Sūrasamhāram 2021
Veṯṟivēl, Vīravēl! Victorious Vēl, heroic Vēl!
Today (9th November 2021) is Skanda Ṣaṣṭhī this year, known as Kanda Saṣṭi (kanta caṣṭi கந்த சஷ்டி, or kanta caṭṭi கந்த சட்டி) in Tamil. Skanda is Lord Murugaṉ (Murukaṉ முருகன்), also known as Kārttikēya. Ṣaṣṭhī means sixth day. Murugaṉ is Ṣaṇmukha (ṣaṭ + mukha, six-faced), Āṟumugaṉ in Tamil (āṟu-mukaṉ ஆறுமுகன்). He was born as six babies to the six Kr̥ttikā star goddesses, and when he reached Goddess Pārvatī's lap, he became one child with six faces and twelve arms. Thus, the number 6 and the ṣaṣṭhī tithi (6th date), especially in the śukla pakṣa (bright half, waxing moon) of a lunar month, are both very sacred to him. Every śukla ṣaṣṭhī is Skanda Ṣaṣṭhī. The śukla ṣaṣṭhī of the Kārttika month, this year falling today, is especially sacred. The name Kārttika is derived from the Kr̥ttikā stars. Also, this particular Skanda Ṣaṣṭhī is the day when the asura Sūrapadmaṉ (Cūrapatumaṉ சூரபதுமன்), also called Sūraṉ (Cūraṉ சூரன்) was defeated by Murugaṉ at Tiruchendur. Thus, it is also known as Sūrasamhāram (சூரசம்ஹாரம்), the Destruction of Sūraṉ. Sūrapadmaṉ (śūra-padma) appears to be a Sanskritization of the ancient Tamil name cūr (சூர்) for some kind of evil spirit or disease, or a demon vanquished by Cēyōṉ (the Red One), the ancient form of Murugaṉ. Murugaṉ as we know him today is a combination of the Tamil god Cēyōṉ and the northern god Skanda-Kārttikēya mentioned in Sanskrit texts.
नमः केकिने शक्तये चापि तुभ्यं
नमश्छाग तुभ्यं नमः कुक्कुटाय।
नमः सिन्धवे सिन्धुदेशाय तुभ्यं
पुनः स्कन्दमूर्ते नमस्ते नमोऽस्तु॥
namaḥ kēkinē śaktayē cāpi tubhyaṁ
namaś chāga tubhyaṁ namaḥ kukkuṭāya |
namaḥ sindhavē sindhudēśāya tubhyaṁ
punaḥ skandamūrtē namas tē namō'stu ||
Salutations to you, o peacock, and to you, o vēl
Salutations to you, o goat, and to the rooster
Salutations to Sindhu (the Ocean), and to Sindhu-dēśa (not Sindh, but Tiruchendur)
And o Skanda-mūrti, salutations, salutations to you
This verse, taken from the Subrahmaṇya Bhujaṅga Stōtram of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya (8th century CE), a hymn in praise of the Lord of Tiruchendur, offers namaskāra (salutations) to 6 attributes of Murugaṉ, and then to the Lord himself. The translation is mine.
(Subrahmaṇya is Lord Murugaṉ. Bhujaṅga is the poetic meter bhujaṅga-prayāta, which consists of 4 lines per verse, each having 4 repeats of the unit SLL, where S is a short syllable and L is a long syllable. The word ‘bhujaṅga-prayāta’ itself fits into half of the meter. The Subrahmaṇya Bhujaṅgam is entirely composed in this meter.)
1. Peacock (mayil in Tamil, mayūra in Sanskrit): the vāhanam (vehicle, carrier) of Murugaṉ/Skanda/Kārttikēya. Here it is referred to as kēkī (kēkin), from kēkā, the Sanskrit term for the cry of the peacock.
2. Vēl in Tamil, Śakti in Sanskrit: This refers to the spear/lance/javelin borne by Lord Murugaṉ. The Sanskrit name of Murugaṉ's weapon comes from the fact that the vēl is a manifestation of the divine power of his mother, Goddess Pārvatī, who is none other than Ādi Parā-Śakti, the Primordial Supreme Power.
Interestingly, Ares, the Greek god of war (Mars in Roman mythology), also holds a spear. Mars has a reddish complexion, and so does Murugaṉ, known as Cēyōṉ – a name that refers to his red colour.
