The pig was amongst the earliest animals to be domesticated across the world,and was a great source of protein and fat.Warriors and hunters preferred decorating their masks and crowns with the tusks of wild boar. However ,as they settled down as farmers and harderes ,pig got associated with scavenging ,and uncleanliness.As a result,many communities prohibited the eating of pigs.This pork taboo is strictly observed in jewish and islamic communities.
An act of valour
In the chinese world,however,the pig continues to be the symbol of abundance and joy,present in every feast.When the portuguese came to India they main streamed and consumption of pork,and popularised in Goa a sanitation system where pigs consume human excrement in toilets.An efficient,effective,organic system sewage management that evokes disgust in other parts of India,where domesticated pigs are connected with communities associated with cleaning and scavenger work.Hunting and wild pig however remains an act of valour in warriors communities. And in Tantrik tradition ,the sow goddess ,varahi,continues to be a feared symbol of great fertility and power.
Conservation about pigs and boars have resurfaced in recent times.This is due to the discovery ,in Bandhavrgh tiger reserve ,madhyapradesh, of a massive Varah statue dating back to the 5th century. Vishnu as the wild boar is depicted carrying the earth goddess l, Bhoodevi,on his snout. This was carved probably on orders local kalachuri kings. These images express royal power. The wild boar was the king who saved the earth from foreign ruler such as Sanad,Pahalavs,and Kushans.This is when,for the first time,the Dharma shastra literature was rewritten with a thiestic puranic overtone,and presented through the mouth of vishnu varah.
North to south
Dharma shastra were codes of worldly duties first composed some 2300 years ago to counter the rising popularity of monastic Bhuddism. These texts were vedic,with no reference of puranic gods such as Shiva and vishnu. Earliest texts describe Aryavatra as extending between the himalayas and vindhya;but the later ones describes aryavarta as extending to the oceans,indicating a spread of vedic ideas to south India.
In Manusmriti,dated to 200 CE,we are to told Brahama encourage the transmission of dharma knowledge through his rishi like sons l.But,in the vishnu Dharma shastra,dated to 800 CE, the code is presented by vishnu ,as varah,to the earth goddess,who is seated on his snout,and worried about chaos and anarchy in the world,resulting from the rise of monastic orders and arrivals of foreign kings.The prominence given to the image of a wild boar indicates the shift of old fire based Hindustan that absorbed local deities to make vedic ideas more appealing to their new patrons.
The boar who rscue the earth however made his first appearance in a late vedic work,the first appearance in a late vedic work ,the shatapatha brahamana ,dated to 700 BCE,Here the boar is one of the forms of prajapati .A 1000 year later, with migration of vedic lore from North to South India,the boar becomes an avatara of vishnu.
Kanatara's performers
The more subaltern link to the boar god has come to the limelight ,thanks to the success pf the kanada film kanatara . The film revolves around the bhuta kola traditions of Tulu Nadu,in the south Karnataka.
During these rituals the energy of the boar deity,a guardian god and probably an ancestral spirit ,manifest through the body the performers.The film very clearly reminds us that these performers are deemed low caste,whose entry into high cast homes entry is seen as polluting,needing cleaning with cow-urine.
The deity is called panjurli. Panji means boar. Metal masks of the boar god are venerated. The deity speaks only at night when the painted and bejewelled performers,purified by fasting and excited by intense music,goes into a trance. The antiquity of this ritual can only be guessed.
Panjurli chooses to be the feared wild boar,not its despised domestic form,drawing attention to the tension between forest and field,nature and culture.In the forest, no rules apply.In the forest,no rules apply. In human settlements, laws exist that need to be followed but are often abused. The films much publicised song tries hard to connect this local deity,manifesting through non Brahmin priests,with vishnu baraha avatar,venerated by kings and priests. In folklore,Panjurli is considered to be one of the shiva wild fanaa,forced ro live on earth and guard wild spaces as atonement for stealing havoc in the sacred grove of the goddess.
The strong for the weak
Both Varah and panjurli convey the simplest meaning of the word dharma,clearly articulated for the first time in shatapatha brahamana. In the sea,the big fish eat the small fish. When this happens in the cultivated spaces,it is a dharma . In the civilised society,the strong can and should take care of the weak.
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