Part 34

Branding for religious purposes is confined to Sri Vaishnavas and Madhvas. Sri Vaishnava Brahmans are expected to undergo this ordeal at least once during their life-time, whereas Madhva Brahmans have to submit to it as often as they visit their guru (head of a mutt). Of men of other castes, those who become followers of a Vaishnava or Madhva Acharya (guru) or mutt, are expected to present themselves before the guru for the purpose of being branded. But the ceremony is optional, and not compulsory as in the case of the Brahmans. Among Sri Vaishnavites, the privilege of branding is confined to the elder members of a family, Sanyasis (ascetics), and the heads of the various mutts. All individuals, male and female, must be branded, after the Upanayanam ceremony in the case of males, and after marriage in the case of females. The disciples, after a purificatory bath and worship of their gods, proceed to the residence of the Acharya or to the mutt, where they are initiated into their religion, and branded with the chakra on the right shoulder and chank on the left. The initiation consists in imparting to the disciple, in a very low tone, the Mula Mantram, the word Namonarayanaya, the sacred syllable Om, and a few mantrams from the Brahma Rahasyam (secrets about god). A person who has not been initiated thus is regarded as unfit to take part in the ceremonies which have to be performed by Brahmans. Even close relations, if orthodox, will refuse to take food prepared or touched by the uninitiated. Concerning Madhvas, Monier Williams writes as follows [177]: "They firmly believe that it is a duty of Vaishnavas to carry throughout life a memorial of their god on their persons, and that such a lasting outward and visible sign of his presence helps them to obtain salvation through him. 'On his right armlet the Brahman wears the discus, on his left the conch shell.' When I was at Tanjore, I found that one of the successors of Madhva had recently arrived on his branding visitation. He was engaged throughout the entire day in stamping his disciples, and receiving fees from all according to their means." Madhvas have four mutts to which they repair for the branding ceremony, viz., Vayasaraya, Sumathendra and Mulabagal in Mysore, and Uttaraja in South Canara. The followers of the Uttaraja mutt are branded in five places in the case of adult males, and boys after the thread investiture. The situations and emblems selected are the chakra on the right upper arm, right side of the chest, and above the navel; the chank on the left shoulder and left side of the chest. Women, and girls after marriage, are branded with the chakra on the right forearm, and the chank on the left. In the case of widows, the marks are impressed on the shoulders as in the case of males. The disciples of the three other mutts are generally branded with the chakra on the right upper arm, and chank on the left. As the branding is supposed to remove sins committed during the interval, they get it done every time they see their guru. There is with Madhvas no restriction as to the age at which the ceremony should be performed. Even a new-born babe, after the pollution period of ten days, must receive the mark of the chakra, if the guru should turn up. Boys before the upanayanam, and girls before marriage, are branded with the chakra on the abdomen just above the navel. The copper or brass branding instruments (mudras) are not heated to a very high temperature, but sufficient to singe the skin, and leave a deep black mark in the case of adults, and a light mark in that of young people and babies. In some cases, disciples, who are afraid of being hurt, bribe the person who heats the instruments; but, as a rule, the guru regulates the temperature so as to suit the individual. If, for example, the disciple is a strong, well-built man, the instruments are well heated, and, if he is a weakling, they are allowed to cool somewhat before their application. If the operator has to deal with babies, he presses the instrument against a wet rag before applying it to the infant's skin. Some Matathipathis (head priests of the mutt) are, it is said, inclined to be vindictive, and to make a very hot application of the instruments, if the disciple has not paid the fee (gurukanika) to his satisfaction. The fee is not fixed in the case of Sri Vaishnavas, whereas Madhvas are expected to pay from one to three months' income for being branded. Failure to pay is punished with excommunication on some pretext or other. The area of skin branded generally peels off within a week, leaving a pale mark of the mudra, which either disappears in a few months, or persists throughout life. Madhvas should stamp mudras with gopi paste (white kaolin) daily on various parts of the body. The names of these mudras are chakra, chank or sankha, gatha (the weapon of war used by Bhima, one of the Pandavas), padma (lotus), and Narayana. The chakra is stamped thrice on the abdomen above the navel, twice on the right flank, twice on the right side of the chest above the nipple, twice on the right arm, once on the right temple, once on the left side of the chest, and once on the left arm. The chank is stamped twice on the right side of the chest, in two places on the left arm, and once on the left temple. The gatha is stamped in two places on the right arm, twice on the chest, and in one spot on the forehead. The padma is stamped twice on the left arm, and twice on the left side of the chest. Narayana is stamped on all places where other mudra marks have been made. Sometimes it is difficult to put on all the marks after the daily morning bath. In such cases, a single mudra mark, containing all the five mudras, is made to suffice. Some regard the chakra mudra as sufficient on occasions of emergency.

