Dedicated to PC who wanted to know my barber's philosophy...
During our many hair-cutting sessions, I used to engage in deeply engaging banters about philosophy and religion, specifically religions of the Indian sub-continent. The barber shop is a simple establishment, in keeping with his simple philosophies of life, has seen much changes since the 80s when it was first set up. Starting life with a strict religious upbringing in his childhood and early adulthood, certain life changing events indeed changed his outlook on life, belief in God and attitude towards the self-professed upholders of the organised religion. In other words, there is the Maker (Nature, Cosmos, whatever) and there is him. That is all. A dash across two dates. The darkness before your existence and after, no previous lives and no after-life. Above us only sky and no cycles of re-birth and no book of Judgement too.
During one of our colloquy, he brought up the notion of the origin of Lord Muruga, the deity well known amongst the South Indian Hindus, specifically in Tamil Nadu. He asked me why the particular God is not seen as a member of the Shiva clan in the North but is prominently featured in the Southern part of the sub-continent. I put it to him about the legend that has it that an evil was terrorising that area and about the product of Shiva, the Destroyer, the six babies in six lotuses in Saravana Poigai, and about Sakthi, the nurturing mother, who provided him with the spear of destruction to douse the spitfire of evil!
He rubbished my understanding of the whole concept of Arumugam, the six-headed Peter Pan-like ever young, robust stalwart of truth and justice who could span the entire universe in a single swift in his majestic peacock.
In his books, legend has it that South India was faced some kind of epidemic. Many fell prey to this highly contagious communicable disease. The elders roped in many high notched medical practitioners of the day to find an immediate solution. The consensus was to build a big contraption with six medicinal elements into the city lake, the drinking source for its inhabitants. Sure enough, the disease got controlled, and the city dwellers were eternally grateful.
Over time, the genesis of the cure got romanticised. The ray of thoughts from the physicians became grandiosed as ray of fire arising from Lord Shiva's Netrikann (Third Eye); the train of thought wavelengths became Lord Agni who carried the ray; the six Karthigei pengal as the executors of the task; Goddess Sakthi as the alchemist who fused the ingredients and gave it potency. The invincible enemy, the disease, is, of course, the villain, the Asuras.
Guess we will never know the real story. Even though, the Tamilians claim exclusivity on the rights of Murugan or Saravana or Subramanya or Karthikeya, references to the deity had been traced back in Sanskrit literature in 1st millennium BCE. Even coins resembling Skanda with a silhouette of a peacock in the background were found in ruins of tribes of Punjab and Gupta kingdom!
During our many hair-cutting sessions, I used to engage in deeply engaging banters about philosophy and religion, specifically religions of the Indian sub-continent. The barber shop is a simple establishment, in keeping with his simple philosophies of life, has seen much changes since the 80s when it was first set up. Starting life with a strict religious upbringing in his childhood and early adulthood, certain life changing events indeed changed his outlook on life, belief in God and attitude towards the self-professed upholders of the organised religion. In other words, there is the Maker (Nature, Cosmos, whatever) and there is him. That is all. A dash across two dates. The darkness before your existence and after, no previous lives and no after-life. Above us only sky and no cycles of re-birth and no book of Judgement too.During one of our colloquy, he brought up the notion of the origin of Lord Muruga, the deity well known amongst the South Indian Hindus, specifically in Tamil Nadu. He asked me why the particular God is not seen as a member of the Shiva clan in the North but is prominently featured in the Southern part of the sub-continent. I put it to him about the legend that has it that an evil was terrorising that area and about the product of Shiva, the Destroyer, the six babies in six lotuses in Saravana Poigai, and about Sakthi, the nurturing mother, who provided him with the spear of destruction to douse the spitfire of evil!
He rubbished my understanding of the whole concept of Arumugam, the six-headed Peter Pan-like ever young, robust stalwart of truth and justice who could span the entire universe in a single swift in his majestic peacock.
In his books, legend has it that South India was faced some kind of epidemic. Many fell prey to this highly contagious communicable disease. The elders roped in many high notched medical practitioners of the day to find an immediate solution. The consensus was to build a big contraption with six medicinal elements into the city lake, the drinking source for its inhabitants. Sure enough, the disease got controlled, and the city dwellers were eternally grateful.
Over time, the genesis of the cure got romanticised. The ray of thoughts from the physicians became grandiosed as ray of fire arising from Lord Shiva's Netrikann (Third Eye); the train of thought wavelengths became Lord Agni who carried the ray; the six Karthigei pengal as the executors of the task; Goddess Sakthi as the alchemist who fused the ingredients and gave it potency. The invincible enemy, the disease, is, of course, the villain, the Asuras.
Guess we will never know the real story. Even though, the Tamilians claim exclusivity on the rights of Murugan or Saravana or Subramanya or Karthikeya, references to the deity had been traced back in Sanskrit literature in 1st millennium BCE. Even coins resembling Skanda with a silhouette of a peacock in the background were found in ruins of tribes of Punjab and Gupta kingdom!
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Yaudheya coinage of Punjab (300-340 AD):
Karthikeya standing facing, holding sceptre; peacock on right.
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