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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OOTOBER, 1915
The reason why the god was unable to pronounce a curse on Siddhi-Vinayaka was that the latter was really a superseded and dethroned deity. He was not in truth the son of the god Siva, but his ancestor. Siddhi-Vinayaka was a sort of Kronos.
The dumb boy was due to a mistake, made also in modern times as in classical, that the son-god, who was often represented as a human child with his fore-finger to his lips to suggest his infancy, was intended to be represented as dumb. (Rawlinson's Herodotus).]
ΧΙΙ. In the Tamil Purana we find Madura designated as TITUT ERITTÄ. The name is not suggestive of any definite location. The word means the position at the end of the twelve.' It is possible that the idea is borrowed from the well-known Sanskrit religious chant of Mantrapushpark
अधोनिष्ठया वितस्वान्ते नाभ्यामुपरि सिष्ठति, and ritasti is a unit of lineal measurement of twelve inches. If this suggestion is correct, the name oren should stand for the location of the soul, which is placed twelva inches below the neck, somewhere in the region of the heart.
In the attempted explanation of this title and the peculiar sanctity of the Madura shrino, the Tamil Purara gives expression to ideas, which make it very clear that at some remote period, the cult and religion of Osiris passed from Egypt into Southern India and formed the ground-work of the Saiva-siddhanta system of belief.
We are told that the universe is the body of Brahma. The tourteen lokas or worlds, which the Universe comprises, are only the several anatomical portions of this body. Of these fourteen lokas seven find themselves in the upper and seven in the lower portion of this body.
The Universo being conceived as the body of Brahma, the Creator, and Brahmå being conceived as anthropomorphic, the result is that each one of these fourteen lokas is equated to some member or portion of the human frame.
There is a further development. Of those fourteen lokas each is self-contained. . That is to say, each loka contains in itself all the anatomical structure of the human body complete. Eo that, each loka contains the locations of all the fourteen worlds. Therefore, each loka is a miniature body of Brahmâ. Devotion and faith require that every man should on his own person localise the position of all the fourteen worlds, composing the body of Brahma.
The earth on which we live aleo satisfies the same law. It is only one of the fourteen Lakas and yet it contains in itself all the fourteen locations. The earth is likewise a portion of Brahmi's body. It is the first of the seven upper lokas in the ascending order. It is that portion of Brahmi's body which corresponds to the Perineum. And again, on the earth itself, the locations of the several tokas or anatomical parts have been marked.
India is the only holy land on this planet. The other countries being god-forsaken. India, therefore, appropriates all the fourteen locations.
We are thus told that Thiruvalur in Tanjore, where the god is worshipped under the name of Thyâ garAjan, is the position of the Perineum. The temple at Jambukesvaram, in the island of Sriraigan occupies the location of the membrum virile. The navelor umbilicus is-localised by the shrine at Arunachalam (Trinomali in South Arcot). At Chidambaram, in Cuddalore, the god occupies the region of the heart. The place of the neck is oocupied by the temple at Kalahasti. Higher up, Benares is at the position of the Cerebellum. Topmost of all stands the seat of Kailåss on the location of Brahmarandhram, the occipital foramen
