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80. When The Gods Fought 01 Jul 18b.pdf (924.53 kB)

When The Gods Fought

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journal contribution
posted on 2018-07-01, 07:17 authored by TENSING CARLOS RODRIGUESTENSING CARLOS RODRIGUES

The most virulent of the śaiva - vaiṣṇava fights seem to have happened in the south, both in Deccan as well as in Tāmiḷākam. The roots of this conflagration in the south probably lay in the encounter between the native culture in the vaḍukar country and Tāmiḷākam, and the culture coming in with the kshatriya and the brāmhaṇa. In the process of cultural exchange between the two and the mutual assimilation of the objects of worship, new deities were created and old deities were given new identities, based on tenuous similarities. For instance, the tāmiḷa found it easy to relate to Śiva on account of their native god Śivan, the ‘red one’. The resulting churning led to segmentation of the communities and obvious conflicts. Sometimes it appears that the feud was between the brāmhaṇa theology which had assimilated the kirāta influences (Śiva Śaktī, etc) by then, and the kshatriya/ yadāva beliefs. But that does not explain why the feud reached an ignition point largely in the south. It has to do something with some elements within southern culture. Which could they be ?

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