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EightAnthologies -Ettuthokai in Tamil
எட்டுத்தொகை

The FourHundred Songs of War andWisdom EnglishTranslation of Purananuru- George L.Hart and Hank Heifetz(ColumbiaUniversity Press,2000) 'Intheir elegant and revelatory translations of 'TheFour Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom,' George L.Hart and Hank Heifetz collaborate to excellenteffect. George Hart's lucid introduction providesa solid scholarly grounding for the collection,both situating it historically and exploring itthematically. Hank Heifetz, speaking as a poet,explains that the original Tamil 'runs like ariver-long words, rapid speech, accumulatingsyllables-and these translations (sometimesstraining against the bounds of English syntax)attempt to communicate something of the feel ofthese rolling rhythms.' The translations not onlyattempt this formidable task, but succeed in itbeautifully.'

The volume thatHart and Heifetz have produced has anotherdistinctive excellence as well. Since it is atranslation of the one surviving completeanthology among the eight anthologies of theTamil Sangam corpus, it presents the literatureas the culture's own redactors presented it-it'translates' not just the individual poems, butthe anthology itself. Thus Hart and Heifetzchallenge the reader not only to savor theindividual poems, but also to experience andconsider them as parts of the larger work withinwhich they were collected andpreserved.

And what poems!They are complex, detailed, multivalent,evocative of both inner and outer experiences.More than 150 poets, with at least ten womenamong them, join to create a work in which, asHart says, the poets can be found variously'advising kings, addressing moral issues, orlamenting the instability of the world.' Theresult is an anthology that indeed 'provides amirror for the society that produced it and forsubsequent life in South India.' We are indebtedto Hart and Heifetz for recreating this mirror soskilfully in our own place and time.'From the Citation for A.K.Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation 2002 awardedby the Association for AsianStudies

SangamClassics: Ettuthokai/Melkannaku -
எட்டுத்தொகை- Eight Anthologies

நற்றிணைநல்ல குறுந்தொகை, ஐங்குறுநூறு,ஒத்த பதிற்றுப்பத்துஓங்கு பரிபாடல்,கற்றறிந்தார்ஏத்தும்கலியோடு,அகம்,புறம்என்றுஇத்திறத்தஎட்டுத்தொகை

Mu.Varadarajan onEttuthokai
at First International ConferenceSeminar of Tamil Studies,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 1966

Introduction

0.1 The eight anthologies calledEttuthokai form part of early Tamil literatureknown as Sangam literature written eighteencenturies ago. They consist of two thousand threehundred and seventy-one poems varying from smallstanzas of three lines in Ainkurunuru to stanzasof forty lines in Purananuru.

There are four hundred andseventy poets known either by their proper namesor by causal names called from their works. Theauthors are unidentified in the case of a hundredstanzas. The poets belonged to different parts ofTamilnad and to different professions.

Some of them were very popularlike Kapilar, Nakkirar and Auvaiyar and someothers are rarely remembered by their names. Yeta general harmony prevails throughout these eightanthologies. The tone and temper of the age isreflected in all their poems with a singularlikeness. They were moulded according to certainliterary conventions or traditions that prevailedin the Sangam age. Yet they reveal the individualgenius of the poets who sang them.

0.2 The convention of the later days thatpoetry should deal with the four aspects of life,viz aram (virtue), porul, (wealth and politics),inpam (love and pleasure) and vitu (salvation),was not prevalent, ¹ in those early days. Thepoets sang either of Akam or Puram. Akam dealtwith ideal love and Puram with the rest, viz.war, munificence, etc.

0.3 Of the eight anthologies five are on Akam,two on Puram, and one on both. Six of them are in'akaval' metre which is a kind of blank verse,interspersed with alliterations and rhymes. Thepoems on Akam as well as Puram theme are writtenin this metre and its regulated and subtle musicadds to the poetic beauty. This metre is a simplebut wonderful instrument which causes noimpediment to the freedom of expression of thepoet. In has been found to be an appropriate andnatural medium for the expression of the valuableexperience of the poets.

