nacciyar thirumozhi introduction english

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The postings on Nacciyar Thirumozhi will appear in three parts. In the first

part Ramani intends to trace the origin and nature of Andal Literature in the

context of the literary history of Tamil. In the second part, he intends to

write an introduction to the nature and course of Nacciyar Thirumozhi in Alwar

literature in general and Andal literature in particular. During the next twenty

eight days he intends to send the text, translation and interpretation in Tamil

and English for the 143 stanzas in Nacciyar Thirumozhi at the rate of 5 stanzas

a day.

 

The Origin and Nature of Andal Literature in the History of Tamil Literature

 

The history of Tamil Literature begins with the Sanga Literature. The Sanga

Literature is two-fold : the akam and the puram. The songs of the puram present

dramatic snippets from the life of the ancient Tamil society. There realistic

pieces as well as exaggerated pictures drawn for the sake of the reader. The

akam literature speaks of the element of love. And yet it cannot be said that

the akam speaks about the psychology of love as much as the actions on the

external world springing from a love-laden heart.

 

Think of that song wherein is described the sympathetic nature of the hero. He

had been away from home for making money. He is on his way back home and his

heart is filled with the anticipated meeting with his lady love. Just then he

notices how the insects in the wayside bushes run helter-skelter at the noise of

the bells of his chariot. He stops his chariot and asks his charioteer to remove

the tongues of the bells. Though it cannot be said that we do not have poetry

that speaks of the gentleness of love, the longing in the heart filled with love

and the singleminded devotion of love in the akam poetry, we have to state that

they speak more of bundled emotions rather than the finer aspects of love in

terms almost psychological.

 

Coleridge is said to have been the first to bring in psychology when he

accounted for the nature of genius in his literary criticism. Along with him

other Romantic Poets like Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats brought in the

personal passions of the individuals in their writings. There are feelings like

desires, ambitions, frustration, helplessness and other such finding an

expression for the first time in English literature.

 

If the Romantic Movement in English had been a turning point in English

Literature, it can be said that the Alwar literature in Tamil is the first of

its kind in that it brought into play the psychological implications of emotions

into literary composition.

 

The Sanga Age was followed by the Age of the Epics during which the first two

extant epics in Tamil, the Cilappathikaram and Manimekalai were written. Still

later the Ethical Literature appeared in Tamil. The period of the Kalappira

Dynasty is said to have existed a little later or during or a little before the

period of Ethical Literature in Tamil. Next came the age of Devotional

Literature in Tamil. Particularly when the Vaishnava literature came into

existence in Tamil, the new path towards the expression of emotional intricacies

was laid in Tamil. Let us not try to reason out the why and wherefore of such

development. On the other hand, accepting the literary phenomenon for what it

had been, it would be in place to consider what a majestic course such

literature pursued. That would take us to the content, nature and trends of

Alwar literature in general and Andal literature in particular.

 

The Alwars were twelve in number. The first three of them had been Peyalwar,

PoykaiAlwar, Bhuthathalwar. Their songs are said to have been on a particular

occasion inspired by a particular instance of the manifestation of God. These

three are not given human origin for their existence. They are not even said to

have had normal human life or emotions.

 

Beginning the Alwars who came next, though human origin is not suggested to all

of them, almost every one is said to have a normal human existence with the

exigencies thereof. Thiruppanalwar and Andal do not have human origin. But they

had lived a very human life. Nammalwar had human origin. But he had not lived a

normal human life of growth, maturity, realization and expression. Nammalwar and

Andal make a contrastive pair in this respect. The others are said to have had

this kind of birth and to have lived such and such a kind of human life. That is

how the Guru Parampara Pirabhava accounts for the history of the Alwars.

 

So when we look at the Alwar literature excluding the songs of the first three

Alwars, it will be fitting to look at Alwar literature as being expressive of

the experiential aspects of life. We can even exclude Nammalwar literature from

such a consideration. He is supposed to have answered the question, “When the

miniscule is born in the dead, where and how will it remain?” as “It will remain

there undergoing that”. The person who asked the question was an elderly Brahmin

who became an ardent devotee to Nammalwar who was then a boy of 12 years.

Nammalwar had been vegetating for twelve years in his life since his birth. That

was the first occasion he came to his senses. After the answer, he is supposed

to have come out with about 1000 stanzas of poetry which are composed as the

Thiruvaymozhi. Whatever emotional content be there in Nammalwar’s poetry, they

can be taken into discount as expressive of what is usually experienced by the

living rather than as lived experience. His songs crystallize the human

predicament of living a life swayed by passions weaning man away from God and

the inescapable longing for union with God. Caught between these two, man’s life

is something alien to the soul condemned to live the bodily existence until it

expends the accumulated karma of the previous births all the while praying for

redemption by divine intercession. That much can be said about Nammalwar’s

poetry though literary critics cite evidences contrary within the text to

establish that the songs might have been written over a period of time.

 

The songs of Andal are directly on the other extreme. Every emotion expressed in

her poems are those which had been experienced in finer details. In the case of

Andal’s songs also the literary critics have their own opinions. They are of the

opinion that Andal who is said to have been just a girl before she merged with

the Divine at Srirangam could not have expressed such adult passions as are to

be found in her songs. Let us leave such questions of speculation to the learned

pundits. Let us take the contents of the songs for what they are. While doing

so, anyone can experience the psychological aspects of her poetry; the grace of

the feminine therein. So the emotional overload in Andal’s songs could verily

had been experiential by nature rather than projected.

 

The thirty songs in Thiruppavai and the 143 stanzas in Nacciyar Thirumozhi are

the extant Andal Literature. There had of course been love poetry written before

Andal in the devotional literature. But there are plenty of differences between

those poems and Andal’s songs. We can see the details thereof during the course

the next few days. Let us now stop with the following:

 

The thirty songs of Thiruppavai had been written for a particular ritualistic

worship of God. The Thiruppavai extends to social devotion, the emotional surges

thereof, the vows made as part of the ritual, and prayers for prosperity. But

Nacciyar Thirumozhi had not been written for a particular occasion. There is no

indication of social devotion in it. There are no prayers seeking a few and

pleading protection from a few others. All that is prayed for is divine

presence. Personal determination is spoken about in Nacciyar Thirumozhi.

Colourful personal dreams are painted there. Personal longing is spoken about.

All these are not born of hearsay or by tradition, literary or social. Andal has

longed; had become happy; had celebrated; had enjoyed the bliss of union; had

felt the pangs of separation and have expressed the emotional outcome of the

varied experiences. Thus it has to be said that Nacciyar Thirumozhi is verily

the climax of experiential literature. As such let us hail Andal as the origin

of experiential literature in Tamil and proceed to the next posting tomorrow.