Malabarisches Heidenthum

Works on ritual

1At several points in the Malabarisches Heidenthum, Ziegenbalg describes Hindu rituals and either quotes from or refers to Tamil works which specify how the rituals are to be performed. There are six such works, none of which is referred to at any other point in Ziegenbalg’s writings, although the rituals they concern are also described in the Genealogia, mostly in the chapter on offerings with which the book ends (gmg 245v–262v). All are Śaiva, and none has been published, although four are extant in manuscript. They are discussed here in the order they appear in the Malabarisches Heidenthum.

2The first three— Civārccaṉā pōtam, *Apiṣēkappalaṉ, and Snāṉaviti1— are related by Ziegenbalg to the four paths of Caiva Cittānta, noting that “only the Cariyaikkārar and, still more, the Kiriyaikkārar, put much stock in these offerings. The Yōkikaḷ, however, place very little stock therein, and still less the Ñāṉikaḷ” (MH 100). He adds two verses from Civavākkiyam critical of temple ritual.

3Ziegenbalg quotes at some length instructions from Civārccaṉā pōtam for performing a fire ritual which he says is called “ekkiyam, ōmam, or also yākam” (yajña, hōma, yāga; mh 97–99). Zvelebil dates the Civārccaṉā pōtam to the fourteenth century and states that the text is known only through quotations in Śaiva commentaries,2 but there are two manuscripts on Śaiva ritual with this title in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library.3

4Ziegenbalg then quotes at length a description of different offerings and the rewards arising from them (mh 99–100) which he attributes to *Apiṣēkappalaṉ. The references to cālōkam, cāmīppiyam, cārūpam, cāyucciyam in Ziegenbalg’s quotation again indicate that this is a Caiva cittānta work, albeit one that we have not been able to identify. The Apiṣēkamālai of Cokkaliṅkam, in praise of the seventeenth-century saint Kumāratēvar, refers to Caiva cittānta practices and doctrines of this kind, but may be too late to be the work to which Ziegenbalg refers.4 From Snāṉaviti, we have another lengthy quotation describing a morning ritual bath. There are manuscripts entitled Snāṉaviti in the Institut Français de Pondichéry (Vol. 3: 324.26) and the Saraswati Mahal Library (Old Vol. 2: 659).

5In a chapter dealing with gurus and the initiation of disciples, Ziegenbalg writes: “they have written a small booklet about taking disciples in this way, called Tirumantiram,” and quotes an account of how the guru should explain the nama civāyā mantra. Jeyaraj identifies this work as the Tirumantiram of Tirumūlar,5 but this is a large work, supposed to consist of 3,000 stanzas (hence its alternative title Tamiḻmūvāyiram) and in fact exceeding this number in modern editions. Given his description and the fact that Ziegenbalg nowhere else cites this work, despite his special interest in the cittars, it seems more likely that this is a smaller ritual text on the nama civāyā mantra. There are many examples of such works, such as Pañcākṣaram which deals “with the religious efficacy and importance secured by the repetition of the five-syllabled prayer-formula relating to God Śiva.”6

6Finally, in a chapter intended to show how Hindus exemplify the error of worshipping creatures rather than the creator explained in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, Ziegenbalg mentions two further works on ritual, Cūriya pūjai aṭṭavaṇai and Civa cūriya tōttiram.7 He writes that both give detailed prescriptions for worshipping the sun. Manuscripts of works with both these titles are held in the Saraswati Mahal Library.8 Similar works are also held in the library of the Tiruvāvaṭutuṟai ātiṇam.9

Works on divination

7The Bibliotheca Malabarica includes several works on divination by various means (bm 17, 73, 75, 76, 80, 82, 113). Given Ziegenbalg’s sharp comments on such “superstitions,” among both “heathens” and Christians (e.g., mh 206), the number of such works in his collection is, as noted above, probably a reflection of the prevalence of such works in Tamil literature rather than any special interest in them on his part. Ziegenbalg devotes a chapter of the Malabarisches Heidenthum (mh 239–41) to divination, where he cites three works mentioned in the Bibliotheca Malabarica,10 as well as a fourth which is not.11 This is followed by a chapter on chiromancy and physiognomy (mh 242–47) which is almost entirely taken up with an extended quotation from a book Ziegenbalg calls Ilaṭcaṇam pārkkiṟa cuvaṭi, which is otherwise known as Cāmuttirikā laṭcaṇam.12 None of these works are mentioned elsewhere in Ziegenbalg’s writings, and none remained in his collection when it was catalogued by Walther.

Genealogia der malabarischen Götter

Śaiva purāṇas

8Toward the end of the chapter on Śiva in the Genealogia, Ziegenbalg addresses the question of books describing Śiva.

