The kurinici theme for Kama

This theme is totally devoted to premarital love, which is termed in

the poetry kalavu, "the hidden," "the secret."
Friend, Confidante
Ananku
Lovers not presented together
The word punarcci in the context of the akam poetry has a
terminological meaning as it serves to term the situational element,
uripporul, of the kurifici theme. I should emphasize that the term
reflects the main meaning of the lyrical theme, since the heroes'
encounter as such is not mentioned. Moreover, the lovers are never
presented together their elopement being an exception
(incidentally, this motif is excluded from the kurifici theme and is
included into the palai theme). In the monologue-poems the state of
the heroes is described either prior to their meeting or following the
meeting, to reproduce their feelings and reminiscences of the secret
rendezvous, their joys of future trysts and their sorrows of parting.
Plant symbolism
Particularly meaningful and typical of the poetry as a whole is the
character of the heroine, with prominent plant symbolism. Indeed,
plant symbols inevitably accompany a description of a woman in
the poetry: her smooth and beautiful shoulders are likened to
bamboo (panaittol AN 62, 3), her dark eyes to a kuvalai lily
(kuvalaiyari kanne KT 13, 5 ), she is "like a shoot under streaming
rain" (KT 22, 7), her "thick black hair smells like a kuvalai lily, her
honeyed mouth like an ampal lily, her breasts are like lotus buds"
1

(KT 300, 1-3), her "beautiful fine hair smells of the rainy season" (AN
198, 5; 208. 23-24), "her brow smells of honey" (Nar. 62, 6) or of
"newly-opened cool-smelling kfmtal flowers that have opened their
delicate buds" (AN 238, 16-18) or of "white kadamba flowers,
yielding perfume" (Nar. 20, 3) etc. She is
Like a splendid garland, woven of fresh stems of
Jasmine, kantal flowers and sweet-smelling lilies,
Is her body;
It is more tender than a shoot and is sweet for embrace. (KT 62)
Floral motifs in a description of the woman serve to
symbolize the life-giving power of vegetation, are related to
the feminine energy and accentuate its auspicious aspect. The
awakening of this force, which is signified by puberty, is understood
as a natural process (of growth) and is directly perceived as a
blossoming of bodily beauty: "the buds of your breasts are ripe,
your teeth are shining, you have put on a skirt made of leaves" (AN
7, 1-2); "The buds of her breasts have blossomed, the soft thick hair
falls from her head, the compact rows of her white teeth are full,
since she has lost her baby teeth, and a few spots (cunariku) have
appeared on her body" (KT 337, 1-2; 4). These spots, (curzariku),
golden, like a young vaikai flower (AN 319, 8-9),13 are likened to
flower pollen. One of the meanings of the word cunanku, "signs of
puberty" indicates that the body of the young girl is filled with
ananku (cf. "fair spots have appeared where apariku dwells," the
poem crvakacinta-mani, 10th century, A.D.14). Ananku was thought
to be concentrated in certain parts of a female body: her shoulders
2

(Nar. 39, 11; also AN 295, 20); her breasts (AN 177, 19; Nar. 9, 5-6)
and her alkul, loins (Mons Veneris). Adding these details to the
portrait of a young woman common to ancient Tamil poetry, the
poets supply it with sexual attractiveness and, simultaneously,
emphasize the idea of fertility.
Colours
Floral associations in the female portrait are interspersed with
certain colour symbols, as colours are significant in creating this
portrait, with the dominant dark-blue colour (nilam) associated with
rain clouds, the sea, a sapphire, peacock, mango tree. This colour
symbolizes fertility in Indian culture, through its link with the colour
of rain clouds: thus, dark-blue is the colour of Tirumal Krsna, his
invariable attribute; it is also the colour of the goddess Korravai in
her beneficial aspect (Cf. nili, "dark-blue," "dark"). In the Tamil love
poetry this colour is inherent in the heroine who is referred to as
mayg, "dark," her body being likened to dark shoots of mango
(amnia rani, Nar. 134, 7; mantai kavin, "mango-like beauty," Ain.
454, 4; KT 27, 5), 16 a kuririci flower (Nar. 301, 2), a sapphire (AN
172, 17), a peacock (AN 158, 5), her eyes painted with kohl
(maiyurzkan), they are like a dark kuvalai lily (AN 62, 5; Nar. 77, 12);
her hair is sapphire-coloured (AN 3, 10), or like the dark river sand
(AN 142, 18; 162, 10), or like the darkness of the night (Nar. 155, 4).
The heroine's dark hair in poetry descriptions is fairly meaningful as
well, in view of the established association between hair and "the
vital forces and fertility" (see for example [Heesterman 1957: 215;
Yalman 1964: 136; Hallpike 1969]).
In contrast to the dark tonality of the heroine her brow sparkles,
"glittering with immaculate whiteness, like the new moon" (AN 192,
3

1-2). It is generally described as white, glittering, sparkling, glowing,

shining (val nutal, cutar nutal, onnutal; See Nar. 42, 5; 72, 10; 108,
8 etc.). We shall return to this detail in the portrait of the heroine
below; now it would suffice to mention that the motif of whiteness in
the portrait of the heroine is significant both mythologically (as
womanhood is symbolically linked with the moon, while manhood is
[[ 16 The association of the mango with the female principle, noted
above, in the first chapter, is well demonstrated in the poetry
imagery. Cf. also the following lines from the poetry of the Santals:
"My breasts are mangos;" "0 sweetheart! Your body is like a mango"
[Archer 1974: 115]]

generally associated with the sun) and ritually, since the white
colour serves to symbolize, in the South-Indian ritual practice, the
sacred energy in its beneficial, "cooled," controlled state.
Correspondingly, the white colour is employed in the appropriate
stages of South-Indian ritual [Beck 1969: 557].
Heroine imagery
Thus the imagery employed to describe the heroine, with a constant
nomenclature of details in the portrait and plant and colour
metaphors, unmistakably reveals prominent fertility semantics in
the image of the heroine: a poetical representation of nature's
procreative force. In the poetry this image is permeated with
sensual concreteness to become an embodiment of gentleness,
sweetness, coolness and moisture; all these qualities project
beneficial influence on the male hero: "The water-like sweetness of
the broad-shouldered daughter of a huntsman from a small village
4

