The early Tulu tribes’ adoption of the names of the planets in our solar system as proper names is another characteristic of their Pirak phase of civilisation, which lasted from approximately 2000 to 500 BC. The group of sages who resided in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent and wrote the Vedas worshipped a number of planets as well as other natural forces. Worship of animals, heroes, and spirits was popular among the Tulu of the present and other tribes of the time. There was started worship of Brahma/Bermer. At that time, astrology was a common practise. According to legend, even Abraham initially used astrology. Several tribes that were there at the time naturally took the names of the planets in the solar system, so it makes sense.

In one of his study papers, Professor Mariappa Bhat made note of how common it is for Tulu people to use names of the Sun and various planets as part of their legitimate names. The names are as follows and match the names of the seven days of the week:

English Sanskrit .>. Tulu*

Sun Aditya Aitha
Moon Soma Soma/Toma
Mars Angaraka Angare
Mercury Budha Booda
Jupiter Guru Guruve
Venus Shukra Tukra
Saturn Shani Taniya
*[Tulu proper names were used with suffixes of –anna,-appa or aiha]

These proper names were once highly valued by Tulu people, but they are currently being abandoned in favour of modernity because they are out of style. Only Aditya, Soma, and Guru are still favoured among the Sanskrit equivalents; the others are all but defunct.
On the succeeding historical eras, the astrological studies in the northwest Indian subcontinent persisted and the fundamental scientific and mathematical ideas were further developed. With Jantar Mantar serving as the primary exhibit of our tradition in astronomical research, astrological study centres have been established in areas of the Indian subcontinent like Jaipur and Delhi.

The Tulu people’s use of these recently extinct planetary names is a testament to their ancient past, which dates to around 500 BC to 2000 BC.

Many people believe that ghost worship is exclusively practised in coastal Tulunad (also known as “Bhutrdhane”) and Kerala (also known as “Teyyam”). The continuance and development of the spirit religion into a complex art form in these areas contributes to the perception.
The early historical societies were rife with the primordial cult of worshipping the spirits of their deceased mass heroes under the preposterous notion that powerful souls live on after death. One of the first spirits to be worshipped in the early civilizations between 2000 and 500 BC was the spirit of Brahma, which was drawn from the folk hero Abraham.Around 500 BC, migrant Tulu tribes and their allies brought the Bermer (Brahma) cult from the northwest Indian subcontinent to the Karavali (coastal Karnataka), which would later become their homeland, the Tulunadu. The Tulu Bermer was initially pictured as a horse-riding hero, most likely one with a beard like Abraham. Halakki and other tribes of the Uttara Kannada district kept Bommayya (also known as Brahma) in the same horse-riding hero role. The early Tulu tribes’ migration path passes via the Uttara Kannada region.

Riding a horse comes to mind The figure of Bermer was used to represent several later-added spirits of that era. Bermer was a dominant religion and notion for several succeeding centuries. In the area, there was still spirit worship.In the early centuries of the Christian era, spirit worship was common in southern India. The Deccan region’s Khandoba and Mallanna are ghosts from that era. The pictures of the horse-riding heroes portrayed these spirits.

Khandoba is a legendary spirit god who was first revered in Maharastra by shepherds and hunters. The folk deity or spirit is also referred to as Malhari Martand, Khanderao, and Khanderaya. The comparable spirit is known as Mallanna in Andhra Pradesh, and he has also gone by the names Mallappa, Mallaya, Mallara, and Mailara Linga in Karnataka. Khandoba, Khanderao, or Mallappa’s initial representation was that of a hero galloping on a horse (or a bull as a later modification).

A possible 5th century AD hero turned spirit named Mundittaya is also shown in Tulunadu as a horse-riding spirit. It’s possible that Mundittaya represents a hero from the Munda tribe that ruled the coastal region in early historical times.
Between the 6th and 10th centuries AD, Shiva worship rose to prominence, and during this time, the Kandoba/Mallappa ghost was reinterpreted as Mrtanda Bhairava, a Shiva manifestation. A lingam was used to represent Mailara Linga.