The god Hanuman (the monkey god) is specially reverenced by Madhvas, who call him Mukyapranadevaru (the chief god).

V. Tulu.--The Tulu-speaking Brahmans are, in their manners and customs, closely allied to the Carnatakas. Their sub-divisions are--

1. Shivalli. 2. Kota. 3. Kandavara. 4. Havik or Haiga. 5. Panchagrami. 6. Koteswar.

The following interesting account of the Tulu Brahmans is given by Mr. H. A. Stuart [178]:--

"All Tulu Brahmin chronicles agree in ascribing the creation of Malabar and Canara, or Kerala, Tuluva, and Haiga, to Parasu Rama, who reclaimed from the sea as much land as he could cover by hurling his battle-axe from the top of the Western Ghauts. According to Tulu traditions, after a quarrel with Brahmins who used to come to him periodically from Ahi-Kshetra, Parasu Rama procured new Brahmins for the reclaimed tract by taking the nets of some fishermen, and making a number of Brahminical threads, with which he invested the fishermen, and thus turned them into Brahmins, and retired to the mountains to meditate, after informing them that, if they were in distress and called on him, he would come to their aid. After the lapse of some time, during which they suffered no distress, they were curious to know if Parasu Rama would remember them, and called upon him in order to find out. He promptly appeared, but punished their thus mocking him by cursing them, and causing them to revert to their old status of Sudras. After this, there were no Brahmins in the land till Tulu Brahmins were brought from Ahi-Kshetra by Mayur Varma of the Kadamba dynasty. A modified form of the tradition states that Parasu Rama gave the newly reclaimed land to Naga and Machi Brahmins, who were not true Brahmins, and were turned out or destroyed by fishermen and Holeyas (Pariahs), who held the country till the Tulu Brahmins were introduced by Mayur Varma. All traditions unite in attributing the introduction of the Tulu Brahmins of the present day to Mayur Varma, but they vary in details connected with the manner in which they obtained a firm footing in the land. One account says that Habashika, chief of the Koragas (Pariahs), drove out Mayur Varma, but was in turn expelled by Mayur Varma's son, or son-in-law, Lokaditya of Gokarnam, who brought Brahmins from Ahi-Kshetra and settled them in thirty-two villages. Another makes Mayur Varma himself the invader of the country, which till then had remained in the possession of the Holeyas (Pariahs) and fishermen who had turned out Parasu Rama's Brahmins. Mayur Varma and the Brahmins whom he had brought from Ahi-Kshetra were again driven out by Nanda, a Holeya chief, whose son Chandra Sayana had, however, learned respect for Brahmins from his mother, who had been a dancing-girl in a temple. His admiration for them became so great that he not only brought back the Brahmins, but actually made over all his authority to them, and reduced his people to the position of slaves. A third account makes Chandra Sayana, not a son of a Holeya king, but a descendant of Mayur Varma and a conqueror of the Holeya king. Nothing is known from other sources of Lokaditya, Habashika, or Chandra Sayana, but inscriptions speak to Mayur Varma being the founder of the dynasty of the Kadambas of Banavasi in North Canara. His date is usually put down at about 750 A.D. The correctness of the traditions, which prevail in Malabar as well as in Canara, assigning the introduction of Brahmins to the West Coast to Mayur Varma who was in power about 750 A.D., is to some extent corroborated by the fact that Brahmins attested the Malabar Perumal's grant to the Christians in 774 A.D., but not that to the Jews about 700 A.D. The Brahmins are said to have been brought from Ahi-Kshetra, on the banks of the Godavari, but it is not clear what connection a Kadamba of Banavasi could have with the banks of the Godavari, and there may be something in the suggestion made in the North Kanara Gazetteer that Ahi-Kshetra is merely a sanskritised form of Haiga or the land of snakes. The tradition speaks of the Brahmins having been brought by Lokaditya from Gokarnam, which is in the extreme north of Haiga, and in the local history of the Honalli Matha in Sunda in North Canara, Gokarnam is spoken of as being Ahi-Kshetra. Gokarnam is believed to have been a Brahmin settlement in very early times, and there was probably a further influx of Brahmins there as Muhammadan conquest advanced in the north.

