The Dravidian system of worship was idolatry, i.e., puja (Poo –sai – Neri) to a concrete religious symbol that enables an average man to love, perceive and comprehend his God. The Dravidians used to worship God with water, leaves and flowers. The Aryan system of worship was ‘yagna’, the imageless worship. The Aryans lit fire and threw animals into it to propitiate their God. They believed that the fire was the messenger who carried their message to their God. This is the fundamental difference between the religions of the Aryans and the Dravidians.
The Himalayas with its splendid, dazzling, magnificent and awe-inspiring aura, overwhelmed the hearts of the Dravidians of the pre-historic age to a great extent that they revered it as the abode of their God and visualized the river Ganges that originated from it as His wife. During their day-to-day prayers and festivals, they used to prepare the image of the abode of their God for their worship. That image depicted the plain land, the mountain over it and the river that flowed from the mountain over the plain. As everyone was permitted (in sharp contrast to the way the Brahmins had later appropriated to themselves the right of access to the deity) to prepare such an image for one’s own worship, and given the fact that all the people were not sculptors, the image, in due course, took the present form in which it is installed and worshipped in the Siva temples. Such transformation in shape had taken place in the Indus Civilization period itself. The base representing the plains was not always circular but was also a square, as could be seen from the famous cave No.16 of the Ellora. Building tall towers with rectangular base for the entrance of the temples were also meant to signify the Himalayas which was the abode of the Lord and the plains. The Kudamuzhukku, the Thirukkudaneerattu vizha was and is essentially and exclusively Dravidian in origin representing the river Ganges that originated from the Himalayas and flowed over and through it towards the plains.
The Himalayas with its splendid, dazzling, magnificent and awe-inspiring aura, overwhelmed the hearts of the Dravidians of the pre-historic age to a great extent that they revered it as the abode of their God and visualized the river Ganges that originated from it as His wife. During their day-to-day prayers and festivals, they used to prepare the image of the abode of their God for their worship. That image depicted the plain land, the mountain over it and the river that flowed from the mountain over the plain. As everyone was permitted (in sharp contrast to the way the Brahmins had later appropriated to themselves the right of access to the deity) to prepare such an image for one’s own worship, and given the fact that all the people were not sculptors, the image, in due course, took the present form in which it is installed and worshipped in the Siva temples. Such transformation in shape had taken place in the Indus Civilization period itself. The base representing the plains was not always circular but was also a square, as could be seen from the famous cave No.16 of the Ellora. Building tall towers with rectangular base for the entrance of the temples were also meant to signify the Himalayas which was the abode of the Lord and the plains. The Kudamuzhukku, the Thirukkudaneerattu vizha was and is essentially and exclusively Dravidian in origin representing the river Ganges that originated from the Himalayas and flowed over and through it towards the plains.