The other two anthologies that are not writtenin `akaval' metre are Kalittokai and Paripatal.The poems of Kalittokai are in Kali metre whichis well known for its dramatic and lyricalqualities and which, according toTolkappiyanar,² is well suited to expressthe emotions of the lovers. There is repetitionof certain lines and phrases and this, added tothe haunting music of the metre, is veryappealing.

Paripatal is a metre full of rhythm and musicand the anthology known by this name consists ofsongs composed in this metre. There are religiouspoems as well as those on love-themes. Thelove-theme is worked against the background ofbathing festivities. These songs were sung indifferent tunes as is evident from the notes onthe music at the end of these. The names of themusicians who set tunes to these songs are alsomentioned therein.

1. 'Akam' Poetry

1.1 In the poems on Akam, the aspects of loveof a hero and a heroine are depicted. The storyof love is never conceived as a continuous whole.A particular moment of love is captured anddescribed in each poem as the speech of the heroor the lady-companion or somebody else. There areone thousand, eight hundred and fifty poems ofthis type in five anthologies, viz. Akananuru,Narrinai, Kuruntokai, Ainkurunuru, andKalittokai.

One may expect a sort of monotonous repetitionin these hundreds of poems on more or less thesame aspects of ideal love. This is what onefinds in all the Indian arts, sculpture oriconography or music. But when looked atcarefully, the individual genius of the poet isrevealed through his contribution. He givessomething which is already familiar to thereaders, something which assures them of acontinuity of the past art, but he gives it withhis fine colourings distinguished by his own richexperience and imagination. And thus instead ofmonotony we feel a surprise that so manyvariations of the same theme should bepossible.

The first attempt to arrange all the contextsof such love poetry into a series of continuoussuccession of speeches giving as it were thestory of two lovers is found several centurieslater in the `kovai' species.³

1.2 Love was dealt with in five 'tinais', eachpertaining to a particular region with its ownsuitable season and appropriate hour of the dayand its flora and fauna and characteristicenvironment. The aspect of love is called theuripporul or the subject matter of the `tinai ;the region, the season and the hour are calledthe `mutal porul' or the basic material; theobjects of environment are denoted as`karupporul'. Kurinci-tinai or the clandestineunion of the lovers is characteristic of themountainous region; mullai-tinai or the life athome spent in expectation of the return of thehero is set with the background of the forestregion; maruta-tinai or the sulky life has theagricultural tract as its background;neytal-tinai or the life of despair ischaracteristic of the sea coast; palai-tinai orthe life of desolation in separation is depictedin arid tract.

Literary tradition in Tamil has closelyassociated the sloping hills and the windingstreams with the adventures of the lover comingto his sweetheart at midnight, the early winterand the mullai blossoms of the forests with thepatient waiting of the wife for her husband'sreturn from the battlefield, the fertile paddyfields and the roaming buffaloes with thecareless life of the hero in the company of aharlot, the backwaters and the seashore with theheart-rending despair of the heroine and finallythe waterless arid tract of the withered treesand emaciated beasts and birds with theseparation of the hero from the heroine inpursuit of wealth in a far off country.

1.3 Tolkappiyanar clarifies the relativeimportance of these three components oftinai.⁴ According to himkarupporul is more important than mutalporul, anduripporul is more important than the other two.In other words, the aspect of love is the mostimportant part, the objects of environment comenext and the region, the season and the hour areless important. There are a few poems in theanthologies which have no mutalporul but only theother two, a few poems have neither karupporulnor mutalporul but only uripporul or the aspectof love.

1.4 The poems on the theme of love are all inthe form of dramatic monologues. The hero, theheroine or the lady-companion seems to appear onthe stage and express his or her feelings andthoughts. Appropriate natural scenery forms thebackground. The poet has no place on this poeticstage. He cannot express his own ideas orfeelings unless through the actors, the hero, theheroine and others in the drama of love. Whathave been expressed, have to be taken as thefeelings and thoughts of the characters imaginedand created by him. The poet merges himself inthe characters he creates and does not, as insubjective poetry or in ordinary narrative,describe or relate in his own person and from theoutside. The dramatic element commonly appearsmore or less prominently in the shape ofdialogue. There might have been someautobiographical material incorporated by thepoet in such poems, but it is not always easy todistinguish those elements. These are dramaticlyrics, and in spirit and method subjectivepoems: but the subjective element pertains, notto the poet himself, but to some imaginedcharacters into whose feelings and thoughts hegives vicarious expression.

