Five Great Epics
Topics in Tamil literature | ||
---|---|---|
Sangam Literature | ||
Five Great Epics | ||
Silappatikaram |
Manimekalai | |
Civaka Cintamani |
Valayapathi | |
Kundalakesi | ||
The Five Minor Epics | ||
Neelakesi | Culamani | |
Naga Kumara Kaviyam | Udayana Kumara Kaviyam | |
Yashodhara Kaviyam | ||
Bhakti Literature | ||
Naalayira Divya Prabandham | Kamba Ramayanam
| |
Tevaram | Tirumurai | |
Tamil people
| ||
Sangam | Sangam landscape | |
Tamil history from Sangam literature |
Ancient Tamil music | |
edit |
The Five Great Epics (
Three of the five great epics of Tamil literature are attributed to
These five epics were written over a period of 5th to 10th century CE and act and provide historical information about the society, religions, culture and academic life of
Collection
No | Name | Author | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Cilappatikāram
|
Ilango Adigal (tamil pulavar) | 5th or 6th century CE[6][7][8] |
2 | Manimekalai | Sīthalai Sāttanār (tamil pulavar)
|
after Cilappatikaram, 6th or 7th century[9] |
3 | Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi | Tirutakkatevar (tamil pulavar) | early 10th century[10] |
4 | Valayapathi | An unknown pulavar | 10th century[11] |
5 | Kundalakesi | Nadakuthanar | c. 10th century[12] |
Theme and contents
Cilappatikāram
Cilappatikāram also referred to as Silappathikaram or Silappatikaram, is the earliest Tamil epic. It is a poem of 5,730 lines in almost entirely akaval (aciriyam) meter and is a tragic love story of a wealthy couple, Kannaki and her husband Kovalan.
Manimekalai
Manimekalai, also spelled Manimekhalai or Manimegalai, Manimekalai, is a Tamil epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Cittalaic Cātaṉār probably around the 6th century. It is a Buddhist "anti-love" sequel to the
Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi
Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi, an epic of the 10th century CE was written by Thiruthakka Thevar, a
Kundalakesi
The Kundalakesi epic has partially survived into the modern age in fragments, such as in commentaries written centuries later. From these fragments, it appears to be a tragic love story about a Hindu[22] or Jain[23] girl of merchant caste named Kundalakesi who falls in love with Kalan – a Buddhist criminal on a death sentence.[24] The girl's rich merchant father gets the criminal pardoned and freed, the girl marries him. Over time, their love fades and they start irritating each other. During an argument, Kundalakesi reminds him of his criminal past which angers Kalan. A few days later, he invites her to a hike up a hill.[24] When they reach the top, he tells her that he will now kill her. The wife requests that he let circum-ambulate him – her husband – three times like a god, before her death and he agrees. When she is behind him, she pushes her husband over into the valley below and kills him. She feels remorse for her actions and pines for the boy she once fell in love with and married. She meets teachers of various religious traditions, adopts Buddhism, renounces and becomes a nun, then achieves Nirvana.[22][24]
Vaḷaiyāpati
Vaḷaiyāpati is another lost work, that has survived in fragments as quoted in other Tamil texts. There is no actual story for Vaḷaiyāpati or Valayapathi. The story that is popularly spread in books and internet has no connection with the poem or its core moral. Through some misinterpreted oral and written traditions Vaḷaiyāpati poem got a story and no one has challenged it yet. According, to the mytical story - It is a story of a father known as Navakodi Narayanan who has two wives, abandons his second wife from lower caste who gives birth to their son, and the son grows up and seeks his real father.[25] The available content and the commentaries that mention Valayapathi, suggest that it was partly a jain text that disputed and criticized other Indian religions,[26] that it supported the ideologies found in early Jainism, such as asceticism, horrors at meat consumption, and monastic aversion to women.[11] It is therefore "almost certain" to be a Jain epic, written by a Jain ascetic, states Kamil Zvelebil – a Tamil literature scholar.[11] However, the substantial sections on Shaivism have led to uncertainty.[11]
Style
The great Tamil commentator Atiyarkkunallar (12th–13th century CE) wrote that poems were of two kinds – Col thodar nilai ceyyuḷ (சொல் தொடர் நிலை செய்யுள்) or poems connected by virtue of their formal properties and Poruḷ toṭar nilai ceyyuḷ (பொருள் தொடர் நிலை செய்யுள்) or poems connected by virtue of content that forms a unity.
