[TamilNet, Wednesday, 30 May 2012, 05:25 GMT]
A unique temple of Eezham Tamil folk heritage, dedicated to
Kooddaththaar, a deity historically worshipped by a soldier guild that
got absorbed into the toddy-tapping community, was found destroyed in
bombing and its rare bronze idol sawed off and stolen at the
Vasanthapuram locality of I’lavaalai in Jaffna. For the last two decades
the locality was under the ‘High Security Zone’ (HSZ) of the occupying
Sinhala military. Recently, when some fringes of the HSZ were allowed
for resettlement, the people of Vasanthapuram returned. Finding their
temple destroyed and the deity missing they now worship only the
pedestal remaining. Vasanthapuram is where the occupying military has
built lines of a few monotype houses for the resettled people and often
shows them off to visiting foreign dignitaries as an example of its
‘reconciliation’ efforts.
The
rare bronze image of the deity Kooddaththaar found sawed off in the
Sinhala Army-occupied ‘High Security Zone’ at I'lavaalai in Jaffna. The
image of the collective deity of the Tamil guild of soldiers of the
ancient times, was in anthropomorphic form. Note that despite the idol
missing, the local Tamil devotees have applied saffron in reverence to
the the remaining part. [Image courtesy: History Department, University
of Jaffna]
Destroyed
and delapidated walls of the Kooddaththaar Temple in the Sri Lanka
occupied ‘High Security Zone’ at I'lavaalai [Image courtesy: History
Department, University of Jaffna]
Mr
Naakan, caretaker and folk-priest (Poochaari) of the Kooddaththaar
Temple at I'lavaalai, Jaffna [Image courtesy: History Department,
University of Jaffna]
The destruction and desecration of
the Kooddaththaar temple was brought to light when a media team from
Virakesari led by Ms Uma Prakash, joining with Professor P. Pushparatnam
and Ms Sasitha Kumaradevan of the Jaffna University History Department,
undertook a survey and documentation of the temples in the resettled
parts of the HSZ in Valikaamam North.
Writing a feature in
Virakesari on Sunday, Professor Pushparatnam elucidated on the
historical, religious and social significance behind the heritage of the
temple.
Bringing out the present conditions in the locality, he
said that areas interior to the main roads are beyond recognition with
scrub jungle and ruined buildings.
He records an interesting
observation that the emotional priority of the resettled people is to
first rebuild their temples than to rebuild their houses.
Noting
that the coral-stone-built Kooddaththaar temple was one of the many
structures destroyed in bombing during the war, and noting that besides
the main bronze image there were also other images missing from the
temple, Pushparatnam says, people have now placed stones to represent
the various other deities and worship them.
The bronze image of
the deity Kooddaththaar was in anthropomorphic form with just two hands
wielding weapons, Pushparatnam cited an old-generation person earlier
associated with the temple.
In explaining the cult of
Kooddaththaar, Pushparatnam cited Dr. P. Ragupathy assigning it to the
hero-worship cult of the soldier guilds.
* * *When
contacted by TamilNet, Dr. Ragupathy said Kooddaththaar, A’n’namaar,
Cheavukar and Padaikkalar found in the folk religion of Eezham Tamils
are deities of collective hero-worship, originating from the soldier
guilds of historical times. The collectiveness in the concept could be
seen in the plural form used for the names of the deities: Kooddaththaar
(members of the guild), A’n’namaar (from A’n’nalmaar, meaning leaders
or those who have become gods), Cheavukar (soldiers), Padaikkalar (those
who wield weapons), he pointed out. Collectiveness of a community
personified into a deity is an alternative idea of religion found only
at folk levels, he further said.
The soldier guilds, associated
with the protection of trade guilds and rulers of the past, were also
cultivators or craftsmen in peacetimes. In the medieval times,
especially in the late medieval times, they were also hired and migrated
to far and wide places in South and Southeast Asia. With the collapse
of native trade and state institutions, the soldier guilds were absorbed
into various castes and professions.
Vaiyaa-paadal, a
historiographical literature of the times of the Kingdom of Jaffna lists
the names of a number of soldier groups that have come to Jaffna from
various parts of South Asia and even from West Asia and Africa. The
literature also notes the absorption of some of them into certain
castes. The same phenomenon and associated religious cults could be
found in the Sinhala heritage too.
Ragupathy, citing his teacher
the late Mr T. Shanmugasundaram a doyen of Eezham Tamil folklore, said
that the deity Kooddaththaar was worshipped by
Paa’laik-kaththip-pa’l’lar who got absorbed into the caste of Na’lavar,
engaged in toddy-tapping today. According to Yaazhppaa’na Vaipava
Maalai, a historiographical work of the Dutch times, another soldier
guild called Kaththikkaara-nampika’l was also absorbed into the Na’lavar
community.
Usually, temples for Kooddaththaar are found in the
settlements of Na’lavar community and A’n’namaar temples are found in
the settlements of Pa’l’lar community in Jaffna.
The
Kooddaththaar Temple of I'lavaalai, found destroyed in the ‘High
Security Zone’ occupied by the Sinhala Army in the last two decades
[Image courtesy: History Department, University of Jaffna]
Mr. N. Rajaratnum, a Jaffna
University graduate coming from a nearby place of Vasanthapuram and now
living in Montreal, told TamilNet that the locality of the
Kooddaththaar temple was actually called Chingkaththin-kaadu and not
Vasanthapuram.
Vasanthapuram is a modern name given in the late
1950s to a colony for landless people started at a nearby place then
called Pokka’naik-kaadu, Rajaratnam said.
According to him, in
the 1980s the patrons of the Kooddaththaar temple were just around 15
families of the Na’lavar community, but they all were traditionally
owning land there.
At a close-by distance, in a locality called
Ma’nal Adaippu, there was an A’n’namaar temple and a settlement of the
Pa’l’lar. Animal sacrifice used to take place in both the temples. The
sacrifice at the Kooddaththaar temple took place on the 8th day of the
festival of Kava’naavaththai Vayiravar temple, which was then well known
for animal sacrifice. The practice has been stopped in all the folk
temples of the surroundings a few decades ago, Rajaratnam further said.
* * *Professor
Pushparatnam notes that the devotees of Kooddaththaar wish to rebuild
the temple in the same name, without giving room to a trend
Sanskritizing names and concepts of deities.
The loss of the
bronze image of Kooddaththaar, a rare iconographic example to find in a
folk tradition, is an emotional loss to the concerned people and in a
wider anthropological and aesthetic sense an irredeemable loss to the
heritage studies of Eezham Tamils.
However, the larger question
and a more important issue is, what inspirations are now going to give a
new meaning to such old religious traditions to benefit the identity
and social mobility of the concerned people to prosperity, and a new
meaning for the Eezham Tamils to discover wider heritage to their
nation-building.
Such issues are hotly debated in Tamil Nadu
nowadays for the resurgence and mobility of the subaltern. Eezham Tamils
have an elite, worldwide diaspora of all shades of their communities to
pool their brains and resources together in this respect. Vision in
social and cultural issues is the foundation for political liberation.
It is time to start thinking.
Another
nearby temple for Vayiravar found destroyed in bombing in the HSZ,
I'lavaalai [Image courtesy: History Department, University of Jaffna]
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