3. Goat – Tamil: āḍu (āṭu ஆடு), Sanskrit: chāga. This was the first vāhanam of Murugaṉ, before the peacock. The story goes that there was a demon goat (or ram) that emerged from a yajña fire and attacked the gods, but was controlled by Murugaṉ or his companion Vīrabāhu, and then made into the Lord’s vāhanam. The goat or the ram is also the vāhanam of Agni, god of fire. Murugaṉ is not only the son of Śiva, but of Agni too (he has several mothers and fathers: Śiva, Agni, Gaṅgā, the Kr̥ttikās, Pārvatī). Thus, his goat vāhanam connects him to Agni.
4. Rooster – Tamil: sēval (cēval சேவல்), Sanskrit: kukkuṭa. This is the emblem on the Lord’s battle flag.
5. and 6. Sindhu and Sindhudēśa: The ocean and ocean-land. These refer to Tiruchendur (Tiruccentūr திருச்செந்தூர்), a seaside town with an important Murugaṉ temple. Out of the āṟu paḍai-vīḍu (āṟu paṭaivīṭu ஆறு படைவீடு), i.e. 6 army camps, of Murugaṉ, this is the only temple that is situated on the seashore. The others are situated atop hills, with one of them, the temple at Swamimalai, being on an artificial hill. This is because Murugaṉ, known as Cēyōṉ, the Red One, in Sangam literature, is the guardian deity of the hill forests. However, Tiruchendur is special. It is on this very seashore that Murugaṉ is said to have defeated Sūrapadmaṉ and his brothers Tārakaṉ and Siṅgamugaṉ. The Sūrasamhāram festival is conducted with great pomp and splendour at this temple.
My altar for today depicts these 6 attributes (see photos below). In one of the pictures, you can see Tārakaṉ's elephant head and Siṅgamugaṉ's lion head.
The Assamese gamusa with conches embroidered on it, together with the fish, the turtles and the real conch, represents the sea. The book here is Kaavadi Chindu, an anthology of Tamil songs to Murugaṉ, written by Annamalai Reddiar (1865-1891).
Here are the Tiruchendur pics I have used, with the sources I took them from.
By Aravind Sivaraj - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27483625
By எஸ்ஸார் - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19452746
https://kathir.news/news/facts-about-thiruchendur-temple-13176/cid1570468.htm
Incidentally, though the Tiruchendur temple itself is on the seashore, there are sacred hills nearby. Śaṅkarācārya says in his Bhujaṅga Stōtram that climbing these hills is equivalent to climbing Kailāsa itself.
North vs south
In the northern narrative, Tārakāsura is the ‘main villain’ in the story of Kārttikēya. However, in the Tamil narrative, based on an 8th-century text by Kacciyappar known as the Kanda Purāṇam (different from the Sanskrit Skanda Purāṇam), Tārakāsura becomes the younger brother of Sūrapadmaṉ. Murugaṉ kills Tārakāsura and another brother, Siṅgamugaṉ (Ciṅkamukaṉ சிங்கமுகன்), i.e. Siṁhamukha, Lion-face. However, he does not kill Sūraṉ. Sūraṉ turns into a gigantic mango tree in the ocean. Murugaṉ hurls his vēl and splits the tree into two. One half turns into a peacock and the other into a rooster. Both pounce on the Lord. But he calms them down, making the peacock his vehicle and the rooster his flag emblem.
On the seashore of Tiruchendur, the crowds symbolically ‘kill’ effigies of Sūraṉ, Tārakaṉ and Siṅgamugaṉ. You can see this here, 1 hour onwards. This is somewhat similar to the Rāvaṇa-burning ritual during Daśahrā in north India, where effigies of Rāvaṇa, Kumbhakarṇa and Mēghanāda are burnt. In fact, Sūraṉ is very similar to Rāvaṇa. I would now like to discuss this in more detail.
Sūrapadmaṉ and Rāvaṇa
Birth and siblings
The r̥ṣi (sage) Kaśyapa, known as Kāsibar (Kācipar காசிபர்) in Tamil, has many wives. He is the father of the Dēvas (‘gods’), Daityas and Dānavas (collectively known as Asuras, ‘antigods’ or ‘demons’), and many other beings. An Asura princess, Māyai, seduced Kaśyapa and convinced him to marry her. Their first child was Sūrapadmaṉ. They then took multiple animal forms. They made love as elephants, and gave birth to the elephant-headed Tārakāsuraṉ. They made love as lions, and thus Siṅgamugaṉ was born. Finally they took the form of goats. From this union, a daughter was born – Ajamukhī, Goat-Face, rendered Ajamugi or Asamugi in Tamil (Ajamuki அஜமுகி, Acamuki அசமுகி).
