Metamorphism
in the meaning purported by some of the heritage words
by attribution of negative characters by their cultural opponents during the evolutionary
course of time makes an interesting study in the context of sociological
evolution of our terrain.
We get an impression that in the course of tribal immigrations in our land, every new tribe that occupied
the land considered itself superior and treated the preexisting one as subordinate and back ward.
We shall
discuss in this post some of the tribal names like Neecha, Rāka (Rakshasa),
Asura, Mansa etc and how their essential connotations drastically changed with
advent and ascent of fresh waves of immigration followed by socio-cultural domination in the land.
Neecha
In many of
the Tulu households, during special festive dinner occasions, it is customary
before the commencement of dinner to earmark and serve and set aside a representative
portion of the food reverently for a number of ancestral Spirits. One of these ancestral
Spirits is called Neecha. The exact identity,
origin and antiquity of the Spirit Neecha
is rather obscure.
Some opine
that a person named Neecha was the attendant
of the Spirit popularly known as Babbu or Babbuswamy. This Neecha, the attendant, could not have been the object of utmost
respect reserved for Neecha in Tulu
households (and to whom first portion of the premium food is dedicated). In
general, it can be inferred that the Neecha
was the name of a prominent and virtuous tribal person who was quite
reverent to Tulu people traditionally since ages.
However, the
interesting twist in the story is that the personal name Neecha has lost its original meaning (whatsoever, we are ignorant
of the original meaning of the word) and acquired a meaning of inferiority with
passage of time. The term neeche in
Prakrit, Marati and Hindi acquired the meaning of lower or inferior. Similarly,
in Sanskrit neecha refers to a person
of inferior demeanor. Even though the original meaning of the word neecha in the tribal language is not
known now, it could not have been something like inferior because nobody would
like to affix such negative names to their children. However, the term later in
the history was employed to refer to persons of shady or unfaithful character
reflecting the attitude of superiority of the so called cultured invaders
towards the native tribes in those days.
Rāka, Rāhu, Rākshas
In our
scriptures the Rakshas are considered to be a tribe of cannibals, even though
the exact identity and distribution of the tribe is not traceable at present.
In this
context note that Rāka is an ancient name of tribal origin probably
that meant dark or darkness. The original tribal name Rāka or Rāku probably represented the dark skin color of the person
or tribe. For example, Honna and Rāka were two valiant brothers who are still
being worshipped after their death in Ankola region in Uttara Kannada (like
Koti-Chennaya of Tulunadu).
The modern proper
name Rākesh,
is based on the ancient tribal name of Rāka
and has survived even today and it is said to represent the Moon or the God of
darkness.
It seems the name Rāhu was a variant of the
name Rāka or Rāku. The name Rāhu has
been designated for a planet in Indian Astrology and also it is apparent that
the name Rāhul has been derived from the same source.
However, it
can be seen that the tribe of Rakas or the Rakshas
were visualized and considered as cruel, despicable and ugly demons in our
scriptures and epics. Probably this sort of visualization arose from the
cannibalistic character of these early primitive tribes.
Asura
Asura is the name of a tribal group among Austro-Asiatic Munda tribes. The
scriptures have envisaged Asuras
essentially as villainous militant groups that ever clashed with the divine Sura or Deva groups (white skinned immigrants?). King Bali, for example was an Asura King with noble virtues and his
subjects loved him deeply for his exemplary humaniatrian qualities. On the contrary
scriptures narrate conflicts between Asuras and Devas and describe how the King
Bali was subjugated by Lord Vishnu in disguise in the incarnation of midget Vāmana.
However,
note that in Tulunadu and many parts of Southern India people celebrate the
festival of lights, Deepavali, in
honor of the dethroned Asura King Bali who is said to return to the earth once
in a year to meet his beloved subjects.
Mr. Ravi,
ReplyDeleteI see many things written by you on Tulunadu. Would like to know what are the references of these information. These seem to be quite exhaustive. Are you an History student or something?
Also, i would like to know more about the 'Nagadarshana' & the significance of the place Tibaar
How nice would it have been, if you had at least given your name instead of being "Anonymous" to me!
DeleteAnyway, thanks for your interest on my Posts on Tulunadu.
Basically I am a professional geologist by the line of education I pursued.Since childhood somehow I was perplexed about the way we are, our cultural heritage, our language and so on.In a way the posts are result of my own discoveries into these issues that were perplexing my mind. Some seven years ago, I made it a point to share with the world whatever I gather from my personal understanding and analysis of the issues. Of course, the line of education and the research background have helped me to analyse the available data in alternate ways to arrive at the logical inferences.