It appears that Dravidian tribes who came to southern India and lived in the present-day Tamilnad, likely between the years 500 and 100 BC, also brought the Shiva religion or Shaivism to that region.

A unified model of incarnations was created by combining several ancient theological systems and beliefs that were widespread in northern Indian civilization at that point in history (around 300 BC or later). The idea of the ten avatras of Lord Vishnu was created by recomposing and uniting the 10 divinities created by earlier civilisation sects. The phrases ava (meaning downhill) and tra (meaning passage) relate to God’s fall into earth in the shapes of humans and animals. These consist of:

1. Matsya -The fish God
2 Koorma-The Tortoise
3. Varāha-The Boar
4. Narasimha- The Lion Man
5. Vāmana-The Dwarf
6. Parashurāma-The Axe Rama
7. Rāma
8. Krishna
9. Balarām/ Buddha and
10. Kalki.

All of these incarnations are essentially the acceptance and mythification of ten different religions that were prevalent throughout various stages of the Indian subcontinent’s civilisation.
The stories are also roughly, and possibly unintentionally, ordered according to the stages of life’s evolution, starting with the most basic vertebrate fish and ending with the most advanced humans.

1. The recognition of “Matsya,” or The Fish God, as an avatar clarifies one of the main disagreements surrounding the interpretation of Indus Valley civilisation. There are several fish pictograms on the seals discovered in Indus valley civilization archaeological sites like Harapa and Mohenjodaro. Iravattam Mahadevan believed that these fish symbols represented stars (based on the fact that the term “meen” has two meanings in Dravidian languages), but Asko Parpola insisted that they stand for the Fish God who was worshipped by the people of the Indus valley. It seems that Asko Parpola’s interpretation is more appropriate.Long after the Indus valley civilisation was destroyed, people’s thoughts were still preoccupied with the idea of the Fish God that the Indus valley inhabitants (mostly Dravidians?) worshipped. Later in history, Vaishnavism (the Vishnu cult) accepted the same idea or myth as Matsya avatr, the first manifestation of Lord Vishnu.
2. On the occasion of the mythical churning of the Sea (Samudra mathana) for the purpose of getting the amrutha, the Giant Tortoise, known as the Koorma avatr, is recalled. This legend’s depiction of the conflict between the Sura (divine beings) and Asura (demons) groups is an exaggerated portrayal of the process of churning buttermilk to make butter. Dairy farming and cattle grazing were common during the subcontinent’s early history. Even Krishna came from a cattle keeping household (Yadavs). The Mount of Meru is pictured in the mythical account as the churning rope being pulled in a tug of war mode by Sura and Asura groups on opposite ends, while Mount Meru is positioned on the Koorma as the churning rod tied with Adishesha (the serpent associated with Vishnu).Instead of using a buttermilk pot, the entire churning process is carried out in the sea, and “amrutha” (the elixir) is sought after from this churning rather than butter. The entire mythological imagination exalts the rivalry and hostility between the Vedic Aryan and Jewish tribes, whose cultures developed at the same time and in parallel ways.
3. Similar to this, the Great Boar was revered during the early historical era in the northwest subcontinent. This tale must have originated from the Boar spirit-god (‘daiva’) ‘Panjurli’ worshipped by Tulu tribes. The Boar God (Varaha), according to the myth of the ten incarnations, slew Hiranyaksha, the brother of Hiranyakashipu, and saved the Earth from the fury of the sea.
4. The Narasimha (also known as the Lion-man or the half-man, half-lion avatr) tells the tale of Prahlada, an innocent youngster who was saved from the hands of his oppressive father Hiranyakashipu, but it also has a lot of fantastical elements. According to tradition, the brothers of the Asura, Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha, were born to the sage Kashyapa, the descendant of Lord Brahma. Diti, Aditi, Vinita, and Kudroo were the names of the four wives of Sage Kashyapa. Sisters of Gauri, Lord Shiva’s wife, were Diti and Aditi. Diti gave birth to Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha. Aditi gave birth to the Sura class of deities. Garuda (the Eagle), the bearer of Vishnu, was created by Vinita. Nagas, the serpent class, were created by Kudroo. The worship of the Naga has been popular since the dawn of civilisation.The Garuda (eagle) notion is intriguing in and of itself. Prophet Abraham was riding a horse as he was on the move. The original Brahma, who sprung from Abraham, rode a horse. (However, throughout time, the Brahma’s configuration evolved.) It later became customary to show all Gods as having speedy carrying animals, which were the only vehicles available at the period, in the manner of the original Brahma. The eagle also kills snakes, incidentally. Garuda was thus chosen by the myth’s authors as Vishnu’s chariot, maybe also to challenge the dominance of the Naga worship.These narratives exhibit the confluence of numerous mythology. These imaginations theologically explained the origins of Gods (Sura class), Demons (Asura class), Naga class, and Garuda.From Diti comes the term “daitya” (which means “giant”). It seems that the daityas (the Asura class) had enormous builds, which may have been a reference to the tall Caucasian race.
