Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Postscript
Bibliography
Contents
Prologue.......................................................................3
Kurinci: Pre-Marital Love...............................................5
The First Meeting of Lovers........................................5
The Second Meeting of Lovers on the Next Day at the
Same Place..............................................................10
The Heros Meeting with Heroine with the Aid of His
Friend......................................................................12
The Maid Learning of the Love Affair of the Heroine13
Union through the Aid of the Maid...........................16
Day Tryst.................................................................24
Obstacles to the Day-tryst.......................................28
Night-tryst...............................................................29
Obstacles to the Night-tryst....................................33
The heroine and the Maid Talking to Each Other,
Desiring Marriage....................................................36
The Maid Urging the Hero to Marry the Heroine......40
The Heros Temporary Absence from the Heroine. . .43
The Hero Separating from the Heroine in Pursuit of
Wealth for Marriage.................................................46
Notes..........................................................................47
Prologue
Gandharva
The first sutra in the IA runs as follows:
"Of the five tinais of love that which is named `kalavu'
is a custom of gandharvas belonging to the eight forms
of marriage for Vedic brahmans this is what wise
poets say."
In the Tamil treatises on poetry the clandestine love of
the heroes is considered along the lines of the Hindu
tradition as one of the so-called "eight forms of
marriage," that is, a marriage according to the custom
of gandharvas (for instance, the marriage of king
Dusyanta and Sakuntala in the drama by Kalidasa).
It is clear, though, that the ancient Tamil canon is thus
introduced into an alien system of conventions.
Prologue
Five Phases of Love
According to the ancient Tamil (akam) poetry, there are
five phases of love, divided into two categories. The
order of these phases corresponds to the course of
love between the hero and the heroine. The five
phases have landscapes associated with them.
Category
Phase of Love
Themes
Landscape
Time
Pre-Marital
Kurinci
or Place
Mountains
Day-time
or
day or night
midnight
Stage of
Love
(Kalavu)
Gossip
Pre-Marital
Neytal
Stage of
love, etc
The themes are mainly same
Maritime
Afternoon,
as Kurinci
tract
evening
Love
or
(Kalavu)
occasiona
Neither
Palai
Elopement
Separation in pursuit of
Wasteland
lly night
Mid-day
(summer)
Mullai
Marital
Love
(Karpu)
etc.
Heroine awaiting heros
Forest-
Mostly
return
meadow
evening
(rainy
season)
come back
Post-
Marutam
Marital
Riverine
Daytime
tract or
and
Love
agricultura
occasiona
(Karpu)
Hero wishing
l lowland
lly early
reconciliation, etc.
morning
Six Mini-themes
Six mini-themes beginning with the hero touching the
heroine's body5 to ascertain her inclination are also
components of physical union. These mini themes are
also used as sub-themes of a union attained through
the wish of the heroine.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
amorous desire;
persistent feel of one for the other;
emaciation of the body;
giving free vent to experiences of pleasure and
pain;
5. transgressing the bound of modesty and
propriety;
6. every object of sight painfully reminding one of
the features of the other;
7. self-forgetfulness;
8. stupor; and
9. death-like anxiety.
Another component was added later-- the meeting of
eyes filled with love. The meeting of the eyes of the
two is the evidence to determine that they are
mutually attached.
Union on the Basis of Love
Various expressions have been used by the
commentators to represent the theme of the first
meeting:
10
11
12
13
14
15
17
18
meeting;
12: the actual meeting.
intention;
7: the maid's realization;
8-9: the maid's roles;
10, 11: the maid causing the heroine to accept
his request;
12: cEcpapai;
13: supplement on union;
14, 15: revealing the heroines secret love-affair;
16: being watched by the heroine's parents,
to love affair
18 two kinds of tryst (during the day and at
night);
19: places for the night trysts;
20: places for the day trysts;
21: supplement for the night trysts;
22: gossip;
21
22
him;
10-11: concerning the go-between
12-14 being confined in her house; revealing her
marriage proposal
16-20 being in distress oh concealing her
possessed by Murugan
25 the hero coming to her parents with a
marriage proposal;
25-26 secret love being known to public; the
heroine's relatives keeping her under
observation;
27 ff concerning other events between the
lovers.
maid became aware of the heroine's love affair -including the sexual union -- from various signs. The
hero approaches the maid, who is the daughter of the
foster-mother of the heroine and her closest, intimate
friend, for help, to arrange a meeting. Then, the 'best
friend', who has already learned of the heroine's love
affair and understood her feelings, refuses the heros
request [disregarding the heroine's wish!] (cetpatai). In
the meantime, the hero threatens the maid whom he
has met for the first time with reference to ME. In the
next phase, the best friend persuades (lit causes)
the heroine to meet the hero, though the heroine has
already been attracted to him since their first chance
meeting, and has met him again on the following day
in the same place as their first meeting; accordingly
she is supposed to desire another meeting with him.
