Proto Dravidian Religion Reconstrucion

I try to reconstruct the Proto Dravidian religion.
Sources:
www.jstor.org/...
www.bibhudevmi...
www.sil.org/sy...
www.forgottenb...
www.jstor.org/...

[@arcsaber1127]

There is a seal from the IVC with 7 "women" and some kind of sacrificial offering, and it has a priest/priestess praying to a diety within some kind of decorative arrangement. Some speculate this has something to do with saptamatrika (the 7 "women")

[@AbhiramN_1289]

I am aware of that seal. But it could also be the 7 sages. It could also be the Krittikas.

[@arcsaber1127]

@@AbhiramN_1289 Yeah, not sure. But the Pashupati seal bears an almost exact resemblance to the current Pashupati god (including the hand braces, posture and animals). It is interesting you mention kutika because a lot of the murtis in temples seem to have some kind of hut or enclosure like structure surrounding them, which could mean they were infact initially housed in such structures. Also several Indus seals have those peepal leaf shaped decorations found even today around temple idols (probably garlands or some such). Maybe I'm just reading too much into them, but I just found it to be too much of a coincidence, especially given they're in roughly the same region. By the way if you're exploring Dravidian and local religions, do look up the Baghor stone

[@arcsaber1127]

@@AbhiramN_1289 There are a few other cultures that aren't as well known as the IVC but they were almost civilizations in themselves, contemporaneous with the IVC. The most mysterious one of them is the one called Pandu Rajar Dhibi in Bengal. Other better known (but still not as much as the IVC) were the Malwa and Jorwe

[@sakthimadhankumar3254]

@@AbhiramN_1289 There is the sacrifice of a goat. This is done in Velan being posesses by Seyon (Murugan/Skandha). This is described in detail in Nakeerar's Thirumurugattruppadai.

[@eastbayflora]

@@sakthimadhankumar3254 Yes i agree. Animal sacrifice is part of south indian folk religion. Even in rural Telangana, there is still Buffalo sacrifice, in the same exact way which is shown in IVC sacrifice seal

[@christophmahler]

I'd argue, the categorization between 'Vedanta high gods' and 'Dravidian animism' is moot since the Celts and German speaking tribes worship sacred groves and local artifacts as well, including ancestor spirits (manu). Furthermore, it shouldn't surprise when _a group in migration_ lost it's local pantheon and shifted toward generalized sky gods - the same is arguably reflected in Judaism since the exodus of Abraham from a Sumerian/Babylonian Ur. Still, the video is a useful introduction.

[@ramz_teccyz2055]

A proto dravidian religion that united different south indian communities is not likely. The tamil religion from the sangam age has a lot of its ideas based on the environment of the tamil homeland tamilakam so not sure other dravidian speaking communities would be involved in a sense.

[@ABO-Destiny]

The dravidian culture is similar in all places of coastal indian sub continent including Bangladesh and south india. It us similar to animistic cultures of Sub saharan Africa but unlike culture of Northern India and much unlike cultures of Himalayan India. I strongly believe Hinduism formed as amalgamation of Indo European Vedic religion and existing Dravidian and other local cultures of Indian Sub continent. It is also the reason why these beliefs in spirits and demons and rituals and customs based on these ideas survive till this day all across coastal India and Bangladesh even when the later is dominantly Muslim and South India has strong european cultural presence. This culture is also present in Southern South East Asia. I am not very sure of Southern Pakistan or Coastal Gujarat however. The indo european culture principally surives across the riverine belts of Pakistan, Northern Pakistan, Riverine India including the jamuna - gangetic basin stretching right into Bangladesh where it intermingles with dravidian culture based coastal region cultures in areas around Sunderbans and Districts of Barisal, Khulna, Jessore. The Himalayan belt of Northern Pakistan, Northern India,North East India also sees a mixture of Indo European riverine cultures and Tibeto Mongolian cultures of Asian highlands and austronesian cultures of South East Asia and they are much more evidence oriented, much more social cohesiveness oriented unlike dravidian and sub saharan african culture which is much more individualistic and as said heroism oriented.

[@sagnik3556]

aren't most aspects of tantra derived from eastern indian beliefs? also orissa has festivals where godesses possess humans.

[@AbhiramN_1289]

Perhaps so. The Dravidian culture may have been more widespread than thought.alternatively, these eastern tantric practices originated from Austroasiatic people. Or it could be a bit of both.

[@sagnik3556]

@@AbhiramN_1289 shouldn't there also be tibeto-burman influences in east india?

[@AbhiramN_1289]

@@sagnik3556 Perhaps, but that is more of a recent thing. Are you talking about the Ahom people? If so know that the Ahoms were influenced by the Austroasiatic tribals and Hindus more that they inflenced them.

[@AbhiramN_1289]

Examples of tribal beliefs in Hinduism is Kali and and Jagannatha and a local history deity called Stambheswari.

[@sagnik3556]

@@AbhiramN_1289 what part of india does kali originate from?

[@Hinduism_is_best_bestie]

do you have twitter