The Middle Stone Worship in Grammar Texts

Abstract

In ancient times, there was a custom of worshiping the warriors as deities who died protecting the nation and race. To honour the heroism and sacrifice of the those warriors, they planted stones in their memory and worshiped them. The middle stones contain important historical information such as traditions, reign of kings, language, culture, war methods etc. These remain an indestructible repository even after thousands of years. The changes can be seen in the inscriptions of the Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas, and Nayakars. The practice of worshiping the stone deity has existed in ancient times as well as contemporaneous events and all this can be witnessed through middle stone inscriptions. Warriors who wanted to establish their fame in the impermanent world were willing to lose their impermanent bodies and lives in battle and gained what they thought was immortal fame. That in order to uphold the fame of the fallen hero, they erected a middle stone and worshiped it. The aim of this study is to examine the rituals and beliefs.This study has been carried out with the hypothesis that the Nadukal tradition mentioned by Tolkappiyar is consistent with the Nadukal traditions stated in other grammar books and the Sanga literary Nadukal tradition. Texts such as Tolkappiyam, Puraporul Venbamalai, Veerachozhiyam, Ilakkana Vilakkam, Saminatham etc. are the primary sources of the study. Grammatical texts are the supplementary sources. It can be known through the grammar texts that ancienty Tamil people praised Nadukal worship. The article concludes that the Nadukal worship methods are mentioned in the grammar texts that appeared after the Tolkappiya Nadukal tradition.