Thus, what the later savants mention about the
sequence of love events appears to be rather
contrived.
The other reconstruction regarding the sequence of
love events on the basis of what the actual earliest
texts describe appears more plausible. The hero was
attracted to the heroine at first sight when he
encountered her, accompanied by the maid. Days
later, he who may take a love-token gift with him,
approaches the maid, who seems to him to be the best
person as his intermediary, with request for a meeting
with the heroine. Though the maid has learned of the
heroine's love and of her desire to meet him, she
hesitates to arrange a meeting between them, because
she realizes that the meeting would be decisive for
their love-relationship (i.e. they would enjoy the first
physical union). The heroine, who is attracted to him
and eager to meet him again, hesitates out of shame.
Thus, the maid at first refuses the hero's request,
although she later agrees to help him because of his
25
27
Day Tryst
TP 128, 130, IA 20, IAC 18
According to TP, there are two kinds of lovers'
meetings i.e. meetings that takes place during the
daytime, and those at night.
The erudite scholiasts treat these situation briefly,
although for (or because?) a number of poems depict
them vividly. In this section, our arguments will be
focused on the definition of the term day-tryst, the
place of the meeting, the various roles of the maid and
the tinai appropriate to the day-tryst.
The term day-tryst denotes both the meeting during
the daytime and the place of the meeting.
In almost all colophons (about 100 occasions) it is, the
maid accepting the day-meeting, the maid refusing
the night-meeting, or the maid changing the meetingplace.
As for the place of the day-meeting, TP 130 says that
they say that the place of the day-meeting is 'outside
[the heroine's house], [a place] which is well-known to
the heroine", and this prescription is repeated almost
verbatim in IA 20 and AV37.
TP first refers to the two kinds of meeting (TP 128), and
subsequently to the place of the night-meeting (129)
and of the day-meeting (130). The reason why TP
prescribes the meeting-places in this particular order
may be that the night-meeting occurs within a radius
i.e. within or near the heroine's house (TP129), while
the meeting during the daytime occurs in various
places, and hence the best way for TP to define the
indefinable place of the day-meeting may have been to
prescribe the definable place first and then refer to
28
29
30
31
Night-tryst
TP 128, 129, IA 19
As in the case of day-tryst, night-tryst is described in
many poems. but it never detailed by the erudite
scholiasts. Hence there are only a few points to he
argued here. We have already discussed the meaning
of the night-tryst in 6.10.1, so we shall now investigate
the place of the meeting at night, the role of the maid
during this particular situation, and the tinai pertinent
to it.
6.12.1 The place of the meeting at night is prescribed
in TP 129, which is usually interpreted as night-tryst
should be at such distance within the premises that the
talk of the inmates will be audible. However, this
interpretation fails to take account of the latter part of
TP 129 which runs, when [the hero] does not enter the
house ... Ilam also elucidates the sutra while
disregarding the same part, .?.Nacc. pays attention to
it and explains the sutra as "the hero does not enter
are [heroine's house in the beginning but after a few
meetings, the lovers become fearless and meet even
in the interior of the house' (TPN131, comm.).
However, as far as the original text is concerned the
proper translation of the sutra may be, if, at night, it is
not possible for the lovers to meet within the house of
lady, the place of their meeting is in a place which is so
33
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. 162:116, 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 conchs
that never diminish no matter how many are taken,
35
Missing 130-131
37
38
Missing 134-135
40
43
Missing 142-143
44
45
46
Missing 153
49
Missing 154
52
54
Notes
55
1 Background of the First Meeting: Some maidens go to a field where millet is ripening to scare
away birds. A young man who has been hunting in the wood comes to the field. He is attracted by
one of the maidens, they exchange glances and fall in love with each other.
