UNTOLD MYSTERIES OF INDIAN TEMPLES

By Dr.P.R.Palodhi The Temple culture is customary to all Prophetic religions because God has shown Adam and Eve where to build an altar, which became the first Temple on earth. There was no such belief in pagan religions of Harappan or Vedic people; there have been great many archaeological explorations in the ancient cites of Indus/Harappa but no Temples have been found in the vast Indus civilization, only some buildings such as House A-1 and great baths stand as likely religious places; the mysteries of Indus gods and goddesses are enshrouded not in Temples but in innumerable seals, stone statuaries, and terracotta figurines. As regard later Vedic Aryans, even the oldest Indo-European religious rites do not presuppose temples or even idols, but they used to worship with meals, burnt offerings, and typical hymns of the celestial coming, as if it were, on visit to the earthly ones reception. But in later course of history India has turned out to be the leading museum of pagan temples in world. These Indian temples have flourished only in later ages; and very intriguingly Dubois (p. 573) [1] noticed that all ancient Indian temples, minor or major, are mysteriously found in east-west direction i.e. faced towards Kaba. Since Temple is the basic forte of Prophetic tradition; the temple-culture must have originated in post Flood world from Prophet Noah; which afterwards continued by the east bound descendants of Prophet Abraham (after 2000 BC). Bible (Gen, 25: 6) has informed: Then Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bares him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan (Gen, 25:1-3); And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. Josephus also tells us about a branch of Keturahs descendants settled in India who called themselves as Brahmins after name of their ancestral father Abram and those sons of Joktan who settled along the River Cophen (ANTIQUITIES I, VI, 4): "These inhabited from Cophen, an Indian river, and in part of Asia adjoining to it." The modern name of Cophen is Kabul. It is located in Afghanistan! The sons of Joktan (Yoktan in Hebrew) were the founders of the recently discovered great Indus Valley civilization in India. In India one branch of Keturahs children form the highest caste and call themselves Brahmins after their fathers original name, Abram. As regard the original Brahmins, Hinduism has a relevant mention of how Yaksha Brahm was superior to Vedic devas (see: Kena-Upanishad: III.1, 2, 11, 12; IV.1) which indicated that the early Brahmins ensuing from Brahma were entirely a different lot from that the later Vedic Brahmins who worshipped deva Indra as highest god with one forth citations of Rig Vedic hymns. In search of Indias early Prophetic heritage via east bound descendants of Abraham - Siva of Indus (not mythical proto-Siva) demands special attention. The scholars of Saivism informed that before Vedic usurpation early Saivism was centered on monotheistic principles of Oneness [2] which was contrary to Vedic polytheism and deva worship. Brahminical account (and also Tamil texts e.g. Vedapuristhalapurana and Kancippuranam) recorded that iva was on the side of asura-priest Sukra and was against the deva-priest Brihaspati. ivas religious stand came into light when iva-Bhagavatas introduced in Upanishads several monotheistic principles: He is One without a second (Ekamevaditiyam - Ch.U 6:2:1) this is also revealed in Quran, 112:1. There is no image of Him (Na tasya pratima asti - Svetasvara.U 4:19) Q, 112:4. Of Him there are neither parents nor any Lord (Na casya kasuj janita na cadhipah Svetasvara.U 6, 9) Q, 112: 3