Concerning the books which these heathens have written on Īcuvaraṉ, very many of these are to be found. For as already reported above, each of his appearances has been written up in a proper history in the place where it happened, so that there are as many historical books written about him as there are great temples built to honour him. All these histories have been collected in twenty-four books which are called the ākamaṅkaḷ. Likewise the four books of the law, the six cattiraṅkaḷ or Systemata Theologica and the eighteen purāṇas are mostly written about this Īcuvaraṉ alone. Among such purāṇas and other similar books the following are the best-known. (gmg 50v–51r)

9Ziegenbalg would not have been able to read the āgamas or the other Sanskrit works he mentions (the Vedas, the śāstras and the mahāpurāṇas) and, as noted above (13), he appears here to be following the account of them he was given by one of his correspondents in the Malabarische Correspondenz (hb 7: 374). Of the twenty-two Tamil works in the list of the “best-known” Śaiva books which Ziegenbalg goes on to give here, all but six are included in the Bibliotheca Malabarica and have been described above.13 The six are Periya purāṇam, Viruttācala purāṇam, Kanta purāṇam, Tiruveṇkāṭṭu purāṇam, *Mūtura purāṇam and Kāci kāṇṭam.

10The Tamil Kanta purāṇam, in six books, was composed by Kacciyappa Civācāriyar in Kāñcipuram.14 It is not related to the Sanskrit Skanda purāṇam,15 but represents “a rather independent, Southern tradition of the Skanda-Murugan myth,”16 of which it is the canonical statement. The Kanta purāṇam is quoted several times in Ziegenbalg’s works and there is good reason to think he had, or had access to, a copy of it.17 His description of it in the Genealogia emphasizes two of the myths he quotes in the Malabarisches Heidenthum— Pārvatī’s rebirth as the daughter of Dakṣa/Takkaṉ (mh 51–52) and the story of Cūrapatmaṉ (mh 83–84):

Kanta purāṇam, which contains various stories, such as the marriage of Īcuvaraṉ with his Pārvatī, who was born as a daughter to Takkaṉ, the monarch over all fourteen worlds, and named Makātēvī. Also the history of the severe penance of Cūrapatmaṉ, who thereby achieved great power from Īcuvaraṉ but later became very tyrannical so that on account of it a great war broke out against him by the gods, in which the tyrant was eventually killed, etc.18

11Ziegenbalg gives a much briefer account of the sixteenth-century Viruttācala purāṇam,19 which is ascribed to Ñāṉakkūttar: “stories which are supposed to have taken place in a town called Viruttācalam.”20 He quotes several times from the Viruttācala purāṇam, but refers only to the titles of the sections he quotes, and it is not clear whether he knew that they formed part of the Viruttācala purāṇam.21

12The other four works are mentioned in only one other place in Ziegenbalg’s writings, in the letter from the Malabarische Correspondenz just mentioned. Here the six works, with the exception of Kāci kāṇṭam, are listed in the same order as in the list in the Genealogia mentioned above (gmg 51r–53r). The annotations to the letter include brief descriptions of each work very similar to those in the Genealogia. There must be some doubt about whether he owned copies of these texts, as he neither quotes from them, nor mentions them anywhere else.

13Periya purāṇam, the last book of the Tiṟumurai, describes the lives and legends of the sixty-three nāyaṉārs or Śaiva saints. It is attributed to Cēkkiḻār and dated to the twelfth century.22 While Ziegenbalg probably did not have a copy of the Periya purāṇam, his brief description of it as “the greatest history book, containing many stories about Īcuvaraṉ”23 is apt, and he was familiar with—and even had folk versions (e.g., Ciṟuttoṇṭar katai bm 87)—of some of the stories it contains.

14The remaining three purāṇas are briefly described in very similar terms:

Tiruveṇkāṭṭu purāṇam, which tells at length the story of what is supposed to have taken place with Īcuvaraṉ in a town called Tiruveṇkāṭu.

*Mutura purāṇam is also a history book of the wonders of Īcuvaraṉ which are supposed to have occurred in a town called Mūtūr.