Each one of these epics have long cantos, like in Cilappatikāram, which has 30 referred as monologues sung by any character in the story or by an outsider as his own monologue related to the dialogues he has known or witnessed.[29] It has 25 cantos composed in akaval meter, used in most poems in Sangam literature. The alternative for this meter is called aicirucappu (verse of teachers) associated with verse composed in learned circles.[30] Akaval is a derived form of verb akavu which means "to call" or "beckon". Cilappatikāram is an example of the claim that folk songs institutionalised literary culture with the best-maintained cultures root back to folk origin.[30] Manimekalai is an epic in ahaval metre and is noted for its simple and elegant style of description of natural scenery.[31] Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi is one of the earliest works of Tamil literature in long verses called virutha pa.[5]
Five minor Tamil epics
Similar to the five great epics, Tamil literary tradition classifies five more works as Ainchirukappiyangal (Tamil: ஐஞ்சிறுகாப்பியங்கள்) or five minor epics. The five lesser Tamil epics are Neelakesi, Naga kumara kaviyam, Udhyana kumara Kaviyam, Yasodhara Kaviyam and Culamani.[1][32]
Historiography
U. V. Swaminatha Iyer (1855–1942 CE) resurrected the first three epics from neglect and wanton destruction of centuries.[33] He reprinted the literature present in the palm leaf form to paper books.[34] Ramaswami Mudaliar, a Tamil scholar first gave him the palm leaves of Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi to study.[33] Swaminatha Iyer faced difficulties in interpretation, missing leaves, textual errors and unfamiliar terms.[33] He set for journeys to remote villages in search of the manuscripts. After years of toil, he published Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi in book form in 1887 CE followed by Cilappatikāram in 1892 CE and Manimekalai in 1898 CE.[33] Along with the text, he added much commentary and explanatory notes of terms, textual variations and context.[33]
Criticism and comparison
"After the last line of a poem, nothing follows except literary criticism," observes Iḷaṅkō in Cilappatikāram. The postscript invites readers to review the work. the five poems are criticized for being unfamiliar and difficult to understand. To some critics, Maṇimēkalai is more interesting than Cilappatikāram, but in literary evaluation, it seems inferior.[19] The story of Maṇimēkalai with all its superficial elements seems to be of lesser interest to the author whose aim was pointed toward spread of Buddhism.[19] In the former, ethics and religious are artistic, while in the latter reverse is the case. Maṇimēkalai criticizes Jainism and preaches the ideals of Buddhism, and human interest is diluted in supernatural features. The narration in akaval meter moves on in Maṇimēkalai without the relief of any lyric, which are the main features of Cilappatikāram.[24] Maṇimēkalai in puritan terms is not an epic poem, but a grave disquisition on philosophy.[35]
There are effusions in Cilappatikāram in the form of a song or a dance, which does not go well with the Western audience as they are assessed to be inspired on the spur of the moment.[36] Calcutta review claims that the three works on a whole have no plot and insufficient length characterization for an epic genre.[35] They believe plot of Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi is monotonous and deficient in variety in strength and character and does not stand the quality of an epic.[35]
Popular culture
There have been multiple movies based on Silappathikaram. The most famous is the portrayal of Kannagi by actress Kannamba in the 1942 Tamil movie
Maṇimēkalai has been shot as a teleserial in Doordarshan.[citation needed]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Mukherjee 1999, p. 277.
- ^ Zvelebil 1992, p. 73.
- ^ Purnalingam Pillai 1994, p. 115.
- ^ Das 2005, p. 80.
- ^ a b Datta 2004, p. 720.
- ^ JSTOR 3250226.
- ^ Zvelebil 1973, pp. 174–176.
- ^ Parthasarathy 1993, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Zvelebil 1974, pp. 140–142.
- ^ a b c d Zvelebil 1974, pp. 136–137.
- ^ a b c d Zvelebil 1992, pp. 73–75.
- ^ Zvelebil 1992, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Parthasarathy 1993, pp. 1–6, backpage.
- ^ a b c d e f g Parthasarathy 1993, pp. 2–5.
- ISBN 90-04-04926-6.
- ^ Zvelebil 1974, pp. 140–141.
- ^ Alain Danielou (Translator) 1993.
- ^ a b c Alain Danielou (Translator) 1993, pp. xxi–xxiv.
