Anthology of Poems with Commentary15/05/2012 15:16ContentsPre-Marital Stage2First Meeting of Lovers2The Second Meeting of Lovers on the Next Day at the Same Place8The Heros Meeting with Heroine with the Aid of His Friend9The Maid Learning of the Love Affair of the Heroine15Union through the Aid of the Maid20Day-tryst31Obstacles to Day Tryst33Night Tryst34Obstacles to Night Tryst36The heroine and the Maid Talking to Each Other, Desiring Marriage37The Maid Urging the Hero to Marry the Heroine38The Heros Temporary Absence from the Heroine40The Hero Separating from the Heroine in Pursuit of Wealth for Marriage42

Pre-Marital StageFirst Meeting of LoversThere are several poems depicting the first meeting of lovers'. As an example, we may cite Ak. 110.If mother finds out, let her.And if this lovely little street with its loose mouths hears, let it.Before the god at Pular with swift whirlpools,l swear this is all that happened.In the grove, I and my garlanded friends played in the sea,made little houses and heaped up play rice.Then we were resting a bit, waiting for our tiredness to go, when a man came up and said,"Innocent girl; with round, soft arms as supple as bamboo!The light of the sun has faded and I am very tired.Would there be anything wrong if I ate a guest's mealon a soft, open leaf,and then stayed in your noisy little villageSeeing him, we lowered our faces,and, hiding ourselves, we politely replied.,'This food is not for you,It is moist fish, eaten only by low people."Then suddenly Someone said,"There, can't we see the boats coming inwith their tall, waving banners?At that we kicked over our sand houses with our feet,of all those who were leaving,he looked straight at me and said,"O you who have the lovely face, May I go?so I felt I had been ruined.I answered, "You mayand he, staring at me all the while,stood tall holding the staff of his chariot.Still it seems to be before my eyes. (tr. G. Hart. PTA, p. 120)According to the poem: (1) The hero and the heroine meet accidentally, by chance, and not destiny. (2) Though. IA 2 and IA C 2 say, both he and she, not attended by others, meet, there are some others' (usually, her friends) in company with her at the meeting place. (3) Contrary to the opinion of some grammarians, the two, skipping over the stages of doubt and ascertainment are attracted to each other from the very beginning. (4) A sexual physical union does not take place at the meeting.These features are common to poems depicting the first meeting. In Ak. 48, her friend (toli) says, When we in the company of our friends went to gather venkai flowers, there arose a hue and cry like Tiger, Tiger. At the moment a certain gentleman ...stood querying us about an animal ....So saying he got down from his chariot and went away staring incessantly on the lady-love just at night-fall. The lady-love gazed on him till his chariot was out of sight and exclaimed. Ah. this is a man (tr. Varadaraja Iyer. TP VI. P. 186). In this poem, all fair features are described. In Ak. 82 also, those features are found; therein the heroine tells her friend, Many saw himas he stood.near the entrance of the field of ripe millet and asked which way the elephant he was fighting had gone.Friend, of all those who saw him,why am I the only one who,lying on my bed in the night with its difficult darkness,my eyes streaming tearsfeel my arms grow thin? (tr. G Hart, PTA, p. 117).Thus in actual poetry, first the two meet by chance; second, without the intervening stages of doubt and ascertainment, they are fascinated with each other, in other word, they are mentally united. The early poets seem to have been fond of motif of falling in love at first sight, but the later poets and grammarians prefer more dramatic encounters of lovers like ( kal 39). Third, the hero parts from the heroine without having had sexual intercourse with her on the first day, which is quite contrary to what Nakk, Ilam., Nacc., and Nampi maintain.We shall now consult some poems which are said by commentators to depict First Meeting. According to Ilam. (Comm. on TP 98), Kur. 40 is a poem in which, when the two meet for the first time and before they have a sexual anion, the hero says, What are my mother and your mother to one another, and how are my father and your father related? How do I and you know each other? The motif here is obvious from the following part of the poem, Our hearts filled with love are themselves mingled as red earth and pouring rain; that is the wonder of love. The simile, red earth and pouring rain are mingled" implies a sexual image, so we may guess that intercourse has taken place. However, there is nothing in the poem itself to signify a connection with the first meeting; we may regard it as another kind of meeting, e.g. the second meeting, or the meeting with the aid of the friend. Nar. 8, in which the love-stricken hero admires the heroine saying, Whose daughter is she? Long Live her father! May the mother who yielded her prosper like Tonti ", is said by a colophon writer to represent First Meeting, though this poem makes no mention of their first meeting.The traditional interpretations of those poems, however, do not agree with what is depicted by the actual poems quoted above where lovers do not tell each other of their love. Even though the commentators and later scholastics derived their ideas of the main situation, First Meeting, from sources other than the earliest poetry it is evident that they neglected a group of poems which explicitly detail the first meeting of lovers.Apart from the physical anion at the first meeting, many poets suggest that a sexual union has taken place even in the pre-marital stage by the following expressionsa) the hero holding the heroine's shoulders (kur 272; kur. 36. 50. 101. 193; Ak. 102; kur. 268)b) the hero embracing the heroine c) the hero consuming/enjoying the heroine's virgin beauty d) the heroine embracing the heros chest.Most poems except those of type (d) imply that the embrace is the first one (i.e. the first, sexual union). In Kur. 25. for example, the heroine recounts how she fears her lover's infidelity.Only the thief was there, no one else.And if he should lie, what can I do?There was onlya thin-legged heron standingon legs yellow as millet stemsand looking for lampreysin the running water'when he took me."(tr. A. K. Ramanujan, IL p. 30)But the poem does not hint when (for example, at the first meeting, or at the second meeting, or even later, at the meeting with the aid of the maid) the sexual union has occurred. Other poems referring to the first union handle it in the same way as Kur 25. Kur 8, quite exceptionally, tells us that the union took place when the couple met with the aid of the heroine's friend, who says to the hero. "She (the heroine) accepted my word which conveyed what you had said. And [as a result] she lost her fresh beauty"Thus there are two groups of poetry: one wherein the lovers encounter by chance, their being attracted to each other, and their parting without uttering anything about their love, are explicitly described; the other wherein a physical, sexual (probably the first) union which occurs at some point during the pre-marital stage is implied. Colophon writers and erudite scholiasts mix these two categories and speak as though both love events have occurred on the occasion of the first meeting: but what they is at variance with what the actual poems explicitly tell us.Assurance Given by the Hero to the Heroine Fearing SeparationKur. 40 is seen as an example of the theme, which seems to follow the colophon of the poem, what he said to her, after their physical union on the first meeting, when she was afraid he would leave her.Missing page 74Heroines confidence in heroMissing page 75'The Hero Feeling Joy in Love at the Parting from the Heroine after the First MeetingIn some poems, such as Kur 62, 70, and 119, the hero tells of his joy in love either to himself or to his heart or to his friend. However, these poems reveal so little about their situation. The Hero's Sorrow on Separation from the Heroine after the First MeetingIn many poems, the hero reveals his lovesickness (Kur. 128, 129, 156, 184, 206. Nar, 95. 160, 319; .Ak. 130, 140; among others). In Nar. 319 for example, the hero's sleeplessness is described. In the midnight of deluding darkness, I think of embracing the lovely breasts of the girl who is so young and innocent with broad, soft, and bamboo-like arms, and even when the fish sleep I cannot dose my eyes.Missing page 79

