A Liturgy in Sangam Literature

Abstract

Worship has been an integral part of our lives since ancient times. Worship is a means of unifying the mind, language, and meaning to pray to the Lord. Since ancient times, people have been living with the belief that there is some power in this world that drives us. They live with the belief that we are driven by the forces of nature that happen around us every day. They worship nature as their gods. We can see that there were worships in ancient times like sun worship because we get light from the sun, Varunana because we get food from rain water, river worship, dragon worship and fire worship. In the Sangam literature also worship of one deity and multiple deities are found. The Deities are prioritized according to the nature of the land where the people live. In the hilly land of Kurinji, people worship lord Murugan as their deity, lord Indra in marutham land, lord Thirumal in mullai land, lord Kotravai in Paalai land and lord Varunan in Neyythal land. Worship of such deities is widespread in Sangam literary works. Along with the worship of these deities, there are reports of worshiping the powers that give fear such as ghosts, goblins and demons as deities in the Sangam literature. Thus, the purpose of this article is to investigate the worship methods in the Sangam literature.