Kāci kāṇṭam is a history book in which are told the wonders which Īcuvaraṉ is supposed to have done in a town called Kāci.24

15The Tiruveṇkāṭṭu purāṇam25 and the Kāci kāṇṭam26 are both sixteenth-century works, the former ascribed to Caiva Ellappa Nāvalar, and the latter composed by Ativīrarāma Pāṇṭiyaṉ on the basis of the Kāśī Khaṇḍa of the Sanskrit Skanda purāṇa. Mūtūr, “first town,” is a description applied to Eyiṉaṉūr and Karuvūr in Periya purāṇam, but no work entitled * Mutura purāṇam has been identified.27

16A seventh Śaiva purāṇa, quoted several times by Ziegenbalg but mentioned neither in the Bibliotheca Malabarica nor in the list of Śaiva works in the Genealogia, is the Piramōttara kāṇṭam. The Piramōttara kāṇṭam is the third part of the Piramāṇṭa purāṇam, itself part of the Skanda purāṇam. A Tamil version was written by Varatuṅkarāma Pāṇṭiyaṉ in the sixteenth century.28 It is the only additional work listed in Walther’s 1731 edition of the Bibliotheca Malabarica which we can be certain that Ziegenbalg himself knew. Walther’s entry reads:

Piramōttara kāṇṭam. An account in verse of the various types of sacrifice and worship through which the people seek to achieve salvation. Such as penances; about a vēṭaṉ or wildman, who made offerings to a liṅkam in a forest to the north in Kāḷatti, carrying water in his mouth and using it to perform the apiṣēkam, and finally even offering one of his eyes; he is supposed to have been taken into heaven.29

17Although Ziegenbalg quotes twice from the Piramōttara kāṇṭam, he gives only the name of the attiyāyam.30 The title Piramōttara kāṇṭam itself is mentioned only in the Malabarische Correspondenz.31

18Finally there are four further works mentioned in the Genealogia, all of which are said to be praise books addressed respectively to Civaṉ, Cakti and Caracuvati: * Civapōtakam, Civa kavacam, Tēvi kavacam, and Caracuvati antāti. The last of these, mentioned very briefly by Ziegenbalg in the chapter on Caracuvati and described by him as the best-known of the books sung in praise of this goddess,32 is the only one readily identifiable with a particular work.33 The Caracuvati antāti is ascribed to Kampaṉ and while the ascription is probably only conventional, Hikosaka and Samuels suggest this may be the earliest of the Tamil eulogies on Caracuvati.34

19Kavacam (“armour”) is a popular class of texts containing mantras associated with different deities which are invoked to protect the person who chants it. There is a Sanskrit Śivakavaca,35 which forms a part of the Brahmottarakāṇḍa and is also included in the Tamil Piramōttara kāṇṭam. There is also Sanskrit text entitled Devīkavaca,36 but no Tamil work with this title has been identified.

20Ziegenbalg compares *Civapōtakam to Tiruvācakam and Tēvāram (bm 6, 29), saying that it “is a book of the same sort, containing many praise-sayings on Civaṉ, and also in verse, again like the others.”37 These three works, together with Civa kavacam “which likewise consists of verses or dialogues with Civaṉ,”38 are the only four works listed in the chapter of the Genealogia on Civaṉ, that is, Śiva conceived as the male power of the immaterial, invisible supreme being Parāparavaṣtu. Tēvi kavacam is likewise the only work listed in the parallel chapter on Cakti, the female power of Parāparavaṣtu, and is said there to be a parallel to the four works on Civaṉ: “And just as they have books in praise of Civaṉ, so also to be found among them are books which deal with Cakti; of which the principal one is called Tēvi kavacam, which contains many praises and forms of worship of this goddess Cakti.”39

21We should perhaps not make too much of this. Of the known works here— Tiruvācakam and Tēvāram— neither has a particularly abstract conception of the deity. It seems rather that the basis for listing these five works (Tēvāram, Tiruvācakam, * Civapōtakam and Civa kavacam, with Tēvi kavacam as a parallel work on the goddess) together is again the list of books in widest use among the Tamils in the letter from the Malabarische Correspondenz (hb 7: 374–76) quoted above (13). The list begins as follows: Tēvāram, Tiruvācakam, *Civapōtakam, Viḷakkoḷi, Tiruvaḷḷuvar, Ñāṉapōtakam, Civa kavacam and Tēvi kavacam. The first chapter of the Genealogia, on Parāparavaṣtu as immaterial, invisible supreme being, describes Tiruvaḷḷuvar, i.e., the Kuṟaḷ, together with Civavākkiyam, Nīti cāram and Ñāṉa veṇpā, as the most important of the books of the ñāṉikaḷ, those who reject idolatry and worship only a single divine being without images. Viḷakkoḷi and Ñāṉapōtakam are not mentioned anywhere else by Ziegenbalg, but his annotations in the Malabarische Correspondenz suggest they are similar works. The remaining five works from this list are those in the final two chapters on the male and female aspects of Parāparavaṣtu, namely, Tēvāram, Tiruvācakam, *Civapōtakam, Civa kavacam and Tēvi kavacam. If then Ziegenbalg, in his account of these works, is simply following closely the information he received from his correspondent, there is perhaps no reason to think that he had copies of these works, which he does not otherwise refer to or quote.