ஏகமுக லிங்கத்தில் தமிழ் பிராமிக் கல்வெட்டு, கிண்ணிமங்கலம்

Ekamukha Linga with Tamil Brahmi inscription in Kiṇṇimaṅkalam Ekanathan Mutt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Abstract: An important Tamil Brahmi (Tamizhi) inscription, possibly belonging to ~2nd century CE, has been found in Ekanāthan Tirumaṭam, Kiṇṇimaṅkalam village in Tirumangalam taluk, Tamil Nadu. This place has been in continuous worship for at least 1800 years, as shown by the presence of medieval vaṭṭeḻuttu fragmentary inscription which mentions a donor (īntār) who gifted this paḷḷippaṭai shrine (into a stone temple?). The Kiṇṇimaṅkalam Lingam is the earliest Ekamukha linga available in Tamil Nadu, possibly spreading to Pandya country from Kongu Nadu by Pāśupata mendicants and Ekanathan Mutt is a well-known Śaiva Vellala mutt. In the Nandakeśvara temple in Neṟṟampākkam village, Maduranthakam taluk, there is a memorial Śivalinga with a Tamil Brahmi inscription, found in the year 2016. In both the Linga-s, they need to be turned upside down to read the Brahmi text (Figs. 1.2 & 3.1). These two memorial Śivalinga-s erected in honor of kings or chiefs are probably the source for later Devaraja cult temples with Śivalinga erected over paḷḷippaṭai temples in Tamil India and South East Asia.

1.0 Ekamukha Linga at Kinnimangalam Ekanathan mutt
 Here is the side view photo of the Ekamukha Lingam with Tamil Brahmi inscription from Kinnimagalam, Obviously we need more hi-res photos looking at the head from top, frontal, back and side views from various angles. The male linga top as a conical section (Fig. 1.1) seen in many Ekamukha linga-s is quite discernible. The sculpture is rather coarse when compared with earlier specimens of Elamukha linga-s of North India, possibly because the Pāśupata teachers could not find Shilpi experts in Tamil country. And, also it could be defaced while getting abandoned and in its place a regular Linga exists in the sanctum. The bottom of the ekamukha linga has been carved with eight sides. There is a report by Sri. M. T. Saju in today's Times of India newspaper, Madras. There is a medieval inscription, with the statement:  iṟaiyiliyāka ēkanātaṉ paḷḷippaṭai īntār ... (reading by K. T. Gandhirajan). This seems to indicate the time when the simple mud and brick structure was converted to a stone temple.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/rare-memorial-pillar-with-tamil-brahmi-inscriptions-found-near-madurai/articleshow/76775067.cms
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/tamil-brahmi-and-vattezhuttu-inscriptions-found-near-madurai/article31986904.ece

Figure 1.1. Kinnimangalam Ekamukha Lingam with Tamil Brahmi inscription (Image courtesy: T. Anandhan, Facebook)

Figure 1.2. Kinnimangalam Ekamukha Lingam turned upside down. e ka ṉ ā ta ṉ kō ṭ ṭa m (inscription)
Please note that while reading as "ekan ātan", there are 5 puḷḷi diacritics. This feature can be seen in many later Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. Along with Mathura and other North Indian ekamukha lingas, let me list some South East Asian ekamukha linga-s. Along with spreading Literacy and Writing in Grantha script - Tēvāram śaiva hymns were written in Grantha script in South East Asian countries -, ekamukha linga-s along with other Hindu icons are introduced mainly from South India. In the accompanying picture, a sculpture panel from Mathura on the Yamuna ( < yāmai) river banks shows ekamukha linga underneath a tree. A brick structure is also seen.

In the Kinnimangalam icon, kōṭṭam 'enclosure' here referring to the memorial temple is written in Tamil Brahmi for the first time. (a) cuṭumaṇ ōṅkiya neṭunilaik kōṭṭamum (maṇimēkalai 6, 59), (b) kōḻic cēvaṟ koṭiyōṉ kōṭṭamum (cilappatikāram 14, 10). kōṭṭam is connected with words like kōṭṭai 'Fort' and kōṭāvi 'Durgā' and many Indus valley sites ending in - kōṭ (= kōṭṭai).

