50 ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE TAMILS Intimately associated with the cult of the Bull ** (which is also a feature of Egyptian religious system) is the Phallic cult. The different branches of the Mediterraneans followed the phallic culture.* The phallic symbol included ring and beatiylic stones which we get in plenty in the Indus valley. The official religion in ancient Crete consisted of the worship of a Pillar which was either a standing stone or a sacred tree with a horned altar. This represented the devotion of the Cretan State. It is significant that the early Tamil god was known as Kandu which is stambha the pillar. Once the pillar worship was universal all over India. That is why Asoka engraved his edicts on the free standing pillars throughout the country which were regarded as objects of worship from primitive times. The Buddhist stupas, connected with funerary mounds, were again modelled on these pillar cults. When the phallic symbol was reduced to stone lingams, the ancient Tamils put up what are known as dhvaja stambhas in front of the shrine. Another relic of stambha worship is seen even now in planting first as a preliminary to a festival or to a marriage pandal a pole of the bamboo or other tree, to which worship is offered, undoubtedly a vestige of the early devotion. The horned altar suggests the worship of the Bull. The paraphernalia of worship in Crete is the identical one we still have in our temples in South India. Incense was burned, the conch was blown, the lyre and flute
- R, V., 8'inadevas-VII. 21.5
X 99-3.
