More on Tantric Influence in Grail Legend

Let's take a deeper look at the suggestion of "Tantric" influence on the Holy Grail legend.

Much research exists on the "Oriental" influences in Grail literature. German scholars have long supported the idea that the Grail epic was modeled on one or more Persian tales. Most of the theories involved pre-Islamic influences. One of the champions of direct Islamic influence was P. Ponsoye in his book L'Islam et le Graal.

Various etymologies were suggested, all open to question, for the unusual names in the Grail legend. The 19th century German writer Josef von Gorres suggested that Parzival was derived from Arabic Parsi-fal meaning "Pure Fool," a suggestion later followed by the composer Richard Wagner. Fridrich von Suhtshek explained the true form of the name as Parsi-wal meaning "Persian flower" or "pure, chaste flower."

Suhtshek also offered Persian prototypes for just about every other character in the Grail epic. Max Unger and Theodore Baker suggested that word "grail" was derived from Persian gohar "pearl" compounded with al "coruscating color." The latter also identify the location of the Grail Castle with the Persian fortress of Kou-i Kouadja. Swedish scholar Lars Ivar Ringbom suggested the Takht-i-Suleyman "Throne of Solomon" in Azerbaijan, which closely matched the descriptions given by Albert von Scharfenburg in Jüngere Titurel written around 1270.

Henry Corbin and Pierre Gallais have done an enormous amount of work equating the Grail with the Iranian Xvarenah jewel, and seeking roots of Grail concepts in Persian dervish-inspired Islamic mysticism.

Other Near Eastern influences have been suggested, but possibilities from further East are treated only more rarely. Alfred Nutt in the 19th century explored the possibility that the Holy Grail originates from the Patra, the Buddha's alms dish. Scholars though have generally avoided comparisons of Grail mysticism with Tantric beliefs except to mention such possibilities. There is however a fair amount written on this subject in popular and "New Age" literature.

One though can piece together two different areas of research to construct a framework for such influence. The area of origins and exchange between Islamic mysticism and Tantra is dealt with fairly thoroughly. In the same sense, the links between Shi'ite, Sufi, Ismaili and similar Muslim groups with European culture at the advent of Grail literature and the direct impact on the latter is equally well-studied.


Indian Influence on Dervishes

Many a scholar has suggested that the Persian dervish, rather strange to ancient Iranian religion, originates from the begging ascetic of India.

W. Ivanow suggested that the group known in Islamic literature as Zutt, originally from the Sind in India, helped spread these practices throughout the Middle East. The Zutt are thought to be related to the present-day Jats and are almost always mentioned in the literature together with the Sayabiga, a group thought to have originated in Zabag but to have domiciled in the Sind and along the Persian Gulf.

The Zutt have been linked both with the Islamic underworld group of entertainers, artisans and con artists known as the Banu Sasan, and with the origin of the Dom Gypsies. Ivanow found an element of Dervish jargon words used both among the Banu Sasan and all Middle Eastern Gypsy groups. The Qasida Sasaniyya of Abu Dulaf mentions that the Zutt were members of the Banu Sasan and we see a number of Indian words mixed in with this jargon speech.

Groups of Zutt and Sayabiga were relocated to the region of Antioch by the Islamic Caliphate, just north of the area that would later become the stronghold of the Syrian Assassins. This fact will become important when we examine the time frame of the first Grail stories.

Previously in this blog, it was suggested that the people of Zabag, or Suvarnadvipa as it was known in India, were deeply involved with groups in Tibet and India in the development of the Kalacakra Tantric doctrine. Thus, the Sayabiga along with the Zutt would have played a role in diffusion of Tantric-like ideas in the Middle East.

In India, where the Sind region was the early major stronghold for Islamic mysticism in South Asia, the mingling of Tantrism with both Sufi and Ismaili sects is historical and beyond doubt, but the early story in the Middle East is more fuzzy.

We find that one of the most important elements in Tantric doctrine in India is the importance of the feminine principle as compared to the situation in the previous brahmin-dominated system. In the Mahacinatantra, it states:

According to the Brahmayamalatantra, after meditating for a thousand years on the shore of the ocean Vasistha was visited by Devi who told him "he had adopted an altoghter wrong path; her worship was unknown in the Vedas; it was known only in the country of Mahacina; and that Vasistha would gain his object if he received instruction from Vishnu now residing there as Buddha.

The word "Devi" above refers to the female divinity, which in the Tantric view was not sufficiently recognized in Vedic religion. In Tantrism we also find a more important place for women in ritual, and just an overall better treatment of women in general.

We can see then that the most powerful male Tantric deities, including the supreme Kalacakra Deity, appear in icons embraced together with their female consorts. In addition, there are important independent female deities like Tara and Prajnaparamita, and a host of lesser goddesses like the Dakinis that are considered important for spiritual development. In many places in India associated with Tantrism, the worship of the goddess Sakti prevails especially among the royal families and in the villages.

While the place of women in Tantric religious ritual has declined, due probably to the "shocking" nature of some rites, a few more politically-correct remnants survive. For example, among the Newars of Kathmandu we find the ritual marriage of the specially-chosen goddess-child known as Kumari to the King of Nepal was practiced until very recently. Also found among the Newars is the symbolic marriage of young virgin girls known as Gauris to Suvarna-kumara of Suvarnabhumi (Golden Land), the latter represented by a bel tree fruit or a golden coin.

While there was no universal dictate against the disabilities that existed for women at the time, in many areas women achieved rights nearly equal to men in areas where Tantrism dominated. However, in some other areas, only marginal changes were made despite the increased stature of women in religious life in which all areas of initiation and worship were open to them.

Further to the West, we find that the Sufi mystics focused much more attention on the feminine principle in theology than was previously the case. Sufism produced great women saints like Rabia, a tradition that continued for centuries. The importance of marriage for both men and women was stressed less than in orthodox Islam. However, it was among the Ismaili sects that we witness some of the most marked developments in divine feminine thinking. Here we see the recognition of the dual principles -- the Kuni as the female and the Qadar as the male principle. Kuni was predominant and she is said to actually create Qadar from her own light. Ismaili women in many areas can lead prayers and religious ceremonies, and they pray and worship alongside their men.

Now even farther to the West, with the advent of the romance cycles we find that the Holy Grail, that was seen by some as a relic of Christ or as a manifestation of Divine Grace, was tended by Grail Maidens and borne in procession by a female Grail Bearer. Even the Grail itself as a cup, chalice, bowl, platter or stone had a decided female imagery. Even more important may be the identity of Cundrie, the woman from the East Indian kingdom of Tribalibot, as the Grail Messenger. Cundrie teaches, chastises, guides and even at times sustains not only the quester Parzival but also the entire Grail company.

Although this outlook as found in Grail literature had little impact on the role of women in the Catholic Church, the rise of "courtly love" and chivalry as present in medieval epics did signal a generally more favorable position and better treatment at least for women of the noble classes.


Human Body as Microcosm of Cosmos

Earlier in this blog, the Kalacakra belief that cosmic time cycles were mirrored in the human body was discussed. This is part of a strong Tantric belief that the human body represents the universe in microcosm.

We find the same sentiments in Islamic mystic tradition. Corbin discusses various beliefs that can be categorized as pantheistic, panentheistic, monist, etc. among the Dervish-inspired sects. Self-realization can be described as discovering one's own Oneness with the Cosmos and even with the Deity.

Among the Ismaili we find a belief in a pattern of history that is both cyclic and linear. There are seven Ismaili eras, each inaugurated by a prophet known as Natiq. Each era was further subdivided into periods related to a Samit "Silent One" and seven Imams, the last of which becomes the Natiq of the new Era. The seventh Imam of the seventh Era is the Mahdi or Qa'im who ushers in the Resurrection. The six previous Natiqs are Adam, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, 'Isa, and Muhammad.

In Kalacakra Tantrism, although there is an underlying belief in infinitely repeating time cycles as found in classic Buddhism and Hinduism, the predominant focus is in the progression of Kulika Kings each connected with a century long period. The final Kulika King or "Rigden" conquers the evil forces of the world bringing in a new Golden Age.

Both the Kalacakra and Ismaili cycles are rife with astrological linkages. In Kalacakra thinking, the planetary cycles are further mirrored within the human body. The Muslim astrologer Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, known in Europe as Albumasar, developed a concept of world ages based on conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter. These ideas were translated into European languages from Muslim Spain beginning in the mid-12th century with the works of John of Seville, not long before the first Grail stories appeared.

In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, one of the most highly-lauded scenes occurs when Cundrie relates Parzival's destiny through the seven planets using Latino-Arabic nomenclature.

"Mark now, Parzival:
The highest of the planets, Zval,
And the swiftly moving Almustri,
Almaret, and the bright Samsi,
All show good fortune for you here.

