Madhu and KaiTabha in MBh

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Madhu and KaiTabha

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Why are the demons trying to perturb the yoganidra

of Narayana sleeping in the serpent couch named

as Madhu and KaiTabha?

 

Philosophically, Narayana sleeping in the serpent

couch (kuNDalini) represents a passive state.

 

This is opposite of KrishNa-lIlA affairs with

gopikAs, the illiterate women of the herder castes.

The love affairs of Krishna with others' wives is

parakIya love - ie, the "stolen" love in Brindavan,

whereas the contrast is his family life (svakIya)

with his legal wives in Dwaraka. The parakIya love

happening in Brindavan/Mathura is full of music. Mathura

city name seems related with madhu 'honey'.

 

Sangam tamil literature is replete with bards playing

lutes, and minstrels acting as go-betweens and

facilitators of illegal love-affairs between

chieftains and, gaNikAs and/or parastrIs.

The gaNikA mistress with whom the hero, Kovalan

(=cowherd in tamil, so named after Krishna)

spends years together is called mAdhavi (CilappatikAram).

mAdhavI 'wild jasmine' is mullai in tamil,

and mullai flower is the theme of pastoral

landscape. Pastoral landscape represents

mullai which blossoms in the evening, cattle

returning home, lovers - married or not -

joining together after periods of separation.

 

To me, it looks plausible that Madhu and KaiTabha

represent musician bards' titles.

Linguists like McAlpin suggest that Yadu was

coined retroactively to explain yAdava,

which is really yATu = goat, sheep and yATavan2 = shepherd

in tamil. Along somewhat similar lines, Madhu represents

a man of musician-dancer group and compare with

Maadhavii, the gaNikA-devadasi of CilappatikAram-Manimekalai

epics.

 

In tamil, kiTA = bull, ram, buffalo (Madras Tamil Lexicon)

and kiTAvan2 = bull-man. "kaiTabha" demon is plausibly

derived from dravidian kiTAva/kiTAba 'bull-man'.

In Tamil, vayavan2/vacavan2 = a steer bull,

Also, in old Tamil, vayavans dance what is called

"vATA vaLLi". This is a dance of the low castes, acc. to

sangam text commentary. In Kannada, the folk etymology

of basava is a tadbhava form of the Sanskrit v.r.sabha, "bull" .

Also, basava = a man who roams about idly and leads a shameful life.

Note that basava is the male counterpart of basavi

who are dedicated as temple-dancers. In Dravidian,

it is clear that a person of musician-dancer groups

was called a bull-man in ancient times.

 

Example transformations like kaiTabha < drav. kiTAva:

a) vaila(-sthAna) < drav. vEL-

MaraimalaiyaTikaL early in 20th century has suggested

vailasthAna/mahA-vailasthAna in the Rigveda comes

from vEL(tamil)/belu/bElu(kannada)/velama(telugu)

(Cf. placenames like bElUru, beLagAm in Karnataka).

b) vaitaraNi < drav. pEtu

vaitaraNi in MBh. and pEtaraN "spirit world"

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0104&L=indology&P=R954

 

In Krishna's rasa-liilaa, musicians and bards are needed

as important functionaries. But Narayana's sleep will be disturbed

when the musicians are active. That may be one reason why they

were called demons - madhu and kaiTabha eventually killed by

anantazAyin.

 

Thanks for comments.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan