Archaeologist R Poongandran was speaking at a conference on 'Nadukkal' at the American College, Madurai on Wednesday. | Photo by R Ashok
The American College in collaboration with the Government Museum, Madurai, organised a seminar and exhibition on 'Nadukal' (hero stones) culture here on Wednesday.
The event, organised under the initiative of the University's Art, Culture and Heritage Forum, focused on the practice of hero stones followed by Tamil people centuries ago.
In a special address, R Poongandran, former Deputy Director, Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department, said that through the hero stones, several discoveries, such as the purpose of buffalo in Tamil culture, can be traced back to the ancient practices of the Tamil people.
“Through one particular hero stone that we discovered and studied, we discovered that buffaloes were valued in the lives of the 'Toda' people beyond what people would typically consider valuable,” he said.
The unique practice of walking on fire (theemithitalu) in temples of folk deities in Tamil Nadu can be traced back 2,000 years and the reason for the practice was to remove evil forces (fear of people) and protect themselves from unseen dangers, he said, adding, “Walking on fire is said to have been practised in parts of Iran, Iraq and neighbouring areas as well,” he said.
Poongandran said hero stones are most commonly erected to commemorate people who lost their lives fighting against a nation, evil forces or disasters.
“They were also found erected near water bodies to increase water flow or storage, and sometimes along trade routes to commemorate merchants who died on their trading journeys,” he said.
But he said that in contrast to the current practice of placing deities in secluded places (also known as sanctum sanctorum), hero stones, which held an important place in the belief system of the ancients, were placed out in the open in public places.
Regarding the structural design of the hero stone, he said that in the centre, the hero (character) is depicted in a standing pose, holding a weapon or something in his hand, and next to him are other supporting objects that tell the story of that character.
“The inscriptions on the hero stones are mostly in Tamil or 'Vattezhuthu' script and give details of the person and the place. The top of the stone is slightly tilted, indicating that the person is no longer with us,” he added.
Writer and historian Stalin Rajangam said the exhibition was organised to understand the various art forms that ancient Tamils used to communicate. “Death and nature were eternal mysteries to the ancient people and no one could explain the happenings or reasons for them so out of fear they started praying to protect themselves from the unknown,” he said.
Similarly, he said nadukal can be seen as an object chosen by people to shed light on death and events related to it.
