Happy,
I thought they also consider Murugan as "marumaan" (sister's son) of Vishnu and not as son-in-law because the parentages of Valli and Deyvaanai are fixed. Is it wrong?
Dear sir,
There are so many versions. Dunno which to choose :juggle: :decision:
Version 1:
According to the book "Caste in Tamil culture" (page 116), Valli was the daughter of Vishnu. The book says Murugan had 2 wives, one was the daughter of Indra (Devyani), and the other one was the daughter of Vishnu (Valli). So in that version, Murugan is son-in-law to both, Indra and Vishnu. Here too Valli is daughter of Vishnu:
http://murugan.org/temples/parankundram.htm
If i remember right in one purana version (forgot which one now), Vishnu was mentioned as Indra's brother. So perhaps in such a family picture, we cud say that Devyani and Valli were cousin sisters who shared Muruka as their husband.
Version 2:
According to the book "Kataragama" by A.Rasiah, a female deer (doe) gave birth to Valli or Sunderavalli and she was raised by a veddah king, Nambyrajan.
Version 3:
According to some, Valli was found as a baby in a field (and was adopted by the Veddah chieftain Nambi Raja). And Skanda was considered a Yaksha, (spelled yaka or yakka by Sinhalese). Some links:
Valli Marries the God of the Mountain and
Veddas celebrate Kataragama wedding festival According to the book "Srilanka: roots of history and conflict" by Spencer, the rituals of kataragama include those of both deva (god) and yaksa (demon).
Though the Veddah belief tends to obliterates Devyani and focuses only on Valli, some versions bring both thevyani and valli together to Skanda:
"The Cult of Kataragama" - an essay by Maureen Seneviratne
Version 4:
According to the book, "Exorcism and the Art of Healing in Ceylon" (page 137), Skanda himself is considered an incarnation of Vishnu. And i suppose that version comes because Muruga's portrayal in some ways is somewhat like that of Krishna in some version as playing with Gopikas (Muruka dancing in the hills with girls:
Siva and Kumara worship)
Additional version:
According to the book, "Caste in Tamil culture", the Karavas believe that Valli was not only brought up by Veddahs but also by Bhadrakali as a foster-mom of sorts, and this particular Bhadrakali was from the Karava community.
---
According to the Alutnuvara shrine story (book called "Buddhist Vishnu" by Holt), Dadmiunda devata bandara brought 150,000 Yakshas to cut granite and create the shrine / temple with the power of Vishnu. Wud such stories indicate that Yakshas were early indo-aryans workers brought to Srilanka to work ?
Even the wedding ceremony is claimed differently. Some sources, including one book, "Flipside of Hindu Symbolism" by Narayanan, says that Murugan married Valli in Gandharva style and Devyani in Prajapatya style. But the wedding ceremony celebrated in Kataragama does not appear to be Gandharva style.
So sir, there is more than 1 version, about the parentage of valli. So am not sure which to choose. Btw, this is a nice pic of a sculpture of Skanda from the Kushan period:
Skandakumara and Kataragama: An Aspect of the Relation of Hinduism and Buddhism in Sri Lanka
The uniqueness of the Aryan-led Hinduism was its cleverness and readiness to "engulf & devour" as many of the original tribal beliefs/totems/tutelary deities etc. Initially they did so from within the available Rigvedic pantheon - rudra with siva, vishnu as supreme, indra and varuna downgraded, brihaspati/prajapati downgraded and their status given to the brahma, the creator, etc. But when the number of new aspirants to be accommodated in this fashion exceeded the possibilities in the vedas, they invented newer and newer methods and also created the different puranas to justify these new deities! This is, of course, my pov.
Most puranic events are "reflections" of some actual conflict between two or more groups and the victors were, IMO, almost always the vedic people, but just to mollify and absorb the vanquished into their religious fold, the deity/totem of the vanquished was exalted in some puranic incident or another, and the gullible on both the sides - victors & the vanquished - believed it!
interesting perspective sir...
I am not too sure whether "kattarpanthi" (ultra conservative) vaishnavism existed in the times of M. Bh or Ramayana; IMO, such a thing starts with Prahlada's story in the Srimad Bhagavata. (Earlier references in taittiriya aranyaka and mahabharata did not project Vishnu as the sole supreme godhead, I think). By the time Abbe Dubois came to India (1770-1848) vaishnavism had established very much which, as we know, happened much earlier in the time of Ramanuja. I think this polarisation has nothing much to do with the puranic type of confrontations.
I have a small take on varna in mahabharat. Krishna spoke about varnas, gunas by birth, etc alright -- however He did not say that the caste (occupation) of a boy depends on his father's occupation. Yet somehow poor Krishna is bashed up for creating the caste-system by some.
And wonder why people gloss over the role of Indra in the mahabharat. I mean, Indra was the one who classed the mlecchas, dasyus, robbers, into a defined social system. So i think Indra was the culprit of the class-system (??).
Regards.
