Oam(buvoam) Sathyam !
Means,
Let us foster truth!
I have a 8-year old, pilgrimage-related fact, that I wish to be confirmed, by one who has visited the Riyadh Museum, God so willing !
On a Ramadhaan night in the last fortnight of Dec., ‘99, my last night in KSA(Kingdom of Arabia), at the end of my 2-year yaathraa(pilgrimage) through that ancient country, I was too surprised to see, physically, a typical Thamil Naadu one-room temple of even today, in Riyadh Museum; complete with the curved drain of semi-circular cross-section, that carries wash-water from the sanctum to outside, projecting from the right-side wall ! This temple, of course minus the idol, was depicted as a temple of the Pre-Muhamadh Arabia, in the ancient section of the Riyadh Museum!
I have not been able to share and confirm above observation of mine in a public medium and place my write-up below on the Kaabaa-land.I do it now in this blog with an earnest desire that a possible ancient Truth be unfolded in a constructive manner, to ‘Indian Jihaadhees’ especially.
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Theertha yaathiraikku Zam Zam poavoam, Kaa-baa arulae irundhaalae !
Abu-Thaalib-bin aasramum poavoam kizhakku Makka shib-binilae !!
[A Thamil prayer of mine during yaathraa in KSA(Kingdom of Saudi Arabia),98-99]
Means,
Let us go to the holy Zam Zam, by the grace of Kaabaa,
Let us visit too, the place of struggle of Abu Thaalib and his clan,in East Makkan ‘shib’
I read with interest the brief life-story of PM(Prophet Muhamadh) in ‘Religion’ columns of The Hindu,(Indian newspaper),31st March, ’07, around Milaadh-un-Nabhi day, especially the statement therein-“ Makkans of Arabia possessed the one-God notion(even in Pre-Islamic era) ".
I may claim to be a dispassionate ‘aasthik’- one who considers the religious heritages in different parts of the world from ancient times till date as an ‘aasthi’ or asset to humankind, if those individual heritages have developed continuously to be now wholesome, they recognize the adhvaitha-Brahmam or Godliness in one’s neighbour and lead one to a Sath-naathana (Truth-based) way of life.In that spirit, I give below some details that I gathered in KSA, during my 2-year stay there.
The Zam Zam theerth in a large desert area, ‘the Rub-al-kaali’, was the prime reason for the ascent of Makka in that part of Arabia.The name of the desert itself may be meaning ‘Empty quarter’ as it is now officially interpreted in today’s Islamic KSA, or ‘Goddess KaaLi(Time/Black)’ !
Iam able to imagine the early Makkans only like present-day average Indians.They were possessive about the first representation of God near Zam Zam, the Black Stone, but were liberal enough to allow nomadic Arabians of different tribes and lineages, who flocked to Zam Zam, to have more temples around Zam Zam, to different forms and names of God.The blood-ancestors of PM, the Qureshi tribesmen as they called themselves, happened to be the hereditary Trustees of the Zam Zam theerth and they, till the time of the step-father of PM, Abu Thaalib, were liberal caretakers of the Zam Zam neighbourhood, or the (Gruha-) Haaram, as it is called now.The Haaram residents were one united zealous lot, about their Haaram hosting the most popular annual religious festival, the Haj, that is perhaps as ancient as India’s Kumbh Melas. This they could do only by adjusting to each others’ sensibilities between the Tribes of the Makkan Haaram, and sincere hospitality towards the pilgrims to Makka..Alas! even this beautiful Haaram had its set of militants, not of any individual tribe resident around Zam Zam, but of the new amalgamated tribe of Makkan Haj! These militants could not stand another King in another part of Arabia promoting a parallel Haj, with a White Kaabaa as its focus;went there incognito and destroyed White Kaabaa!Abu Thaalib, as a ‘coalition-Head’, of Makka, before PM, had to face the visit of the revenge-militants from the sponsors of the White Kaabaa, who came with an elephant to pull down the Black Kaabaa !Let me leave the result as a suspense like the authors of our mega-serials.
But then Abu Thaalib was a Gandhi too, (not of the duplicate type from Indhira to Sonia to Raahul, but the original M.K.G type. Iam indeed pleased that Priyanka shunned recently the dubious Gandhi surname.), who, some years later, led his Qureshi tribe into an East Makkan shib as outcastes, banned from the Makkan Haaram !(A shib is a valley with just one guarded entrance ).This he did, not due to any fault of the majority of his tribesmen, nor because of his becoming Islamic.(Till his death, he remained non-Islamic).But, to uphold the right to follow the Islamic way of life, that just a handful of Makkans desired, under the leadership of PM, a Qureshi !