The Second Meeting of Lovers on the Next Day at the Same Place There are only a few poems which are said to incorporate the theme. Kur. 62, Nar 39, 155 and Ain 197 represent this theme.In Ain 197, the hero says:She stands with her head bowed,her hair conceals the face,the tinkle of her shining bangles scares away the crabs. As the lonely evening vanishes,she will offer her breasts of virgin beauty to meThe poem describes lovers standing still on the seashore in the lonely evening. The meeting does not seem to be their first; nor do they seem to have met several times, judging from her appearance of shyness and the fact that she does not utter a single word. If the meeting is neither the first nor the one which has been repeated several times, should we regard it as the second? The poem does not mention this.Ain 197 is a better example of this theme than the other three, although, as already mentioned, Kur 62 is an 'unauthentic' example of a specific situation . Thus we may say that there is no poem which describes explicitly the second meeting.

The Heros Meeting with Heroine with the Aid of His FriendThere is no poem which illustrates this theme in the narrowest sense, that is union through the aid of the friend; so we shall first investigate the other phases of the theme (i.e. the other four, except phase IV of our classification), and we shall then consider the historical development of the theme.The friend asking the hero about the matter when the lovesick hero approaches himThere is no example of the first phase in the poems. The friend is only the 'addresser' (speaker) in very few of the poems, According to IAC, Kur 129 is a case in which the hero replies to an inquiry from his friend:playmate of young children,who makes them glad;friend of poets!Listen:a small forehead shining near black hair,like the young, white,crescent moonappearing on the eighth day,amidst the vast ocean,has bound me,like an elephant freshly caught.(tr. M. S. Piliai and D. E. Ludden, KT, p. 52)Here the hero tells his friend plainly how he is pining away from love. Though the poem itself does not refer to the friend's inquiry, we may regard the situation as presented in the poem as the hero's reply to his friend (as explained by Nakkirar). However, even though we may agree, and although this is one of the most crucial examples in which the hero tells his friend of his distress in love, we cannot agree that the poem depicts a preliminary event leading to the union achieved with the aid of the friend. In Kur156, the lovesick hero, wanting to be cured says, O Brahmin's son, O son of a Brahmin, in your unwritten learning, is there any medicine to re-unite the separated? Here a Brahmin's son traditionally considered to be the hero's friend. However, there is nothing in the poem to prove it. It may be probable that the hero just asks a young Brahmin, who is supposed to be wise and learned for a cure for lovesickness.The friend's attempts to dissuade the hero and the latter's rejection of them There are poems which refer to this sub-theme. In Kur. 58, the hero repulses the friend's admonitions: "O my friend who abuses me! If you could stop [my love] as your duty, that would be definitely good." Here, the phrase 'abusing friend' clearly indicates that the friend has discouraged the hero (see also Ak 130).This theme is found in Kur 78 therein the pankan says, "O man of the hills, kama is so stupid, because it has gone to those who do not realize that it is good? and he points out to the hero the stupidity of falling in love. Kur 204 is said to have the same theme. Before examining the poem, let us fast consider Kur. 136, as both of Kur. 204 and 136 were composed by the same author, and start with the same phrase.Love, love,they say. Yet loveis no new griefor sudden disease; nor somethingthat rages and cools.Like madness in an elephant, coming up when he eatscertain leaves,love waitsfor you to findsomeone to look at.(tr.. A K. Ramanujan IL p. 60)The expression, kamam is neither new grief nor sudden disease, tells us that people talk of love as something evil, bringing trouble, and, therefore unwelcome. Pankan is one of those who make critical mention of love. They are at that moment free from lovesickness, so they can, as reasonable men, criticize a lovelorn, irrational person. However, kamam manifests itself even to the rational beings when they encounter an object of love, like a sane elephant (i.e. the hero) who becomes mad when he eats certain leaves (i.e. encounters the heroine), Thus, the hero exclaims, you should not speak so bitterly of me, because you also are not free from the kamam.Bearing in mind the above interpretation of Kur. 136, let us examine Kur 204. According to the traditional explanation, the friend, who abuses the hero states therein, "Love, love they always talk about love: but love is neither devil nor disease. O man of wide shoulders, if you think of it, love is a sweet, surprising feast, like an old cow licking tender young grass that sprouts on an old high plateau" (tr. M.S. Pillai and D. E. Ludden, KT, p. 42). In other words: They speak badly of love, but love is not so awful as they maintain; if you think about it, love may turn out to be a sweet feast, that is, a splendid thing. Thus, if we take the literal meaning, the friend is encouraging the lovesick hero, which is totally contrary to the traditional interpretation of the situation. Hence the translators interpret the friend's remark as irony and say, "love is so little sweetness among so much misery and pain, just as this tiny grass is so little sustenance in the wasteland". However, if we disregard the traditional explanation of the poem and presume that another poetical situation pertains, namely that the hero rejects the friend's discouragement, the interpretation of the metaphor may differ from what is understood traditionally. The explanation of the metaphor is then as follows when the proper season comes, new tender grass (a metaphor for the heroine, i.e. her fresh beauty) sprouts even on an old plateau (i.e. this everyday world). Then an old cow (i.e. the worldly-wise hero), for whom the sight of new grass sprouting is not necessarily a marvellous experience, enjoys licking it. Likewise, love appears entirely new for one who encounters the object of his love, although love is not new at all.This seems a more probable interpretation than the traditional explanation of the poem, in which the speaker is said to be the friend. A possible reason for the traditional ascription is due to a phrase, O you of wide shoulders'. The idiom big shoulders is usually used to denote a woman's beauty, but in a few instances, to denote the manliness of the hero. In this reason, the hero may have been assumed to be the addressee and the friend the addresser, However, if indeed the friend admonishes the hero to stop the love affair, the friend may also have been called a man of big shoulders' because of his superior manner.Though there are examples (Kur. 78; Nur. 136, 204), we cannot find any reference in those poems to the friend's helping the hero to meet the heroine.Now we move on to other sub-situations (III-V). As mentioned before, there is no text amongst the early classical poems which describes the union with the aid of the hero's friend, although, according to colophons of Ain. 171-175, some events are serially described in them. Their colophons run as follows:171: what the hero says when, as he is leaving the heroine after a spontaneous meeting with her, he sees her going away with her friend; 172: what the hero says to his friend, when the friend asks him the reason why he cannot sleep;173: what his friend says to himself, when he goes to the meeting-place designated by the hero and sees the heroine;174: what the hero who is thinking about going to the meeting-place, says to himself, when his friend comes back from the place indicated by the hero and informs him that the heroine is there;175: what the hero says to the heroine: "Please come with your friend when you come next time", when he leaves her after a meeting arranged with the aid of his friend.Judging from these colophons, sub-themes displayed in I-V appear to be depicted in those poems (171-5). However, the subject matter given in a colophon of a poem does not correspond to what the poem itself says. In Ain. 172, for example, there is no allusion to a preliminary situation, as mentioned in its colophon.The lassie of bright braceletshas stolen away my heart.Like the roaring waves of the moving seabeside Tonti of the cold region of humming beesI do not get sleep even at night.(tr. P. Jotimuttu, AIN p. 240)From our viewpoint. ie. that a poem explicitly describes a specific theme/ situation/ event, Ain. 172 should not be taken here as an illustration of the situation. The principle, however, can be applied only to the case of the isolated stanza because, in the case of narrative poetry like kovai, we cannot always clarify the subject-matter of the poetry by a single stanza of a poem, but only through its entire narrative sequence. The 18th decad of Ain is composed in antati, wherein the last line, word or syllable, of the previous stanza is identical with the first line, word or syllable of the following stanza, so that each poem of the decad must be taken as part of the whole, from the point of view of literary form. Hence, we may presume that there is a link between these ten poems in the way they treat the subject. The following is the gist of each stanza of Ain. 171-175:171. she has stolen away my heart;172. she has stolen away my heart; [That is why] I cannot sleep even at night;173. those who are smitten by love of her cannot sleep even at night and suffer pain;174. she favoured us, who are in distress, with the fragrant sea-grove as a trysting place;175. O innocent maiden! If you love us, please come [again] with the girl of bamboo-like shoulders and bright forehead.It is also easy to prove that, in point of subject-matter, these five stanzas are connected with one another, so it probably follows that their colophons interpret their contents most accurately. This should mean that there are a lot of good examples of serial events, which is, however, not the case. The literary form of antati and of kovai, in which the decad of Ain is composed, is not found in the earliest texts, so we have to ascribe the date of Ain., or at least, this particular decad of Ain., to a later age. Anyhow, this decad and its colophons had a great influence on Nampi in formulating all the relevant mini-situations (AV 137), as is shown by the fact that he repeats what the colophons say almost verbatim.

