34. Ten incarnations of Vishnu

A number of several older theological faiths and beliefs prevalent in the northern Indian society at that time in the history (ca.300 BC or later) were synthesized into a uniform model of incarnations. The ten divinities conceived by earlier civilization sects were recomposed and unified into the concept of ten avatāras of Lord Vishnu. The words ava (=downward) + tāra (=passage) refers to the descent of God into earth in human/animal forms. These include:
1. Matsya -The fish God
2 Koorma-The Tortoise
3. Varāha-The Boar
4. Narasimha- The Lion Man
5. Vāmana-The Dwarf
6. Parashurāma-The Axe Rama
7. Rāma
8. Krishna
9. Balarām/ Buddha and
10. Kalki.
All these incarnations are essentially adoption and mythification of ten different faiths that prevailed at different time periods of evolution of civilization in the Indian subcontinent.
The stories are also more or less, probably unknowingly, arranged according to evolution of life starting with the primitive vertebrate fish and culminating with most evolved human beings
1. The acceptance of ‘Matsya’ or The Fish God as an avatar throws light into one of the major disputes relating to the deciphering of Indus valley civilization. The seals unearthed from the archeological sites of Indus valley civilization, like Harapa and Mohenjodaro, contain a large number of images of fish pictograms. These fish symbols were interpreted as representing stars according to Iravattam Mahadevan (on the basis of dual meaning of the word “meen” in Dravidian languages); whereas Asko Parpola maintained that these represent the Fish God revered by the inhabitants of the Indus valley. It appears that the interpretation of Asko Parpola is more in order. The concept of the Fish God worshipped by the Indus valley people (mainly Dravidians?) remained in the mindsets of the people long after the destruction of Indus valley civilization. Later in the history, the same concept/myth was adopted into Vaishnavism (Vishnu cult) as Matsya avatār, the initial incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
2. The role of the Giant Tortoise, the Koorma avatār, is remembered in the occasion of mythological churning of the Sea (Samudra mathana) for obtaining the amrutha. The rivalry between the Sura (divine persons) and Asura (demons) groups manifested in this legend is an exaggerated version of churning of buttermilk for obtaining butter. During the early history cattle grazing and dairy activities were widespread in the subcontinent. Even Krishna belonged to the family of cattle keepers (Yadavs). The mythical legend visualizes Mount of Meru placed on the Koorma as the churning rod tied with Adishesha ( the serpent associated with Vishnu), as the churning rope pulled in a tug of war fashion by Sura and Asura groups on opposite ends. The whole churning process is done in the sea (instead of buttermilk pot) and ‘amrutha’ (the elixir) is sought out of this churning instead of butter. The entire mythical fantasy glorifies the rivalry and animosity between Vedic Aryan and Jew tribes that shared similar and contemporaneous cultural evolution during the time.
3. Similarly the Great Boar was worshipped in northwestern subcontinent during the early historical period. The Boar spirit-god (‘daiva’) ‘Panjurli’ worshipped by Tulu tribes must have been the original source of this myth. According the legend of ten incarnations, the Boar God (Varaha) rescued the Earth from the fury of the Sea and it also eliminated Hiranyaksha, the brother of Hiranyakashipu.
4. The Narasimha (the Lion-man or the half man-half lion avatār) represents the story of an innocent boy Prahlada rescued from the clutches of the tyrant father Hiranyakashipu, but with lot of fantasies attached to it. According to legends, Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha were the Asura brothers born to sage Kashyapa, the grandson of Lord Brahma. Sage Kashyapa had four wifes namely Diti, Aditi, Vinita and Kudroo. Diti and Aditi were sisters of Gauri, the wife of Lord Shiva. Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha were born to Diti. The Sura class (Gods) were born to Aditi. Vinita gave rise to Garuda (the Eagle), the carrier of Vishnu. Kudroo gave rise to Nagas, the serpent class. The Naga worship was in vogue since earliest days of civilization.
The Garuda (eagle) concept itself is interesting. Abraham, the prophet, was traveling on horse-back. The original Brahma derived from Abraham, was also horse mounted. (However, the Brahma’s configuration subsequently changed with time.) In the fashion of original Brahma, it became a convention later to depict swift carrier animals (sole vehicles of that time) for all Gods. Incidentally the eagle is also the killer of snakes. Thus myth creators chose Garuda as vehicle for the Vishnu, maybe also to subjugate the dominance of the Naga cult.
