Chapter 2 - Survey of Research and Literature Review

1. Brückner, Heidrun (1987). "Bhuta Worship in Coastal Karnataka: An Oral Tulu Myth and Festival Ritual of Jumadi". Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik. 13/14: 17–37.

2. Brückner, Heidrun (1992). ""Dhumavati-Bhuta" An Oral Tulu-Text Collected in the 19th Century. Edition, Translation, and Analysis."". Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik. 13/14: 13–63.

3. Brückner, Heidrun (2009a). On an Auspicious Day, at Dawn … Studies in Tulu Culture and Oral Literature. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

All three above aforementioned books showcase the many aspects and snippets of Tulu oral Literature, along with the cultural and religious texts encompassing it. The author, Brukner Heidrun, has taken the sung poetic ritual texts from the west coast of South India (Coastal Karnataka) as her point of commence, addressing the relationship between text structure and the social and geographical distribution of particular local and sub-regional cults, answering pivotal questions regarding gender and genre, of the correlation between narrative and ritual dramatization especially concerning death, along with multi-layered answers regarding the success and failure of rituals in the local perception. A highlight of the aforementioned has been done in an essay in the book of reference which studies the features of South Indian popular cults in a wider perspective. Out of the nine essays, two discuss the historical material relating to Basel Mission activities in the area and compare the texts collected in the 19th century with versions collected by the author in the 1980s.

A short synopsis of the author’s 1995 German monograph on the topic has been included and thoroughly studied for an all round, multi linear, comprehensive research.

4. Claus, Peter J. (1979). "Spirit Possession and Spirit Mediumship from the Perspective of Tulu Oral Traditions". Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. 3: 29–52.

According to the author, Peter Claus, Paddanas are completely and distinctly cosmology which is Proto Dravidian and does not come in the tagline under Hindu Cosmology. Spirit possession has always been looked at in the broad cultural sense which is found to exist in the South region of Indian. Critical reviews has been provided by the Claus as one of his various attempts to explain spirit possession as entirely and monotously psycho-social event. Though, upon intensive study, the author has been seen to turn to religion’s spirit possession and mediumship cults, oral traditions and ideologies for an ethnographically relevant interpretation of spirit possession. Mediumship-the legitimate, expected possession of a specialist by a spirit or a deity, usually for the purpose of soliciting the aid of the supernatural for human problems-is perhaps more common in certain parts of South India than others. Spirit possession which has been conceived as an uwanted and unexpected intrusion of the supernatural into the lives of humans and the living is comparatively more generic and popular than mediumship, also more widely distributed. Spirits generally create a disturbance and are regarded negatively with concern and apprehension, being regarded as a special form of illness. The curing balms are mainly exorcistic and apotropalc rituals. Though mainly regarded as dangerous and considered fearsome, the afflicting spirits are not necessarily impure or malicious. No obliterate difference has been found between the punitive and the protective spirits; infact, even household tutelary spirits can be considered as both. The spirits of the deceased, are mainly the same ones (or, often of the very same category) possessing the bodies of those who are considered appropriate and experienced mediums, beneficial to the society. Mastery and dominance over the spirits is gained by the medium through proper training in the rituals inorder to invite the spirits. The body is protected through the use of precautionary food items, articles, utterances, etc. Thus, through this, it can be said that the ritual, social and temporal aspects of religion and spirit intrusion are regarded by the society.

5. Claus, Peter J. (1997). "KUMAR and the Siri Myth / Ritual". class.csueastbay.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-04.

The “Siri Padanna” is a story-song in a woman’s genre, forming the reference text for the drama. A great deal of its actual text is borrowed by into the performance. It has been modified and personalised in important ways, thus, becoming a personal history narrative in first perspective. This, though, was replaced by actual speeches, making us witnesses to and of the actual mythological event. We seem to be there. The woman’s field song has been receded to a mere historical account through a legend, being superseded by a legend, later on. The performance of the song once belonging to the woman’s genre is controlled by Kumar; is seen to be a part of a public ritual performance. This particular drama has been predicted, historically and operatively on predecassary ritual events. The men-centered rituals has been seen as beneficial to the women’s society; the major function of the cult’s ritual being to save the defenceless women from quarrels and jealousises arising withing the kim group. Though, the song has been seen revolving around these sort of problems, presenting them as the fatefully tragic truth. Women participants see these rituals as morally accepting and sacred. Men participants have seen to feel the same way. On the other hand, modern men (non-believers) see these cults as a means of gross gender exploitation. To conclude, yes, ritual activities could (ad at places, probably do) easily blossom into this if the drama dimension and entertainment function overwhelms the ritual-dimension and the evergreen, ubiquitous social functions.