The fifth is named Alligafir.
Under there the sixth is Alkiter,
And nearest us is Alkamer.

I do not speak this out of any dream. These are the bridle of the firmament and they check its speed; their opposition has ever contended against its sweep.

"For you, Care now is an orphan. Whatever the planets' orbits bound, upon whatever their light is shed, that is destined as your goal to reach and to achieve. Your sorrow must now perish. Insatiety alone will exclude you from that community, for the Grail and the Grail's power forbid false friendship. When young, you fostered Sorrow; but Joy, approaching, has robbed her of you. You have achieved the soul's peace and waited amid sorrow for the joys of the flesh.

These verses have been interpreted widely as applying to everything from the announcement of a new age marked by the World Year to the declaration of world dominion for the new Grail King. More to the point for this work, Cundrie's words are thought by some to imply that Parzival's destiny represents a microcosm of events in the greater cosmos. Whatever the case, given that Wolfram admits his use of an Oriental source from Toledo, it seems likely that at least there are some connections with the ideas of Albumasar if not with those of the Ismailis.

Now is a good time to return to the theory offered here for the transmission of the Grail legend, or at least the related source materials, from East to West.


Sources for the Grail Epics

Three authors are connected with the beginning of the Grail literature -- Chretien de Troyes, Robert de Boron and Wolfram von Eschenbach.

All three appear to have been contemporaries to some extent as they all wrote their works around the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Chretien's work is generally thought to be the oldest, and Wolfram mentions it in his own book. However, some scholars have suggested that Boron had no knowledge of Chretien and he does not mention either of the other two authors.

All three attribute their works to external sources. Chretien states that he based his version on a book given to him by Philip, Count of Flanders. Boron states that he received a "great book" from "great clerics." Wolfram mentions the bard Kyot who obtained the story from Flegatanis, a "heathen" from Toledo. He also claims to have researched the archives of the House of Anjou.

There is some linkage between Chretien's source and Wolfram's research in Anjou. Earlier it was already suggested that von Eschenbach's tale contained veiled references to the House of Anjou with Gahmuret representing Geoffrey Plantagenet with Parzival as his son Henry II. Gahmuret was an Angevin not in the line of succession who becomes a king through his marriage to the emperor's widow.

There was of course one historical Angevin who fits this description -- Geoffrey Plantagenet.

As it turns out, Philip the Count of Flanders was the son of Sibylla de Anjou, Geoffrey's sister. Philip ventured to Jerusalem to visit his first cousin, Baldwin IV, the last King of Jerusalem from the House of Anjou, a leper with no male heir. He came with the express purpose of marrying his vassals to Baldwin IV's daughter but was rejected and insulted by competitors among the nobility of Jerusalem. He left the city to fight the Muslim enemy in the principality of Antioch instead.

When Philip returned to Europe, he employed Chretien to render his mysterious source book into verse. Using the hypothesis offered here, Wolfram's Anfortas, the Grail King of Montsalvat (Jerusalem) would be Baldwin IV's father, Amalric I of Jerusalem. Baldwin IV, the heir-less king and last Angevin to rule the city would then be represented symbolically by the wounded leg of Anfortas. Wolfram probably threw in some inconsistencies as to maintain a degree of deniability that his story applied to real people. Thus, it is Gahmuret rather than his wife who is a sibling of Anfortas.

Parzival states that the celibate knights who guarded the Grail are Templars and that the first Grail King Titurel established the order. Thus it would have been Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who first accepted the Knights Templar, who answers to Titurel. The latter's son Frimutel is Fulk V, who in reality was the son-in-law of Baldwin II becoming the Angevin King of Jerusalem through his marriage to Melisende.

When Chretien wrote his Grail work between 1180 and 1191, Baldwin IV may have already died and Jerusalem may have fallen to Saladin (1187), although the fall of the city is never hinted at in any of the three early Grail books. Instead we find the development of a cycle of literature that introduces a new concept -- that of the Holy Grail.

Grail kingship is linked originally with the title of King of Montsalvat-Jerusalem, and King of the Grail Temple/Palace in the same location. The Grail was guarded by Templars and previously in this blog it was noted that the object had some of the same characteristics of the pusaka or sacred heirlooms of Southeast Asia tied to the succession of royalty, chiefs and clan leaders. The Grail kingship had hereditary components but was not entirely linked to male primogeniture. One fascinating similarity is the animistic character of both the Grail and the pusaka heirlooms.

Like the talking jars of the sultans and datus of Insular Southeast Asia, the Grail communicated with and guided those in the Grail company. This is one facet that did take hold as much in South Asia or the Middle East. However, it may be that such ideas were retained by the Sayabiga who along with the Zutt were relocated to Antioch. These Sayabiga may have maintained some contact through the trade routes with their former home of Zabag. The Templars appear to have borrowed much in terms of their own organization and structure from the Ismaili Assassins of Syria located directly to the south of Antioch principality. They also maintained unusually close political relations with the Assassins. In 1165, emissaries from Prester John, who is linked here with the King of Zabag, delivered a letter from the latter king to the Pope and Christian emperors. Parzival and other Grail legend authors closely connect Prester John with the Holy Grail, albeit anachronistically.

Even Chretien seems to have borrowed from Prester John's letter, which mentions a table in the king's palace with legs of ivory. Parzival and Jüngere Titurel describe the table bearing the Holy Grail in the Grail Castle as having ivory legs. Chretien says the same table has ebony legs and an ivory top. The palace of Prester John, like that of the King of Shambhala and the Grail Castle, have strong mystical links.

The round churches of the Templars were said to have been modeled on the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, sometimes referred to as the 'Temple of Solomon.' The Templar headquarters was originally located in or next to this mosque in Jerusalem. Ringbom has shown, quite conclusively I think, that the Grail Temple as described in Titurel was inspired by the Takht-i-Suleyman, the "Throne of Solomon" in Azerbaijan. In both cases, we find round, domed and lavish buildings with the stars, marked by rubies in the Takht and red jewels in Titurel, and heavens displayed on the domed ceiling. In both cases, the buildings have only three entrances, and the outer circle of the building is divided into 22 parts each marked by an ornamental tree. The temple described in Titurel was probably inspired by the Takht as partially rebuilt by the Shi'ite and heavily Sufi-influenced Ilkhanate dynasty in the 13th century.

Ringbom has also shown that both the Grail Temple and the Takht are types of mandalas. A mandala is a representation of the universe used in Tantric ritual. It usually consists of a circular design on the outside with usually a square design within, but also at times another circle. There usually is at least one instance in a mandala where an outer design is replicated in smaller form within the mandala, an example of the macrocosm-microcosm principle.



Grail Temple plan after Ringbom (A. A. Barb, 1956: 34) following descriptions in Titurel. Note mandala-like replica of building structure at central sanctum where Holy Grail was kept. The domed ceiling was said to display the celestial vault further giving the idea of a cosmic representation. Ringbom also found mandala-like features in the sanctuary of the Ismaili "Old Man of the Mountain," the leader of the Assassins at Alamut.

Now with the Grail acting as the token of the holy kingship, even the looming loss of Jerusalem would allow a 'sacred lineage' to prevail at least in the eyes of those closely connected with the House of Anjou. Thus, it may not be entirely by coincidence that Henry II's son and heir (by force) Richard I would lead the efforts of the Third Crusade to retake Jerusalem, although he was forced by election to accept Conrad of Montferrat as King of Jerusalem. When the latter was killed by Assassins before his coronation, Richard was widely suspected in the plot. He married his nephew Henry II of Champagne to the widow Isabella eight days after the death making Henry II the pretender King of Jerusalem. Angevin hopes for the Holy City though ended as they could not persevere against Saladin's forces.

Quite likely some type of Holy Grail really existed, maybe first among the Templars who had shown they were quite amenable toward Eastern mysticism. However, such ideas may not have been strange either to the House of Anjou.

Robert de Boron's "great clerics" who authored the source of his Grail book may very well have been Templar clerics. The Templar bond with the House of Anjou in Jerusalem was natural. The sources found by Wolfram at the county seat in Anjou may have consisted of the same or similar works as found with Boron. Philip, Count of Flanders, who gave Chretien his source book had obvious enough ties with Anjou through his mother Sibylla. He also helped mediate disputes between Henry II, on the one hand, and Louis VII of France and Thomas Beckett on the other. Henry II of course in addition to being the English king was also the Count of Anjou at the time.

Philip had shown keen interest in establishing marital ties with the Angevins in Jerusalem, at which time he could have easily come across the same source materials as Boron and Wolfram. It might be worth noting also that Henry II had close relations with the Templars and was the first to grant them land in England, and that Guy de Lusignan, the king who succeeded Baldwin IV in Jerusalem was Henry II's vassal.

