Sangam literature
| Sangam literature |
|---|
|
Ettuttogai ("eight anthologies") |
|
Pattuppattu ("ten chants") |
As Sangam literature (of Tamil சங்கம் caṅkam [ saŋɡʌm ]), the body of the earliest Tamil referred seal. It probably originated between the 1st and 6th centuries AD in the extreme south of India ( Tamil Nadu ). Together with the Tolkappiyam grammar book , it forms the oldest layer of Tamil literature . The Sangam literature comprises a corpus of 18 lyrical works, which are divided into eight anthologies of mostly shorter individual poems ( Ettuttogai ) and ten longer poems ( Pattuppattu ) .
The works of Sangam literature are divided into two genres, love and hero poetry ( agam and puram ). The texts are in an archaic form of Tamil language , the Alttamil , written and follow a variety of complicated conventions. These are described by a rich poetological tradition that accompanies literature. One of the most prominent conventions is the concept of the “five landscapes”, according to which a certain love situation is always associated with one of five types of landscape (mountains, pastures, farmland, coast and desert).
The Sangam literature reflects a state in which the influence of the North Indian Sanskrit culture in the south of India was still relatively small. Unlike the literatures of the other Indian languages, it is not based on the model of Sanskrit literature, but has its own origins. Sangam literature is one of the most important sources for the early history of South India. It describes a time when the three royal dynasties of Chera , Chola and Pandya and a large number of lesser princes ruled in Tamil Nadu . After the Sangam literature had been largely forgotten, it was rediscovered in the late 19th century and has since played an important role in the cultural awareness of the Tamils.
The term "Sangam"
The Tamil term “Sangam” ( சங்கம் caṅkam ) is derived from the Sanskrit word saṅgha and literally means “assembly”, “council” or “academy”. The name is based on a legend according to which there were three academies (sangam) of poets who cultivated Tamil poetry in the mythical prehistoric times . The Sangam legend first appears in poetological literature in the 8th century , notably in Nakkirar's commentary on Iraiyanar Agapporul . It says that the first of three academies took place in "southern Madurai", which is now under the sea, and lasted for 4400 years. The second academy in the city of Kabadapuram, which is also devoured by the sea, lasted 3700 years, the third academy took place in today's Madurai and lasted 1850 years. While the figures can confidently be considered fictional, it can at least not be ruled out that a poetry academy in Madurai under royal patronage was actually concerned with the codification of the text corpus of Sangam literature. The flood legend preserved in the Sangam legend led in the 20th century in Tamil nationalist circles in connection with western theories (cf. Lemuria ) to the idea of a submerged continent Kumarikkandam .
According to the usual definition, Sangam literature is the oldest layer of poetic literature in Tamil, consisting of two collections, the "eight anthologies" ( Ettuttogai ) and the "ten chants" ( Pattuppattu ) . Although only the eight anthologies are mentioned in the Sangam legend, the ten chants are also counted as Sangam literature because of the great similarity in content and style. The term “classical Tamil literature” is sometimes used synonymously, even if it is not as selective. The term “Sangam” has also been transferred to other areas beyond the literary area: In Tamil, Old Tamil is referred to as “Sangam-Tamil” ( சங்கத்தமிழ் caṅkattamiḻ ). In the historiography of South India, the term “Sangam time” is used for the epoch described in the Sangam texts.
Text history and chronology
The dating of the Sangam texts is extremely uncertain. There is a broad consensus that the majority of the texts were written in the first centuries AD. Nevertheless, there are clearly different dating proposals that date from the 3rd century BC. Until the 8th / 9th Century AD range. On the basis of linguistic and stylistic features, a relative chronology of the texts can at best be established. A number of external references contribute to the absolute dating: In the heroic poems of the Sangam corpus, the three royal dynasties of the Chera , Chola and Pandya are sung about in addition to numerous lesser princes . These were the dominant power in Tamil Nadu before they were ousted by the invading Kalabhra in the 4th century . The Pallava dynasty, which rose to be the most important power in Tamil Nadu in the 6th century, does not play a role in Sangam literature. In contrast, there are descriptions of Greek and Roman traders and mercenaries (cf. Yavana ). The sea trade between India and the Roman Empire began in the 1st century and came in the 3rd century to a halt. These facts suggest that the Sangam poems describe the conditions in Tamil Nadu in the first centuries AD.
The following can be recorded as a possible chronology: The oldest layer of Sangam literature consists of the poems of the three love anthologies Kurundogai , Natrinai and Agananuru and the hero anthology Purananuru , which were written between the 1st and 3rd centuries. However, individual poems can also be significantly later. The two anthologies Aingurunuru and Paditruppattu are somewhat more recent . An indication of this is the fact that her poems were written not as individual poems, but as decades. The two works should therefore be dated to the 4th century. Most of the "ten chants" ( Pattuppattu ) go back to the 4th and 5th centuries . An exception is the Tirumurugatruppadai , which differs in its religious theme. Like the anthologies Kalittogai and Paripadal, identifiable as latecomers due to linguistic, formal and content- related criteria, it is dated to the 6th century.
The numerous formulaic expressions in Sangam literature suggest that the texts were originally transmitted orally . Presumably around the middle of the 1st millennium, the poems were written down and then combined into anthologies. Several of the anthologies have an introductory verse by the author Paradam Padiya Perundevanar , which is likely to date from the 7th century. A first over-anthology was probably put together at this point. When exactly the division into the “eight anthologies” and “ten chants” as we know them today was made is not known. The terms Ettuttogai and Pattuppattu first appear in commentary literature between the 11th and 14th centuries.
The corpus of text
For corpus of Sangam literature 18 works are expected to be grouped into two collections: the Ettuttogai ( எட்டுத்தொகை Eṭṭuttokai "eight anthologies") and the pattuppāṭṭu ( பத்துப்பாட்டு pattuppāṭṭu "Ten Songs"). The former comprises eight anthologies of mostly shorter poems, the latter is a collection of ten longer individual poems. The Sangam corpus includes a total of 2381 poems of very different lengths (3 to 782 lines). Some poems have been lost in the course of tradition. In the Aingurunuru and Purananuru anthologies, for example, two poems are missing , while the Paditruppattu has lost the first and last decade. The greatest gaps are in the Paripadal anthology , where only 22 of the original 70 poems have survived.
Most of the poems in the Sangam corpus are ascribed to one of 473 named poets. 102 poems are anonymous. While some poets are extremely productive (such as Kabilar with 253 poems), others are only assigned one poem at a time. The 16 most productive poets are responsible for around half of the poems. Some of the poets are not known by their real names, but by epithets that are derived from a particularly memorable phrase in their poems, such as Sembulappeyanirar "he with the red earth and the pouring rain" based on the central motif of the poem Kurundogai 40 ("... how red earth and pouring rain / our hearts are united in love ”).
