Water, Source of ‘Genesis’ and the End Macro and Micro Viṣṇu in the Hymns of the Āḻvārs

• Published in: The medieval history journal 2020-11, Vol.23 (2), p.296-331
• Main Author: Rajarajan, R. K. K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0971-9458; 0973-0753
• DOI: 10.1177/0971945820956583

The pañcabhūtas convoked are pṛthvi ‘earth’, ap ‘water’, tejas ‘fire’, vāyu ‘air or wind’ and ākāśa ‘ether’. They are the five elements of nature in Hindu mythology. These are considered the abstractions of Viṣṇu (Figures 1–3, 6 and 10), Śiva (Figure 11) or Dēvī (Figures 7 and 15) as the case may be. Most virile among the five are ‘water’ and ‘fire’, the symbols of creation and destruction. Water from the Darwinian point of view is the creative force in which living organisms originate and survive. It is the sustaining principle, for example, the Mother feeding the child with milk as rain for the plant kingdom. Water is the symbol of destruction at the time of deluge, the mahāpraḷaya; cf. trees on the banks felled when rivers inundate (PTM 11.8.1). Fire creates when channelised through the oven; for example, Kumāra’s birth as also Mīnākṣī (Figure 16) and Draupadī emerging through yajñas. These ideas are best exemplified by the avatāras, aṃśāvatāras and other emanations of Viṣṇu. Śiva destroys the worlds by the power generated by his third eye (e.g., Sodom and Gomorrah in case of Biblical mythology), the God of Love, Kāmadeva symbolic of the seed of creation (Priapus in Roman mythology; Beard, 2008. Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town. London: Profile Books Ltd: 104, figure 36). We are concerned in this article with water as the creative and destructive force, an idea that is as old as the Vedic and Biblical times. The focus is on the Āḻvārs’ Nālāyirativviyappirapantam. The Biblical myth of ‘Noah’s Ark’ may be of value for inter-religious dialogue. Several hundreds of the Tamil hymns have something to say on the symbolism of water. We cite a few examples hereunder. The emphasis is on water and Viśvarūpa.