From the Angevin and Templar connections, we can suggest that the eastern links of the Grail literature are quite likely. The Tantric influences would have come from the same sources that influenced Ismaili and other Islamic mystic traditions.




Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Barb, A. A. "Mensa Sacra: The Round Table and the Holy Grail," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 19, No. 1/2. (Jan. - Jun., 1956), pp. 40-67.

Bosworth, C. E. The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld: The Banu Sasan in Arabic Society and Literature, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976.

Corbin, Henry. Temple and Contemplation, translated by Philip Sherrad & Liadain Sherrad, London: KPI & Islamic Publications, 1986.

__, The Voyage and the Messenger, translated by Joseph Rowe, Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1998.

Daftary, F. The Ismailis. Their History and Doctrines, Cambridge, 1989.

Galais, Pierre. Perceval et l'Initiation, Paris: Editions Sirac, 1972.

Ivanow, Wladimir. "On the Language of the Gypsies of Qainat (in Eastern Persia)," J(R)ASB, N.S. 10/11, 1914, 439-55. Idem. "Further Notes on the Gypsies in Persia," J(R)ASB, N.S. 16, 1920, 281-91. Idem, "An Old Gypsy-Darwish Jargon," J(R)ASB, N.S. 18, 1922, 375-83. Idem, "Jargon of Persian Mendicant Darwishes," J(R)ASB, N.S. 23/1, 1927, 243-45.

Nutt, Alfred. "The Legend of the Buddha's Alms Dish and the Legend of the Holy Grail," Archaeological Review 3 (1889), 267-71.

Ponsoye, Pierre. L'Islam et le Graal étude sur l'ésotérisme du Parzival de Wolfram von Eschenbach, Éditions Arché, 1976

Ringbom, L. A. Graltempel und Paradies. Beziehungen zwischen Iran und Europa im Mittelalter, Stockholm, 1951.

Suhtshek, F. von. La Traduction du Parsiwalnama par Wolfram d'Eschenbach," Forschungen und Fortschritt, nr. 10, Berlin, 1931.

Woodroffe, John. Shakti and Shakta, Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1975.

Datura transported from 'New' to 'Old' World in Pre-Columbian Period

A study released in December, 2007 suggests that at least one species of the plant Datura (D. metel) was transported by humans from the "New World" to the "Old World" at least by the early first millennium BCE.

The researchers believe the transfer to India was either transpacific through Southeast Asia or transatlantic through Africa. At a later date, the plant was diffused from India to North Africa and the Middle East during Muslim times and from there to Europe. They suggest further research in the Southeast Asia/Pacific and African regions to determine the route that Datura took to reach India.

The full article can be found here in pdf form:

http://www.ias.ac.in/jbiosci/dec2007/1227.pdf


Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
---

J Biosci. 2007 Dec;32(7):1227-44. Links

Historical evidence for a pre-Columbian presence of Datura in the Old World and implications for a first millennium transfer from the New World.

Geeta R, Gharaibeh W.

Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Science and Arts,Jordan University of Science and Technology,PO Box 3030,Irbid 22110,Jordan, geeta@life.bio.sunysb.edu.

Datura (Solanaceae) is a small genus of plants that, for long,was thought to occur naturally in both the New and Old Worlds. However,recent studies indicate that all species in the genus originated in the Americas. This finding has prompted the conclusion that no species of Datura could have been present in the Old World prior to its introduction there by Europeans in the early 16th century CE. Further, the textual evidence traditionally cited in support of a pre-Columbian Old World presence of Datura species is suggested to be due to the misreading of classical Greek and Arabic sources. As a result, botanists generally accept the opinion that Datura species were transferred into the Old World in the post-Columbian period.While the taxonomic and geographic evidence for a New World origin for all the Datura species appears to be well supported, the assertion that Datura species were not known in the Old World prior to the 16th century is based on a limited examination of the pre-Columbian non-Anglo sources. We draw on old Arabic and Indic texts and southern Indian iconographic representations to show that there is conclusive evidence for the pre-Columbian presence of at least one species of Datura in the Old World. Given the systematic evidence for a New World origin of the genus,the most plausible explanation for this presence is a relatively recent but pre-Columbian (probably first millennium CE) transfer of at least one Datura species, D. metel, into the Old World. Because D. metel is a domesticated species with a disjunct distribution, this might represent an instance of human-mediated transport from the New World to the Old World, as in the case of the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas).

PMP Quadripartite Social Structures

In 1980, Robert Blust, following Otto Dempwolff, suggested that the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) reconstruction *rumaq meaning "house," also referred to descent groups in that early society. He further suggested that these descent groups were based on bilateral kinship and that the PMP term *datu originally applied to the leaders of the *rumaq descent groups. Over time according to this theory, *datu came to apply both to chiefs-kings and priests-shamans, or to leaders who combined both sacred and temporal functions.

Blust suggested that originally there was a form of dual organization based on an "upper half" or male datu and a "lower half" or female datu, although his conclusion was based on only two examples from Sulawesi and Ambon.

In the classic fashion of Austronesian recursive dualism, it is suggested that this dual system bisected into a sociopolitical structure based on four groups. Alkire and Fujimura, describing Micronesian organizational systems state:

The Micronesian world view, like that of many Austronesian speakers, emphasizes dualistic oppositions, quadripartite divisions and mid-points as loci of control and mediation...When more than two units occur, they frequently derive from earlier dualistic divisions that have been further subdivided into quadripartite units.

Van Wouden, in his study of Eastern Indonesian marriage practices, states:

Because both the patrilineal and the matrilineal clans form exogamous groups, pair by pair, a double two-phratry system is also entailed. The entire society is divided into four main classes.The consequent cooperation of the system is thus wholly identical with a simple four-class system with reciprocal affinal relationships. One belongs both to the matrilineal moiety x or y of the mother, and to the patrilineal moiety I or I1 of the father. Class XI stands in a relationship of reciprocal connubium with yII, and the children are xII or yI, which likewise are related to each other by reciprocal connubium. The first and third matrilineal or patrilineal generations belong to the same main class. The difference between this system and a genuine four-class system is constituted by the unilaterality of the affinal relationships between the clans and by the feature of same generation marriage.

Dempwolff had suggested PMP *suku "limb; quarter (quarter of a people= kin group)." Blust suggests that *suku was a quadripartite division of the "total society" in Proto-Malayo-Polynesian times. Fourfold social divisions have been described in detail among many groups in eastern Indonesia; among the Pasemah, Toba Batak and Minangkabau of Sumatra; among the Maranao of Mindanao; among the Tagalogs of Luzon; in Tonga; Fiji; Belau (Palau); Tikopia; Hawai'i; the Kiriwina Islands (Trobriand Islands) and other areas of the Austronesian domain. Blust asserts:

Perhaps most striking of all is the reference to a fourfold social grouping under the literal designation "four council halls"or "four houses" (= four lineages) in Western Malayo-Polynesian, Central Malayo-Polynesian, and Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages. Thus, in describing the semisacred Jangdipatuan, the highest traditional ruler of the Minangkabau, de Josselin de Jong (1951 :13) notes that we "should really speak of three Rulers, all belonging to the same House. The Jangdipatuan . . . was the Radjo Alum, 'King of the World'; he appears to have dealt with political affairs, and it is he whom officials of the Dutch East India Company used to designate as 'emperor of Minangkabau.' The other two members of the royal trio were the Radjo Adat, 'King of Custom,' and the Radjo Ibadat, 'King of Religion.' Important dignitaries in the royal entourage. . .were the Basa Ampe' Balai, the Great Men of the Four Council Halls. These four, whom we might designate as ministers . . . were not members of the royal family, but in all probability were prominent headmen of the nagari that formed their residences." (Blust, 1980: 218)

Using the designations for "four council halls" and "four houses" mentioned in the quote above, Blust reconstructs PMP *na xe(m)pat na balay "four houses."


Four Stones

From the island of Belau in western Micronesia, Richard J. Parmentier has studied local myths related to the founding of the quadripartite sociopolitical system there.

These myths revolve around the goddess Milad who, after the Great Deluge, gives birth to four children in the form of stones named in birth order Imiungs, Melekeok, Oreor and a daughter Imeliik, on the mountain Ngeroach. These stones were distributed to the four corners of the island and marked the major political districts.

These districts were ranked by precedence, the order of birth, with Imiungs having the highest rank. Interestingly, there is a lithic representation of Imiungs at Ngeroach called Imiungselbad (Imiungs Stone) consisting of two stones -- one a circular mortar-like stone with hollowed-out center, and a smaller round stone placed on the mortar's rim called Imiungseldui (Imiungs Title).

