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Dionysus and Kataragama Parallel Mystery Cults.html

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Dromena or mystery rite at Kataragama: A Kapurala shaman-priest (at right,

shrouded under canvas) embodies the unseen god as he bears the tiny casket

believed to contain the yantra, or rather the god himself, and prepares to

mount Swami upon the tusker's back.

Dionysus and Kataragama:Parallel Mystery Cults

by Patrick Harrigan

"Then only will you see it, when you cannot speak of it; for the knowledge of it

is deep silence and suppression of all the senses." -- Hermes Trimegistus (Lib.

x.6)

"This never happened but it always is." -- Saloustios (circa 360 CE)

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Table of Contents:

God of Many Faces

A Parallel Study: The Cult of Pattini

Ptolemy's map of Taprobane

Dionysus and Shiva

Gods of Feminine Power

Dionysus and Kataragama Skanda

Nightly during the fortnight-long Esala festival, white-clad kapurala

shaman-priests perform a complex, carefully choreographed ritual in which the

Kataragama god stealthfully emerges from his Mahadevale residence, rides in

grand torchlit procession upon a caprisoned elephant to visit his sweetheart,

the jungle princess Valli, and returns without being seen despite thousands of

devotees straining to see him. The Kataragama God, mounted on a tusker at

right, begins His nightly procession at Kataragama. His simple, unimposing

Mahadevale residence can be seen in the background.

Lord of the Underground Dream World

Lords of Water, Life and Fertility

Gods of Play and Drama

Lords of the Labyrinth

Gods of Abusive Epithets

References

Introduction: A Many-faceted God

In the dry jungle of remote southeastern Sri Lanka lies Kataragama or

Katir-kamam, the (place of) 'light and love-passion', a shrine complex of

exceptional antiquity and sanctity that attracts many thousands of Buddhist,

Hindu and even Muslim devotees year round, particularly during the

fortnight-long Aesala festival in July-August, when a small casket believed to

contain the secret of the god's birth -- nay, the god himself -- is taken out

in solemn yet joyful torchlit procession nightly, escorted by his

women-votaries and troupes of riotous dancers representing the animal, human,

chthonic and heavenly spheres.

Sri Jñâna Pandita: Murugan as Expositor of Gnosis with His symbols the Vel or

Spear of Wisdom = axis mundi and vehicle/totem the peacock = Phoenix. Behind

Him dawns the rising sun symbolising the awakened mind (bodhi). Early 20th

cent. painting by NS Balakrishnan, MaduraiAn archaic spirit of paradox,

fertility, rejuvenation and play, the Kataragama god also preserves an

essential soteriological dimension as the Divine Psychopomp who guides his

followers beyond the Portals of Death into an unconditional realm of freedom

from the tyranny of the pairs of opposites (Sanskrit: dvandva).

A host of local indigenous, Sinhalese, Tamil and Islamic legends purport to

explain the origin, character and exploits of the Kataragama god, whose

reputation for sacred or mysterious power extends far beyond his immediate

forest domain. Broadly speaking, scholars and cult-adherents alike identify him

with the ever-popular Tamil hill god Murukan ('Tender One'), who arose before

the dawn of history and has long been considered as the Dravidian counterpart

or expression of the pan-Indian wargod Skanda-Kumara, 'son' of the great

mountain-dwelling god Shiva. Skanda, tutelary god of warriors, kings, yogis and

scholars and (as Guha, 'The Hidden') patron of all secret knowledge and covert

activities, once quit his home on Mount Kailasa in the trans-Himalaya and,

according to various traditions, made his way south in a series of exploits

culminating at Kataragama with his secretive courtship and marriage to the

indigenous Vedda maiden Valli, which is the theme and substance of the Aesala

mystery rites. Local tradition insists that Skanda-Murukan has remained in

Kataragama ever since, ruling unseen over his domain as Kali Yuga Varada, the

boon-granting divinity par excellence of the Kali Yuga, the recurrent cosmic

era of tumult and quarrel -- our own present-day world.

Due to its isolation on the social and geographical margin of Sri Lankan

society, Kataragama has long been insulated from the mainstream of religious

change affecting Sri Lanka and South India. As Heinz Bechert has firmly

established, this has enabled Kataragama to preserve archaic institutions

attested in the ancient literature that have long since died out elsewhere in

the subcontinent, such as the persistent tradition of the Four Guardian Deities

common to Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka who have always included a war-like 'Red God'

(Tamil: Ceyon) identified with Murukan and Kataragama Deviyo respectively.1 From

what has been said here and from what follows, it is hardly surprising that

informed Western observers should readily identify Skanda-Murukan with Dionysus

or Bacchus, the ancient Eurasian god of paradox, fertility, drama, epiphany and

the dissolution of boundaries. Alain Danielou draws attention to the close

similarities between the two deities and concludes that the 'Indian Bacchus' of

the Greeks was none other than Skanda.2 Cultural anthropologist Agehananda

Bharati earlier made the specific observation that Kataragama Skanda is a

"Dionysian god".3

Dionysus or Bacchus. A classical bas-relief sculpture of Dionysus, the

ever-youthful god of mystery, paradox, fertility, and midnight revelry, shown

holding his characteristic thyrus or fennel wand. From the Museo Archeologico

Nazionale at Naples.

Fred W. Clothey, in his landmark study The Many Faces of Murukan, cautiously

endorses the possibility of a common origin of the ecstatic cults of Dionysus

and Murukan in the megalithic culture of the Anatolian plateau and western Iran

of ca. 1500 B.C.4 Apart from these, however, no study has ever probed beneath

Kataragama's teeming surface to uncover supporting evidence to associate the

surviving cult of Skanda-Murukan in Sri Lanka with the cult of Dionysus which

flourished in Western Asia and the Mediterranean world from remote antiquity

until the third century AD, when it was forcefully suppressed by Rome.

In this study, I propose to demonstrate, using structural and thematic analysis

as well as historical evidence and my own field observations, how Kataragama

actually embodies the survival into the twenty-first century of one of

humanity's most archaic religious traditions long considered to be extinct --

the initiatic mystery religion. Astonishing as this conclusion may appear to

scholars, there are ample grounds for such an identification, which may be said

to be inherent in the very structure of Kataragama itself. As such, Kataragama

represents an extraordinary paradigm spanning both archaic and modern

worldviews and over two thousand years of human history. How could such a

remarkable phenomenon pass unnoticed by millions of pilgrim-observers and

generations of scholars and what implications may follow for our understanding

of ancient and modern cultures the world over? This study, although not

exhaustive, presents an overview of the evidence and an outline of the

reasoning behind this hypothesis.

A Parallel Study: The Cult of Pattini

In his penetrating study of the goddess Pattini in Sri Lanka -- where her cult

survives alongside that of Kataragama -- anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere

has observed a similar nexus of correspondences between the cult of Pattini and

the mystery cults of popular mother-goddesses current in West Asia and the

Mediterranean world from the earliest historical period until the sixth century

AD "Initially," he concedes, "I attributed the parallelism to similar

sociocultural and psychological conditions . . . . Yet, after fieldwork and

historical research in Kerala in 1974, I was convinced that the Pattini cult

diffused to Kerala (and other parts of South India) from West Asia."5

Commercial contact between West Asia and India, as Obeyesekere found, had been

brisk until the sixth century AD Strabo (AD 20) attests that upwards of 120

ships each year sailed to India from Myos Hormos on the Red Sea.6 And with the

discovery in AD 45 by a Greek mariner, Hippolus, of the pattern of the monsoon

winds, which enabled ships to leave Ocelis near Aden and reach the west coast

of South India in forty days, trade increased dramatically.7 As Obeyesekere

observes:

However, most of the foreign trade to Malabar and South India during this period

was dominated by Alexandria, the great entrepot of trade in the Greco-Roman

world (Woodcock 1966, p. 141) . . . . Along with trade, the merchants brought

their own religions . . . . Syrians, Jews and Greeks -- most of them from

Alexandria and other parts of the Levant -- were influential in Kerala trade

during the first through sixth centuries at least, as I noted. Some of them

must obviously have adopted the mother-goddess cults that spread from Anatolia,

Lydia (Asia Minor), Phrygia, Egypt and Syria into the Greco-Roman world from

about 500 B.C.8

Obeyesekere argues that "it would indeed be surprising if the Alexandrian and

West Asian merchants did not bring with them the more popular religions of the

time -- the cults of the various mother goddesses and the dead god."9 He cites

accepted facts from the later history of South India and Sri Lanka to support

his hypothesis that the cult of Pattini -- originally an ecstatic mystery cult

of the mother-goddess of West Asia -- migrated via Kerala to southern Sri Lanka

by the twelfth century.10 At the same time, he cautiously concedes that the

evidence for his hypothesis of the West Asian origin of the Pattini cult "must

remain tentative and circumstantial."11 This same proviso must apply to the

present study as well.

The popular religions among Alexandrian and West Asian merchants of their day

most assuredly included the cult of Dionysus or Bacchus as well. Oral

traditions as well as archaeological evidence and the testimony of the

Mahavamsa or Great Chronicle suggest that Kataragama had a long history as a

center of cult activity even before the Christian era. It is also worth noting

that both gods are depicted as appearing from over the sea. According to

Sinhalese legends, god Kataragama came to Lanka as a foreigner who arrived by a

stone raft (Sinhala: gal-poruwa), landed on the island's southern coast and

thence walked to Kataragama where he has remained ever since.12 This suggests

that a maritime origin or formative influence -- possibly from Alexandria or

West Asia via Kerala -- cannot be ruled out. And yet, the cult's geographical

fixedness in Kataragama is one of its most persistent traits and points to an

indigenous origin in remote antiquity, quite likely among the Neolithic

hunter-gatherer forbears of the island's Vedda forest-dwelling people.

Ptolemy's map of Taprobane.