2The girl had to reach puberty (12 years old) to be entrusted with the watching of a millet field.
The age of puberty was considered the point of time at which the sacred force ananku was mature.
The presence of its bearers in the field was clearly intended to ensure the timely ripening of the
millet.
3 The "clandestine love" reflects the archaic idea common to tribal societies: that of the dangerous
power inherent in the bride and bridegroom and, also, of a sexual intercourse that causes the girl's
defloration. Due to its dangerous character, the act of defloration had to be performed outside
community, that is, firstly, it had to be carried out prior to the newly-weds' introduction into the
system of social relations and, secondly, it had to be performed beyond the village's boundaries, in
secret surroundings. It is this custom that seems to constitute the core of the heroes' behaviour as
represented in the kurinici theme, which is remarkably well expressed in a poem by Paranar when
he speaks of the --"love union (punarcci) with the dark-haired one
whose moist eyes resemble dark-petalled flowers,
in the secret place so hidden
that not even pey-demonesses know of it" (AN 62, 5-6).
4 However, it is her bodily beauty that is placed in the focus of the poet's attention, as it
represents her essence and her "value characteristic." To view a female character as an object
perceived by senses was typical of the poetry.
5 Touching a woman's body should be interpreted as symbolic and, perhaps, as the ritual initiation
of the hero to the goodness provided by the heroine, that is to the sacred female energy.
6 Behind the exterior layer of emotions there is always lurking the all too powerful notion of
ananku manifest as the female energy which pervades the kurifici poetry's artistic canon: its
subject matter and its imagery.
7 Around the 6th Cent. AD, according to K. V. Zvelebil, the conception of kalavu pre-marital love'
was not only not honored but also slighted. The venpa quoted as Preamble of 'One hundred and
fifty stanzas on the garlands of settings', suggests the reason why these restatements of the
ancient akam genre were composed: obviously, the interest in the old literary conventions and
themes was vanishing and there were people who even hated and attacked the conception of
kalavu, hence it became necessary to re-emphasize the ancient message of love.
8 2 The Sanskrit words and expressions borrowed are generally found more frequently in the later
texts. In the case of kama (kamam in Tamil), however, it occurs more often in the earlier texts; on
the other hand, inpam or inpu, a Tamil equivalent of kama, is used more often in the later texts.As
for the connotations of these words, kamam denotes love in a broader sense in the earlier texts
than in the later texts. (in Kur 32, for example, the lovelorn hero says). In the case of inpam, it
signifies pleasure even in the earlier texts, as in kur 120 in which the hero says.. Regarding the
subtle differences between these words, TP 89 provides us with an interesting example.
TP 89
Aran, porul and inpam are Tamil equivalents of dharma, artha and kama respectively, and hence
the best translation of inpam is pleasure [of love]. Anpu in second line means love, attachment,
friendship. Thus, it means, kama-kuttam which is within the range of aintinai connected with
anpu and which is associated with inpam, wealth, and dharma; in other words
union/relationship based on kamam is also based on both sexual pleasure (inpam) and mental
attachment (anpu). Therefore the word kamam in TP and the earlier potery should not be taken in
a narrow and limited sense.
9 The origin of the behavioural pattern as it is structured in the kurnici theme can be
traced back to the ancient Dravidian lore with its concept of the female force, the
ambiguous power inherent in woman, which makes her a source for either good or evil.
This force had to be kept within limits, under strict control, especially during the woman's
menstrual period, pregnancy or widowhood [Hart 1975: 93-119] or, equally important,
during states of emotional excitement and love passion. This explains the ritual
behavioural pattern of the heroes and of the dramatis personae related to them.
10 According to the existing custom, the lovers were to conceal their feelings and could reveal
them, during the first stage of love, only to the hero's close friend and to the heroine's friend, her
confidante, whose role in the dynamics of the love story is crucial as it is she who "guides" the
lovers, arranges their trysts and sees that everything goes according to custom. She "steers" the
love affair towards official recognition, that is, toward marriage, although the heroes have long
been husband and wife de facto.None has been here only my secret friend,
If he leaves me now, what shall I do?
Only a heron with green legs resembling millet stalks was here,
Looking for fish in the running water,
On the day when we were joined in love. (KT 25)
11 Earlier Ananku
Rigid time limit of Kurinci theme
In view of a direct link between anariku and fertility it would be interesting to note that the kurifici
theme has rigid time limits.
