Today, Lord Ayyappa is familiar all over India. But once upon a time, his worship was confined to Coorg (a district in the state of Karnataka), the west coast south of Mangalore (in Karnataka), Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Ayyappa is a dweller of the forest in both Coorg and Kerala country. The Coorgis emphasize his prowess in hunting. In Travancore, he is a friend of the peasants guarding their fields and crops and an enemy of wild animals. He is also the lord of rain and of demons. In the Tamil country, he retains his control over rain and demons and he becomes the protector of the village from evil spirits.
According to P.Thankappan Nair, there are three distinct stages in the evolution of the cult of Chathan (as Ayyappa was called earlier in Kerala). In the first instance, he is merely a spirit. In the second stage, he becomes the guardian of villages and the god of hunters. Finally, he is given an honoured place in Hindu mythology and is elevated to Shastha.
The principal votaries of Chathan till the beginning of the 20th century were the primitive Velan, Panan, Pulayan, Kuniyan and other tribes of Kerala as well as the hill tribes inhabiting the high ranges of the state of Kerala. While for the hill tribes, Chathan was their god of hunting, for the tribes inhabiting the plains, he was a malevolent, malignant and heinous poltergeist.
The popular conception of Chathan is that he is a boy of 12 years; hence, he is called Kuttichathan. One who propitiates him at home in secrecy will gain health, wealth and fortune. Chathan seva (worship of Chathan) is confined to the low castes. Kuttichathan’s elevation to Dharma Shastha at Sabarimala is evident from the fact that he is worshipped there as a 12 year old boy.
Chathan elevated to Shastha
Over a period of time, Chathan was elevated to the status of Shashta or Ayyappa and became the favourite deity of the Malayalis. It became an invariable rule in Kerala that in every temple, be it Shiva or Vishnu, there must be in its south-west corner a shrine for Ayyappa. He was considered by them to be the guardian of the land and as such, eight mountain tops along the western ghats are surmounted by eight temples in which are set up eight images of Ayyappa to protect the country from all external evils and misfortunes. Keralolpathi mentions that the god Shastha was made the guardian of the eastern slope and was propitiated for the defence of the land frontier against the incursion of foreigners into the country. Hence, many of the Shastha temples are located in the forest regions.
Ayyappa in Coorg
All over Coorg, there are jungles dedicated to Ayyappa called Devara Kadu or God’s jungles where formerly all hunting was taboo. It is believed that Ayyappa hunts in these jungles at night and he may be heard whistling to his pack of dogs. Coorgis do not hunt on Saturdays and Wednesdays even in other jungles as Ayyappa hunts on these days. Saturday is specially sacred to Ayyappa as it is the day of his birth. Shrines of Ayyappa are common in Coorg especially in gardens, jungles and on the crests of mountains and these shrines vary from crude earthen platform around the foot of trees to regular temples. At some of his shrines especially where Brahmins are priests only vegetarian offerings are permitted whereas in other places, blood sacrifices and offerings of toddy are allowed.
Ayyappa in Tamil Nadu
In Tamil Nadu, Ayyappa is known by the name Ayyanar/Aiyanar and his worship in temples is performed by non-Brahmin priests and non-vegetarian offerings are made. While in Tinnevelly and Tanjore districts, he is given a higher status, in other parts of Tamil Nadu he is one of the guardian deities of the villages and as such is attended by bhutas and pisachas. Ayyanar is depicted as having long curly hair, a crown and earrings of gold leaves. In his two arms he holds the bow and the arrows. He is dark in colour and is seated on a throne below a banyan tree. Some of the malignant demons that attend to Ayyanar are Kuttisattan, Sattan, Karuppan, Mundans and Gulikar. One figure of him at Valuvur represents him riding an elephant while a figure from Rameshvaram represents him as riding on a horse.
Buddhist origin of Ayyappa?
Many scholars regard Ayyappa worship as a relic of Buddhism and in support of it, they point out that Sastha as referred to Ayyappa is one of the names of Buddha. Also, the sing-song repetition of ‘sharanam Ayyappa’ by the pilgrims to the famous Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala is again said to be a relic of Buddhism, because of the association of the triple sharanam formula of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha with the Buddhists. According to P.Thankappan Nair, the shrine at Sabarimala is petty old and is believed to have been originally a great Buddhist vihara. Buddha as conceived and worshipped in the Tamil country was ultimately included in the Hindu pantheon and a Puranic story invented for his origin at a later period of the history of Hindu iconography, opines P.Thankappan Nair. The rites observed by Ayyappans together with abstinence from animal food and drinks, prove that Buddhist doctrines underlie the Sastha worship. But V.Narayana Pillai refutes this view and notes that the word Shastha means one who teaches, instructs, rules, etc., and the word may be applied to any deity whose main functions are protecting, teaching, guarding, etc. Accordingly the village deity Ayyappa who discharged these functions was also called Shashta. V.Narayana Pillai also points out that the images of Shashta do not show any resemblance to the images of the Buddha. The Shastha image of the famous Sabarimala temple is represented with a crown and jewels and ornaments and this image answers closely to the description of Aiyanar, a village deity of Tamil Nadu. Also, in some temples Ayyappa is represented as riding a horse. Hence V.Narayana Pillai asserts that it is not Buddha but Aiyanar the village deity worshiped in Tamil Nadu which is worshiped as Shastha in Malbar and he is also identified with Sattan or Chathan.
