Indian Antiquary Vol 42

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

Page 73

MARCH, 1913.)
THE ADVENTURES OF THE GOD OP MADURA
The princess in the tale is to be understood as representing a class, a Buccession of sovereigns like herself, in some sort of continuity. Where the annals of a whole period have been lost to tradition, device of the ancient writers was to embody the history of the entire period in the individuality of one monarch, whose life they prolonged even to a millennium, as Occasion required. Witness the instance of a thousand years of universal oppression by generations of Assyrian monarchs, impersonated in the Semitic Zohak of Pehlevi tradition and of the Shahnama.
It appears in the Purana that, subsequent to the time of this princess, succession went in the male line in unbroken continuity. This marks the change in the social organisation, by wbich the succession to property was finally transferred from the female line to the male. The princess, then, was the eponymous beroine of a whole line of queens of the earlier period. Were it otherwise, it is difficult to believe that a solitary instance, or an exceptional one, should have been effective in giving historical and suggestive name to the kingdom to endure for future generations.
The gid acquires the right to rule in virtue of his marriage, as was customary in ancient Egypt, Lycia, Caris, Lydia and neighbouring countries in matriarcbal epochs. The attempt to deduce a divine origin for the founders of the dynasty is thus apparent.
The prominence given to that day of the week which is Monday is evidently referable to the cult of the Moon, s cult which had its origin when the Moon was the year-god of time measurement. When, in a later era, the Son, having been liberated from his subservience to the Star-gods who commanded the year-reckonings, was allowed undisturbed sway in marking time, the cult of the Moon was transferred in its entirety to him and he ruled thereafter as Somanatha, or the lord of the Moon, and, as a consequence, of the Moon-goddesses. The Monday cult, however, having been firmly established in practice, survived into the later epoch, though in association with the new god.]
III
The wedding-feast. The table-provisions had been prepared for the Marriage feast on such an extensive scale that hardly any appreciable quantity was diminished by the efforts of Siva's retainers. The hostess. the mother of the bride, was disagreeably surprised and felt very sorry that so much should go to wate. When she made mention of this to her son-in-law, he thought he would play • practical joke. He happily recollected that his retainer, Kundotharan, bad not been at the dinner. He now suggested that this faithful servant of his should be fed. At the same time, he exercised his divine will that the all-consuming fire of the ocean, the aurva, should get into the stomach of this yokel. He started eating and finished up with a mass of food of the cabic magnitude of the Himalayas, and yet, complaining of famine and hunger, implored, with the simplicity of the unfortunate Oliver Twist, for more. But all the available store had been exhausted, and the · hostess acknowledged herself beaten. The god then took it on himself to feed his retainer and doubtless, succeeded. At the end of the banquet, Kundotbaran felt very thirsty. He helped himself to all the water available in Madura. But his thirst was in no way allayed. Then the god requested the Ganges on his head to spare some drops of her store. She did so and the great river of Vaigai at once wound her course past the walls of the city. Kundotharan drank his fill of the ceaseless stream and was so good as to announce that his thirst was now quencbed.
The summoning of the seven oceans. When the god ruled at Madura under the name of Somasundara Pandya, the queen-mother, desired to bathe in the ocean. For, the rishi Gautama had advised her that a bath in the waters of the ocean would free her from future births. This efficacy was due to the circumstance that all. the sacred rivers flow into the sea, and the waters of the ocean are, therefore, impregnated with the combined purifying essence of all the holy rivere,