The "eight anthologies" (Ettuttogai)
The eight anthologies of Ettuttogai are collections of mostly shorter individual poems, which have been summarized according to formal (length, meter) and content criteria (love or hero poetry). In the genre of love poetry (agam) there are three anthologies of 400 poems each, which are arranged according to the length of the poems: In the Kurundogai short poems are collected, while the Natrinai contains medium-length and the Agananuru long poems. The equivalent in the genre of heroic poetry (puram) is the anthology Purananuru with also 400 poems. The love anthology Aingurunuru and the hero anthology Paditruppattu are characterized by an arrangement in decades (groups of ten poems). The love anthology Kalittogai shows great differences in language and style and is clearly more recent than the other texts. It is the same with the paripadal, which stands out for its religious content. The eight anthologies are listed below in traditional order:
| Name of the anthology | Number of poems (of which received) |
Number of lines | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natrinai | நற்றிணை Naṟṟiṇai | "The beautiful tinais (love situations)" | 400 (398) | 9-12 |
| Kurundogai | குறுந்தொகை Kuṟuntokai | "Collection of short [poems]" | 401 | 4-8 |
| Aingurunuru | ஐங்குறுநூறு Aiṅkuṟunūṟu | "Five Short Hundred" | 500 (498) | 3-6 |
| Paditruppattu | பதிற்றுப்பத்து Patiṟṟuppattu | "Ten [times] ten [poems]" | 100 (80) | 5-57 |
| Paripadal | பரிபாடல் Paripāṭal | "[Collection in] Paripadal -versmeasure" | 70 (22) | 32-140 |
| Kalittogai | கலித்தொகை Kalittokai | "Collection in the potash measure" | 150 | 11-80 |
| Agananuru | அகநானூறு Akanāṉūṟu | "Four hundred [poems] about agam (love)" | 400 | 13-31 |
| Purananuru | புறநானூறு Puṟanāṉūṟu | "Four hundred [poems] about puram (heroism)" | 400 (398) | 4-40 |
The "ten chants" (Pattuppattu)
The Pattuppattu includes ten longer poems with a length of 103 to 782 lines. They differ mainly in their length from the shorter poems of the eight anthologies, but in terms of content and style they form a unit with them. One of the ten chants, the Kurinchippattu, belongs to the genre of love poetry (agam) , while the genre of hero poetry (puram) is represented by the five texts Porunaratruppadai, Syrupanatruppadai, Perumbanatruppadai, Maduraikkanchi and Malaipadukadam . In Mullaippattu, Nedunalvadai and Pattinappalai there is a hybrid of the Agam and Puram genres. An outlier is the Tirumurugatruppadai, which is of religious content and was written later than the other texts. In addition to the Sangam literature, it also belongs to the Shivaitic canon ( Tirumurai ) . The ten chants are listed below in the traditional order:
| Name of the poem | Number of lines | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tirumurugatruppadai | திருமுருகாற்றுப்படை Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai | "The guidance to God Murugan" | 317 |
| Porunaratruppadai | பொருநராற்றுப்படை Porunarāṟṟuppaṭai | "The signpost for the war bard" | 248 |
| Syrup Panatruppadai | சிறுபானாற்றுப்படை Ciṟupāṉāṟṟuppaṭai | "The sign for the bard with the little lute" | 269 |
| Perumbanatruppadai | பெரும்பானாற்றுப்படை Perumpāṉāṟṟuppaṭai | "The direction for the bard with the big lute" | 500 |
| Mullaippattu | முல்லைப்பாட்டு Mullaippāṭṭu | "The forest poem" | 103 |
| Maduraikkanchi | மதுரைக்காஞ்சி Maturaikkāñci | "The advice [to the king] of Madurai" | 782 |
| Nedunalvadai | நெடுநல்வாடை Neṭunalvāṭai | "The long good north wind" | 188 |
| Kurinchippattu | குறிஞ்சிப்பாட்டு Kuṟiñcippāṭṭu | "The mountain poem" | 261 |
| Pattinappalai | பட்டினப்பாலை Paṭṭiṉappālai | "The city and the desert" | 301 |
| Malaipadukadam | மலைபடுகடாம் Malaipaṭukaṭām | "The mountain echo" | 583 |
Language and style
language
The Sangam literature is written in Old Tamil , the oldest language level of Tamil . In addition to a number of inscriptions dating back to the 2nd century BC The Sangam texts belong to the oldest language testimonies of Tamil, which can be divided into the three language levels Old Tamil (up to 700 AD), Middle Tamil (700 to 1600) and modern Tamil (1600 to today). Although Ancient Tamil and modern Tamil are still similar in many ways, the language of sangam poems cannot be understood by today's Tamils without special study or the help of commentary .
A special feature of Old Tamil grammar is the frequent lack of inflectional endings : a case can be explicitly marked by suffixes on nouns , but mostly they are strung together without case marking; the relationship between the words must then be deduced from the context. Similarly, verbal stems without an ending can take on the function of a participle . The phrase கறங்கு இசை அருவி மால் வரை மலி சுனை மலர் kaṟaṅku icai aruvi māl varai mali cuṉai malar (“thunderous sound of waterfall size mountain full-its pond blossoms”) can be translated as “the blossoms of the full pond on the large mountain with the waterfall with the roaring sound ”translate. This grammatical peculiarity of Old Tamil gives the Sangam poems an extremely compact texture, but also sometimes makes their interpretation difficult. Another linguistic characteristic of Tamil, which makes it difficult to translate the Sangam poems, is its pronounced left-branching word order: Attributes always precede their reference words , relative clauses come before main clauses . This often results in a word order that is opposite to that in European languages. The poem Kurundogai 3 may serve as an example of the difficulties that arise from this , which is reproduced here in the original with word separation and interlinear translation , whereby the individual parts of the sentence are numbered:
"
நிலத்தினும் பெரிதே வானினும் உயர்ந்தன்று
நீரினும் ஆர் அளவின்றே 1 சாரல்
கருங் கோல் குறிஞ்சிப் பூக்கொண்டு
பெருந் தேன் இழைக்கும் 2 நாடனொடு 3 நட்பே 4 ."
Nilattiṉum peritē vāṉiṉum uyarntaṉṟu
nīri̱num ār aḷaviṉṟē 1 cāral
karuṅ kōl kuṟiñcip pūkkoṇṭu
perun tēṉ iḻaikkum 2 nāṭaṉoṭu 3 naṭpē 4 .
"Earth - as bigger, sky - as higher,
sea - as immense 1 mountain slope
black stem Kurinchi blossom - arising from a
lot of honey 2 land - he - to 3 love 4. "
The poem begins with three objects of comparison and three nominal predicates : "greater than the earth, higher than the sky, immeasurable than the sea [is] ..." (1). The subject “love” (4) only appears as the last word of the poem. It is preceded by the more detailed determination “to him from the country” (3). In front of this is a longer relative clause, which describes the country in more detail: "where a lot of honey is made from the mountain slopes with black-stemmed Kurinchi flowers" (2). By placing the predicate at the beginning and inserting a longer attribute, a tension is built up in the original, which only dissolves with the last word. However, this structure cannot be reproduced in German, so that the order of the parts of the sentence instead of 1–2–3–4 in the translation is 1–4–3–2:
"Bigger than the earth, higher than the sky,
immeasurable than the sea is 1 love 4 for it,
from the land, 3 where a
lot of honey arises from the mountain slopes of black-stemmed Kurinchi flowers 2. "
Meter and stylistic devices
Sangam literature is written in verse . Apart from the two later works Kalittogai and Paripadal , the Sangam corpus is for the most part written in the Agaval measure. In addition, there is sometimes a second meter , Vanchi . The basis of the Tamil metric (verse doctrine) is a metric unit (asai) , which consists of either a long syllable (ner) or a short syllable followed by another syllable (nirai) (possibly followed by a short u ). In the Agaval meter, a poem consists of any number of lines, each with four feet (sir) , each of which consists of two metric units. The penultimate line alone consists of only three feet. In Vanchi meter, each line has two feet of three metric units each. The distribution of the metric units is no longer regulated, which means that the meter has a very free character. The meter can be reinforced by stylistic devices such as alliteration (monai) and a special form of the initial rhyme (edugai) , in which the second syllable of each line begins with the same sound. In contrast to the later Tamil poetry, the opening rhyme is not mandatory.
As an example, the poem Kurundogai 3 quoted above is reproduced in the original, transcription and metrical analysis. The meter is Agaval, the verse feet are marked by hyphenation according to the usual convention. In metric analysis - stands for ner (long syllable), = for nirai (short syllable followed by another syllable) and ˘ for a subsequent short u . Note the alliterations ( karuṅ kōṟ kuṟiñci , nāṭanoṭu naṭpē ) and the initial rhyme (karuṅ ... / perun ...) .
- நிலத்தினும் பெரிதே வானினு முயர்ந்தன்று
நீரினு மாரள வின்றே சாரற்
கருங்கோற் குறிஞ்சிப் பூக்கொண்டு
பெருந்தே னிழைக்கு நாடனொடு நட்பே.
-
Nilattiṉum peritē vāṉiṉu muyarntaṉṟu
nīriṉu māraḷa viṉṟē cāraṟ
karuṅkōṟ kuṟiñcip pūkkoṇṭu
peruntē ṉiḻaikku nāṭanoṭu naṭpē.
- = = / = - / - = / = –˘
- = / - = / - - / - -
= - / = - / - –˘
= - / = - / - = ˘ / - -
The poetological tradition
Sangam literature is accompanied by a rich poetological tradition that describes the theoretical foundations of poetry. Poetics is considered a part of grammar in the Tamil tradition . The poetological tradition begins with the Poruladigaram ("Treatise on the Subject"), the third book of Tolkappiyam , the oldest extant Tamil grammar work. The dating of Tolkappiyam is uncertain, especially since the text has apparently been heavily revised in the course of its history and combines text layers of different ages. It is likely that its oldest parts date back to the 1st to 3rd centuries AD and received its final form by the 6th century. Later than the Tolkappiyam Poruladigaram are two textbooks that deal exclusively with love poetry (agam) : the Iraiyanar Agapporul ("Iraiyanar's [treatise on] the subject of love") and the Agapporul Vilakkam (" Explanation of the love theme ”) by the author Nambi from the 13th century. The Purapporul Venbamalai , which was probably created before the 10th century, only deals with the hero poetry (puram) .