Parmentier mentions in his notes similar mortar stones found elsewhere in the Austronesian-speaking regions:

Imiungselbad is one of several mortarlike stones reported in Belau; similar stoned are widespread in Indonesia and Melanesia; see especially Kaudern 1938:8, fig. 3, and 25, fig. 16; Fox 1924:223. Risenfeld (1950:246) cites a stone from Maevo villatge in the New Hebrides which resembles Imiungselbad in that a second stone, corresonding to Imiungseldui, sits on top fo the larger mortar stone. Also, the symbolic unity of the female Imiungselbad and the male vertical pillar Ngartemellang, both located traditionally at the Orukei square, is echoed in a similar pair of stones found in Bali described by F. A. Liefrinck (in Swellengrebel 1960:28), and a pair found in an Ifugao village in northern Luzon (Christie 1961: plate 13). (Parmentier, 1987:163 n. 25)

Previously, I have suggested that the mortars known as lusung, lusong, lesong, etc. in the Philippines and Guam, and throughout much of Island Southeast Asia, were often used by certain Nusantao trading clans to symbolize a central volcanic axis mundi, according to my theory the dual volcanoes of Pinatubo and Arayat on Lusung (Luzon).

The island of Lusung-Luzon is thus named after these central cosmic volcanoes.

In the myths of the Bagobo goddess Mebuyan in Mindanao, southern Philippines, the deity sits on her rice mortar placed at the "center of the world." In some versions, this mortar is located on a "mound" which may represent the cosmic mountain or hill. The mortar begins to spin drilling a hole to the Underworld and the subterranean Black River, where Mebuyan becomes overlord of the dead.

Interestingly, in the Belau myths, at the mountain where Milad gives birth to her children, and from which she sends them to the four quarters, stands a massive 50 ft. high volcanic plug known as 'Milad's House' or 'Milad's Cave.' According to one version, Milad even throws one of her sons, Oreor, to his respective district. The thought of Milad in her volcanic house or cave throwing her sons/stones can conjure up imagery of a volcanic eruption.

Some of the Semang people of Malaysia believe in a giant stone pillar known as Batu Herem at the "center of the Earth" that reached to and supported the sky. The Batu Herem rested upon a dragon found at the source of the Perak River. According to Semang chants, there appeared to be an opening at the end of the Batu Herem that opened and closed.

The opening created by Mebuyan's mortar and the opening at the end of the Batu Herem could symbolize the volcanic crater, often believed to lead to the Underworld. The same symbolism might be found in the hollowed center of the symbolic mortar-like stones of Belau and elsewhere.


Four corners of the House

Parmentier describes the assigned seating according to rank, at one of the four corners of the Belau meetinghouse, of the four highest-ranking title holders .

In some Austronesian societies, the house is seen as a model of the cosmos and the four corners or four corner-posts of the house can represent the extent of the world. For example, among the Manobo of the southern Philippines, the Earth is supported by four posts. In the Philippines in general the pillars of the world are associated with the common name of the house post. In Hawai'i and among some Tahitian groups, the sky dome was supported by four pillars or poles. Belau society and political units were compared to the four corner posts of a house.

We find a situation similar to that described by Parmentier at Belau meetinghouses in the Wajo Bugis kingdom of South Sulawesi. During the inauguration of the Wajo Bugis Rajah, the king sits in the corner of the room assigned the highest precedence. Senior officials are seated in the other three corners advising the king to carry out the four pillars of Wajo administration, ade' covering ethics; bicara, the criminal and civil justice system; rapang dealing with kinship and political relationships; and wari', which classified and ordered society.

Concepts of the world divided into four parts are also found in the fixed wind compasses scattered widely throughout the Austronesian regions. The simplest type of this compass indicates the four cardinal directions named after the corresponding wind blowing from that direction. Using the principle of recursive dualism, these directions are further bisected resulting in wind compasses with eight, 16 and 32 directions. In nearly all cases each direction is named after the corresponding wind. In Madagascar, the name of the eight point wind compass translates to "corners of the Earth."

We've seen the notion that the earth or the sky is supported by pillars or posts, sometimes four in number matching the four piles of the classic Austronesian house. In Panay island in the central Philippines, the highest mountains are seen as pillars supporting the sky and are called hagiri sa kalibutan "pillars of the world." The ancient Chinese also viewed four pillars as supporting the sky in the northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest, a belief that apparently originates at least by the time of the Shang Dynasty. Later on, these pillars were viewed as four mountains and the number was eventually increased to eight supporting mountains.

In some cases, a central pillar is added and this usually takes on the highest order of precedence. Here we may find an effort to assign the concept of centrality to the highest order of rank. In the Philippines, were the world pillar concept is widespread the central pillar is often directly linked with the myth of the "navel of the sea."

In Belau, while the mortar-like Imiungselbad would represent the center, the island polity became divided into two sides, the "Sides of Heaven," represented by Imiungs brothers, Oreor and Melekeuk.

I have suggested previously that a major magnitude eruption at Pinatubo, located centrally along the Nusantao trade and communication routes of the time, was interpreted by certain trading clans as indicative of the primal location, the first cause, the highest mundane order of precedence. A rift developed between some of these trading clans resulting in a "war in heaven," and corresponding competition in the Nusantao merchant trade.

The dualistic ideology and the "news" of the new discovery was spread along the trade and communication routes by messengers of the different clan confederations. There was a major expansion of these routes during this time in different directions. In the areas of Southeast and East Asia, and the western part of the Indian Ocean, this expansion would correlate with the diffusion of Lungshanoid, Proto-Lungshanoid and Lungshanoid-like elements.

In many cases, the histories, traditional histories, mythologies, etc. distributed over wide areas by the Nusantao messengers give geographic directions to their claimed world center/axis mundi. These directions usually agree in general terms with each other, even if sometimes conflicting localization exists, and in some cases navigational indicators like zenith stars may give more precise coordinates. Even some of the legendary chronologies can agree rather closely with the archaeological hypotheses. For example, Chinese traditional dating of the influences brought by the maritime Dongyi people who inhabited the eastern province of Shandong, agree fairly well with early datings of Lungshanoid, Proto-Lungshanoid and other coastal evidence of Nusantao influence as interpreted, for example, by Wilhelm Solheim.

Across the Austronesian-speaking world, one repeatedly finds indigenous forms of political districts in which authority revolves around a central mountain. The centrality of this mountain is not so much geographical as based on sacred precedence. The leader in these districts is generally hereditary belonging to the traditionally oldest family associated with the mountain, and having priest-king type functions. When Hindu-Buddhist influences arrived in Southeast Asia, the older and newer views merged to produce the "King of the Mountain" and "Devaraja" type theater states and galactic polities.


Quadripartition in Art

We know that many cultures express their cosmologies, worldviews and philosophical concepts through their artistic forms. For example, the elemental philosophy of China is graphically represented by the bagua octogonal template. The Chinese yin-yang principle is expressed in the well-known Taijitu symbol.

Taijitu, the traditional symbol representing the forces of yin (dark) and yang (light). (Source: Wikipedia)

In Tantric art, many types of thought are symbolized in geometric forms. In the Austronesian domain, the meanings of many symbols are still retained in the indigenous textile and tattoo art forms, for example, the tree of life and the bird as a symbol of the soul.

Therefore, it could be useful to see if there are any artistic indicators of the concepts of quadripartition and duality in the proposed PMP and Malayo-Polynesian language regions during the times these languages likely dispersed.

Red-slipped and lime-impressed pottery provides probably the first example of symbols used by Nusantao peoples, who according to theory were largely composed of Malayo-Polynesian speakers. The earliest examples of this pottery date back to about the middle of the 6th millennium BCE from Balobok Rockshelter in the southern Philippines. These early examples possess as decoration only impressed circles that often filled with lime powder.

Later on, we find throughout much of Southeast Asia, and eventually extending out to the Marianas in western Micronesia, the use of triangular and dentate patterns and often triangles topped with circles or semicircles. In Luzon, Masbate, Sulawesi and the Marianas, we also see some rectangular designs. This type of decoration was found most commonly during the fourth and third millennia BCE.

Rectangular patterns could potentially represent the four corners of the Austronesian house that in turn modeled the four quadrants of the cosmos. The use of triangles together with circles might be related to dualistic thinking if we see the two geometric forms as opposites. Decorations of linked triangles or dentate patterns are still used by present-day folk artists who in Southeast Asia often use the word tumpal to describe the motif. According to many of these artists, tumpal represent mountains or hills.

If we accept the mountain explanation, then the triangles with circles or semicircles at their apex could possibly be seen as early forms of the primordial mountain or "mountain of fire" motif that I have suggested was a symbol of the cosmic volcanoes.



