Tamil mythology
The Tolkappiyam hails Tirumal as Brahman, Murugan as Seyyon (the red one), and Kotravai as the goddess worshipped in the dry lands.
By the eighth century BCE, Tamilakam became the springboard of the Bhakti movement, invoking devotional poetry composed by the poet-saints called the Alvars and the Nayanars,[3] propagating popular worship of Vishnu and Shiva throughout the subcontinent.
Archaeological evidence from 1st-century CE and earlier,[10] where he is found with Hindu god Agni (fire), suggest that he was a significant deity in early Hinduism.
[11] The iconography of Murugan varies significantly; he is typically represented as an ever-youthful man, riding or near a peacock, dressed with weapons sometimes near a rooster.
[6][9][7] He grows up quickly into a philosopher-warrior, destroys evil in the form of asuras Taraka, teaches the pursuit of ethical life and the theology of Shaiva Siddhanta.
[8][12] Ayyappan (Malayalam: അയ്യപ്പന്),(Tamil: ஐயப்பன்) (also called Sastavu, or Sasta) is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in Kerala, an erstwhile region of Tamilakam.
When Vishnu had taken on the Kurma Avatar, he also had to manifest himself as Mohini, the enchantress, to save the nectar of immortality, amritam, from the demons who were not willing to share it with the gods.
Tamil Sangam literature (200 BCE to 500 CE) mentions Mayon or the "dark one," as the supreme deity who creates, sustains, and destroys the universe and was worshipped in the mountains of Tamilakam.
தீயினுள் தெறல் நீ; பூவினுள் நாற்றம் நீ; கல்லினுள் மணியும் நீ; சொல்லினுள் வாய்மை நீ; அறத்தினுள் அன்பு நீ; மறத்தினுள் மைந்து நீ; வேதத்து மறை நீ; பூதத்து முதலும் நீ; வெஞ் சுடர் ஒளியும் நீ; திங்களுள் அளியும் நீ; அனைத்தும் நீ; அனைத்தின் உட்பொருளும் நீ; In fire, you are the heat; in blossoms, the fragrance; among the stones, you are the diamond; in speech, truth; among virtues, you are love; in valour—strength; in the Veda, you are the secret; among elements, the primordial; in the burning sun, the light; in moonshine, its sweetness; you are all, and you are the substance and meaning of all.
The reference to Mukkol Bhagavars in Sangam literature indicates that only Vaishnavaite saints holding Tridanda existed during the age and Perumal was glorified as the supreme deity, whose "divine lotus feet can burn all our evils and grant moksha" (maru piraparukkum maasil sevadi).
The veneration of Perumal is primarily performed in Tamil Nadu in sacred ceremonies and temples by the Iyengar community.
[18] Shiva strolled in the forest with resplendent beauty and brilliance, assuming the form of Bhikshatana, a simple mendicant seeking alms.
The rishis gathered all their spiritual strength and invoked a powerful demon Muyalakan – a symbol of complete arrogance and ignorance.
Shiva wore a gentle smile, stepped on the demon's back, immobilized him and performed the Ánanda Tandava (the dance of eternal bliss) and disclosed his true form.
After much wandering, Indra was freed from his suffering through the power of a Shivalingam in a forest, and so he built a small temple at that site.
It so happened that at that time in South India there was a Pandyan king called Malayadhwaja Pandiyan[19] ruling a small city by the name Manavur, which was quite near to this Shivalinga.
At the wedding celebrations the gods refused to have the served food unless Shiva performed a majestic dance for everybody gathered at the place.
Kannagi (Kannaki), a legendary Tamil woman, is the central character of the South Indian epic Cilappatikaram (100–300 CE).
The story relates how Kannagi took revenge on the early Pandyan King of Madurai, for a mistaken death penalty imposed on her husband Kovalan, by cursing the city with disaster.
Mariamman's worship originated in the traditions of Dravidian folk religion, the faith practised by the inhabitants of the south before its syncretism with Vedic Hinduism.
[22] Mariamman is generally portrayed in the sitting or standing position, often holding a trident (trishula) in one hand and a bowl (kapala) in the other.
'The Immersed') were Tamil poet-saints of South India who espoused bhakti (devotion) to the Hindu god Vishnu in their songs of longing, ecstasy, and service.
[27] The devotional outpourings of the Alvars, composed during the early medieval period of Tamil history, were the catalysts behind the Bhakti movement through their hymns of worship to Vishnu and his avatars.
The poetry of the Alvars echoes bhakti to God through love, and in the ecstasy of such devotions they sang hundreds of songs which embodied both depth of feeling and the felicity of expressions.
The bhakti literature that sprang from Alvars has contributed to the establishment and sustenance of a culture that deviated from the Vedic religion and rooted itself in devotion as the only path for salvation.
Siddhars are people who are believed to control and transcend the barriers of time and space by meditation (yoga), after the use of substances called rasayanas that transform the body to make it potentially deathless, and a particular breathing-practice, a type of Pranayama.
They wrote their findings in the form of poems in Tamil language, on palm leaves that are collected and stored in what are known today as the palm leaf manuscript, today still owned by private families in Tamil Nadu and handed down through the generations, as well as public institutions such in universities all over the world (India, Germany, Great Britain, U.S.).
A rustic form of healing that is similar to Siddha medicine has since been practised by experienced elderly in the villages of Tamil Nadu.
Varmam are specific points located in the human body which when pressed in different ways can give various results, such as disabling an attacker in self-defence, or balancing a physical condition as an easy first-aid medical treatment.
It is believed that most of them have lived for ages, in a mystic mountain called Sathuragiri, near Thanipparai village in Tamil Nadu.
