Kabilar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kabilar ( Tamil : கபிலர் Kapilar [ ˈkabilər ]) was a Tamil poet. He probably lived in the 2nd century AD and wrote numerous poems that belong to the corpus of Old Tamil Sangam literature . Kabilar is the most prolific and best known of the Sangam poets.

Work and authorship

Kabilar is credited with over 200 poems in Sangam literature. This makes him the most productive of the 473 poets known by name of the Sangam corpus. In detail, the sangam poems ascribed to Kabilar are the following:

Both genres of Old Tamil poetry, love poetry ( agam ) and hero poetry ( puram ), are represented in Kabilar's oeuvre. Kabilar was considered a specialist in the subject of the mountain landscape ( kurinchi ), one of the " five landscapes " of the old Tamil love poetry. Almost all love poems ascribed to Kabilar belong to the Kurinchi type. In the anthologies Aingurunuru and Kalittogai , which are divided into five sections for one of the landscapes, the section on the mountain landscape is said to have been written by Kabilar, as is the Kurinchippattu , a longer single poem on the Kurinchi theme .

In addition, a number of later works are attributed to Kabilar. These include the Inna Narpadu , a didactic work that belongs to the post-classical Padinenkilkkanakku corpus, and a verse from Tiruvalluvamalai , a poem in praise of the poet Tiruvalluvar . Furthermore, in the canon of religious poetry of Tamil Shaivism , the Tirumurai , there are poems that are attributed to a Kabiladevar . This is the name Kabilar, expanded by the respectful part of the name devar "God".

The poems ascribed to Kabilar come from very different eras and it is impossible to have written by the same person. This is evident in the post-classical poems, but the works of the Sangam corpus are also several centuries apart: the poems of Kurundogai, Natrinai, Agananuru and Purananuru are dated to the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, while the Kalittogai dates from the 6th century. It therefore seems obvious that the attribution is not always authentic. Rather, poems of the Kurinchi type seem to have been arbitrarily attributed to the famous poet Kabilar for this subject. However, it cannot be ruled out that there were several poets with the name Kabilar in different periods.

biography

Little historical facts are known about Kabilar's biography. Everything that can be said about his biography comes either from poems that he is supposed to have written or from the highly uncertain tradition. According to a later work, the Tiruvilaiyadarpuranam , Kabilar is said to have been born in Tiruvadavur near Madurai . In his own poems, Kabilar describes himself as a Brahmin . Its name comes from Sanskrit ( kapila "brownish or reddish color"). Kamil Zvelebil puts his life at around 140–200 AD, but the date is uncertain.

The heroic poems ascribed to Kabilar (if one accepts their authenticity) are partly autobiographical . Kabilar's patron was Prince Pari , whom he praised in his poems in the Purananuru . Paris fortress on Mount Parambu (identified with today's Piranmalai ) was captured by enemies and Pari was killed in battle. After the death of his patron, Kabilar took it upon himself, according to the Purananuru , to marry off the two daughters Paris. According to tradition, this should not have succeeded. Afterwards Kabilar entrusted the daughters to Paris Brahmins and fasted himself to death. In addition to Pari, Kabilar also sings about another prince named Kari, about whom little is otherwise known. Kabilar is also credited with a decade of Paditruppattu , which serves to praise the Chera king Selvakkadungo Aliyadan .

Afterlife

The Kabilar rock near Tirukkoyilur

Kabilar seems to have been famous even during the Sangam era. He is mentioned four times in sangam poems by other authors. In the post-classical period he formed a trio with the poets Paranar and Nakkirar , in which the memory of Sangam literature crystallized. The three poets appear in numerous later versions of the Sangam legend . These three (as Kabiladevar , Paranadevar and Nakkiradevar ) are also mentioned as authors of texts of the Tamil Shivaitic canon.

In Tirukkoyilur in the Viluppuram district, in the riverbed of the Ponnaiyar River, there is a rock on which Kabilar is said to have committed suicide after he married a daughter of his deceased patron Pari to the local ruler Malaiyaman. Said rock is known as "Kabilar rock" ( Kabilar kundru ) and today houses a small shrine. The legend is mentioned in an inscription by the Chola king Rajaraja I from 1012 in the nearby Veeratteswarar Temple.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature. Leiden, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1975, p. 267.
  2. ↑ Zvelebil 1975, p. 267.
  3. ^ Eva Wilden: Manuscript, Print and Memory. Relics of the Caṅkam in Tamilnadu. De Gruyter, Berlin, Munich, Boston 2014, p. 8.
  4. ↑ Wilden 2014, p. 220, fn. 192.
  5. ↑ Zvelebil 1975, p. 265.
  6. ↑ Zvelebil 1975, pp. 265-266.
  7. ↑ Zvelebil 1975, p. 266.
  8. ↑ Zvelebil 1975, p. 265.
  9. ↑ Wilden 2014, p. 239.
  10. ↑ R. Nagaswamy "Sangam Poetic traditions under the Imperial Cola s", in: Jean-Luc Chevillard and Eva Wilder (eds.): South Indian Horizons. Felicitation Volume for François Gros, Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry, École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2004, pp. 487–494.

literature

  • Venkatarajulu V. Reddiar: Kapilar. Madras: University of Madras, 1939.
  • Eva Wilden: Manuscript, Print and Memory. Relics of the Caṅkam in Tamilnadu . Berlin, Munich, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014.
  • Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature . Leiden, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1975.
personal data
SURNAME Kabilar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Capillary; கபிலர் (Tamil)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tamil poet
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: 2nd century