Detail of Ptolemy's Taprobane: Greek mariners reported the existence of a 'Town

of Bacchus' (Bachi oppidum) in the vicinity of present-day Kataragama.

Ptolemy's map of Taprobane

This brings us to a remarkable source of evidence which, combined with the

preceding observations, it suggests that Alexandrian navigators of the early

Christian era were very well acquainted with the ancient Kataragama shrine and

fully recognized its close affinities to the surviving cult of Dionysus of

their own Mediterranean cultural sphere. The precise nature of this contact and

the extent of its impact upon either cultus must remain a matter for speculation

and further historical research.

Claudius Ptolemaeus (2nd century AD), or Ptolemy of Alexandria as he is best

known, was a Greco-Egyptian astronomer, mathematician and geographer whose

influence upon all three disciplines endured for many centuries. Remembered to

this day as the 'Father of Modern Geography', Ptolemy laid out a coordinate

system of meridians of latitude and longitude and employed it to chart the

surface of the then-known world with such accuracy that his maps remained in

use until the eighteenth century. Living in Alexandria when that city was the

Roman Empire's foremost center of commerce and perhaps the world's leading

center of scientific and esoteric or theological studies, Ptolemy would have

been well acquainted with the major mystery schools of his day, including the

cult of Dionysus and their practices if, indeed, Ptolemy was not an initiate

himself.

As a resident of second-century Alexandria, Ptolemy was also well-positioned to

encounter and de-brief his principal informants, the adventurous and

enterprising mariners of Alexandria who regularly ventured as far as the fabled

island of Taprobane (Lanka) and beyond, navigating the high seas using

newly-improved astrolabes and quadrants. For these navigators, the success or

failure of a long and risky commercial voyage depended upon accurate and

reliable geographic information. Returning fresh from lucrative voyages to

obtain the island's rare spices, pearls, gems and silks of her great emporia or

trade centers, they could accurately describe the location and character of

coastal landmarks from first-hand experience as well as from current maritime

lore.

Indeed, Ptolemy provides at least three references to Dionysus in his catalog of

island Lanka's coastal landmarks -- all of them in the close vicinity of

Kataragama, which was already an ancient cult center in Ptolemy's day. In most

cases, he retains transcribed renderings of local names. But off the island's

desolate southeastern coast, Ptolemy records that the waters were known to

Alexandrian mariners as Dionysi Mare (Latin: 'The Sea of Dionysus'). Some

versions of Ptolemy's Taprobane indicate a coastal landmark near Kataragama

called Dionysi Promontorium -- 'The Promontory of Dionysus'. Thirdly, but not

least, he attests that there was an important settlement near this coast which

his mariner-informants called Dionysi seu Bacchi Oppidum -- 'The Town of

Dionysus or Bacchus'.

This terse identification, based upon the supporting testimony of not one but

many Alexandrian mariners who typically sojourned for weeks or months at a time

in Taprobane, bears the stamp of authenticity. As informed observers, some of

these mariners must have been bacchantes or initiates into the

still-flourishing mystery cult of Bacchus, for whom the fundamental

identification of Dionysus with the local cult center or deity was

self-evident. At the very least, there was a clear consensus among contemporary

observers that here, far from Greece and Asia Minor, was an outpost-realm of god

Dionysus extending even to the sea off Kataragama, a graveyard of wrecked

trading vessels from ancient times.

Moreover, this association of an ever-youthful Dionysian god with a promontory

extending into a restless sea is not without precedent. In the very opening

verse of his Hymns to Dionysus (I. 1-4), Homer evokes the god, saying "It is

Dionysus, son of the most glorious Semele, that I speak and I shall tell how he

appeared on the shore of the untiring sea, on an outmost promontory with the

aspect of a young man in his first adolescence" (my italics).13 It is tempting

to conclude that early Greco-Egyptian mariners, who were familiar both with the

cult of Dionysus and with Homer's Hymns to Dionysus, had this opening verse in

mind when they spoke of the Kataragama region. Evidently, Alexandrian mariners

-- and Ptolemy along with them -- believed that here in exotic Taprobane was

the original home of Dionysus described by Homer a thousand years earlier in

the ninth century BC This identification would have further reinforced the

prevailing opinion of the time: that Lanka or Taprobane was the Antipodes

(Greek: literally, 'where feet are opposite'), a fabulous, topsy-turvy island

realm where anything was possible -- the natural abode of gods like Dionysus.

Remarkably, this simple attestation by one of classical antiquity's great

scientists has attracted scant notice among scholars of the modern era.

Apparently, what was once obvious to the ancients is no longer evident to

modern observers. In the remainder of this study, I will argue that this is

less due to changes in Kataragama than to changes in the fundamental

assumptions of modern observers.

How did Alexandrian mariners come to identify the Kataragama god with their own

Dionysus? In classical times, such identifications were accepted as natural.

Caesar, for instance, assigned Roman names to non-Roman deities when he wrote

of the Gaulish Celts: 'Of all the gods they worship Mercury (i.e. Hermes) most

of all -- After him they honour Apollo, Mars, Jupiter and Minerva."14 By the

same token, Tamils identify the Kataragama god with their Murukan and people of

North Indian heritage, including the Sinhalese, identify him with Skanda-Kumara

of Sanskritic mythology. And yet, as we shall see, such identifications are not

based on outward similarities alone, but on deep-seated resemblances or

resonances which traditional people ascribe not to a human origin by cunning

'myth-makers' but to divine intelligence operating in the super-human sphere

and manifesting itself variously at different times and places.

Regarded from the diachronic perspective that prevails today, god Kataragama

'became' Murukan or Skanda-Kumara or he 'became identified' with them, but did

not 'become' Dionysus because the identification did not endure among the local

population. However, from the synchronic perspective common to traditional

cultures, the Kataragama god already is Murukan and Skanda-Kumara and Dionysus

from the very beginning, i.e. in principio. It is worth noting that this

amalgamation -- or rather, identification -- of three 'distinct' gods is

perfectly concordant with their characteristic association with the dissolution

of boundaries.

Modern scholars -- who are devotees by profession of Apollo -- regard with

disdain the secrecy and paradoxical, double-edged logic common to Dionysus and

Kataragama and abhor what they regard as cult excesses. Charles Segal observes,

"As Apollo imposes limits and reinforces boundaries, Dionysus, his opposite and

complement, dissolves them."15 Undoubtedly, Kataragama and Dionysus "cannot be

understood, only appreciated".16 Accordingly, an attempt may be made not to

dissect the cults but to evaluate their bonds of commonality with a view to

understand better their inner dynamics, if not the common source of their

sacred power as well.

>From its beginning, European indological scholarship has tended to focus on

languages, texts and traditions of Indo-European origin while overlooking

indigenous and Dravidian sources or downplaying their role in the evolution of

Indian thought. As part of a general reappraisal of the history of Indian

thought, the present study also aims to reapproximate the archaic worldview,

alone from which archaic cults draw their soul-inspiring vision and vitality

and outside of which they appear to the modern mind as mere 'belief systems'

with no ontological basis in what we moderns fondly cherish as 'reality'. As

Walter Otto observes in his landmark study Dionysus: Myth and Cult, "It is the

custom to speak only of religious concepts or religious belief. The more recent

scholarship in religion is surprisingly indifferent to the ontological content

of this belief. As a matter of fact, all of its methodology tacitly assumes

that there could not be an essence which would justify the cults and the

myths."17

As befits a multi-faceted god like Skanda-Murukan, this study considers his cult

from multiple perspectives which often appear to be mutually incompatible and

irreconcilable, especially where the modern, pragmatic-diachronic perspectives

come up against -- and clash with -- the traditional, idealistic-synchronic

point of view, laden as it may be with menacing paradoxes. Specifically, I

maintain that no study of traditional initiatic (Skt: parampariya) knowledge

(Skt: vidya) can dispense with that tradition's own approach to the acquisition

of such knowledge, according to which the means and the end are inseparable. And

I contend that it is precisely because of the modern reluctance or inability to

recognize and comprehend the premises of archaic religions like Kataragama that

modern observers including the vast majority of casual cult adherents have

scarcely glimpsed more than the most superficial aspects of this archaic cult.

As such, their understanding remains narrowly confined to the outlook of the

modern era, which typically fails even to recognize, let alone appreciate, the

implicit assumptions of archaic cults. This, in turn, partly explains why the

very word 'cult' has overwhelmingly negative connotations to modern ears. So

vast is the gulf that separates modern observers from the cult life of Dionysus

or Kataragama that only a very tentative and imperfect attempt to bridge that

gulf may be contemplated within the context of this study.

Dionysus and Shiva

For decades, indological scholarship has underrated this nexus implied between

Dionysus and Skanda-Murukan while favoring a comparison of Dionysus with

Skanda's mythological 'father' Shiva instead. In this context, I propose to

examine the body of evidence that suggests a parallelism or historical link

between the cults of Dionysus and Kataragama with a view to discover to what

extent, if any, information concerning one cult may shed light upon the other.

My frame of reference is the Philosophia Perennis (Augustine's "Wisdom

uncreate, the same now as it ever was, and the same to be evermore,"

Confessions ix.10), by which I mean "the philosophy that assumes a transcendent

unity behind all religions and sees them all as attempts, each valid for its

time and place, to point the way to the true goal of human existence."18 From

the outset, it should be noted that a remarkable pattern of correspondence does

exist between Dionysus and Shiva. After all, both are identified with ecstatic

possession, wine, mountains, wild animals, frenzied women, frenzied dancing,

fertility and, especially, the coincidence of opposites. Structural evidence

from literature and popular mythology has also been cited in support of this

conclusion; the case in its favor as put forward by scholars is convincing and

merits further study.19 Significantly, ancient Greek visitors to North India

also made the same identification: as early as 300 BC, Megasthenes, ambassador

of Seleucus I to Chandragupta Maurya, refers to the god in the mountains

(Shiva) as Dionysus.20

However, there are problems in identifying Dionysus with Shiva. Undoubtedly,

their similarity is in part due to a family resemblance shared by Shiva the

Father and his 'son' Skanda-Murukan, the Sanat Kumara or Perpetual Youth. This

mythological relationship gained wide acceptance only in the late classical

era; in earlier times, Skanda's parentage had been a matter of pure

speculation. However, for the purpose of synchronic analysis, we accept this

father-son relationship in myth at face value and take it as a starting point

to re-examine the triangular relationship that obtains between Dionysus, the

Indian god Shiva and his son Skanda-Murukan, the god of Kataragama.