The Maid Learning of the Love Affair of the HeroineMany poems tell us of the changes in the heroine due to lovesickness, such as pallor spreading over her body, her broad shoulders drooping, bangles slipping off from her thin arms, etc. In this connection, Kur 185 is quite interesting, since in it most of these changes are mentioned.Pallor spreads on my forehead; my passion marks fade away; my soft, broad shoulders droop,and my bangles slip off:would it be wrong to say to him,It is your fault I am like thismy friend?The ruin of my beautiful brown bodyis all for the sake of that manfrom the land where bright red kantal flowersfold up like hoods on many-striped snakes,and then are knocked off, by the east wind,and cover rocks.(tr. M. S. Pillai and D. E. Ludden, KT, p. 77)This poem, however, cannot be taken as an example of Maid Learning because, in it, it is the heroine herself who tells the maid of her distress caused by love.In the colophons of the poems, the heroine's distress and/or changes in her resulting from love-sickness, are termed 'becoming different'. Among the approximately 130 poems which are said by the colophons to be relevant, half actually refer to the physical changes in the heroine. However, in almost all these poems, the changes are due to distress during the period before marriage or during separation. Nar. 13 is the only poem whose theme is mentioned by the colophon as the maid getting to know of the heroine's love affair through changes in her. In it, the maid says to the heroine, "Don't weep over having lost your young beauty because of a stranger" as parrots cry to see the hills [where he lives]. The poem does not give us any clue; except the word 'a stranger' to help us understand the situation. The colophon writer may have interpreted the word as 'a newcomer' in its literal sense, and if so, the heroine would have had a casual love affair with a real stranger. However, such an interpretation is in complete disagreement with the akam conventions. Whenever the heroine or the maid applies the word stranger to a man with whom the heroine has had a love affair, the man is always someone who has been known to them for a while. In the poems, the appellation implies the meaning of the man who cools off towards us, as if he was stranger' (Kur, 191; Nar. 395; Ain. 34, 232) Thus the colophon gives an incorrect interpretation of the poem.Though many poems refer to subtle changes in the heroine's physique due to love, in all of them the changes are described only in connection with the themes in the later stages of the love events; that means that there is no poem which depicts this situation. TP 112 enumerates seven kinds of symptom by which the heroine's love affair may be recognized. The changes in her physique referred to in the poems may correspond to what Tol. calls the changes in appearance. However, apart from these changes, no poem mentions any other kind of change in her; though some poems refer to the perfume of her body (Kur. 62, 84) and of her brow (kur. 22, 52. Ain. 97), and others refer to the beauty of her gait (Kur 182, 214) which may correspond to celavu in TP, they do not mention that the perfume or the gait have changed because of love. Therefore, the relevant part of TP 112 is neither descriptive of nor prescriptive to the actual texts, so far the themes treating the heroine's changes are concerned. For the maid probing into the heroine's heart through both true and false expressions", Ak. 32 is quite interesting:Yesterday a man appeared in the millet fieldwearing a glittering ornament set with a lovely saphhire.Changing his kingly demeanor,he repeated the obsequious words of a supplicant: O you who chase parrots from the tiny millet,beating weakly your pleasant-sounding rattle over and over,standing like a godess.Who are you?You have bewitched me -- I will eat you up! and he embraced me from behind.At that my heart was afflicted,melting like mud in pouring rain.Afraid he might know, I said harsh words I did not meanand loosed the grip of his bands.As I stood my ground.he stood away like a frightened doe.overcome by my strength of will,and he did not dare to say anything else.he left sadlylike an elephant separated from his herd,And even today he has not recovered.He does no know he is faultlessand the right to these ample arms with curving joints is his. Come, let's go, friend,to laugh at him as he comestrying to get what he wants,begging as I turn my back.(tr. G. Hart, PAT, pp 239--240)G. Hart explains the situation of the poem saying, "the heroine describes her first meeting with her lover" with coyness. Judging from what the poem represents explicitly, it appears to describe the first meeting. But, if this is so, it differs from other poems, which actually describe, or are said by the erudite scholiasts to describe the emotion, in one important point, namely the hero embraces the heroine from behind without their having mutually agreed to the embrace. His behavior also seems to be improper and hence Nacc. may also have cited the stanza as an example of a poem beyond the range of moral code in his commentary on TPN 218, which runs, if those themes which are to be rejected as unworthy of moral code appear to be useful because of their content in dealing with the love, they may be allowed as usages and such usage is not to be depreciated. Furthermore, the poem reveals that the speaker is the maid because, according to the conventions, it is always to the maid that the hero goes for help and in the poem the speaker says that she has been requested to help the man; she says., "the man who comes to hang on me in expectation of a favor".Even if we disregard all this reasoning, it is beyond dispute that the most suitable explanation of the poem is that given in TP 112:5-6, that is, that the maid tells the heroine a false story to probe into her heart. When one reads the poem Ak. 32 along with the passage in TP, one may think that this passage is indispensable to an understanding of the poem, because what is described in the poem does not occur frequently. Subsequently, a doubt arises regarding the relationship between the poem and the description in TP; i.e. that there is a possibility that the description in TP was written first., and that the poem Ak 32 was composed following it; or, alternatively, there had been the poems dealing with the theme but poems other than Ak 32 are no longer extant), and that Tol. subsequently formulated the rule (TP 112:5-6) after the model of those poems. Both cases are equally probable.