on the slope of flowering mountains where clear silvery streams are

ringing in the clefts, falling down from the dark mountain tops, has
cooled off my fiery passion" (KT 95).
The value characteristic of the female beauty and, along
with this, the view of woman as associated with fertility and
the vital forces are best conveyed in the situation of the
separation of lovers. The separation of the lovers in the kuririci
theme does not last long (it is generally connected with certain
obstacles to the lovers' clandestine meetings), yet the suffering is
no less tormenting for the young couple, particularly for the
heroine; the main cause of her distress, interestingly, is the state of
her body:
"My brow has become sallow, the spots on my body have faded,
My tender arms, like bamboo stems, have thinned, so that
The bracelets keep slipping off my wrists.
It's all because of you!" What if you say this, o friend,
Of the poor state of my good body
To him, who dwells in the mountains, where the purple kantal
flowers,
Like a striped serpent's hood,
Are falling thick upon stones, torn off by the west wind? (KT 185)
The sallowness (pacalai, pacappu) referred to in this poem, is a
characteristic tint acquired by the heroine's body during separation,
that "eats up" its natural dark colour: "the mango-like beauty of my
5

loins, covered with spots, will be eaten up by sallowness" (pacalai

untiyar ventum KT 27, 4); "the good of my beauty has, for the
first time, been eaten by suffering" (nalam putitunta pulampinane
KT 133, 5). Thus, during separation the heroine is stripped of all
her bodily beauty; it withers away like a plant during the hot
season: "My brow, my shoulders, my loins covered with snots, my
complexion, my beauty, the stripes on my body: everything has
withered away, thus laments the maid" (AN 119, 1-3).
We have now mentioned certain poetic motifs which, in one way or
another arose from the concept of the ambivalent sacred energy
inherent in woman and which represent its polarizing aspects. Let
us now turn to the mythological sources of the kurinci theme. The
examples and the argumentation provided are sufficient to suggest
the key role of the idea of fertility in the ancient Tamil love canon. In
this vein it is not accidental that the figure of Murukan frequently
makes his appearance in the kurinci poetry. Firstly, Murukan is the
patron deity of the kurinci region, the background against which the
love story is typically set. Secondly, it is Murukan who is worshipped
as the lord of ananku, the god who inspires love passion. The image
of Murukan in the sphere of eroticism is so significant that his
romance with Valli, a maiden from a tribe of mountain hunters,
kuravars, is essentially the pattern on which the lyrical subject of
the kurinci theme is based.
Let us have a closer look at the myth of Murukan's and Valli's
passion. Its most complete and authoritative version appears rather
late, in the source dated to the 14th century A.D., the
kantapuranam ("The Skanda purana"). It is included into the last,
24th canto of the 6th part of the purana, "The Chapter on the
6

sacred marriage of Valli" (valliyammai tirumanappcitalam). I shall

relate it briefly. 25
In a village beneath the hill now called Vallimalai lived a hunter
called Nampi; all his children were boys, but he longed for a little
girl. On the mountain slope, an ascetic by the name of Sivamuni
was engaged in austerities. One day a gazelle went by, and the
ascetic was aroused by its lovely shape; his lascivious thoughts
made the gazelle pregnant. The daughter of Mal (=Visnu) was
incarnated in the embryo. In due time, the gazelle gave birth to a
female child in a ditch which was dug out by the women of the
hunters' tribe when they searched for the tubers of the sweet
potato (vafii). The female deer, having found out that she had given
birth to a strange being, abandoned the child, which was discovered
by the hunter Nampi and his wife. Overwhelmed with joy, they took
the little girl to their but and named her Valli.
When Valli reached the age of twelve, she was sent to the millet
fields in agreement with the custom of the hillmen to guard
the crops against parrots and other birds, and against wild boars
and other animals, sitting up in an elevated hut, and chasing the
potential enemies of the millet fields away.
The sage Narada, who visited Vallimalai and saw the girl, went to
Tanikai, to inform god Murukan about Valli's beauty and about her
devotion to the god.
Murukan assumed the form of a hunter, and, as soon as he arrived
at Valli's field, he addressed the lovely girl enquiring after her home
and family. However, at that moment Nampi and his hunters

brought some food for Valli (honey, millet flour, sweet potatoes,
milk) and Murukan assumed the form of a tree vetikai.
When Nampi and his company disappeared, the god reappeared in
a hu-man form, approached Valli and told her that he would like to
love her. Valli silently lowered her head and then answered that it
was not proper for him to love a woman from the low tribe of
hunters. At that moment they heard the sound of approaching
music. Valli warned Murukan that the hunters are wild and angry
men and the god transformed himself into a very old Saivite
devotee. Nampi and his hunters asked his blessings and returned
home.
The old man asked Valli for food, and she gave him some millet flour
mixed with honey. When he had eaten, he wanted to drink, and he
followed the girl to the small forest pond, where he quenched his
thirst. Then he told her: "You have satisfied my hunger and
quenched my thirst. Now I suffer from the fever of love, and only
you can cure me." Valli reproached him, and wanted to return to her
fields.
At that moment, Murukan invoked the help of his brother Vinayaka
who appeared behind Valli in the shape of a frightening elephant.
The tenor-stricken girl rushed into the arms of the Saiva ascetic,
who dragged her into a thicket and, while embracing her, assumed
his real form, with six heads, twelve arms, and seated on his
peacock. Carried away by this vision, Valli prostrated at his feet and
worshipped him as her god. He told her that she was, in fact, the
daughter of Tirumal, and that she should return to her millet fields,
where he would follow her. Valli complied with his wish.
8

