The Godavari: Syncretism in the Hindu Tradition

It had been an interesting fortnight where i found myself attempting to get back to teaching only to be rebuffed by purportedly my senior colleagues who claimed that i was intolerably ‘cynical’ if not incompetent, surprising even my previous dean. I was reminded of Sayre’s Law that “academic politics are vicious and bitter simply because the stakes are so low”. My mother insisted we close that chapter and that we go to the Godavari Kumbh that commenced on 14^th July 2015 and perform the obsequies for my father. This article traces the idea of the Godavari and why it stands as a symbol of the blending of disparate traditions within the Hindu fold. It is a rather lengthy and demanding read as it tries to gather the several strands of history and myth to weave a coherent narrative. The central thesis of the essay is the assimilation into the Vedic fold the Agamic traditions which were considered as beyond the pale of Aryan influence, The Godavari and Gautama one of the seven rivers and rishis has been used to anchor this pivotal moment that changed the course of Hindu faith.

Ramkund, Nashik, Banks of the Godavari

The rain beat down with some insistence, bathing me after a dip into the brown waters of the Godavari, muddy littered with flower offerings and possibly ashes, despite the proximity to its source. We were bathing in the rains at Ramkund on the banks of the river to fulfil my mother’s earnest desire to perform my father’s ‘shradh’ or propitiation to his spirit after his passing away at the time of the last Kumbh in 2003. Though the Kumbh 2015 had commenced, there were not the worryingly stampede inducing crowds at Nashik. The priest commenced his chants as i sat quaking like a leaf, bare except a small white cloth around my waist in the rain staring at the seat made of grass stalks for my ancestors, filled with sweetened rice balls colourfully in contrast with the grey day and worn flagstones decorated with flowers, turmeric, vermilion, sandal, black sesame, unhusked rice, swirling incense, and a sputtered lamp in that ancient ground. I was to make those offerings to the triads of paternal and maternal great grandparents ending with my father’s generation in a patriarchal sequence, and finally immerse them much to my relief in the swirling waters of the Godavari that had blessed my lands for generations of farmers lower down at the delta at Andhra Pradesh. My mother despite her arthritic pains had stood beside at the recitations, umbrella in hand drenched and solemn, breaking into tears.

It was little comfort that millions more were doing these rituals at the delta near Rajahmundry at Andhra Pradesh making the more rational and liberal minded wince. Interestingly the myth at the source and that at the delta were different, inspiring different motivations.

Pind or Rice cake offerings

The people of Andhra were celebrating the entry of the Brahmin Pushkara (which means ‘a lake’-notice the etymological similarity with Saraswati “provided with ponds”) coursing through the river, purifying its devotees of their error and blessing the lands to remain bounteous. The source at Maharashtra was celebrating the the accidental fall of the nectar of immortality into the river as the gods and titans fought, rubbing off its merit on humans. Both marked their calendars with Jupiter entering the constellation of Leo and remaining there for a year. Nashik itself broke into two with the Vaishnavas bathing at Ramkund while the Shaivas at Trayambakeshwar each claiming exclusivity and antiquity. However what was probably unnoticed or unknown to the bathers was that this celebration was the legitimation of a disparate set of traditions in the Hindu fold Brahminical and non-Brahmin that were uneasily nestled in each other’s bosom and now assumed to be of a single unbroken monolithic practice of faith. It is also a tale of how the Vedic Gods were assimilated into newer names and forms and were given their distinctive mythology and iconography.  I believe that the Godavari is symbolic of the syncretism of diverse traditions as we shall explore in this article.

We often tend to assume that history is a linear progression of almost an inevitable teleological (the view that everything moves towards a final purpose) progress. This is in face of facts that most ideas evolve fortuitously, are accidents of time and circumstances. They lie hidden behind a web of multiple causes each interplaying with several others to give a cross sectional view that is complex. One often wonders how the simple ‘aniconic’ representations of divinity in the Vedic times such as fire, sacrificial pits, posts, implements or even wheels, parasols, ladders, lotuses etc  changed to give us more complex iconographic representations; the mystifying burgeoning multi limbed and multi faced Gods that we witness today. This evolution was never linear, simple nor ineluctable; but products of complex causes where people and groups acted out of diverse motivations, some religious, some political. This phenomenon where disparate and even contradictory traditions of varying antiquity are assimilated into a unified system is called religious syncretism. All religions have syncretic elements which are why their adherents lay claims on purity and antiquity of their originary sources as also markers of difference and lay claims on being the ‘elect’. But that is probably a story that needs some retelling.