Several poems refer to the theme of the hero approaching the maid to ask her to arrange the meetings, etc. In Ak. 380, the maid says to the heroine, "Days before, a man of the coastal region came alone, leaving his chariot behind, and asked (me], what is your village?' ...His chariot [again appears] today. If we were to receive [his petition), he would accept it (i.e. marriage) If one reads this poem, bearing TP 99:11-13 in mind, one immediately notices that what the hero did days before is almost the same as what is mentioned in TP, and hence one can consider that the hero's first petition has occurred. In Kur. 81, the maid says to the hero, She (the heroine) trusted me to convey your worlds, and she lost her virgin beauty by the side of fresh wet branches of nalal tree. This poem clearly shows that the hero had asked the maid to arrange a meeting, though that demand does not seem to have been the first one. In addition to the poems cited above, some poems refer to the hero's gifts, such as talai (garment of strung leaves; Nar, 80, Ain. 201), chaplet, a doll made with grass Kur. 276, Ain. 383); these are, according to the grammarians, the presents he gives to the maid to give to the heroine when he asks the maid to help him.It seems that there are enough poems depicting the theme; but the poems we require, as illustrations of the theme, are those which describe both the hero's first entreaty and the maid becoming aware of the heroine's love affair because of that entreaty. Though Ak. 380 may be taken as an example of the first approach by the hero, the poem d.oes not suggest that the maid becomes aware of the heroine's love because of it.

As far as I know, Nar. 213 is the only poem that is taken as an example of this phase. Therein the hero says, "O you of elevated mound of Venus and broad shoulders, you never reply when I say, 'What will you do with your tiny feet to the big mountains ...?' Is it your work to protect the millet field The poem gives no clue as to whom he is addressing but, in the original, the addressee is addressed in the 2nd person plural and hence it would appear that both the heroine and the maid are addressed by the hero.The colophon of Nan 213 among all colophons of the early main poems is the only one which contains a term relevant to the theme.