A female companion of Valli questioned the girl about her absence

and the striking changes in her physiognomy, but Valli answered in
an evasive way. Soon after that, Murukan, again in the shape of a
hunter, appeared in front of the two girls and the companion
observed that Valli and the hunter exchanged amorous looks.
Therefore, she demanded that the hunter remove himself. He then
admitted his love for Valli and warned her that, if she would not help
them to meet and enjoy their love, he would resort to the custom of
matal. The companion agreed and took Valli to a nearby forest,
where the divine hunter met her, and the lovers enjoyed their love.
After that, Valli returned to her millet field and joined her friend.
As the harvest time approached, the tribesmen called Valli back to
the hamlet and, with a heavy heart, she returned to the house of
Nampi. Her clandestine-love affair with Murukan ended. The mother,
who noticed Valli's unhappiness, invited a soothsaying woman, who
stated that the trouble was due to the lack of devotion to Murukan.
Hence, a ceremony in honour of the god was organised.
Cevvel-Murukan went to the millet field, and, not finding Valli there,
he came, at midnight, to the hamlet, and with the aid of her
companion, Valli and her divine lover eloped.
The next morning Nampi's wife discovered Valli's disappearance.
The furious hunter-chief organized a party of hillmen in pursuit of
the fugitives. When they reached them, they discharged their
arrows at Murukan, but the divine cock who accompanied Murukan
crowed, and the hunters fainted and died. Valli lamented the death
of her adoptive parents, but Skanda-Murukan took her along. On
their way they encountered Narada who explained to Murukan that
9

he should obtain the consent of her parents. The god therefore

turned and ordered Valli to resuscitate her parents, which she did:
Nampi, his wife and his companions rose as if from deep sleep.
Murukan then assumed his true shape. Amazed and awed, the
hunter-chief worshipped him and begged him to return to the
hamlet to be married in accordance with the customs of the tribe.
The whole village rejoiced. The young pair was seated on a tiger's
skin, Nampi placed the hand of Valli in the hand of Murukan and
declared them married, while Narada assisted. At that moment, the
god of gods, Siva, and Parvati, Hari, Brahma and Indra, appeared in
the air, blessed the newlywed, and disappeared again. Nampi then
offered everyone a feast: plenty of honey, millet flour, and jungle
fruits.
After a short stay at Ceruttani (Tanikai, Tiruttani), Murukan and Valli
returned to Skandagiri, where they were welcomed with joy by
Devasena. The two wives of Skanda-Murukan lived in harmony like
Ganga and Yamuna, in affection and respect for their husband.
The mythological meaning/contents of the Valli-Murukan story is
rich / rather sumptuous. The story is rich in mythology: it can be
interpreted as a myth of establishing family relationships between a
tribe of hunters and their deity (Murukan's patronage is
strengthened by his marriage to a "kuravar daughter"); as a myth of
the sun and moon encounter [Clothey 1977: 208]; as a reflection of
the change of darkness to the light of dawn and daytime; and as the
establishment of emotional links between the god and his devotees
which defies hierarchical structure (along the lines of the bhakti). It

10

is the idea of fertility discernible in the story that presents particular

interest to me.
From what has been said above regarding Valli it becomes clear that
she represents the vital forces of nature and, specifically, of the
kurbici region landscape. Besides, being a personification of a
plant with edible tubers (valli), she symbolizes the abundance of
mountain plants which provide the kuravars with staple food;
therefore, Valli can be viewed as a personification of productive
energy in South Indian shifting cultivation. Murukan, lord of the
mountains, personifies the male force and, in his sexual union with
Valli, manifestation of the feminine forces of nature, tames and
controls them; fertilizing the feminine, he grants fertility to the
kurifici region.
When we analyse the subject of this myth against the background
of the kuriiici theme, it can be easily seen that, in its basic features
(of course, with the exception of some additional elements: e.g. the
episodes of Valli's supernatural birth, of the presence of certain
Hindu mythological figures: Narada, Ganda, Devasend, or of the
magic appearance of Murukan seated on his peacock all of them,
no doubt, included at later stages of the myth's development, in the
mainstream of the pan-Indian mythological tradition), the myth can
be viewed as identical to a typical love story of the kuririci theme.
We do not know whether the myth existed as a recorded version in
a fixed form at the time when the poetry texts we possess were
composed, yet it can be asserted that the central concept, i.e., the
idea of Valli's union with Murukan was already there; cf.: "Will you
come (to me), o hill-maiden with a graceful gait, like Valli came, who
11

had lain with Murukan7" (Nar. 82, 3-4). In one way or another the
Valli-Murukan story could have served as a model, a prototype for
ideal human behaviour,26 but it seems to me that the specific links
between the poetry and the myth lie in another sphere.
Apart from semantic likeness between the core of the myth and the
main subject of the kurifici theme there is the underlying common
concept: the basic concept of fertility, of sexual intercourse to
ensure it and to attain control over the female sacred force,
represented, in nature, by vegetation. Approached from this angle,
both the poetry subject and the actual tribal relationships as a
social background against which the subject is set, become no less
mythologized than the puranic version of the story: each of them
should be treated as a variant or, more precisely, as a means of
realizing one basic mythologeme, while the differences are manifest
merely in their formal structure.
In this context the figures of the main characters in the love poetry
acquire mythological significance. Thus the heroine symbolizes the
natural force of fertility. Plant symbolism links her directly with the
mythological figure of Valli; the link becomes still more prominent
when we consider a meaningful detail in the portrait of a woman
created in the poetry: her hair arranged in five strands (Nar. 140, 3;
160, 6; AN 8, 10; 152, 3 etc.).27 The custom to part hair in this
particular way may have originated in the desire of unmarried girls
to copy Valli, since she, on her part, was identified with the plant
known to have five petals (IP, p. 582). The same explanation can be
provided for another custom of young girls from mountain villages
who called themselves koticci (e.g. in AN 58, 5; 102, 5; and in Nar.
276, 4), the word being derived from the root
12