As i spread the grass stalks on the bare ground, my priest asked me to think of my ancestors seated in front in groups of three as father, grandfather, and great grandfather, each probably wagging their index finger at me in admonition. My priest i imagined sneered when i mentioned that my lineage or gotra was the same on both my parents’ side. These were my pitris worthy of receiving oblations, and provisions in a sense of filial piety and that they are appeased and find peace, thanking them for all we are and have. The pitris in the Hindu imagination were born of Hiranyagarbha (golden embryo) Manu who probably gave rise to heat (tapas) and then to seasons (ritu) and truth (satya) within a cosmic order (rta) who had seven sons Virat, Marichi, Atri, Kavi, Angiras, Pulastya and Vasishtha. It was their sons who constituted the hosts called ganas and lineages were born of these seven groups of hosts. These seven pitri ganas resonate with the better known seven rishis or seers of the Vedic mantras (mantra drashta) we can see how these were conflated. Each Vedic poem was born of a rishi and was addressed to a deity and had a distinct metre. The etymology of the rishi indicates ‘the rays of the sun” which were seven in number and illuminated everything in the world and thus could have insight into everything. The lists of the rishis varied but included some common ones. The etymology of the rishi names were themselves derived from the sacrificial pit, viz. he who emerged fried from the fire-Brigu, he who emerged from the embers Angiras, he who was dug out to generate more Atri (not just three), from deeper was Vaikhanasa, and then the one of great locks was Pulastya, and then one of flowing hair Pulaha and then the one who emerged from the coins Vasishtha. This list varied and is not consistent with other lists which might include Vishwamitra, Gautama, Bharadwaja, Kashyapa, Jamadagni, Kratu, Marichi and others depending on which tradition, of agama or text one followed. Later myth invented several cycles of time (Manavantara) each presided with different sets of seven rishis.

The rain poured all around and was making way into the shiny brass pot that i covered with my right palm; filled with the waters of the river and i invoked the seven rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri into the little pot. I wanted to tell the priest as he sat huddled under an umbrella that this imagination of the seven rivers that constituted the sacred geography of the Hindu is of a much later antiquity. Aryavarta was originally the land of the seven rivers Saptasindhu which largely lie in present day Pakistan (Indus-Sindhu, Jhelum-Vitasta, Swat-Suvastu, Ravi-Parushni , Sutlej-Sutudri, Kabul-Kubha,

Map of the Vedic Civilization

Chenab-Asikini-these were apart from the Harax’aiti -Saraswati the most important river at Helmand province).  That sacred geography kept migrating eastwards until it reached the “Vanga” desa and described in the Shatapatha Brahmana text of the Veda as a migration from Kuru-Panchala to Videha; further it progressed south till it reached the Vindhya-Satpura range. In popular imagination Agastya subdued the Vindhya to make a passageway for a Brahmin migration southwards to establish Vedic traditions there. The term Vedabahya or beyond the pale of Vedic authority was geographic and referred to these regions which were the land of the original inhabitants probably bundled up as Dravidadesa. In other words south of the Vindhya was a non Vedic land and was not blessed by the Vedic gods. Probably economic pressures including climate change and erratic monsoons, drought and famine caused migrations southwards and finally drew its boundaries around the Godavari of the Dakshin (Deccan).  It was on the banks of the Godavari that the term Vedabahya was to take a new meaning and would not be the end to the Brahmin cultural influence if not colonisation of the south. The seven rivers now included different flows and were now associated with seven rishis.