Union through the Aid of the MaidThere is much variation among the grammars in formulating the main situation. This may signify that there are few poems which are illustrative of a formulation by a grammar. To ride a palmyra horse in the poemsWe have at least ten poems dealing with this -- Kur. 14, 17, 32, 173, 182; Nar. 146, 152, 220. 342. 377) in the earliest texts. Zvelebil raises questions, such as Was it only an imaginary convention of ancient Tamil poetry, or au actual custom?; To what extent was it ritualized?; Has the custom/literary convention survived in medieval and modern periods and/or did it undergo further evolution in literature?". However, what we want to clarify here is in which sequence of love events does it occur, in other words, what are the causes, the aims and the results of this convention.First, we will look into the customs pertinent to palmyra horse described in the earliest texts. Kur. 173 illustrate them fairly well.When I throw off my shame and mount the hopping horse made of palm stem,tied with a many-stringed garland of rightly-wrapped and fresh flowers from the golden shrubto make the bells of its neck ring,shouting, This is the sort of womanwho would do this to me,making the love-sickness that destroys me grow and grow,the village will blame her to her face. I know what. I am doing.I must go.(tr. M.S. Pillai and D.E. Lidden KT, p 120)The components of palmyra horse including those depicted in Kur. 173 are:1. the horse is made of palmyra stems 2. garlands decorate the 'horse' and the hells hang round its neck 3. the hero wears garlands of errukkam flowers. Erukkam oozes a putrid white juice. Shiva wears the erukkam flowers in his dance of the destruction of the worlds, for they are the flower of the cremation ground" (KT, p. 121);4. the hero throwing of his shame proceeds through the streets of the noisy village with his 'horse'; also, sometimes, with a group of children following after him. Then, he mounts the 'horse' and shouts, This is what such a woman did to me.5. the villagers respond to him, saying, This man is the husband of the fine lady" and they blame her (the heroine) to her face.There are ten poems dealing with ME: in nine poems, apart from Kur. 17, the speaker is the hero, and the listener is also the hero or his heart. The colophon states that in Kur. 17, the hero speaks to the maid:When love is ripe beyond bearing and goes to seed,men will ride even palmyra stems Like horses; will wear on their headsthe reeking cones of the erukkam bud like flowers; will draw to themselves the gossip of the streets;and will do worse(tr. A. K. Rarnanujan, IL, p. 27)In spite of what the colophon says, the poem makes no mention of the speaker and the listener, so, according to the akam tradition, either the hero or the maid may be presumed to be the speaker. If we consider the maid to be the addresser in the poem, the most probable situation is that she tells the heroine of men's nature so as to induce her to accept the hero's request to have a meeting. If, on the other hand, we consider the hero to be the addresser in Kur. 17, as mentioned by the colophon, the addressee is the maid, which may also be inferred from other evidence. In Kur. 173, for example, the hero who is in two minds about riding a palmyra horse says to himself, As I have considered in that manner, I will proceed in this manner (ie. ride the horse)."In Kur. 32 also, he hesitates about whether to mount the horse and says to himself, "If I should appear in the streets with the horse and proclaim openly [our love], it would mean a blame. But if I should live away from her life [without her] itself would be filled with falsehood."In Nar. 152, he says in perplexity, "What would become of me after riding the horse. The motivation in these poems is the hero's hesitation as to whether he should undertake palmyra horse or not. In contrast, in Kur. 17, the speaker (i.e. the hero) tells about men's nature, but not about his hesitation about mounting the matal horse, so naturally he does not have to tell himself this. Hence the only suitable addressee appears to be the maid.Tradition says that when the hero speaks to the maid about palmyra horse, he is 'threatening the maid to arrange a meeting with the heroine, but this interpretation is doubtful since the act of threatening the maid (i.e. indirectly threatening the heroine) seems to be quite inappropriate to the poems within the range of mutual, proper love. In this connection, we will look into the theme of ME its three aspects, i.e. its causes, its aims and its results.Causes for riding the palmyra horseGrammars tell us that the maid's refusal of the hero's request to arrange a meeting causes him to ride the palmyra horse. Only Kur 182 in which the hero says to his heart, "Should the messenger we (i.e. the hero and his heart) sent make us ride the palmyra horse ", hints at the connection between the maid refusing the hero's request and his mounting the palmyra horse.Nan 152, on the other hand, ascribes, in a lovely phrase, the reason for the hero riding the horse to love passion (kamam) and gossip (alar); "Love passion gave [me] a palmyra horse, and gossip gave [me] erukku garlands bound with [a few other] flowers. Kur. 17 (see the above translation) also indicates that the hero will resort to palmyra horse if love passion increases beyond bound. The fact that the hero resorts to palmyra horse when his love passion reaches a climax and cannot be endured any longer is referred to in all nine poems (except Kur. 182), which deal with the palmyra horse. According to Nakkirar, the maid's persistent refusal of the heros request is the reason why his love passion increases to an unbearable level. The nine poems, however, in contrast with Nakkirar, do not even allude to the maid's refusal of the hero's requests as being a cause of the increase of his love passion. Here it may occur to us that kamam denotes not only love/desire itself but also the object of the love/desire both in Sanskrit and in Tamil, Hence the object of the hero's love, that is, the heroine herself or her existence itself, could bring about the increase of his love passion. This is mentioned clearly in Kur. 173 (see the above translation): in this imaginative poem, the hero mounts the matal horse and shouts, This is what such a woman did [to me]. One may speculate that the heroine has treated the hero badly, as is mentioned by the translators of the poem (KT, p. 120), but there are no texts about pre-marital love wherein the heroine treats the hero badly. The formulation `the heroine's ill-treatment of the hero and the hero's threat due to it does not lie within the range of aintinai (mutual, proper love). What the hero indicates is that the heroine is a supremely attractive girl, who makes him suffer from love passion. Hence, simply because she is an attractive and lovely girl, she is 'blamed' by the hero and will also be blamed by the village" (see tr. of kur 173).Thus, in the texts, there are two separate causes for palmyra horse: 1. the maid refusing the request of the hero (Kur. 182);2. the increase of the hero's love passion either caused by the heroine, or simply caused by her existence (nine poems other than Kur. 182). Aims of riding the palmyra horse: Traditionally, the aim of mounting the 'horse' is said to be 'to threaten the maid to arrange a meeting with the heroine'. According to Zvelebil, this threat will induce the panki to arrange more meetings with his sweetheart, out of fear that he would actually perform this degrading custom, revealing the clandestine affair to the public".If a meeting with the heroine is achieved, however, it would be the union with the heroine because of the 'threat' of the hero. A union of that kind seems to be more suitable for the genre improper love than for the proper, mutual love. There still remains one poem, Kur 17, to be considered. If the maid is speaking of men's nature in it, it has nothing to do with the hero threatening the maid to arrange a meeting. But, if it the hero addressing the maid and if we follow the formulation that the hero refers to palmyra horse in order to induce the maid to arrange a meeting, the poem must be treating the theme of 'threat' and would hence fall into the range of peruntin in which case we have to abandon thePage 111 one paraThe new formulation appears to be quite reasonable. What the hero, the heroine, and the maid regard the most desirable state of affairs is that the clandestine affair between the hero and the heroine should remain unknown to the public (kirtarm.) until after their marriage has been arranged by their parents and that they should become finally nown to the public as husband and wife in a 'proper' way. That is why they fear the relation of their clandestine affair, either through gossip or by the heroine and the maid. For the same reason, they finally resort to elopement. The hero may hesitate about riding the palmyra horse for the same reason. In Kur. 14, the hero knows that the village would accept him saying This man is the husband of the fine woman, if he were to mount the 'horse'. However, he wants to be admitted through an appropriate, graceful procedure and not because of such a degrading act as palmyra horse.Only if we consider that the riding of the palmyra horse is the revelation of the clandestine affair, due on the side of the hero to his unendurable love-passion, we understand why, in all nine poems concerning the theme in question, the hero's perplexity about palmyra horse is described: he hesitates not because palmyra horse would mean to threaten both the maid and the heroine, but because it would reveal his secret affair with the heroine. Kur. 14 supports the view that the aim of riding the matal horse is not 'threat' but 'revelation'. Therein, the hero says, As I could get the lady and, after getting [her], let the village know; this means that the aim of mounting the 'horse' is not to get the heroine [by means of the threat] but to announce to the public that she is his. Finally, it should be admitted that the poetical situation of kur. 17 also suits our new formulation of ma palmyra horse; therein the hero, in desperation due to love-passion, explains the nature to the maid in order to make her understand the reason why he has to resort to palmyra horse. This new explanation of the poem agrees with what TP describes about the maid affair; TP 109;21-2 runs, [the heroine speaks] when she hears of the feigned attempt of the hero's riding the palmyra horse, and when the maid [having heard of it] in desperation removes her tears.Results of riding the palmyra horseIn all ten poems dealing with the this affair, the hero imagines himself mounting the palmyra horse. Hence no poem describes him actually mounting it. Thus, in this respect, the opinion held by the erudite scholiasts that a meeting with the heroine comes true because the hero threatens to resort to palmyra horse is not supported by the poems.We shall now examine when in the pre-marital course the theme concerning palmyra horse occurs in the texts. That the hero comes to meet the heroine frequently is know from some poems, as e.g. Kur. 176; therein the heroine says, He did not come just on one day or on two days. But [formerly] he came on many days and softened my good heart with humble words, and afterwards he went away." In Nur. 230, too, the frequent visits by the hero are inferred from the words of the maid, when she says for some days he has not deemed to come". If, bearing in mind the frequency of the hero's visit, we reread the ten poems treating the palmyra horse affair carefully, it seems tenable that it occurs at a rather late stage in the course of clandestine love, which differs entirely from what the commentators and Nampi describe. Although none of the ten poems mentions explicitly that the palmyra horse affair occurs at a late stage in pre-marital love, Nar 152 provides evidence that it does. Therein, the hero says, "Love passion (kamam) gave me a palmyra horse, and gossip gave me an Enikku garland". Only in the course of the lovers' meetings, may their secret relationship become the topic of gossip of the village. In fact, all grammars treat the gossip (afar) as a theme occurring in the late stage of the pre-marital love course. Hence, we may safely say that the palmyra horse event is supposed to occur at a late stage during clandestine love.Summing up, we can point out the following characteristics of ME:1. the hero could finally resort to palmyra horse, when his love passion reached a climax in the course of his meetings with the heroine;2. palmyra horse is a means used by the hero to reveal the clandestine love between him and the heroine; 3. it has nothing to do with a threat' (i.e. threatening the maid). Heros Entreaties in poemsThe hero's approach to the maid for help is the first phase in all kinds of entreaties. Hence, there are also two kinds of the hero's entreaty to be found, i.e, the first entreaty and the subsequent ones, Ak. 380 and Nar. 213 are cited as illustrations of the hero's first entreaty, and all other poems referring to the hero's request are regarded as poems describing his entreaty during the subsequent phases. As for the frequency of the hero's approach to the maid for help, Kur. 29 may be cited as a good example; in it the maid persuades the heroine to accept the hero's request, saying:Think of his tortured look, my friendhis color had changed,as every day he comes meekly down our street,opening his mouth but rarelyto say sweet words.His standing so longbehind memeans he expects something,like the women who sing the akavalwith their white-tipped rods,who stood behind Akutai, with hissweet liquor, to receivean innocent female elephant.as a gift.(tr. M. S. Pillai and D. E. Ludden. KT, p. 125)None of the poems dealing with the hero's request, however, mentions anything about the results of such request. The maid's refusal of the hero's entreaty: According to the prevalent formulation regarding this phase, the hero's entreaty is refused once by the maid; then it is not until the reference by the hero to resort to palmyra horse that the maid accepts his request. However, all poems treating palmyra horse disagree with this formulation, since palmyra horse is not the result of the maid's refusal of the hero's request. Hence, the phase in question may be regarded as an event separate from palmyra horse.There are two kinds of refusal by the maid: the refusal of the hero's first request, and the refusal of his requests in general. Though no texts explicitly describe it the commentators and the colophon writers state that some poems treat it. Among those poems, Nar. 45 is most frequently referred to as an example of it; the maid says to the hero:"She is the daughter of the fisherman [tribe] who cast nets for catching fish in the blue-colored big ocean, [residing] in a beautiful small village near sea-groves, while you are the beloved, son of the wealthy man, having fast chariots, of the old town with the [big] street where high flags wave. What is the meaning of our fresh your praise for us whose engagement is to scare away flies from the pieces of fat shark cut to be dried. And the stench of the raw fish floats in the air. Therefore please keep vourself away [from us]. Our petty but good life bred by the sea does not resemble you [at all]. Besides, we also have great person among our relatives...Ilam. and Nacc. cite this poem as an example of the following passage of TP, which seems to represent the theme: "when the maid turns hack the hero [on his beseeching her] by describing his greatness ( TP 112:7-8). The text apparently contrasts the high-born nature of the hero with the low-born nature of the heroine. However, if the text is read carefully, it could be demonstrated that it hints at the feigned rejection of the maid: because, in spite of the contrast emphasized in the first half of the text, the maid as if contradicting herself, says at the end, We also have great persons among our relatives", and she also speaks of "our petty but good life". This last part may imply that the maid is in a sulky mood, and hence the poem seems to depict the maid's refusal of the hero's request in general.Kur, 298 cited above may be an example, since in it the frequent approach of the hero to the maid is referred to; that means that the poem also alludes to her refusal of his request. There are few poems which explicitly depict the situation, because it may have been logically required by the commentators and colophon writers as the sub-phase introducing matal erutal, and because the other types of refusal are treated by them as separate items, such as the refusal of the request for a day-tryst' and 'the refusal of the night-tryst'.The acceptance of the hero's request and the actual meeting: The poems required as examples of the themes must illustrate that: the hero's request is the first one or, at least, is expressed in the earliest stage of the kalavu course; the maid accepts the request of the hero (this theme is termed kurai natal in the colophons); subsequently, the maid makes the heroine accept the request, finally, the actual meeting takes place.Kur. 81 may be cited as a good illustration of these events; in it the maid addresses the hero as:She accepted my wordWhen I told her what you said,and, hidden in a spotamong fresh, wet branchesof nazal trees, she losther young virginity.She is so lonely!you must, think of her;look there,to our small, good villagewhere palm trees hang low,and where the seawith waves that smell of fish appears like the moonlight, and the forest grove appears like darkness.(tr. M. S. Pillai and D.E. Ludden KT 59)In the poem, the request of the hero is implied by the expression, your word"; she having accepted it, conveyed it to the heroine; the heroine then also accepted it. The expression, she lost her young virginity signifies that the heroine's acceptance of the hero's request results in the first meeting due to the aid of the maid. Here the term nalam is quite appropriately annotated by the translators of the poem as Virginity here should not be thought of in the narrowest physical terms, but should also not exclude these. In the earliest texts, the nalam has been protected by the heroine's mother (e.g. Kur.. 223. Nar. 34, Ak. 146), and later it is 'consumed' by the hero (e.g. Kur. 133, 236, Nar. 15) or it is `taken away' by him (e.g. Kur. 223, Ak.. 146, Ain. 24). The nalam of the heroine signifies virtue in a limited number of poems and, in many contexts, means beauty referring to/connected with virginity'. Hence the safest rendering of the term may be 'virgin beauty',Thus, the meeting through aid of the maid takes place for the first time, after which meetings of that kind occur frequently, but they are treated by the savants under the following sections.

