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SEPTEMBER, 1915)
THE ADVENTURES OF THE GOD OF MADURA
211
The god in this templo worshipped himself, as, into the region of Hades, other gods and angels did not and ordinarily could not go.
The souls of mortals pass into the dominion of Hades only through the portals of death. They make their entry into that unknown region through the eastern gate. When the Sun sinks below the horizon in the west, he makes his appearance as the rising Sun in the orient of the nether world. It is even so with the souls of the departed, which pass out through the west and enter Hades through the eastern gate. Thither they are conducted by tha Furies, which stand outside to prevent the egress of the sinners once they have gone inside.
The original notion about the experiences in Hades was uninfluenced by the virtue and vice of the life lived here on the earth. But this was manifestly unjust. In later ages a conception grew up of separate compartments in Hades, one for the good and one for the bad. A higher development was to separate the two groups entirely and place them in different localities.
The blessed were sent to some islands in the regions of light, while the sinners were consigned to the lethal surroundings of the Inferum. Such was the belief of ancient nationali
ties.
But it cannot be predicated of any one that he was so pure and righteous that there was not some flaw or irregularity in his life-work; nor that he was so bad that there was not some redeeming feature in all that he did or suffered.
While the former could not escape some tribulation or discipline in purgatory, the latter is not consigned to eternal perdition. The former, therefore, has to pass through Hades for expiation before he is qualified for admittance into the isles of the blessed.'
The Pandyan had to satisfy the law and had to pass through the temple of Thiruvidaimaruthur before the grace descended on him and he was privileged to behold (in the vision) his admission into Siva-lokal. The god of Madura, as his name suggests is the god of light, and he of Thiruvidaimaruthur presided over Hades.]
XI.
In the period when Kîrtîbhûshaņa-Påndya ruled over the kingdom, the deluge super vened. The Tamil districts, Påndynâd included, were submerged. All living creatures were wiped out. After the waters were drained back into the ocean or sunk into the earth, the races were again re-created.
Vamsasekhara-Pandya was the first monarch of the new creation.
The deluge had obliterated all traces of the boundaries of the city. The king was not able to discover the marks on the line of which the new walls to be raised were to be carried. He prayed to the god of Madura, who directed a serpent which was always wound up round his wrist to go down and delineate the boundaries.
The serpent wriggled out and proceeded eastwarde, until he reached a certain point, where he stationed himself. He then elongated his tail to an enormous degree and carried it in a sort of circle round the old line of the city walls. When the delineation was completed, he got the tip of his tail into his mouth. The new walls were raised on this perimeter.
[This deluge was a local appropriation, something like Deucalion's. The alignment of the city's limits by the agency of the serpent is an adaptation of the symbolism of the