The Godavari was also called Gautami or the daughter of the rishi Gautama. It is likely that there were several Gautamas through history (including the Buddha). Maharishi Gautama of the Veda was from the lineage of Angiras and was the son of Rahugana. He had composed many verses in the Rik as also the Bhadra of the Saama. He was married to Ahalya and had two sons Vamadeva and Nodhas who had also composed Vedic verses.  It is quite likely that the Gautama and Ahalya of the Ramayana were not necessarily identical with this Gautama as their purported son Shatananada was a high priest at Mithila very far from the Godavari. Puranic mythology narrates the tale of Gautama who granted refuge to migrating rishis from hermitages in the North fleeing a famine that had ravaged their lands for 12 years. The famine probably resonates with astrological significance with Jupiter repeating his cycle in 12 years in each of which a river is celebrated. After the famine abated the rishis tricked Gautama into believing that he accidentally caused the death of an enfeebled cow and thereby giving a reason for their exit. He was to bring the waters of the Ganges by propitiating Shiva who gave him a lock of hair with the waters that became the Godavari. But sensing the deception Gautama cursed the migrating rishis to be beyond the pale of the Vedas or Vedabahyas. On being placated he informed them that they would be progenitors of a new tradition among Brahmins who would advocate Bhakti and engage in devotion and image worship. They would follow new scriptures that would not be the Veda but a fresh set of texts the Agamas which would proliferate with time. This tale clumsily acknowledges the reconciliation or acceptance of the two traditions, that of the Veda and the other that of the Agama (also called Tantra); sometimes called the Vedanta and Agamanta traditions.  The Agamas were themselves not a distinct unified tradition but disparate practices with several sectarian texts that evolved with time. For example in its earliest forms the Shaiva Agamantas included Raudras given to enjoying wine, women and flesh claiming to have emerged from the sweat of Bhairava with the Pashupata shastra. This acceptance of the Agama traditions within Brahmanism was possibly political given the ascendancy of the Shramanic (strivers) faiths like Jainism, Buddhism, Ajivikas, some of who had considerable political patronage and advocated by the urbane merchant classes. Even though these radically divergent traditions seemed irreconcilable, the Brahminical orthodoxy created a new Brahminical heterodoxy to assimilate the numbers within the Brahminical faith. We shall examine two of these Agama traditions that culminated into the great sects of Shaivism and Vaishnavism as they emerge as parallel to the Vedas and only later assimilated into a homogenised tradition. The Gods of the Vedic times were 33 in number (which was considerably expanded by the later mythology into 33 crores as a signifier of might) classified as earthbound: Prithvi, Agni, Soma, Brihaspati and the rivers; as aerial-Indra, Apampat, Vishnu, Rudra, Budhanya, Parjanya etc and as celestial-Dyayus, Varuna, Mitra, Surya, Savitri, Ushas, Ashwinis etc.  The most powerful Vedic gods were Indra, Agni, Varuna, Surya, Yama, Soma, Prithvi and Rudra. It was this hegemony of the Vedic gods that the Agamanta traditions challenged. More importantly the challenge was really one where image worship took centre stage and this transformation effected a proliferation of art and sculpture that was unprecedented and laid down canons of art that is still extant (e.g. the Vishnu Dharmottara).

Even into antiquity, popular rural traditions worshipped heroes known through oral tradition (e.g. the saga of Pabbuji and his worship in Rajasthan today) and mark a sacred place with hero stones. This worship of the vira was extensive in middle and western India and epigraphical and archaeological evidence suggests the cult of the five heroes of the Vrishni clan (panchavira) who included Samkarshna, Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, and Samba. These heroes were known in pairs especially that of Baladeva ( Samkarshna) and Vasudeva. Jain cosmology describes 63 illustrious Shalakapurushas (24 thirthankars, 12 chakravartins or emperors, 9 Baladevas, 9 Vasudevas, and 9 Prativasudevas). In each cycle of time divided into two halves 9 sets of Baladevas, Vasudevas (heroes) and Prativasudevas (antiheroes) emerge. This cult of the Vasudeva describes him as the Supreme Being, was monotheistic and was referred to as Ekantika Dharma. It is likely that the Jains viewed them favourably as they were vegetarians and denounced violence. This cult gradually by the time of the Narayaniya section of the Mahabharata was called the Satvatas and later as the Bhagavata cult. This Vasudeva was no son of Vasudeva and Devaki in the popular mythology, which draws its source from the Veda where Ghora a sage in the line of Angiras (whose line Gautama was) also taught Krishna the son of Devaki. But this is a mere passing reference of one sage called Krishna not the charmer from Vrindavan. Elsewhere in the Veda, Krishna is said to be of the Karshnayana/Kanhayana gotra a sage. The conflation of Vasudeva into Krishna would take a much longer period. In the interim the Vedic god Vishnu was minor and was known for his enthusiasm and in particular as Trivikrama of three steps whose third step was the great resting place (parama padam). He was gaining in ascendancy by the time of the composition of the Brahmanas and is stated to be the greatest of the Gods. He was soon conflated with Aditya as a solar God or even as one of the twelve Adityas. There was a parallel development of another God Narayana who was not the same as Vishnu to begin with. Narayana could possibly have emerged from Nadayana the resting place of the lineage of the Nadas or even Naras or even the final destination of all men.  In the

Viswarupa Vishnu Nepal 12th CE

Shatapatha Brahmana Narayana is asked by Prajapati to sacrifice himself and become all beings, the source of the gods, Vedas, vital airs and worlds, lending to him as to Vishnu the dignity of the Supreme Being. Purusha Narayana was said to have conducted the Pancharatra Sattra or five night sacrifice to become all beings and gain ascendancy. It is thus no coincidence that the Agamas or sacred texts of the Vaishnavas are bundled as Naradiya Pancharatra Agama which is preceded by the older Vaikhanasagama.