Dionysus is recognized as the son of the high god Zeus and is sometimes depicted

as sitting at Zeus' right side atop Mount Olympus. Already this should be enough

of a clue that the Indian counterpart of Dionysus should be not the great god

Shiva, aloof from humanity on Mount Kailasa, but Shiva's playful and precocious

son Skanda who, in his familiar representation as Somaskanda, sits beside Shiva

on Mount Kailasa. These common traits of Dionysus and Skanda, viz. their

youthfulness, playfulness, and sonship, clearly distinguish them from the

severe and dreadful father figures of Zeus and Shiva. Like Skanda-Murukan,

Dionysus "is neither child nor man but, eternal adolescent, occupies a place

somewhere between the two."21 As such, both represent "the spirit of ludic

energy and the power of transformative play,"22 full of cunning, deception and

strategies that are at once diabolical and divine. In this they reveal their

common affinity to Hermes, the Greek god of cunning, theft and eloquence whose

caduceus or herald's magical wand finds its counterpart in Skanda-Murukan's vel

(Tamil: 'spear'), called his Jñâna Shakti or 'power of gnosis'.

'Hermes and the Infant Dionysus' by Praxiteles, from the temple of Hera, Olympia, c. 330 B.C.

In Greek mythology, Dionysus is born from his father's thigh and delivered to

twelve nymphs or water-spirits, the Hyades, who become the child-god's

wet-nurses. Later, out of gratitude for their service, they are exalted to the

heavens where seven of them shine as the constellation Pleiades. Likewise

Skanda, born directly from Shiva, descends to earth where he is found in a

reedy marsh by six water spirits, the Krittika maidens, who serve as the god's

wet-nurses and later are exalted to heaven as the Krittika constellation, which

is none other than the Pleiades; hence Skanda is also Karttikeya, 'born of the

Pleiades'. Just as Dionysus is Purigenes, 'the one born of fire', so likewise

is Skanda called Agnibhu. Skanda is Sharadhajanma, 'born in a reedy marsh';

Dionysus is Limnaios, 'of the marsh'. Dionysus is Dithyrambos, 'twice-born',

i.e. born first from fire and then from water. Likewise, Skanda is born first

from the fiery element of his father's third eye and then born a second time in

the watery element of Saravana, a reedy marsh. Danielou draws attention to this

astonishing convergence of thematic elements and concludes that "Murugan, born

in a reedy marsh and nourished by nymphs, is elsewhere called Dionysus."23 So

remarkably parallel are the thematic elements surrounding the complex

birth-motif that it strains credibility to ascribe these similarities to sheer

coincidence.

Yet, when we turn to Skanda's father Shiva, there is no birth-motif whatsoever,

for while both Skanda and Dionysus are called 'twice-born', the god Shiva is

not born at all: he is unborn, eternal and unchanging. It is not the

father-gods Zeus or Shiva who are born on earth to sport among humanity, but

their playful sons Dionysus and Skanda. Both are young gods of energy or power

(associated with young stars -- the Pleiades) having both creative and

destructive aspects, whose creative energy manifests as an intellectual rather

than procreative conception -- and yet, they are associated with fertility

nevertheless. In the pan-Indian conception, this energy or power (Skt: shakti)

is feminine and this feminine energy is part and parcel of Skanda-Murukan's

svabhava or inherent character.

Âlatti Pûja, Kataragama Mahâ Dêvâle.

Again, both Dionysus, who was contemptuously called 'the womanly one' and

Skanda-Kumara, whose Tamil name Murukan means 'the tender one', are not purely

masculine gods but possess equally strong feminine associations as well. Like

Dionysus, Skanda is raised by female attendants or foster mothers, called

'mothers' or 'nurses.' To this day, women votaries at Kataragama (the twelve

Alatti Ammas or Ladies of the Lamp) play an important role in his rituals;

Alatti Ammas, for instance, must accompany the god in all his ritual

processions, whether by day or by night. In contrast, Shiva is a masculine

ithyphallic deity, surrounded by troops of ghouls. Significantly, both Dionysus

and Skanda-Murukan are very seldom if ever depicted as ithyphallic. While Shiva

may be depicted as androgynous, the feminine aspect is far more prominent in

Dionysus and Murukan.

Gods of Feminine Power

Skanda-Murukan's principal symbols -- the vel and the satkona yantra (hexagram)

-- both serve as reminders of the god's close association with magical power

and the feminine principle -- Shakti. For instance, the ostensibly masculine

vel symbol -- Murukan's 'own self' as the tradition informs us -- comes to the

young god not from his father (as one might expect in patriarchal cultures) but

from his 'mother' Uma, the personification of Shakti (as noted, a feminine word

in Sanskrit that also means 'spear'). This, moreover, is a tacit reminder that

the entire Kaumâra (concerning the god Kumâra) paramparâ or "pupillary

succession" is implicitly derived from India's indigenous Shâkta heritage of

mystical devotion to Shakti, the Indian conception of the Godhead as Magna

Mater.

Of particular interest, however, is the god's longstanding association with the

number six and the shatkona yantra or 'six-cornered magical diagram,' for the

shatkona yantra (etched upon a metal plate) is precisely what is believed to be

contained in the small casket that is taken out in procession at Kataragama. A

full discussion of the subject of the 'calculus' of symbolic forms goes beyond

the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that the god, whose Sanskrit name

Shanmukha (Tamil: Arumukam) means 'having six faces,' is homologised to the

hexagram, a figure composed of two intersecting equilateral triangles

representing the Mother-principle and the Father-principle in balanced union

and thus -- voila! the bambino or Holy Child known to mythologies the world

over.

The Satkona yantra, cut into black stone with the diagram of the Kataragama

deity. Representation of flames along the periphery, the Tamil OM in the

centre. In the Museum für Völkerkunde, Basel. From Wirz (1954)In the traditions

of Europe and West Asia, the hexagram is well known as the 'Seal of Solomon',

which alludes to its widespread association with the conjunction of sacerdotal

authority and temporal power. Moreover, the yantra in conjunction with the vel

or spear corresponds to the archetypal warrior's shield and spear or, in

another context, to the axis mundi and the cakra or loka or plane of existence

through which the axis mundi or 'solar ray' passes as an axle around which a

wheel turns.

The yantra is another product of India's indigenous, non-discursive schools of

ritual magic and as such it is intended not for merely decorative purposes but

for its magical efficacy. Its etymology offers a clue to the yantra's function

and raison d'être. Like the similar terms mantra and tantra, it consists of a

verbal root yam ('to hold') plus the suffix -tra denoting instrumentality.

Hence, ya(m)-tra or yantra, 'a device that holds,' i.e. a magical snare, trap,

or container, especially one designed to hold a spirit, daimon, or god. In this

function, the yantra parallels the pervasive South Indian pattern of

place-goddesses (e.g. Madurai Meenakshi Amman or Valli Amman of Kataragama) who

first attract and then 'hold' wandering gods to those places as their husbands.

In the context of Kataragama, the yantra in the holy of holies may be

understood to 'hold' or 'contain' the god of six faces or directions, much as

the Ark of the Covenant was understood to 'contain' the Shekinah or 'presence'

of the Holy Spirit of god Jehovah.

Despite their feminine associations, both appear as archetypal heroes whose

coming is characterised by strife and conquest. As the wargod Karttikeya,

Skanda is Mahasena, the Supreme Commander 'who has a great army' of demons and

angels alike;

Detail of a mosaic depicting a riotous procession of gods and demigods

surrounding Dionysus shown riding a chariot with thyrus or fennel wand in

hand.his initial appearance is accompanied by such tumult that the devas at

first mistake him for another super-demon. Dionysus, too, is described by

Nonnus (Dionysus 24.151 ff.) as a warrior-chief whose troops advance to the

sound of flutes, drums, pipes and crashing cymbals, astonishing the inhabitants

of India. A sarcophagus from the early third Century AD (now in the

Landgrafenmuseum, Kassel) depicts the young Dionysus returning from his

conquest of India surrounded by his army of devotees and riding upon an

elephant. Skanda-Murukan, too is Gajarudhan, he who rides astride the elephant

as his vahana or vehicle in battle; to this day, the Kataragama god is carried

in procession upon an elephant and is accompanied by his 'army' of devotees.

Both gods are identified with the fringe of civilized society: with wilderness,

'crazy' or roguish behavior, sudden possession or intoxication and underground

or otherwise vaguely subversive activities -- in Sri Lanka, exclusive

protagonists of religion look askance at Kataragama and its amoral reputation.

