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Synopsis
Murukan
Worship in Melbourne
by Sivasupramaniam Sitsabesan sivadevi@net2000.com.au
Scope of research: A
study of Murukan worship and temples in Melbourne, Australia
Problem:
There is currently no definitive research work
available on Murukan worship with particular reference to the temples there.
Therefore, this writer is of the opinion that his work is essentially an
attempt to initiate the process of researching Murukan worship and about the
temples and to induce further researches.
Methodology:
This writer lives in Melbourne. He will utilize his
involvement in various social and community activities, and his participation
in religious activities in the temples, to gather information about the origins
of Murukan worship and about the festivals celebrated there.
Subject:
Like all different sects of Hinduism, Murukan faith
is also undergoing the process of relocation and adaptation across the globe.
The fact that the Murukan faith accommodates a range of beliefs and practices
inspires tenuous concept of identity. Nevertheless, the same phenomena serve to
facilitate participation of a wide spectrum of the society.
Australia’s multicultural society recognizes the
diversity of its people and nurtures the aspirations, beliefs, traditions, and
practices of individuals. In Melbourne, Murukan worshipers are predominantly
Tamil speaking people and most of them are of Ceylonese, Indian, Malaysian,
Singaporean, Mauritiun and Fijian origin. Tamils have a short history of about
quarter of a century in a land where the white settlers have a two hundred year
history. Murukan is considered as a Dravidian and/or Tamil god. Though some of
the beliefs, traditions, practices of the Aborigines could remotely be linked
to Dravidian group of people, there is no definitive research to confirm it.
Therefore, the origins of Murukan worship could only be linked with immigration
of Tamil speaking people to Australia in the mid 1970s.
Temples are the sole forum for the articulation and
continued negotiation of Hindu identity in Australian society. There are three temples in Melbourne. Lord
Murukan with his consorts Valli and Teyvanai is the presiding deity at
Melbourne Murukan temple and it is only one of its kinds there. The other
temples are Siva-Vishnu temple at Currum Downs and Śrī Vakrathunda Vinayakar
temple at Basin. Siva-Vishnu temple has co-presiding deities, Sivan and Vishnu
while Lord Vinayakar is the presiding deity at the second temple. Both these
temples have idles or, statues of Lord Murukan with Valli and Teyvanai in the inner
courtyard.
Most of the important dates in the Hindu/Saiva
calendar are observed in these temples and it goes without saying that monthly
Karttikai and Shasti, annual Kandashasti, Taipoosam, Pankuni Uttiram are
observed too. It is just that the proceedings vary from one temple to the
other, in one temple it would be just performing abishekam (holy bath) and puja
while in another temple the deities are also taken in procession in the inner
or/and outer courtyard.
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