Whehter marriage between vaishnavists and saivists is permissible during RRC period. Kalki says Aniniruthar encouage the integrity between vaishnavists and saivists. However i could not locate in the kalki's writings relating to marriage between vaishnavists and saivists. Can any body come across the such incidence or writings. Kindly confirm
saivaites and vaishnavites were not different castes. Kalki himselves says in PS that in those days, the same family will have saivaites and vaishnavites together. One brohter can be a siva devotee and the other a thirumal devotee. I know of a family where the co brothers are shavite and vaishnavite. The vaishnavite passed away a few years back, but almost 15 years back, when we built a temple inour locality, the shavite sponsored the entire shiva shirne and as a competetion the vaishnavite said, he will sponsor the entire vishnu shrine. :) So its not uncommon...and cannot be termed inter caste....as it is not caste...
> saivaites and vaishnavites were not different castes.
at one point they may have been as different as different religions, i guess. notice in dasavatharam how all the villians are great shaivaites. especially in 16th century govidarajar replacement time at chidambaram there may have been huge fighting
Thats what we perceive or thats what we were told. No one knows for sure. The puranas talk of Siva submitting to Vishnu at one point of time and vice versa in another...So it was a healthy debate of sort to show that all gods are equal and puranas are atleast 2000 years old.
In Chera lineage we see one nayanmar and one alwar...so same family had two greats of these sects. and these both are before 10th century. And later RRC, RJC etc did built vinnagarams and Sivalayams....so even during that time there were no difference. Later kings too built temples for both these gods.....
There might be a couple of incidents that would have occured due to the rulers personal preference and a heated argument in a healthy way but definitely not a blood thirsty war of sorts...
Am not sure of the historical part..as things are now there is quite a lot of animosity between orthodox saivites and vaishnavites...we are educated elite people so we are not the base to be judged on..but if you talk to a priest for example you can get the true picture. There are many vaishavites who will not even step into a shiva temple or partake of prasad if they can help it. Don't mean to start a caste debate but this has to have its origins in something in the past.
my sons school mate , a son of a famous vaishnavite preacher would refuse to enter shiva temples in school excursions. how would such a boy know all this unless the elders taught him? the feelings still run deep.
The branding ( physical branding - refer kamal's tatoos in dasavataram starting scenes) - means they are married to vishnu and anything else would amount to adultery.
But look at this from another point of view - the Ligothbhava icon - when did it gain prominence - once its got fixed into shivaite temple agama, how do you expect any self respecting vaishnavite to enter !! This practise seems to hv led to a healthy round of new iconographic and literary salvo's. numerous tales showing who is the best, even to the extent of extreme representations like the sarabamurthy. vishnu is parivaara diety ( one of the rest )in shiva temples and similar is the fate for shiva in vaishnavite temples. But where does it leave the earlier superpowers - Indra, Brahma. All thrown off their pedestals by numerous puranas and their iconographic representations.
references to vaishnavite shrines - earlier ( apart from the vibeeshana vimanam ref) mean structural temples
Mahendra Pallava: Mahendra vishnu graham - the only cave built excl for Vishnu by him. Ofcourse his first effort Mandagapattu was for the trinity. One thing to note, the famous trichy lalitangura cave, mahendra claims to return from a hostile faith to worshiping linga!
Mamalla to Rajasimha - somehwere inbetween, something happened during this period - there was a defn shift towards shivaite prominence, but it wasnt still anti or against vishnu. I will write on this shortly.Fyi, There is speculation that the shore temple sayana perumal could be an earlier shrine around which rajasimha built his two shiva shrines,
The trimurthi mandabam in mallai,holds vital clues - maybe first time, we see evidence of forced conversion of a shrine inside hinduisms own folds.
Also regarding intercaste/ religion - we see examples of great ( for want of better words) tolerance or acceptance. Pallava king ( a nayanmar) has a jain wife - that he cut off her hand is another story.
RRC - as usual has its own puzzles - he bearing the signs of vishnu, etc etc, but his soul was shiva.
leads to an Interesting task - listing out the titles and favorite idols of the prominent rulers
Mahendra Mamalla Rajasimha ..... RRC RJC .. K
Maybe we can do a matrix ( hi arvind borrowing your term) and study
> leads to an Interesting task - listing out the titles and favorite idols of > the prominent rulers > > Mahendra > Mamalla > Rajasimha > ..... > RRC > RJC
RJC- natraja. used chidambaram as a temporary capital. legend has it that he built gkc because kollidam floods stopped him from attending the arudra darsanam at chidambaram which incidentally falls on his birth day i guess.
Mahendra - Shiva gangadhara -- seeing himself as god in shiva's image !! Mamalla - mahisha suramardhini ( more like the destroyer of asura - pulikesi aka mahishan Maybe) rajasimha - somaskanda - himself as skanda!!
RRC - well could be sundarar , maybe wanted to become one of the nayanars? RJC - Chandesa anugraha murthy - with blessings of shiva, the famous one from GKC .