There are a number of comments on the poetological textbooks , which, as is customary in Indian tradition, not only serve to explain the source text, but are also independent treatises. The author Nakkirar wrote the earliest poetological commentary on Iraiyanar Agapporul probably in the 8th century . The Tolkappiyam Poruladigaram was commented on by Ilamburanar , Nachinarkkiniyar and Perasiriyar between the 12th and 14th centuries . An auto-commentary by the author Nambi exists on Agapporul Vilakkam . Poetry and poetics are closely linked. The commentators regularly quote from the Sangam literature to illustrate the poetological works. On the other hand, knowledge of the poetic conventions is necessary in order to understand the strongly conventionalized Sangam literature, even if the poems do not always strictly follow the norms of poetological literature.
Love and hero poetry ( agam and puram )
In Sangam literature, there is a fundamental distinction between two genres , Agam ( அகம் akam ) and Puram ( புறம் puṟam ). The pair of terms is to be understood as complementary: Agam literally means “inner” and in extension “inner, private, personal life” and thus in particular “love life”, while Puram literally means “outer” and further “outer, public, political life” and in particular "Heldenleben" called. In short, Agam can be described as love poetry and Puram as hero poetry.
Of the texts in the Sangam corpus, five of the eight anthologies, namely Aingurunuru , Kurundogai , Natrinai , Agananuru and Kalittogai , as well as one of the ten longer poems, the Kurinchippattu , can be assigned to the Agam genre. The Puram genre includes the two anthologies Purananuru and Paditruppattu as well as the five longer poems Porunaratruppadai , Perumbanatruppadai , Syrupanatruppadai , Malaipadukadam and Maduraikkanchi . In the three longer poems Pattinappalai , Mullaippattu and Nedunalvadai there is a mixed form of the Agam and Puram genres. The later Tirumurugatruppadai is a poem of praise to the god Murugan and, because of its religious content, evades the classification into Agam and Puram , and the later anthology Paripadal also contains religious poetry.
Agam poems are about the love relationship between an idealized hero and an idealized heroine. The protagonists of the poems are anonymous and come from a limited selection of dramatis personae . Agam poems take the form of a dramatic monologue by one of the people involved in the plot. So the poet takes a back seat and lets his protagonists speak. In Puram poems, on the other hand, the poet speaks with his own voice and sings about a named person. The poem serves to praise the person sung about and is about his generosity as a benefactor, the excellence of his country or his military successes. Despite the differences in content, Agam and Puram poetry form a unit due to their stylistic similarities.
The characteristics of the agam genre are evident in the poem Agananuru 82 by the poet Kabilar. In the poem, the heroine speaks to her friend and laments the heartache that plagues her after seeing the hero for the first time:
"
ஆடமைக் குயின்ற வவிர்துளை மருங்கில்
கோடை யவ்வளி குழலிசை யாகப்
பாடின் அருவிப் பனிநீர் இன்னிசைத்
தோடமை முழவின் துதைகுர லாகக்
கணக்கலை இகுக்கும கடுங்குரல் தூம்பொடு
மலைப்பூஞ் சாரல் வண்டியா ழாக
இன்பல் இமிழிசை கேட்டுக் கலிசிறந்து
கலிசிறந்து நல்லவை நல்லவை மருள்வன
நோக்கக் கழைவளர் அடுக்கத் தியலியா
டும்மயில் நனவுப்புகு விறலியில் தோன்றும்
நாடன் உருவ வல்வில் பற்றி
அம்புதெரிந்து செருச்செய் புலர்குரல் ஏனற்
வினாஅய் வினாஅய் வினாஅய் புழையுடை ஒருசிறை
மலர்தார் மார்பன் நின்றோற் கண்டோர்
பலர்தில் வாழி தோழி அவருள்
ஆரிருட் கங்குல் அணையொடு பொருந்தி
ஓரியா னாகுவ தெவன்கொல்
நீர்வார் கண்ணொடு நெகிழ்தோ ளேனே."
AT 'amai kuyiṉṟa avir Tulai maruṅkil
Kotai av Vali Kulal ICAI AKA
PAT' in Aruvi PANI NIR in ICAI
TOT 'amai muḻaviṉ Tutai kural AKA
kana kalai ikukkum Katun kural tūmpoṭu
malai PUN CARAL Avanti YAL AKA
PAL Imil ICAI Kettu kali ciṟantu
manti nal avai maruḷvaṉa Nokka
Kalai valar aṭukkatt 'iyali ATUM Mayil
naṉavu puku viṟaliyil tōṉṟum Natan
uruva val vil PARRI AMPU terintu
ceru cey Yanai cel Neri viṉāay
Pular kural enal puḻaiyuṭai oru ciṟai
malar tar Marpan niṉṟōṟ Kantor
palar til Vali TOLI avaruḷ
Ār iruḷ kaṅkul aṇaiyoṭu porunti
OR Yan ākuvat 'evaṉkol
nīr vār kaṇṇoṭu nekiḻ toḷēṉē.
“In his country the west wind plays the flute
in the holes of blowing bamboo tubes.
The cool water of the thundering waterfall
sounds like the deep sound of drums.
The roar of the herds of deer serves as an oboe
and the bees of the flowering mountain slopes are the lute.
Excited
by these many sounds
, a horde of monkeys looks on in amazement,
while a dancing peacock
steps onto the stage like a dancer in the bamboo-covered mountains .
- He, with the wreath of flowers on his chest,
had taken his strong bow and chosen an arrow,
and standing at the gate of the millet field with the ripe stalks he
asked for the way of the elephant he was hunting.
Many saw him doing it. But why,
oh friend, is it just me among you who
lies in bed in the dead of night,
eyes full of tears, arms getting thinner and thinner? "
In contrast to this is the Puram poem Purananuru 109, which is also attributed to the poet Kabilar. Here Kabilar praises his patron, Prince Pari, by describing on the one hand his fortress on the Parambu hill and on the other hand his generosity as patron:
"
அளிதோ தானே பாரியது பறம்பே
நளிகொண் முரசின் மூவிரு முற்றினும்
உழவ ருழாதன நான்குபய னுடைத்தே
ஒன்றே, சிறியிலை வெதிரி னெல்விளை யும்மே
இரண்டே, தீஞ்சுளைப் பலவின் பழமூழ்க் கும்மே
மூன்றே, கொழுங்கொடி வள்ளிக் கிழங்குவீழ்க் கும்மே
நான்கே, அணிநிற வோரி பாய்தலின் மீதழிந்து
திணிநெடுங் குன்றந் தேன்சொரி யும்மே
வான்க ணற்றவன் மலையே வானத்து
மீன்க ணற்றதன் சுனையே யாங்கு
மரந்தொறும் பிணித்த களிற்றினி ராயினும்
புலந்தொறும் பரப்பிய தேரினி ராயினும்
தாளிற் கொள்ளலிர் வாளிற் றாரலன்
யானறி குவனது கொள்ளு மாறே
சுகிர்புரி நரம்பின் சீறியாழ் பண்ணி
விரையொலி கூந்தனும் விறலியர் பின்வர
ஆடினிர் பாடினிர் செலினே
நாடுங் குன்று மொருங்கீ யும்மே."
Alito tane pāriyatu paṟampē
NALI KOL muraciṉ mūvirum muṟṟiṉum
uḻavar uḻātaṉa Ñanku Payan uṭaittē
Onre, Ciru ilai vetiriṉ nel viḷaiyummē
Irante, Tim Culai palaviṉ Palam ūḻkkummē
mūṉṟē, Kolum Kóti velli kiḻaṅku vīḻkkummē
Nanke, ANI NIRA ORI pāytaliṉ With 'aḻintu
TiNi Netum kuṉṟam Ten coriyummē
VAN Kan arr 'Avan malaiyē vāṉattu
min Kan arr' atan cuṉaiyē Anku
marantoṟum piṇitta kaḷiṟṟiṉir āyiṉum
pulantoṟum parappiya tēriṉir āyiṉum
Talin koḷḷalir valine tāralaṉ
Yan aṟikuvaṉ atu kollum ARE
cukir puri narampiṉ Ciru YAL panni
virai oli Kuntal num viṟaliyar piṉvara
āṭiṉir patinir Celine
natum kuṉṟum oruṅk 'īyummē .