Before this Sathyagraha by Qureshis, under the leadership of Abu Thaalib, PM, as an young man who lost his parents in childhood itself, had climbed up the Makkan social order, as husband of an older, good, rich lady and as a non-resident Makkan, many times traveling far and wide, proving himself good and trust-worthy in the commercial arena. Like some of our NRIs of today have embraced in USA, a ‘Sahaj Maarg’, that discourages them from using the idols and pictures of God, they were earlier accustomed to, the Non-resident Makkan, PM, must have been influenced by the idol-less Semitic Israelis who had made considerable inroads into Arabia, till Madheenaa, but could not break into the ‘pagan’ citadel, Makka. It was no surprise that the Madheenaa Jews were the first protectors of PM and his nascent Islamic group, who had to flee Makka, to, as far as Ethiopia on the other side of Red Sea.
Strictly academically, the claim of linkage of Makkan Kaabaa to Abraham of Israel, is less tenable than that of the Liberal religion with ancient Makka.This view of mine was reinforced on my last night at Riyadh. In the Riyadh museum, which was open in that dark night, that being a Ramadhaan night, I saw in the ancient section therein, a typical one-room temple, that was an exact replica of even today’s one-room village temples of Thamilnaadu, complete with the curved semi-circular drain that leads wash-water from the sanctum to outside !
Just a day prior to my departure for pilgrimage in KSA, I was surprised to listen to Sree Nirmalaa Dhevi of another Sahaj Maarg, at a huge prayer meeting at Sivaaji Park, Mumbai, saying that ancient Makka was typically like old Bhaarath(India) only !
During the time of the Kargil war, in a hostile environment for Indian position in KSA, I used to pray for India and Truth, with the Sthaana-Dhevathaa of KSA, that I could imagine. I end this article with a few lines of that Thamil prayer.
Sow Arabi KaaLi, poRpadhangaL thudhithaen, naRgadhi arulvaay ammaa !-Dhaevi,
PaRpalarum poatrum paalaivana soalaiyil,siRappu niraindha aruL singaara kovil konda,
………………………………………………………………………………………..
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Sowdhi-yil naRgathiyai aadhariththaLum ammaa !
Means briefly,
Oh! Sow.Arabi Kaal-baa, bless KSA to be on the good and auspicious course of action
May
1.Kaalbaa of Colaabaa,Mumbaai,
2. Aadhi Thulukkaa(Thurukkaa/Thakkaa/Makkaa)Nathammaa,
3. Mumbaa-aayi of Mumbaai and Mombaasaa(Kenyaa),
4.White KaaL(i)baa of Thillai,TN,
5. Dhabi-aayee of Dubai and Abu-Dhabi(UAE),
6.mKaali(the fierce) of Swaahili-speaking Africa,
7.Badhr-KaaLi, who might have been the presiding deity of the Kurukshethra-like historic battlefield of Arabia-Badhr,
8.Laa of Laa-oor(Laahoor)
9.Aadhi Laa of Aadhilaabaadh of AP,India)
10.Laa-maa(Mother Laa)
11.Allah of Allah-baadh,India
bless this article if there is some Truth in it !
Jai Maathaa (Sow)-Dhee !
And perhaps after the Red Iron Curtain, it is the turn of the Green Islamic Curtain, to open up, not due to any Bush-type external forces but due to the force of Truth from within. The simple mosques using a sickle and an attached star for the ‘Crescent and star’ logo, that I visited in KSA, made me wonder if PM too had only built up his Islamic Empire by the same ‘sickle and hammer’, I mean communist/communalist (or rather, in combination with the ‘sword and horse’) route
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Note, dated 23/02/08, at Chennai, TN, India.The blog titled "Kaabaa was a Hindu temple", by Vedic1 in Sulekha website, first informed me that the word Allaa means mother/Goddess in India's ancient Sanskrit language.I checked this with Mr.Anantharaaman, a Sanskrit scholar and activist in my neighbourhood. He not only confirmed this particular statement of Vedic1, but also gave me a Sanskrit-Tamil-English dictionary. In that dictionary, published by Sanskrit Education Society, Chennai-600004, I could confirm myself in page.41, that the Sanskrit word, "Allaa" means mother/Goddess.S.Damodaran