The landscape against which the action of the theme takes place is the kurifici region (mountains
overgrown with forests) during the cold season (katir kalam), from October till December, or
during the "season of early dews" (munpani kalam) lasting from December till February. Scenes of
the preceding rainy season (kar kalam) can also be included (Nar. 53, 71; 154). The background is
therefore the cool and moist, "dark," part of the year associated with the ideas of goodness and
fertility: forests, green with new vegetation, fragrant blossoms, lakes and streams full of water.
Close link between poetry theme and natural surroundings
There are other details in the poetry conveying the idea of close links between the poetry theme
and its natural surroundings. Certain signs acquire importance in the dynamics of the poetry
subjects.
Thus the heroes' clandestine love coincides with the season of millet ripening, while the
heroine's confinement in the house of her parents occurs immediately before harvesting:
What shall we do, o friend? Since our meetings with the Hillman
Whose breast is smooth with the paste of sandalwood growing in the hills,
Whose smell draws bees,
When with him, who lives in the mountains, where
Vefikai trees with green flowers rise along the slopes,
I met in the field where we chased away red-beaked parrots
From the crops
And bathed in the streams that are running down steep high slopes, these meetings,
So I can see, will become rare and not easy...
The spikes of millet, with long hair
Are rippling, like the sea...
(Nar. 259)
The blossoming of fragrant flowers in mango and venkai trees also indicates the auspicious time
for wedding (the Tamil word manam, characteristically, means either: "aroma" or "wedding
ceremony"). The phase of the moon is no less important in amorous experiences. When the
heroine's confidante decides the time is ripe to hint that the hero should marry the heroine she
can convey the idea making good use of the language of signs and symbols: "venkai has opened
its shining flowers, and the full moon has grown a halo" (AN 2, 16-17).
Girl in the millet field
Bathing and fertility
The young girls' bathing in the running water of the rain or mountain streams was a widespread
practice to evoke fertility, as water was associated with male semen; in a symbolic way it was
supposed to cool off the female force and thus to ensure each girl an auspicious marriage, progeny
and, through these, general prosperity to their kin. Thus the friend of the heroine invites her: "Let
us go and enjoy bathing in the new bubbling waters" (Nar. 68, 5).
Bathing together
As can be perceived from the verse quoted above (Nar. 259), young girls occasionally bathed with
young men which, no doubt, had the meaning of a fertility (rain-making) rite:
When she was bathing with us
In a beautiful swift running stream,
Dipping into the water, with closed lotus-like eyes, trembling,
Garlands of cool punnai blossoms on her breasts,
Moving with the waters,
He came to embrace her, mercifully,
Her breasts were pressed to his strong and broad chest,
This is what they say, and therefore
When we are expecting a gift of precious rain,
She shall give it to us, the one who possesses grandeur. (Kal. 39, 1-5)
Finally, it can be safely ascertained that the young couple's sexual contact is also ritually charged.
At any rate, the calendar pattern of their amorous meetings is obvious (Cf. the line in AN 118, 12:
"The ripening spikes which, for many days, had been sending signs for love-making," punar kuri
ceyta pular kural) suggestive of fertility rites which included sexual intercourse on a field to
stimulate in a magical way the growth and the ripening of crops.
Fertility idea
The examples provided are sufficient to give insight into the enormous significance of the idea of
fertility for the ancient Tamil love canon. As it stands, the first stage of the heroes' intimate
relationship (prior to the ripening of crops and to the heroine's confinement in the house of her
parents) is set against the background of rites which serve to represent the idea of fertility. Hence
the atmosphere of eroticism, with abundant "sacralized" erotic symbols in the kurifici theme. No
less importantly, the artistic conventions by which the main characters are structured are directly
determined by the fertility idea. Before we analyse the details of the love canon I should note that
it is not linked with a certain situation or with a certain tinai theme as such; it is representative of
ancient Tamil love poetry in general. The most characteristic and remarkable feature of the canon
is exceptional semantical richness of its details.