Types of early Southeast Asian and Pacific pottery designs. Note in the first three rows at the top examples of triangular patterns with circles or semicircles. The figure in the middle of the second row from the top could be seen as a fair representation of a volcanic eruption.

In the first figure of the second row of the graphic above, the triangles topped with semicircles might also be seen as types of the "Crescent Sun" motif displaying the upright "horns" of a Sun in near full eclipse by the Moon. The same Crescent Sun motif seems also to appear on Liangzhu Culture jades near the mouth of the Yangtze River in China.


Crescent sun-like motif on jade ring from Liangzhu Culture (3500 BCE-2250 BCE), bottom left; bird on cartouche and possible Crescent Sun on bi disc, right top and bottom, Liangzhu. Source: Wu Hung, "Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art."


Even the impressed, lime-filled circles on the earliest Nusantao-related wares could have some volcano symbolism. The impressed circles remind us of the hollowed out mortarlike stones of Belau and elsewhere in Austronesia. The Chamorro of Guam formerly carved out mortars from natural stone formations near rivers. And there is also the case of cupmarks carved into megaliths and natural rocks discussed here previously. The lime in the impressed circles using this hypothesis could then represent the ash from the volcanic crater that may have been associated with the whiteness ascribed to sacred locations like Svetadvipa and Penglai in Indian and Chinese classical literature respectively.

We first encounter rather clear examples of possible artistic representations of quadripartite thinking in the artifacts of the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture of Southeast Asia and the earlier Peinan culture of Taiwan, which appears to have strongly influenced the former. It was from Taiwan that most of the nephrite used by the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture originated.

Possibly as far back as 3000 BCE, the Peinan culture made nephrite earrings-pendants with four projections located at each quadrant. In the latter Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture, one projection of the pendants known as lingling-o is omitted, possibly to prevent poking of the skin, but the three remaining projections retain a square angular relationship to each other.



Peinan proto-lingling-o ornaments, left, with four projections at right angles (Source: http://www.tpg.gov.tw/e-english/historic/link13.htm). On the latter Sa-Huynh-Kalanay ornaments, which date back to about 2000 BCE, one of the projections -- probably the one facing the neck when used as an earring -- is omitted, but the others are still separated at quadrants (Source: http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/450588a).


Another ornament associated with Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture is the bicephalous pendant. We find that the Peinan culture may also have a prototype at least conceptually in pendants consisting of dual anthropomorphs side-by-side connected at the top of the heads by a zoomorph. In some examples, the zoomorph heads bear some slight resemblance to the zoomorphic heads of the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay bicephalous pendants.



Dual zoo-anthropomorphs from Peinan culture, Taiwan, left (Source: http://www.twhistory.org.tw/20010319.htm), and a bicephalous lingling-o as still traditionally made in present times by Igorot blacksmiths in Northern Luzon.

Although Sa-Huynh-Kalanay-like bicephalous ornaments are still made today by the Igorot peoples of the Philippines, I have not come across any connection between the double-heads and the pervasive Igorot dual classification system. The usual explanation is that the pendants are simply good luck charms or fertility charms, the latter view though possibly having some binary implications.

In Melanesia and Polynesia, double-headed carvings and figures are fairly common. The double-headed frigate bird image found on Easter Island is said to represent the Supreme God Makemake, a solar deity. Double-headed bird figures are also common in the Solomon Islands.

Among the Hawaiians, there was a belief that children could be sired by two different fathers and such progeny were known as po'olua "double-headed." In such cases, both fathers acknowledged the child resulting in a union of clans.


Austronesian Quadripartition and the Indian Varna System

In 1995, I wrote an article "Austric Influence in the Brahmana and Rishi Traditions," in which I examined the Austric contribution to the formation of the varna, or four caste system, and also to the linked brahmin and rishi (seer) traditions of India.

My view was that the varna system was mainly an indigenous development with major contributions from Dravidian and Austric societies rather than something brought in by Indo-European invaders, which is the more common position in Western scholarship.

The mainstream Western view is that the Aryan invaders or migrants into South Asia retained the Proto-Indo-European system of three classes, conceived by Georges Dumézil as consisting of clerics, warriors and husbandmen/agriculturalists. Upon arriving in India, they supposedly forced those aborigines who adopted their religious system into a fourth lower class known as Sudras. A strong racial component is evident in this theory with some asserting the Sudras were originally slaves and they were darker-skinned than the other three classes composed of the Aryan invaders. According to this theory, these four classes eventually evolved into the four varnas.

To support this theory, it is argued that the supposedly oldest parts of the Rgveda, considered the oldest literary work of India, do not mention the Sudra caste. Sudras though are mentioned in Purusa-sukta section of the book. Also, supporters of this view point out that the Sudras were not considered "twice-born" and worthy of pursuit of Brahman, a mana-like spiritual power or asset.

Here are a few of the main problems with this theory:

• The Vedas, which supposedly cover the period of Aryan invasion/migration into India do not mention the mass conversion process of aborigines into Sudras or the conversion of the old Indo-European husbandman/agriculturalist class into, presumably, the Vaisya or merchant caste. Such a conversion process would have been messy to say the least. In comparison, latter works mention the adoption of foreigners like the Sakas and Cinas into the caste system.
• According to present-day mainstream Western views, a relatively small number of Aryan speakers were involved in a migration and elite dominance scenario upon arriving in South Asia. However, how successful could a small number of people be in converting an entire indigenous population into slavery or servitude? More recent history shows that the process of caste assimilation involved introducing people into the brahmin system according to their position and rank in the previous society. Thus, we have Dravidian Brahmins and Dravidian Kshatriyas (warriors) and Yavana brahmins and Yavana Kshatriyas.
• Neither genetic nor physical anthropology studies support ideas that the upper castes are composed of recent (post-Neolithic) migrants to India or that the Sudra caste is more aboriginal than the upper castes. As caste is determined by patrilineage, the genetic evidence suggests that upper castes consist overwhelmingly of Y chromosome types that have been in India long before the Neolithic. The only male haplogroups that show strong evidence of relatively recent arrival are J haplogroup and O haplogroup, neither of which appear linked with the theory of an Aryan invasion/migration into Northwest India. In most parts of India, forensic science can not reliably distinguish upper castes from sudra castes based on craniofacial or other physical anthropology techniques.
• The most important aspects of the varna system are not reconstructible to the suggested Proto-Indo-European system.

Now let us turn to the theory of Austric influence. Austro-Asiatic culture shows evidence of dualism and it may be that both this worldview and that of the Austronesians ultimately originates from Austric social systems. However, I have not found anything written on quadripartite divisions in Austro-Asiatic society. It may be that such influence in India could have come directly from Austronesian speakers via the trade routes.

Varna in India and South Asia is a hierarchal social grouping loosely based on function and occupation. Another classification system known as jati really defines the occupational groupings in South Asia. Louis Dumont suggested that the caste system was based ultimately on a dualistic opposition of ritual purity vs. ritual impurity with the loss of purity resulting in the loss of mana. Now, the latter term mana may be appropriate for my argument as it is a word of Polynesian origin signifying in modern anthropology a sacred power, force, authority, essence, charisma, etc. that abides in a person or object.

A number of researchers have classified the Indian concepts of brahman and akasa as types or variations of mana. One increases or maintains brahman partly by maintaining ritual and sacred purity. The same relationship of purity and mana is found in many Austronesian societies. Taboos prevent certain types of defiling behavior especially with relation to intermarriage and any contact with objects or locations that cause loss of purity. The intermarriage taboo is natural because in both the Indian and Austronesian systems, mana is inherited.

Now, the caste system in India developed a complexity and severity well beyond that of Austronesian societies in general. For example, only rarely do we find outcastes and practices similar to untouchability in the Austronesian examples. Usually impurity was temporary as in the case of menstruation or contact with with dead bodies rather than permanent as with entire "unclean" castes. Austronesian speaking peoples often did have rank-based endogamous groups similar to varna, although the rigidity of these groups based on birth was usually much less severe.

Still marital endogamy and exogamy was a common characteristic of the quadripartite systems in both regions.

While the varnas were endogamous, within each varna were exogamous groups known as gotra. These gotras appear to have been originally totemic in nature and the word itself originally meant "cowpen," an interesting fact considering the totem-like taboo against harming and killing cows in Hindu society. The names of many gotra ancestors including most of the earliest and most important ones were names of animals, plants, fish or other objects. Although gotra ancestors were considered human in not a few cases we find that the actual animal, plant or other object indicated by the gotra ancestor's name was actually revered sometimes to include taboos against harming or killing. The gotras like totemic clans were exogamous and often showed other aspects of totemism like the existence of split totems. It has been suggested that the names of certain gotra ancestors that have meanings like "rabbit's ear" or "dog's tail" actually refer to split totems.

