Śaka Clans, Pallava Royals, Śākya Nāyanār and Bodhidharma
India is a country known for its Oral traditions of preserving wisdom. Due to the Vedic texts available from 12th century BC onwards and, Sangam Tamil from 3rd century BCE, and also from Archaeological, Art Historical, Linguistic and Paleo-Genetics research, scholars illuminate the “Vedic Night” from the time of Indus Valley decline to Historic period. Vedic Night refers to the time period from Post-Harappan Copper Hoard culture in the Yamuna-Ganges plains to Pre-Sangam period in South India. Aryan language speakers from Central Asia enter India in three phases: (a) the First wave, creators of Atharva Veda in post-Harappan times merge with earlier religious traditions of Indus Valley. The Indus crocodile cult becomes Anthropomorphic Axe (AA) sculptures in Post-Harappan Indo-Gangetic doab area. A millennium later, during Iron Age, these AA sculptures are the first monoliths found in megalithic burial sites in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Pandya kings issue Aśvamedha sacrifice coins conducted showing crocodiles in tanks.
Figure 1. PĀṆḌYA Peruvazhuti Ashvamedha coin, 3rd century BCE (Note Makara crocodile outside water pond).
(b) The Second wave is the Rgvedic Aryans with Indra as the supreme deity (c) Finally, the Śaka tribes from Iran. Buddha, Mahāvīra, and much later Pallavas like Bodhidharma belong to the Śākya clan. An excellent reference is The Roots of Hinduism, The early Aryans and Indus civilization, by Asko Parpola (Oxford University, 2015). Some additional references given at the end to pursue more on the religious history in Tamil lands in First millennium BC when the Bodhidarma’s forefathers moved in from Central Asia co-opting with the Dravidian elites, a process that started from Atharva Vedic Aryan tribes (Dāśas/Daśyus) around 1700 BCE.
Two lasting influences of Śaka clans in India are (1) Creation of Brahmi script in North India and (2) Dog sculpture representing the star Sirius in Gaṅgādhara panels carved in Pallava caves. Brahmi script is formed with most letters formed from two basic forms - circle and square. Interaction with Greeks in the Persian empire during Darius the Great with Gandhāra forming part of his kingdom led to this development. Greek capital letters form the model for most Brahmi letters. In fact these basic geometric forms are inscribed at the end of Tamil Brahmi inscription at Kongar Puliyangulam, near Madurai (Cf. M. Lockwood). An early form of Pre-Mauryan Brahmi letters appears in Anthropomorphic Axe (AA) sculpture with a Makara (crocodile) face in Sonipat, Haryana around mid 6th century BCE.
Fig. 2 Anthropomorphic Axe (Makara Viṭaṅkar) with Pre-Mauryan Brahmi
The Jaina emperor, Candragupta Maurya and his grandson, Aśoka spread Brahmi throughout Indian subcontinent as the official script for all Indian languages. In Tamil Nadu, places like Kodumaṇal routinely yield pottery with Tamil Brahmi in the mid-5th century (K. Rajan, Early Writing System: A Journey from Graffiti to Brahmi, 2015, Madurai.) Dilip Chakravarti, Archaeologist, Cambridge Unversity wrote a book review.
In ancient Iran, the Summer festival of Rain is dedicated to Sirius, the brightest star in the Night Sky. Sirius is known colloquially as the "Dog Star", reflecting its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (the Greater Dog). Canis Major was classically depicted as Orion's dog, Mṛgavyādha "hunter". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Triangle Due to the Greco-Persian wars and trade, ancient Śaka folks took the Sirius "Dog star" idea to South India. Their descendants, Pallava kings, incorporate the dog star Sirius sculpture in Gaṅgādhara panels in the 7th century. Gaṅgādhara is very popular in Pallava art in Kanchipuram, Mamallapuram etc.,
Fig 3. Śiva Gaṅgādhara with Sirius (Dog star) and Ganges, Pallava, Trichy, 7th century.
