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OOTORER, 1915)
THE ADVENTURES OF THE GOD OF MADURA
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THE ADVENTURES OF THE GOD OF MADURA. BY V. VENKATACHELLAM IYER, NELLORE.
(Continued from p. 212.) So he revenged himself on the younger son, by cursing him to be born as a dumb mortal boy. The god was exasperated with the bull Nandi, the usher, for having allowed these unruly boys into the presence. In his case the curse was that he should be born as a fish in the sea. All this came to pass. The goddess was born as the daughter of the chieftain of a fishing village. Nandi was born as a shark in the waters there, and became & terror to the fisher-folk thereabouts. He however succeeded in raising the cadjans and secured them on the tip of his nose. After sometime, the chief advertised that whoever should succeed in removing the shark from the waters, to him the chief's daughter would be given in marriage. This was a very fitting opportunity. The god changed himself into a fisherman, and accompanied by his attendants, similarly disguised, reported himself to the chieftain and offered to catch the shark. The offer was accepted. With the help of his men the god succeeded in netting the troublesome thing. The shark was hauled up ashore. The god took charge of the Vedas and claimed the chieftain's daughter in marriage, which was duly celebrated. The spousas prepared to depart for the honey-moon. At once the shark changed into a bull, and the god and the goddess rode on his back. Before their departure, the god made a brief confession to the fisherman chief about the true identity of himself and his bride. The bull flew up into the sky and the chief was left to console hiniself as best he could with the future prospect of Sivalokam.
[The story records in part the expiring echo of an ancient Phoenician legend and in part a Purâņio fable about the Vedas.
It is not difficult to conjecture where this fishing village lay, the chief of which had a goddess for his daughter. Agenor was the chieftain or king of Sidon, the first born of Canaan'. The name Sidon is explained to mean, the fishing village'. The Phoenicians started as fishermen before the discovery of mineral wealth enabled them to become merchant-princes. Europa was the daughter of Agenor. The god in the Tamil fable is the Dictaean Jupiter, who ran away with Europa, rather unceremoniously, and in the changed form of the bull, taking his bride on his back. The slight changes in the Indian fable are due to a desire to bring the story into accord with native sentiment.
The bull is a cognisance of Isvara as of Jupiter. It is the Apis of Osiris. In the Puranas we find Siva's bull recognised and described as a second form of Siva. In the Tamil SkandaPuranam this bull is frequently referred to as the second Sambhu (Siva).
The throwing of the Vedas into the sea and their being fished up later on is an incident borrowed from the Purânio fable of one of the avatdras. .
In ancient times, there was a widely prevalent belief about the sacred books or Vedas of every nation having been subjected to submersion in the deluge and having been recovered after the waters receded or having been lost in the deluge. The information relating to this matter is collected in Faber's Origin of Pagan Idolatry.
The Chaldaean sacred books were buried securely in Sippara, the city of the Sun, before the deluge. They were recovered afterwards by the survivors in the Ark. The idea in respect of the Hindu sacred books is variously put in Puråņic fables. The main feature is that they were wrested or stolen from Brahmå by an Asura and thrown into the ocean or secured at the bottom of it. From there they were recovered by Vishnu in the form of a huge fish. The Tamil story is an adaptation of the Puranic account.
