Religion, language and culture - what books say (மதம், மொழி மற்றும் கலாச்சாரம் -புத்தகங்கள் என்ன கூறுகின்றன )

Having studied and worked in engineering & management fields for about 45 years, after retirement, my mind longed for different domains which could be felt and practiced in everyday life. That led my search to religion. language and culture, which are relevant to everyone in everyday life. To carry forward that thinking, i read many books on religion, language and culture over a period of time, majority of which were searched by me and a few suggested by family members and friends, which forms the core theme of this blog..

The books have been sequenced in an order to help write this blog

1. When the gods came down - the catastrophic roots of religion revealed by Alan F Alford

2. The roots of Hinduism - the early Aryans and Indus civilization by Asko Parpola

3. Journey of a civilization - Indus to Vaigai by R. Balakrishnan

4. History and doctrines of the Ajivikas - a vanished Indian religion by A l Basham

5. சு.நெடுஞ்செழியனின் ஆசீவகமும் ஐயனார் வரலாறும் (Aseervakamum Iyyanar varalarum by S Nedunchezhiyan)

6. இரும்பின் தொன்மை - தமிழ் நாட்டில் அண்மைக்கால கால கணக்கீடுகள்.கா ராஜன், இரா சிவானந்தம், தமிழ்நாடு தொல்லியல் துறை (Antiquity of Iron - recent radiometric dates from Tamil Nadu - K Rajan and R.Sivanandham , Department of archeology , Government of Tamil Nadu

7. Islamic Jihad - a legacy of forced conversion , imperialism and slavery by M A Khan

Unicorn seal, Mohenjo-daro - Source; www.Harappa.com

Religion , as a term is very recent (only coined in 18th or 19th century) but pre - historic civilizations engaged in a set of practices which included belief , ceremonies, myths and mythical eroticism based out of fear are called ancient religion . Pre historic humans saw them as a relief for their everyday problems caused by nature ( rain , floods , thunder , lightning, fire etc) , wild animals, evil spirits and other ethnic tribes . In modern times, religion is considered as a unifying but mostly a divisive force of human race as one can see from the number of wars fought in the name of religion (Crusades war fought for around 500 years, Israel - Palestinian war). Religious evolution negotiated from fear to philosophy, from rituals to ethics and from tribe to humanity.

Language , as a way of communication existed even during early human evolution in the form of vocal calls and gestures. It takes various forms in various times and regions like cuneiform ( Sumerian , old Persian) , hieroglyphics ( Egyptian), logographic ( Chinese) and finally ended up in structured written form. Major ancient language lineages are Afro - Asiatic, Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Dravidian , Niger - Congo, Austroasiatic and others. Like religion, language also has unifying as well as divisive characters. Famous Tamil poet, Bharathidasan glorifies Tamil as 'தமிழ் எங்கள் மூச்சாம் (Tamil is our breath).

Culture as a term, covers a large markers of a society including shared values, social institutions such as family and form of government, customs, beliefs, social indicators like arts, music , folk arts, education, women empowerment etc. Culture and language are inseparable. Human culture evolved over the years through shared learning, burial rituals, pottery making, agrarian economy, industrialization, globalization etc. '

Now, let us see, what the books listed above are in store for us:

1.When the gods came down - the catastrophic roots of religion revealed by Alan F Alford

(Historical time period studied : Before 3500 BCE)

This book narrates the secrete beliefs & myths about the origin of gods, fertility cult , comic marriages and union, priest - king dual relations, ascendence to heaven as recorded in the ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Sumerian religious texts up to 3500 BCE and before. These texts largely follow the mythical concepts of the god descended to earth from sky through the astronomical phenomena of the explosion of planets and the creation of humans and floods. The concepts of fertility as the mother earth plowed and the rain god (s) seeded her and the concept of cosmic mountains ( eg. Pyramids) as a route to heaven have become almost the bed rock concepts of the subsequent civilizations and religions .

