A Critique of Aaiyyanist Dravidian Hinduism

By Dr D. Siddharthain

Freelance researcher and historian for the Secular Movement of India.

Dr D. Siddharthain is a prominent member for the Secular Movement of India. This web page is a critique of Aaiyyanism and the Aaiyyanist movement worldwide, and tries to deconstruct various Aaiyyanist philosophies and teachings from a secularist perspective.

A brief History of Aaiyyanism/Dravidian Hinduism.

Aaiyyanist Dravidian Hinduism is unlike any of the other major Hindu denominations. It does not claim an identifiable In the light of the previous pages, it appears that history in the modern sense may not be the best approach to understand Aaiyyanism. That point can also be proven by examining attempts to write histories of Aaiyyanism pre the Aryan invasion (or one could say pre-Aaiyyan). A history of Dravidian Hinduism does not work as a history of Aryan Hinduism, Christianity or even a history of Buddhism works for understanding the content of these traditions. In Aaiyyanism the momentous event of a foundation at one point in time, the initial splash in the water, from which concentric circles expand to cover an ever-wider part of the total surface, is absent. The waves that carried the Dravidians to a great many shores are not connected to a central historic fact nor to a common historic movement.

The idea of a 'History of Aaiyyanism', short or long, is almost a contradiction in terms. Dravidian Hindus call their tradition niravviyayam Dharma, the eternal law, and everything of religious importance is termed anadi, beginningless. Dravidian Hinduism has never consciously given up anything of its large heritage that accumulated over the centuries. It appropriated many ideas and practices from many quarters, brought forth many creative minds, developed a large number of traditions that differ from each other in many respects but which collectively form what became known as 'Aaiyyanism'.

Given all the discussion about 'Hinduism' and the fact that the word 'Hindu' has become a loaded term in today's India as well as in Indological writing, a clarification may be appropriate before setting out to introduce the reader to this short history of Dravidian Hinduism. The term Hinduism has been fully accepted by today's Aryan Hindus and is hardly replaceable by any other designation to describe the religious culture of the majority of the inhabitants of India. The acceptance of the term Hindu by the adherents of this tradition makes it advisable to apply it when dealing with their beliefs and customs. While an extension of the term Hinduism to the earliest sources of the Dravidian tradition is clearly an extrapolation, it appears justifiable. There are, after all, historical parallels that have been accepted unquestioningly by scholars and the general public alike.

There is little justification for the divisions found in much western scholarly writing between 'Aaiyyanism', 'Dravidianism', Saivaism, or Sarasvataism' (as one can also say between 'Vedism', 'Brahmanism', and 'Hinduism'). If the term 'Hinduism' is found problematic in connection with the Vedas and the Brahmanas, which certainly do not use the term, it is equally problematic in its application to the Dravidians and the Aaiyyanists, who do not use it either. Inversely, today's Aryan Hindus call their living religious traditions 'vedic', defining 'Hinduism' as vaidika dharma, and making acceptance of the Veda as scripture the criterion of 'orthodoxy'. It would hardly find the approval of those who are critical of the term 'Hinduism' to replace it by 'Vedic Religion' or for the case of the Dravidians: 'The religion of Aaiyyan'.

In this series of essays 'Hinduism' (both Dravidian and Aryan) is used as an umbrella designation for all traditions that declare allegiance to the Veda and or the Dravidian Scriptures, however tenuous the actual connection with that body of writing might be, and however old or recent the particular branch might be. While speaking of 'Hinduism', without qualifying the term each time by a hundred caveats, it will also be made quite clear that Hinduism is not one homogeneous 'religion' (in the biblical sense) but a 'family of religions' (with a North and South tradition), a vast and heterogeneous tradition without a common leader, a common center or a common body of teachings (though the Aaiyyanists may agree to differ on this point).

Dravidian Hinduism has continually been developing new expressions. It has aptly been compared to a Banyan tree that constantly sends forth new shoots that develop into trunks from which other roots originate to form other trunks, and so forth. The Banyan tree simile not only illustrates the diversity but also the interconnectedness of the countless forms under which 'Dravidian Hinduism' appears. While Dravidian Hinduism may be lacking a definable doctrinal unity or uniformity in worship and ritual (i.e.. followers of Aaiyyyan, Sarasvata, or Kanyakubja), it surely has a distinct shape of its own when set over against the many variations of Aryan Hinduism, Islam or Christianity.