Tamil thinais

Tamil is one of the major languages of the Dravidian family. It is spoken by the Tamil
people of South India in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is also common in parts of Sri
Lanka and used by the Tamil diaspora all over the world. Today the number of Tamil
speakers around the world is estimated at !" milion. The Tamil language has a history
dating back to very ancient times.
Tamil boasts the oldest e#tant literature amongst other Dravidian languages which
has e#isted for over $""" years. It is one of the classical languaes of India. The
earliest period of Tamil literature is known as the Sangam literature and is roughly
dated from the %
rd
century &'( to the $
nd
century '( )or the *
th
century '( if you
include the later Sangam literature+.
The recorded history of the Tamil literature can be grouped broadly into seven
periods, Sangam period )%
rd
century &'( - $
nd
century '(+ later Sangam period - )$
nd
century '( - *
th
century '(+ .allava period )*
th
century '( - /
th
century '(+ 'hola
period )/
th
century '( - 0$
th
century '(+ Nayak period )0%
th
century '( - 0!
th
century
'(+ (uropean period )0!
th
century '( - 0/
th
century '(+ present period )$"
th
century '( onwards+. 1owever a simpler fourfold classification may be used for our
purposes, the Sangam classics the &hakti literature ethical literature and modern
literature .
The earliest period i.e. the Sangam literature )also known as the Sangam classics+ is
of particular interest to us. The term Sangam classics denotes to a body of classical
Tamil literature created between c. %"" &'( and $"" '(. The word 2Sangam3 refers
to literary academies where Tamil poets gathered regularly. The name itself is
probably of Indo-4ryan origin coming from 5Sangha5 the &uddhist term for a
religious community.
The Sangam literature is a body of independent isolated poems. It may be described
as bardic poetry. (ach of the Sangam poems is distinct and detached from other
poems forming a seperate unit. The corpus of Sangam poetry contains $%60 poems
composed by 7!% Tamil poets )0"$ of whom remain anonymous+ both men and women
from various professions and classes of society. The Sangam literature is largely
secular8 it deals with the everyday issues of the Tamil people, human emotions and
relationships love war politics trade etc.
4round 0""" 4D the Sangam poems were collected into various anthologies edited
and annotated with colophons by Tamil anthologists. 4 scholarly and commentarial
tradition developed around these anthologies. categories based roughly on chronology.
They were divided into The 9ajor (ighteen 4nthology Series ).ati e m:lka akku +
consisting of The (ight 4nthologies )( uttokai +, 4inkurunuru 4kananuru ;uruntokai
Narrinai .atirruppattu and .urananuru, and the Ten Idylls ).attupp< u+,
;urincippattu 'irupanarruppatai Netunalvatai .attinappalai .erumpanarruppatai
9aturaikkanlci 9alaipatukatam 9ullaippattu Tirumurukarruppatai and The 9inor
(ighteen 4nthology Series ).ati e k= ka akku +.
The works of Sangam literature were lost and forgotten in later medieval times
several centuries before being re-discovered by Tamil scholars such as 4rumuga
Navalar S. >. Damodaram .illai and ?. >. Swaminatha Iyer who collected catalogued
edited and studied a large number of Sangam manuscripts.
Sangam poetry may be broadly divided into two categories, the @inner field@ )4kam+
and the @outer field@ ).uram+. This classification is available in the Tolkappiyam - a
brilliant ancient Tamil work dealing primarily with the grammar of the Tamil language.
The @inner field@ topics concern personal issues primarily emotions such as love and
se#ual relationships and are often described in a metaphorical and symbolical manner.
The @outer field@ topics discuss other aspects of human e#perience the more 3public3
ones such as war heroism politics social life etc.
Tamil poetry is highly codified and conventionaliAed. The conventions for Tamil
Sangam poetry including that of thinai were laid down among others in the
Tolkappiyam. The most important convention is categorisation of poems into different
ti ai s or modes. This division is primatily associated with the akam poetry where
each ti ai was associated with a particular emotional stage or type of a love
relationship. There are seven principal tinais of akam poetry. They are divided into
five geographical tinais and two non-geographical tinais.
(ach of the five geographical tinais was closely associated with a particular
landscape and a large set of imagery B flora fauna people time of the year and day
climate geography passtimes etc connected with that landscape. 4ll these
associated features were woven into the poem in such a way as to convey a mood
associated with one aspect of a romantic relationship. They could be combined with a
certain degree of freedom however their meaning was very clear and governed by a
strictly unambiguous code. The five landscapes were, mountains )kurinchi+ forests
)mullai+ agricultural land )marutham+ coastal regions )neithal+ deserts )paalai+. The
first four landscapes are described as naturally e#isting in Tamil lands. The situations
and emotional states associated with each of the landscapes are respectively, union
of the lovers patient waiting loverCs infidelity and sulking scenes separation and
an#ious waiting elopement but also hardships such as separation from one@s lover or
parents.
In addition to the landscape-based geographical thinais there e#ist two non-
geographical thinais namely kaikkilai and perunthinai. They are used for describing
unreciprocated love and inappropriate love against the ancient Tamil customs. So we
can see that both the non-geographical tinais are concerned with kinds of love which
were considered wrong or unnatural for some reason. 4n e#ample of these non-
geographical thinais used is a poem describing the unreciprocated love between a
dwarf and a hunchbacked woman.
4s we can see this classification cover both pre-marital and marital )as well as e#tra-
marital+ love )kalavu and karpu+ both wellBmatched and illBmatched union thus
providing a detailed classification and description of all the aspects of the love
e#perience between a man and a woman.
4lthough the concept of thinai is primarily associated with akam love poetry the
puram poetry uses similar thinais as well. These categories are based primarily on the
kind of military activity rather than on the landscape. (ach of these puram thinais
has it@s akam counterpart. The following thinais are used in the puram poetry,
cattle raid )vetchi+ invasion )vanchi+ siege )ulinai+ pitched battle )thumpai+ victory
)vakai+ transience of the world )kanchi+ praise of kings elegy asking for gifts
)patan+.
It is an undisputed fact that the Tamil Sangam literature occupies a uniDue place
among the world literatures due to its brilliance. It is unusual that the Tamil Sangam
poets could create images of uniDue and lasting beauty while at the same time
adhering to a strict code of symbolism.
;rystian ;osowski