“Des Pari Parambu hill is full of favor.
Even if you three kings lay siege to him with the big drums, he
brings four kinds of yields that don't need a farmer:
First, the grain from the bamboo with the small leaves thrives.
Second, the jackfruit ripens with the sweet pulp.
Third, the sweet potato grows with the thick tendrils.
Fourth, honey pours from the solid high hill.
His mountain is like the sky,
and the pools there are like stars in the sky.
Even if your elephants are tied to all trees,
even if your chariots are spread over all fields,
you will not take it. You will not get it with the sword.
But I know how you can take it:
If you play on the little lute with the open sides
and come
dancing and singing accompanied by dancers with fragrant hair
, it will give you the whole country and the hill. "
Features of love poetry
Topics and situations
The themes of Old Tamil love poetry are highly conventionalized. A poem is about a particular situation in the love affair between the hero and the heroine. The friend of the heroine, who mediates between the two, also plays an important role. Less common protagonists are the mother or wet nurse of the heroine, the hero's companion, his bard, his charioteer and his mistress. Most of the situations described are frequently recurring topoi . This is the case with the scene from the poem Agananuru 82 quoted at the beginning , in which the hero meets the heroine on the hunt who, together with her friend, guard a millet field in the mountains. By convention, this situation is linked to the chance meeting of hero and heroine that marks the beginning of their love affair. These conventionalized situations are described in the poetological literature. The poetological tradition divides the situations into two categories, premarital love ( களவு kaḷavu ) and conjugal love ( கற்பு kaṟpu ). In the Sangam poems, the individual situations are still isolated, but the later poetological tradition links them to a sequence that tells the story of the love affair between the hero and the heroine in the form of a serialized drama. This sequence can be reproduced in a simplified form as follows:
The hero and the heroine meet by chance in the mountains or on the seashore. They immediately fall in love and secretly sleep together. Later, the hero returns to the place where they met in the hope of seeing the heroine again. The hero is plagued by the desire for the heroine and initiates his companion. The heroine also longs for the hero, which her friend soon notices. The friend tries to end the secret meetings. The hero then threatens to shame the heroine by climbing the trunk of a palmyra palm and making the relationship public. To prevent this, the friend agrees to arrange further meetings. The secret relationship leads to talk in the village, which is why the heroine's parents do not let her out of the house. This leads to severe heartache in the heroine. Her parents interpret their daughter's condition as a symptom of possession by the god Murugan and order a priest to perform an exorcism ritual. The girlfriend then reveals to the parents the real reason for the heroine's obsession and urges the hero to marry the heroine. The hero and the heroine decide to run away together. On their flight they cross a desert. The heroine's mother is looking for them and follows them into the desert. Eventually the hero and heroine return and get married. After the wedding, however, they soon become estranged, and the hero begins an extramarital relationship. The heroine is therefore angry and denies the hero entry into the house. Ultimately, however, the two make up again. Later, the hero has to leave the heroine to make money. In his search for wealth, he crosses the inhospitable desert again, while the heroine worries about the dangers that lurk there. When the rainy season begins, she waits longingly for the hero who has promised to return before the onset of the monsoons. Despite the encouragement from her friend, the heroine has almost given up hope until the hero finally arrives.
The situation in which a certain poem takes place is identified by the so-called " speaking situations" (Tamil கிளவி kiḷavi ). These are often, but misleadingly, referred to as colophons . These are short paratexts that have been handed down with the poems and indicate the speaker, listener and situation for each poem. However, the interpretation of the speech situation is not always evident from the poem itself: This is the speech situation for the poem Kurundogai 3 quoted at the beginning (“Bigger than the earth, higher than the sky ...”): “What the heroine said about the qualities of the hero when his friend, in the hope that he would marry her, denigrated his qualities while he was hidden behind a hedge ”. At times, then, it seems that the poetological tradition forces a rather inappropriate reading on a poem that does not fit into its theoretical scheme.
The five landscapes (tinai)
A prominent feature of ancient Tamil love poetry is the concept of the five "landscapes" or "love situations", in Tamil Tinai ( திணை tiṇai ). According to this convention, the visual and the emotional level of poetry are linked: A poem is set in one of five landscapes, each associated with a love situation. The mountain landscape (kurinchi) stands for the union of lovers, the pastureland (mullai) for the waiting of the woman, the arable land (marudam) for infidelity and strife, the coast (neydal) for suffering and the desert, or more precisely those during the Dry season desolate landscape, (palai) for the separation or the mutual escape of lovers. The landscapes are each named after a typical flower. In addition, every landscape is associated with a number of other typical elements (plants, animals, occupations, etc.). So are bamboo , Kino Tree and jackfruit plants typical of the mountain landscape. Typical animals are elephants, tigers, monkeys and peacocks, while people grow millet and hunt in the mountains. The poet thus has a reservoir of symbolic codes at his disposal, through which he can assign a poem to a certain type of landscape and thus a certain emotional situation. In addition to the landscape, time also plays a role: the mullai type in particular is linked to the pastureland, the rainy season and the evening.
In addition to the five geographically defined Tinais , the poetological tradition has two other Tinais , which are only associated with a love situation and not with a landscape. These are improper love (Perundinai) and unrequited love (Kaikkilai) . However, poetological literature only sanctions the first five Tinais as a suitable theme for the love poem . In the poetry itself, inappropriate and unrequited love play no part.
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| Surname | flower | landscape | situation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kurinchi | குறிஞ்சி kuṟiñci | Strobilanthes kunthiana | mountains | Union |
| Mullai | முல்லை mullai | Jasminum sambac | Forest, pasture land | Waiting |
| Marudam | மருதம் marutam | Terminalia arjuna | Farmland | Infidelity, quarrel |
| Neydal | நெய்தல் neytal | Nymphaea nouchali | coast | Suffer |
| Palai | பாலை pālai | Mimusops kauki | Desert, wasteland | Separation, escaping |
The two poems quoted at the beginning Kurundogai 3 and Agananuru 82 serve as an example , both of which are set in the mountain landscape (kurinchi) . However, the landscape concept cannot easily be applied to all poems. Probably the best known love poem in Sangam literature, Kurundogai 40, is assigned to the mountain landscape (kurinchi) because of its content . However, the poem does not contain a description of the landscape and, apart from a simple but concise comparison, no descriptive passages:
"
யாயு ஞாயும் யாரா கியரோ
வெந்தையு நுந்தையு மெம்முறைக் கேளிர்
யானு நீயு மெவ்வழி யறிதும்
செம்புலப் பெயனீர் போல
வன்புடை நெஞ்சந் தாங்கலந் தனவே."
Yāyum ñāyum yār ākiyarō
entaiyum nuntaiyum em muṟai kēḷir
yāṉum nīyum ev vaḻi aṟitum
cem pula peyal nīr pōla
aṉp 'uṭai neñcam tām kalantaṉavē.
“Your mother, my mother, who are they to each other?
Your father, my father, how are they related?
You and me, how do we even know each other?
But like red earth and pouring rain
, our hearts are united in love. "
Implicit metaphor (ullurai)
Many Sangam love poems contain a stylistic device that is called Ullurai ( உள்ளுறை uḷḷuṟai ) in the Tamil tradition . It is an implicit metaphor that is not expressed directly, but by juxtaposing two levels of a poem. This is usually expressed in the fact that a poem contains a description of the landscape that at first glance does not seem to have any connection to the main plot. In fact, the description of the landscape contains a hidden message that links the two levels of the poem. The poem Kurundogai 54 may serve as an example .
"
யானே யீண்டை யேனே யென்னலனே
யேனல் காவலர் கவணொலி வெரீஇக்
கான யானை கைவிடு பசுங்கழை
மீனெறி தூண்டிலி னிவக்குங்
கானக நாடனொ டாண்டொழிந் தன்றே."
Yāṉē īṇṭaiyēṉē eṉ nalaṉē
ēṉal kāvalar kavaṇ oli verīi
kāṉa yāṉai kaiviṭu pacum kaḻai
mīṉ eṟi tūṇṭiliṉ nivakkum
kāṉaka nāṭanoṭ 'āṇṭ' oḻintaṉṟē.
