Deepa Mehta's _Fire_

[Chandrasekaran, Periannan]

Head offering seems to have continued very late into modern times.
I read a news item on the Hindu within the last one year that
reported a fresh archaeoloigcal finding somewhere in Arcot district areas
(...man2n2Ar..?) where they found an inscription dated around
12th century AD that said some body offered his head to the local
god(dess).

I also read in a book titled "takkai rAmAyaNam" edited by
noted archaeologist nAkacAmi that said sometime in the 15th
-16th century AD time frame a body guard of a kAGkEyan king of
koGku country offered his own head to the local god so that
his master, who was without a child for a long time,
would beget a child.

Of course, self-immolation has been quite common in Tamil Nadu;
self-immolation during the 1965 agitation protesting  "Hindi Imposition"
etc.

chandra


> -----Original Message-----
> From: N. Ganesan [mailto:naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Sunday, January 24, 1999 8:21 AM
> To: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: Deepa Mehta's _Fire_
>
>
> Head offerings to Goddess Durga occurs in CilappatikAram
> (4-5th century AD).
>
> Fire walkings occur in Draupati Amman temples all over the
> world wherever South Indians settled down.
>
> Regards,
> N. Ganesan
>
>
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