yama
a specific melodic structure (paṇ) played and/or sung late in the night
Acknowledgements
Muthukumar thanks Professors A.A. Manavalan, R. Raghu-raman and S. Venkataraman for reading several caṉkam texts with him and explaining the intricacies of the Tamil literary tradition.
Elizabeth dedicates this book to her father, Raja Segran, her best friend and greatest source of support who nurtured her passion for both literature and her Tamil heritage.
Muthukumar and Elizabeth thank their editors at Penguin, R. Sivapriya and Richa Burman, for making this book possible. They also offer their thanks to Professor George L. Hart for his support and encouragement through their graduate careers.
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First published by Penguin Books India 2012
Copyright © V.N. Muthukumar and Elizabeth Rani Segran 2012
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ISBN: 978-01-4341-507-7
This digital edition published in 2012.
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Introduction
1 The corpus comprises eight anthologies and ten long poems.
2 Paripāṭal Mulamum Parimelalakaruraiyum, edited and annotated by U.V. Swaminatha Aiyar (Madras: U.V. Swaminatha Aiyar Library, 1918; 1995). Hereafter referred to as Pari.
3 An old poem describes the original contents of the Paripāṭal comprising eight poems on the god Tirumal, thirty-one on the god Vel (also called Murukan), one on the goddess of the forests, twenty-six on the river Vaiyai and four on Maturai.
4 A literal translation of this line would read, ‘the song that carries graceful music and matchless verse’. We read the Tamil word pari as a relative participle, ‘to carry’. See Pari. 11:137.
5 Kaviri or Kaveri (sometimes spelt as Cauvery) originates in the Western Ghats of modern-day Karnataka and flows south to south-east through Tamil Nadu and into the Bay of Bengal.
6 For a more detailed discussion, see Poetics of Place in Early Tamil Literature, V.N. Muthukumar, PhD dissertation (Berkeley: University of California, 2011); available online at http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley .edu/etd/ucb/text/Muthukumar_berkeley_0028E_11894.pdf
7 For more details, we refer the interested reader to an excellent summary by François Gros: ‘The song of the river Vaiyai: Paripāṭal’, in Deep Rivers: Selected Writings on Tamil Literature, edited by M. Kannan and Jennifer Clare (Pondicherry: Institut français de Pondichéry; Tamil Chair: Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2009), pp. 57–85.
8 Ibid., p. 75.
9 Ibid., p. 77.
10 For more on the Kalabhras and the resurgence of the Pantiyas, see K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1975; 2000).
11 Parimelalakar is known for his outstanding commentary on the Kural. For a historical account, we refer the reader to Mu. Arunacalam, Tami3 Ilakkiya Varalaru (Chennai: The Parker, 1970; 2005), vol. 7, pp. 42–68.
12 Paripāṭal (Madras: Saiva Siddhanta Society, 2007).
13 François Gros, Le Paripāṭal: Texte Tamoul (Pondicherry: Institut Français d’Indologie, 1968).
14 Paripāṭal, translated by Shu Hikosaka, John Samuel, Muttucanmukan, P. Thiagarajan and K.G. Seshadri (Chennai: Institute of Asian Studies, 1996).
Notes to the Poems
1Paripāṭal Mulamum Parimelalakaruraiyum (Madras: U.V. Swaminatha Aiyar Library, 1918; 1995).
2Po. Ve. Comacuntaranar Urai, Paripāṭal (Madras: Saiva Siddhanta Society, 2007).
3See, Paripāṭal, Aiyar, pp. xvi–xvii.
4Verse 59 in the Akananuru refers to ‘Tantuvan, who sang about Murukan’s hill, Tirupparankunru’.
5See, for instance, Paripāṭal VII:94.
6The commentary to these lines is incomplete.
7Swaminatha Aiyar notes that some manuscripts refer to the music composer’s name also as Pittamakkanar.
8Purananuru 61:6.
9See, for instance, Cilappatikaram 7:20.
10For a note on the poet, see notes to Paripāṭal VI.
11It is generally accepted that Nallantuvanar also compiled the Kalittokai.
12François Gros, ‘The song of the river Vaiyai: Paripāṭal’, in Deep Rivers: Selected Writings on Tamil Literature, edited by M. Kannan and
13Some authors interpret ‘natural’ as ‘pre-ordained by fate’.
14The name of a caṉkam poem.
15The reference is to an aphorism in the grammatical treatise Tolkåppiyam. Tolkåppiyam, Akattinaiyiyal 50.
16He has also set poems XVII, XVIII and XX in the Paripāṭal to music. The poet who composed Paripāṭal XXI (on Vel) shares the same name and Swaminatha Aiyar claims both these names refer to the same person.
17See Paripāṭal VI for a note on the poet.
18Perunkatai (The Great Story), a Tamil epic attributed to Tiruttakka Tevar.
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