“I, I am here. My virtue, it is there,
stayed with him from the country with the woods,
where, for fear of being
thrown by the guard in the millet field,
an elephant shoots a bamboo branch
like a fishing rod hurled at a fish. "
The basic message of the poem is very simple and takes up only two out of five lines: The heroine has lost her innocence to the hero from whom she is now separated ("My virtue, she is there, stayed with him ..."). Most of the poem is a description of a scene in the hero's land ("where ... an elephant ..."). This description assigns the poem to the mountain landscape (kurinchi) on the one hand. At the same time, however, the description of the landscape is also an implicit metaphor that further elaborates the main plot: just as the elephant is afraid of the guardians of the millet field and lets the bamboo branch shoot up, the hero is also afraid of the consequences of the relationship and lets the heroine fall . An explicit comparison ("like a fishing rod, hurled at a fish") is inserted into the description of the landscape. A large part of the love situation, about which the poem tells, is not explicitly named, but only indicated by the description of the landscape.
Features of hero poetry
Situations (tinai) and topics (turai)
The poetological tradition differentiates parallel to the love situations of the love poetry also for the hero poetry situations that are also called Tinai ( திணை tiṇai ). According to the Tolkappiyam, there are seven situations in war poetry. Of these, five each represent a phase of a campaign, from the stealing of cattle, which marks the trigger of the conflict, through invasion, siege and battle to the victorious end. One situation in love and hero poetry should correspond directly to each other, for example the Kurinchi type of love poetry corresponds to the Vetchi type of hero poetry, because the secret nightly meeting of lovers is like the stealing of cattle, which also takes place secretly and at night. In addition to these five situations, there are two other situations that have no direct reference to a campaign: Kanchi, which is about the transience of life, and Padan, the praise. They are associated with the two “abnormal” situations of love poetry (mismatched and unrequited love). Like the love situations, six of the seven situations in the hero poetry are each named after a flower. Unlike the Tolkappiyam , the later poetological textbook Purapporul Venbamalai has a classification into twelve situations. In contrast to love poetry, the Tinai concept in hero poetry is difficult to apply to actual poetry and seems to be more of an artificial category of poetological literature.
| Surname | flower | situation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vetchi | வெட்சி veṭci | Ixora coccinea | Cattle robbery |
| Vanchi | வஞ்சி vañci | Madhuca longifolia | Preparation and invasion |
| Ulinai | உழிஞை uḻiñai | Cardiospermum halicacabum | siege |
| Tumbai | தும்பை tumpai | Leucas aspera | open field battle |
| Vagai | வாகை vākai | Albizia lebbeck | victory |
| Kanchi | காஞ்சி kāñci | Trewia nudiflora | transience |
| Padan | பாடான் pāṭāṇ | - | Praise |
According to the poetological tradition, the situations (tinai) of heroic poetry are further subdivided into subjects called in Tamil Turai ( துறை tuṟai ). For example, the preparation for the campaign includes the theme of the feast that the king eats with his warriors on the eve of the battle. The Tolkappiyam lists 138, the Purapporul Venbamalai even 327 such subjects. In contrast to the Tinais , the Turai concept is better suited to describe the Sangam hero poetry, because the poets often resorted to a fixed repertoire of themes. As with love poetry, the so-called " colophones " form the interface between poetological tradition and poetry. They have been handed down with the text and indicate the situation (tinai) and theme (turai) for each poem, as well as the names of the poet and the sung patron.
Praise to the ruler
Most of the Puram poems are for the praise of a ruler. 279 of the 400 poems in the Purananuru anthology are about a ruler known by name. 43 different kings from the three great dynasties of Chera , Chola and Pandya and 48 princes from lesser dynasties are sung about. The anthology Paditruppattu is devoted exclusively to the Chera dynasty. The Puram works of the “ten chants” also represent the type of praise poem.
Typically, the poet extols his patron by describing in a hyperbolic way the size and wealth of his country, his military strength, and his kindness and generosity . The ideal king of hero poetry has a realm that extends to the Himalayas . He has a strong army with foot soldiers, war elephants, battle horses and chariots and impregnable fortresses with high walls and deep trenches. He terrifies his enemies and always rules benevolently and justly. Above all, the king has an almost endless generosity as a patron of the arts and showered the bards and musicians who come to his court with gold, elephants and chariots. A special sub-genre of the praise poem is the "direction" (atruppadai) , in which the poet shows another bard the way to his patron and praises his generosity. Poems of this type also appear in the Purananuru and Paditruppattu anthologies , but in particular five of the ten longer Pattuppattu poems ( Porunaratruppadai , Perumbanatruppadai , Sirubanatruppadai , Malaipadukadam and Tirumurugatruppadai ) belong to the signpost genre. In the Tirumurugatruppadai ("Guide to God Murugan") the genre is transferred to religious poetry: the believer, who is shown the way to God, takes the place of the bard looking for a patron.
An example of a praise poem of the Atruppadai type is the poem Purananuru 69, in which the Chola king Killi Valavan is sung about :
"
கையது கடனிறை யாழே மெய்யது
புரவல ரின்மையிற் பசியே யரையது
வேற்றிழை நுழைந்த வேர்நினை சிதாஅர்
ஓம்பி யுடுத்த வுயவற் பாண
பூட்கை யில்லோன் யாக்கை போலப்
பெரும்புல் லென்ற விரும்பே ரொக்கலை
வையக முழுதுடன் வளைஇப் பையென
பையென என்னை வினவுதி யாயின்
மன்னர் அடுகளி றுயவுங் கொடிகொள்
பாசறைக் குருதிப் பரப்பிற் கோட்டுமா
தொலைச்சிப் புலாக்களஞ் செய்த கலாஅத்
தானையன் பிறங்குநிலை பொருநர்க் கோக்கிய
யோனே யோனே யோனே வேல னொருநிலைப்
பகைப்புலம் படர்தலு முரியன் றகைத்தார்
ஒள்ளெரி புரையு முருகெழு பசும்பூட்
கிள்ளி வளவற் படர்குவை யாயின்
நெடுங்கடை நிற்றலு மிலையே கடும்பகற்
றேர்வீ சிருக்கை யார நோக்கி
நீயவற் கண்ட பின்றைப் பின்றைப்
பூவின் ஆடும்வண் டிமிராத்
தாமரை சூடா யாத லதனினு மிலையே."
Kaiyatu Katan Nirai Yale meyyatu
puravalar iṉmaiyiṉ paciyē araiyatu
VERR 'ilai nuḻainta Ver NANAI citāar
OMPI uṭutta uyaval PANA
pūṭkai ILLON yākkai Pola
Perum pulleṉṟa irum per okkalai
vaiyakam muḻutuṭaṉ vaḷaii paiyeṉa
Ennai viṉavuti Ayın mannaric
ATU Kalir' uyavum Kóti KOL pācaṟai
Kuruti parappiṉ kottu mā tolaicci
Pula Kalâm ceyta Kalâa tāṉaiyaṉ
piṟaṅku nilai māṭatt 'uṟantaiyōṉē
porunarkk' ōkkiya Velan oru nilai
Pakai pulam paṭartalum uriyaṉ takai tar
ol eri puraiyum uru kelu pacum PUN
killi vaḷavaṉ paṭarkuvai Ayın
Netum Kátai niṟṟalum ilaiyē Katum pakal
TER VIc 'irukkai ARA Nokki
nī Avan KANTA piṉṟai pūviṉ
ATUM vaṇṭ 'imirā tāmarai
cūṭāy ātal ataṉiṉum ilaiyē.
“In your hand is a lute that knows its purpose. There
is hunger in your stomach because you have no patron.
You wear rags around your hips, damp with sweat,
mended with all kinds of thread. Wretched bard!
You have many poor relatives
like the body of a man who has no strength
and you have roamed the whole world.
If you ask me in a low voice:
He has a military power that
slaughters elephants in a sea of blood in the flagged army camp
and leaves behind a field of meat.
He is the lord of Urandai with towering houses.
He raises his spear against his enemies,
and he is ready to invade the land of his enemies.
He wears an excellent wreath of flowers and gold ornaments the
color of glowing fire.