Victor Turner and others would speak of Dionysus and Kataragama in terms of

'liminality', of being on the margin, in an in-between geographical or

psychological space "where fluidity challenges stability, where fusion replaces

boundary -- here too normal relations and normal inhibitions are suspended in a

quasi-magical interlude characterized by joyful play, imaginative exuberance

and free energy."24 This liminal quality of Kataragama also marks it as a place

of transition or passage between psychological states or lokas ('worlds'), as we

shall see. This liminality or meeting of worlds expresses itself as ecstatic

possession (Skt: arudha literally, 'mounted' i.e., by a spirit), a common

feature of the cults of both Dionysus and Murukan, readily visible in South

India and Sri Lanka to this day. Dionysus is called Gynaimanes, 'he who maddens

women': his madness affects women and they are his principal followers, called

Maenads or 'raving' Bacchantes. In ancient Tamil poetry, too, Ceyon or Murukan

is credited with creating love-frenzy in young women, as in the following lines

from one of the oldest poems in the Tamil language, which could also well depict

the cult of Dionysus:

"Here festivals are always heldHarmonious with the dances wildOf frenzied maids

by the Red-god stirred,The flutes do pipe, the lyres do twang,The drums roll

loud and the tobors sound." -Pattinapalai 178-182

It is worth noting in this regard that adherents of cults of both Dionysus and

Kataragama commonly engage in trance-practices that are nothing less than

miraculous in the eyes of many. Euripides' Bacchae draws a picture of the

marvelous circumstances under which fire does not burn the god-intoxicated

celebrants and weapons do not wound them.25 Even today in Kataragama, hundreds

of celebrants may be seen walking over beds of live coals hot enough to melt

aluminum, while others pierce themselves with pins, knives and skewers without

a trace of injury -- provided that they are in trance.

Finally, both Dionysus and Murukan are intimately associated with drama, mystery

and ritual theater. Both Dionysus and Murukan are patron deities of bardic

poetry, prophecy and dramatic performance and Murukan is closely identified

with the genesis of Tamil, one of the world's great classical languages. In his

play Bacchae (289 ff), the ancient Greek playwright Euripides says that Dionysus

"is a prophet and the bacchic revel is filled with the spirit of prophecy."

Danielou proposes an explanation for the identification of Dionysus with both

Shiva and Skanda. "In the Mediterranean world," he speculates, "Skanda appears

as a new Dionysus and his legend is mingled with that of the old Dionysus."26

Citing Diodorus, he distinguishes "Bacchos, son of Semele, who is Skanda, from

an older Dionysus (Shiva), born of Zeus and Persephone" who is credited with

the invention of wine.27 However, he offers no plausible chronology to support

this hypothesis.

Clothey's version of this general hypothesis reconciles the best accepted

conclusions concerning both cults and, as such, is more satisfactory. As he

observes:

By the time of the Cankam literature . . . the Murukan cultus manifests certain

aspects that have striking parallels in the Dionysian cult of the Middle East.

The early Murukan is particularly similar to the agricultural Dionysos of a

pre-Greek era . . . Murukan and Dionysos at a later period are 'Aryanized';

both become associated with warrior and celestial motifs and become the son of

the presiding deity of the mountain at the center of the world.28

However, he does not resolve the vexing issue of how Middle Eastern motifs may

have entered the South Indian cultural milieu.

It would go beyond the scope of this paper to explore the intriguing

associations that both Dionysus and Skanda share with Alexander the Great and

folk or literary traditions of an Alexander Romance, but careful analysis could

reveal much about the migration of mythic patterns and cult ideologies across

the ancient world. Interestingly, the historical world-conqueror Alexander was

widely identified with Dionysus and, to a lesser extent, with Skanda-Murukan as

well. For example, one of the oldest major pilgrimage centers of the hill-god

Murukan, Tirupparankunram near Madurai, has at the top of the hill a Muslim

dargah dedicated to Sikandar, whom Muslim pilgrims identify with Murukan.29 By

a linguistic coincidence, both 'Alexander' and 'Skanda' transliterate into

Arabic as al-Sikandar. N. Gopala Pillai has argued that the cult of Skanda is

derived from the influence of Alexander on North India, but few scholars take

his arguments seriously.30 Clothey, however, concedes that "it may not be

impossible that the name of Skanda was associated with Alexander, in a way

still not precisely understood and that elements of Skanda's Northern

iconography were derived or influenced by the impact of post-Alexandrian

Hellenization."31

Dionysus and Kataragama Skanda

The issues are assuredly more complex than they initially appear, but these

points taken together should be enough to turn our attention from Shiva and

toward Skanda-Murukan in the search for affinities with Dionysus. So let us

turn to the known structural and thematic parallels between the Dionysian

mystery cult of the ancient Mediterranean world and the cult of Skanda-Murukan

as it survives especially in Kataragama. Necessarily, I must confine my remarks

here to a brief overview of relevant features, leaving unsaid many fascinating

details.

Center of the universe in pan-indian lore, Mount Kailasa in western Tibet

(above) is the cosmographical analog to the sahasrara cakra ('thousand-petaled

lotus crown') in Kundalini Yoga and to heaven or moksha ('liberation') in

soteriological terms.

The myths of Dionysus and Skanda-Murukan display other thematic parallels in

their marvelous birth accounts. Skanda is born in the trans-Himalaya and

migrates to South India and Sri Lanka where he is explicitly identified with

the South -- in Indian cosmography, the direction or realm of chaos and death,

presided over by Yama, Judge of the Dead. The ancient Greeks used to look to

the Far East and the South as the birthplace of Dionysus and some accounts

placed Nysa, his birthplace, in India.32 Skanda is born from his father Shiva

seated upon the cosmic mountain Kailasa or Meru; by a linguistic pun, Dionysus

is born from his father's thigh (Greek: meros). As Danielou observes, "It has

been suggested that the fact that Shiva's sperm stayed on the snowy mountain

Himavat, identified with Mount Meru, the axis of the world, is not extraneous

to the legend of Dionysus' sojourn in the thigh (meros) of Jupiter."33 On this

point, one may say, there is agreement -- both traditions point to, or suggest,

a common mythological origin, even in a geographical sense.

Moreover, this heritage of punning, word play and double-entendre, too, persists

both in Dionysian ritual drama and in the cult of Skanda-Murukan even today. For

instance, one of Skanda's ancient epithets, Shaktidhara (Skt. literally, 'he who

holds shakti') plays upon the multiple meanings of the grammatically feminine

word shakti, such that the epithet may mean 'he who holds the spear', 'he who

holds his goddess-consort', or 'he who wields mystic power'. All three

interpretations are perfectly applicable to the god; they also, incidentally,

illustrate the god's common affinity to women, magical power and the

spear-symbol. When allegorical tales abound with such ambiguous references, the

informed listener or connoisseur apprehends a rich universe full of multiple

levels of meaning or exegesis, which serve as a virtual stairway of ascent to

higher and higher levels of understanding. This finds its material counterpart

in the multiple curtains that hang between the worshipper and the sanctum

sanctorum of the god at Kataragama.

Lord of the Underground Dream World

"I behold Teiresias the Seer in dappled fawn-skins arrayed, and likewise, moving

me to laughter, my mother's father flourishing the wand of Baccheus!" (from

Euripides' The Bacchae)Again, both deities are protean figures who transform

themselves into myriad forms. Both appear first as hunter-gods: Dionysus as

Zagreus, 'The Great Hunter' and Kataragama Deviyo as a Paleolithic

hunter-ancestor of the Veddas. Dionysus undergoes numerous transformations in

his battle with the Titans. So likewise does Murukan in his battle with the

super-titan Surapadma (Tamil: Curapatuman). Otto observes that "In Nonnus, the

Indian Deriades complains of the impossibility of conquering him -- Dionysus --

because the 'many-faced one' was now a lion, a bull, a boar, a bear, a panther,

a snake and now a tree, fire, water."34

Like Skanda-Murukan, Dionysus is reckoned to be both king and prophet, patron of

hunters, bards and antis or itinerant magical performers. Dionysus appears

incognito on earth as one of his own bacchantes in Euripides' Bacchae; again in

The Frogs of Aristophanes he journeys into the underworld, also in disguise. In

like fashion, Sinhala oral tradition likens the Kataragama god to a king who

routinely inspects his kingdom disguised as a beggar, a pilgrim, or a swami to

ascertain the conditions of the realm and the attitudes of his subjects -- a

recurrent theme in Indian literature and folklore. As gods who journey in

disguise through a lower world, they also share chthonic associations;

nocturnal processions by torch light are conducted in their honor and their

presence is felt with great immediacy -- even nowadays at Kataragama. Both are

suprasensual guides to deliverance, psychopomps who guide, paradoxically, by

leading astray. As such, Dionysus is also Lusios ('The Liberator') while Skanda

is Guha, 'The Mysterious'.

Kataragama's reputation for mystery and sanctity is well deserved; living

traditions current among the majority Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims all testify

to the shrine's mysterious power. An example from Islamic lore of Tamil Nadu

will suffice, but many others could be added. A Tamil text, the Kanzul Karamat,

tells how the sixteenth-century Muslim saint Kuthub Shaul Hameed of Nagur was

mysteriously transported to the bank of the Menik Ganga in Kataragama and

thence conducted underground to a subterranean palace where the mystic robe of

Kuthub-ul-Akhtab was conferred upon him by al-Khadir35, 'The Green Man' of

Islamic lore who appears in the Holy Quran (Surah 18 verses 57-83) as the

teacher of Moses and who is none other than Kataragama-Skanda according to

local Sufi interpretation.

Not surprisingly, this underground Kataragama has been variously attested by

contemporary resident experts as well, not only as a standard theme of

Kataragama's storytelling tradition, but also as a recurrent subject of visions

and dreams.

The Kataragama god's Mahâdêvâle residence (right).For instance, it is well-known

in Kataragama that no ritual innovation or architectural renovation may be

undertaken unless and until the god himself so commands his servants in a

dream; untimely death or misfortune is the certain consequence of disregarding

this tradition. Moreover, even today some advanced practitioners are known to

engage in yogic or lucid dreaming, a practice whereby the dreamer may

consciously explore Kataragama in the dream state.

Reports from yogic dreamers who have explored the subtle dream world of

Kataragama tend to support and even elaborate upon longstanding tradition. One

experienced adept described to this researcher the Kataragama god's Mahadevale

as he beheld saw it in a lucid dream: as a pagoda of seven stories -- a ground

floor, three upper stories and three subterranean stories, in contrast to the

simple, single-storied Kataragama shrine of diurnal consciousness.