"The class usually styled Tulu Brahmins at the present day are the Shivalli Brahmins, whose head-quarters are at Udipi, and who are most numerous in the southern part of the district, but the Kota, Koteshwar, and Haiga or Havika Brahmins are all branches of the same, the differences between them having arisen since their settlement in Canara; and, though they now talk Canarese in common with the people of other parts to the north of the Sitanadi river, their religious works are still written in the old Tulu-Malayalam character. Tulu Brahmins, who have settled in Malabar in comparatively late years, are known as Embrantris, and treated as closely allied to the Nambutiris, whose traditions go back to Mayur Varma. Some families of Shivalli and Havika Brahmins in the southern or Malayalam portion of the district talk Malayalam, and follow many of the customs of the Malabar or Nambutiri Brahmins. Many of the thirty-two villages in which the Brahmins are said to have been settled by Mayur Varma are still the most important centres of Brahminism. Notably may be mentioned Shivalli or Udipi, Kota and Koteshwar, which have given names to the divisions of Tulu Brahmins of which these villages are respectively the head-quarters. When the Brahmins were introduced by Mayur Varma they are said to have been followers of Bhattacharya, but they soon adopted the tenets of the great Malayalam Vedantic teacher Sankaracharya, who is ordinarily believed to have been born at Cranganore in Malabar in the last quarter of the eighth century, that is, soon after the arrival of the Brahmins on the west coast. Sankaracharya is known as the preacher of the Advaita (non-dual) philosophy, which, stated briefly, is that all living beings are one with the supreme spirit, and absorption may finally be obtained by the constant renunciation of material in favour of spiritual pleasure. This philosophy, however, was not sufficient for the common multitude, and his system included, for weaker minds, the contemplation of the first cause through a multitude of inferior deities, and, as various manifestations of Siva and his consort Parvati, he found a place for all the most important of the demons worshipped by the early Dravidians whom the Brahmins found on the West Coast, thus facilitating the spread of Hinduism throughout all classes. That the conversion of the Bants and Billavas, and other classes, took place at a very early date may be inferred from the fact that, though the great bulk of the Tulu Brahmins of South Canara adopted the teaching of the Vaishnavite reformer Madhavacharya, who lived in the thirteenth century, most of the non-Brahmin Hindus in the district class themselves as Shaivites to this day. Sankaracharya founded the Sringeri Matha in Mysore near the borders of the Udipi taluk, the guru of which is the spiritual head of such of the Tulu Brahmins of South Canara as have remained Smarthas or adherents of the teaching of Sankaracharya. Madhavacharya is believed to have been born about 1199 A.D. at Kalianpur, a few miles from Udipi. He propounded the Dvaita or dual philosophy, repudiating the doctrine of oneness and final absorption held by ordinary Vaishnavites as well as by the followers of Sankaracharya. The attainment of a place in the highest heaven is to be secured, according to Madhavacharya's teaching, not only by the renunciation of material pleasure, but by the practice of virtue in thought, word and deed. The moral code of Madhavacharya is a high one, and his teaching is held by some--not ordinary Hindus of course--to have been affected by the existence of the community of Christians at Kalianpur mentioned by Cosmos Indico Pleustes in the seventh century. Madhavacharya placed the worship of Vishnu above that of Siva, but there is little bitterness between Vaishnavites and Shaivites in South Canara, and there are temples in which both are worshipped under the name of Shankara Narayana. He denied that the spirits worshipped by the early Dravidians were manifestations of Siva's consort, but he accorded sanction to their worship as supernatural beings of a lower order.