The melting snow in the Himalayas flow as the river Ganges in Summer and in Śaiva legends, Gaṅgā flows on the matted locks of the God Śiva. Michael Lockwood, in "Mystery Dog in Pallava Sculpture" (Indian Express, March 6, 1976) wondered about the significance of the dog, now mostly hidden under plaster. "What is surprising is that in many of these Gaṅgādhara panels a dog appears in one of the upper corners. To put it mildly, the dog is considered a lowly creature in Indian tradition. It is therefore difficult to guess why the Pallava artists should have introduced a dog into the Gaṅgādhara theme – a theme which represents such an auspicious event for the whole world." Śiva's nakṣatra is Ārdrā (Orion) meaning "moist"/"green" and He is correlated with monsoon rains through heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius in the month of June. Fertility is symbolized by Śiva Liṅga worship, and Śiva as Gaṅgādhara sports a dog (= Sirius) in the top corner. Like Bodhidharma and Śākya Nāyanār, Gaṅgādhara panels with dog are many in Kanchipuram Pallava era temples pointing to these kings' Śaka connections. Kōppeñciṅkan, in 13th century, calls himself a Pallava/Kāṭavan. His inscriptions in verse are in Tiruvannamalai temple. In a verse describing Gaṅgādhara form, Śiva appears in the form of a Dog, i.e., Sirius star (Mayilai Cīni Venkatasamy, Journal of Tamil Studies, 1974). This is akin to Varuṇa assuming the Crocodile form in the Makara Viṭaṅkar ("maḻu vāḷ neṭiyōn" of Sangam texts) in the Anthropomorphic Axe sculpture from Sonipat, Haryana. [Kak, Kurdush]. Much earlier, in Indus valley itself, Mahāyogi Paśupati has the legs of Gauṛ buffalo and wears the horns of Gauṛ. A parallel seal shows "Paśupati" as a Gangetic crocodile while surrounding animals in both the IVC seals are identical.
Pāṇḍava and Pāṇḍya:
A. Parpola, ΠΔANΔAIH AND SĪTĀ: On The Historical Background of the Sanskrit Epics, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 122, No. 2, pp. 361-373, 2002.
"The culture distinguished by the use of iron, horse, and Painted Grey Ware (PGW) (c. 1000-350 B.C.) is found lowest at all major sites associated with the main story of the MBh. It thus offers a suitable archaeological correlate to the earliest layers of the MBh (cf. Lal 1981; 1992; Buitenen 1973: I, lf.; Erdosy 1995: 79ff.; Brockington 1998: 133, 159-62). I have suggested that the early PGW culture with few and small towns (c. 1000- 700 B.C.) represents the Middle Vedic culture and its Kuru kingdom, and the late PGW culture with many more towns including Mathurā (c. 700-350 B.C.) the Pāṇḍava period (Parpola 1984: 453ff.).
King Pāṇḍu and the five Pāṇḍavas are never once mentioned in any Vedic text (Weber 1853: 402f.; Hopkins 1901: 376, 385, 396; Horsch 1966: 284; Brockington 1998: 6). The Pāṇḍavas, therefore, have arrived on the scene only after the completion of Vedic literature. They could crush the Kurus by making a marriage alliance with the Kurus' eastern neighbors, the Pañcālas. To consolidate their rule, the victorious Pāṇḍavas let themselves be grafted onto the Kuru genealogy and be represented as cousins of their former foes (Lassen 1847: I, 589-713; Weber 1852: 130-33; 1853: 402-4; Schroeder 1887: 476-82; Hopkins 1889: 2-13; 1901: 376)."
"Apart from the absence of their mention in Vedic texts, there are other indications pointing to the foreign, and specifically Iranian, origin of the Pāṇḍavas (cf. Parpola 1984). Their polyandric marriage, which shocked the people present (MBh 1,197,27-29; Hopkins 1889: 298f.), can be compared to the customs of the Iranian Massagetae (Herodotus 1,216). Hanging their dead in trees (MBh 4,5,27-29; Brockington 1998: 227) resembles the Iranian mode of exposure of the corpse to birds.
Foreign, northerly origin is suggested by their pale skin color, which the MBh (1,100,17-18) connects with the name of Pāṇḍu, literally 'pale'; the name Arjuna likewise means 'white' (Lassen 1847: I, 634, 641-43). Sanskrit pāṇḍu-, pāṇḍura-, pāṇḍara- 'white, whitish, yellowish, pale', attested since c. 800 B.C. (SB, SA), are loanwords going back to the same Dravidian root as Sanskrit phala- 'fruit' (cf. Tamil paḻam 'ripe fruit') and paṇḍita- 'learned' (differently Mayrhofer 1996: II, 70f.,
201f.), namely paḻ- / paṇḍ- 'to ripen, mature, arrive at perfection (as in knowledge, piety), change color by age, (fruit) to become yellow, (hair) to become grey, to become pale (as the body by disease [esp. leukoderma])' (cf. DEDR 4004; Parpola 1984: 455)."