He is Killi Valavan. When you approach him,
you don't have to stand in front of his big gate. See enough
how he gives away chariots on the brightest day,
and after you have seen him, you will wear a [golden] lotus that
no bee buzzes around. "
War poetry
Numerous Puram poems are about war. Battle scenes are sometimes described in very drastic ways: warriors are slaughtered, war elephants slaughtered, the battlefield is covered with blood and is covered with severed limbs. After the battle, the demons celebrate a feast and feast on the corpses of the fallen. The war poems can at the same time be poems of praise for a ruler by depicting his victorious battles. In the Purananuru there is also a group of 108 poems (248–357) which are not dedicated to any ruler mentioned by name, but generally deal with war and death. These poems describe battle scenes, the bravery of the fallen warriors and the heroism that their wives also display. An example is the poem Purananuru 278, in which a mother fears that her son might have fled the battle:
"
நரம்பெழுந் துலறிய நிரம்பா மென்றோள்
முளரி மருங்கின் முதியோள் சிறுவன்
படையழிந்து மாறின னென்றுபலர் கூற
மண்டமர்க் குடைந்தன னாயி னுண்டவென்
முலையறுத் திடுவென் யானெனச் சினைஇக்
கொண்ட வாளொடு படுபிணம் பெயராச்
பெயராச் செங்களந் துழவுவோள் சிதைந்துவே
றாகிய படுமகன் கிடக்கை
காணூஉ ஈன்ற ஞான்றினும் பெரிதுவந் தனளே."
Naramp 'eḻunt' ulaṟiya nirampā MEN Tol
muḷari maruṅkiṉ mutiyōḷ ciṟuvaṉ
Patai aḻintu Mariñan eṉṟu palar Kura
Mant 'amarkk' uṭaintaṉaṉ Ayın Unta EN
Mulai aṟuttiṭuveṉ Yan ENA ciṉaii
KONTA vāḷoṭu PaTu Pinam peyarā
cem Kalâm tuḻavuvōḷ citaintu ver 'Akiya
PaTu MAKAN kiṭakkai kāṇūu
INRA ñāṉṟiṉum perit 'uvantaṉaḷē.
“The veins
are visible on her sunken shoulders, the hips of the old woman are pointed. When she heard the people say that
her boy had fallen
away from the army and fled, she was angry: 'If he broke in before the coming battle,
I will cut off the breast that suckled him.'
And with her sword drawn she combed the bloody battlefield
and turned body after body until she
saw her fallen son lying there , battered and disfigured .
She was more happy than the day she gave birth to him. "
Speculative poetry
In addition to the actual hero and war poetry, the Puram genre includes some speculative poems that deal with philosophical topics such as the transience of life. This type is only represented with a few poems in the Purananuru . One of these is probably the most frequently quoted Sangam poem Purananuru 192, which is usually reduced to its first line. In the overall context, the poem proves to be an eloquent description of the karma concept.
"
யாது மூரே யாவருங் கேளிர்
தீது நன்றும் பிறர்தர வாரா
நோதலுந் தணிதலு மவற்றோ ரன்ன
சாதலும் புதுவ தன்றே வாழ்தல்
இனிதென மகிழ்ந்தன்று மிலமே முனிவின்
இன்னா தென்றலு மிலமே மின்னொடு
வானந் தண்டுளி தலைஇ யானாது
யானாது கல்பொரு திரங்கு மல்லற்
பேர்யாற்று நீர்வழிப் படூஉம் புணைபோ
லாருயிர் முறைவழிப் படூஉ மென்பது
திறலோர் காட்சியிற் றெளிந்தன மாகலின்
மாட்சியிற் பெரியோரை யிகழ்த
லதனினு சிறியோரை சிறியோரை சிறியோரை மிலமே."
Yātum acid yāvarum kelir
tītum naṉṟum pirar tara Vara
nōtalum taṇitalum avaṟṟōr Anna
cātalum putuvat 'ANRE vāḻtal
Init' ENA makiḻntaṉṟum ilamē muṉiviṉ
Innat 'eṉṟalum ilamē miṉṉoṭu
vanam Tan TULI talaii Anatu
kal porut' iraṅkum Mallal per yāṟṟu
NIR Vali paṭūum Punai POL Ār uyir
Murai Vali paṭūum eṉpatu tiṟalōr
kāṭciyiṉ teḷintaṉam ākaliṉ māṭciyiṉ
periyōrai viyattalum ilamē
ciṟiyōrai ikaḻtal ataṉiṉum ilamē.
“Every place is a hometown, all people are relatives.
Good and bad do not come from others,
it is the same with pain and relief.
Death is nothing new. We are neither happy
that life is beautiful, nor do we say
in hate that it is bad. Like a raft that
drifts in the water of a raging stream,
which thunders against the rocks, while it flashes
and cool drops fall from the sky, so our soul drifts
through life, say the wise men.
Because we understand their point of view,
we do not admire the big
ones , and even less do we despise the little ones. "
Historical and cultural milieu
The Sangam literature reflects a situation in which the influence of the Sanskrit culture from northern India was still relatively small in southern India. Unlike the literatures of all other Indian languages, including the Dravidian sister languages of Tamil, Tamil literature is not based on the model of Sanskrit literature , but has its own origins. Despite a number of parallels, which can be seen as an expression of an all-Indian literary tradition, the Sangam literature with its completely own conventions clearly presents itself as independent. On the linguistic level, this is reflected in the still small proportion of Indo-Aryan loanwords in the Sangam Texts. The cultural influences from the north are also still relatively minor, if not entirely absent. There are isolated references to Sanskrit mythology and the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana , and Brahmins are also mentioned several times.
Sangam literature provides insight into the ancient Tamil religion before the spread of all-Indian Hinduism . Because of their secular nature, however, gods only appear marginally. Specific religious poems can only be found in the two late Sangam texts Tirumurugatruppadai and Paripadal . The god most frequently mentioned in Sangam literature is Murugan (also known as Sey , "the red"), who appears in love poetry as the god of the mountain dwellers and is associated with an exorcism ritual. The Murugan of the Sangam texts is still different from the god Skanda of the north Indian tradition, with whom he later merges. Elements of pan-Hindu Skanda mythology first appear in the later texts Tirumurugatruppadai and Paripadal . The god Vishnu or Krishna ( Mal , "the great", or Mayon , "the dark") only occurs in the later parts of the body. Shiva , later the most important god among the Tamils, is still largely absent in Sangam literature.
In terms of political history, Sangam literature describes a state in which Tamil Nadu was dominated by three great royal dynasties, the Chera , Chola and Pandya . The Chera ruled on the west coast of what is now Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the west. Their capital was Vanchi, the exact location of which is disputed. The heartland of the Chola was the Kaveri Delta with the capital Uraiyur . The Pandya ruled southern Tamil Nadu from Madurai . In addition to the three royal dynasties, there were a number of princes, each of whom ruled over a smaller area. Due to the lack of external sources, most of the rulers mentioned in the Sangam literature cannot be classified more precisely historically. Only for the Chera dynasty can a consistent genealogy be established using the information in the Paditruppattu .
Sangam literature is one of the most important sources for the early history of Tamil Nadu. One problem is the lack of external historical information about the period of the Sangam texts. It is often not clear to what extent the poems describe social realities and to what extent they follow purely poetic conventions. For example, attempts have been made to interpret the literary concept of the five landscapes as an expression of socio-economic events in the time of the Sangam poems, while other researchers are skeptical. It is also not clear whether the poets described contemporary conditions or, in a deliberately archaic way, a time far back in the past.
Aftermath
Literary aftermath
Following the Sangam literature, or at the same time as its latest works, the so-called Post-Sangam period is in the 5th and 6th centuries. The corpus with the name Padinenkilkkanakku ("eighteen minor works") or Kilkkanakku for short dates from this time . The majority of Kilkkanakku's works, including the famous Tirukkural , represent a new genre, namely that of so-called didactic literature, i.e. H. they deal with topics of ethics and morals. However, six of the texts in the Kilkkanakku corpus represent the genre of love poetry (agam) and one of hero poetry (puram) and thus continue the tradition of Sangam literature despite certain differences in language and style. With these works the tradition of the classic Tamil love and hero poetry finds its end. The so-called “five great epics ” also belong to the post-Sangam era , of which only three ( Silappadigaram , Manimegalai and Sivagasindamani ) have been preserved in their entirety. In the 7th century, Tamil literature experienced a major upheaval with the advent of religious bhakti poetry, which deals with devotional worship of God.
