5 shades of love in Cankam literature

[Guest guest]

Dear Indology

 

Dear RISA:

 

 

I am attempting to understand the 5 grades of love found in Tamil Cankam

literature. Being someone who has not studied Tamil, I can't check the

primary literature.

 

 

Here are the five -

 

1) lovemaking - identified with mountains etc.

 

2) waiting anxiously for beloved - identified with seashores etc.

 

3) separation - ident. with arid landscape etc.

 

4) patiently waiting for lover (?see below) - pastoral landscape etc.

 

5) anger at lover's infidelity - river valleys etc.

 

 

My questions are on 2 and 4 -

 

a) I have 2 translations of #4. One says: "patiently waiting for a wife";

the other says: "patient waiting of a wife". Which is correct?

 

b) Does #2 mean to specify wife or husband or can it be any "beloved"

"waiting anxiously"?

 

Thanks,

 

Lynken Ghose

 

_______________

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[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, "Lynken Ghose" <lynkenghose@h...> wrote:

>

> I am attempting to understand

> the 5 grades of love found in Tamil Cankam

> literature. Being someone who has not studied

> Tamil, I can't check the

> primary literature.

 

I would recommend your reading books such as:

_The Interior Landscape,

Love poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology_,

translated by A.K. Ramanujan, Oxford University press, Delhi

(first published by Indiana University press, 1967)

_The poems of ancient Tamil_, George L. Hart, III,

University of California press, U.S.A., 1975

_Kuruntokai_, an anthology of classical tamil love poetry,

translated by M. Shanmugam Pillai & David Ludden,

Koodal publishers, Madurai, India, 1976 [= MSP&DL]

_Poets of the Tamil Anthologies_, George L. Hart, III,

Princeton university press, U.S.A., 1979

_Poems of Love and War_, Selected and translated

by A.K. Ramanujan, Oxford University Press, Delhi Madras, etc.

(copyright 1985, Columbia University Press)

_The Study of Stolen Love_, David C. Buck & K. Paramasivam,

Scholars Press, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., 1997

_Ritual and Mythological Sources of the Early Tamil Poetry_,

Alexander M. Dubianski, Egbert Forsten,

Groningen, The Netherlands, 2000

 

>

>

> Here are the five -

>

> 1) lovemaking - identified with mountains etc.

> 2) waiting anxiously for beloved - identified with seashores etc.

> 3) separation - ident. with arid landscape etc.

> 4) patiently waiting for lover (?see below)

> - pastoral landscape etc.

> 5) anger at lover's infidelity - river valleys etc.

>

>

> My questions are on 2 and 4 -

>

> a) I have 2 translations of #4. One says:

> "patiently waiting for a wife";

> the other says: "patient waiting of a wife". Which is correct?

 

I believe the second interpretation is the correct one.

If the hero is the "speaker" (thinking of his wife),

it will be while traveling or returning home.

The one who is really "waiting" is the wife.

For more details, see for instance Hart[1975:229]

 

>

> b) Does #2 mean to specify wife or husband

> or can it be any "beloved"

> "waiting anxiously"?

 

In the poems I have read, it is the wife who is waiting.

For more details, see for instance Hart[1975:243]

 

Note however that many tiNai specifications

found in modern editions have usually

been given by modern editors only.

If you check U.V.S. 's edition of kuRuntokai,

you will not see the words kuRiJci =1), neytal =2,

pAlai =3), mullai =4) or marutam =5) etc.

mentionned for each specific poem

(there are 400 of them)

but you will find a more detailed explaination

(reproduced from the MSS) like for instance

"WHAT SHE SAID, to her friend, who encouraged her

with strong words,

at the coming of the season" (MSP&DL, p.207)

kuRuntokai 314 (= mullai, according to modern editors)

 

"WHAT HER FRIEND SAID, to her, so she would sympathize

with him and want to end his misery, after the termination

of meetings, having agreed to help him"

(MSP&DL, p.349)

kuRuntokai 212 (= neytal, according to modern editors)

 

So knowing the 5 tiNai is only knowing the tip

of the iceberg, but it is a very nice tip indeed :-)

 

Regards

 

-- Jean-Luc CHEVILLARD, Paris

 

>

> Thanks,

>

> Lynken Ghose