26 "The story of Valli and Murukan was sufficiently known to provide

a divine model for human behaviour and a material for the poet to
draw a simile from." [Zvelebil 1977a: 233].
27 mani er aimpal mayob dark, "with five strands of hair, likened in
its beauty to a sapphire" (Nar. 133, 5).
koti, a liana, a supple stem (another characteristic of the valli
plant): cf. an invocation to Murukan in a hymn from the paripatal
(19, 95): "0 thee, who has united with a liana!" (kotiyaik kfitiyOy).
28
The hero of the kuri fici theme is, in a similar fashion, likened to
Murukan: "Having put on a wreath of honey-bearing aromatic
clusters of the verikai which grows on mountain slopes shining with
water of clear, tumbling streams, making love, under the sound of
a tontaka drum, to the women who dance in a small village, you are
like Murukan on the move" (AN 118, 1-5), says the heroine's close
friend to the hero. Like Murukan who is represented with "a fresh
garland adorning [his chest] around which bees are humming" (Nar.
173, 8), or "wearing a wreath made from kadamba flowers,
smelling of the monsoon" (Nar. 34, 8), the hero comes to a secret
meeting with his beloved "wearing a wreath made of bright white
lilies" (AN 48, 8-9) or of the kfivilam (Nar. 119, 9), or "with a garland
adorning his breast" (AN 128, 8). Sometimes he comes with a spear
in his hand:
When in the middle of the night full of darkness and rain, Down
mountain slopes with streams, he, raising his spear, Lit by the
flashing lightnings, will come,

13

What will then become of our sweet life, o friend,

At the thought of the vicissitudes of his journey? (Nar. 334, 6-9)
The one (our sweetheart) has come with a spear, Which, flashing
like lightning,
Beams his way and drives away darkness from the fearsome clefts
Of dark night mountains where ananku dwells And where streams
are running. (AN 272, 2-6)
There is no doubt that the hero of the kurinci poetry is none other
than Murukan's counterpart. He is always referred to in the poetry
as a "mountain dweller," a "highlander," "he who belongs to a
mountain country" (cilampan, poruppan, verpan, malai nedan, malai
kdavOn) the title which truly belongs to Murukan as the lord of the
mountains (cf. netu varai kurifici kilavan, malai kilavon, "lord of the
kuririci country of high mountains," "lord of the mountains," TMA
267, 317). As to the heroine, she, too, is not-infrequently referred to
in the kurifici poetry as a "mountain dweller," "a woman from the
kuravar tribe," "the daughter of a kuravar hunter" (kuramakcd,
kuravan nzakal), which, once again, directly links her with Valli,
"daughter of kuravars."
28 Cf. also valli nun itai, "thin like a valli plant's (or: like Valli's? )
waist" (AN 286, 2).

Thus drawn into the aura of Murukan, the hero is portrayed using a
minimum of poetic devices; as a matter of fact, only one detail is
sufficient to create his portrait: it is his breast, "cool, smelling of
14

sandal wood" (KT 161, 1; 321, 1; Nar. 168, 10), or "broad" (AN 22,
3), or "strong, like mountain slopes" (KT 76, 2; AM. 220, 3). Sweetsmelling, adorned with garlands, indeed the hero's chest provides
a parallel to a mountain overgrown with blossoming trees, a symbol
of affluent vegetation, strength, firmness and stability; the hero's
chest serves as a versatile symbol of his merits: his procreative
power and his unshakable strength. It is the hero's chest that
draws the heroine's passionate feelings and thoughts; it is also the
source of her pangs of love: "When I think of the broad chest of the
highlander, anointed with sandalwood paste, the pain inside me
grows" (KT 150, 3-5); "the chest of the highlander brings torture
(anatiku)" (Nar. 17, 12); "his broad sweet-smelling chest causes me
pain of worry" (AN 72, 2-3). At the same time the chest of the
beloved is capable of alleviating the pangs of passion in the
heroine: "It was sweet when I pressed myself to your chest" (AN 58,
9); "pressing (myself) to the chest of the highlander cools me" (AN
98, 5). For the heroine "there is no medicine like the chest [of the
beloved]" (KT 68, 4); his chest gives her protection ("friend's
protection," AN 35, 13). Notably, in the panegyrical poetry, as well,
the warrior's chest is the most notable detail of his portrait (PN 59,
1; 88, 4; 96, 1).
In search for mythico-ritual sources of the character of the hero it
should be borne in mind that he is, as it were, lighted, "animated"
by Murukan. In this vein it would be interesting to draw attention to
a custom familiar to Indian cul-ture, to represent a god by a stone or
stone slab. A stone is a common symbol of a mountain,
representing it in miniature form (cf. for example the cult of a black
stone, symbolically representing the mountain and its lord, Krsna.
15

[Vaudeville 1968: 744]; it also represents the inner energy (firmness

is interpreted as a quality inherent in objects rich in the force). In
this respect it would be worthwhile to mention a variant of a stone
cult, the adoration of the so-called "hero-stones" (virakkal), that is,
stone slabs erected on battlefields or in other places in honour of
the dead warriors. These hero-stones were decorated with peacock
feathers and garlands (PN 264, 2-4). An image of such a stone
which, it was believed, would house a warrior's soul after his death
and which was meant to represent, symbolically, his prowess as a
warrior, was perhaps present in the imagination of an early Tamil
poet who would create a perfect image of strength and courage.
A development of the "stone theme" in the sphere of eroticism is
found in a Saivite myth connected with the temple of
Ekambaregvara in Kacipuram. Its central story describes the
flooding of the Kambai river. During the flooding, Kamaksi, the
would-be consort of Siva, fearing that the temple would sink,
embraced it. The flame of her passion softened the litigam stone; as
a result, it bore imprints of her breasts and bracelets (Shulman
1979: 29). This episode is very significant as it contains the motif of
the softening or melting of flesh characteristic of the love poetry.
This idea serves to express strong passion and devotion. "0 heart,
exclaims the hero, when you saw the natural beauty of her
dark hair, you melted like the salt in the cart left on the sea shore
under [torrents of] rain" (KT 165, 3-5 ); "he is firmer than stone, o
friend, but, without thinking about it, my heart melts" (KT 187, 4-5);
" I am afraid, o friend, that you will melt like salt extracted from the
sea and left to lie on the shore in the rain" (Nar. 88, 4-5)29

