The poem is recited by ghosts who are companions of a terrible goddess called Anangu.
The poem is recited by ghosts who are companions of a terrible goddess called Anangu.
When the Delhi Sultanate was being established in the north of India about 800 years ago, a Pallava general in the south was leading the army of a Chola king on the east coast.
He crossed the Krishna and Godavari deltas, slaughtered hundreds of war elephants sent to block his progress, and finally defeated the king of Kalinga, who had not paid his tribute for two years, and a Chola The princess also had a son. This victory was so great that it inspired queen – A war poem when a thousand elephants are slaughtered – is known as Kalingathu Parani,
The Kalinga king was a Chodaganga, i.e., Chola-Ganga: Chola on his mother’s side and Ganga on his father’s side. He controlled the Mahanadi delta in the east, the Cholas controlled the Kaveri delta in the south, and the Ganges controlled the Krishna-Godavari delta in the middle. This is the reason why the east coast was known to the sailors as Chola-mandal (Coromandel). The three kings competed among themselves, each trying to make each other a tributary.
In the spirit of competition, Chodaganga built the present structure of the Jagannath Temple at Puri in 12th century, to rival the height of Brihadeshwara Temple Built by Rajaraja Chola in the 11th at Thanjavur century. When it was discovered that the masonry was a few feet short, the king ordered a long iron flag pole to be placed on top of a discus-shaped one, so that Jagannath’s flag would fly high.
Like the Tamil people, the people of Kalinga were fiercely independent, and declared their autonomy through their deity Jagannatha, a mixture of Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta and tribal practices. Later, Chodaganga would insist that he was the mere viceroy of Jagannatha, distancing himself from the practice started by some Chola kings, who identified themselves with Shiva.
The Kalinga kings were called Gajapatis because they were the lords of elephants. Hundreds of elephants will be used to clear the way for the Kalinga army and stop the advance of enemy troops. Overcoming such a moving wall of pachyderms was no small feat. Therefore, it was a worthy queen,
A statue of the Chola emperor Kulottunga I, during whose reign ‘Kalingathu Parani’ was commissioned. The idol is in Chidambaram Nataraja Temple. , Photo Credit: Matthew T. Radar/WikiCommons
what’s interesting about Kalingathu Parani, translated into English by Kaushalya Hart, made accessible by Project Madurai, narration is by ghosts. These ghosts are the companions of a terrifying goddess Anangu. She appears to be similar to a goddess known in Shakta literature as Chamunda, and can be traced to the Vedic goddess Niritti and the Tamil goddess Kotravai. She is associated with dry, hot, barren landscapes and bloodied battlefields.
In art, this goddess is depicted holding weapons in hand, surrounded by ghosts, perched on rotting corpses, entertained by carrion crows and wild dogs. The battlefield is his holy place, where he receives blood offered by men who want to be heroes.
The poem begins with a prayer to several Puranic and Tantric deities as well. Vedas, It is expected that the Tiger Banner of the Cholas will fly over other royal banners that display boars, plows, deer, lions, fish and bows, and inscriptions of Chola victory have been carved on the slopes of the Himalayas.
Then come passages describing the yearning and sensual longing of the beautiful wives of warriors – foreshadowing the misery of war widows. Next comes the description of the temple built by the goddess, Anangu, with her forest, her ghost, and the skulls of fallen kings, and the bones of animals killed in battle. Shiva’s beloved goddess wears an elephant skin, a waistband made of intestines. His hand is red with the blood of warriors killed by brave kings in his honor.
dark humor
His ghosts are hungry and emaciated, and yearning for human flesh and blood. Their belly is like a vessel, their eyes are like caves, their limbs are like burnt wood. A ghost who had fled to the Himalayas, returns to the south and talks of the Kalinga war which is going on.
There was blood, blood, blood of Kalinga warriors everywhere. Let’s go, let’s go there to the battlefield. Your empty stomach will be full. Your thin body will become fat.
The ghosts are happy and move on to the battlefield. They learn how the escaped Kalinga soldiers saved themselves by pretending to be Brahmins (they used bows as sacred thread), or Buddhists (they soaked their clothes orange with blood), or Jains ( Leaving his clothes, tore his hair) ) In the climax, we hear the ghosts, covered in blood, under umbrellas made of elephant skin, porridge of meat and coarse and crushed teeth in pots made of wide legs of elephants prepare and eat. All ghosts are fed – even Brahmin ghosts, Buddhist ghosts and Jain ghosts. A strange way of showing a very liberal society.
In the centuries that followed, such songs were gradually overshadowed by songs of Krishna devotion. Unlike earlier Alvar and Nayanar poetry, later devotional works were stripped of sexuality and violence. His tantric nature weakened. The flesh became invisible. Emotions were given more attention. Indian royals were wiped out as violence was outsourced to beef-eating invaders. but hungry ghost Kalingathu Parani Reminds us of a different India, where blood and gore nurtured ambitious kings, where heroes massacred elephant armies, garlanded human heads for gods and goddesses, and her ghosts were fed porridge made of meat and fat. able to taste.
The author is the author of 50 books on mythology, art and culture.