Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/250

Rh events of his life, such as: his childish pranks in stealing butter, and hiding the clothes of shepherd girls who were sporting in the river Yamuna: his charming play on the pipe while grazing cattle: his amour with Pinnai a shepherdess: his victory over the cunning Kansa and his embassy to Duryôdhana for the Pandavas. Krishna was popularly known as Mâyavan or “the dissembler” a title very appropriate to his character as portrayed in the great epic Mahâbhârata. His elder brother Balarâma was famous for his extraordinary physical strength.

Among the higher classes of the Tamils the favorite deity was Siva. He is represented as a man of fair colour with tangled locks of red hair. He has three eyes, wears a tiger’s skin, and armed with a battle-axe rides on a bullock. His appearance, except as regards the three eyes, corresponds exactly with that of a primitive inhabitant of the Himalayan region. The people of this region are fair in color and have red hair and ride on bullocks when travelling in the mountainous country. His abode was the snow-capped Mount Kâilas situated north of the Himalayas, near the sources of the great rivers, Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra. His greatest feat was the destruction of Tripura or “the three castles” which were the strongholds of Asuras, who had caused much annoyance to the celestials. He married Pârvati the daughter of the king of mountains.

The Brahmins settled in the Tamil country had not yet given up the worship of the elements, and some of them still kept up in their houses the three sacred fires, as in Vedic times. They attached the greatest importance to the performance of Yâgas or religious sacrifices, which were performed on a magnificent scale, generally under royal patronage. Horses or cows were sacrificed with elaborate ceremonies, conducted with great secrecy, within spacious enclosures, which were strictly guarded, and the flesh of the victims was eaten by the Brahmins. Special priests learned in the Vedic rites performed the sacrifice, and the kings who defrayed the expenses and presided at the sacrifice were promised the reward of heavenly bliss after death. The Brahmins however kept the Veda a sealed book to the masses: and consequently the worship of the elements inculcated in the Vedas