This positing of a monotheistic conception of the Supreme Being coalesced as Vishnu, Narayana, and as Vasudeva that would delineate a devotional engagement than ritual practice. This was the Bhagavan or the ‘Adorable One’ who possessed six attributes (bhagas) of knowledge, lordship, power, strength, virility and splendour (jnana,aishwarya, shakti, bala, virya, and tejas). This Bhagavan uses these attributes in combination to generate the material, instrumental and efficient causes (bhuti, kriya and iccha shakti) of all manifestation. He is the object of veneration in a fivefold aspect of the absolute (para), emanation (vyuha), incarnation (vibhava or avatara), the immanent principle (antaryamin) and the image (archa). It is here we notice the complete break with the Vedic tradition of sacrifice and emergence of the worship of icons. This tradition finally coalesced into that of Krishna of the Mahabharata and that of the Bhagavad Gita. The earliest archaeological evidence is the Garuda Stambha or column built at Besnagar near Vidisha in central India by the Greek Heliodorus 2^nd BCE as having converted to the Bhagavata creed and also other epigraphical inscriptions that mention Sankarshna and Vasudeva (e.g. the Mora Well). The adventurous boyhood of Krishna of the Bhagavata Purana takes almost another millennium until 9^th CE and is the final culmination of an idea. Images of Vishnu proliferated with the concept of the Vyuha as an emanation and combinations of the attributes of Bhagavan were given different names and forms with differences portrayed as either which weapons were held in which hand by Vishnu or colour of  skin, or even composite images with varied faces like Vishwarupa. Avatara images and their narratives were even more popular especially those of Rama and Krishna or composites such as half lion (Narasimha e.g. the colossus at Hampi), the boar (Varaha e.g. the monolithic Varaha at Vidisha), etc. 

The cult of Shiva precedes that of Vishnu considerably and is probably coeval with the Vedic religion and was assimilated over time and merges with Rudra of the Vedic period. This can be seen in the hostile references to phallic worship by the non Aryans in the Veda where Indra denounces and challenges the kings whose God is the phallus (shishna). This denunciation was also to the practices of smearing of ashes and bones, wearing matted hair, consumption of liquor and other practices found contemptible by the Vedas. This tension between the two is exemplified in the Vedas as the denunciation of Daksha who considers Shiva as a low god unfit to receive any offerings of the sacrifice. The Shaivas influenced by the Shramanas propounded non violence and were against slaughter of animals at the sacrifice invoking the wrath of the Brahmins as exemplified by Dakhsa. Rudra was a minor God in the Vedas, a malevolent deity causing death and disease wrathful and inhabiting cemeteries. He is handsome, youthful or braided hair, with bows and arrows and thunderbolts. He is identified as Agni and with Prishni or earth gives birth to Maruts (Rudriyas or howlers) or winds. He has a triple form as Agni or fire, the sun in the sky and as lightning being thrice mothered or Trayambaka. He was born of Prajapati and Ushas and wept inconsolably demanding a name which was to be Rudra (wailer) and he demanded more names Sharva, Pashupati, Ugra, Ashani, Bhava,

Gudimallam Linga Chitoor, 2nd BCE

Mahadeva and Ishana.  These eight names are the eight forms of Agni and syllables of the Gayatri metre. It was many centuries later that the wild Rudra becomes the auspicious Shiva.  Eventually phallic worship penetrated the Veda as Skambha the membrum virile, generating the material universe as well as tapas, faith, truth, and time. He is the beginning who spills his golden seed to beget the golden egg and thus Prajapati. It was this Skambha who becomes the blazing pillar of light in the Puranas. It is the rubbing of the two aranis pieces of wood to generate Agni that represent the generative principles of the Linga and Yoni and form the symbol of Linga. The earliest extant archaeological evidence is of the 2^nd BCE with the Bhita linga (Lucknow) and that of Gudimallam (near Tirupati) as prototypical of the Linga.