Day-trystMissing 122, 123Near the town there is a pond.And not far from the pond is a small forest river. Except for a little white heron searching for prey nothing comes near the grove there.We will go that placetaking clay for our hair,and she also will come,the innocent girl.(tr. G. hart, PAT, p. 219.)Judging from these poems describing the place of the daytime meeting, we can understand why TP had to prescribe it as outside the site of the heroine's house, in other words, anywhere except in her house.In several poems treating day-tryst (Kur. 25, 54, 299, Nar 102, Ak 302) it is unclear whether the maid plays the role of intermediary, but in many other poems, she is indeed described as intermediary. There is no poem, in contrast, which explicitly refers to the meeting without the aid of maid. The later grammars represent a few sub-phases of day-tryst such as 'the maid telling the hero of the meeting-place' and the maid taking the heroine to the meeting place and leaving her there.Kur 114 gives the appropriate time for pkk, that is between the [early] afternoon and sun set; this is also referred to in other poems where this maid mentions to the hero when the meeting is over, that evening is approaching, saying, Do stay with us during the night also (Nat. 215; Ak. 120, 300, 350). It should be noted that these are all neytal poems.Thus it is evident that the tinai appropriate to the theme of is not only kurinci but also neytal. It also appears that the prescription in the grammars concerning the appropriate time for kurinci and neytal is incorrect as far as pakarktiri is concerned; grammars allot midnight to kurinci and 'sun-set' to neytal, but the daytime should have been included in both tinais.