6. Claus, Peter J. (1973). "Possession, Protection and Punishment as Attributes of the Deities in a South Indian Village". Man in India. 53 (3): 231–242

Upon an intensive research done by Claus, vast amount of Lierature has been devoted to the explanation of possession states. The aforementioned has been segregated into two groups: Sociological and Psychological. The remainder of this paper draws explanation upon the ethnographic information to try to explicate the certain elements of these certain cultural associations and to show how they can be used to help explain the phenomenon of spiritual possession. Claus has been drawn from his field work on the Southwestern Coast of India; the Tulu speaking people of South Kanara District of Karnataka State. Here, spirit medium cults are the most prevelant and existent mode of worship. Spirit possession is an extremely pregnant phenomenon among the rural peasant phenomenon. The same has been proven and deemed true by the long oral legends describing the human history of spirits, stating the reason of the same for their apostheosis and the nature of their first incursions in the world of the living. Anthropologies view spirit possession from poignant sociological and psychological frameworks.

7. Brinkgreve, Francine (1997). "Offerings to Durga and Pretiwi in Bali". Asian Folklore Studies. 56 (2): 227–251. JSTOR 1178726.

This book discusses and sheds light on the various religious narratives about the village deities of North Tamil Nadu, conceptualizing them as muths, legends and memorates according to folkloristic taxonomy of genres. The aforesaid narratives confirm the power of deities to assist those in hardship, giving them warning examples of the existence of supernatural sanctions that don’t adhere, nor confirm to the various given social norms. Pujaris (village priests) are the religios authorites who explicitly control both the deities and oral traditions (aideegam) about them. The existence of there being a widespread belief along with the narraton of the experiences both in legendary and memorantial forms shows how the regions encounter deities at night. Therefore, to conclude, religious folklore genres form the border zone in which the social world of humans and the mythical realms of deities are merged into one textual space of mutual interaction

8. Kumari Kandam by P.Prabhakaran-A review:

This mythical review is shown as a Geographical connection to this thesis by the Research Scholar.

“Kumari KaNdam” written by Dr. K Loganathan and reviewed by P. Prabhakaran was once again re-reviewed by the scholar of this thesis in order to add another edition more comprehensive and complex than the present. A few days were devoted by the scholar towards the book in order to add another layer of elegant complexity to her already fascinating and well equipped thesis. This book has been extensively studied to add the geographic connection of this thesis to the alma matter.

The book, according to P.Prabhakaran, is more on the non-academic side; written mainly for the general public than for the erudite, learned scholars and experts. The book is quite revolutionary, adding a picture of not only the origin of Tamils, the Dravidians, but also articulating the whole lot of Indians with a reasonable amount of quantitative evidences.

Our age old belief of the Indians thinking that the European Indologists have founded the Vedic Aryans, thus finding the Indian culture; thus, making the conclusion that the aforementioned Sk speaking Aryans are ultimately the possessions of the Europeans, and that the Dravidians have contributed absolutely nil to enrich and enhance the Indian culture. The undeciphered characteristic of the Indus Script is to be blamed for this uncertainty. Although, on a complete paradoxical notion, the many forums of the Akandabaratam, Meykander and the Tolkaappiyam and so many more have proposed that the Dravidian folks hailed from Sumeria and the south Dravidians, per say, have arrived through the sea route. Similarly, the northern Dravidians arrived in the Punjab borders through the land route, becoming Vedic Aryans and so forth (inclusive of both the Northern and the Southern Dravidians).

“Kumari KaNdam” has articulated the aforesaid for the first. The author has boldly rejected all the other substitute views by calling them ‘historically unjustifiable’. This book, according to the scholar, provides a new understanding of the History of Ancient India being proposed, giving complete justice to the Dravidian folks who have remained mariginalized by the Europeans, hijacking the Vedas and Sk language into the European fold.