We can see amalgamation of several myths in these legends. The origin of Gods (Sura class), Demons (Asura class), Naga class and Garuda were theologically explained in these fantasies. The word ‘daitya’ (=giant) has come from Diti. Apparently, the daityas (the Asura class), were huge in build: possible connotation to tall Caucasian race.
5. The story of Vamana, the dwarf, is somewhat perverse. It demonstrated the glorification of the mischievous demand of a dwarf who asked land for placing three steps and cunningly subjugated the righteous King Bali, who was a very popular king respected and loved by his subjects. The respect for King Bali continued among his subjects even after he was vanquished to ‘Patala’. Tulu and Malayali people since ages traditionally celebrate a special night of lights, in honour of King Baliyendra, during every Deepavali. Thinking in terms of natural justice, there was no fault on the part of King Bali except that he belonged to the so called Asura class.
6. The Parashurama was a determinant, powerful man who killed many Kshatriya kings to avenge the insult done to his family. To distinguish from the Rama proper of Ramayana, this man was called Parashu-ram, the word ‘parashu’ referring to the weapon which he carried with him, the axe.
But the real fantasy attached to the Par ashram in the West Coast of India, Konkan Karavali and Malabar, is that he retrieved the coastal land from the Lord of Sea. He made agreement with the (Arabian) Sea that land upto where he can throw his axe, be vacated by the Sea. This is an interesting story of retreat of the Sea attributed to a fantasy superhuman character. Regression and transgression of the Seas is a phenomenon that has occurred all over the globe at during the historical past. The most recent regression documented in the West coast is about 6000 years ago, according to geologists. People living during the time of regression of the Sea, witnessed the dumbfounding phenomenon and the story was passed down the history through oral transmission from older to younger generations. After a few generations the story was attributed to this hero Parashurama, who they imagined could do this kind of feat using his superb axe.
7. The story of Rama may be a prehistoric pre-Vedic folk-tale told and retold to generations from elder members to younger ones. The characteristic presence of monkeys or primitive human beings (apes or ape-like hairy men) puts the date to prehistory. The story was blended with mild doses of fantasy and was repackaged by Valmiki, a hunter turned poet approximately during the period 500 to 800 BC. At the time of re-composition of the Ramayana, the concept of Brahma was evolving from the primitive concept of horse-mounted tribal hero based on the life of Abraham (Tulu Brahma: the Bermer) to four headed God of creation. Brahma was eulogized and blown into a fantasy of greatness as analysed in detail by S.S N. Murthy. He was also pictured as a ten-headed deity. It is interesting to note that much of the geography of southern India and Srilanka have been described in Ramayana. People must have been freely traveling by foot at that time in these areas.
8. The Krishna again was a mass hero, popular since his childhood days. The epic of Mahabharata is an unbelievably expansive canvas of blow-ups and fantasies built around an actual late to post-Vedic war of ten kings, as analysed by S.S.N.Murthy and others.
Both Rama and Krishna are hailed as blue-skinned (eulogy for the pleasantly dark- skinned) God incarnates. The emphasis on ‘blue skin’ reveals that there were light skinned people at that time. It also indicates that these Rama and Krishna were from the dark-skinned natives of that time.
9. Balarām, Krishna’s brother, was considered as one of the incarnations in the beginning but later was replaced by Buddha, who was more popular at the time of synthesis of the concept of ten incarnations.
10. Kalki is the futuristic fantasy of the ten incarnations that hopefully wishes that God shall come again to set things right, if bad continues to prevail on the world. It was an empty slot reserved for the unseen future mass Hero.
The Balaram-Buddha changes suggest that the list of incarnations were compiled at the time of Buddha and peak of Buddhism.
I have recounted the simplistic analysis of the sociological growth and evolution of theological concepts in our land. For theological documentation of the ten incarnations of Vishnu, kindly peruse Guru Vishwanath’s blog posts dated August-September 2005.
In Tulunadu and Kerala, initially, at least from ca. 500 BC, it was the dominance of spirit worship that has continued to sway even today. Shiva and Ganesha temples were introduced after 5th Century AD by Kadamba Kings, who dominated over local Alupa chieftains. The Kadamba Kings followed Shiva cult possibly under the influence of Pallava Kings.
By the time of Acharya Shankara (ca 9th Century AD), the Krishna cult spread to Tulunadu and Kerala. According to legends, the Krishna was the deity in the family of Shankara. Madhvacharya of Udupi further popularised the Krishna cult during the 12th century in the West Coast.