Obstacles to Day TrystThe situation of the obstacle to the lovers meeting' enriches the love poetry. However, it is unclear whether the situation was originally a solitary episode (for example, to make emotions of the lovers more conspicuous), or whether it was the sub-phase of a situation, mentioned by the savants. Here taking the theme concerning 'the millet harvest, which is regarded by Nampi as an obstacle of day-tryst (subtheme (6) above), as a sample of our investigation, we shall examine how the theme is treated either in the earliest poets or by savants.Missing 126 - 127

Night TrystAccording to the colophons, more than a hundred poems describe the meeting at night or its related phases. In fact only a few poems among the hundred depict the night-meeting (Kur. 268, 312; Ak. 22, 162): the majority deal with the themes related to it. There are several related themes to be found, such as 'the dangers along the way by which the hero comes to meet the heroine at night' (Kur. 88., 141, 268; Nar. 192, 255, 336; Ak. 298; Ain. 282; and others), 'the maid telling the hero not to come via the dangerous paths (Ak. 318), `the heart of the heroine having gone out to receive the hero on the dangerous way' (Kur. 153, Nar 98, Ak. 128), `the hero having come via such a path and remaining outside the heroine's house' (Nur, 161), but also the mother sitting up' (Kur. 353), the girls remaining awake to await the hero who comes via such a narrow path' (Kur. 138, Nar. 83), the difficulty in the hero's access to the heroine's strictly watched house' (Nar, 98, Ak, 298), 'the maid telling the hero to come during the day instead of at night' (Nar. 151, Ak. 308), 'the maid stopping the hero from coming at night and urging him to marry the heroine' (Ak. 12), 'the heroine's distress when the hero does not visit her at night' (Kur 185), and others.Thus, there are ample examples which portray the various sub-situations related to night-tryst but only a few which describe the actual meeting itself. One notices that, in contrast with the day-tryst situation, the great majority of the poems dealing with the daytime meeting simply portray the meeting and only a very small number treat. its sub-phases.As for the place of the meeting at night, many poems support the prescription of the grammars. In Ak. 162:1-16, the meeting near the heroine's house is well portrayed:At midnight when skies were pouring down without respite, spreading swift drops, as thunder roared cruelly,and lightning, like banners of fire, flashed,splitting the sky like the thick black ocean,its measureless depths filled with conchsthat never diminish no matter how many are taken,Missing 130-131always acts as the heroine's best friend; when., for example, she worries about what is the matter with the heroine, sympathizes with her, arid encourages her, This is well described in Ak 298 (Il 14-23):That is how my lover came,but it was even sweeter for me to seehow willing my friend was to comfort me:I was in the large guarded house of my father, whose chariot is swift, whose drink is like the rain. Mother was watching me,and I was afraid she would know.So in the middle of the night,restraining my feeling,I did not speak of my desirebut talked of your cruelty.My friend knew my real feelings and she said,Don't be sad.He who left you will come;he will not delay,and through the whole sleepless night.she stayed with me(tr. G. Hart, PTA. pp. 127-8)

Obstacles to Night TrystMissing 134-135with soft breast, and long hair.? Here the motif is the same as the one mentioned Ain. 298, but the colophon says, the hero rejecting the friend's admonition. In Kur.29, the hero in an agony of love says to his heart: O, you heart, you want what is hardest to get. If there were someone to hear your sorrow, it would be nice but the colophon says that these are the words of the hero when his request for a nocturnal meeting was refused. Hence there may be another interpretation of Ain. 298; in fact, its colophon states, what he says after hearing that the heroine feels quite shy [to meet again] through the aid of the maid who accepted his request to arrange for a meeting with her.Thus, there is no text which explicitly explains whether the prearranged sign occurred casually or whether it was given by something, such as the birds, much less that the heroine was misled when she mistook something else for the hero's sign.