"Shivalli Brahmins. The Tulu-speaking Brahmins of the present day are almost all followers of Madhavacharya, though a few remain Smarthas, and a certain number follow what is known as the Bhagavat Sampradayam, and hold that equal honour is due to both Vishnu and Siva. They are now generally called Shivalli Brahmins, their head-quarters being at Udipi or Shivalli, a few miles from Madhavacharya's birth-place. Here Madhavacharya is said to have resided for some time, and composed thirty-seven controversial works, after which he set out on a tour. The temple of Krishna at Udipi is said to have been founded by Madhavacharya himself, who set up in it the image of Krishna originally made by Arjuna, and miraculously obtained by him from a vessel wrecked on the coast of Tuluva. In it he also placed one of the three salagrams presented to him by the sage Veda Vyasa. Besides the temple at Udipi, he established eight Mathas or sacred houses, each presided over by a sanyasi or swami. [Their names are Sodhe, Krishnapur, Sirur, Kanur, Pejavar, Adamar, Palamar, and Puththige.] These exist to this day, and each swami in turn presides over the temple of Krishna for a period of two years, and spends the intervening fourteen years touring through Canara and the adjacent parts of Mysore, levying contributions from the faithful for his next two years of office, which are very heavy, as he has to defray not only the expenses of public worship and of the temple and Matha establishments, but must also feed every Brahmin who comes to the place. The following description of a Matha visited by Mr. Walhouse [179] gives a very good idea of what one of these buildings is like: 'The building was two-storeyed, enclosing a spacious quadrangle round which ran a covered verandah or cloister; the wide porched entrance opened into a fine hall supported by massive pillars with expanding capitals handsomely carved; the ceiling was also wooden, panelled and ornamented with rosettes and pendants as in baronial halls, and so were the solid doors. Within these was an infinity of rooms, long corridors lined with windowless cells, apartments for meditation and study, store-rooms overflowing with all manner of necessaries, granaries, upper rooms with wide projecting windows latticed instead of glass with pierced wood-work in countless tasteful patterns, and in the quadrangle there was a draw-well and small temple, while a large yard behind contained cattle of all kinds from a goat to an elephant. All things needful were here gathered together. Outside sat pilgrims, poor devotees, and beggars waiting for the daily dole, and villagers were continually arriving with grain, vegetables, etc.' The periodical change of the swami presiding over the temple of Krishna is the occasion of a great festival known as the Pariyaya, when Udipi is filled to overflowing by a large concourse of Madhvas, not only from the district but from more distant parts, especially from the Mysore territory. [A very imposing object in the temple grounds, at the time of my visit in 1907, was an enormous stack of fire-wood for temple purposes.] The following is a description [180] of a festival at the Udipi Krishna temple witnessed by Mr. Walhouse: 'Near midnight, when the moon rode high in a cloudless heaven, his (Krishna's) image--not the very sacred one, which may not be handled, but a smaller duplicate--was brought forth by four Brahmins and placed under a splendid canopy on a platform laid across two large canoes. The whole square of the tank (pond) was lit up by a triple line of lights. Small oil cressets at close intervals, rockets and fireworks ascended incessantly, and the barge, also brilliantly lit up, and carrying a band of discordant music, and Brahmins fanning the image with silver fans, was punted round and round the tank amid loud acclamations. After this, the image was placed in a gorgeous silver-plated beaked palanquin, and borne solemnly outside the temple to the great idol car that stood dressed up and adorned with an infinity of tinsel, flags, streamers and flower wreaths. On this it was lifted, and placed in a jewel shrine amidst a storm of applause and clapping of hands--these seem the only occasions when Hindus do clap hands--and then, with all the company of Brahmins headed by the swamis marching in front, followed by flambeaus and wild music, the car was slowly hauled by thousands of votaries round the square which was illuminated by three lines of lights, ascending at intervals into pyramids. A pause was made half-way, when there was a grand display of rockets, fire fountains and wheels, and two lines of camphor and oiled cotton laid along the middle of the road were kindled and flamed up brilliantly. Then the car moved on to the entrance of the temple, and the god's outing was accomplished.' Another famous temple of the Shivallis is Subramanya at the foot of the ghauts on the Coorg border, and here also Madhavacharya deposited one of Veda Vyasa's salagrams. It existed before his time, however, and, as the name indicates, it is dedicated to the worship of Siva. In addition to this, it is the principal centre of serpent worship in the district.

"Many of the Shivalli Brahmins are fair complexioned with well-cut intelligent features. A number of them own land which they cultivate by tenants or by hired labourers, and there are several wealthy families with large landed properties, but the great bulk of them are either astronomers, astrologers, tantris, purohitas, worshippers in temples, or professional beggars. They have been backward in availing themselves of English education, and consequently not many of them are to be found holding important posts under Government or in the professions, but a few have come to the front in late years. A good many of them are village accountants and teachers in village schools. The women, as is usually the case among all classes, are fairer than the men. Their education is even more limited, but they are said to be well trained for the discharge of household and religious duties. They wear the cloth falling as low as the feet in front, but not usually so low behind, especially on festive occasions, the end being passed between the legs and tucked into the fold of the cloth round the waist. Like all Brahmin women in Canara, they are fond of wearing sweet-scented flowers in their hair. The language of the Shivalli Brahmins is Tulu, except to the north of the Sitanadi river, where close intercourse with the ruling Canarese classes above the ghauts for several centuries has led to the adoption of that language by all classes. Their religious books are in Sanskrit, and, even north of the Sitanadi river, they are written in the old Tulu-Malayalam character. Their houses are all neat, clean, and provided with verandahs, and a yard in front, in which stands, in a raised pot, a plant of the tulasi or sacred basil. Some of the houses of the old families are really large and substantial buildings, with an open courtyard in the centre. Men and widows bathe the whole body every day before breakfast, but married women bathe only up to the neck, it being considered inauspicious for them to bathe the head also. In temples and religious houses, males bathe in the evening also. An oil bath is taken once a week. They are, of course, abstainers from animal food and spirituous liquors, and a prohibition extends to some other articles, such as onions, garlic, mushrooms, etc. At times of marriages, deaths or initiations, it is usual to give feasts, which may be attended by all Dravida Brahmins. The Shivallis have 252 gotras, and the names of the following seem to be of totemistic origin:--

Kudrettaya, from kudre, a horse, taya, belonging to. Talitaya, palmyra palm. Manolitaya, name of a vegetable. Shunnataya, chunam, lime. Kalambitaya, a kind of box. Nellitaya, the Indian gooseberry. Goli, banyan tree. Ane, elephant.