1.5 But there is this great difference betweenthe early eight anthologies and the later worksas regards the men and the women dealt with inthem. In the mediaeval epics and other literaryworks, the common man and woman never attainedthe status of hero and heroine, whereas in thepoems on love the ordinary man and women eitherin the mountainous region or in other regions aredepicted as the hero and the heroine.

1.6 Tolkappiyanar has explained the literaryconventions of his age and stated that he basedhis observations on the usages honoured by thepractice of the great poets (patalut-payinravainatunkalai).⁵ He has clearly noted in a`nurpa' that in the poems on Akam, the name ofthe hero or the heroine, should never bementioned. In the poems on love found inEttuthokai, there is not a single stanza whereinthe hero or the heroine is mentioned by name. Thehero is mentioned in these poems simply as theman of the mountain, the man of the town, theperson of the sea coast, etc. So also the heroineis referred to as the woman of the hill tribes,the girl of the peasants, the daughter of thefisherman, etc.

The poets did not want the readers to identifythe hero and the heroine with historical persons.As Professor T. P. Meenakshisundaram puts it,Akam poetry 'expresses not something to be datedwith reference to any particularperson',⁶ and the aspect of lovedepicted in it is intended to be universal andcommon to all times. 'The majority of the world'sgreat lyrics', says Hudson,⁷ 'owe their place inliterature very largely to the fact that theyembody what is typically human rather than whatis merely individual and particular.'

Every reader finds in the love-lyrics of theearly Tamil anthologies the expression of suchexperiences and feelings in which he himself isfully able to share. Thus, by prohibiting themention of the names of the hero and the heroinein these lyrics the literary tradition in Tamilhas preserved Akam poetry pure and enabled it togive outward forms to the inner feelings not ofthe individual but of the ideal man andwoman.

1.7 Nature is used to enrich the suggestivenature of poetry and this kind of suggestionsthrough some description of Nature is called`iraicci'. When the hero has been meeting hissweetheart at night during his pre maritalrelationship, the lady-companion desires toimpress on him the necessity of hastening themarriage and asks him to come and meet her duringdaytime. She specifies a place for the meeting ofthe lovers during daytime and describes it as theplace where the honeycombs hang, the trees arefull of ripe fruits and the creepers haveblossoms in abundance. She expects the hero tounderstand from this description that a number ofpeople will frequent the spot attracted by thehoney, the ripe fruits and the fragrant flowersand thus indirectly forbids him from coming atdaytime as well as at night and urges him tomarry and avoid such clandestinemeetings.⁸ Similarly when hefrequently comes at daytime, she requests him tocome during nights and describes the frontyard ofthe house as adorned by the punnai trees withfragrant blossoms and the palmyra trees with thenests of anril birds. The suggestion herein isthat at night the anril birds are so close to thehouse that they keep the heroine awake throughoutthe night by their heart-rending cries ;⁹here is also the indirect urge on him to marryearly and settle himself in an inseparablelife.

1.8 In some kinds of descriptions especiallyin love songs of marutatinai, Nature is used inallegories called `ullurai uvaman' or `theimplied simile'. All the objects of Nature andtheir activities stand for the hero, the heroineand others and their activities in the drama oflove. The latter are not at all mentioned butonly suggested through the former. It is simileincognito which leaves it to the reader todiscover it. The commentator Peraciriyar explainsit as a type resorted to make the literaryexpressions more beautiful and apt. ¹⁰

An otter enters a lotus tank, scatters thevallai creepers, seizes the valai fish amidstthem, feeds upon them and returns in the earlymorning to its rattan bush. The heroine describesthis in order to blame her husband on his returnfrom a harlot's house. She suggests to him thatshe is aware of his infidelity, of his loosemorals, of pleasing the harlot's parents andrelatives and of returning home at dawn for aformal stay. Here the otter stands for the hero,the `valai' fish for the harlot, the `vallai'creepers for her parents and the `rattan bush'for his own house.

