Mt. Mahendra

[Guest guest]

The old Tamil tradition of taking

Mt. Mahendra as in/near Lanka, and Shiva preaching

his aagamas there, have been shown from Tamil

tirumuRai sources - esp. by those of TirumUlar

and MaaNikkavaasakar. This basically follows

Valmiki's placing of Mt. Mahendra, and Kamban

following suit. The aagamas have tantric ritual -

the divine couple union embedded in them. The

tamil MayEntiram (Mahendram) tradition then

spread to South East Asia, as shown by Chinese

records of 484 AD.

 

In the classical-Tamil list (CTamil, Paris university)

I wrote:

http://www.services.cnrs.fr/wws/arc/ctamil/2002-07/msg00008.html

http://www.services.cnrs.fr/wws/arc/ctamil/2002-07/msg00009.html

http://www.services.cnrs.fr/wws/arc/ctamil/2002-07/msg00010.html

http://www.services.cnrs.fr/wws/arc/ctamil/2002-07/msg00018.html

 

It looks that Mahinda(Mahendra) as the name of the fictional relative

of the emperor Asoka in Buddhist sources from mid-first millennium AD

has something to with these legends.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

 

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