Mt. Kailasa in western Tibet and Kataragama in the far south of Sri Lanka form a

near-perfect analog to the axis mundi or susumna nadi of yogic lore. See also

"Kailasa to Kataragama: Sacred Geography in the cult of

Skanda-Murukan".Evidently, in the dream world the god's sanctum has an added

dimension -- the vertical, corresponding to the solar ray or the axis mundi --

encompassing the chthonic and heavenly planes which the god (and, presumably,

the accomplished yogic dreamer) may freely visit as a "mover-at-will" (Skt.

kamacarin). This, too, is structurally related to kundalini yoga practices that

postulate a virtual ladder of psychic centers or cakras within the human frame

which practitioners pass through or experience in ascending and descending

order. In the tradition of Kataragama, however, distinctions between 'inner'

and 'outer' lose their familiar hard-and-fast quality, as does the distinction

between dreaming and waking consciousness. Here the microcosmic psychic centers

are routinely homologized to macrocosmic centers of sacred geography. Thus,

Skanda's heavenly abode corresponds to Mount Kailasa in Tibet, while Kataragama

itself is equated to the mulâdhâra cakra of Kundalini Yoga -- the center where

the stambha or axis mundi touches the earth and, as such, the subtle gateway

through which one may be 'transported' to heavenly and chthonic spheres.

Neither Dionysus nor Skanda-Murukan dwells in a celestial heaven, but rather in

shadowy underworlds (which include, from the divine perspective, life here on

earth) the realm of the dead and the source of life. Both are gods who have

known the lofty heights -- the Himalaya of their own divine origin and nature

-- but who nevertheless prefer the life-sustaining valley (homologized to

Mother Earth, the Theotokos or Magna Mater) teeming with earthly sensations and

emotions like love and hate, the stuff that life, theater and literature are

made of. They revel in intrigue and wear a thousand beguiling disguises or

masks -- most, but not all, of which are human or humanlike. Kataragama Deviyo,

for instance, may appear as a Vedda, as an itinerant beggar, as a youth, as a

holy man, or even as a tree -- and he still appears as such even today, leaving

those who have encountered him changed for life, as they readily testify. This

conviction that the god is present and real has long characterised the mystery

rites of Kataragama and is still a feature of the Kataragama festival even in

the late 20th century; Dionysus, too, was "thought and felt to be present with

overwhelming certainty."36

As spirits of antithesis and paradox, both Murukan and Dionysus are

characterized by the juxtaposition of pandemonium and silence, another

coincidence of opposites. Not only in myth, but also in cultic practice, their

epiphanies are celebrated with colorful noisy processions and frenzied dancing

by torchlight -- and yet, during the procession at Kataragama, ritual

participants do not utter a single word. In the cult of Dionysus, too,

melancholy silence was the sign of women possessed by the god. Indeed,

Kataragama's ritual performances are all conducted in strict silence and no

initiate will verbally disclose anything about his or her oral-performative

tradition (Skt: parampara) except to reiterate its prehistoric origins. This,

of course, is perfectly concordant with the cult's central injunction cumma

iru! (Tamil: 'Be still!') enjoining both contemplative silence and secrecy upon

cult initiates. Incidentally, the utility of discursive research methodologies

is also severely restricted when so much of what the researcher intends to

study is shrouded in silence and secrecy. As such, the traditional approach to

acquiring specialized knowledge becomes truly indispensable.

Both deities are gods of epiphany who repeatedly 'come' or manifest themselves.

Otto calls Dionysus "the god who comes, the god of epiphany, whose appearance

is far more urgent, far more compelling than that of any other god. He had

disappeared and now he will suddenly be here again."37 That is, both gods

appear mysteriously from the watery or chthonic depths in disguise to shatter

the conventional social order and to fill with terror and wonder the hearts of

those who behold them before incomprehensibly disappearing again. Until the

twentieth century, the Kataragama god was regarded with such dread by

Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims alike that only those who received a direct

summons would dare to visit the remote shrine. Robert Knox, who spent eighteen

years as a captive in the Kandyan kingdom of the seventeenth century, testifies

that "The Name and Power of this God striketh such terror into the Chingulayes,

that those who otherwise are Enemies of this King and have served both

Portuguese and Dutch against him, yet would never assist either to make

Invasions this way."38 Public perceptions have changed since Knox's time, but

the fact remains that millions consider the Kataragama god to be the most

down-to-earth and powerful of the island's guardian spirits. To this day, the

god's devotees invoke him, repeatedly urging him to 'come'.

 

God Kataragama in the guise of an old man protects Valli from mock 'attack' by

His brother Ganesh at Sella Kataragama

This 'coming' of Dionysus or Skanda-Murukan is, properly speaking, a return or

re-awakening of an age-old experience. For instance, when Murukan first appears

to Valli in a Neolithic setting, his cult is already well established; Valli is

already the god's ardent devotee even before he comes in person to woo her and

she becomes his beloved only later when at last she sees through his disguise.

Like the god himself, the cult of Kataragama has passed through many cycles;

the locality itself has risen from jungle into urban center and returned back

into jungle repeatedly in recorded history. And so it is with Dionysus:

according to Otto, "The Greeks themselves considered their principal cults of

Dionysus to be age-old . . . in Delphi the worship of Dionysus could be

considered older than that of Apollo . . . Homeric epic is intimately

acquainted with his cult and his myths and it speaks of him in the same manner

in which it speaks of the deities who have been worshipped since time

immemorial."39

Lords of Water, Life and Fertility

Yet another common motif which classicists and indologists have long recognized

about these two gods is that both are associated with the watery element and

its connection with fertility and with life itself. That is, both Dionysus and

Skanda-Murukan are closely associated with fruit, blood, semen (the Sanskrit

verbal root skand refers primarily to the spurting of semen; hence Skanda means

'Spurt of Semen' or, by extension, 'The Leaper or Attacker' 40), the sap of

fresh vegetation and with an elixir of immortality, whether wine or soma. As

infants, both are nursed by females of the watery element. In Kataragama's

Islamic lore and in the Alexander Romance as well, for instance, the mysterious

figure al-Khidr is Alexander's accomplice or cook who discovers unsought what

Alexander sought in vain -- the ma'ul hayat or 'Water of Life' that bestows

heavenly knowledge and life everlasting to those who taste it. His epithet

al-Khadir, 'The Green Man', also points to his chthonic association with plant

growth, sap and the underground fountain of life which, local Islamic tradition

maintains, he discovered in Khadir-gama (i.e. Kataragama), the 'home of

al-Khadir.' Like god Murukan of South India, the Kataragama god is looked upon

as a fertility god who brings or withholds rain -- as god-king of a hydraulic

civilization, he "divides the waters" and ensures that each community gets its

share of life in the form of water. Both functions -- fertility and the

regulation of life-giving water -- are ritually enacted in the colorful diya

kaepeema or 'water-cutting ceremony' that is the climax of the Esala festival.

Dionysus, of course, is well known in Greek mythology for his association with

water, plant sap, sperm and another elixir of knowledge -- wine. Plutarch tells

us that, according to Greek belief, Dionysus was the lord of all moist nature.41

Varro (August. De civ. D.7.21) declares that "the sovereignty of Dionysus was

not only to be recognized in the juice of fruits whose crowning glory was wine

but also in the sperms of living creatures."42 Since prehistoric times, the

worship of Murukan, too, has included fruit, honey, the fermented juice of

paddy and coconut and the blood of sacrificial rams.43 In the

widely-circulating legend of Palani in Tamil Nadu, the popular shrine's name is

interpreted in the expression palam nee -- 'you are the fruit', i.e. you

(Murukan) are the ñânappalam or 'fruit of gnosis' -- that father Shiva says to

placate his precocious and impulsive son Murukan.

The association of blood and fertility finds expression in the importance of the

color red in both cults. Blood or vermilion powder and Murukan as Ceyon 'the

Red', mutually symbolize each other and evoke his close connection to shakti,

the feminine principle. Blood-red color simultaneously symbolizes both life and

death, as well as both classical genres of ancient Tamil poetry: akam

('love-matter') and puram (mainly war), over which Murukan presides as the

patron of Tamil language, poetry and drama. Likewise, images of Dionysus were

commonly colored with vermilion and his Maenads in their frenzy were known to

rip apart and devour the raw flesh of male goats and even men unwary enough to

intrude upon their torchlit revels upon the mountains -- the god himself was

omestes, 'eater of raw flesh.' 44

Again, both Dionysus and Skanda-Murukan have strong associations with certain

species of plants. Dionysus is Dendrites, 'He who dwells in trees' and is the

patron of orchards and vineyards. Similarly, Skanda was equated with Vishakha

or Bhadrashakha, the 'God of the Auspicious Bough,' recalling an early

association with tree-worship which persists to the present day. Alexander

Dubianski has lately given a lucid account of the association of Valli and

Murukan with specific flora and fauna of the Kurincittinai or mountainous

landscape in Cankam poetry. He notes that from the Cankam Age (and probably far

earlier), Murukan has been associated with the katampu (Anthocephalus cadamba)

and venkai (Pterocarpus bilobus) trees, both of which have strong fertility

associations in Tamil culture. The venkai, for instance, produces fragrant,

golden-red flowers during the season considered most auspicious for weddings

and its bark yields a reddish sap when cut. Murukan is said to have transformed

himself into a venkai tree while wooing Valli. Indeed, the Tamil word valli

means a creeper (Convolvus batatas) and the motif of the creeper entwined

around a tree evokes to the Indian mind the image of a woman embracing her

lover.45

Kapurala-shaman possessed by tree-spirit, Sri Lanka

In Kataragama specifically, the god has strong arboreal associations and may

have originally been a tree-spirit or yaksa from pre-Buddhistic times. In the

beginning, we are told, the god came by foot to Kataragama, planted his vel in

the ground under a shady tree, sat down and remained there. Hence, the tree was

his original 'temple' and even today the exterior of his sanctum sanctorum

retains relief-images of trees, lotus blossoms and elephants only. Indeed, the

vel symbol, which tradition says is equivalent to the god himself, is itself an

image of the axis mundi or the arbor vitae, the 'Tree of Life' or kalpavriksa,

the 'wish-granting tree' of pan-Indian tradition; its spearhead, for instance,

is in the shape of a venkai leaf and is frequently compared to a leaf in Cankam

literature. As Coomaraswamy rightly observes, "All these are forms of the Axis

of the Universe, thought of as a Tree by which the very existence of the cosmos

is maintained."46 With the advent of Buddhism as the state religion, however,

the Kataragama god's tree became the pipal or 'bo-tree' (Ficus religiosa) that

now offers its shade to the god's Mahadevale and, in return, receives ritual

offerings of water from the Alatti Ammas and the kapurala-priests every

Saturday when the god -- at least until recently -- also received a ritual

offering of venison, the hunter-god's favorite food.

