A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c8.38

c8.38

A number of cultural affinities enforce this conclusion suggested by linguistic data. Inheritance through women which still survives in Dravidian India was in vogue among the Elamites, the earliest branch of the ‘Caspian’ to emerge into history. There is evidence of the prevalence of the snake-cult in the earliest pre-historic stratum at Persepolis; Dravidian-speaking India is the stronghold of snake worship at the present day. The worship of the Mother-goddess under the name ‘Lady of the Mountain’ and the annual celebration of her nuptials with the Moon-god of Ur closely resemble the Indian worship of Pārvati in her various forms and the annual celebration of the *tirukkalyāṇam* (divine marriage) in South Indian Śiva temples; in fact the resemblance is so close that, in spite of the absence of any direct proof of connexion, it is difficult to believe that it is accidental. Again, the nature of the worship offered in the temples of ancient Sumeria and the organization and even the structure of the temple itself have much in common with what has prevailed in South India to this day, allowance being made for the changes that naturally flowed from the increasing aversion to meat-eating among the higher classes of India. ‘The essence of worship,’ says Leonard Woolley, of ancient Sumer, ‘was sacrifice, and by the ritual of sacrifice the cooked flesh of the animal was shared between the god, his priests and the worshipper; the kitchen was therefore not the least important part of the temple, and at all times of the day the fires would be burning and the priests would be overseeing the slaves who carried on the work of butchers, bakers, scullions and cooks.’ Numerous medieval inscriptions of southern India bear abundant testimony to the readiness of the people to enrol themselves as the slaves of a neighbouring temple and bind their descendants also to the same status. The institution of *devadāsis* common in South India was well known in ancient Sumer. Again, what can be more accurate as a description of the form and spirit of worship in the Indian temple of today, of the *rājopacāra* offered to the image of God, than this account given by Woolley of worship in the Sumerian temple: ‘Where the God was also the King, where church and state were so nearly synonymous, material efficiency was only too likely to get the better of faith. Long life and well-being in this world was the reward men asked in return for formal service such as they might have rendered to a human overlord, and they regarded the wealth and prosperity of the Moon-god as a pledge for the welfare of the city.’ The temple and the palace are both indicated by one word *kōyil* in Tamil, and *prāsāda* in Sanskrit, and it is universally recognized that temple-worship was not part of the original Vedic religion.