According to the Mahabharata (Santiparva: 296), there were, as with the varnas, originally only four gotras -- another sign of quadripartition. Other classical works mention eight gotras, and by the time of the Mahabharata both varnas and gotras had multiplied rampantly. It can be suggested that the original number was four and this was bisected into the eight gotras, prior to the wholesale division leading to the highly complex system of today with an estimated 3,000 castes and 25,000 subcastes. In North India, a practice prevails of avoiding marriage with four gotras involving close kin, which possibly could be a remnant of the original four gotras.

Tradition states that the varnas and gotras originate with the pantheistic deity Purusa. The four varnas of humanity are said to come from the four parts of the Purusa's body. The gotra ancestors known as Rishis are also said to originate from the Purusa although some traditions state that they combined to form the Purusa and others that they sacrificed the Purusa in creating the cosmos.

Earlier in this blog, the relationship between Purusa and the pantheistic cosmologies of Southeast Asia, South China and the Pacific were discussed. The latter examples include themes of the creation of the world using the body of the pantheistic deity. In some cases, we find evidence of quadripartition in these myths.

For example, in Java, Bali and Sulawesi, there is a belief that every person is born together with "four siblings" consisting of the amniotic fluid, blood, vernix caseosa and the afterbirth. According to Stephen C. Headley this belief is linked with a wider Austronesian theme linking four siblings with the primordial being and the first creation.

With the four siblings an Austronesian myth and polythetic classification are at work here. The classificatory siblingship used in western Austronesian is well attested through the central section of the archipelago and has resisted "Indianization" and Islamization. The anthropomorphic identification of parts of the world with parts of the body or of siblingship did not await the advent of Samkhya philosophy from India to be used in Java and Bali. All personhood is relational and the society is built out of such relationships and not individuals. One's body is not the innermost point in one's identity, for an invisible world inhabits it and has relationships from the oriented cosmos in which it moves.

In the Philippines, the pantheistic deity from which all things originate is in some cases considered a deity or personification of time. In this same region, we often find the generations of a clan are expressed in the form of a human body i.e. a representation of generational time. In most cases, five generations of a clan are likened to sequential parts of the human body with the waist sometimes representing the current generation. Also, the Proto-Austronesian words for "body," "year," and "season" may be related.

Body metaphors find wide use in the Austronesian sphere (emphasis added):

Body metaphors are also used widely for the imagery of social space in the Austronesian world. In highland Bali, for example, differently ranked members of the village council of elders are associated with specific body parts of sacrificial animals, which are divided among them to be consumed during the ritual meals. Indeed, some of the titles of elders are derived from body parts, especially from the divisions of the forelegs (Reuter 2002a, 2002b). The 'head' of domains is often associated with the most upstream inhabited locations at the source of river systems. Left and right body halves are often associated with ceremonial moieties or other forms of dual social categories. The four extremities of sacrificial animals, finally, tend to be associated with some form of fourfold division of space and society (see Mosko, this volume), which is also a common pattern within the region. (Reuter, 2006: 25)

Milad's story also has what may be remnants of pantheistic belief. Her four children/stones become the dominant villages of Belau's quadripartite society. Her afterbirth is also said to become a village, and Milad herself is said to have turned into a stone landmark.


Cross Cousin Marriage

While the North Indian practice of four gotras may be a relic of an original quadripartite system of exogamy, the current system prevents any marriage of close kin. In South India, where gotras are rampant we find, however, that cross cousin marriage is the rule even among the high brahmin caste. This has led some to suggest that the "Aryan" system restricted cousin marriage as compared to the aboriginal system. However, the literary data does not really support such a theory.

The Vedas are mostly silent about the subject but the little they say would suggest that cross marriage was accepted at that time. Arthur Maurice Hocart noted that a Rgvedic verse supported bilateral cross cousin marriage. The hymn was apparently so controversial that commentator Sayana skips over it, but Yaksa includes it in his commentary. The verse suggests that the mother's brother's daughter (matrilateral) and the father's sister son (patrilateral) as the "share" or "portion" for marriage. The use of the word "portion" as Hocart notes was also found in distant Fiji even seems to suggest prescriptive cross cousin marriage.

Now, we should note that Blust suggested that the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian quadripartite divisions arose out of a system of bilateral cross cousin marriage groups with reciprocal exchange!

Later on in India history, the genealogy of the Buddha (Prince Siddharta) suggests that among the Sakya people of his kingdom, cross cousin marriage was either prescriptive or preferred. In classical Hindu literature, we hear of cross cousin marriages -- Arjuna with Subhadra, Sahadeva with Vijaya, Pradyumna with Rukmavati -- indicating that while not particularly common the practice was still acceptable at the time, at least among the Pandava and Yadava clans.

All in all, I would have to say that the similarities between and the likely genesis of the quadripartite systems in the two regions deserve further study especially when linked together with other collaborative evidence.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Alkire, WH, and Fujimura, K. "Principles of Organization in the Outer Islands of Yap State and Their Implications for Archaeology." In Hunter-Anderson, RL (ed.). "Recent Advances in Micronesian Archaeology." Micronesica, Suppl. 2. I, 1990.

Blust, Robert ; David F. Aberle; N. J. Allen; R. H. Barnes; Ann Chowning; Otto Chr. Dahl; Jacques Faublée; James J. Fox; George W. Grace; Toichi Mabuchi; Kenneth Maddock; Andrew Pawley. "Early Austronesian Social Organization: The Evidence of Language [and Comments and Reply]," Current Anthropology, Vol. 21, No. 2., Apr., 1980, 205-247.

Dandekar, Ramchandra Narayan . Proceedings of the All-India Oriental Conference, Oriental Philology, 1972, 397.

De Joesslin de Jong, P. E. Minangkabau and Negri Sembilan: Socio-political structure in Indonesia. Leiden, 1951.

Headley, Stephen C. Durga's Mosque: Cosmology,. Conversion and Community in Central. Javanese Islam, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004, 124-25.

Morrell, Elizabeth. Securing a Place: Small-scale Artisans in Modern Indonesia, SEAP Publications, 2005, 45.

Parmentier, Richard J. The Sacred Remains: Myth, History, and Polity in Belau, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Reuter, Thomas Anton. Sharing the earth, dividing the land : land and territory in the Austronesian world, Canberra : ANU E Press, 2006, 25.

Van Wouden, F. A. E. Types of social structure in eastern Indonesia. Translated by Rodney Needham, The Hague:Martinus Nijhoff, 1968.

__. "Local groups and double descent in Kodi, West Sumba," in Structural anthropology in the Netherlands, Edited by P. E. de Josselin de Jong, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1977, 184-222.

Solheim on Nusantao Voyages to the Americas

Archaeologist Wilhelm Solheim has proposed lately that Jomon-like Valdivia pottery of Ecuador and other pottery resembling the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay tradition has its ultimate origin in Southeast Asia.

Solheim quotes the seminal work of the late James Ford, A Comparison of Formative Cultures in the Americas: Diffusion or the Psychic Unity of Man:

At about 3000 BC after a long sea voyage from the southwestern Japanese Islands, a group of fisherman landed on the coast of Ecuador. Meggers, Evans, and Estrada (1965), who have presented the evidence in support of this happening, so novel in terms of currently accepted theory about New World cultural development, have modestly suggested that perhaps this was a single boatload of fishermen, lost at sea in a storm, who were unwillingly brought to the shores of America by the North Pacific ocean current.

There is reason to suspect, however, that this might have been more in the nature of an exploring and colonizing expedition involving a number of individuals of both sexes and varied skills. Subsequent events in the Americas suggest that these people had a seafaring, exploring and colonizing tradition, similar to that fo the later Polynesians and Vikings. Solheim (1964[a]:360, 376—84) has offered statistical evidence to show that one of three sources of Malayan and Polynesian ceramic traditions was influenced from the Japanese Islands at an estimated date of 1000 to 500 BC. The extensive spread of this 'Sa-Hunh-Kalanay' tradition in the southwestern Pacific certainly implies a seafaring tradition. Most of the ceramic shapes, decorative elements, and design motifs are similar to those postulated to have spread to the Americas between 3000 and 1000 B.C.

The remarkable variety of the Valdivia ceramics suggests that more than one or two individuals, or lineages, founded and maintained this tradition. The highly selective fashion in which certain elements of the complex were spread to other parts of the Americas, also argues that specialization in this craft had already developed. Furthermore, as varied as it is the Valdivia ceramic complex does not represent the entire range of pottery manufactured at 3000 B.C. in southwestern Japan. As with the early English settlement at Jamestown in Virgina, the products manufactured corresponded to the experience and training of the craftsmen brought from the mother country (Ford 1969: 183-184).