Gods of Play and Drama

It is no coincidence that the word 'play' refers equally to sportive behavior

and to dramatic performance. This is as true in Indian languages as it is in

European: Murukan's 'divine play' (Tamil: tiru vilaiyatal; Sanskrit: leela) is

also the word used to describe his pranks, sports and dalliances, especially

with Valli, the vivacious and even cheeky jungle heroine who is Murukan's

devotee and sweetheart. Together with Valli and his 'older' rival brother, the

elephant-headed Ganapati, the ever-youthful god of Kataragama is widely

regarded in Sri Lanka to be still sporting to this day, dispensing justice

along with boons to those who respect him.

Dromena or mystery rite at Kataragama: A Kapurala shaman-priest (at right,

shrouded under canvas) embodies the unseen god as he bears the tiny casket

believed to contain the yantra, or rather the god himself, and prepares to

mount Swami upon the tusker's back.

In the eyes of connoisseurs, this 'play' goes on year-round in the form of

divine pranks, tricks and games like hide-and-seek which, we are told, Murukan

and Valli love to play with each other and with their devotees. But it is

especially during the Aesala festival which, as Paul Wirz already observed in

the 1950's, "consists of a dramatic staging of the legendary traditions of

Skanda,"47 that the god's 'play' also manifests as dromena, or "numinous

performances" as Obeyesekere calls them,48 that are conducted as ritual

pantomime in keeping with the festival's theme and content of mystery, secrecy

and dangerous power. As part of its powerful magic, the annual mystery rites

are felt to portend the peace and fertility -- or misfortune -- of the entire

realm or kingdom and so great care is taken to ensure its successful

performance. It is also a spellbinding spectacle to behold and attracts many

thousands of devout pilgrims and casual spectators alike, a fact that has given

it commercial significance in contemporary Sri Lanka as well.

In ancient Greece this close relation between drama and mythology was epitomized

by the mask, which stood both for the god Dionysus himself and for a process

whereby those who participated realized a glimpse of the wild paradoxes that

were related as myths and enacted as mystery rites or dromena, literally

'things performed'. Such mystery traditions were commonplace in the ancient

world and some are known to have endured for thousands of years. Gnostic

Christianity was a relatively late example of initiatic mysteries and even

today the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches retain ritual elements

recalling an origin in mystery religions, such as the transubstantiation of the

sacraments into Christ's own body and blood.

For ancient Greeks, the mask or persona was a symbol of unity in duality. The

wearer was both himself and someone else at the same time, or temporarily

became the persona (Greek: 'sound through' i.e. speak through the mask) in the

dramatis personae or characters of the ritual drama. The mask 'held together'

the two identities.49 As such, it also represented the possibility of a passage

or gateway between different realms or worlds of experience. As we have seen,

this passage into a dangerous, shadowy underworld realm of chaos and death is a

key theme in both cults; as Godwin notes, it is characteristic of mystery gods

that they descend to an underworld to redeem those souls incarcerated there.50

Except for some masked dancers who explicitly represent yakku or other-worldly

spirits, masks are not in evidence at Kataragama. Nor are there any lines to be

spoken, or even a single utterance by ritual performers, although enthralled

spectators may sing and many are heard to cry Haro-Hara! ('Hallelujah'). 51 And

yet, the dramatic or numinous character of the ritual performance is readily

evident; the presence of the principal divine characters is keenly felt though

they are seldom to be seen, as secrecy and disguise are integral motifs of the

ritual drama both in theme and content.

In the cult of Murukan, the mask-symbol may be said to find its counterpart in

the youthful god's ever-present vel, or spear. The spear, too, unites hunter

and prey, life and death, in a sacrifice that enables life -- the world -- to

continue. The vel motif reappears as the god-king's scepter, the magician's

wand, or the ascetic's staff. But its persistent representation as a spear

clearly points to its Paleolithic origin in the dawn of human consciousness. It

seems that in early times Murukan was represented by abstract symbols like the

vêl or yantra alone, which perhaps explains why there are no anthropomorphic

images or temples dedicated to the god prior to the bhakti age.52 This aniconic

tradition, too, survives to this day in Kataragama where the god's Tamil

devotees worship him as kantali, which Ponnambulam Arunachalam interprets as

"reality transcending all categories without attachment, without form, standing

alone as the Self."53

 

Spirit of life and fertility: Valli Amma

Kataragama's indomitable spirit of paradox, antithesis and intercourse between

worlds is evident even in the usual etymology: Kataragama is Katir-kâmam, where

katir (Skt: 'luster'), connoting the Logos or Unitary Principle, meets kâmam

(Skt: 'lust'), denoting Eros, the driving force of duality, birth and everyday

embodied existence. As the story tells us, Katirkâmam is the place where

Skanda-Murukan -- as the Logos -- manifestly expresses his yearning for the

joys of earthly existence, personified in the vivacious heroine Valli, who may

have been an agricultural goddess of fertility if she was not a flesh-and-blood

maiden of the Neolithic era. Dionysus, too, is closely associated with

love-fulfillment and Anacreaon's song to the god begins with the words "O Lord,

whose playfellows are the mighty Eros and the dark-eyed nymphs and violet

Aphrodite!"54

The coincidence and harmonious reconciliation of opposites is another recurrent

theme in the myths of Dionysus and Skanda-Murukan. Indeed, the very coherence

or internal consistency between the myth, local ritual practices and underlying

metaphysical principles is in itself further structural evidence of Kataragama's

antiquity and continuing soteriological function. Alternatively, one may

interpret this extraordinary structural cohesiveness in synchronic literary

terms, as a homology of form and content, exhibited throughout the artistic

traditions of both Dionysus and Skanda-Murukan. Indeed, it would not be too

much to assert that this homology of form and content, or Unity of Theory and

Action, is evident in the cyclic structure of the traditions, as both

homologize a body of mythic events with the ritual calendar. At the same time,

both draw upon the motif of eternal return, of ends being identical with

beginnings. Just as Kataragama Deviyo makes a promise or solemn vow (bara) to

remain or reappear at a later time, so likewise his followers undertake solemn

oaths in a ritual practice that can only be concluded before the deity, i.e. by

returning to Kataragama.55 Similarly, the diya kaepiima (Tamil: tîrttam) or

'water-cutting ceremony' at the conclusion of the great festival of Kataragama,

ritually enacts the end of one annual cycle and the beginning of a new cycle.

Another expression of this homology of form and structure is intimately

associated with the very nature of mystery itself. The Latin mysterium and

Greek müsterios are derived from a verbal root mus 'to close (the eyes or

lips)' and one who was initiated into the ancient mysteries was called mustes,

meaning 'one vowed to silence.'56 Thus, strictly speaking, silence and secrecy

are integral components of any genuine mystery tradition -- as the Taoist

dictum puts it: 'Those who know don't speak and those who speak don't know'.

Having made this confession, I can only point out that the same rule applies to

the mystery cult of Kataragama -- its central injunction cummâ iru! (Tamil: 'Be

still!') enjoins both contemplative silence and secrecy and is said to the

essence of instruction imparted by Skanda-Murukan himself. And indeed, silence

and secrecy characterize both the theme and content of the dromena or numinous

performances associated with the cults of Kataragama-Skanda and Dionysus. As

such, the hierophany or mystery drama of Katir-kamam, like that of Dionysus,

may be understood as the "plenitude of divine configurations"57 permeating the

story, the principles that govern it, its enactment and even the stage upon

which it is enacted, which is Kataragama's sacred geographical setting together

with its shrines and hypothesized underworld.

The fact that the dromena of Dionysus or Kataragama have never been remotely

understood or, in the case of Kataragama, scarcely recognized as such at all,

fits perfectly with the underlying patterns common to both. I say 'underlying',

for both mysteries are characterized by motifs of disguise, guile and trickery

-- all elements common to life in the wild and survival in a perilous

underworld or, for that matter, in today's urban jungles. It is noteworthy in

this regard that Skanda-Murukan has long been reckoned as the presiding spirit

of the Kali Yuga and all its tumult, including such activities as children's

games, hunting, erotic sports, dramatic performance, politics and warfare. All

these have a place in the myths of both gods who are spirits of paradox,

duplicity and inexpressible unity within duality. One should recall that

Skanda's epithet Guha means not only 'the Mysterious One' but also 'the

Concealed One'. That is, he is not merely quiescent, but constantly engaged in

playful unseen activities.

Journey to the Sacred Center: Labyrinth motif of a 20th Century straw mat woven

in Anuradhapura district, Sri Lanka. Sacred animals (deer and elephant) guard

the approach to Kataragama.

Lords of the Labyrinth

Persistent oral traditions preserved in Kataragama speak of the locality as

being riddled with hidden passageways leading to other places of sacred power

(such as Adam's Peak and Mount Kailasa) or even to other lokas or worlds. Many

local stories tell of gods, goddesses, demons, siddhas and other supernatural

beings passing in and out of our world through such gateways. Others tell of

unwitting humans who stumble through such entrances: there they behold

incredible wonders and marvelous wealth, but when they attempt to bring things

back, either they cannot return or their treasures vanish.