12 Clearly, the withering of female bodily beauty which, in its normal state, symbolizes fertility and
life force, will indicate a depletion of its stores or, at least, a threat to this force. At this point we
have, once again, returned to the idea of the value inherent in the woman and the necessity
to protect her as bearer of the inner force. This idea is invariably present in one way or
another in the poetry of the anthologies. Suffice it to remind the reader that during the season of
the millet ripening the heroine is confined in her parents' house where she is guarded as a source
of the sacred force which has to remain in the household. "Her mother is fond of her and never
takes her eyes off her daughter; her father will not have her touch the ground (that is, will not
allow her to leave the house). 'Where are you going, lassie?' he would ask his daughter. 'You
will hurt your feet!" Such are the words in which the heroine's close friend describes to the hero
the circumstances of his beloved (AN 12, 1-3). A watchful father is frequently mentioned in the
poems: "Her strong father, mighty like Murukan, who has set off his dogs, fierce like tigers, is in
the house" (AN 158, 15-17); or "her father is keeping watch, never taking his eyes off her, in the
spacious house, with safe bolts and watchmen who never sleep a wink" (Nar. 98, 8-9). The
heroine's mother is on guard, too, ever awake, like "a village awaiting the enemy's raid, since she
has learned about the coming of the smiling guest (that is, the hero)" (KT 292, 6-8). Her brothers
are alert as well ("the broad-shouldered mountain maiden, sister of forest huntsmen with strong
bows and long poles" [KT 335, 5-7]).Locke shrine of the goddess
The motif of the guarding of the heroine, of her seclusion, so explicitly expressed, is strongly
consonant with a remarkable and characteristic motif in the Tamil mythology, that of "the locked
shrine" of the goddess. The enclosed area: walls, doors, locks and latches are "symbols of
limitation and control... imposed on a concentration of power" and also symbols of her chastity
and virginity [Shulman 1980: 192-198]. On the motif of the locked Kali temple in its folklore
version in "The Story of the Anklet" see [Beck 1972: 26]). To receive the goddess's boon one has to
reopen the temple doors in order to get hold of her force. This can be done only under threat of
(and sometimes, at the expense of) death; in other words, by performing a blood sacrifice.
Unlocking the temple doors, reopening the door to the temple of the goddess is, no doubt, a
sexual symbol, which is also traceable in the poetry, in a number of verses describing the hero's
penetration into the heroine's locked house. For example, the heroine's friend speaks-thus:
Like those who desire a female elephant as a gift
At the entrance to our tightly locked well-guarded house
In front of its carved strong door [he stood]
In the dead of night, when only demons roam about;
When the watchmen had gone to sleep, tired, he unlocked the door and, having entered,
Lay with her; and, having said that none in the whole world equal us in beauty,
Many a time, lovingly, touched the splendid hair... (AN 311, 1-7)
Another poem describes the hero's failure to enter the house of his sweetheart:
In the dead of night, when many are asleep,
You came, mighty as an elephant, and tried the door,
Locked for the night. We heard all this, o glorious one!
Yet as soon as she sighs, like a good peacock
Who is caught in netting, his crest turned, and the feathers of his tail faded,
Her mother, devoid of virtue, will run towards her and tightly embrace her and squeeze her in a
tight embrace. (KT 244)
"The mother devoid of virtue" is not a passing epithet in the kurinci theme: it is employed to stress
a certain antagonism between the mother and the daughter in the situation of the "secret love."
The alert, wakeful mother, mother-guardian who sets obstacles to her daughter's trysts with her
lover is sometimes mentioned in the poetry in highly critical tones. For example, in KT 292 the
heroine's mother (viewed by the heroine's close friend) is likened to the cruel chieftain Nannan
who executed the maiden who had eaten, in his domains, a fruit fallen into water:
A fair-browed maiden was walking towards the pond to wash her face
And ate the fruit brought by the water. This was punished
By Nannan:
Rejecting elephants in numbers nine times nine offered to him
And the gold statue as much as a young girl in weight,
Nannan performed the maiden's execution. Like him
Let our mother go to eternal hell;
The night when the guest arrived, a smile on his face,
She rejected sleep, like a town in the face of the enemy.
Thus, to unite with his beloved is no easy matter for the hero. The difficulties that arise are many
and various, exaggerated by the fact that their rendezvous occur at night. In many poems the
hero's nocturnal journeys to his beloved are evocatively described: in the dead of night ( AN 22,
11; 72, 2; 118, 9; 126, 7; 141, 8 etc.), when rain is falling, thunder is roaring, the lightning is
flashing, serpents are creeping about in the forest, owls are hooting, a tiger is attacking an
elephant, the hero is heading towards a secret meeting with his beloved. The heroine and her
close friend are amazed at the boldness of the hero who has overcome these obstacles:
The rain is veiling everything, the sky is hidden,
Waters are flooding, even the earth cannot be seen,
The sun has set. Darkness has fallen upon the village.
