Situating Attukal Temple and Kannaki Cult: A
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International Journal of Advanced Development in Science and Technology Volume : 2 Issue : 03 May 2020 www.ijadst.com e-ISSN: 2582-1059 SITUATING ATTUKAL TEMPLE AND KANNAKI CULT: A REPRESENTATION OF MOTHER GODDESS CONCEPT 1 Sumitha S S, 1 Research Scholar, Department of History, 1 University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, 1 [email protected]. ABSTRACT in different forms such as Brahma, Vishnu Siva etc. There are so many gods and goddesses in The cult of Mother Goddess has prevailed from Hinduism. The mother goddess concept in Kerala can remote antiquity. It may be supposed that the Pre- be seen in the form of Bhadrakali cult and Aryan rules defined the female principle which Kannakicult. In Kerala the mother goddess is ultimately developed into a cult of Mother Goddess. worshipped as the goddess of fertility also. The cult is Many primitive tribes have a belief that the goddess evident from the seals discovered from Harappan gives them abundant harvest and prolific cattle. sites. Almighty the Eternal God is worshipping in The Mother Goddess is worshiped as the different forms such as Brahma, Vishnu Siva etc. The goddess of fertility also. The belief in a goddess of cult of Mother Goddess has prevailed in remote fertility as a manifestation of the great mother is found antiquity. in the Indus Civilization. The cult of Bhagavathy or goddessis very A concrete evidence of this belief has been popular in Kerala many tribal and indigenous unearthed by the archaeologist from Indus Valley goddesses are also got incorporated into the popular sites. In South India the Mother Goddess concept is cult. Kannaki is a symbolic representation of popular among people in the form of Sakthi or chastity, nobility and beauty. The temple at Attukal is Bhagavathy cult. The religion was of the type situated in a central place of the ancient city of practiced by other early agricultural communities in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala state and the Mediterranean region and the Middle East the abode of ‘Lord Sri Padmanabha’. Pilgrims from centering round fertility rites and worship of Mother all over the country who visit the Sree Padmanabha’ Goddess. The overriding impression of the spiritual also visit Attukal Temple. Attukal temple in famous for basis of the Indus culture provided by archaeology is the Bhagavathy cult. Attukal Devi Temple popularly of the fertility of religion; Man’s attempt to come known as Sabarimala of Women. terms with the relatives of his agrarian existence. In so Keywords: Kannaki, Pilgrims, Sabarimala of women, far as agriculture has remained the main basis of the Mother Goddess Indian spiritual culture still rooted to the soil, has taken over the heritage of Indus culture. This is 1. INTRODUCTION certainly true; much of the Harappan religion had There are so many gods and goddesses in survived in Hinduism which is a social as well as Hinduism. Almighty the Eternal God is worshipping Economic Phenomenon. IJADST Page 1 International Journal of Advanced Development in Science and Technology Volume : 2 Issue : 03 May 2020 www.ijadst.com e-ISSN: 2582-1059 2. MOTHER GODDESS CONCEPT example, on certain days Lakshmi, is supposed to take Hinduism is rather the mosaic of distinct up her abode in it and the Hindus walk round the tree. cults, deities, sects and ideas and the adjusting, in Tree itself is worshipped in its natural form, the other extra posing or distancing of these to existing ones, the in and endowed with human shape and human placement drawing not only on belief and ideas but attributes. also on the Socio-Economic reality. The numerous The mother Goddess reappears in the religious pottery figurines from Mohen-Jo-Daro and Harappa life of India only after the laps of over a thousand provide the investigator with more definite years from the fall of Harappa. As already stated she information on the subject of deities particularly the was evidently the divinity of the people and the upper female deity. The female figures are almost invariably class seem to have preferred a god, who also shows in a damaged condition, but there is strong reason to features found in later Hinduism. In many ancient believe that they represent the great Mother Goddess, cultures the worship of Mother Goddess associated who was worshipped so widely in the ear and Middle with that of the bull, and these were no exception. East in ancient times, and whose cult is almost Some of them like the women kneeling down or universal amongst the lower class people in Modern holding a dish of cakes in her arms are probably India. Such figures are found both at Mohen-Jo-daro merely toys, without say religious meaning. and Harappa and are paralleled as we shall see, by The great Mother Goddess was made manifest kindered examples from the neighboring