sanskrit-tamil.history of ancient tamil litreature

[Guest guest]

Dear Shri Venkatesh Elayavalli,

You wrote,

"I would appreciate if Smt Vasudha Narayana or other learned members

of the list familiar with the Sangam and PreSangam era works to give a

background on history of Ancient Tamil literature."

 

Before I come to that I request you and the other members to read

the following written on Thirumal by a poet of the Sangham period,

 

".......In fire you are the heat

In flowers the fragrance,

Among stones you are the diamond

 

In words you are truth

Among virtues you are love(compassion?)

In a warriors wrath you are the strength

In the vedas you are the secret

of the elements you are the first

In the scorching sun you are the light

In the moonlight you are the softness

 

Everything ,you are everything

the sense ,the substance, of everything

 

by KaTuvan ILaveyinaNAR ,in the PaRiPaTal - song 3, Lines 63 - 68.

Transl.A.K.Ramanujan.

 

 

I

Sangam literature

 

The first sangam(or gathering of Gods, kings, bards and sages to compose

works of literature) lasted for 4440 years in then Madurai.The second

for 3700 years in Kapatapuram.Works produced in both these were lost in

the great flood, except for the grammatical work of TholkaPPiyam of the

2nd sangam.

 

The works of the third sangam (1850 years,vada Madurai),is what is all

we have of the sangam literature and can be dated to 100BC - AD250.

 

All the works of the 3rd sangam are poems (2381 in number)of varying

lines(3-800).Some poets(some were women too like Auvayar) we know by

their names others by epithets(Eg.Kakkaipadiniyar-one who sang of the

crow),and others are anonymous.

 

The poems depending on their line structure are grouped into

collections,the Ettuthokai and the Pathup-p-pattu.Some of the 15 groups

include the PRRAnanooRu,AinkuRunooRu,KurrunThoKai etc.,

 

The subject of the poems(Porul) deal with EITHER aKHam(Love) or

PuRam(heroism).Unlike the latter ,no names of people(eg.kings) are

mentioned in the former.

The akam poems are set in the Thinai or landscapes which was according

to some presumably how dravidian society was organised before the caste

system solidified i.e., on the basis of the area of

residence.Accordingly there were

5 thinais each with their one social structure and mode of life.

 

1.Kurrinji-mountains,inhabited by the kuravars worshipping Murugan.

 

2.mullai-forest/pasture - ETayar - Mayon/Thirumal (vishnu)

 

3.maRutham-fields - Uzhuvar - Indra

 

4.Neital-seacoast - fishermen/traders - varunan

 

5.Palai-wasteland - highwaymen(AARali-k-KaLvar) - KoRRavai(Kali)

 

(for a complete list seeZvelebil,K)

 

each tinai has a particular connection with each stage of love e.g.. (1)

with secret meetings and poems of that stage were based on that tinai

through similes etc.,

 

Though disputed, works like the Paripatal and KaLLiThokai seem to be of

a later period(5-7 AD?) than say, the Purrananooru.This is because of

references to stories /events of the Puranas & epics ,greater reference

to God esp. Vishnu ,Shiva and Murugan which was not true earlier though

passing references were rarely made and the use of Sanskrit words like

Maithunam and kamalam.Bhakthi to God was a popular theme for these poems

rather than love and heroism.

 

II

Words of wisdom AD450- 550

This period was followed by works of wisdom and teaching like the Thiruk

Kural and the Naladiyar believed by many to have written by

Buddhist/jain monks.

 

III

5-6th Cent. the AinpeRunKappiyams including the Sillapadikaram and the

Manimekalai and Seevakacintamani were the similes unlike in the Sangam

age were exaggerated and fantastic.They deal primarily with

Jain/Buddhist themes and one goes into great depths in exposing the

superiority of the Jain doctrine vis-à-vis the hindu doctrine.

 

IV

The Vaishnavaite and Shivaite bakhthi movement probably to also

counteract the growing spread of Jainism and Buddhism especially among

the kings of the region.

 

I hope this was helpfull.Much of it is what I remember from my lectures

in college where Tamil was my second language.The facts correspond to-

 

1.A.k Ramanujan,"Poems of Love and War"NY:Colombia University Press,1985

 

2.Zvelebil,Kamil,"The Smile of Murugan",Leiden:EJBrill and Co,1973.