In such descriptions, the speaker hesitates toexpress certain things openly but desires todwell on minutely in a wordy caricature of afamiliar incident in Nature and through it moreeffectively conveys to the listener all thefeelings and thoughts.

1.9 The anthologies are abounding inapostrophes. The hero or the heroine addressesthe sea, the moon, the wind, the crow, the crab,a tree or a creeper and expresses the grief ofthe heart or requests one of them to sympathizewith him or her.

The heroine addresses the sea and enquires ofit as to why it cries aloud even at midnight andwho caused such suffering. ¹² She also asks itwhether it cries aloud in sympathy with themisery of those pining in separation just likeherself or whether it has been forsaken byanybody as in her own case.¹³ She blames thenorth wind as merciless andunsympathetic.¹⁴ 'Oh, chill north wind! wenever meant any harm to you. Please do not causefurther suffering to this forsaken and miserablesoul of mine.' ¹⁵ She remarks that itmercilessly blows at midnight to afflict her inher loneliness without any pity for her utterdespair and bids it blow through the countrywhere the hero is so as to remind him of her andmake him return. ¹⁶ The hero in the distantcountry feels the effects of the north wind butonly thinks of his sweetheart suffering lonely inthe distant village and requests it not to blowthrough her village and cause her more distress.'¹⁷

2. 'Puram' Poetry

2.1 There are some `arruppatai' or guide-songsin the two anthologies, Purananuru andPatirruppattu. In these, the bard, either amusician or dancer or actor (panan, virali orkuttan) who has received gifts from a generouspatron guides another bard suffering from povertyand directs him to the same patron for help.Descriptions of the way to the city of the patronand praises of his endearing qualities abound insuch guidesongs. In Purananuru, there are sevenpoems as guide-songs of the musicians, four ofthe women dancers, and three of the literaryartists. Patirruppattu contains one guide-song ofthe musician and five of the women dancers. Allof them are in accordance with the exposition ofTolkappiyanar regarding the form of such songs.'¹⁸

22. The elegies in Purananuru are franklypersonal and are high tributes to the deadpatrons and friends. A few of them extended to bepoems of some philosophical significance. Theyare the outpourings of the emotions of the poetswho were so much attached to the patrons. Inthese elegies we do not find such similitude of ashepherd mourning for a companion as we have inthe pastoral elegies in western literature.¹⁹These elegies in Tamil are genuine andspontaneous. There is no artificiality in them.They express intimate and personal grief. Theycannot be charged of artificiality as in Milton'sLycidas. Like Tennyson's In Memoriam the ancientTamil elegy speaks in its own character and callsthings by real instead of allegorical names. Weneed not penetrate a disguise to feel the poet'spersonal grief. The ancient Tamil elegies areentirely free from any conventional bucolicmachinery.

2.3 There is one peculiarity to be noted inthese anthologies. Whenever the poets wanted toexpress their gratitude to their royal patrons,or their admiration of the generosity and valourof some chieftains, they did so through theircompositions on `Puram' theme, the theme intendedfor these. Besides this, they also made use oftheir poems on Akam to introduce the glory oftheir patrons by way of comparison or bymentioning their mountains or forests asbackground for the drama of love depicted in suchpoems.

The scandal about the association of the herowith a harlot is said to be more widespread thanthe joyous uproar of the army of the Pandiya kingwhen it defeated and chased the armies of the twoenemy kings in the battle at Kutal.²⁰ In anapostrophe to the north wind, the lady companionsays that the wind which now during theseparation of the lover causes so much distressto the heroine will disappear when the loverreturns home. Therein she mentions that the northwind will then run away like the nine chieftainswho were defeated in a single day by the greatCola king, Karikalan and who ran away leaving alltheir nine umbrellas in the battlefield at Vakai.²¹In another stanza the lady companion consoles thedistressed heroine that there is no room for anysuffering and assures her that the hero will never desert her to seek wealth even if itamounts to possession of the Elil hills ofKonkana Nannan.²²

Some of these poems have long and elaboratedescriptions of the achievements of partons andgive the impression that though they are on Akamtheme, the aim of the poet was only to praise theachievements of their patrons and that the themeof love served as a formula or means to servethis purpose. But it is not always so. As Dr. K.K. Pillai observes, ²³ 'it had become almost aconvention with the poets of that age to portraythe feelings or reactions of lovers byinstituting comparisons with prominent politicaloccurrences. The wide popularity which they hadattained provided the temptation for the poets toimport them into their comparisons so as to makethe descriptions impressive and realistic.'