Rāvaṇa, ‘main villain’ of the Rāmāyaṇa, is also the son of a r̥ṣi and an ‘antigod’ princess, this time the r̥ṣi being Viśravas and the princess being Kaikasī of the Rākṣasa clan, who charms the r̥ṣi into marrying her. Rāvaṇa too has two brothers and a sister – Kumbhakarṇa and Vibhīṣaṇa, and Śūrpaṇakhā. In the Rāmāyaṇa, Vibhīṣaṇa defects to the ‘hero’ Rāma’s side. However, neither of Sūrapadmaṉ’s brothers defects to Murugaṉ’s side. Thus, there is no Vibhīṣaṇa analog. However, there is a Kumbhakarṇa analog – Siṅgamugaṉ. I will describe this later in this blog post.
Marriage
Rāvaṇa marries Maṇḍōdari, daughter of Mayāsura, the Asura architect. Sūrapadmaṉ marries Padumakōmaḷai (Patumakōmaḷai பதுமகோமளை), daughter of Viśvakarmā, the Dēva architect, after abducting her. However there is no force involved in Rāvaṇa’s marriage.
Son
Rāvaṇa’s son is Mēghanāda, also known as Indrajit, conqueror of Indra. He is killed by Rāma’s brother Lakṣmaṇa. Sūraṉ’s son is Bāṉugōpaṉ (Pāṉukōpan பானுகோபன்), who is killed by Murugaṉ. Both Indrajit and Bāṉugōpaṉ have magical powers. They can fly in the air.
Mutilation of sister, abduction in retaliation
The nose and ears of Rāvaṇa’s sister Śūrpaṇakhā are cut off by Rāma’s brother Lakṣmaṇa, ostensibly to save Sītā, Rāma’s wife, from an attack by her. In retaliation, Rāvaṇa kidnaps Sītā and takes her to his island kingdom, Laṅkā.
In Sūraṉ’s case, it is Ajamugi’s hand that is chopped off, this time by a servant of Śiva, when she is about to abduct Indrāṇī (wife of Indra, king of the Dēvas). In retaliation for this, Sūraṉ kidnaps Indra, Indra’s son Jayanta (Sayantaṉ, Cayantaṉ சயந்தன்), and all the other Dēvas. He imprisons them in his island kingdom, Vīra Mahēndrapurī.
Rāma’s messenger, Murugaṉ’s messenger
Rāma sends the Vānara (‘monkey’) Hanumān to Rāvaṇa as a messenger, with the message that Rāvaṇa must return Sītā. In the popular narrative, Rāvaṇa offers Hanumān no seat. So the latter creates his own seat by extending his tail and curling it round and round, finally making a seat higher than Rāvaṇa’s throne.
In Murugaṉ’s case, the messenger is Vīrabāhu, a divine being who was created by Pārvatī along with eight others as companions to her son. He too creates a throne higher than Sūraṉ’s, and declares war when the latter refuses to release the Dēvas.
Before meeting Rāvaṇa, Hanumān meets Sītā, and assures her that Rāma will soon arrive to secure her release. After that, he destroys Rāvaṇa’s garden and kills many Rākṣasas including a son of Rāvaṇa. Similarly, before meeting Sūraṉ, Vīrabāhu meets the imprisoned Dēvas and assures them of Murugaṉ’s arrival. Vīrabāhu too destroys the forests near Sūraṉ’s city and kills several of Sūraṉ’s followers, including a son of his. But this part happens after Vīrabāhu meets Sūraṉ.
The island kingdom and its destruction
Both Laṅkā and Vīra Mahēndrapurī are fabulous, magical golden cities, situated in the middle of the ocean. Both have been built by Viśvakarmā. But Vīra Mahēndrapurī was built by him under force, while he gifted Laṅkā to the Rākṣasas of his own free will.