- ^ a b c d e Zvelebil 1974, p. 141.
- ^ David Shulman 2016, pp. 176–182.
- ^ David Shulman 2016, pp. 176–178.
- ^ a b Zvelebil 1992, p. 71.
- ^ Zvelebil 1992, p. 70.
- ^ a b c d Zvelebil 1974, p. 142.
- ^ Zvelebil 1992, pp. 73–74.
- ^ Purnalingam Pillai 1994, pp. 132–134.
- ^ a b c Zvelebil 1974, p. 130.
- ^ Purnalingam Pillai 1904, p. 69.
- ^ Zvelebil 1974, p. 131.
- ^ a b Pollock 2003, p. 295.
- ^ Purnalingam Pillai 1904, p. 68.
- ^ Parmeshwaranand 2001, p. 1151.
- ^ a b c d e Lal 2001, pp. 4255–4256.
- ^ Purnalingam Pillai 1994, p. 194.
- ^ a b c University of Calcutta 1906, pp. 426–427
- ^ Panicker 2003, p. 7.
- ^ "Kannagi (1942) – Overview – MSN Movies". Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
References
- Das, Sisir Kumar (2005). A history of Indian literature, 500–1399: from courtly to the popular. chennai: Sāhitya Akādemī. ISBN 81-260-2171-3.
- Datta, Amaresh (2004). The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature (Volume One) (A to Devo), Volume 1. New Delhi: Sāhitya Akādemī. ISBN 9788126018031.
- Datta, Amaresh; Sāhitya Akādemī (2005). The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature (Volume Two) (Devraj To Jyoti), Volume 2. New Delhi: Sāhitya Akādemī. ISBN 81-260-1194-7.
- Garg, Gaṅgā Rām (1992). Encyclopaedia of the Hindu world, Volume 1. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 81-7022-374-1.
- Lal, Mohan (2001). The Encyclopaedia Of Indian Literature (Volume Five) (Sasay To Zorgot), Volume 5. New Delhi: Sāhitya Akādemī. ISBN 81-260-1221-8.
- Mukherjee, Sujit (1999). A Dictionary of Indian Literature: Beginnings-1850. New Delhi: Orient Longman Limited. ISBN 81-250-1453-5.
- Murthy, K. Krishna (1987). Glimpses of art, architecture, and Buddhist literature in ancient India. Delhi: Abhinav Publications. ISBN 81-7017-226-8.
- Manimekhalai: the dancer with the magic bowl, translated by Alain Danielou, Penguin Books, 1993, ISBN 9780811210980
- Nadarajah, Devapoopathy (1994). Love in Sanskrit and Tamil literature: a study of characters and nature, 200 B.C. to 500 A.D. Delhi: Motilal Banaridass Publishers Private Limited. ISBN 81-208-1215-8.
- Panicker, K. Ayyappa (2003). A Primer of Tamil Literature. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. ISBN 81-207-2502-6.
- Purnalingam Pillai, M. S. (1904). A Primer of Tamil Literature. Madras: Ananda Press.
- Purnalingam Pillai, M. S. (1994). Tamil Literature. Asian Educational Services. p. 115. ISBN 81-206-0955-7.
- Richman, Paula (2003). "Cīttalai Cāttanār, Manimekhalai". In Potter, Karl H. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume IX: Buddhist philosophy from 350 to 600 A.D. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 457–462, with notes on 610–612.
- Pollock, Sheldon I. (2003). Literary cultures in history: reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22821-9.
- Parthasarathy, R. (1993), The Cilappatikaram of Ilanko Atikal: An Epic of South India, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-07849-8
- Sen, Sailendra Nath (1988). Ancient Indian History and Civilization. New Age International(P) Limited Publishers. ISBN 81-224-1198-3.
- Parmeshwaranand, Swami (2001). Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Purāṇas. Sarup & Sons. ISBN 81-7625-226-3.
- David Shulman (2016). Tamil: A Biography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-97465-4.
- Takanobu Takahashi (1995). Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics. BRILL Academic. ISBN 90-04-10042-3.
- Eva Maria Wilden (2014). Manuscript, Print and Memory: Relics of the Cankam in Tamilnadu. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-035276-4.
- Zvelebil, Kamil (1973). The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-03591-5.
- ISBN 3-447-01582-9.
- ISBN 978-90-04-09365-2.