By London swaminathan
Post no 879 dated 1st March 2014

Tamils are keen observers of nature. They are friends of the trees and animals of the forest. They describe everything happening in the forest and attribute human feelings to it. They hear music in the buzzing of the bees and beetles. They hear drums in the thunder. They watch the peacock dance with the background orchestra of these sounds. The descriptions like this go on and on. Here are a few word pictures of the Sangam age poets.

A philandering male sparrow returns late to its nest, and on its return, its mate refuses it admission and makes it outside in the drizzling; and only when evening sets in, it pities and recalls it. A female monkey has clandestine union with a male and trying to escape the notice of its group, looks into a deep pool of clear water, uses it as mirror and sets right its hair on the head. This is described in Natrinai poems 181 and 151 of Sangam Tamil literature.

It is very interesting to note that women doing make up by looking at a mirror– actually water source used as a mirror in this case– , like Andal used the well water to look at herself with a big and beautiful garland.

Kishkinda Kanda and Sundra Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana have beautiful descriptions of nature and monkeys’ antics. When the monkey brigade failed to find Sita on the main land, their leader Angada even thinks of committing suicide. But in Tamil literature we have a reference of another monkey actually committing suicide. A monkey bereaved of its loving mate, hands over its young to its kith and kin and commits suicide by falling down from a cleft. This is described in 2000 year old Kuruntokai poem 69.
In such pictures the poets introduce human feelings in to animal activities. In the olden days they thought all these things are exaggeration or poetic imagination. But modern researches show that they had feelings like human beings. What Discovery Channel shows today under Nature was seen and painted in words by the Tamils long ago!

Day light Robbery!

There is a funny account of a cunning monkey in Natrinai poem 57 by Pothumpil Kizar:
A wild cow came and rested under a Venkai tree in the forest. A female monkey wanted to take advantage of the sleepy (stupid) cow. It signs to its troupe to keep quiet. It went and milked the cow and distributed it to its little ones. They had hands full of milk. It is nothing but a day light robbery!!
Another scene in Ainkurunuru shows a monkey using a stem of a plant to beat the thin cloud approaching it (276). People living in high mountains may have enjoyed such scenes. Every time the clouds pass by you like mist, your children try to touch it with their hands.

A poet sees a young boy riding on the back of a buffalo, which is a common scene in Indian villages. He compares it to a monkey on the rocks! (Akananuru 206).

Tamil poets hear different sounds in the forest and imagine a jungle orchestra formed by creatures of the forest. While the peacocks dance, the bees sing tunes. A monkey wanted to play drums and immediately it picks up a jack fruit (which resembles Mrudangam, a drum used in South Indian music) and beats it with its hands (Aka Nanuru 352. It may be a bit of imagination of the poet!

Tamils enjoy watching nature and immortalise it in writing. Poets who lived 2000 years before our time enjoyed the antics of monkeys. Monkeys were the clowns in the jungle dramas. Among the animals, the monkey is depicted most playful. A group of monkeys bathes in the mountain torrents, swings in the swing left hanging by the owners of the Tinai (millets) fields and plays among the branches of the Venkai trees, dropping down flowers on the rocks below (Natrinai 334).

Probably human beings learnt the habit of bathing under the showers from the monkeys!
A poet describes the peacock dance with the accompaniments of forest orchestra as an entertainment to the monkeys in Akananuru verse 82.

The longest description of the torrent is by Nakkirar in Tirumurukatrppatai, the last twenty lines of which depict it (295-316)

Suicide of a Monkey

There are also pathetic descriptions of the sufferings of animals. A female monkey who lost its young one in a deep cleft mourns over its loss by crying aloud among its group (Malaipadukadam lines 311-314). The Tamil novel ‘Thekkadi Raja’ describes the mourning of elephants in the Kerala forests. Elephants’ intelligence is proved by modern research, which the Tamils noticed 2000 years ago. That was described in the ‘Gajendra Moksha’ (Elephant—Crocodile) episode in the Puranas and Tamil literature as well. In Tamil, we see elephants helping another elephant that fell in a ditch by extending the tree branches. I have given innumerable episodes of animals using tools in my other posts. But I read articles in science magazines only now about animals using tools!

Kutralam Water Falls

In the modern age ‘Kutrala Kuravanji’ by Trikuta Rasappa Kavirayar is a wonderful poem like Wordsworth’s poems on Daffoldils, Tintern Abbey and Shelly’s Skylark.
The beauty of monkeys in the back ground of a high water falls called Honey falls is painted in words. The female monkeys are dropping fruits by shaking the branches of the fruit trees for which the males are longing. The Honey falls sends its water so high that even the chariot of the Sun finds its path slippery ( In Hindu mythology Lord Sun is supposed to ride a chariot with seven horses (VIBGYOR colours) or with one wheel. The Siddhas who do miracles frequent the place by using air routes!

In Kuruntokai 278, we see a similar picture where the father monkey climbs over the trees and drops the ripe fruits from there when the young ones peck at them from below. Monkeys and apes are just like human beings in their show of love and affection towards their kith and kin.

There are many more stories and word pictures of nature in Sangam Tamil and later literature.

Source : Valmiki Ramayana,Kutrala Kuravanji by Trikuta Rasappa Kavirayar, The Treatment of Nature in Sangam Literature by M.Varadarajan.

Ramayana paintings.