For years, I dismissed as pure fantasy such stories claiming that beneath

Kataragama there exists a 'sunken kingdom', an 'underground university', or

vast subterranean chambers full of priceless gems guarded by nâgas or

dragon-spirits. However, after years of focusing on the literal or surface

(pratyaksa) meaning, I am now convinced that these stories are allegories deep

with metaphysical or parabolical (paroksa) meanings or applications.58 These

narratives were -- and still are -- recited for the enjoyment and wonder of all

listeners but specifically intended to serve as conscious exegetical exercises,

attracting and enticing spiritually-qualified aspirants at the same time that

they screen out those who are unsuited to proceed further. As such, they

implicitly direct the aspirant to search beneath the surface meaning to

progressively deeper realms of allegory, imagination and eternal archetypes.

Other bardic traditions the world over, notably that of the Celts, have also

made extensive use of this theme of subterranean or otherworldly adventure.

Furthermore, it suggests the survival of a cult of the earth-goddess, of

divinity abiding in the earth-mother Gaea, recalling and invoking the maternal

rhythm of basic life processes and feminine creativity -- as Euripides (fr.

488) once said, "The myth is not my own, I had it from my mother." A

matrilineal line of transmission further suggests an origin in antiquity prior

to the Sanskritisation of Sri Lankan society by early patriarchal Sinhalese

immigrants.

The fact that no one, outside of the tradition's custodians themselves (who are

vowed to secrecy anyway), has ever drawn attention to these peculiar features

of Kataragama fits perfectly with the complex maze of interwoven themes,

motifs, practices and outward circumstances that characterize Kataragama and,

as a profound intellectual edifice, serves the purpose of a labyrinth, the

penetration of which was -- and remains -- one of the heroic tasks of initiates

of metaphysical traditions the world over. For the most part, like Dionysus, the

god of Kataragama maintains a low profile in legend and his cult's custodians or

connoisseurs follow suit. Most, it seems, have been ândis, swamis and other

itinerant performers who revel in life regardless of outward exigencies. They

may be said to express what they know, or know of, less through the medium of

words than through embodying a tradition whose central injunction cummâ iru!

enjoins utter simplicity and profound silence as well as secrecy.

Moreover, one should also bear in mind that the myths or stories of Kataragama

and Dionysus concern an unknown (and perhaps unknowable) principle or agent

acting in an unseen and unrecognized way with an invisible power or efficacy,

called shakti, upon the visible realm of multiplicity and manifestation -- our

own world. The central theme concerns a passage through the Gates of Death into

an inconceivable realm lying beyond. As such, it is a soteriological theme of

liberation, salvation or deliverance from the tyranny of Cur (old Tamil:

literally, Angst or fear) the terrific protean demon that Murukan subdues and

then accepts as his servant. Dionysus, too, was known by the highly significant

epithet Lusios, "the Liberator."59

In like fashion, we are reminded that the epithet Bacchos, of obscure etymology,

was applied both to the god Dionysus and to his celebrants. Similarly, the

common honorific epithet swami, (Skt: 'one who is (lord of) himself', i.e. a

free man), originally referred exclusively to the deity Skanda and to his

hierophants, as did the Tamil epithet velan (literally, spearman or lancer).

Even today, not only is the god of Kataragama still called Swâmi, but the

celebrants, hierophants or adepts of his cult are also called swâmis and

swâmi-ammas, many of whom still bear the vêl-emblem (as well as personal names)

that implicitly homologises them to the deity. Thus, the pervasive theme of

instantaneous (Skt: sa-krit) transition or simultaneity between worlds or

levels expresses itself as a homology of roles, divine and human, ideal and

actual.

While an individual swâmi's actual apprehension ('realisation' in modern Indian

vernacular) of the cult's metaphysical subtleties may vary, most aspirants must

persevere for years or decades before being regarded as a swâmi or expert. As

such, it is not orthodoxy, 'correct belief,' that matters in Kataragama as much

as orthopraxis, 'correct practice.' Highly esteemed Kataragama swamis tend to be

child-like, guileless and friendly, but they are not overly talkative and

proselytise still less. As such, they stand in stark contrast to the typically

modern 'swâmis' of the Vivekananda model with their diverse social and

political agendas, which are singularly absent from the Kataragama model of

contemplative mysticism.

Students of ritual have noticed the points of similarity between ritual and

play. As Frits Staal observes, in play as in ritual activity, "the rules count,

but not the result" and yet "the two kinds of activity, ritual and ordinary, can

be juxtaposed without conflict or contradiction."60 Or, in Segal's words,

"Dionysiac play, like its artistic equivalent, is jealous of practical

application; it insists on the spirit of play for its own sake."61 This

persistent absence of expediency shown in the core tradition is a

characteristic feature which, as Otto observes, "makes cult practice so alien

and strange to the modern mind."62 Kataragama's cloak of secrecy, too, is

partly woven of our own reluctance to understand, i.e. our modern prejudices

and notions.

Gods of Abusive Epithets

Millions of Sri Lankans visit Kataragama, most with a practical purpose in mind,

usually to request a boon or to give thanks for one received. Ironically,

however, cult initiates themselves frequently address the god -- privately and

not so privately -- with abusive epithets. As noted, both Skanda-Murukan and

Dionysus are widely reckoned to be earthy and even roguish gods. In as ancient

a canonical text as the Atharva Veda, a section called the Skandayâga is also

known as the Dhûrtakalpa, or 'Rogue Ordinance'.63 This association of the solar

hero Skanda with cunning and fraud has long puzzled scholars. He is repeatedly

called dhûrta, meaning 'rogue'. Why?

In brief, the reputation of both Dionysus and Skanda -- and particularly

Kataragama-Skanda -- for roguishness is a natural consequence of their

paradoxical, playful and picaresque character. Both gods are perfectly at home

in a shadowy underworld replete with word play, trickery and thinly disguised

sexuality. Both are amoral, mischievous characters who employ crafty stratagems

-- divine picaros, as it were. Both are masters of duplicity and mime or natural

theatrics. All this suggests the tension, paradox, or contradiction felt between

the Logos, katir and Eros, kâma. At the same time, this duplicity is the

principle of duality outside of which there can be no Eros, the experience of

aesthetic rapture.

Not only in myth and legends, but also in practice, the god of Kataragama is a

god of oaths and abusive epithets. His closest friends address him intimately

-- with insults; even Valli mocks the god when he appears to her in disguise.

Dionysus, too, was called 'womanly', 'mad', 'lecherous': Lycurgus, King of the

Edones, however unknowing, insults and expels Dionysus (Apollodorus, iii, v,

1-3). There is, after all, at least a kernel of truth in most of the

allegations and, given the hidden or clandestine character of the gods, no one

can say for certain what improprieties they have not committed in the course of

their long careers. That Kataragama Deviyo is a philanderer, thief, rascal and

friend of criminals and politicians is well known throughout all of Sri Lanka,

if not in India as well. Indeed, his very notoriety serves to underline his

down-to-earth immediacy and accessibility to devotees of every stratum of

society.

Arunakirinatar, the brilliant and prolific fifteenth-century composer of

ambrosial Tamil poetry celebrating Murukan (who earlier had been a rogue and

profligate himself), is mindful of this tradition of 'abusive praise' (Skt:

nindâstuti) when he exclaims:

The bridegroom of Valli with tresses adorned with garlandsis ready to foster

even those who curse and abuse -- in threefold Tamil!64

This same grassroots tradition of abuse, slander, or reproach (Tamil: ecal)

directed at Skanda-Murukan and/or his shakti-consorts finds expression in the

still-flourishing and popular genre of Vallikkum Teyvayanaikkum ecal in which

the god's rival consorts hurl abuse at each other.

Indeed, both gods in legend and Skanda's initiates in practice to this day

follow a pattern of guile and deceit whereby they encourage humanity at large

to misinterpret them, their motives and their behavior by confusing such

conventional distinctions as high/low, good/bad, divine/worldly, etc. "As

above, so below" goes the ancient hermetic dictum or principle; so likewise

gods of alchemical transformation generally appear as socially-despicable

characters, divine culprits who disseminate lofty metaphysical wisdom in the

form of inscrutable behavior and low or uncouth speech. For instance, the very

quintessence of wisdom is said to be expressed in the terse utterance cummâ

iru, which in common parlance means 'shut up!' Unrecognized for what they truly

represent, the gods and their followers are free to go about their inscrutable

business, whatever it may be. These subtle cloaks of disguise, woven out of the

mistaken perceptions of the world at large, have also played a role in other

ancient Indian cults such as that of the Pas'upatas.65

This beguiling practice of inverse adoration is not without parallel elsewhere

in the ancient Mediterranean world even up to modern times. Says Dionysius the

Areopagite, "Divine things should be honoured by the true negations and by

comparisons with the lowest things, which are diverse from their proper

resemblance."66 Rosalie Colie observes that these "rhypological" images of low

and sordid things "become by Dionysius' argument appropriate to attempt

comprehension of the divine essence. Against this background, several things

become clear, among them, the curious habit of devotional poets' using 'low

things' in immediate juxtaposition to the highest, such as Herbert's likeness

of Christ to a bag, of God to a coconut and Donne's of the flea's triple life

to the Trinity."67

Rather than to abuse -- or praise -- the god too much, I should point out that

this beguiling practice of nindâstuti is not only attestedly very ancient, but

it, too, survives to this day among the traditional folk of Sri Lanka. Some,

especially village elders, are said to be extremely adept at it. Modern

education, however, has taken its toll on this local tradition, while radio and

television threaten to eradicate it altogether. It is a bardic tradition of

double entendre, of ambiguous reference and risqué connotations. Truly, little

is known or understood about this practice, but it is safe to conclude that it

is closely related to the god's own association with roguery, the swearing of

oaths, and magical word-play.