Solheim believes based on the similarities of the Valdivia and other assemblages in decoration and form with the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay complex that Nusantao voyagers from were making infrequent visits to the west coast of the Americas starting around 3000 BCE using the Kuroshio (Japan) Current.




Some examples given by Wilhelm Solheim of pottery decoration showing relationship with Sa-Huynh-Kalanay designs.

Top row: The third from the left is from Puerto Hormiga, Columbia with the rest from Valdivia, Ecuador.

Second row: The third from the left is from Barlovento, Columbia with the rest from Valdivia, Ecuador.

Third row: Valdivia; Machalilla, Ecuador; Veracruz, Mexico.

Bottom: Veracruz, Mexico.

Redrawn by Ric de Guzman in John N. Miksic, Earthenware in Southeast Asia: Proceedings of the Singapore Symposium.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Ford, J. A. A Comparison of Formative Cultures in the Americas: Diffusion or the Psychic Unity of Man, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology Vol. 11, Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 1969.

Miksic, John N. Earthenware in Southeast Asia: Proceedings of the Singapore Symposium, National University of Singapore Press, 2003, 20-21.

Solheim II, Wilhelm G. Archaeology and Culture in Southeast Asia: Unraveling the Nusantao, University of the Philippines Press, 2006.

Austronesian genetic connection between Madagascar and Tonga

The following abstract discusses a study that verifies a genetic connection between populations in Madagascar and Tonga far to the East.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

J Hum Genet. 2008;53(2):106-20. Epub 2007 Dec 14. Links

Austronesian genetic signature in East African Madagascar and Polynesia.

Regueiro M, Mirabal S, Lacau H, Caeiro JL, Garcia-Bertrand RL, Herrera RJ.

Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, University Park, OE 304, Miami, FL, 33199, USA.

The dispersal of the Austronesian language family from Southeast Asia represents the last major diaspora leading to the peopling of Oceania to the East and the Indian Ocean to the West. Several theories have been proposed to explain the current locations, and the linguistic and cultural diversity of Austronesian populations. However, the existing data do not support unequivocally any given migrational scenario. In the current study, the genetic profile of 15 autosomal STR loci is reported for the first time for two populations from opposite poles of the Austronesian range, Madagascar at the West and Tonga to the East. These collections are also compared to geographically targeted reference populations of Austronesian descent in order to investigate their current relationships and potential source population(s) within Southeast Asia.

Our results indicate that while Madagascar derives 66.3% of its genetic makeup from Africa, a clear connection between the East African island and Southeast Asia can be discerned. The data suggest that although geographic location has influenced the phylogenetic relationships between Austronesian populations, a genetic connection that binds them beyond geographical divides is apparent.

News: Unearthing an ancient Pacific capital

The most recent research suggests the location of the Polynesian urheimat (homeland) was located in the modern kingdom of Tonga.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
---

Unearthing an ancient Pacific capital

Randy Boswell , Canwest News Service

Published: Monday, January 21, 2008

A Canadian archeologist's discoveries in the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga are rewriting the history of a vast portion of Oceania and tracing the common origins of a host of island peoples -- including Hawaiians, Tahitians, Samoans and New Zealand's Maoris -- to a remote peninsula that he believes was once the site of a large and lasting "capital" of ancient Polynesia.

Simon Fraser University's David Burley says his latest finds from the Nukuleka archeological site on one of Tonga's southern islands shows it was the principal "founding settlement" of Polynesia about 2,800 years ago, and endured long enough for a genetically and culturally distinctive people to evolve and begin spreading across the immense "Polynesian triangle" bounded by Hawaii in the north, New Zealand in the southwest and fabled Easter Island in the far southeast, not far from the coast of South America.

Burley's finds at Nukuleka first made headlines in 2001 after he published a study showing it was the oldest archeological site in Polynesia. Elaborately decorated pottery shards recovered from a layer of shoreline nearly 3,000 years old indicated it was the earliest known encampment by ocean voyagers from ancient Melanesia - the Pacific island group to the west that includes New Guinea, Fiji and New Caledonia.

But the latest excavations at Nukuleka, conducted last summer by Burley's team, revealed a much richer array of artifacts and a revised theory about the importance of the site.

The Tongan outpost, says Burley, became a "major village" that appeared to prosper for generations and, eventually, serve as a seedbed for the peopling of all of Polynesia.

Critically, he adds, the settlement at Nukuleka lasted long enough for distinctively Polynesian physical traits, pottery styles and chieftain-based social structures to develop, differentiating these people from their Melanesian ancestors.

"It's not a small little site as we originally thought," Burley told Canwest News Service. "It becomes the central place from which the population at Tonga begins to spread out across Polynesia. This site is so different in scale that it truly must have been a node from which people got settled and came back, and so on - like the capital."

The SFU team's evidence that Nukuleka was "the cradle of Polynesia" has already prompted a renewed push by Tongan officials to win UNESCO World Heritage Site recognition for its islands' archeological treasures.

Chile's Easter Island, a UNESCO site believed to have been first reached by a small party of Polynesians less than 1,000 years ago, is famous for its massive carvings of stone heads and dramatic civilizational collapses.

Solving the "Polynesian problem" - explaining how and when these ancient Asians migrated across such immense stretches of ocean to populate so many far-flung islands - has been a central challenge for generations of anthropologists and archeologists.

Burley said the new finds will be of particular interest to Polynesian populations throughout the Pacific and their diaspora around the world.

"Nukuleka," he said, "becomes a village to which all Polynesians in some way can probably relate their heritage to."

© Canwest News Service 200

The Whale and the Millenarian Cycle

In my book, Sailing the Black Current, I discuss the motif of the whale or other giant sea creature and its connection with the "navel of the sea," and natural disasters including the millennial Great Flood and the coming millennium.

In the 1987 film Whale Rider. Witi Ihimaera tells the story of a Whangara Maori prophecy in which a recurrent golden age is ushered in by the coming of a leader riding on a whale.

From Southeast Asia throughout much of the Pacific, tales of whale riders and otherwise helpful whales are commonly found. In coastal central and south Vietnam, whales are seen as protectors of fisherman and sailors who rescue those at sea by allowing them to ride on their backs. A dead whale is seen as a sign of coming prosperity, a type of golden age if you will.

These Vietnamese beliefs appear to originate in the Cham whale cult of Po Rayak. Whale temples house the bones of dead whales who are given royal funerals by coastal peoples. The person who finds the dead whale takes on the role of the cetacean's first-born child and performs formal mourning. After the whale carcass has been interred for three years, the bones are recovered for placement in a temple. During the Nguyen Dynasty, the dead whales were granted titles by the emperor usually with rank of a "general" or "admiral" of the highest order.

Whales were considered incarnations of Thanh Nam Hai "God of the South Seas," and were sometimes called Nam Hai Dai Vuong "Great King of the South Seas." Revolutionary heroes like Ngyuen Trung Truc and Marshall Nguyen Huynh Duc are often seen as incarnations themselves of the whale god Ka Ong.


Whales and the Ebisu Cult of Japan

The Japanese patron deity of fishing, Ebisu, is often viewed as a whale in coastal regions of Japan in a cult that Sakurada Katsunori believes originates in southern Kyushu.

Ebisu is a form of the "divine visitor" also known as Miroku and as Marebito in the Ryukyus. When Ebisu visits, an age of prosperity ensues. This may be viewed naturally, outside of other considerations, in two ways, either the whale chases fish toward the shore or beaches itself providing the bounty of a whale carcass.

Whaling is seen as a sacred venture, and as in Vietnam, whale monuments dot the Japanese coast. About 25 matsuri festivals are held yearly as memorial festivals for whales many with the purpose of helping the whale spirit reach enlightenment to become a Buddha in Paradise. Traditional whalers are known to say the Namu Amida Butsu prayer at the death of a whale in hopes that the whale will become a Buddha.

The whale is also sometimes seen as the great fish Namazu-e (literally 'catfish'), who causes earthquakes and brings about world destruction and renewal.


Whales and the Navel of the Sea in the Philippines and Indonesia

Among the Maranao of the South Philippines, there is giant fish called Lumbang, probably a whale, that dwells at the "navel of the sea" that causes earthquakes when it moves around. The Maguidanao know this huge fish as Limbo. In some languages of the Philippines, lumba-lumba means "dolphin" or "tuna."

The Batak of Palawan tell of a great dragon known as Tandayag who causes floods by closing up the navel of the sea, which they call burungan. The word tandayag means "whale" or "giant fish" in various other Philippine languages like Waray and Maguindanao. Marcos de Lisbon, writing in 1754, defines tandayag in the Bicol language as 'a very great snake, that they say went to the sea, and returned there as a whale' ("una culebra muy grande, que dicen se iba a la mar, y se volven alla ballena").

