ANIMAL SYMBOLS IN THE HEROIC STONES [NAṬUKAṞKAḶIL VILAṄKUC CIṈṈAṄKAḶ

Abstract

This paper deals with the tradition of venerating stones in memory of the hero is the tradition of hero worship among Tamil culture. An analysis of the literature, images and writings found on the tombs shows that the tomb was made for a warrior who died in the seizure or recovery of cows and for those who died in battle with deadly beasts. On the hero stones planted for the warriors, animal symbols are engraved to express the heroism of the warrior. The figure of the animal is carved and planted along with the warrior. The fear of the dead and the belief that our ancestors will protect us are essential to worship. It is known that not only humans but also tigers, chickens, dogs, pigs, snakes, deer, elephants, parrots and cows were planted in the heroic stone. From the structure of the tombs and the messages mentioned in them, one can see the various historical backgrounds such as the time, the regime, the forms of writing, the methods of warfare and the cults. Library research was done and explanatory method was adopted for this study. The finding of the research shows that knowledge of experts is not semantically different, but rather that information is more connected between each other. The conducted experiments demonstrated that the size of the words and retrieval speed of words from memory varies between people with different background knowledge. The findings of our study could also help to give better, personalized instructions to the users in different fields, and help with the construction of a more interactive dialog between the user and an intelligent tutoring system.