Meenakshi kalyaaNam

[jayabarathi]

At 08:30 AM 5/3/98 -0600, you wrote:
>An American couple are visiting Madurai. The flight is on
>Wednesday. Can a kind soul type few words from a book
>I am seeking? They will be in the right place to attend
>a festival that may be 2500 years old & where millions
>still participate which is happening on Chitra Paurnami day.
>
>1) Megasthenes, the Grecian ambassador of Alexander,
>refers to the marriage of the goddess of Methora.
>
>Few lines of what William Harman says in his
>Sacred marriage of a Hindu Goddess, please.
>OR, it may be found in K. A. N. Sastri, Foreign
>notices of South India too.
>
        Dear Dr.Ganesan,

                In the "Foreign Notices of South India
        I found only the following passages:

        The Pandaean nation is governed by females, and their
        first queen is said have been the daughter of Hercules.
        The city Nysa is assigned to this region, as is also the
        mountain sacred to Jupiter, Meros by name, in a cave on
        which the ancient Indians affirm Father Bacchus was nourshed.
        whlie the name has given roise to the fantastic story that
        Bacchus was born from the thigh of his father. Beyond the
        mouth of the Indus are two islans, Chryse and Argyre, which
        yeild ann abundant supply of metals that many writers allege
        their soils consist of gold and of silver.

        2. Heracles begat a daughter in India whom he called Pandaia.
        To her he assigned that portion of India which lies to
        southward and extends to the sea, while he distributed the people
        subject to her rule into 365 villaages, giving orders that one
        village should each day bring to the treasury the royal tribute,
        so that the queen might always have the assistance of those men
        whose turn it was to pay the tribute in coercing those who for
        the time being were defaulterers in their payments.

                There is nothing mentioned in K.A.Nilakanta Saastriyaar's
        book. Perhaps in the source book - J.W. McCrindle's "Ancient India as
        described by Megastenes and Arrian"?

        Regards

        Jayabarathi





>Million thanks for the helper in advance.
>
>2) K. Zcelebil, 1992, p. 23, Companion studies to the
>history of tamil literature,
>"The first flourish of an attested Dravidian civilization
>on Indian soil - that of the early Tamils - appeared in the
>area of the Indo-Ceylon straits, in the Gulf of Mannar. This
>earliest Indo-Dravidian civilisation, the beginning of which
>can possibly be dated between ca. 600-300 BCE, is connected with
>the dynasty of the Pandyas. The "Pandya connexion" attain
>additional attraction in the light of Romila Thapar's
>and R. Champakalakshmi's suggest that the reference in
>Ashurbanipal's (668-631 BCE) inscription to Pad'e, the
>King of Quad'e, may in fact be to Pandya, King of KuuDal,
>one of the early capitals of the Pandya kingdom.
>(cf. Asoka's 2nd major rock edict, Girnar verson,
>where Pa.de' = Pandya)".
>
>3) John J. Banninga, The marriage of the gods,
>National Geographic, 24, p. 1314-1330, 1913.
>(A nonessntial svayapuraaNic anecdote:
>This reference I found out.
>About this 85 year old article full of
>a century old photographs, Bill was pleased to know in 1987)
>
>Regards,
>N. Ganesan
>
>