At midnight, when everybody is asleep,
How did you manage to come, o dweller of high mountain tops? (KT 355, 1-5)
The heroine and her friend are frequently distressed by the trials the hero has to face on his way;
they are genuinely concerned for the hero. Thus in Nar. 83 the confidante asks the owl not to
frighten the hero during his journey to his sweetheart:
At the village gate, next to the fair bay
Living in an ancient tree where the god dwells;
With a strong crooked beak, clawed and light-eyed,
Whose hooting alarms like the herald's drum o thee, owl!
We shall bow to thee and shall bring thee some meat,
The best rice, and oil, and roast white mice,
Since we desire, passionately, that the sweetheart
Whose love never fades, should come
At the time when we are not asleep, but wander, waiting for him
Do tame thy cruel, awe-inspiring voice!
The shrewd confidante sometimes employs the mentioned obstacles as diplomatic ways to
quicken the marriage. Thus, addressing the heroine in a loud voice, so that the hero who is not far
away could hear, the friend pretends to show compassion for him; in reality she is hinting at the
inappropriateness of further clandestine meetings and, consequently, of the need to legitimize
their intimate relationship:
The forest is making dull noises, while
Darkness has spread across the sky;
It's like the darkness in the rock clefts,
While the thundering voice of the cloud never stops.
Yet in the grove and in the hills where clouds float
The hot-wrathed male tiger, gaping,
Is felling an elephant to the ground.
Don't you hear his horrible snarl?
Are you asleep, o slender girl?
To cool off the sorrowful heart, seized by gloom
Would be useless like pouring water onto the hearth.
If [the beloved] does not come today it will be a blessing!
As soon as I think of the hard journey among the hills
My vulnerable fluttering heart falls down upon the ground. (Nar. 154)
As a rule, it is the hero whose journey to his beloved is described in the poetry, yet sometimes the
heroine herself hurries to a secret meeting, as in a poem by Paranar (AN 198):
"To tell or not to tell" thus,
Thinking of my passion, helpless to conceal it
Desiring to meet him and trusting in our good word,
At midnight, under the cover of rain,
Resembling the kar in the fragrance of my hair,
Pressing to my breast the shawl made of thin threads,
Like a modest peacock under the young rain in the hills,
Adorned with cool flowers, bees buzzing, following her;
Holding beautiful bracelets that are bent like a bow,
Lest they should jangle, she came
And deep at night when the whole village was asleep, having embraced me, and is now leaving.
She is not a dark maiden, beautiful, glorious, the one who is full of virtue,
Yet in the southern land, in the good country
That belongs to [chieftain] Ay,
In the mountains where ananku dwells,
On the slopes of the dread Kaviram mountain,
Living in the stream full of delicate flowers,
Isn't she Cur's daughter? this is what my heart tells me.
This poem is a definite parallel to Sanskrit and Prakrit poems exploiting the abhisarika theme
that of a woman on her way to meeting her lover. Yet, remarkably, it inherits a purely Tamil
feature: the heroine is viewed by the hero as linked to the Cur demon, which directly points to the
element of danger inherent in a secret meeting; in other words, to the dangerous aspect of the
female sacred energy. This motif occurred implicitly earlier, in the description of obstacles on the
way of the hero to his beloved. Yet it can be presented in the poetry in a direct way, as a threat
arising from the heroine. Indeed, even in her portrait, which, on the whole, symbolizes the good
emanating from woman, now and then impressive details emerge, pointing at the danger inherent
in her. Thus mentions abound of "the rising young breasts, threatening like ananku" (AN 161, 1213); of "a gaze, threatening, like ananku" (AN 319, 6); of "moist eyes with red stripes, like arrows"
(Nar. 13, 4); or of "eyes like an elephant's tusks" (Nar. 39, 5-6). In the poem KT 272 the poet, while
emphasizing the dangerous aspect of womanly beauty, deliberately exaggerates it by a detailed
simile which contains a hint at the hostile attitude of the heroine's family to her beloved:
Shall I be able to press myself against the shoulders
Of the hill maiden with strands of sweet-smelling hair,
With bold eyes painted with kohl.