The commentators of Tolkappiyam interpret`nurpa' No. 155 in 'Porulatikaram' so as to admitand explain such introduction of the glory andattainments of the partons in poems on the themeof love.

2.4 The ancient poets were well known fortheir self-respect and dignity and they felt itvery delicate to approach a chieftain anddirectly ask him for a gift. But they found itagreeable to please them by singing the glory ofhis ancestors or his own achievements or praisingthe beauty or fertility of his mountains andforests, and thus indirectly indicate to himtheir request for his gift. They found this auseful device to serve their purpose as directasking did not suit their sense of honour. Thisis evident from the poem of Mocikiranar inPurananuru, wherein he stated 'It is difficultfor me to ask you for a gift. But I find iteasier to praise the Konperunkanam hills ofyours.' ²⁴

Even Kapilar, who was more a close friend thana court poet of the great patron Pari, haswritten more lines in praise of his Parampu hillsthan those on the patron himself. ²⁵

3. General

3.1 The sun, the moon, the trees, the birds,the beasts and other objects of nature have beenartistically described in the poems of theseanthologies. But they have never been loved anddescribed for their own sake, as in modernpoetry. They have been described in early poetryonly to portray some aspects of life. Natureserves only as background for or setting to thehuman emotions that are depicted in Akam or Purampoetry. They serve as frames for pictures of loveor war, munificence, etc. Though Nature is thusmade subservient to the human theme, yet there isfree play of descriptions of nature. Nature has aprominent, though not a primary place in theseanthologies. These poems treat all outward thingsas subordinate to the inner forces and problems upon which the interest is concentrated.²⁶They essentially depict mental states and arepredominantly psychological, meditative andargumentative.

3.2 The poets of Ettutokai believed in theunique effects of a few deft touches ofdescription, not in the elaborate and fulldescriptions of all the parts of a beautifulobject or scene. In the later days, the poetsindulged in the descriptions of persons from headto foot or from foot to head calling suchdescriptions கேசாதிபாதவருணனைand பாதாதிகேசவருணனை.According to Winchester ²⁷ the differencebetween unimaginative treatment of Nature andimaginative treatment is the difference betweentrying to describe all one sees and rendering ina few epithets or images what one feels. Thepictures of the poets of Ettuthokai consist ofonly a few vivid features enough to interpret andcommunicate their emotional experiences. Theydrop out of their pictures all irrelevant andunpleasant details, so that the reader'sattention is concentrated upon the few featuresthat give him a powerful and characteristicimpression. Through single lines, or sometimessingle epithets, the poets flash upon thereader's imagination the whole pictures.

The picture of a hare by the poetTamilk-kuttanar of Madurai may be cited as anexample. ²⁸ In one single line offour simple Qualifiers and four small nouns -tumayirk kuruntal netuncevik kurumuyal (the smallhare with pure fur, short legs and long ears) -the complete picture of the animal isimpressively drawn. Such simple and direct wordshave a suggestive magical power. There is no roomfor exaggeration in such artistic descriptions,which are rather interpretations of the poets'experience. They have such an intensity offeeling and imagination that their descriptionsdo not deteriorate into exaggeration.

A Japanese painter once confessed that he hadto concentrate on the bamboo for many years andstill a certain technique for the rendering ofthe tips of bamboo leaves eludedhim.²⁹ Word-painting is no lessdifficult. Many of the ancient Tamil poets havemastered this word painting. They frequently usesimple adjectives that convey with force theirdeep thought and experience regarding thepictures they depict.

3.3 In the descriptions of the beauty of theheroine, we find only one or two aspects ofbeauty artistically touched.

வெறுத்தஏஎர்வேய்புரைபணைத்தோள்ன³⁰

(the lady abounding in beauty and withbamboo-like shoulders.)

அந்தீங்கிளவிஆயிழைமடந்தை³¹

(the lady of pleasant red lips resembling thepetals of `kavir' and of sweet words, wearingfine jewels.)