Ziggurat of Babylon - 'Cosmic mountain' - bond between sky, earth and underworld

2. The roots of Hinduism - the early Aryans and Indus civilization by Asko Parpola

(Historical time period studied: 2600 - 1200 BCE)

This scholarly book traces the roots of the early Aryans who descended to Indus valley around second millennium BCE . The migration of early Indo Aryans/Iranian pastoralists from Eurasian steppes through Bactria and Margiana archeological complex ( BMAC) / Oxus civilization comprising present day northern Afghanistan, south eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan ( for location see the map below)) was very significant in their journey. Around 1700-1500 BCE , BMAC was taken over by Indo Aryan speakers, while the Iranian speakers reached BMAC around 1500 BCE. The confluence/conflict of many ethnic tribes in BMAC gave the Indo Aryans/Iranians the spoke wheeled war chariots drawn by horses. With the newly gained asset of the war chariot the Indo Aryan/ Iranian people reached south Asia around 1500-1200 BCE

The Greater Indus Valley during the Late and Post - Harappan period also showing the location of BMAC culture

The migration of Indo Aryan speakers associated with Rig Veda is dated at around 1400-1200 BCE. The Rig Vedic hymns were systematized at the time of Kuru kingdom around 1000 BCE. The Rig Veda is divided into 10 (1-10) books called mandalas. The 'family books' (2 - 7) are the oldest stratum of the Rig Veda. The time of the Atharvaveda, the last of the Vedas systematized during the later Vedic period between 1000-800 BCE.

The Indus valley civilization ( IVC) existed from 2600 to 1900 BCE . IVC had a population of about one million lived in more than 1000 settlements , several of the cities of more than 50,000 habitants which displayed extraordinary town planning and settlement. Archeological studies revealed that the IVC had trade links with Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Sumerian civilizations

Based on the studies of various archeological evidences, iconography of the Indus seals and scripts, the author suggested that the language under use in IVC region could be Proto- Dravidian, a precursor to the Dravidian language.

The author tried to correlate the motifs found in the IVC and the Vedic religion and speculated a continuity of the IVC religion ( not yet established) with some correlation of religious symbols (mother earth & father sky, fig tree, crocodile cult) in the early Vedic religion, but the scholarly circles contested the idea put forward as speculation

3 Journey of a civilization - Indus to Vaigai by R. Balakrishnan

( Historical time period studied : 2600 - 300 BCE )

The core narrative of this scholarly book is that the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) is a Proto Dravidian civilization and there are many similarities existing between IVC and the Sangam era Tamilakam in the form of language and culture

The missing link between the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization, around 1900 BCE and the emergence of Sangam era (around 300 BCE) in the then Tamilakam has been established through various methodologies like onomastics studies (place - names) , analysis of migration corridors using Geographical Information systems ( GIS) and archeological/cultural parallels .

The 'dancing girl' figurine , 2500 BCE, of Mohenjo-doro made using 'lost wax casting technology

In support of the theory of Dravidian continuity, the methodology of study of place-names (onomastics) has been adopted (chapter 7 - The Korkai -Vaigai- Tondi complex ) and as an example, Tamil place names like Malar, Kondi, Gorkai (map 7.1), Kallur, Manur (map 7.2) , Kunru, Eri, Kadu (Map 7.5) found in the present day Afghanistan and Pakistan has been systematically mapped. Similarly 'Murugan' foot prints ( palani, murugan wala, sentaleh kuhe) have also been mapped (map 7.18)

To establish the migration corridors of the IVC people, toponyms, cultural remnants and the archeological findings have been studied and included in two chapters ( chapter 10 &11 - Gujarat and Maharastra corridors ) ,

Bronze statue belonging to late Indus period found in Daimabad (Maharastra)

In the chapter 17 (Adichanallur and Keeladi), similarities between graffiti symbols of Keeladi and the signs of the IVC has been shown along with other black and redware pots in Adichanallur and Keeladi

Similarities between graffiti symbols of Keeladi and the signs of the IVC

4. History and doctrines of the Ajivikas - a vanished Indian religion by A l Basham

( Historical time period studied: 800 - 300 BCE )

This is the period ( 800 - 300 BCE) ) when the priest centered ritualistic Vedic religion was challenged and saw the emergence of ascetic religions Jainism, Buddhism and Ajivakam. These religions democratized the spirituality and guided the followers to achieve Inner realization.