That Shaivism was influenced by the Shramana traditions is easy to notice in the way the Pashupata sects imitated the Buddhist cave art and sculpture (or architecture as sculpture) following the trade routes and fashioning the caves in the way Buddhist art did especially in Western India or even at Mumbai (Mandapeshwar, Jogeshwari and Elephanta). Yet unlike the Bhagavata cult Shaivism had a much greater diversity of practice. Shiva is believed to have dictated 28 Agamas most of which are no longer extant. The sects of the Kapalikas (skull bearers) or Kalamukhas (blackened faces) Pashupatas had a quality of being rather extreme in using human skulls as drinking cups, smearing ashes, wearing human bones, darkening their faces, cussing about and behaving like mad men. The Pashupatas were influential due to its founder Lakulisha (club bearer) who was supposedly born at Kayavarohan near present day Baroda. Many of these sects are known only through literature e.g. the Prabodhachandrodaya of krishna Mishra probably 11th CE. The surviving forms of Shaivism today are that of Shaiva Siddhanta largely practiced at Tamil Nadu and that of Kashmiri Shaivism followed by the Diaspora of pundits and marginally the Vira Shaivas or Lingayats of Karnataka. This also did not stop anthropomorphic representations of Shiva and images proliferated with Shiva as the dancer (Nataraja), the begger (Bhikshatana), the gracious (Anugrahamurti), the composite (Ardhanarishwara or even Sharabha), bull rider (Vrishabhavahana) or the teacher (Dakshinamurti) etc. especially in South India in bronze. 

Lajja Gauri 8th CE, Badami Museum

In a similar vein we can examine other sectarian developments in Shakta worship of the Mother Goddess as it emerged from fertility cults especially the very interesting idea of 'Lajja Gauri' (the modest fair one) as it shows formal similarity with the Kumbh (pot), as symbolizing the world womb or Creatrix and is depicted with open genitalia and a blossom for a head. These images have been wide spread in the Deccan plateau and possibly have a greater antiquity possibly the earliest being 3rd BCE. It is suggested that images such as that of Lajja Gauri emerged from the Indus Valley sites and continued into popular local cults. Over time the image became the sacred pot (kalasha) with overflowing vegetation that adorned pillars and niches. Female deities held a subordinate position in the Vedas though they held important functions and included Aditi the mother of the gods, Ushas or the dawn, Prithvi the earth, Ratri the night, Vac the goddess of speech and finally Sarasvati the river. The Veda spoke of the "seven" tongues of Agni as female which was probably the prototype for the seven mother goddesses (sapta matrika) found at water tanks. The male principle was accompanied by the female principle and was not always subordinated as the philosophy of the Sankhya suggests two fundamental principles the Purusha and Prakriti with all manifestation and dynamism teleologically built into Prakriti the female principle. The varied names and references to the goddess in the Vedas were further developed as Agama literature or Tantra. These included also transgressive elements that lent it esoteric significance with a sobriquet as Left handed practice (Vama marga) that is popularly described as the fivefold (panchamaraka sadhana) practice (wine, coitus, fish, flesh, and cereal). The esoteric practice was common to all agamic traditions and not just Shakta. Vajrayana Buddhism contributed to proliferating the image of the female principle in a multitudinous form that were not just tranquil like that of Tara but ferocious and seductive. The Dashamahavidya as Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala had distinctive forms. The Devi Mahatmyam contributed to the proliferation of shaktis in an overwhelming way though Durga, Kali, Rajarajeshwari/Tripurasundari, Gauri, Lakshmi and Sarasvati remain the popular modes of veneration of the Goddess. 

Apart from these there have been the cults of the Ganapatyas, those of Subramanya (in Tamil country), of Surya, and others each with their distinctive iconography. Many of them claim fortuitous sanction of the Veda and legitimate their antiquity. All these and more add to the mighty stream of faith in the Hindu tradition. 

We have discussed only some of the Vedabahya traditions that Gautama accepted probably with some trepidation as to how they would be assimilated into the Hindu fold. Little did he know that the trickle he imagined as a leak from his kamandalu into the Godavari would overwhelm the Vedic gods. They also caused considerable sectarian conflicts humorously depicted in the figure of Ghantakarana who wore huge bells to his ears to prevent him hearing the names other than those of his chosen deity. The Vaishnavas would claim that Shaivas were the original Vedabahyas while the Shaivas would claim that the Vedas were merely the breath of Shiva while their Agamas were dictated by him. Inspired on the banks of the Gautami Godavari the two traditions have merged into one where the old Vedic forms have been almost obliterated and within the same old form a new dynamic survives. There were those Brahmins who took to the Puranas to justify their distance from the sometimes extreme practices of the Tantras. Yet most of our daily ritual worship including the 16 offerings are all Tantric in origin. The millions who would dip themselves in the Godavari whether at the delta as Mahapushkaramu or the Godavari Mahakumbh this year belong to these antiquated traditions that like the river, mingled, merged, meandered, got sullied, and found its way to the great ocean.