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33. Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh

The historical evolution of theological concepts and pantheon in the Indian subcontinent is very interesting for the sociological studies. Primitive Indian societies believed in the special powers of the generative organs to procreate. Thus male and female sexual organs were ritually worshipped. The phallus (Linga) worship later was absorbed into Shaiva cult and the Linga became a representation of Shiva. On similar lines the primitive cult of vulva (Yoni) worship and Mother Godess worship amalgamated with Shakti/ Devi worship.
Brahma is probably the earlier major God in this subcontinent. Until then Vedic Aryans worshipped various elements of the nature in the form of Indra, Agni, Marut, Mitra, Varuna etc.
The legend of Abraham, the mass leader of Jews, who is also credited to have built the Kaaba at Mecca in association with his father, was so powerful in the region that any communities resorted to the worship of his spirit after his death. The Tulu settlers absorbed the Brahma legend in original form northwestern India, carried the concepts when they subsequently migrated south, still retain the vestiges of early forms of Brahma worship in the coastal Karavali Karnataka. The other migrant people also carried the concepts but these concepts changed with time and changes in the concept of Brahma. Apparently the ancient Jainism also adopted the concept of Brahma.
With ascendance of concept Brahma, the natures Gods were reduced to minor or lesser Gods. Brahma originally a horse mounted, bearded hero slowly evolved into a four headed creator, the four heads representing the four Vedas. Ramayana also showcased the ten headed Brahma. Myths and fantasy were added with detailed poetic imaginations and fantasies to elevate the status and power of the divine elements at popular level.
At the same time Shiva and Vishnu came into prominence among different cultural groups that made the Indian society at that period. Similar to Brahma, the original legends and characters of Shiva and Vishnu might have been based on the lives of exceptional mass heroes of that time. Incidentally both of these Gods were dark or black skinned like their natives of that time but were poetically called ‘blue skinned’ (Shyamala Varna).The dark skin indicates that these were Gods of dark skinned Dravida/ Munda tribes.
The Vedic Aryans when they moved out of their settlements into domains of various provincial kings they had serve under the Dravida/Munda kings for livelihood. Dravida/ Munda Kings who believed in their dark skinned Heroes turned to Gods rather than Vedic Gods (like Mitra, Varuna, Indra, Agni) or the white- skinned bearded Brahma (derived from Abraham). The Vedic Aryans then subsequently converted into Brahmins because of their knowledge of Vedas, had to switch over from Vedic Gods to native dark skinned Gods like Vishnu and Shiva (Mahesh).
At a point in the history, especially after witnessing development of three lines of divine concepts an effort was made to integrate the trilinear faiths into an unified concept of trinities: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the keeper) and Maheswara (the destroyer) were amalgamated into trinity. The famous Trimurthy sculptures of Elephanta caves, Mumbai is an example of this acceptance of merging of three faiths.