The scholar has provided a review of this book in certain details inorder to convey to the author to come up with another edition that is not only more substantial but also more appealing to not only the general public but also to the critical scholars extensively studying the same.

This book, 154 pages, is written in a professional journalistic epigraphy, suitable for the general public. The title “Kumari KaNdam”, subtitled “The Origin and Spread of the Tamils” is divided into 27 brief chapters, each being either a page or 5-6 pages long, making the reading less monotonous and more pensive and dazzling.

The initial chapters, first 5 in particular, deals with the traditional accounts of the Kumari Kandam, linking it with the Lemuria Gondwana Land. Though, this has been rejected and it is seen that the classical account of the Three Academies who are the first in the sunken Kumari are identified as the Lemuria and so on; this being untenable and the account really describes a foreign origin of the CaGkam Tamils, making them emigrants who colonized South India and originally originated from Sumeria. This, though, has been been criticized and loathed by the Tamil scholars who viwed them as colonozers of sorts.

The chapters after the fifth, ie., the sixth to the sixteenth deal with the Sumerian origins of the CaGkam Tamils in much more deeper and extensive details by looking at the various cultural and other similarities. The chapters from the seventeenth to the twentyfourth deal with the concept of CaGkam and how the same institution having the same name is also prevelant in the Sumerian Literature and how the Sumerians have, infact, colonized both the Northern and the Southern Indian regions by sea and land routes. Lastly, the final two chapters deal with the possible spread and later emigration of the Dravidian folks from Crete and Indus to the whole Indian subcontinent.

The scholar has dealt with the aforementioned themes in a systematic manner, not only highlighting the good points but also pointing the necessary editions to make to the entirety of the book, making it not only more readable and universally understood, but also comparatively more academic for the critical scholars to appreciate this book on Ancient Indian History, giving full justice to the Dravidian folks.

Re-review:

This book, articulated in the Tamilian dialect, deals with the question of what landmass of Kumari was mentioned in the ancient Tamil texts and where the first CaGkam were located. The question has been answered by many Tamil scholars by their claimations of Kumari being a large landmass at the southern end of Tamil Nadu that was sunken thousands of years ago by a massive calamity of tsunami. This was supported by them by citing various geological studies related to continental shifts that had occurred millenniums ago. Thus, their affirmations state that the Kumari is infact the Gondwana land, the Lemuria and more. Some scholars even maintained that the Tamils who founded the SaGkam culture are native to the Indian subcontinent; an autochthonous group of people who developed the SaGkam culture in the Indian soil itself.

The scholar, here feels that actual references to Kumari in PuraNaanRu Kalittokai Silappatikaram IRaiyanar Akapporul, etc., could have been mention worthy to prove that the CaGkam Tamils were infact immigrants and that the Kumari was not swallowed by a deluge, but rather a nation that was abandoned for some reason or the other.

The scholar has rightfully pointed out that the Kumari being the location of the first CaGkam cannot be a landmass before 5000 BC since it was a literary academy and writing came into existence only around 5000 BC. Also, since the Sumerians had perfected the cuneiform script and developed a very matured literary civilization, it is likely that the CaGkam Tamils are descendents of these Sumerians who colonized Tamil Nadu and continued their literary culture there.

Since the Kumari is seen, by the scholar, as not a large landmass submerged by floods or deluge, she suggests that it was a landmass where the ancient Tamils lived and developed their culture. Kumari was a nation that was abandoned by various reasons than none, thus, compelling the Tamils dwelling there to migrate and finally colonize the present day Southern Indian Region and continue their culture. This also is inclusive of the CaGkam culture of the Third Academy.

The scholar has suggested areas of Sumerian Crete and the Indus Valley Civilization as the place of origin where the ancient Tamils developed their culture to a magnificent level before migrating to south India. The scholar has considered Sumeria since it was the place of origin of first civilization most likely to develop and substanigate agriculture, ushering in the chances of settled life leading to the formation of permanent settlements; the Ur or Purams, leading to the formation of city states. The Sumerian culture has been characterised as a culture of city states, leading to the formation of empires bringing together many cities under the rule of a single person. Many parallels between the Tamils and the Sumerians have also been mentioned by the scholar; themes in Gilgamesh epic which are also reflected in the Indian Puranas, the Macca PuraNam being one of them.