country of in female figurines and other iconography. Some of Baluchistan.In Mohen-Jo-daro and Harappa there are the female figurines manufactured by Harappans were evidences prevailing the nature worship a horned toys, but other was possibly motive offerings or Goddess is shown in the midst of the pipal, or sacred perhaps cult images for house hold shrines. In some of big-tree, before which another horned deity is kneeling these countries they appear later or more and doing obeisance. spasmodically than in others, but there seems little Both the Goddess and her worshipper wear doubt that the various groups are traceable, if nor long plaits of hair, have their arms adorned with many directly to a common origin, at any rule to a bangles, and in the case of the latter, and possibility of community of religious ideas shared by the countries the former also, there is a floral or leafy spray were they are found; and generally accepted view springing from the head between the horns. A row of concerning them is that they represent the great female spirits, or deities, facing the opposite way to Mother or Nature Goddess, whose cult is believed to the seen, above, occupies the whole of the lower have originated from Antolia (Mother godeess) and register of the seal amulet, each figure wearing a spread theme though out most of Western Asia. spring on the head, along pigtail behind, but not horns. It seems certain that these pottery images of the These figures, the mythical seven in number, recall the Goddess, whose name is unknown, were kept in small pox Goddess ‘Sitala’ and her six sisters a almost every house in the ancient Indus cities, primitive Indian Cult regarded as indigenous. The probably in a recess or on a bracket on the wall, which pipal is, however, one of the many trees regarded as would account for the fact that the figures are nearly sacred in most part of India today, and there are all roughly finished at the back. The poorer and more several ceremonies connected with this cult. For illiterate people probably found a deity like the Mother IJADST Page 2 International Journal of Advanced Development in Science and Technology Volume : 2 Issue : 03 May 2020 www.ijadst.com e-ISSN: 2582-1059 Goddess, easier to understand and worship than any occupied by these Mother Goddess. In Vedic other. As already stated he was evidently the divinity mythology Goddess play only a subordinate part; the of the people, preferred a God, who also shows principal deities where exclusively male, and it was features found in later Hinduism. solely by virtue of their position as consorts of these In no country in the world has the worship of male Gods that the female deities acquired their the divine mother been from time immemorial so influence. Prithvi, the Earth Goddess of the Vedic deep-rooted as in India. Her shrines are found in every Aryans was a figure quite distinct from the Great Earth town, every village and hamlet throughout the land. or Mother Goddess of the older people. In the She is the “Mother” or “Great Mother” and prototype Gupta period female divinities, mostly of tribal origin of the power (Prakriti) which developed into that of and background, began to attain a position of Sakthi. Her representative are the Gramadevatas, importance. Brahmanical Gods, anticipating the whose name are region and whose local attributes may prominence they were destined to achieve in later vary, but who one and all personifications of the same times. Shri-Lakshmi the Goddess of wealth and plenty, power. became popular among the Vaishyas and Shudras. Every village has its own particular Goddess, to The assimilation of female deities into the whom rich and poor alike look for protection and Brahmanicalpantheon led to the growth of the Shakti whose worship often takes the place of every other cult which preached that the male could be activated creed. Nowadays, these gramadevatas are represented only through union with a female. The phenomenon generally by rudely carved images, but sometimes by owed much to the interaction between Brahmanical mere symbols such as a stone, while occasionally their and tribal ideas, facilitated by the ever-increasing shrines are quite empty. That like the Mother Goddess number of Brahman settlements in the backward areas; of Western Asia, they originated in a matriarchal state it later became the central feature of the tantric of society, is a highly reasonable supposition, but, religion. however this may be, there can be no question that By the connection of the goddess with they held a pre-eminent position among the national vegetation, she is addressedAnnadada (giver of food) deities of the non-Aryan population. and Annapurna (she who is full of food). In an This is indicated alike by the popularity of their agricultural society the Goddess of vegetation enjoyed cults among the primitive tribes, and by the fact that a place of supreme importance.