It is interesting that Tulu and the Malayali people were not influenced by these Gods in the beginning, especially the later-evolved four headed Brahma, the Vishnu and the Shiva.Shiva was being worshipped by Tamils,settled in Madurai, at least since the beginning of the Christian era (Sangam literatuire period).
Shiva temples were introduced in Tulunad during 5th Century AD, coinciding with Kadamba dynasty at Banavasi.And Vishnu and Krishna concepts came to Tulunad still later.
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32. Origin of Animal and Spirit worship

The existence, nature and form of God have been contested since thousands of years without conclusive answers. However, those who have reposed faith on some form of God have succeeded in their missions since ages because of the power of their faith. Thus it is important to have faith and belief in ones worship in the style of positive thinking. The exact nature or form of God is not important as far as goal is concerned. During the long years of evolutions of human civilization men have worshipped animal gods and their spirits in the beginning. Subsequently they switched over to hero worships and later to Gods in human forms. These evolutionary developments ultimately led to the concept of formless God.

Boar:Panjurli
Earliest form of worships in human civilizations of the Indian subcontinent was animal worship followed by spirit worship. When early nomadic tribal people became agriculturists and settled into habitations and colonies around their agricultural fields (6000 to 4000 BC), their main concern were guarding crops from wild boars. They were unable to tame them or predict their attacks in the beginning. Probably they also held the belief that these boars have a leader or reigning God and wished that by worshipping that Boar God they would be free from the pestering of boars. Apparently this is the way how boar began to be worshipped by the early primitive civilizations. The wild Boar God was the ‘Panjurli’ bhoota or ‘daiva’ of Tulu tribes.
The term ‘bhoota’ refers to spirit of the dead creatures. ‘Daiva’ refers to God. Early societies including primitive Tulu tribes attributed godly status (‘daiva’) to various spirits. The early societies believed that all living creatures continue to live as spirits even after death. This led to the development of the concept of reincarnation.

Serpent:Naga
Similar another mysterious creature that appeared suddenly around their inhabitations, sometimes biting one of their members fatally was cobra or the serpent. Sometimes it did not bite due to unexplainable reason for them at that time. They held in awe the mysterious power of the snakes to kill humans with just a poisonous bite. This led to the concept of serpent or Naga worship in the primitive tribal societies of the Indian subcontinent.
Both these forms of worship (Panjurli and Naga) were later absorbed into the pantheon of Indian Gods Panjurli, the boar revered by the early tribes became the Varāha, the third incarnation of Vishnu. Naga worship was absorbed as serpent around Shiva’s neck and as Adishesha, the poetic mattress and umbrella for the reclining Vishnu. In southern India, at places the Naga worship has subsequently been merged with the worship of Murugan or Subramanya.
. The concept of Panjurli and Naga worship was carried from the northwestern Indian subcontinent to Tulunad along with migrating Tulu tribes, where it is continued to be followed even today. The list of Spirit Gods has grown during the long historical past and the individual Tulu families believe in specific spirits since ages. Even those who subsequently embraced the worship of major Hindu Gods like Shiva Vishnu/Krishna and Shakti /Durga or even Jainism still ardently worship the spirits perpetuated by their lineages.

Fish God
Thinking on similar vein, it appears that the fish symbols portrayed in the Indus valley seals represent the Fish God worshipped by the inhabitants of Indus Valley. The citizens of Indus valley were particularly apprehensive of the floods that characterized the Indus and its tributaries. To ward off floods, possibly they believed in the Fish God that controls the rivers and the Sea. The memories of the Fish God culture survived long after the Indus Valley perished. The legend was absorbed later in the history as the first incarnation of Vishnu.
Another animal figure found in Indus seals is that of bull or bison. Subsequently the bull was adopted as the vehicle of Shiva.