"PĀṆḌYAS OF SOUTHERN MADHURĀ
The second Siṃhala king was called Paṇḍu-Vāsudeva. Paṇḍu(ka) figures in names of other Sinhalese kings as well, and associates them with the Pāṇḍavas of the MBh (thus also Lassen 1852: II, 102f.), whose father Pāṇḍu is called Paṇḍu (Cullavagga 64,43) or Paṇḍurājā (Jātaka V, 426) in Pāli texts. Paṇḍu-Vāsudeva's father-in-law, who ruled in a kingdom on the Ganges river, was likewise called Paṇḍu. He belonged to the Śakya clan, being a relative of the Buddha. Śakya is derived from Śaka, one of the principal names of Iranian steppe nomads. Its association with the name Paṇḍu is an additional hint of the Iranian origin of the Pāṇḍavas. [...]
Southern Madhurā is modern Madurai in Tamil Nadu, the capital of the Pāṇḍya kings, whose dynastic name is irregularly derived from Pāṇḍu (Pat. on Vārtt. 3 on Pāṇ. 4,1,168). The Sri Lankan kings kept contact with this city also later on (cf. Malalasekera 1937: II, 439). Megasthenes, writing c. 300 B.C., refers to the Pāṇḍya country when speaking of the Indian Heracles:
this Heracles ... had only one daughter. Her name was Pandaea [Pandaiē], and the country in which she was born, the government of which Heracles entrusted to her, was called Pandaea after the girl.... Some other Indians tell of Heracles that, after he had traversed every land and sea, and purged them of all evil monsters, he found in the sea a new form of womanly ornament... the sea margarita [pearl] as it is called in the Indian tongue. Heracles was in fact so taken with the beauty of the ornament that he collected this pearl from every sea and brought it to India to adorn his daughter ... among the Indians too the pearl is worth three times its weight in refined gold. (Arrian, Indica 8,6-13, trans. Brunt 1983: 329-31)"
"Meanwhile some megalithic Pāṇḍus turned towards the culturally more advanced northern India. Through marital and other alliances they eventually gathered such a force that one group, the Pāṇḍavas, took over the rule even in the mightiest kingdom of north India. Another successful group was the family to which the Buddha belonged: the Śākyas, too, were Pāṇḍus, ultimately of Śaka origin, as their name reveals. In north India, the Pāṇḍus quickly adopted the earlier local culture and language. Their newly won positions were legitimated with fabricated genealogies that made them a branch of the earlier ruling family, and with the performance of royal rituals. The propaganda was disseminated by professional bards, leading to the creation of the Mahābhārata."
References:
(1) N. Ganesan, Indus Crocodile Religion as seen in the Iron Age Tamil Nadu, 16th World Sanskrit Conference Proceedings, Bangkok, Thailand, 2016. https://archive.org/details/IVCReligionInIronAgeTamilNaduByNGanesan-2016-16thWSC
(2) M. Lockwood, Buddhist Influence in the Gospels and The Invention of the Brahmi Script, 2017.
(3) M. Lockwood, The Invention of the Brahmi script: Where and under what circumstances! 2020.
(4) Kurush Dalal, Metal Men of the Doab: Still Figuring it Out https://www.livehistoryindia.com/history-daily/2020/06/17/anthropomorph
(5) S. Kak,
A Reading of the Brāhmī Letters on an Anthropomorphic Figure
(6) India's
Parthian Colony: On the origin of the Pallava empire of Dravidia
https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/ashkanian/parthian_colony.htm
(7) Blue
Eyes of Daruma san
https://darumasan.blogspot.com/2005/02/me-blue-eyes-of-daruma.html
(8) http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/bodhidharma.htm
(9) B.
Faure, Bodhidharma as Textual and Religious Paradigm,
History of
Religions, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 187-198, 1986.
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The Sound of the One Hand
Kamil Zvelebil, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 107, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1987), pp. 125-126
The Japanese Rinzai Zen master Hakuin (1686-1769) is credited
with the invention of a famous kōan, “What
is the sound of one hand clapping?" He describes the kōan in a letter
to a laywoman: “What is the Sound of the Single Hand? When you clap together
both hands a sharp sound is heard; when you raise the one hand there is neither
sound nor smell ... This is something that can by no means be heard with the
ear. ..."[1] Virtually all experts on Zen ascribe this kōan to Hakuin,
maintaining that it was composed or invented by him.[2] It is most often either
this kōan or the kōan ‘Mu' which the novices receive as their first kōan when
they begin their training in Zen Buddhism. Authors on Zen consider the
invention of this kōan a very remarkable and very original achievement of
Hakuin.