16

The quality of bodily strength inherent in the hero is mirrored in the

stead-fastness of his love. Having entered an intimate relationship
with the heroine he becomes her support, ready to join her forever:
He who is steadfast in his word, ever sweet,
Will never part with my shoulders;
His love is like a honeycomb among the branches
Of a tall sandal tree where the sweet honey is mixed
With the cool pollen of lotus flowers, raised high by the wind. Like
the world that cannot go without water,
I cannot live separated from him,
Yet, merciful towards me, he fears
Lest my sweet-smelling brow should fade,
But meanness in his deeds is alien to him. (Nar. 1)
When the main characters have to part, the hero promises his
beloved to return in due time to marry her. Her taunts, the pangs of
separation, and, frequently, reproaches are typical collisions in the
kurifici theme: "He cannot be a liar, can he? Can he deceive those
to whom he said 'Don't be afraid! Fear not!' Nay! The moon
would rather go up in flames than the dweller of spacious
mountains steps back from the truth" (Kal. 42, 21-24).
Such a firm belief in the noble ways of the hero, so passionately
worded, is more like a magic spell based on the heroine's
identification of her lover with the fertility god whose figure is
lurking in the background. It is the deity that
17

29 The motif of melting caused by love is highly characteristic of

the Tamil bhakti poetry, for example:" thou [o iva], have melted
my stone heart...." (MAnikkavacalcar, the tiruvacakam, X, 11, 2); cf.
also Appar's invocation addressed to iva: "If you melt us, is there
one who has not been melted?"

"structures" the heroes' relationship and their ultimate goal, linked

with the idea of community well-being. Correspondingly, his actions
and his goodness as a whole are measured according to the hero's
intentions to reach this goal, that is, the union with the heroine. As
the lines in Nar. 22 9-10 have it, for the heroine "the coming of the
hero is like the arrival of the midnight rain awaited by the half-dried
rice in the month of tai" (Cf. Kal. 25, 27-29: "0 the glorious one!
Her delicate beauty at the time when you are unkind to her is like
this world when the skies refuse rain") and, therefore, the true or
false measure of his deeds is compared with the true or misleading
signs of rain, long-awaited by the farmer and the crops.
Thus the images of the kurifici poetry are repeatedly interwoven
with the characters of the mythological couple, Murukan and Valli;
sometimes the re-semblance turns to a complete identification of
the heroes with the mythological personae (cf. AN 388, 20: "From
our lord's ananku this pain has come" where one cannot tell
whether the heroine refers to her lover or to Murukan). Such coincidences, significantly, reflect in the poetry an important feature
of Tamil culture: love passion is viewed as a state of possession, as
madness (see analysis of the folklore poem about Murukan and Valli
[Beck 1975: 109]). It is this anomalous state that is characterized
18

by the change in the sphere of consciousness, its manifestation is

the subject's identification (self-identification including) with
someone else, most often, with a deity ("an identification process is
the fundamental principle of cults connected with possession"
[Rouget 1977: 237]; cf. also [Wilson 1967: 374]).30 If we look at the
ancient Tamil lovers from this standpoint, it becomes clear that to
them the characters of Valli and Murukan were not, most probably,
models to follow or "the ideal prototype for human behaviour"
[Zvelebil 1977: 233], but the socially approved modus vivendi set
for a particular stage of life. As a velan priest possessed by ananku
personified Murukan, likewise, the lovers possessed by passion (that
is, again, by Murukan) were personified as Valli and Murukan within
the script of their "love story" and played out this mythological
theme. As if they were stepping onto the ritual field (kalam)
where, estranged from their individual selves, they became actors,
each playing his or her part designed to ascertain ritual control over
the power related to the sphere of sex.
Gift / present
Another motif typical of the kurifici theme is of interest,
emphasizing the purely ritual pattern of the lovers' behaviour: the
young man gives the girl a present, a skirt made of leaves (talai). If
the girl accepts the present it is under stood as a sign of
concession: she is willing to accept his courtship and enter free sex.
Such skirts are common attributes in South-Indian ritual lore; they
are usually worn during frenzied trance-like dances performed in a
state of possession [Claus 1979: 106] and during rites of the
goddess Durga's worship (Whitehead mentions the custom
according to which the women who entered a Durga temple had to
19

wear clothes made of margosa branches [Whitehead 1976: 76];

see also [Beck1981: 117]). Also Nar. 359 (2-3) mentions girls seated
on swings who cover their loins with skirts.
Wearing a skirt made of leaves is, no doubt, a significant sign to
point out at the identification of the heroine with the goddess. The
fact alone that the heroine accepts the present from the hero may
be interpreted as her willingness to identify herself with the
goddess, Valli (in this particular case). A poem from Nar. 359
describes the heroine's reflections on this account:
The highlander from the country where
A short-legged red cow
Grazing on the slopes
Touched the sumptuous branches of kantal
And, ashamed, is looking [without recognizing it]
At her calf, covered with [red] pollen,
[He] gave me a skirt. If I put it on,
I shall be afraid of mother; if I give it back to him
I am afraid, our love will end.
Strong, although somewhat veiled mythological associations are
discernible in yet another rite common to the kuriiici theme, the
"palmyra palm horse riding" (matal erutal). There are mentions of
this rite in a number of poems, it is performed to demonstrate
unsatisfied sexual desire. Rejected by the girl, having exhausted all
other means to win her affection or to gain recognition by the girl's
20

parents, the hero threatens to resort to an extreme means: he will

mount a prickly branch of a palmyra palm decorated appropriately
("the palmyra-stem horse"):
With golden new avirai flowers
Woven with a garland made of threads,
The palmyra horse is decorated;
Bells jangling,
Having cast away my shame I shall mount it
With torturing pain inside me, continuously growing'
"So-and-so has caused it!" I shall tell everybody,
And our village will be abusing her.
Thus, knowing what awaits me, I am now ready
To face it. (KT 173)
Each detail of the rite: the bells (KT 182, 2), the avirai and the
erukku flowers with unpleasant smell (KT 12, 2; Nar. 152, 2; 220, 2),
a garland made of tinsel or of white bones (KT 182, 3) are
elements pointing at the hero's resolution to be disgraced in public
and to his readiness to suffer self-humiliation in front of the house of
his sweetheart in order to bring pressure on her parents to give
their consent to marriage. The origin and meaning of the rite is not
entirely clear: it may be an analogy of an offering in front of the
locked temple of the goddess Korravai (cf. the "locked," concealed
heroine); perhaps the young lover identifies his beloved with the
goddess Korravai in her demoniac aspect (the key word for this
21

