another of the adventures of the god Somasundara. A trader of Mañalûr, in the course of his itinerary progress for custom, happened to halt at sunset at the location of the future Madûrâ, on a certain Monday. In the course of the night, he observed the gods, great and small, come down from the heavens and worship a Linga that stood there. He was privileged to see all this, as he was a great devotee of Siva, bimself, and strictly observed the Monday ceremonial in his practice of religion,