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31. Tulu tribes - Migration from Pirak : 1000-600 BC

The Tulu identity and civilization as it exists now in Tulunad is a composite culture developed chronologically over not less than the last four thousand years. Like numerous rivers and streams flowing into the sea, several individual cultural streams have merged with the Tulu culture at different periods during the long historical past. One of the recognizable major events in the evolution of Tulu language and culture is the contribution of Tulu tribes that migrated to this Tulunad in the remote historical past dating back to the period 1000 to 600 years BC. [I quote the broad period of 400 years – i.e. 1000 to 600 BC- because I am not able to sharpen it more at present. With availability of more historical data, hopefully, we can narrow down this period.]
Iravattam Mahadevan suggested that the Indus valley civilization was an early form of Dravidian culture. Further after the decline of Indus valley civilization, possibly due to migration of rivers and abrupt floods, ca.1900 BC, Dravidians apparently moved out of the Indus valley region and lived in the north and northwest parts of the Indian subcontinent, before the advent of the Aryans. Brahui, a Dravidian language still spoken in Baluchistan, parts of Iran and adjoining areas is evidence in favour of the existence of Dravidians in those parts.
Among those who lived in the northwestern part of Indian subcontinent around Pirak, Mehrgarh, Multan and surrounding areas (now a part of Pakistan) ca.1900 to 1500 BC are Tulu and other Dravidian tribes. Aryans, migrated from Indo-European homelands also settled in these areas and composed the famous Vedas, initially in the oral tradition prevalent at that time.
That Tulu tribes were one of the groups of settlers in this area during the period cited above can be deduced by Atleast four lines of evidences recapitulated here below:
1. Presence of distinct Tulu words in Rigveda like : okha, aaNi, pala/ pela etc. These cited words have been considered by Michael Witzel as words borrowed into the early Sanskrit, since they do not conform to the linguistic word structure of Indo-European language in which the Vedas were composed. Rigveda, in original oral form, has been dated ca.1700-1500 BC. There may be more such words, for example like the suffix -aaN in braahmaN. [cf: previous posts 20,25,28 ]
2. The absorption of the legend of Abraham, into Tulu tradition as Bermer (Brahma) in the original form as a horse mounted hero.
Abraham, a popular leader of masses (legendary prophet for Jews, Christians and Muslims,) lived approximately 2000 BC in the NW Indian subcontinent-Asia Minor-Central Asia region. After his death in the tradition of spirit worship he became the “Bermer(u)” for Tulu tribes. Vedic Aryans converted the Abraham legend into the Brahman, the supreme cosmic creative power. Gradually with time Brahman evolved into the God Brahma with ten or four heads in different Purana epics, by the time of composition of the Ramayana ca. 800-500 BC. The dominance of Lord Brahma in Ramayana has been analysed in detail by SSN Murthy.
Since Tulu tribes carried their original horse mounted “Bermer” image with them to Tulunad before the evolution of the Brahma concept into ten or four headed God of creation, in northern India, the time of Tulu tribe migration can be fixed as pre 500 BC. [cf: previous posts 4, 5, 26,28 ]
3. The presence of ample Prakrit words in Tulu language, speaks of the heritage from their erstwhile homeland in Northwest Indian subcontinent. Especially the word Pirak is interesting. “Pirak” in Tulu language means ‘anything related to remote past’. Incidentally Pirak was the area of early civilization ca. 1700-800 BC. [cf: previous posts 3,6].
4. The basic “moolasthana”( literally means ‘primary inhabitation’ or ‘original homeland’) concept of Tulu tribes settled in Karavali Tulunad homeland is derived from the original concept of the tribes in their former homeland of northwest Indian subcontinent. Even today, Multan is a town in the Punjab province of Pakistan. [cf: previous posts: 9.18.19 30].There is a temple devoted to Prahlada at Multan.The legend of Prahlada,Hiranyakashipu and Narahari might have originated around this place.Incidentally,as pointed out by Manjunath,Prahlada is the grandfather of King Bali(also known as Baliyendra) who is reverred by Tulu and Malayali people since remote historical times.