In Folklore 15.1,[3]
D. G. Niyogi published some Tripuri proverbs in the original and in an English
translation. One of these proverbs says, “One hand's clapping does not produce
sound.” I admit that I was surprised to read this, and I began to search for
parallels elsewhere in India. And, indeed, to my delight, I found in Herman
Jensen's immensely valuable collection of Tamil proverbs,[4] under no. 2823,
the following one: oru kai tațțināl, ōcai eḻumpumā?
There are three possible explanations of this striking
'coincidence’. The similarity between the Indian proverbs (from two vastly
distant and linguistically unconnected regions of India) and a sophisticated kōan
of a Japanese Zen master is "purely accidental,” as the saying goes. This
is of course not ruled out; however, it seems to me to be rather improbable.
The authorities on Zen consider Hakuin's kōan a truly creative, witty personal
accomplishment.
Another alternative is that Hakuin indeed “invented” this
saying, and that it has somehow entered Indian folklore. I consider this
virtually impossible, taking into account Hakuin's relatively late date, the
geographic distance, and the occurrence of the notion of “no sound produced by
one hand's clapping” in two separate folk-cultures of India.
The last alternative is that Hakuin has not “invented” the kōan
but that it was current in the oral (?) transmission of Zen Buddhism, and
Hakuin knew it, used it, and popularized its use. Let us examine this
possibility.
Persistent tradition tells us that the ‘first Zen patriarch'
Bodhidharma (ca. 470-532) was an Indian monk, the son of South Indian ruler, a
king of Kanchipuram, and that he appeared one day at the southern Chinese port
city of Canton around 520 A.D. whence he traveled to see Emperor Wu of the
Liang dynasty. This tradition point thus to Bodhidharma as a member of the
ruling clan of the South Indian dynasty of the Pallavas, the contemporary of
Skandavarman IV or Nandivarman I.
It is well known that Kanchipuram, the Pallava capital, was one
of the most important strongholds of Indian Buddhism. An ancient Prākrit
charter (the British Museum plates of Queen Cārudevī) [5] mentions among very
early Pallavas two kings called Buddhavarman and Buddhayānkura, obviously
Buddhists, belonging probably to the 4th century A.D. Another Buddhavarman
belongs to ca. 540-560 A.D. The well-known commentator
On the other hand, we know from Hakuin's own writings that he took a great
psychological interest in the kōan approach to Zen meditation and, in fact,
revived the entire kōan theory in Rinzai Zen Buddhism. We also know that he was
vastly educated, and his writings show erudition and, at the same time, vigor
and dynamism. Finally, we know that he first advocated the ancient Chinese kōan
‘Mu' for beginners, and only later in life introduced 'The Sound of One Hand'.
It is thus tempting to argue that Hakuin has not devised this kōan as his
personal, original contribution, but in the course of his experience or studies
came upon it as current in some stream of the oral or (less well-known,
forgotten or lost) textual transmission in Zen Buddhism, and that the image is
ultimately of Indian origin.
In
a closer analysis we see that there is a general basic ‘premise’ of the fact
that (only) the sound of two hands clapping can be heard, while the sound of a
single hand cannot. This commonplace observation is shared by the two Indian
sayings and Hakuin's kōan. What Hakuin did was to reformulate (and transform) a
commonplace saying as a Zen kōan; If (only) the sound of two hands clapping can
be heard, what is the sound of one hand? In this transformation, and in
the use (function) of the saying as a
kōan consists Hakuin's ingenuity and
contribution.
KAMIL
V. ZVELEBIL
UTRECHT
[1] Yampolsky, Philip B. (trans.), The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected
Writings. New York, Columbia University Press, 1977, p. 164.
[2] E.g., Hoover, Thomas, The
Zen Experience New York, 1980, p 230: “Initially he had advocated the “Mu”
koan for beginners, but late in life he came up with the famous “What is the
sound of one hand clapping?!” Cf. ib. p. 269, ftn. 18, “Hakuin's invention of
his own koans, which were kept secret and never published ...” etc. Cf. also
Joel Hoffmann, The Sound of the One Hand, Paladin, Frogmore, St. Albans,
1977, p. 208: “This koan was composed by the Japanese Zen Master
Hakuin...," etc.
[3] Cf. Folklore
(Calcutta) 15 (1974) 1.
[4] Jensen, Rev. Herman, A
Classified Collection of Tamil Proverbs, Madras-London, 1897.
[5] Ep. Ind. VIII, p.
143-46.
[6] Watters, T., Yuan
Chwang's Travels in India, Vol. II, 1905.
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