Kurundogai

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sangam literature
Ettuttogai
("eight anthologies")
Pattuppattu
("ten chants")

The Kurundogai ( Tamil : குறுந்தொகை Kuṟuntokai [ ˈkurɯn̪d̪oɦɛi̯ ] "collection of short [poems]") is a work of Old Tamil Sangam literature . It is an anthology of 401 short love poems by various authors. Within the Sangam literature it belongs to the group of the "eight anthologies" ( Ettuttogai ).

Formal aspects

Of the two genres of sangam literature (love and hero poetry), the Kurundogai represents the genre of love poetry ( agam ). The 401 poems of Kurundogai are, like most of the Sangam corpus, written in Agaval metrum and are usually four to eight lines long (two poems have nine lines). Within the eight anthologies, the Kurundogai, together with the Natrinai and the Agananuru, form a group of love anthologies with 400 poems each. In the Kurundogai , short poems are collected, while the Natrinai contains medium-length and the Agananuru long poems. The poems of Kurundogai are attributed to 205 different poets. The work is preceded by an introductory verse with an invocation of the god Murugan .

Dating

The poems of Kurundogai are counted among the oldest layer of Sangam literature on the basis of content and linguistic criteria. The absolute chronology of the texts is not certain, but it is suggested that most of the Kurundogai poems were written between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD. The Kurundogai is largely homogeneous, but individual poems can also be more recent. A few centuries after their creation, the original orally transmitted individual poems were combined into an anthology.

Text example

"நிலத்தினும் பெரிதே வானினு முயர்ந்தன்று
நீரினு மாரள வின்றே சாரற்
கருங்கோற் குறிஞ்சிப் பூக்கொண்டு
பெருந்தே னிழைக்கு நாடனொடு நட்பே."

“ Niḻattiṉum peritē vāṉiṉum uyarntaṉṟu
nīriṉum ār aḷaviṉṟē cāral
karuṅ kōl kuṟiñci pū koṇṭu
perun tēṉ iḻaikkum nāṭaṉoṭu naṭpē. "

"Larger than the earth, higher than the sky,
immeasurable than the sea, is the love for him
from the land, where
honey is produced in abundance from the mountain slopes of the black-stemmed Kurinji flowers."

- Kurundogai 3

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature, Leiden, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1975, pp. 89-90.
  2. ^ Eva Wilden: Manuscript, Print and Memory. Relics of the Caṅkam in Tamilnadu, Berlin, Munich, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014, p. 8.
  3. ↑ Wilden 2014, p. 12.
  4. ↑ Wilden 2014, pp. 413–414.

literature

Text output
  • Kuṟuntokai. Edited and commented on by Sauri Perumal Arangan. 1st edition Vēlūr 1915. ( First edition , numerous reprints.)
  • Kuṟuntokai. Edited and commented on by UV Swaminatha Iyer . 1st edition Ceṉṉai: Kēcari Accukkūṭam, 1937. (Numerous reprints.)
  • A Critical Edition and an Annotated Translation of the Kuṟuntokai. Edited and translated by Eva Wilden. 3 volumes. Pondicherry / Chennai: École Française d'Extrême-Orient / Tamilmann Patippakam, 2010. ( Critical edition with annotated translation into English)
Translations
  • DE Ludden and M. Shanmugam Pillai: Kuṟuntokai. An Anthology of Classical Tamil Love Poetry . Madurai: 1976. (Complete translation into English.)
  • AK Ramanujan : The Interior Landscape. Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology . Bloomington, London: Indiana University Press, 1967. (Translation of selected poems from the Kurundogai into English.)
  • AK Ramanujan: Poems of Love and War. From the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Long Poems of Classical Tamil . New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. (Translation of selected poems from the Kurundogai into English.)
  • George L. Hart: Poets of the Tamil Anthologies . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979. (Translation of selected poems from the Kurundogai into English.)
Secondary literature
  • Eva Wilden: Literary Techniques in Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry. The Kuṟuntokai . Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006.
  • Eva Wilden: Manuscript, Print and Memory. Relics of the Caṅkam in Tamilnadu . Berlin, Munich, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014.
  • Kamil V. Zvelebil: Tamil Literature. Leiden, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1975.

Web links