5. The tale of the dwarf Vamana is a bit bizarre. It showed how a dwarf’s naughty request to build three steps on the land was glorified, and how he successfully conquered the just King Bali, who was well-liked and respected by his citizens. Even after King Bali was defeated by “Patala,” he was still revered by his subjects. Since ancient times, Tulu and Malayali people have celebrated a special night of lights at Deepavali in memory of King Baliyendra. In terms of natural justice, King Bali had no wrongdoing other than the fact that he belonged to the so-called Asura class
6. .A determined and strong man named Parashurama slew numerous Kshatriya kings to exact revenge for the insult committed against his family. This man was given the name Parashu-ram to distinguish him from the Rama of the Ramayana, with the word “parashu” denoting the axe he carried as a weapon.The Par ashram in Konkan Karavali and Malabar on India’s West Coast is associated with the actual myth that he took back the coastal area from the Lord of the Sea. He made a pact with the (Arabian) Sea that the Sea would give up any land up to where he could throw his axe. This is an intriguing tale of the Sea’s retreat that is credited to a fictional superhuman figure.Regression and transgression of the seas are phenomena that have happened historically all across the world. Geologists estimate that the West Coast’s most recent regression was roughly 6000 years ago. People who were alive during the Regression of the Sea experienced the astonishing phenomena, and the tale was passed down orally from elder to younger generations. After a few generations, the hero Parashurama was given credit for the tale because people believed he could accomplish such a thing with the help of his incredible axe.
7. Rama’s tale may be a prehistoric, pre-Vedic folktale that has been passed down through the centuries from older to younger family members. The presence of primal humans or monkeys (apes or hairy men who resemble apes) places the discovery in prehistoric times. The tale was repackaged by Valmiki, a hunter turned poet who lived between 500 and 800 BC, and was given a light fantastical touch. When the Ramayana was rewritten, the idea of Brahma had already evolved from a primitive horse-riding tribal hero based on Abraham’s life (Tulu Brahma: the Bermer) to a four-headed God of creation. According to S.S. N. Murthy’s in-depth analysis, Brahma was extolled and transformed into a mythical vision of magnificence.He was also shown as a god with ten heads. It’s fascinating to see how extensively the Ramayana describes the landscape of southern India and Sri Lanka. These sites must have allowed for unrestricted foot traffic at the time.
8. The Krishna, who has gained popularity since his youth, was once more a common hero. According to S.S.N.Murthy and others, the Mahabharata epic is a wildly imaginative canvas of explosions and fancies based on a real late to post-Vedic conflict of ten kingdoms.Both Rama and Krishna are praised for having blue skin, which is a compliment to the pleasantly dark-skinned Gods. There were light-skinned people in that era, as indicated by the focus on “blue skin.” It also suggests that Rama and Krishna came from the period’s dark-skinned indigenous.
9. Balarm, Krishna’s brother, was initially thought of as one of the incarnations but was later substituted by Buddha, who was more well-liked at the time the idea of the 10 incarnations was put together.
10. If bad continues to rule the earth, Kalki, the futuristic fantasy of the ten incarnations, hopes that God will return to correct the world. It was a vacant position set aside for the unseen mass Hero of the future.The Balaram-Buddha alterations imply that the list of incarnations was put together while Buddhism was at its height and at the time of Buddha.I’ve outlined a crude examination of the sociological development and evolution of theological ideas in our nation. Please see Guru Vishwanath’s blog articles from August to September 2005 for theological documentation on the ten incarnations of Vishnu.Initially, at least from around 500 BC, spirit worship predominated in Tulunadu and Kerala, and it still does so now. After the fifth century AD, Kadamba Kings, who had power over the local Alupa chieftains, built Shiva and Ganesha temples. The Pallava Kings may have had an influence on the Kadamba Kings’ adherence to the Shiva religion.The Krishna cult had already reached Kerala and Tulunadu by the time of Acharya Shankara (about 9th century AD). The Krishna was the deity in Shankara’s family, according to mythology. The Krishna cult was further popularised along the West Coast during the 12th century by Madhvacharya of Udupi.