interpretation is innal, "she is like that," that is, "the way I represent
her," which is quite meaningful). The paraphernalia employed: bells,
bones and, particularly, the avirai and the erukku are commonly
known symbols of the palai region (AN 301, 11; 14), the domain of
the goddess. Disclosing his beloved to the community in such a way
the hero possibly wishes to draw attention to the dangerous aspect
of the sacred force inherent in her; the force which is at the moment
(out of wedlock) in an uncontrolled state. It is also possible that the
motif of bareness (no doubt, socially meaningful) is emphasized in
the rite by the hero's mounting a thorny branch: it is also plausible
that this unpleasant procedure suggests castration.
The subject of the palmyra stem horse ride is, as a matter of fact,
connected with the subject of the kurifici theme formally related to
the peruntinai theme ("ill-matched love") which represents excesses
of love passion and is not included by the authors of the treatises
into the five-fold classification of titzai-themes. Yet despite its
unusual character, stepping aside from the ideal of harmonious
love, the motif did find reflexion in a number of poems. Moreover, it
was fixed in the tradition and constituted the subject matter of
chapter 114 in the tirukkural, to become later one of the favourite
themes of the bhakti poets (the matal theme; see [Hardy 1983:
396]) which, in itself, is suggestive of the ritual meaning and of the
cult significance of the situation.
I have tried to trace down the principles according to which the
main characters of the kurinci theme are structured. Let us now
examine other techniques which could be employed by the poets
for artistic expression of the basic stages of love situations.

22

Having described the situational element (uripporul) of the

kurifici theme it would be worthwhile to study the two other
elements, mutal and karu, the landscape and the objects
surrounding the love scene.
We already know that the love story is set against a mountain
landscape, the time being the cold season and the season of the
early dews that follow the monsoon. A traditional interpretation of
mountains in the Tamil tradition has been referred to as well, in
connection with Murukan. I should emphasize that the country is
plentiful, with nature generously providing man with its riches:
plants and flowers, cereals and honey, the waters of mountain
springs and lakes. In general, this landscape represents life and
fertility or, more precisely, and this is particularly significant for the
theme under study the male and the female forces (or, the solar
[male] and the vegetative [female] principles) in their blessed
union. It is this mythologeme that is embodied in the Valli-Murukan
story and, also, in the similar subject unravelled in the kuriiici
theme. It finds a vivid expression in the portraits of the main heroes
and in a number of details of the landscape.
It would be natural to assume that the mytho-poetic frame of mind
which borrows images from the surrounding landscape to model
human characters and human behaviour is prepared for a reverse
procedure: to interpret natural phenomena as projections of human
relationships. The two processes are, in fact, complementary, while
when such important things as birth, love union and death, common
to people worldwide, come into play, the two processes can be
viewed as identical. The essential unity of man and nature is a
central idea to Indian culture. It finds its reflexion in mythology, art
23

and ritual (it would suffice to remind of certain customs, for

example, marriage between trees, common in South India [Biardeau
1981: 231], marriage between people and trees, the dohada custom
according to which a young girl should touch a plant so that it would
blossom, and many other fertility rites).
If we view the kuritici theme from this angle a lot of objects of
nature mentioned in the poetry acquire symbolic significance.
Particularly striking is the symbolism of the venkai tree. It is a
typical plant of mountain flora, a symbol of the kurinici landscape.
The most specific feature of this black-trunked tree are clusters of
bright golden flowers, dark on the underside (eri vaikai, a fiery
vetikai, Kal. 45, 17). Hence the name "tiger," the word denoting
either the tree or the flower. Its flower petals are likened to tiger
skin (AN 228, 10-11): "falling upon the dam stone, the vetikai petals
make it look like the back of a tiger" (PN 202, 18-20; KT 47, 1-2).
Golden pollen of the velikai, too, is mentioned in the poems, since
the spots on the body of a woman can be likened to it.
It must be the colouring of the verikai tree that links it with
Murukan. Moreover, it can be suggested that the tree is in fact
Murukan's arboreal counter-part: in the story of Valli and Murukan
related in the kantapuranam Murukan turns into a verikai. The hero
of the kuririci theme who, as we already know, is identified with
Murukan, wears a wreath made from verikai flowers (AN 38, 1; 282,
10) as does Murukan (AN 118, 2); verikai wreaths and garlands
adorned the chests of kings. A poem in PN 21, 9 mentions a king
nicknamed verikai marpan, i.e. "with verikai adorning his chest;"
verikai wreaths were worn by warriors ("the warrior has a wreath of
verikai, palmyra and vetci, PN 103, 4-6). Being Murukan's tree, the
24

verikai can be expected to have ritual significance: dances were

performed beneath the verikai: "the kuravars, drunk with teral, are
dancing in the plot where a verikai is growing" (verikai munril, PN
129, 3; Nar. 276, 10). In AN 232, 7 there is a reference to a verikai
growing at the place for village meetings and festivals.
There can be little doubt that the verikai is related to Murukan as its
fiery flowers and pollen symbolize manhood (pollen is associated
with seed). The time of the verikai blossoming and of the pollen's
ripening and falling onto the ground is considered the auspicious
time for marriage (that is, for conception). It would be interesting to
mention (although this idea is nowhere explicitly expressed in the
poetry) that the sap of the verikai tree is red: hence the erotic
connotations of the verikai flowers. Erotic semantics of the verikai
flowers are accentuated by the accoutrement of certain actions
performed by the poems' characters, that have obvious ritual
meaning. It is not incidental that the kuravar maidens, already
mentioned, are seated on the swings hung from the verikai tree (Cf.
the verse quoted on p. 87: "Is there anything sweeter than the time
when we, dressed in skirts made from leaves to hide our loins, were
amusing ourselves on the swings hanging down a black-trunked
verikai tree growing on the edge of a large millet field, scaring away
parrots?" Nar. 363, 1-4). The skirts might well have been made of
the blossoms of the same verikai. At any rate, they are explicitly
mentioned in another poem: "Rejoicing, we adorned our tender
rising loins with clusters of red flowers from the black-trunked
verikai tree" (AN 345, 8-9).
Particularly remarkable in this respect is the fact that in one of the
versions of the myth, Valli climbs a verikai tree whose shape
25

