Moon and Cycle of death and rebirth

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

Many thanks to Prof. Georg von Simson and Prof. Luis Gonzalez-Reimann for
their very valuable information. This helped confirm my suspicion that the
moon as an example of rebirth was a north Indian idea. The excerpt I had
quoted occurred in a CT poem by mutukaNNan2 cAttan2Ar whom I discuss in my
article “Bards, Priests, Washerwomen, and the Ancient Tamil
Society” at the Indology site,
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/members/palaniappan/bards/Bards01.htm

The influence of north Indian religions on the early Tamil society has not
been properly delineated until now. The theory of anaGku proposed by George
Hart has contributed to this significantly for the past 25 years. Not having
realized that the Dravidian linguistic phenomenon of radical u/o alternation
was in operation in words such as poli and pulai, Dr. Hart had proposed that
untouchability and caste system was indigenous to Tamil culture. This led to
Hart’s paradoxical view of CT groups associated with the sacred being
polluted people! This has misled a plethora of later work by scholars of
religion and anthropology deriving the present plight of some Tamil people to
beliefs traceable to the  CT society. A proper linguistic analysis would have
led to the conclusion that those associated with the sacred indeed were
considered to be auspicious, just the opposite of Hart’s view. But,
then this linguistic phenomenon seems to have outwitted Burrow and Emeneau as
well. For instance, they include Ka
 pul ‘mean’ in DEDR 4301 with an implied *pul-  but include Ta.
pul ‘meanness’ and Ka. pol, polla ‘meanness’ in DEDR
4547 with an implied *pol-.

As a result, it has not been realized until now that Jainism and Buddhism
have a lot to do with the origin of untouchability in South India. The
degradation of groups such as Ta. pulaiyan2, Ka. poleya, Ka. poleye   should
be attributed to these religions and not Vedic Brahmins. If anything, it
seems Vedic Brahmins were not very disruptive and got along fine with native
Tamil culture during CT days. The appellation, dark age, is very apt for the
Kalabhra interregnum that followed the CT. The influence of Jainism and
Buddhism had erased the historical memory regarding key CT cultural
practices. Even the Bhakti cult which overthrew the influence of Jainism and
Buddhism could not disavow all the ‘cultural baggage’ adopted
from those religions.

Regards
S. Palaniappan