In legendary hubs of pagan gods and goddesses of Indus/Harappa in North and megalithic builders of South, for a while Indias religious perspective turned towards monotheism by the arrival of Sivas mission followed by the eastern Zoroastrians. There are records that many ivBrahmins have paid visits to Mokhsya Iswar Ashram (which is none other than Makka) and other holy sites of Arabia, where Prophet Abraham re-established Gods religion by eradicating the flourishing idol worships. Dr. Suniti Chatterji has written at length about Mokeswar Siva in his book Ashastrya Puran. Hymns of Taittirya Samhita (4.5.7) have mentioned that iva was from Nisadabhumi and had traveled through the Indus region on pilgrimage. But again ancient paganism revamped with the rise of Vedic religion. And it is no wonder that eventually the minority of Abrahams descendants had been absorbed in the overwhelming pagan population of India. After cultural syncretism betwee them, Temples of God originally laid by the Abrahams descendants eventually converted into houses of pagan worships. According to the Kalvettu (a Tamil stone inscription referred to by Codrington), the temple of Konesar is said to have been founded by Kulakottan, son of Manu-wentan in the Kali-yuga year 512 (2591 BC). It was destroyed by Constantine de Sa in 1624, and the material used for the construction of the Fort. In Brahminical accounts of Hinduism we cannot get truths of Prophet Abraham because countless pagan myths of Brahm have obfuscated Abrahams identity. There could be many secrets of Abrahams legacy buried underneath the Brahm temples (at Pushkar), Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, Balotrataluka of Rajasthan etc and also in Brahm temples of Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Java and Indonesia etc. As we turn to events of later history, iva worship originally flourished in the Kirata region of the northern Himalaya and among primitive tribes, living in the hills and forests -- the Vratyas, the Nisadas, and other nonaryan. Banabhatta in his Kadambari recorded that the prince of Ujjian, Chandrapida, in course of his expedition against the Kiratas and the kindred tribes, inhabiting the vast tract of forest extending beyond Suvarnapura, as far as the mountain Kailash (the abode of iva) in Tibet, saw both the iva temple and a cave in its southern direction. As Saivism moved from north to southern end of India; an early reference in the Pali Chronicles of Ceylon to the aiva shrine at Trincomalee is found in the Mahavamsa (Ch. XXXVII, vv. 40 44). It states that Mahesan (Mahesh is a name of iva) built also the Mani-vihara and founded three viharas after destroying the temple of the gods the Gokanna, Erukavilla, and another in the village of the Brahman Kalanda. But afterwards these were destroyed by the Buddhists. In a note below Geiger the official translator of the Mahavamsa, states, according to the Tika (a Buddhist), the Gokanna vihara is situated on the coast of the Eastern sea, the two other viharas in Ruhuna ... the Tika also adds everywhere in the Island of Lanka he established the doctrine of the Buddha having abolished the Phallic symbols of iva and so forth. But this hostile Buddhism changed its face in its second phase (i.e. long after Buddhas time) and appropriated popular aiva deities such opportunism is a typical trend of all pagan traditions. All Buddhist deities turn out to be basically aiva deities, with which idolatry has spread as far as China and Japan. First such deity may be Kicakesvari of Maurbhanja district, which afterwards has been Brahmanised and Sanskritized. A well kept secret: There are many temples in Tamil Nadu dedicated to iva, but the holiest of all iva shrines is Chidambarams famous Nataraja Temple. ivas consort, Parvati is also worshipped along with their sons Ganesha and Murugan. India inherits 265 shrines in Tamil Nadu; what sets these odd shrines in Tamil Nadu apart from the thousands of temples that constitute the backbone of the cultural heritage of India? The answer lies in the Tevaram hymns of the Nayanmar Saints of the 7th through the 9th centuries AD, which speak of the existence of these temples during that phase in history which is well over 1200 years past. These temples represent a social movement in history that has carefully preserved a grand

tradition over a 1200 year period. Each of these shrines is referred to as a place of iva Paadal Petra Stalam (Shivastalam); the hymns speak of their glory in the language of Tamil and no worship service is considered complete without the singing of the Tevaram hymns in their full splendor. They have a tradition of grand festivals in synchronization with the movements of the earth and the moon with respect to the sun. The worship protocol is amazingly common across almost all of these temples. Several of the inscriptions attested that there was a tradition of concern for societal well being, as well as a concern for the maintenance of tradition in temples that did not enjoy royal patronage. Early iva temples have a tradition of grand festivals in synchronization with the movements of the earth and the moon with respect to the sun. But tradition metamorphosed to astral worship; at present in every iva temple there is a small shrine to the planatory gods; any one of the planets to be worshipped on a particular day of the week or at other appropriate times. According to Vaikhnasa-Grhyastra (4, 13) written in Sanskrit of the first centuries in Christian era, the propitiation of the nine planets (nava grahant) should precede all religious rites. References 1. Dubois, Jean Antoine, [1815] 1906. Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies. (Translated by Henry K. Beauchamp. 3rd edn. Oxford.) 2. Bhattacharya. B. 1993. Saivism and the phallic world, Vol. 1, p. 94, (Munisram Monoharlal Pub. India)