Even after the end of Sangam literature, its conventions continued to have an effect in later poetry. The Kovai genre, which emerged in the 8th century and remained popular until the 19th century, was based heavily on the conventions of classic love poetry. The same conventions live on in bhakti poetry, medieval religious texts such as the Kandapuranam, and the Tamil Ramayana adaptation, Kambaramayanam .
Manuscript transmission
The Sangam texts were transmitted over centuries in the form of palm leaf manuscripts . It was not until the 19th century that paper appeared as a writing material under Western influence . In the tropical climate of southern India, the palm leaf manuscripts only had a limited life expectancy and therefore had to be copied regularly. The manuscripts preserved today are no older than the 17th to 19th centuries. The oldest dated manuscript of a Sangam text dates from 1675. In the palm leaf manuscripts, the texts were written in continuous script without word separation ( scriptio continua ) and with almost no structuring layout elements . Through Sandhi processes, the words in the text change their sound shape when they meet, which sometimes makes it difficult to recognize the individual words. In addition, the palm leaf manuscripts use an old form of the Tamil script in which numerous letters are ambiguous. This made the manuscripts difficult to decipher, even for experienced readers. They served primarily as a memory aid for someone who had already been introduced to the text by a teacher.
The rediscovery of the Sangam literature
In the 19th century, sangam literature had largely been forgotten. According to the ideas of the time, the canon of Tamil literature included primarily religious literature and didactic works such as the Tirukkural . The Sangam literature was known only to a small circle of poet scholars. The only exception was the Tirumurugatruppadai , which enjoyed great popularity because of its religious significance and was transmitted as part of the Shivaitic canon. It has been preserved in numerous manuscript copies and was printed early (1834/35 at the latest).
The situation changed dramatically at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when men like CW Damodaram Pillai (1832–1901) and UV Swaminatha Iyer (1855–1942) began collecting manuscripts of the Sangam texts and using them as the basis for printed text editions to publish. UV Swaminatha Iyer was the most prolific of the editors and also left an extensive autobiography. Therefore, he was known as the rediscoverer of Sangam literature and was nicknamed Tamil Tatta ("Grandfather of Tamil"). The first printed edition of a Sangam text with the exception of the Tirumurugatruppadai was CW Damodaram Pillai's edition of the Kalittogai from 1887. The Agananuru was published as the last text of the Sangam corpus in 1923/24. The editors faced the challenge of having to reconstruct hard-to-understand texts from the imperfect spelling of the palm leaf manuscripts. There was no living tradition of exegesis, and only in a few cases were old commentaries available to explain the text. An important part of the editing process was therefore writing new comments to make the text accessible to the reader.
Modern reception
The rediscovery of sangam literature revolutionized ideas about Tamil literary history within a few decades. The rediscovery of the Sangam texts and the epics of Silappadigaram and Manimegalai triggered a process known as the “Tamil Renaissance”. This went hand in hand with the emergence of a new identity for the Tamils as Dravids . The background for this was provided by the discovery in the middle of the 19th century that the Dravidian languages spoken in South India are not related to the Indo-Aryan languages spoken in North India , which also includes Sanskrit. From this linguistic knowledge one inferred a national entity of the "Dravids", which differs from that of the " Aryans " of North India. Sangam literature, which is still largely free from the influences of North Indian culture, was now seen as the expression of a primeval Dravidian civilization. At the same time, because of the old age of Sangam literature, Tamil was now claimed the status of a “ classical language ” on a par with Sanskrit.
In the 20th century, the actors of the Dravidian Movement emphasized the importance of Sangam literature. The politician CN Annadurai (1909–1969) liked to quote from the Sangam literature. For him, for example, the famous line “Every place is a hometown, all people are relatives” ( யாதும் ஊரே யாரும் கேளிர் Yātum ūrē yāvarum kēḷir ) from the poem Purananuru 192 for the alleged egalitarianism of the Dravidian society. In the context of the civil war in Sri Lanka (1983-2009), however, militant Sri Lankan Tamils conjured up the courage and fighting spirit of the Tamils by quoting from ancient Tamil hero poetry, for example the poem Purananuru 279, which describes how a mother is who has already lost her brother and her husband in battle, most recently sending her youngest son to the battlefield. To this day, Sangam literature plays an important role in the cultural awareness of the Tamils, which is primarily defined by the Tamil language and its old age. The prestige success was correspondingly great when the Indian government officially designated Tamil as a classical language in 2004 (in addition to Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu , Kannada , Malayalam and Oriya are now recognized as classical languages of India). An example of the political instrumentalization of the classic status of Tamil is the World Classical Tamil Conference , which the then head of government of the state of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi , organized in 2010 as a large mass spectacle.
Many modern Tamil lyric poets have drawn inspiration from Sangam literature. One example is the poet Bharathidasan (1891–1964), who was influenced by the Dravdian movement, and who adopts numerous themes and motifs from Sangam poetry in his work and uses the classical meter. The Tamil film , too, occasionally makes use of Sangam literature in the lyrics of its film songs. The famous poem Kurundogai 40 ("... like red earth and pouring rain / our hearts are united in love") is featured in the films Dharma Yuddham (1979), Vellai Roja (1982), Iruvar (1997), Chithiram Pesuthadi, among others (2006) and Sillunu Oru Kaadhal (2006) cited.
Outside the Tamil area, the English translations by the Indian-American Indologist and poet AK Ramanujan ( The Interior Landscape, 1967 and Poems of Love and War, 1985) have made Sangam literature known. Translations into German have not yet been published.
literature
- George L. Hart: The Poems of Ancient Tamil. Their Milieu and their Sanskrit Counterparts . University of California Press, Berkley, Calif. 1975, ISBN 0-520-02672-1 .
- K. Kailasapathy: Tamil Heroic Poetry . Oxford University Press, London 1968.
- John R. Marr: The Eight Anthologies. A Study in Early Tamil Literature. Institute of Asian Studies, Madras 1985.
- AK Ramanujan: The Interior Landscape. Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology . Indiana University Press, Bloomington, London, 1967.
- AK Ramanujan: Poems of Love and War. From the Eight Anthologies and "the Ten Long Poems" of Classical Tamil . Columbia University Press, New York 1985, ISBN 0-231-05106-9 .
- Eva Wilden: Literary Techniques in Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry. The Kuṟuntokai (Contributions to the Knowledge of South Asian Languages and Literatures; Vol. 15). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-447-05335-6 (plus habilitation thesis, University of Hamburg 2002)
- Eva Wilden: Manuscript, Print and Memory. Relics of the Caṅkam in Tamilnadu (Studies in Manuscript Cultures; Vol. 3). De Gruyter, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-034089-1 .
- Kamil Zvelebil: The Smile of Murugan. On Tamil Literature of South India . Brill, Leiden 1973.
- Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature ( A History of Indian Literature ; Vol. 10.1). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1974, ISBN 3-447-01582-9 .
- Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature ( Handbook of Oriental Studies / Dept. 2: India, Vol. 2). Brill, Leiden 1975, ISBN 90-04-04190-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ In this article, Tamil terms are reproduced in the running text in a simplified transcription based on pronunciation (see Wikipedia: Naming Conventions / India / Tamil ). Original terms in brackets and quotations are in Tamil script and in scientific transliteration, respectively. The transliteration is based on the Tamil script. In order to infer the pronunciation from it, a knowledge of certain rules is necessary (see pronunciation of Tamil ).
- ^ University of Madras: Tamil Lexicon. Madras, 1924–1936, keyword “ சங்கம்² caṅkam ”. See also the meaning of sangha in the Buddhist and Jain context.
- ^ Eva Wilden: Manuscript, Print and Memory. Relics of the Caṅkam in Tamilnadu, Berlin, Munich, Boston: De Gruyter 2014, pp. 216–295.
- ↑ Kamil Zvelebil: The Smile of Murugan. On Tamil Literature of South India, Leiden: Brill, 1973, pp. 47-49.
- ↑ Sumathi Ramaswamy: The Lost Land of Lemuria. Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, pp. 6-7. This is different, however, in the case of John R. Marr: The Eight Anthologies, Madras: Institute of Asian Studies, 1985, p. 6.
- ↑ Cf. Zvelebil 1973, p. 49, who rejects the term “Sangam literature”.
- ^ KA Nilakantha Sastri: A History of South India. From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, 3rd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1966, pp. 115-145.
- ↑ This date may be A. Represented by the Central Institute for Classical Tamil founded by the Indian government (cf. archive link ( memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).