Rāvaṇa orders Hanumān’s tail to be set on fire. But Hanumān uses his flaming tail to set fire to Rāvaṇa’s entire city. However, there is no analogous story for Vīrabāhu. As far as I know, the burning of Sūraṉ’s city happens later, during the battle itself, and is done by Murugaṉ himself. Unlike Laṅkā, which is ruled by Vibhīṣaṇa after Rāvaṇa’s death, nothing remains of Vīra Mahēndrapurī. After the battle, the sea god Varuṇa destroys it completely. This is analogous to Kr̥ṣṇa’s Dvārakā – also built by Viśvakarmā – being swallowed up by the sea in the end of the Mahābhārata.
Kumbhakarṇa and Siṅgamugaṉ
In the popular narrative, Kumbhakarṇa, Rāvaṇa’s brother, knows that the abduction of Sītā was wrong, and advises Rāvaṇa to send her back to Rāma, only to be rebuffed by his elder brother. However, he still dies fighting on Rāvaṇa’s side. The same goes for Siṅgamugaṉ, who is killed by Murugaṉ. However, some versions say that Murugaṉ turns Siṅgamugaṉ into a lion for his mother Pārvatī to ride.
Many aspects of the character of Sūraṉ in the 1967 movie Kandhan Karunai are directly lifted from Rāvaṇa’s character in the 1958 movie Sampoorana Ramayanam. Both films are available on YouTube. Readers can click on the movie names to be directed to them.
Personal experiences with Murugaṉ
I bought my Murugaṉ idol from Poompuhar, the state emporium of Tamil Nadu. It’s an exquisite brass idol. He graced my home with his arrival on the Tamil Deepavali day, November 6, 2018 (Chhoti Diwali for north Indians, but the main celebration for Tamil people). Today is thus also a celebration of 3 years of his coming. Interestingly, the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872) describes Dīpālī/ Dīpāvalī (i.e. Diwali) as being in honour of Kārttikēya.
On Kanda Saṣṭi in 2018, I had a beautiful experience as I was collecting white frangipani (Plumeria alba) flowers to offer to him. These flowers normally have five petals. But that night, a six-petalled flower fell from the tree. This was indeed special. A six-petalled flower for the worship of the six-faced Lord on the sixth day of the waxing moon of the month ruled by the six stars. Here are some photos of this unusual flower and the alaṅkāram of Murugaṉ that day.
Songs
Here are two of my favourite songs for the occasion, both sung by the Soolamangalam Sisters, Soolamangalam Jayalakshmi (1937-2017) and Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi (1940-1992).
Kanda Saṣṭi Kavacam
Ragas Karnataka Devagandhari (Bhimpalas), Shubhapantuvarali (similar to Hindustani Todi), Kalyani and (Carnatic) Todi. At the very end there is Raga Madhyamavati.
The complete Subrahmaṇya Bhujaṅgam in the voice of Anuradha Krishnamurthy
Lyrics and meaning here
Deyvāṉai Kalyāṇam – Wedding of Murugaṉ with Deyvāṉai (Dēvasēnā)
The day after Sūrasamhāram is celebrated as the wedding of the Lord with Dēvasēnā, daughter of Indra. This wedding is said to have happened at another of Murugaṉ's six paḍaivīḍu-s, Tirupparankunram. Murugaṉ acted as the sēnāpati (army commander) of the Dēvas, and defeated Sūraṉ and the others. In honour of this, Indra, king of the Dēvas, offered Dēvasēnā's hand in marriage to Murugaṉ. Dēvasēnāpati thus has two meanings: army general of the gods, and husband of Dēvasēnā. In Tamil, Dēvasēnā is known as Deyvāṉai or Deyvayāṉai (Teyvāṉai தெய்வானை, Teyvayāṉai தெய்வயானை).
Interestingly, while Tiruchendur celebrates Deyvāṉai Kalyāṇam on the day after Sūrasamhāram, Tirupparankunram celebrates it on Paṅguṉi Uttiram, the full-moon day or the day of the Uttiram (Uttarā-Phalgunī) constellation in the Tamil solar month of Paṅguṉi (mid-March to mid-April). Paṅguṉi Uttiram is also the day when Murugaṉ's love marriage to his other wife, the Adivasi princess Vaḷḷi, is celebrated.
Here is the legendary Bangalore A. R. Ramani Ammal's song for Deyvāṉai Kalyāṇam:
Some Deyvāṉai Kalyāṇam pics from my previous poojas
2018
2019
May the mighty Vēl protect us from suffering of all kinds, and give us the strength to face life fearlessly.
Ōṁ Śaravaṇabhava
Comments
Post a Comment