The above is a sideview of an ekamukha linga from National museum, Allahabad.
Mathura (1st century CE): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ekamukha_Shiva_Linga_(One-Faced_Mark_of_the_God_Shiva).JPG
Udhayagiri: https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/163601
Madhya Pradesh: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38242
Hyderabad: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eka-Mukha_Linga_02.jpg
Jammu and Kashmir: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ekamukhalinga_(Shiva_linga_with_one_face),_Jammu_and_Kashmir_or_Afghanistan,_Shahi_Period,_9th_century_-_Royal_Ontario_Museum_-_DSC09652.JPG
Pala dynasty, Bihar: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1973.73
Siam (Thailand):  http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1981/JSS_071_0c_OConnor_EarlySivaLingasInNakhonSiThammarat.pdf
Cambodia:  https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/detail/M.2010.1.202.S
Champa (Vietnam): https://laodong.vn/van-hoa/tran-tro-cho-di-tich-my-son-quang-nam-361570.bld

2.0 Linga Worship transitioning from Varuṇa to Śiva
Over the last 15 years, Linga form development and evolution has been analyzed in various papers by me. Linga form seems to originate from Gharial crocodile. In the Copper Hoard culture of Indo-Gangetic doab plains, Anthropomorphic Axe (AA) made of bronze represents Varuṇa, and this "maḻu vāḷ neṭiyōṉ" (AA) is mentioned in Maturaik Kāñci, a Sangam text. Gudimallam Viṭaṅkar (Liṅgam) as Varuṇa, rather than as Śiva assumed by earlier scholars, is described. Additionally, Viṭaṅkar is crocodile in Tamil >  iṭaṅkar in sangam texts, (Cf. indu 'drop, soma, seed, moon' < vindu). In Tamil, Viṭaṅkar is both a Linga as well as a Crocodile.

Some aspects of Indian religion in the Post-Harappan period providing a link to the Indus Valley Civilization seen in its Bronze Age seals are found in the anthropomorphic axes of the Indo-Gangetic doab plains of the Second Millennium BC as a ritual symbol of a Makara (crocodile) god.  The characteristic fish sign pointing to the Dravidian language spoken by the elite Harappans has long been explored from the days of Fr. H. Heras, SJ. However, the importance of crocodiles in IVC culture is recently coming to light (A. Parpola, 2011). When this Crocodile cult disappears and gets forgotten in North India, it appears as large monolithic sculptures in the megalithic South. An interpretation of the Tamil Brahmi inscription at Tirupparaṅkuṉṟam, near the ancient Pandyan capital Madurai, discovered by History department, Pondicherry University is offered as mentioning the crocodile god and his spouse. The Aśvamedha sacrifice on the banks of a Water Tank was performed for a crocodile as evidenced in Pāndyan Peruvaḻuti and Chera coins. Graffiti symbols from Sāṇūr and Sūlūr as linguistic sign for the crocodile deity, and the crocodile couple in Adichanallur burial urn (500 BCE) along with the battle-axe bearing great god in Sangam poetry will be used to illustrate the prevalence of the crocodile based religion until the Early Sangam period. The first stone sculpture made in south India at such places as Mottur, Udaiyarnatham, - monumental in size, over ten feet tall -, in the Iron Age are a link to the earlier metallic Anthropomorphic Axes in the Yamuna-Gangetic doab, found in many Post-Harappan Ochre Colored Pottery sites of North India.  My full paper can be read at,
https://archive.org/details/IVCReligionInIronAgeTamilNaduByNGanesan-2016-16thWSC

In the recent Keezhadi excavations, pottery shards with Makara sign of the Indus Valley script symbol is shown in two finds.  A famous tolkāppiyam sūtram:
”koṭinilai kantaḻi vaḷḷi eṉṟa
vaṭunīṅku ciṟappiṉ mutalaṉa mūṉṟum
kaṭavuḷ vāḻttoṭu kaṇṇiya varumē” – tolkāppiyam 3-85
Tolkāppiyar's date is usually assigned to 2nd century CE based on the evidence of puḷḷi in Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. His era marks the end of  great God Varuṇa as detailed in Rgveda 1.24.7 and the tol. 3-85 sūtram records this. Tolkāppiyar is usually considered a Jaina by Tamil scholars like Vaiyapurip Pillai.
https://groups.google.com/g/houstontamil/c/WbiK1GxYFNQ/m/_wlr_RYwAwAJ

