Tamil mythology - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tamil mythology means the stories and sacred narratives belonging to the Tamil people

Tamil people

Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...

. This body of mythology

Mythology

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

is a mix of elements from the Southern Hindu

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

peoples and Indus Valley

Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly modern-day Pakistan and northwest India...

cultures with Vedic

Vedic period

The Vedic period was a period in history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. The time span of the period is uncertain. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Rigveda, the oldest of the Vedas, was composed roughly between 1700–1100 BCE, also...

and orthodox Hindu aspects of the Sanskritic

Sanskrit literature

Literature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity . Literary production saw a late bloom in the 11th century before declining after 1100 AD...

tradition.

Early traditions

In the Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

period, the Tamils were a herding

Pastoralism

Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and...

, nature-oriented culture with a nature-based mythology of deities of the land. For example, Murugan

Murugan

Murugan also called Kartikeya, Skanda and Subrahmanya, is a popular Hindu deity especially among Tamil Hindus, worshipped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius and Reunion Island. His six most important shrines in India are the...

(Skanda) was a major god of the hunt who battled evil forces (like Vaishnava Kṛṣṇa, he was often accompanied by a following of beautiful young women) and Ventan

Indra

' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...

(Indra) was God responsible for rain and general well-being. A tradition of Bhakthi apparently existed among the early Tamils (Agama

Agama

Agama is a term for scriptures in Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism:* Āgama * Āgama * Āgama The corresponding adjective is Agamic.Agama can also refer to:...

). In sacred places a liṇga-like

Lingam

The Lingam is a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva used for worship in temples....

pillar called a kantu represented the deity.

With the arrival in South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

of the Jains

Jainism

Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...

, and Buddhists

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

in the third century BCE

3rd century BC

The 3rd century BC started the first day of 300 BC and ended the last day of 201 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period.-Overview:...

, the myths and religious practices of the Tamils became somewhat codified for the next thousand years.

Medieval and modern traditions

In the 8th century, the land of the Tamils became the setting for a particularly devotional form of Hinduism

Bhakti

In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...

marked by the works of poet-saints, especially followers of Śiva

Siva

Siva may refer to:*Shiva, a major Hindu God*Živa , a Slavic goddess*A pro-apoptotic signaling protein*1170 Siva, asteroid named after the god*Siva , name of several rural localities in Russia...

, called Nāyaṇārs

Nayanars

The Nayanars or Nayanmars were Shaivite devotional poets of Tamil Nadu, active between the fifth and the tenth centuries CE...

, and followers of Viṣṇu, called Āḷvārs

Alvars

The alwar or azhwars were Tamil poet saints of south India who lived between the sixth and ninth centuries A.D. and espoused ‘emotional devotion’ or bhakti to Visnu-Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service. Sri Vaishnava orthodoxy posits the number of alvars as ten, though there are...

. Among the most famous of the Āḷvārs was Nammāḷvār

Nammalvar

Nammalvar also Nammazhwar,Nammaazhvaar, Nammazhvar, Nammaalvaar, Nammalwar;Tamil: நம்மாழ்வார்) was one of the twelve Alvars, well known for his many hymns on devotion to Vishnu. Legend gives him the date 3102 B.C....

, who lived in the late ninth and early tenth centuries, and wrote especially about Viṣṇu's avatar Kṛṣṇa, and espoused the beliefs of Vedānta

Vedanta

Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...

. The most notable of the Nāyanārs was the ninth century Māṇikāvasakar, who stressed the ecstatic aspect of the worship of Śiva.

The late eighth and early ninth century was also the period of Śaṇkara

Adi Shankara

Adi Shankara Adi Shankara Adi Shankara (IAST: pronounced , (Sanskrit: , ) (788 CE - 820 CE), also known as ' and ' was an Indian philosopher from Kalady of present day Kerala who consolidated the doctrine of advaita vedānta...

, who preached Advaita Vedānta

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...

, a form of Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

that stresses the absoluteness of Brahmam (See Brahman

Brahman

In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...

). By the tenth century, the person of the Goddess

Devi

Devī is the Sanskrit word for Goddess, used mostly in Hinduism, its related masculine term is deva. Devi is synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the divine, as conceptualized by the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. She is the female counterpart without whom the male aspect, which represents...

(often in her aspect as Kālī

KALI

KALI may refer to:* KALI , a radio station licensed to West Covina, California, United States* KALI-FM, a radio station licensed to Santa Ana, California, United States...

), who from ancient times had been a popular deity, had regained a position of equality with Śiva and Viṣṇu, a position she holds to this day. Other popular deities who retain positions of importance in Tamil mythology with Śiva, Viṣṇu, and the Goddess are Śiva's sons Murugan and Gaṇeśa

Ganesa

Ganesa can be:* Ganesa, alternate spelling of Ganesha, the Hindu god.* Ganesa , a genus of marine snails in the family Turbinidae....

.

The twelfth century saw a flowering of Tamil literature

Tamil literature

Tamil literature refers to the literature in the Tamil language. Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution...

, particularly featuring the poet Kampaṇ's Ramavataram, the Tamil version of the Rāmāyaṇa

Ramayana

The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...

epic.

Since the sixteenth century, a tradition of stories about the childhoods of the gods has been a significant aspect of Tamil mythology. Tamil mythology remains one of the richest and most complex narrative traditions in India.

Early traditions

Medieval and modern traditions

See also