Marital status of Ayyappa
On the west coast there is a belief that Ayyappa is a celibate but in the Tamil country he is usually portrayed as having two wives, Puranai and Pudkalai. In southern Travancore too he has two wives, Madana and Varnani.
Sanskritization of Ayyappa
While local forest deities like Sattan (Chathan), Aiyanar, etc., are found mentioned in Sangam works, we do not find references to Shastha or Ayyappa in them. The first serious notice of Ayyappa is found in Keralolpathi, a work of 17th or 18th century A.D. Similarly, there is no mention of Ayyappa in early Sanskrit works. It is only in the Bhagavata that we learn for the first time that Hara fell in love with Vishnu in his form of Mohini and from the union between them, Shasta, Arya or Hariharaputra is said have been born. According to V.Narayana Pillai the origin of the name Hariharaputra can be explained by the supposition that it is the result of an attempt on the part of Shavites and Vaishnavites to incorporate the Dravidian village deity of Aiyanar or Chathan/Sattan into the Hindu pantheon.
Ayyappa’s birth in Kerala
Regarding the story of Hariharaputra (Manikanta or Ayyappa) migrating to Kerala, it is said that a rich Brahmin by name Vijaya lived in the kingdom of Pandya. He longed for a son and was advised to pay obeisance to Sabari, the great devotee of Sri Rama. As advised by her, Vijaya had a dip in a nearby tank which is today known as Sabarithirtham and his sins were washed away. Lord Shastha appeared before him and promised him that he (Shastha) would become his son in his (Vijaya’s) next birth.
Vijaya was born as King Rajashekara in the palace of Pandalam/Panthalam, a petty kingdom in Kerala. Rajashekara was a pious, noble, charitable and just ruler who had no issues. Once during the course of a hunting expedition, he came across a child on the banks of river Pampa and on the advise of a Brahmin (sage Agastya) he brought him home and named him Manikanta as he had a golden bell on his neck. Soon after Manikanta’s arrival, the queen of Rajashekara delivered a baby boy. As Rajashekara had selected Manikanta as his heir-apparent, the queen was jealous of him and wanted to get rid of him as she wanted her son to be the next successor. Along with her Diwan, she hatched a plan for a pretended severe sickness for which the milk of the leopardess was the remedy prescribed by the royal physician.
Manikanta volunteered to get the leopardess milk and went alone to the forest. It is said that on his arrival, all the sages transformed themselves into leopards and Devendra himself assumed the form of a tiger. Manikanta reached the palace riding on the tiger, accompanied by the leopards. The Raja sensed the supernatural powers of Manikanta and realized that he was none other than Hariharaputra.
Sage Agastya came to the palace and told Rajashekara about the divine drama and the fulfillment of the divine ordinance of Lord Dharma Shastha’s twelve year stay at his palace. The Raja requested the Lord to stay in his country and Shastha pointed out a spot where a temple was to be built by shooting an arrow that hit the great banyan tree Saramkuttiyal. The Lord then ordained that the temple should have 18 steps representing the five indriyas, the eight rajas, the three gunas, vidya and avidya. He also prescribed the austerities to be observed by devotees before undertaking a pilgrimage to the temple. After giving these instructions, the Lord disappeared.
At present, the Sabarimala temple is open for fifty one days during December and part of January. The pilgrims subject themselves to forty one days of austere diet and complete sexual abstinence. The pilgrims are distinguished from the general mass of people by their blue, black and ochre-coloured dress. Apart from Sabarimala, other prominent temples of Ayyappa are located at Achencoil, Kulathupuzha, Arienkavu and Thagazhi. In Hindu mythology, Sattan, Shashta, Aiyan, Aiyanar, Ayyappa and Hariharaputra are synonyms used to refer to the same god. The story of Ayyappa illustrates clearly how local cults all over India are woven into Sanskritic Hinduism which makes a local group become part of an all India community.
Reference :
P.P.Narayanan Nambudiri – Bhakti Cult in Kerala, Proceedings of the Indian Historical Congress, volume -42, 1981
P. Thankappan Nair – The Cult of Chathan and Sastha worship, Quarterly Journal of Mythic Society, volume – 60,1969-70
M.N.Srinivas – A Brief Note on Ayyappa, the South Indian deity in Prof Ghurye Felicitation Volume, Edited by K.M.Kapadia
T.A.Gopinatha Rao – Elements of Hindu Iconography, volume-2, part-2
V.Narayana Pillai – Shasta Cult in Travancore. Is it a relic of Buddhism?, Proceedings of the Indian Historical Congress, volume – 3, 1939
H.Krishna Sastri- South Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses, Madras Government Press, 1916