Murukan has acquired, plucks a few leaves and makes a skirt for
herself; then, pressing her breasts to the tree, she embraces it like a
liana [Shulman 1980: 280-281]. Some poems contain reminiscences
of this episode. Thus, in Nar. 269, 7 and in AN 52, 1-2 a liana valli is
mentioned, climbing a verikai tree. Any creeper in a poetic
description, which embraces a tree can be perceived as a metaphor
of love union.
These symbolic descriptions of nature in the context of the kurinci
theme are subtle poetic hints used by the poet to imply that the
heroes have entered the stage of secret love.
Generally, references to the verikai and its blossoms have obvious
erotic overtones in the poem: a seemingly innocent and true to life
picture in which "a stream of water with verikai flowers fallen into it
washes the roots of a mango tree" (Par. VII, 14-15), viewed from the
standpoint of Tamil culture, has erotic connotations.32
[[32 A flow of water, with flowers, fruit or aromatic pollen fallen into
it are images commonly employed by poets and very much
favoured by them. See a description of a mountain stream in the
first chapter of the present study. Such a stream clearly symbolizes
semen. In the light of this metaphor the meaning of the bathing of
maidens in streaming waters becomes apparent.]]
The kantal (or tonri) is another traditionally employed symbol of
Murukan. This plant is an aromatic Malabar lily with a strong sweet
smell. Its yellow petals, long and curvy, resemble the tongues of
fire; therefore, in the poetry the flower is called "a forest oil-lamp"
(Nar. 69, 6) or "a flame" (AN 218, 20). Interestingly, it is compared
to a woman's lacquer-painted palm of hand (KT 167, 1; MPK 95).
26

Like the verikai, the red kantal in the kurifici theme is associated
with its main characters and has explicitly erotic connotations:
O friend! Do live! To my mother
The higher world will be a small [reward]
She did not scold me when I,
[Taking] a tender-petalled shoot of the [bright-coloured] kantal
Brought in the morning by the sweet-smelling waters
Of yesterday's rain on the mountain top,
Pressed it to my heart [so hard] that [the leaves] withered
And then planted it in front of my house. (KT 361)
If the verikai and the kantal represent the erotic aspect of Murukan
and, corre-spondingly, of the hero of the poetry, the sandalwood
tree, another representative of mountain flora, symbolizes their
strength (sandalwood is very hard) and, also, the idea of cooling
and attaining control over the sacred force (the cooling effect of
sandal paste is commonly known). Besides, sandalwood is reddish
in colour (See KT 321, 1), which further strengthens its symbolic link
with Murukan. In the poems the hero is frequently described with
his chest covered with sweet-smelling sandal paste (KT 150, 3; 161,
6; 321, 1 etc.), thus mountain associations, in one way or another
employed in the poetry, are used to the best effect:
O dweller of high mountains! I am tired of your promises!
You came at night, defying the dangers
Of stone paths amidst the bamboo,
27

And, embraced her young breasts, with spots, P

ressing yourself to her shoulders.
Bees were humming around, in multitudes... Then,
Looking fiercely [at her] her mother queried:
"Have you been like this before?"
Without answering, she looked at me.
"How can I help her?" I thought
And pointed to the sandalwood twigs,
Saying "It's from them!" (Nar. 55)
Superficially, the friend's words, aimed at explaining to the
heroine's mother the unusual looks of her daughter, would mean
that the girl was stung by the bees swarming around the
sandalwood twigs piled in the yard. The truth though is that during
her secret love meeting with her hero the girl was stung by another
swarm: the bees that were following her beloved (none other than
"Murukan," the "sweet-smelling, adorned with wreaths and
garlands"). The heroine's friend is pointing at the sandalwood twigs,
an attractive lure to the humming bees and offers her version of the
"accident" to save her friend froth the wrath of her parents, but
since the poem is structured as a monologue of the friend
addressing the hero, her words acquire a deeper meaning: she hints
that she is ready to unravel the mystery of their love, which is, in
fact, what she has already done, as sandalwood is a symbol of the
hero. Thus, dallying with the ambivalent meaning of the object

28

(sandalwood), using its direct and symbolic meanings, the friend

hints that the heroes' marriage is desirable.
The hero can be characterised by various and independent
landscape images (the luirupporul element of the tinai-theme).
The same can be said about the heroine's character: many objects
of the natural world that are used to define various aspects of the
energy are employed by poets to create the portrait of the heroine.
Sometimes these details of the landscape serve to represent the
setting, not the heroine, thus acquiring independent meaning.
Hence certain trees and plants figure in the poems: the valli creeper
or any liana, the mango tree, whose female connotations in Tamil
culture have been defined above,33 or the kuvalai lily which grows
in the cool water of ponds. Millet can be named among the symbols
of the heroine as she is frequently portrayed guarding millet fields:
in doing this she magically accelerates the ripening of millet which
seems to derive the power from her. There are certainly other
plants to which the heroine is compared: either in her looks or in the
stages of maturation.
Of special interest is the kurifici flower which gave its name to the
kurifici theme. Its associations with the heroine are unmistakable if
only along the lines of colour symbolism.34 But the symbolic
meaning attained to by this flower is still deeper. It is based on the
fact that the kurinci blossoms once in twelve years, which coincides
with the age of puberty for the girl in Tamilnadu. Therefore it is
evident why the poetic theme whose subject matter is connected
with the ripening of the sacred female force was given the name
kurinci although the flower is not frequently mentioned in the