In the above link, Tol. 3-85 sūtram is explained with kantaḻi as the root of cosmic banyan tree, vaḷḷi as the banyan aerial roots by which Varuṇa holds together the stars, and  koṭinilai as stars/planets themselves. “In the first place, the Sanskrit texts mention the banyan fig as the tree of the northern direction. Homonymy connects the banyan fig with the north in Dravidian, but there is no such linguistic association in Indo-Aryan languages. Secondly, in reply to the question, why do the stars and planets not fall down from the sky, the texts say that the heavenly bodies are bound to the pole star with invisible ‘ropes of wind.’ In Dravidian vaṭa-mīn as the name of the pole star also means ‘rope-star’ and ‘banyan-star.’ Around 1000 BCE, a hymn of the Rig-Veda (1, 24, 7) speaks of the roots of a cosmic banyan tree being held up in the sky by God Varuṇa” – Asko Parpola (2009, Deciphering the Indus script). It is highly likely that Tolkappiyar observed the sweeping changes happening to the ancient god Varuṇa, represented as a Lingam at Gudimallam and wrote the sūtra. Note that there is no mention of Śiva in Tolkappiyam, and only Varuṇa, Śiva's predecessor in Tamils' megalithic and earlier religion, is made the God of Neytal Landscape (tiṇai). Varuṇa is worshiped with his symbol, a shark fish bone, by fisherfolk in Sangam literature. Similarly, Koṟṟavai is worshiped in wedding rituals using the horns of female buffalos in Mullai pastoral landscape. Around the time of Tolkappiyar, Nakulīsa in Karvan, Gujarat, formulated Nakulīsa Pāśupatam. Nakuḍa/Laguḍa <  Ta. ñekir̤,  DEDR 2923. Lingam becomes the mark of Mahādeva Śiva afterwards. The memorials erected for chieftains with Tamil Brahmi inscriptions at Kinnimangalam and Netrambakkam represent the stage in which  Pāśupata śaivism establishes the Linga as the symbol of Śiva  himself, and Varuṇa who was held high in Vedic times loses his exalted position in Hinduism. Jainas also enlist Rishabhanātha, an alter ego of  Śiva, as the first Tīrthaṅkara among the list of 24 of them.
 
3.0 Comparing Lingas of Netrambakkam and Kinnimangalam

 Fig. 3.1 Netrmambakkam Brahmi inscription ~  cē na ru mā na
In 2016, Tamil Brahmi inscription on a large linga in Netrambakkam village  Śiva temple was discovered. Dr. R. Nagaswamy read the inscription as, "cēntamān", https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/Siva-Linga-with-early-Brahmi-inscription-found/article14009612.ece
However, upon re-examination, it is read as "cēnarumān", with cēnaru = armyfolk. cēnarumān will be son/heir of warriors. cēnaru is a tadbhava from sena, a Sanskrit word, while cēntan is Tamil for Murukan-Skanda. The most significant aspect of both the Netrambakkam and Kinnimangalam lingas is that they have to be rotated upside down for reading the script. From Tamil verb, cāy-tal, Sanskrit nouns like sayana 'bed', śava 'corpse' are derived. Extreme cāytal  is 180 degree turn limit and this is done in memorial linga writing. The Netrambakkam lingam has Neytal 'blue water lily, nymphaea violacea' flowers,  plant-symbol of Neytal Littoral (Sea) Landscape in Sangam texts showing the ancient connection of Linga form with Varuṇa, the neytal god. neytal paṟai is 'death drum' which Tiruvalluvar calls as "paṭāap paṟai".  The Netrambakkam inscription, with Neytal flowers and leaves, is dated to 2nd or 3rd century CE. Similar date can be assigned to Kinnimangalam image and inscription.

"In the Vedas, the night, darkness and Varuṇa are all associated with death." "Yama’s vehicle in Hinduism is the water buffalo, but there is no record of this in the Vedas. In the single context of a buffalo sacrifice in the Brāhmaṇa and Sūtra texts, the water buffalo is sacred to Varuṇa. The water buffalo is an animal native to South Asia, not originally connected with Aryan deities. On the other hand, it is connected with Harappan “Proto-Śiva,” who wears the horns of a water buffalo. So the buffalo’s connection with Yama, the god of death, suggests something about Proto-Śiva, too: Proto-Śiva may have been a god of death, but most probably he was also a divine king, like Varuṇa, who guarded the cosmic order (ṛta-), as well as Yama, known as the king of righteousness, dharma-rāja. Yama of the Hindu period and Vedic Varuṇa also share the attribute of a “noose” (pāśa-), with which to catch and bind the sinners who are to die. “Indeed, Varuṇa is Death” (mṛtyur vai varuṇaḥ, KS 13,2)." (A. Parpola, The Roots of Hinduism, Oxford University Press).