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30.Multan and moolasthana

The multi-talented great scholar (“Mahapandit”) Indologist, multilinguist (he knew thirteen languages), and widely traveled Kedarnath Pande (1893-1963) was born at Pandah village in Azamgarh district of Uttara Pradesh as a bhumihar Brahmin on 9April1893. He mastered Sanskrit, Hindi and its various dialects of Hindi like Bhojpuri, Malavi, Avadhi, Maithilli, Braj, Rajasthani and Nepali. He studied Pali and Sinhalese languages and read Buddhistic texts in the original form. He converted to Buddhism and changed his name to “Rahul Sankrityayan”. Rahul was the name of Buddha’s son and ‘sankrityayan’ means the assimilator.
“Volga se Ganga” (Original in Hindi, also translated to Kannada “Volga Ganga”) is one of his best works that traces the migration and evolution of Indian people from 6000 BC to present.
Multan is one of the places cited in his work Volga se Ganga.Multan at present is a city and district headquarters in Punjab province of Pakistan. Multan is the simplified version of the Sanskrit name “moolasthan” meaning the original inhabitation.
The original settlers of the ancestral Indian subcontinent in this area called this place as their moolasthan (also written variously as “mūlsthan” or “mūlstan”).The word tan or than was their in Prakrit. It has been traveled along with migrating ancestral Indians absorbed into Marathi and Kannada languages as “thana” or “thane”.
Migrant Tulu tribes retained the moolasthan concept from the original homeland of northwestern Indian subcontinent (now part of Pakistan) and carried it to their subsequent homeland, Tulunad in the Karavali of Karnataka. The early settlements of Tulu tribes in Karavali(coastal Karantaka) are called moolasthanas.(cf:Post).

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29.The Rice: Vrihi and Arih

The relics of rice grains recovered from the archeological sites of Pirak area, Baluchistan suggest that the area was known for rice cultivation around 1700 BC. The mixed civilization at that time period composed of Vedic scholars and proto-Tulu, proto- Tamil and Dravidian communites at Pirak, as has been dealt in earlier posts here before.
Origin of the Sanskrit word ‘Vrihi’ that means rice (Oriza sativa) and sometimes other cereals like wheat and barley, has been discussed by Indological experts like Asko Purpola. The word is generally said to be not directly influenced by or related to the Dravidian words ‘arih’ (Tulu) and ‘arisi’ (Tamil) that represent the rice. On the other hand it has been fairly accepted that the Tamil word ‘arisi’ was adopted by Greek, Latin and also English as ‘rice’.
Sankaran Nair (2003) suggested that ‘Vrihi’ is a modified form of the word ‘varahi’. He cited that there are several varieties of rice designated as Graishmic, Hemanti, Varshic, Sharada, Salini etc described in ancient Sanskrit texts. Varahi is the female form of mythological Varaha, the boar incarnation of Lord Vishnu. (Varahi, is also the name of a river in Western Karnataka).
The word ‘Varahi’ has further ramifications. First connotation is that the Varaha was worshipped at that time by communities and cultures prevalent then at Pirak area. Spirits worshipped by the Tulu communities, even to date, include ‘Panjurli’ which is the Tulu form of Varaha. Appaently, the Panjurli or the Varaha was worshipped more widely at that time. The Varaha concept, later in the history, was absorbed as one of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
Thus the word ‘vrihi’ might have brought into Sanskrit usage as rice was predominantly grown and consumed by those who worshipped the Varaha or Panjurli. Besides, there is certain degree of similarity in pronunciation of the words ‘vrihi’ and ‘arih’.

