Cholas, Hindus and the rest?

-Paarpaan

“There is no God. Those who believe in God are savages.” These are some of the golden
words, one gets to exclusively witness, outside major ‘Hindu’ temples in Thamizh Nadu.
E.Ve. Ramaswamy Naicker, the chief among the Dravidian pantheon, wanted his Sishyas to
put up these words under his statue, more as a political statement to hurt the devout. Hence, I
was pleasantly surprised when a prominent actor, who proudly considers himself to be one
such Sishya, recently talked about the Shanmatham (six religious practices) established by
Acharya Sri Adi Shankara and how the ancestors of this land were following Saivam and
Vainavam.
The reason I started with the statement of his ‘Aasaan’ (Guru), has a bigger context to which
we will come to in the latter part of this article. Initially to lay the context of the actor’s recent
statement, during a press meet, he had mentioned that ‘Hindu’ was never an identity in the
past and this was a term associated by the British. The people of this land followed various
mathams (religion), which were different in name. His contention of this identity was to a
specific question on appropriation of the Chola King Arul Mozhi Varman aka Raja Raja
Chozhan (king of kings).
Let us first start with a few facts. One must agree that the term Hindu was foreign, until
Europeans wanted to identify us, as per their understanding. According to our ancestors, our
way of life was eternal. A simple explanation given by the Paramacharya of Kanchi Peetam,
is that you only have the need for a name, when you need to differentiate between two
entities. When something was the first to be there, then the need for name vanishes.
Over time, there were so many practices and religions which were practiced in this land, but
they all came under a common fold. Either they believed in the Vedas or denied the Vedas. In
effect they were categorised as Astika and Nastika. During the time of Adi Shankaracharya,
through debates and discussions, the Acharya was able to bring about all the various Astika
mathas into 6 major folds and established Shanmathams.
In ancient Tamizh Sangam literature also one can find a parallel to that as well as kings and
common folk practicing Vaidhika Dharma (what is said in the Vedas and Sastras).
When one observes all the various vaidhika mathams, they all have the below common
aspects. Primary is the belief in Vedas. They were astika mathams. Chola Kings have
performed various rituals as said in the Vedas and have supported the Brahmins (keepers of
the Vedic knowledge) all during their reign. Various historical citations are available for
Brahmadeyas which have been given by Chola kings. Even today, if you go along the
Tanjore belt, you will find Charturvedi Mangalams, which were agraharams formed at the
patronage of the kings for the preservation of Vedic knowledge. The Chola rulers are said to
get coronated at Thillai under the careful supervision of Deekshadars. So, it is clear that they
had deep belief in the Vedic way of life.
Second is their tolerance towards other religions and practices. It is a well-known fact
Buddhism and Jainism were allowed to flourish under them even though they were Nastika
mathams. This basic idea of tolerance is present in the Vedas at many places. The Upanishad
verse, Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti, clearly indicates that even though the truth is one, it
takes various forms.
Third is the belief in rebirth. A simple example for this is the temples built by the rulers all
over this land. This is a way of righteous living as they knew Temples were the centre of
dharmic activity. Annadhanam were done through temples and building such magnificent
abode for Gods was a way of performing punya. To help them reduce the karmic debt. You
also have some accounts of glorious death in the battlefield, which was considered as the
greatest gift for a Kshatriya. This too clearly gives us enough proof that the Chola kings were
believers in the rebirth and the karmic cycle.
Their citation of being descendants of Lord Rama and belonging to the Surya vamsha, shows
us that they completely believed in our Puranas and Itihasas.
Raja Raja himself had a surname Varman, which denotes his Kshatriya lineage. Varma
meaning Shield, protector of others. Most of the Cholas also had the surname Thevar, which
means Devas.
Apart from all this, one can refer to this below twitter thread, which clearly gives secondary
sources establishing that Cholas ensured that all the major 6 mathams flourished in their
reign.
https://twitter.com/thamizhlab/status/1577947661411311616?
s=20&t=3p0_NHK76bnGvJxa39gPPQ
So, in effect we get to understand that Cholas were indeed pious and devout followers of the
Astika religious sects.
Now coming to the word ‘Hindu’. According to popular research this term was given to people of
this geographic entity, by Persians, citing the Sindhu River. Considering all the above points, we
can surely say that people here followed only the various Astika and Nastika mathams. So, in
effect both these groups were called Hindus. Hence referring to Cholas as Hindus now will not
discount the fact that they were also Saivites. When one can be a Shia/Sunni Muslim,
Catholic/Protestant Christian, what is wrong is being a Saivite Hindu?
Now let us revisit the lines I had quoted to start off this article. In the past decades, identity is
something which has been highly politicised. Initially the non-brahmin identity was strengthened
for votes, wherein a web of deception was spun around the brahmins and caste eradication! One
can say caste surnames have vanished, but caste lines still run deep all over the State. When this
identity binary helped the Dravidian overlords, they enjoyed the game. The reason for having to
propagate their ideas only outside temples was a way of proving their dominance over the
Brahmins (who had already been wrongly portrayed as the devil and temples where their
strongholds). Over and above the non-brahmin identity, they built a Tamil(language) and
Dravidian (regional) identity to strengthen their claim to be the ‘other’. Today, when their
political opponents try to bring forth a new common umbrella term as Hindu, it is natural for
current overlords to send in their minions to oppose this, as they fear this will lead to political
Hindutva coming in.
They were able to fool the people before, but this time, it just may not work as their arguments
fall flat in front of the various primary sources that are available due to the tremendous work of
people like late Shri. Nilakanta Sastri and Shri. R. Nagaswamy.
As Mr. Aravindan Neelkantan once said, “Thamizh Nadu will become the fountainhead of
Hindutva”. Hindutva means Hinduness. A feeling that all are the same in terms of practices and
culture due to our shared history. It is in this land, that Mahadeva walked the streets of
Thiruvarur, gave his cosmic darshan at Thillai. It is in this land, that Ranganatha lies in his divine
form. It is in this land; one can see the Maariamma temples in every nook and corner gracing us
all. It is in this land, that one sees Vinayaka idols all over. Lord Muruga is the patron deity. This
land has seen the Thiruvilayadal (Divine play) of Gods. Hence trying to remove the Hindu
identity of its people is something which even these atheist overlords can only dream about in
vain, during their lifetimes.