Guest guest Posted September 24, 2005 Report Share Posted September 24, 2005 http://murugan.org/research/gopalapillai.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 dhandapani , " Raji Iyer " <kavayyaar> wrote: > http://murugan.org/research/gopalapillai.htm hi all, what do you think about this article? Although iam a no good historian, i think i have some rationale mind. The age of alexander is around 300b.c. but there are many places in tamilnadu having murugan temples older than 300 b.c. even the author cites one example, but is not able to disprove it convincingly. And the author has talked only about words, but very less and almost nothing about statues. Samanurith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Yes, I agree with you. Not only Alexander and Murugan, there are also a lot of parallels between the ancient Greeks and the Aryans - regarding their customs, the deities they worshipped etc. But you cant say Greeks and Aryans are the same. They're often referred to as " Greek cousins " of Aryans. But one point is to be noted. The ruins of Mohenjodaro & Harappa in present day Pakistan display a Dravidian civilization. And this civilization is historically dated to be over 2000 B.C. And Murugan - though directly related to Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati and Lord Ganesh - is very much a Tamil deivam; and Tamil is the language of the Dravidians. So the comparison between Alexander and Murugan is interesting, I tend to believe it is more like a " Greek cousin " parallel, rather than call Alex and Murugan one and the same. This is my individual thinking. And I too believe that Murugan belief originated way before Alex crossed the Caucacus mountains and came to India. Its quite fascinating to think that ancient Tamils may actually have lived in the North. I'd love to hear from any history-learned person on this matter. It would be relevant, since we're all very very ardent fans and followers of Lord Murugan, and it would also be very informative about Indian culture as a whole. Patricia --- samanurith <samanurith wrote: > dhandapani , " Raji Iyer " > <kavayyaar> wrote: > > http://murugan.org/research/gopalapillai.htm > > hi all, > what do you think about this article? Although iam > a no good > historian, i think i have some rationale mind. The > age of alexander > is around 300b.c. but there are many places in > tamilnadu having > murugan temples older than 300 b.c. even the author > cites one example, > but is not able to disprove it convincingly. And the > author has talked > only about words, but very less and almost nothing > about statues. > > Samanurith > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 29, 2005 Report Share Posted September 29, 2005 Fortunately for historians and scholars, Alexander's retinue included not only soldiers but also a handful of learned scholars whose job it was to record details of Alexander's march and the lands they passed through. Portions of those written records either survived or were cited in later documents that survive. On the other hand, Indian civilization, or at least Indian scholarship of those days, did not attach much importance to secular activities or to prose writings in general. So often our most reliable records are those of foreigners like the Greeks and Chinese who kept systematic records, typically in the forms of diaries. Because we know the dates of Alexander's incursion into India, there is not much room for debate excpet in minor details, like whether the young Chandragupta actually met Alexander, or not. From textual analyses and from archeaological findings, it is plain that the worship of Skanda Kumara in the North and Murugan in the South preceeded Alexander's incursion by a few centuries, if not millennia in the case of Murugan. There is, therefore, the temptation to speculate about how Indians themselves viewed Alexander. Indian civilization (and with it the Indian pantheon of deities) extended at that time into present day Afghanistan, where many kingdoms chose to surrender to Alexander's army without a fight. How the Greeks viewed matters may be quite different from how they, and especially their leader Alexander, were viewed by others. The Alexander Romances may preserve elements of how Indians and other peoples in Alexander's path viewed him, or remembered him. It is interesting to note that the historical Alexander's favorite weapon was the lance. This lance however was not a short spear to be hurled, but a long (10-12 feet or longer) pole wielded from horseback, rather like those used much later by medieval knights. Like Skanda or Murugan, Alexander was a remarkably young generalissimo who, rather than to lead from behind, chose to charge ahead of his own men into battle. And yet, although he was grievously injured many times (he once boasted that he bore wounds from every weapon known to man at the time) he never lost a battle, and died young not in battle, but from a disease or illness complicated by heavy drinking. In an age before printing and modern media, people did not know even what their own king looked like, but formed their impressions from tales and legends, poems and songs. This being the case, how would the average man or woman distinguish between Alexander the generalissimo, and Skanda the generalissimo? There were other fascinating parallels as well. As Skanda was already very well known as a young god of war and wisdom, and Alexander was also famous for his wisdom and compassion as an administrator, how could the average Indian (or pandit for that matter) avoid drawing a comparison between Skanda and Alexander? It all comes down to pure speculation in the absence of any hard evidence one way or the other, of course. There is no way to prove or disprove anything in the complete absence of records. But it is tempting to conclude that some Indians, perhaps many Indians, looked upon Alexander as an embodiment or avatara of Karttikeya. -- Patrick Harrigan www.Anathi.org On 9/27/05, Patricia Jay <patriciajay2000 wrote: > Yes, I agree with you. Not only Alexander and > Murugan, there are also a lot of parallels between the > ancient Greeks and the Aryans - regarding their > customs, the deities they worshipped etc. But you > cant say Greeks and Aryans are the same. They're > often referred to as " Greek cousins " of Aryans. > > But one point is to be noted. The ruins of > Mohenjodaro & Harappa in present day Pakistan display > a Dravidian civilization. And this civilization is > historically dated to be over 2000 B.C. And Murugan - > though directly related to Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati > and Lord Ganesh - is very much a Tamil deivam; and > Tamil is the language of the Dravidians. > > So the comparison between Alexander and Murugan is > interesting, I tend to believe it is more like a > " Greek cousin " parallel, rather than call Alex and > Murugan one and the same. This is my individual > thinking. And I too believe that Murugan belief > originated way before Alex crossed the Caucacus > mountains and came to India. > > Its quite fascinating to think that ancient Tamils may > actually have lived in the North. > > I'd love to hear from any history-learned person on > this matter. It would be relevant, since we're all > very very ardent fans and followers of Lord Murugan, > and it would also be very informative about Indian > culture as a whole. > > Patricia Patrick Harrigan Network Administrator Living Heritage Network http://livingheritage.org/lh_network.htm Murugan Bhakti Network http://murugan.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.