In Edakkal caves of Kerala, M. R. Raghava Varier, professor of Epigraphy, made an important Tamil Brahmi discovery (The Hindu, Feb. 9, 2012 & June 7, 2012). Sri. Varier read the inscription as "Srivazhumi", but there is no "Sri" conjunct, it is only Tamil "ci". R. Nagaswamy, visiting our home in Houston (USA), read it as "civasvāmi" and said it is the beginning of conjunct writing, "svā" in Southern scripts. Both Iravatham and Nagasamy dated this inscription to be 4th century CE. Here, Śiva written as "civasvāmi" in Tamil Brahmi is depicted as a fisherman with a fishing net showing the earlier connections with the Vedic deity, Varuṇa. Note the hour-glass shaped torso of Sivasvami from Megalithic period rock paintings, and Sivasvami's wife, Koṟṟavai is shown with the same hour-glass shaped body in the pottery shard found inside a burial urn in Adichanallur. In this Adichanallur find, Varuṇa is shown as a Makara (crocodile) approaching Koṟṟavai in a human form. Koṟṟavai's blackbuck vāhana and paddy fields with white egrets are also depicted. In Netrambakkam linga, Neytal plants are shown along with Tamil script on the Linga reiterating Linga's connection with Varuṇa. In my paper, I have shown earlier that Gudimallam Viṭaṅkar (Linga) standing on Makara Yaksha is really Varuṇa, instead of Śiva. Varuṇa-to-Śiva transition as seen in Ekamukha linga of Kinnmangalam or regular Linga in Netrambakkam occurs few centuries later than Gudimallam phase of Lingam iconology.

  For 1800 years,  Śaiva Vellala mutt at Kinnimanglam is known for Yoga, Tamil scholarship. Chozhavandan Arasan Sanmukanār's teacher was Sri Sivappirakasa Swamikaḷ of Kiṇṇi mutt. The first Kuṟuntokai edition, before U. V. Swaminathaiyar, is dedicated to the same Sivappirakasa Swamikaḷ. Like Pāsūr Mutt, Tiruvānaikkā (Jambukesvaram) is a well known Pāsupata mutt. Kinni mutt is ancient as well, now shown by the discovery of ekamukha linga with Tamil Brahmi writing. In the book "ūrum pērum", Prof. R. P. Sethupillai wrote that the original name of Kiṇṇimaṅkalam is Kiḷḷimaṅkalam. Sethupillai mentioned the Sangam era poet from Kiḷḷimaṅkalam as from Kinnimangalam.
 
In Sangam era, Archaeology has shown beyond doubt that Chera country's capital was Karur/Vanji. Kinnimangalam is on the trade route between Chera and Pandya capital cities. Tumbi Chera Keeran's poem (Puṟanāṉūṟu 249) in Sangam literature mentions funerary rituals and the dead chief's wife wearing sacred ash only "vari nīṟu" - the first clear indication in Sangam texts about wearing sacred ash, instead of red kumkum, by widows. Wearing only tirunīṟu, and white sarees, Vellala widows of Śaivism are seen for centuries. Jaina vellala women in widowhood in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu state have worn white sarees for centuries, and widows do not sport kuṅkumam in their foreheads, the red tilakam indicating sumangali status. Like Kongar Puliyankulam which has important Tamil Brahmi inscriptions, Kinnimanglam has a Brahmi inscription and had a Sangam era poet, Kiḷḷimaṅkalam kiḻār Cēra Kōvaṉār. His poem is in Naṟṟiṇai anthology. Near Kinnimagalam, Porunthal has the oldest Tamil Brahmi inscription, and also the cattle raid memorial stone with writing in Tātappaṭṭi. All these spots in the frontier zone between Kongu (Chera) and Pandya countries point to the spread of Brahmi script from the North. Eriyōḍu is a village near Kinnimangalam, comparable with Irōḍu (Erode), Paccōḍu (Pāppini), Periyōḍu, Cittōḍu, Veḷḷōḍu etc., of Kongu Nadu indicating the Pāśupata religion spreading into Tamil country in the first centuries CE. Pāśupata religion seems to use -nātha in its repertoire. Paśupatināth in Nepal is famous. Its synonym is Gorakṣanātha, there is Gorakhpur in the Gangetic plains and in Tiruvāvaṭutuṟai. Chera country capital Vanji-Karur's Śiva temple is called Paśupatināthar with the corresponding Tamil name, ānilaiyappar. Tirumūlar, the Yoga guru of Tamil, has a full name Tirumūlanāthar. Similarly we have Ekanāthan mutt in Kinnimangalam teaching the Paśu-Pati-Pāśa triple-entity philosophy of Śaiva Siddhāntam for 1800 years.

N. Ganesan, Ph.D.
July 4th, 2020
https://archive.org/details/@dr_n_ganesan
4.0 References:
(i) Hermann Kulke, The Devarāja cult : Legitimation and apotheosis of the ruler in the kingdom of Angkor. N. Delhi, Manohar, 2001.
(ii) Doris Srinivasan, Many heads, arms and eyes : origin, meaning and form of multiplicity in Indian art. E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1997.
(iii) Asko Parpola, The roots of Hinduism : the early Aryans and the Indus civilization. Oxford University Press, 2015.
(iv)  A. Parpola, Deciphering the Indus script. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
(vi)  N. Ganesan, Dravidian word for Gauṛ bison and Tibetan yak, 2017.
http://nganesan.blogspot.com/2017/11/kavarimaa-tirukkural-conference-2017.html