Their gaze is like a blood-smeared straight arrow
Taken out of the breast of a male deer,
The arrow sank deep into him when he was approaching a stray female deer, He had been shot,
with a shrill sound,
By the bow-men, relatives of the hill maiden,
Who throw stones, swishing, from their slings. (KT 272)
The danger inherent in woman is described in a particular vivid and peculiar manner in the poem
from PN, in the episode of proposals of marriage made by certain kings:
The moats are blocked with mud, the fortifications have become shaky,
The city walls are broken in our ancient much-suffering city,
What will become of it when it has surrendered?
With the beating of drums which are roaring like clouds
The kings whose horses are swift, approaching
Our tall gates in the morning, will stop and will not leave without a battle.
For beautiful spots have appeared on the good breasts
Of the youthful one, whose wrists are adorned with (beautiful) bracelets
And whose eyes painted with kohl are red and resemble
The sharpened spears raised by her relatives, ready to resist,
Militant and mighty. (PN 350)
It is evident that in such descriptions the female character is presented as a replica (although, in a
somewhat weakened form) of the virgin goddess: aren't her frequently mentioned sharp teeth (for
example, in KT 14, 2: vai eyiru; or, in Ain. 495, 5: mulleyiru), so to speak, vestiges of a certain
mythological character (cf. traditional iconography of Kati or Korravai)?
In the Tamil love poetry the woman is not generally portrayed as dangerous: the poets are more
interested in her benign aspect: it is the ideal cultivated in the poetry and is primarily linked with
the idea of goodness. Yet in his lyrics the ancient Tamil poet will never fail to make use of the
ambivalent nature of the female sacred force, creating a contrast between the tender undertones
which he employs to describe the heroine's image and the terrible pangs of love passion this
image evokes in her lover:
Timid like flowers, [sharp] like arrows,
[They] cause me pain that can be seen by everyone,
Of the sweet-tongued, with soft rounded shoulders,
On the dark slopes of the mountains, where cotton was planted with millet,
Who was chasing sparrows away from the field, [her] cool eyes. (KT 72)
Or:
Her soft voice is like amrta,
She, the sweet [one], is like it,
Yet if she, so sweet, brings suffering,
One cannot live flamed in passion toward her,
Therefore avoid her, o sensible ones! (KT 206)24
Though, in the sphere of passionate love the hero and the heroine appear to be on an equal
footing and are not infrequently represented as causing suffering to each other: "the breast of the
mountain dweller causes suffering (ananku)" (Nar. 17, 12); "like a small beautiful baby-snake with
lovely stripes, torturing an elephant, the young woman with shining, shoot-like teeth and
braceleted wrists tortures me" (KT 119).
As a matter of fact, the secrecy in which they have to meet is in itself a torture; no less tormenting
are the annoying patronizing attitude of the girl's parents, the obstacles on the way of the hero to
his beloved and their nocturnal meetings. Another source for the heroine's suffering is the gossip
which spreads across the village. The villagers are curious, and there is talk about the young girl's
failing health. The village women tell the heroine's mother of their suspicions:
"No matter whether she will be happy or angry
Her mother should know! this is what they think, the foul-mouthed,
Who feed on rumours; the women
Who have been coming these days, saying:
"She has changed, your daughter, she has become different..." (AN 203, 1-5)
This episode, although, seemingly, mundane, is nevertheless quite meaningful socially. Here we
have an example of a joint community effort, perhaps, a kind of game whose aim is establishing
community control over the intimate relationship, potentially dangerous for the people (unless
properly handled), to turn it into a legalized union, approved by the community (on social function
of gossip see, for example, [Paine 1967; Gluckman 1968]). Characteristically, gossip in the poetry
texts is termed alar and ampal, the words used to describe the early stage of flower blossoming;
thus once more the significance of natural symbolism is emphasized in the narration of various
stages of love and in the unraveling of the lyrical subject.
There are other steps leading to the matrimonial finale of the love story, each step serving to
reveal the mystery: the "mad" dance of the velan, Murukan's priest, the rite of "riding a palmyra
palm horse" performed by the desperate hero or the lovers' elopement. We are not going to
describe these here in detail: I dwelt on the former above, in the first chapter, while the latter will
be discussed at length below.