For sociological studies, the historical development of theological ideas and the pantheon on the Indian subcontinent is highly fascinating. Native Indian societies held a strong belief in the reproductive organs’ exceptional abilities. As a result, both male and female sexual organs were venerated ritually. Later, the Shaiva cult incorporated the phallus (Linga) worship, and the Linga came to stand for Shiva. The ancient cults of vulva (Yoni) worship and Mother Godess worship merged with Shakti/Devi worship along similar lines.
The most ancient important deity in this subcontinent was undoubtedly Brahma. Up until that point, Vedic Aryans worshipped a variety of natural elements as Indra, Agni, Marut, Mitra, Varuna, etc.

The story of Abraham, the great Jewish leader who is also credited with helping his father build the Kaaba in Mecca, was so popular in the area that after his passing, several villages turned to worshipping his ghost. The Brahma tale was originally assimilated by the Tulu people in northwest India, and they carried the ideas with them when they later went south. These remnants of early Brahma worship may still be seen in coastal Karavali Karnataka. The concepts were also carried by the other migrants, but as the idea of Brahma evolved over time, so did these concepts. It appears that Brahma was also adopted by ancient Jainism.

The gods of nature were degraded to minor or lesser gods with the ascendance of the notion of Brahma. Brahma, who was originally depicted as a bearded, horse-riding hero, gradually changed into a four-headed creator, with the four heads standing in for the four Vedas. In the Ramayana, Brahma’s ten heads are also featured. To enhance the prestige and power of the holy elements at a popular level, myths and fiction were added along with intricate poetic imaginations and fancies.

Shiva and Vishnu gained popularity at the same time among the various cultural groups that made up the Indian culture at the time. Similar to Brahma, it’s possible that the initial stories and personas of Shiva and Vishnu were based on the real-life exploits of remarkable common heroes from that era. Interestingly, despite having dark or black complexion like their locals at the time, both of these Gods were poetically referred to as having “blue skin” (Shyamala Varna). These were dark-skinned Dravida/Munda tribal Gods, as evidenced by their black skin.

When the Vedic Aryans left their homes and entered the realms of several regional monarchs, they were forced to work for the Dravida/Munda kings in order to support themselves. Dravida/Munda Kings who trusted in their dark-skinned heroes went to gods rather than the white-skinned bearded Brahma or other Vedic deities (derived from Abraham). Due to their understanding of the Vedas, the Vedic Aryans who later became Brahmins were forced to abandon the Vedic Gods in favour of native deities with dark skin, such as Vishnu and Shiva (Mahesh).