Even in the descriptions which extended tomore than six lines and which form part of themonologues of the hero, we find that he restrictshimself to two or three aspects of the physicalbeauty of his sweetheart and never transcends thelimits of decency. Therefore the hundreds of suchpoems dealing with love are happily devoid ofobscenity. Even the songs on the harlots and thehero's association with them are free from grossbawdiness. Sexual passions have been purged oftheir obscenity through dignified poetictouches.

3.4 The early poets did not like to introduceforeign or borrowed images in their poetry. Theyalways copied direct from life and Nature. Evenwhen they had to describe the scenes of a distantcountry which they had not seen, as for examplethose of the Ganges in flood, ³² or of the Yak atthe foot of the Himalayas ³³ they did notdescribe them in detail but restricted themselvesto the facts they knew from others and avoidedthe odd mixture of any incongruous details inthem. Even while describing the scenes of theirown country, they did not extend theirdescriptions beyond their own observation andexperience. For example, Kapilar, a great poet ofthe age, who had left us the maximum number ofsongs, had not depicted the agricultural region,he was content to deal with the mountains andtheir surroundings.

The poet Perunkatunko of the Cera family,celebrated for his descriptions of the aridmountains and forests, was silent about thebeauties of the coastal region. Ammuvanar andother poets who had written so much on thecoastal region were silent about the hills andthe forests. They wrote according to thefundamental principle stressed by Hudson, 'theprinciple that, whether his range of experienceand personal power be great or small, a manshould write of that which lies at his own doors,should make it his chief business to reportfaithfully of what he has lived, seen, thought,felt, known, for himself.' ³⁴ This sincerity orfidelity is characteristic of the poems in these early anthologies.

1 Nannul,10.

2Tolkappiyam, Porulatikaram 53.

3 `Kovai' isone of the ninety-six kinds of literary works. Itconsists of 400 verses in a particular metre,each dealing with an aspect of love, and all knittogether in such a manner, that the whole appearsto be a story of a lover and his sweetheartdepicted with continuity.

4Tolkappiyam, Porulatikaram, 3.

5 Ibid.

6 T. P.Meenakshisundaram A History of Tamil Literature,Annamalai University, Annamalainagar, 1965, p.26.

7 W. H.Hudson, An Introduction to the Study ofLiterature, 2nd edn., London, 1946, p. 97.

8 Akananuru,18.

9 ibid.360.

10Tolkappiyam Porulatikaram 30.

11Akananuru, 6.

12Kuruntokai, 163.

13Kalittokai, 129.

14Akananuru, 243.

15Narrinai, 195.

16Akananuru, 163.

17Kuruntokai, 235.

18Tolkappiyam, Porulatikaram

19 Walter WGreg in his Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama(p. 134), writes on Milton's Lycidas: The poem,in common with the whole class of allegoricalpastorals, is undoubtedly open to the charge ofartificiality, since, in truth, the pastoral garbcan never illustrate, but only distort andobscure subjects drawn from other orders ofcivilization. . . . The dissatisfaction felt bymany with Lycidas was noticed by Dr. Johnson whenhe wrote: 'It is not to be considered theeffusion of real passion, for passion runs notafter remote allusions and obscure opinions ...When there is leisure for fiction there is littlegrief.'

20Akananuru, 116.

21 Ibid.125.

22Narrinai, 391.

23 Journalof the Madras University, Humanities, vol. XXX,no. 2, January, 1959.

24Purananuru, 154.

25 Ibid.105 - 120.

26 Cf. the author's 'The Treatment of Nature in SangamLiterature', S.I.S. S.W.P. Society, Madras, 1957,pp. 404 etc.

27 C. T.Winchester, Some Principles of LiteraryCriticism, New York, 1908, p. 132.

28Purananuru, 334.

29 Ananda KCoomaraswamy, The Transformation of Nature inArt, Cambridge, 1935, p. 41.

30Akananuru 2.

31 Ibid.30.

32Purananuru, 161.

33 lbid.13; Patirruppattu, 1.

34W.H.Hudson, An Introduction to the Study ofLiterature, 2nd ed., London, 1946, p. 17