This scholarly book traces the history, the doctrines and the downfall of the Ajivikas. As per the author the concepts of Ajivakam existed even before the emergence of its greatest leader Makkhali Goasala, a contemporary with Mahavira and Buddha. The fundamental principle of the Ajivika philosophy was " Niyati - Fate"'. The Tamil Sangam literature , Neelakaesi (a Jain epic poetry) suggests that 'atomic doctrine ' is also the philosophy of Ajivakas.

Though Ajivakas are reportedly vanished from North Indian landscape for want of royal patronage around 300 BCE, it survived in the Tamil country until at least fourteenth century, (chapter X - The Southern Ajivikas) as learned from Tamil Sangam literatures, Manimekalai, Neelakaesi and a Saiva Siddhantha literature சிவஞான சித்தியார் (Sivagnana siddhiyar)

5. சு.நெடுஞ்செழியனின் ஆசீவகமும் ஐயனார் வரலாறும் (Aseevakamum Iyyanar varalarum by S Nedunchezhiyan)

( Historical time period studied :600 BCE - till 2020 CE )

This scholarly book in Tamil used field visits, on-site iconography, folk lore traditions, Sangam literature references and temple traditions to establish Aseevakam was a religion of Tamil origin and it originated from the place called Thiruvellarai near to the founder Markali's birth place Thirupattur in Tiruchirappalli district.

As per the author there were seven ascetics, who were leaders in their own sagas/groups were involved in the formation of the religion, Aseevakam . They were, apart from Markali (மற்கலி- doctrine of Niyati), the six others were kalanthan alias Poorana kayabar (கலந்தன்- Non-Action theory), Kaniyar alias Pukkuttukai Nan Kaniyar (கணியார்- doctrine of atomism), Shanan (சாணான்) , Asiddhan (அசித்தன்), Akkivaesayanan (அக்கிவேசாயணன்), Achunan Gomayabuddthan ( அச்சுனன் கோமாயபுத்தன்) - (page no.183)

https://youtu.be/SlVaWKwTQf8?si=ILTzjcMbM25HEtLb - History and doctrines of Assevagam

Lately, all the ascetics have been worshipped as 'Iyyanar' and in the majority of the Iyyanar temples, one can find one or more 'karupps' who were warriors who lost their life in the battle fields. Only for karupps , animal sacrifice is performed. ( page no.170 ). Potters were considered holy and still in more than 70% of Iyyanar's temple, potters are performing the religious rituals.

Ascetic life progression has been classified into six stages (from dark black -கரும்பிறப்பு to pure white - கழிவெண் பிறப்பு ) and those attained the last stage were called Vellaiyan/ Vellaiyar (page 288)

During its hey days, Assevagam had royal patronage in ancient Tamilakam.

Vestiges of this religion can still be seen in the form of Ayyanar worship, Puravi ettupu (புரவி எடுப்பு) , reverence to 18 steps etc.

Sittannavasal painting - Poorana Kayabar

6. இரும்பின் தொன்மை - தமிழ் நாட்டில் அண்மைக்கால கால கணக்கீடுகள்.கா ராஜன், இரா சிவானந்தம், தமிழ்நாடு தொல்லியல் துறை (Antiquity of Iron - recent radiometric dates from Tamil Nadu - K Rajan and R.Sivanandham , Department of archeology , Government of Tamil Nadu ).

Department of Archeology, Government of Tamil Nadu announced to the world in the first half of 2025 that the usage of iron in Tamil Nadu dates back to 3345 BCE- 2953 BCE based on the radiometric results from various reputed Indian and International testing laboratories on the iron artefacts found in various archeological sites in Tamil Nadu.

These results provided a new date for the use of iron in South Asia much earlier than previously thought.

Archeological artefacts from Myiladumparai site

7. Islamic Jihad - a legacy of forced conversion , imperialism and slavery by M A Khan

This book is a controversial one, mostly showing Islam in bad light. Hence, i refrained from including review on this.