29

poems (Nar. 116. 11; 268, 3; 301, 1; AN 308, 16; KT 3,3; PN 374, 8;
MK 301).
The kurifici is a honey-bearing flower. The honey of this particular
flower is considered the sweetest in the mountains [Samy 1955:
137]. Not unnaturally, this quality of the flower is projected on to
the heroine: she is frequently associated with honey: "her brow
smelling of honey" (Nar. 62, 6); "her mouth full of honey" (KT 300, 2)
or with flower pollen which attracts bees. The famous verse, KT 2, is
built upon this association:
O beautiful-winged bee, you spend your life in studying pollen.
Tell me honestly: have you seen,
Among the flowers known to you, him, who would be more fragrant
Than the hair of the maiden with strong teeth, who is like a
peacock,
By whom I am loved and who is close to me?
In the poem KT 3, in which the hero is called a "dweller of the
country rich in the honey of the kurinci flowers," the image
conveyed by this description is complex: implying the heroine's
puberty, her readiness to receive love and her willingness to give in
to the hero, lord of the kurinci country.
Honey is an ambivalent symbol, also representing, in some
instances, the hero's sexual prowess: similarly, in ancient Indian
ritual and mythology honey is associated with semen [Dange 1971:
206]. Poets sometimes employ images of sexual union in which
honey symbolically represents manhood: "His love is like a
30

honeycomb amid the branches of a tall sandalwood tree where

sweet honey is mixed with the pollen of cool lotuses swept high by
the wind" (Nar. 1, 3-4).
The examples we have quoted must be sufficient to demonstrate
the basic principle employed in the kurifici poetry: that of harmony
achieved between the love subject and the landscape. This principle
is founded on the idea that the basic mythologeme in every ancient
culture, the unity of the male and the female principles finds its
expression at various levels of symbolism: anthropomorphic,
vegetable, colour, etc.
The symbols employed in the kurifici theme, corresponding to
various levels, are represented in the table below:
The male principle
the hero
Murukan
verilcai, sandalwood

The female principle

the heroine
Valli
kurinci, valli, kuvalai,

Level
anthropomorphic
mythological
vegetable

the tiger, the bee

millet
the peacock, the

zoological

parrot
Streams, running

mountain lakes 35

water, rocks, stones

(theriomorphic)
landscape

The colour red

the colour dark blue
chromatic
The Sun
the Moon
Astronomical
[[35 Although water as such is a polysemantic symbol, it can
nevertheless be assumed that, unlike the running water of
streams (semen), the still waters of mountain lakes (cunai) are
associated with the female principle. It can be confirmed by Nar.
334 in which the image of blossoms falling into the mountain lakes
explicitly represents sexual intercourse.]]
31

The plants, flowers, birds and animals listed above, recurring in the
a poetry situation become semantically loaded within the given
context. At the same time they remain distinctive and beautiful
details of the kurifici landscape. The harmony of this landscape with
the love situation follows from their essential unity and their basic
mythological affinity. Likewise, this affinity forms the foundation on
which the subject matter of the kurifici theme becomes tightly
bound up with significant events in the world of nature: the ripening
of millet or the flowering of the kurifici. Thus, the various elements
of the kuririci theme, constituting the canon: the situational
(uripporul), the landscape-temporal (mutalporul) and, as it were, the
environmental (karupporul), each at its functional level, enter into a
complex interplay.
It is upon this unity that symbolic imagery develops, while the
descriptions, more or less extensive depending on the length of
the poem serve to express, in a codified form, certain ideas
connected with the poetry situation. These descriptions are
frequently included into a peculiar attributive phrase to describe the
hero: for example, malai neitan, "a dweller of the mountain
country," or, more precisely, "he who is related to the mountains,"
followed by a description of a mountain landscape. This
construction is a rather impressive poetic figure which brings out, in
the kurinci theme, the functional similarity of the hero to Murukan,
thus characterizing the hero from the standpoint of his "function."
Scenes of mountain landscape convey associations with the hero's
firmness and strength (comparing him to the firmness and strength
of mountain slopes), the sumptuousness of mountain forests, the
coolness of vegetation and mountain streams (to render the hero's
32

"cooling" properties). The sexual prowess of the hero is his

important feature, (he being a replica of Murukan) rendered by the
image of flowing waters (a symbol of semen): streams of rain or
mountain rivers running down the slopes:
Hello o friend! Just listen!
While there is no separation blessed is the union of love
With the highlander, from the country where
Streams knock against mountain rocks,
Where, like creeping snakes winding down from mountain tops,
Long branches of tall verikai trees
Shake off their blossoms, laying themselves bare. (KT 134)
Or:
O friend! He has hurt me
The highlander from the country where, amid tender greenery
There lies a rough stone washed by the rainfall,
[It is] like an elephant that cleaned the earth off [his skin].
My eyes that are like a kuvalai lily,
Have dimmed in separation. (KT 13)
The hero is here associated with the images conveying the idea of
purification, rejuvenation, a return to life (the downpour, tender
greenery), also of strength and firmness (the stone). They form a
contrast to the image of the heroine wistful in pangs of separation,
33

yet, at the same time, contain a hint that the beloved who caused
her pain and suffering is still her support and consolation.
Sometimes the elements of the landscape are scarce in the poems,
yet even a single detail, being fixed to a particular tinai-theme, is
capable of representing this theme in full, bringing to the reader's
mind the whole complex of associations, motifs, images and ideas
inherent in it:
When the flowers of the venkai tree, whose trunk is black, are falling
down onto the dam stone,
It looks like a cub of a large tiger.
To the secret night mission of the one
Who is walking across the forest
You are merciless, white Moon! (KT 47)
That this poem represents the kurinci theme leaves no doubt: the
vaikai is men-tioned already in the first line, yet the message of this
miniature landscape goes far beyond the establishment of this
thematic link: implicit is the idea that the heroes' romance has
reached a certain stage, the time is ripe for marriage. The
realization of this implication is twofold: the falling verikai flowers
indicate the arrival of the season of marriages, while the mention of
a tiger carries a warning to the hero of the danger of further
nocturnal trysts and, consequently, pushes him to bring the love
affair to a matrimonial finale

34