The heroine and the Maid Talking to Each Other, Desiring MarriageWe shall investigate the following three points in the poems: (1) whether or not the semantic difference between alar and ampal mentioned by the commentator is indeed found, (2) whether alar and ampal are common to kalavu and karpu (3) what the thematic connection is between gossip and other themes.(1) Gossip is one of the favourite themes in the love poetry and is treated in about 150 poems, wherein other terms are also used. The following chart shows the number of occurrences of each term in the anthologies.Missing 142-143In conclusion we may say that the erudite scholiasts, including the colophon writers, are not as enthusiastic about analyzing the theme of gossip as the poets are about composing poems on that theme.

The Maid Urging the Hero to Marry the HeroineMissing 145 - 150Ak. 240 (neytal poem) depicts the domestic scene which prevent a meeting by chance, though its colophon does not refer to the term kappu'. Therein the maid tells the hero not to come at night but to come in the daytime, informing him that her father and brothers catch fish which flock around the lamp on a small boat on the dark sea, and her mother and friends of her mother pray to God on the shore. In this connection, the watchmen referred to in Ak. 162 cited in 6.12.2 (see translation) are evidently those who guard the house not the heroine (see also Kur. 276).It is still not clear what TP and IA meant by the term kappu, but, considering that Nakkirar and two colophons use the term in the sense of the 'accidental watch'. it seems probable that even in TP and IA the term also meant "accidental watch'. Anyhow, in medieval times, one meaning of kappu that is, accidental watch was first termed obstacles by Nampi, and only the other meaning, the intentional watch', has survived for the term kappu. Hence kappu is regarded by modern scholars as a word synonymous for ircerippu.Although, in the poems, the situation kappu (accidental watch) provides an effective setting in which the love passion is conspicuously represented, it does not function as the sub-phase of varnivu katatal. The question arises why the erudite scholiasts have related kappu to varaivu katatal.Roughly speaking, a major portion of the classical love poems represents the sorrow, distress, helplessness of love (not its happy or joyful aspects); about two thirds of them are composed in the form of speech by the heroine or the maid. Hence, we may say that most of the akam poems treat the distress in love on the part of women. In this connection, the authors of the colophons term the heroine's grief in love, inability to bear, to sorrow, to grow thin, and to change; there are more than three hundred poems whose colophons refer to these terms.Next, 'pure' akam poetry does not deal with either one-sided love or tragic love, so it is unsurprising that the erudite scholiasts, who hold the opinion that akam poems consist exclusively of the sequential events of love, consider that all the poems treating pre-marital love result in a happy ending. i.e. marriage. The savants maintain that each poem has a 'result' so that if the heroine or the maid refers to the heroines distress in love and does not mention the expected result such as the hero's visit in the daytime instead of the visit at night, it is natural for them to regard varavu katatal as the most probable result. In fact, most poems, which are said by the colophons to deal with varavu katatal actually wake no reference to it but refer only to the heroines grief in love.We have already mentioned in 16.4.2 that the savants have interpreted a group of poems which only the hero's joy or helplessness in love is mentioned in various ways and without any reference to the specific situation, we may say that the scholiasts generally come into their own when the poetical situation is unclear. Such being the case, they have regarded the situation, varattirl ketatirit, as the most suitable result' of obstacles or watch by the mother though the actual texts only mention that the girls are in distress because there are so many obstacles to the meeting or they are watched closely by the mother.

The Heros Temporary Absence from the HeroineIn Ain 214, the maid says, the man from the land .. goes [back] to his good and prosperous country, which will result in the shedding of tears from the large, attractive and cool eyes [of the heroine]. The same scene is described in Ain. 221 as:Look here, dear! The lover says.I will go his mountainous country.That will result in the lossof my exquisite loveliness like that of an imageand in my complexion, like that or a good mango sproutturning wallow.In Ain. 233, the maid tells the hero not to go back to his country.You will not be comingand the north wind is very severe. So you had better go back.to your mountainous countrywhere the waterfalls roll down with a roar scraping precious stones from the slopesof the impassable hills.The hero has frequently come to meet the heroine, both by day and by night, sometimes along the dangerous mountain route and sometimes along the coastal pith. After the meeting, he has left the heroine to return to his own village.However, if one did not know about the situation or ta, these poems would mention that the hero goes back to his place as if he had been staying with the heroine for long time. If, on the other hand, one is aware of it, it easy to understand that the phrase. 'the hero going back to his village' means 'the hero not visiting the heroine for the time being. Hence this means that it was necessary for the receivers (audience?) to have a good knowledge of orturaht tariottal in order to appreciate these poems.It may be noted that only the three poems (Ain. 214, 221, 233) deal with the theme 'the hero going back' using the same expression, natt-tal, and they are all included in Ain. Each of them is a constituent of Chap. 22 (The decad in which each stanza ends with annay), Chap. 23 (The decad [in which each stanza begins with] amma vali, and Chap. 24 ( 'The decad [in which each stanza ends with) teyyo) respectively. The constitution of each of these chapters suggests that the ten poems in each chapter were not first composed as solitary stanzas and later formed into the chapter, but that they were originally composed as ten linked poems to form the chapter. Another characteristic common to these chapters is that almost all poems in them exhibit a similar motif (e.g. see Ain. 214).Here, though each poem does not clearly mention what the hero's absence/presence signifies, the poems as a group or the linked ones tell us what takes place: the hero visiting the heroine frequently and embracing her (Ain, 220, 221), the hero's marriage proposal being turned down by the relatives (Ain. 228), the hero having gone away for days and returning (Ain. 229), the maid consoling the heroine by saying that the heroine's relatives will marry her only to the hero (Ain. 230), etc.; hence, the link may prove that the 'absence/presence' is relevant to oruvalit tanattal. It can also be established that in the poems, the 'absence' occurs due to preparations for marriage as mentioned in IA and the colophons, but not due to gossip.Thus, the theme or ta is not found in the oldest grammar TP, but occurs in IA, which was composed at a somewhat later date. In the actual texts, the theme is depicted only in Ain. Therefore, the arguments regarding onsvalit tturlattal, mentioned above, help us to reconfirm our hypothesis that Ain. belongs to a later age than the other anthologies.

The Hero Separating from the Heroine in Pursuit of Wealth for MarriageThe illustrative text of the situation would describe that the separation for wealth takes place before marriage or that the wealth is the means to prepare for marriage. No poem seems to refer explicitly to either of them, but there are some poems alluding to them. However, in order to investigate these poems, it is better to take texts dealing with separation for wealth after marriage into consideration, and hence we will detail them in 6.32.

2