The three trilinear faiths were attempted to be combined into a single concept of trinities at some point in history, especially after witnessing the development of the three lines of divine concepts. Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the keeper), and Maheswara (the destroyer) were combined into the trinity. An illustration of this acceptance of the blending of three faiths are the well-known Trimurthy statues found in Mumbai’s Elephanta caves.

It’s remarkable that these Gods, particularly the later-evolved four-headed Brahma, the Vishnu, and the Shiva, did not initially have an impact on the Tulu and Malayali people. Tamils who had settled in Madurai worshipped Shiva at least as early as the Christian era (Sangam literatuire period).
When the Kadamba dynasty at Banavasi came to power in the fifth century AD, Shiva temples were first built in Tulunad. The notions of Vishnu and Krishna also arrived in Tulunad much later.

Since countless years ago, there have been conflicting claims about the existence, nature, and form of God. But those who have placed their faith in a form of God have been successful in their missions throughout history because of the strength of their faith. Thus, it is crucial to practise positive thinking in your worship and to have trust and belief in it. As far as the objective is concerned, God’s precise character or form is unimportant. In the early stages of the long evolutions of human civilization, men worshipped animal gods and their spirits. They then began to worship heroes, and then Gods who took on human form. In the end, these evolutionary tendencies gave rise to the idea of a formless God.

Boar:Panjurli
Animal worship was the first type of worship practised by humans in the Indian subcontinent, followed by spirit worship. Their primary concern was protecting crops from wild boars when early nomadic tribal people turned to agriculture and built habitations and colonies around their agricultural fields (6000 to 4000 BC). In the beginning, they were unable to control them or anticipate their strikes. They most likely also believed that these boars have a god that rules over them and hoped that by worshipping this god of the boars, they would be free from the bothersome boars. It appears that this is how early, primitive cultures started to worship pigs. The Tulu tribes’ “Panjurli” bhoota or “daiva” was known as the wild boar god.

Animal spirits are referred to as “bhoota” in this context. “Daiva” is a name for God. Various spirits were given heavenly rank (also known as “daiva”) by early societies, such as the primordial Tulu tribes. The early societies had the belief that even after death, all living things continue to exist as spirits. As a result, the idea of reincarnation was created.

Serpent:Naga
The serpent or cobra was a similar enigmatic creature that occasionally bit one of their members fatally and appeared suddenly around their settlements. Sometimes, for reasons that were unknown to them at the time, it did not bite. They were astounded by the snakes’ enigmatic ability to kill people with just one lethal bite. In the prehistoric tribal societies of the Indian subcontinent, this gave rise to the concept of serpent or Naga worship.
Both of these religions (Panjurli and Naga) were eventually incorporated into the pantheon of Indian deities. The early tribes’ renowned boar, Panjurli, evolved into Varaha, Vishnu’s third avatar.Naga worship was assimilated into Adishesha, the poetic mattress and apron for the reclining Vishnu, and the serpent around Shiva’s neck. In several locations in southern India, Murugan or Subramanya worship has since blended with Naga worship. With the migration of the Tulu tribes, the idea of Panjurli and Naga worship was brought from the northwest Indian subcontinent to Tulunad, where it is still practised today. The number of Spirit Gods has expanded throughout the course of the lengthy historical past, and individual Tulu families have long had a belief in particular ghosts. Even individuals who later adopted the worship of important Hindu deities like Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna, and Shakti, or even Jainism, continue to fervently revere the spirits passed down via their families.

Fish God
In a similar line, it appears that the fish images seen on Indus Valley seals stand in for the Fish God, who was revered by the locals. The Indus and its tributaries’ frequent floods greatly alarmed the residents of the Indus valley. They may have had faith in the Fish God, who rules the rivers and the sea, to prevent floods. Long after the Indus Valley was destroyed, the memories of the Fish God civilisation persisted. The account was later incorporated into history as Vishnu’s original incarnation.
The bull or bison is yet another animal depiction that can be seen on Indus seals. The bull was then chosen as Shiva’s mode of transportation.