- ^ Herman Tieken: Kāvya in South India. Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry, Groningen: Forsten, 2001. For criticism of Tieken's controversial study, see Eva Wilden: “Towards an Internal Chronology of Old Tamil Caṅkam Literature Or How to Trace the Laws of a Poetic Universe”, in: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 46 (2002), pp. 105-134 and George L. Hart: "Review of Kāvya in South India: Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry by Herman Tieken", in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 124.1 (2004), p. 180 –184 as well as Tieken's reply in Herman Tieken: "A Propos Three Recent Publications on the Question of the Dating of Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry", in: Asiatische Studien / Études asiatiques 62 (2008), pp. 575–605.
- ↑ S. Vaiyapuri Pillai: History of Tamil Language and Literature, Madras: New Century Book House, 1956, pp 16-21.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, p. 8. Takanobu Takahashi comes to largely similar results for the Agam anthologies: Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics, Leiden, New York, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1995, pp. 229–234. Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature, Leiden, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1975.
- ↑ K. Kailasapathy: Tamil Heroic Poetry, London: Oxford University Press, 1968, pp. 135-186.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, pp. 413–414.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, pp. 413–414.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, pp. 14-16.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1975, p. 80.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1975, pp. 8-9.
- ↑ Thomas Lehmann: "Old Tamil", in: Sanford B. Steever (Ed.): The Dravidian Languages, London: Routledge, 1998, pp. 75–99, here p. 75.
- ↑ Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1974, p. 31.
- ↑ Kalittogai 45.8–9, example based on Thomas Lehmann: Grammatik des Alttamil, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1994, p. 158.
- ↑ George L. Hart: "Syntax and Perspective in Tamil and Sanskrit Classical Poetry", in: Jean-Luc Chevillard and Eva Wilden (eds.): South Indian Horizons. Felicitation Volume for François Gros, Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry, École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2004, pp. 219–227.
- ↑ a b c Quoted from A Critical Edition and an Annotated Translation of the Kuṟuntokai, ed. by Eva Wilden, 3 volumes, Pondicherry / Chennai: École Française d'Extrême-Orient / Tamilmann Patippakam, 2010.
- ^ Eva Wilden: Literary Techniques in Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry. The Kuṟuntokai, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006, pp. 264–266.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1974, pp. 32-33.
- ↑ Takanobu Takahashi: Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics, Leiden, New York, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1995, pp. 15-37.
- ↑ Eva Wilden: "canonization of Classical Tamil text in the Mirror of the Poetological Commentaries", in: Eva Wilder (eds.): Between Preservation and Recreation: Tamil Traditions of Commentary. Proceedings of a Workshop in Honor of TV Gopal Iyer, Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry / École Française d'Extrême Orient, 2009, pp. 145–165.
- ↑ Takahashi 1995, pp. 224-227.
- ^ University of Madras: Tamil Lexicon. Madras, 1924–1936, keywords “ அகம்¹ akam ” and “ புறம்¹ puṟam ”.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1974, p. 13.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1973, pp. 90-91.
- ↑ Kailasapathy 1968, pp. 15-16.
- ↑ Quoted from Eṭṭut tokaiyuḷ oṉṟākiya Akanāṉūṟu. Kaḷiṟṟiyāṉai niṟai, ed. by Kasiviswanathan Chettiar, Tirunelvēli, Ceṉṉai: Tirunelvēlit Teṉṉintiya Caivacittānta Nūrpatippukkaḻakam, 1968.
- ↑ a b c d Quoted from Eṭṭuttokaiyuḷ eṭṭāvatākiya Puṟanāṉūṟu mūlamum uraiyum, ed. by UV Swaminatha Iyer, 6th edition, Ceṉṉai: Kapīr Accukkūṭam, 1963.
- ↑ For statistics of the protagonists using the example of Kurundogai, see Wilden 2006, p. 142.
- ^ After Kamil Zvelebil: Literary Conventions in Akam Poetry, Madras: Institute of Asian Studies, 1986.
- ↑ On the term, see Wilden 2006, p. 132.
- ↑ Wilden 2006, pp. 158–186.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1973, pp. 85-110.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1973, p. 92.
- ↑ On this poem see Herman Tieken: “The Weaver Bird in Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry: A Critical Essay on the Method of Translating Classical Tamil Poetry”, in: Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 21 (1997), pp. 293-319, here Pp. 315-317 and Eva Wilden: “Kuṟuntokai 40. An Approach to a Classical Tamil Poem”, in: Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 22 (1999), pp. 215–250, here pp. 239–247.
- ↑ 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, pp. 244-248.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1973, pp. 103-106, Marr 1985, pp. 31-52.
- ↑ Kailasapathy 1968, p. 189.
- ↑ Kailasapathy 1968, pp. 191–197.
- ↑ Kailasapathy 1968, p. 187.
- ↑ Kailasapathy 1968, p. 193.
- ↑ Kailasapathy 1968, pp. 208-224.
- ↑ Kailasapathy 1968, pp. 238-243.
- ↑ Kailasapathy 1968, pp. 23-26.
- ↑ George L. Hart: The Poems of Ancient Tamil. Their Milieu and their Sanskrit Counterparts, Berkley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975, p. 68.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1973, pp. 1-3.
- ↑ George L. Hart: The Relation Between Tamil and Classical Sanskrit Literature, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1976, p. 317.
- ↑ Hart 1975, pp. 55-63.
- ↑ Hart 1975, pp. 51-55.
- ↑ Wilden 2013, pp. 161–192.
- ↑ Fred W. Clothey: The Many Faces of Murukan. The History and Meaning of a South Indian God, The Hague, Mouton: 1978, pp. 64-68.
- ↑ Eva Wilden: Songs of devotion and amazement. Poems of the early Tamil Bhakti, Berlin: Verlag der Weltreligionen, 2013, pp. 67–80.
- ↑ Wilden 2013, p. 25.
- ↑ Nilakanta Sastri 1966, pp. 115-145.
- ↑ K. Sivathamby: “Early South Indian Society and Economy: The Tinai Concept”, in: Social Scientist 3.5 (1974), pp. 20-37.
- ↑ Wilden 2006, p. 21, fn. 48.
- ↑ Tieken 2001, p. 128.
- ↑ For an example of Sangam conventions in a Kovai text of the 19th century, see Sascha Ebeling: Colonizing the Realm of Words. The Transformation of Tamil Literary Culture in Nineteenth-Century South India, Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010, pp. 90-101.
- ↑ For Bhakti literature see Friedhelm Hardy: Viraha-Bhakti. The Early History of Kṛṣṇa Devotion in South India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983, for Kandapuranam see Kamil Zvelebil: Tiru Murugan, Madras: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1981, pp. 40-46, for Kambaramayanam see AK Ramanujan: “ Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation ”, in: Paula Richman (Ed.): Many Rāmāyaṇas. The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. 22–49, here p. 43.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, pp. 360–361.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, p. 39.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, pp. 367–368.
- ↑ AR Venkatachalapathy: "The Making of a Canon. Literature in Colonial Tamilnadu ”, in: In Those Days There Was No Coffee. Writings in Cultural History, New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2006, pp. 89–113, here pp. 90–96.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, p. 368.
- ↑ Wilden 2014, p. 386.
- ↑ K. Nambi Arooran: Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism. 1905-1944, Madurai 1980, p. 12.
- ↑ Sumathi Ramaswamy: Passions of the Tongue. Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891-1970, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1997, pp. 34-46.
- ↑ Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam: Tamil. Language as a political symbol, Wiesbaden 1984, p. 73.
- ↑ Hellmann-Rajanayagam 1984, p. 166.
- ↑ On the debate on the classical languages see AR Venkatachalapathy: “The 'Classical' Language Issue”, in: Economic and Political Weekly 44.2 (2009), pp. 13-15.
- ↑ MSS Pandian: "The political uses of Tamil" , in: The Indian Express, June 25, 2010.
- ↑ Zvelebil 1974, p. 71.
- ↑ Post "Red Earth and Pouring Rain - Kurunthokai 40" by Palaniappan Vairam in the Karka Nirka blog , June 10, 2010. Cf. the film songs Oru Thanga Rathathil from Dharma Yuddham , Solai Poovil Maalai Thendral from Vellai Roja , Narumugaye from Iruvar and Munbe Vaa from Sillunu Oru Kaadhal on YouTube .
- ↑ Guillermo Rodríguez: When Mirrors are Windows. A View of AK Ramanujan's Poetics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 364–366.