This use of language having double meanings -- especially with sexual innuendoes

-- again points to cultures and times where 'Mother Wit' alone could prevail

over brawn, where women both goaded and restrained their men through subtlety

and where justice or Dharma was regarded as being virtually a cosmic force.

Combined with the recurrent motif of periodic return, it suggests an origin in

matriarchal culture prior to the imposed structure of a civilizing patriarchy,

often associated with Aryan invasions. Above all, it was -- and remains -- a

tradition of basic human values and needs.

To suggest, as this hypothesis does, that a millennia-old mystery cult has

survived unrecognized until the dawn of the 21st century may sound like an

extravagant claim to many. But when one looks at the cult of Kataragama-Skanda

as that cult views itself, this conclusion is not so startling. The cult of

Kataragama is a religion in the strict Durkheimian sense: it has a body of

doctrine and myth, a set of associated rituals, a priesthood and other ritual

specialists and "a moral community" of believers.68 As such, it deserves to be

studied on its own terms, as it sees itself and not merely as an adjunct or

product of the society that has developed around it. When one considers the

body of evidence from all available sources, including first-hand experience --

as I have attempted -- one arrives at a picture of Kataragama that is very

different from the descriptions offered by social scientists -- and remarkably

similar to the mystery cult of Dionysus as its contemporaries described it. In

short, there is much more to Kataragama than social research to date has made

it out to be. Beneath Kataragama's surface, beneath layer under layer of

secrecy and subterfuge, an initiatic mystery tradition survives to this day,

waiting for intrepid souls to penetrate its ancient mystery.

Not surprisingly, this study raises more questions about the cults of Kataragama

and Dionysus than it answers. Did one cult inspire or exert influence upon the

other? Or do they share a common origin lost in antiquity, as Clothey suggests,

as two branches of the same west Asiatic mystery tradition? Without postulating

a Cosmic Intelligence or Jungian universal mind, can one maintain that they

arose independently? Most especially, what is the underlying mystery of

Kataragama and what can modern humanity learn from it? The in-depth study of

Kataragama and the cult of Skanda-Murukan has really just begun. As a riotous

affirmation of life in this world and in other worlds as well, it stands

without equal as a survival of times in remote antiquity prior to the

imposition of patriarchal values upon older cultures. When feminine or

matriarchal values were the norm of society, the rhythmic biological cycle of

the Magna Mater was seen everywhere together with her Son the archetypal

cultural hero.

As down-to-earth gods of paradox, fertility and ecstatic terror, Dionysus and

Skanda-Murukan have baffled and inspired rural and urban, educated and

unlettered, rich and poor devotees alike since millennia. Undoubtedly, this is

among the reasons why Skanda-Murukan remains so popular in modern Sri Lanka and

Tamil Nadu and even appears to be making a comeback once again after centuries

of relative obscurity.

Through ritual, symbolic gesture and allusive language, the mystery of

Kataragama -- so remarkably akin to that of Dionysus -- has endured through the

centuries to become antiquity's gift to modern humanity. But does modern man

still possess the intuitive faculties needed to apprehend what Kataragama

represents? Kataragama, it is said, embodies the mysterium magnum. If so, then

it may represent the ultimate frontier and the gateway to humanity's

understanding of itself, which is, after all, the real mystery.

References

Heinz Bechert, "The Cult of Skanda-Kumara in the Religious History of South

India and Ceylon", Proceedings of the Third International Conference Seminar,

(Paris: International Association of Tamil Research, 1970), pp. 199-206.

Alain Danielou, Shiva and Dionysus, trans. K.F. Hurry (New York: Inner

Traditions International, 1982), p. 91-98.

Agehananda Bharati, "Serendipity Suddenly Armed", Quest, No. 80, Jan-Feb 1973, p. 41.

Fred W. Clothey, The Many Faces of Murukan, (The Hague, Paris and New York:

Mouton Publishers, 1978), pp. 20, 40.

Gananath Obeyesekere, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1984), p. 530.

George Woodcock, Kerala: A portrait of the Malabar Coast, (London: 1967), p. 81.

A. Sreedhara Menon, A survey of Kerala history, (Kottayam: reprinted 1970), p.

56, cited in Obeyesekere, p. 531.

Obeyesekere, pp. 531-33.

Obeyesekere, p. 532.

Obeyesekere, pp. 516-29.

Obeyesekere, p. 530.

H.E. Ameresekere, "The Kataragama God shrines and Legends", Ceylon Literary

Register, third series, Vol. I. No. 7, July 1931, p. 291.

Cited in Danielou, p. 38.

Cited in Proinsias MacCana, Celtic Mythology, revised ed. (1968: Middlesex:

Newnes Books, 1983), p. 20.

Charles Segal, Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides' Bacchae, (Princeton: Princeton

University Press, 1982), p. 12.

Joscelyn Godwin, Mystery Religions in the Ancient World, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1981), p. 132.

Walter F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult, trans. Robert Palmer, (Bloomington and

London: Indiana University Press, 1965), p. 24.

Godwin, p. 8.

Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, "Dionysus and Shiva: Parallel Patterns in Two Pairs of

Myths", History of Religions, 20 (1980), p. 81-111. See also Kirfel, Willibald,

"Shiva und Dionysus", Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie, 78 (1953), pp. 83-90; and

long, J. Bruce, "Shiva and Dionysus: Visions of Terror and Bliss", Numen,

18(1971), pp. 180-209.

Strabo Geography 15.58, citing Megasthenes' Indica, cited in O'Flaherty, p. 81.

Segal, p. 12.

Segal, p. 343.

Danielou, p. 27.

Segal, p. 12.

Otto, p. 96.

Danielou, p. 92.

Danielou,, p. 93.

Clothey, p. 41.

Clothey, p. 125, 230.

N. Gopala Pillai, "Skanda: the Alexander Romance in India", Proceedings of the

All-India Oriental Conference, (Trivandrum: Government Press, 1937), Vol. IX,

pp. 955-977.

Clothey, p. 197.

Otto, p. 63.

Danielou, p. 95.

Otto, p. 110.

Cited in M.C.A. Hassan, The Story of the Kataragama Mosque and Shrine, (Colombo:

S.A.M. Thauoos, 1968), p. 11-12.

Otto, p. 83.

Otto, p. 79.

Robert Knox, An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon, 2nd ed., (1681:

Dehiwala Ceylon: Tisara Prakasakayo, 1966), n. page.

Otto, p. 52.

Sir Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, new ed. (1899:

reprinted by Oxford and Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986), p. 1256.

Otto, p. 156.

Otto, p. 164.

Clothey, p. 30.

Otto, p. 109.

Alexander M. Dubianski, "Some Observations on Kurinci Poetry", in Silver Jubilee

Special Lecturers, ed. R. Vijayalakshmy, (Madras: International Institute of

Tamil Studies, 1996), pp. 278-283.

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, "The Inverted Tree", first published in Quarterly

Journal of the Mythic Society (Bangalore), XXIX (1938), reproduced in

Coomaraswamy, ed. Roger Lipsey, (Princeton and Delhi: Oxford University Press,

1977), vol. I, p. 383.

Paul Wirz, Kataragama the Holiest Place in Ceylon, trans. by Doris Berta Pralle,

(Colombo: Gunasena, 1966), p. 20.

Obeyesekere, p. 381.

Otto, p. 201.

Godwin, p. 27.

A few possible exceptions all pertain to Sinhala Buddhist rituals which were

grafted onto the pre-Buddhistic core tradition.

Kamil V. Zvelebil, Tamil Traditions on Subramanya-Murugan, (Madras: Institute of

Asian Studies, 1991), p. 78.

Ponnambulam Arunachalam, "The Worship of Muruka or Skanda (The Kataragam God)",

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Ceylon Branch), XXIX (1924), p. 241.

Otto, p. 33.

For instance, as King Mahasena, the god vows in the presence of Shakyamuni

Buddha to remain in Kataragama (i.e. as a bodhisattva-spirit) and to protect

the Dhamma for all time to come.

Source: The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition (Oxford: Claredon Press,

1989), Vol. X, pp. 173, 175.

Otto, p. 33.

Cf. "The content of folklore is metaphysical," writes Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in

his essay "Primitive Mentality" reproduced in Lipsey, p. 287.

Otto, p. 100.

Frits Staal, "The Meaninglessness of Ritual", Numen, Vol. XXVI, Fasc. 1, June 1979, p. 9.

Segal, p. 343.

Otto, p. 34.

Parishistas of the Atharvaveda, ed. Bolling and Negelein: 1909, pp. 128-35,

cited in Chatterjee, Asim K. The Cult of Skanda-Karttikeya in Ancient India,

(Calcutta: 1970), pp. 4-5.

Cited in Kamil Zvelebil, The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South

India, (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973), p. 246.

See Daniel H.H. Ingalls, "Cynics and Pashupatas: The Seeking of Dishonour",

Harvard Theological Review 55, no.4 (October 1962): 282-98.

Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Heavenly Hierarchy, Works, trans. John Parker

(London: 1897), Part II, pp. 7-8.

Rosalie L. Colie, Paradoxia Epidemica: The Renaissance Tradition of Paradox,

(1966: Princeton University Press: rep. Archon Books, 1976), p. 25.

Emile Durkheim, Elementary forms of the religious life, trans. J.W. Swain, (1915), p. 45.

This article first appeared in The Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies,

Vol. XIV No. 2 March 1997, pp. 1-28. It also appears in Kataragama: The Mystery

Shrine (1998).

 

Related Murugan Bhakti resources:

 

• Kailasa to Kataragama: Sacred Geography in the cult of Skanda-Murukan• Sacred

sites of Lanka map• Kataragama.org home page• Murugan.org home page

 

 

Links from around the Web:

 

• SacredSites.com Sacred Site Pilgrimage• Links to more articles about Dionysus

 

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