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28.Significance of the Brahma

One well-wisher who read my post on Brahma commented that I erred in equating the Brahma with Brāhman (pronounced ‘BraahmaN’).
It is not that I equated the two but expressed that the word Brahma gave rise to the word BraahmaN. The latter word came into represent ‘the one who knew about Brahma’. Here the ‘Brahma’ or the ‘Brahman’ (pronounced ‘brahman’) meant the refined theological / metaphysical and esoteric concept of Brahma, the cosmic power that created the universe as well as the supreme power that pervades the universe. Subsequently, the word ‘brahma’ also meant large and gigantic (‘bruhat’). Words like Brahmanda ( literally means ‘the gigantic egg’ =universe), brahma-rakshsha, brahma-ratha, naga-brahma etc came into usage.
My objective of reconstructing the original legend and further the concept of Brahma is to understand the evolution of our religious beliefs from the historical and sociological viewpoint. I am not elaborating the theological aspects that are reasonably well known since it has been dealt extensively by others so far.
A historic heroic person, a leader of masses, Abraham, who claimed to be the creator of tribes, became a legend during his life time and also after his death. He is cited in the Bible and is revered as a leader by the Jews and as a prophet (Ibrahim) by Muslims. The Vedic scholars accepted him as the creator and the ultimate cosmic power. The legend of Abraham/Brahma was spread throughout the connected geographic region of West Asia-Asia Minor-and Central Asia.
The Vedic people and contemporaneous Jews had deep-seated rivalry, in spite of both communities sharing many common concepts and beliefs. Whatever words starting with A the Jews used, Vedics used it without initial A. (It may be the other way round also.) So Ahura or Asura of Jews became Sura for Vedics. (Recall the Sura-Asura wars described in Puranic legends.) Avesta became Veda. Abraham became Brahma and so on.
Some more discussion on the word ‘braahmaN’: The word is composed of ‘brahma + aN’. The word ‘aaN’ is a Tulu word meaning a male person. AaN+ jovu (literally ‘male being’ refers to man) in Tulu. Interestingly, the word ‘jovu’, currently used in Brahmin Tulu to refer to the girl child, is also related to the Sanskrit word ‘jeeva’.
It appears to me that the word ‘aaN’ was borrowed into early Sanskrit from Tulu like some of other words discussed in earlier postings. So the word braahmaN originally meant young male who studied scriptures relating to the knowledge of Brahma, the cosmic power. Perhaps, Prof Michael Witzel may throw better light on the status of the suffix /word ‘aaN’ in Brahman and also ‘jovu’ to ‘jeeva’ conversion or vice versa.
On the whole, these discussions further affirm my theory that atleast some Tulu ancestors dwelled in the Pirak civilized habitation in Sind, Baluchistan during the early historical period when Vedas were composed. The Tulu ancestors that migrated carried the worship of Brahma in the form of ‘Bermer(u)’ to Tulunad their subsequent homeland.
The image of Tulu Bermer (Brahma) was akin to the original form of Abraham, the horse riding hero. In a way these Tulu ancestors were following the ancient cult of hero worship that became the spirit worship after the death of the Abraham. The cult of hero worship (example: Koti- Chennaya, Kanthabare- Boodabare etc) and spirit worship (example Panjurli, Kalurti, Kodamanthaya etc) have continued to persist in Tulu culture even to date.
On second thinking, it appears that cult of Brahma worship was more widespread in India in the past till the ascent and domination of Shaivism. Along with the Tulu people, migrating other Dravidian like Kannada and Tamil ancestors carried the Brahma cult to different parts of southern India as evidenced by the relics of Brahma temples and Brahma name tags like Brahmaiah, Bommaya, Brahmasandra etc. The Jainism absorbed many features of the Brahma cult.

Therefore, the legend of Brahma stands testimony to trace the evolution and transition of our theological faiths from the primitive hero/spirit worship to the concept abstract cosmic powers at higher philosophic metaphysical levels on one hand and that of Hindu Gods in human forms at the other popular level.

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