In other Philippine mythologies, the creature associated with the navel of the sea and the linked Earth pillars is a dragon, giant serpent, giant crab, giant eel, etc. The great animal or fish causes earthquakes or floods often because of the wrath of the Supreme Deity at the sins of humanity. The Great Deluge of yore in Philippine mythology is usually associated with this creature stopping up the navel of the sea, and thus renewing the age.

Usually the same creature, attracted by the Moon is said to cause the ebb and flow of the tide by moving in and out of the navel of the sea, and also the eclipse of the lunar and solar orbs. It is sometimes thought to be female in gender and is known as the lord of the sea or waters, the king of fishes or even as the Supreme God itself.

In some cases, if God's anger is not propitiated, the destruction of the world ensues. This is known at times by the Malay Muslim word Harikiamat "Day of Judgement" (alikiamat, Tiruray; harikiama, Maranao; harikiamat, Maguindanao).

However, among the indigenous peoples, Harikiamat is not associated with the Islamic prophecies of the al-Mahdi, the descent of Isa (Jesus) and the final war with the Antichrist. Instead, we find the native beliefs in the destruction of the world by flood or earthquake associated with the navel of the sea and the great whale, dragon, serpent, etc.


Leviathan

Speaking of whales and the end of the world, the great biblical sea creature Leviathan, often also thought of as female, is identified as a whale by many commentators. In Jewish lore, Leviathan's massive carcass provides the fare for the great messianic feast at the end of the age.

Leviathan is also often associated with the "beast" that John of the Book of Revelation sees rising out of the sea as he stands on the shore. This beast is not a carcass but has a deadly wound that is healed by a "dragon" before the great apocalypse.

Of course, one also needs to think of the story of Jonah when thinking about whales. Jonah is swallowed by a 'great fish' and spat up on a beach to warn Nineveh of impending doom. Back in 1837, FC Baur studied the similarity of the Jonah motif with that of Babylonian Oannes, the fish-man who also comes from the sea to the shore at the start of a new age. Oannes is one of the abgal, messengers who come regularly from the sea to Mesopotamia at the start of a new kingdom.

Thus, Oannes like Jonah, the doomsday prophet, has millenarian aspects. Some have even suggested that the etymologies of the two names are linked.

Herman Melville, in his 1851 American classic Moby Dick, identifies Leviathan with the whale and specifically the great albino sperm whale of his story. He further makes a connection with the Hindu Matsya Avatara, the first cyclic iincarnation of the god Visnu. The Matsya Avatara is described as a great fish (matsya) that rescues the Hindu Adam, known as Manu, from the Great Flood that ushers in the new age (Satyayuga).

Interestingly, Melville describes among the crew of the whaler Ahab the "Manila men" with "tiger yellow" skin who when rowing Ahab's boat seemed "all steel and whalebone; like five trip-hammers they rose and fell with regular strokes of strength."

The phantoms, for so they then seemed, were flitting on the other side of the deck, and, with noiseless celerity, were casting loose the tackles and bands of the boat which swung there. This boat had always been deemed one of the spare boats, though technically called the captain's, on account of its hanging from the starboard quarter. The figure that now stood by its bows was tall and swart, with one white toothe evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff.
But strangely crowning this eboness was a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head. Less swart in aspect, the companions of this figure were of that vivid, tiger-yellow complexion peculiar to some of the aboriginal natives of the Manillas; -- a race notorious for a certain diabolism of subtilty, and by some honest white mariners supposed to be the paid
spies and secret confidential agents on the water of the devil, their lord, whose counting-room they suppose to be elsewhere.

Ahab's ship passed the Philippines while searching for Moby Dick along the Kuroshio Current and the final encounter with the whale occurred near the equator somewhere southeast of Japan.

The writing style of Moby Dick certainly invites the search for hidden meanings and it has been described as following the apocalyptic archetype with Ahab even identified as St. John the Divine, author of the Book of Revelation. The whale itself seems to alternately symbolize good and evil, God and Satan (or the beast of Revelation). Melville writes:

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.

Moby Dick is seen by some as symbolizing the human and specifically American obsession with destroying evil.

Although an early supporter of the new doctrine of Manifest Destiny to some extent, Melville strongly rebelled against the treatment of Polynesians and other Pacific Islanders. He considered the Pacific as the new frontier that was being destroyed by the coming of "snivelization." He chided Americans for their ruthless colonialism:

The Anglo-Saxons -- lacking grace
To win the love of any race;
Hated by myriads dispossessed
Of rights -- the Indians East and West.
These pirates of the sphere! grave looters--
Grave, canting, Mammonite freebotters,
Who in the name of Christ and Trade
(Oh, bucklered forehead of the brass!)
Deflower the world's last sylvan glade.

Clarel 4.9.117-25

Journey to the Navel of the Sea

Although most descriptions of Philippine and Indonesian myths of the navel of the sea are rather cursory, Dario Novellino has conducted a significant study of this theme among the Batak of Palawan.

The Batak believe that once this navel known as burungan is open, if the Tandayag dragon is not appeased the universe will eventually dissolve following the great floods.

To help prevent this occurrence, the Batak shaman (babailan) undertakes a spirit journey to the burungan to "renew the world."

To then ‘renew the world’, the most important phase of the ritual is the trance performed by the shaman. The shaman holds coconut oil in one hand, while dancing. During the trance the kiaruwa’ of the shaman will move in search of selected spirit guides, and will require their help to reach the burungan. These spirit guides are associated with animal species, and they represent their ‘spiritualised’ version. They are the kiaruwa’ of animals ‘of the water’ and ‘of the higher up’, and include the swallow, the otter, the monitor lizard, and the river turtle. The kiaruwa’ of the river turtle is considered the most enduring and capable of confronting the fury of the water at the burungan. It will also play a shamanic role by dancing the same dance as the shaman, thus fostering the closing of the two boulders over the burungan. While the turtle’s kiaruwa’ dances, the shaman smears the two boulders with coconut oil, facilitating the coming together of the two stones above the burungan opening, thus stopping the water outflow. According to the informants, a particular malevolent panya’en appears at the burungan site in the form of an attractive woman, and she will try to call on her the shaman’s attention. It is said that if the shamans looks back at the malevolent panya’en, he may be hit by the water outflow, and fall inside the burungan hole. Finally, with the assistance of the spirit guides, the shaman will try to place the rooster claw back on the metal bar. In so doing the rooster will stop flapping its wings and, the storm will end.

When the burungan is closed, offerings of chickens, ceramics and human blood (but not sacrifice) are made to the Tandayag, the guardian of the burungan.

The millenarian idea of "healing" or "renewing" the world is quite interesting. Possibly related to this is the old practice of the Igorots of Kagubatan who regularly fed the sacred eels of the Kagubatan lake. If these eels are not fed, it is believed a drought would ensue and crops would fail. The eels are so accustomed to the feeding that they rise to the surface like goldfish when the Igorots sang specific songs meant to summon them. The eels here could have been seen forms of their supreme god Lumauig's python that controls the waters at the navel of the sea.

In studying the importance of the whale or some similar large sea creature in millenarian myth, we can note that the whale or sea serpent is often conflated with the sea boat in totemic cultures. The cargo cult mentality places much emphasis on the "treasure boat," and thus the boat-whale symbolism would take on special importance. Indeed, the whale itself brings abundant cargo when it lands on a beach. In addition to acting as a tutelary god, the whale is sometimes seen as an ancestor. For example, the Maori Paikea, ancestor of the Ngāti Porou, is sometimes described as riding a whale, but at other times as a whale himself.

I explore the connection of the whale-dragon and the navel of the sea with natural disasters and apocalyptic beliefs in Sailing the Black Current focusing on the area of the Philippine Trench near the beginning of the Kuroshio Current (Black Tide).

Regards,
Paul Kekai Mananasala
Sacramento

References

McLeod, Mark W. Culture and Customs of Vietnam, Greenwood Press, 2001.

Melville, H., Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1851.

Naumann, Nelly. "Whale and Fish Cult in Japan: A Basic Feature of Ebisu Worship," Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1 (1974), 1-15.

Novellino, D. Contrasting Landscapes, Conflicting ontologies. Assessing environmental conservation on Palawan Island (The Philippines), University of Kent, n.d., (http://www.radicalanthropologygroup.org/class_text_082.pdf)

Ouwehand, C. Namazu-e and Their Themes, An Interpretive A4pproach to Some Aspects of Iapanese Folk Religion, E.J. Brill, Leiden, I964.

Taylor, Philipp. Goddess on the Rise: Pilgrimage and Popular Religion in Vietnam, University of Hawaii Press, 2004.