WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 11,297

Date uploaded in London – 26 SEPTEMBER 2022         

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/london-swaminathan

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 Picture shows Swamiji Krishna of Ayakkudi near Tenkasi in Ayyappan Temple

Two-thousand-year-old Tamil Sangam literature has lot of stories on elephants. The real-life scenes were witnessed by the Tamil poets while crossing thick forests. They saw tigers fighting elephants, fights between elephants, and elephants helping other elephants, music loving elephants, war elephants and last but not the least ivory cots and dolls.

Let us look at more poems in this seventh part.

There is a very interesting scene seen by the poet. Suddenly a hailstorm happened, and the little ice balls were crashing on the elephant’s head. He described it as pearls falling on is head. Hindus believe that pearls not only come from sea grown oysters but also from various sources including elephants’ tusks.  Probably that made the poet to remember pearls and pearl necklace. The poet’s name is Mr Goldsmith White Snake; he was from a town called Tankaal. So he was called Tankal Porkollan Ven Nakanaar.

His suffix Snake is also interesting. There are over 20 Naga poets in Tamil Sangam poems. There are more Nagas in Gupta inscriptions and Sri Lankan History book Mahavamsa. They were all from North India. We know that Snake came from Naaka and Serpent came from Sarpa—both Sanskrit words. So their suffix show that they came from Himalayas and went up to Sri Lanka.

Another interesting co incidence is that the sound Naga, Naagha mean Mountain, Snake and Elephant in Sanskrit.

The poet was a goldsmith by profession. He says,

“The fall of hail on the spotted face of elephant is like throwing of pearls on a hill and the hail collecting together on the rock below is like adorning it with crystals”-(See Aka Naanuuru verse 108).

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Mr Kannadasan in Tamil Sangam

Hindus discovered that no one could sleep without dreams. REM- Rapid Eye Movement cause dreams in living beings. Science journals are writing about REM in the modern days. But Hindus discovered that birds, insects, and all mammals including men dream every day. Tamil and Sanskrit poets sang and composed poems on animal dreams. Brahmins pray three times every day to give them sweet dreams. At the end of Sandhyavandanam three times a day, they take a water drop from the place where they did water oblation called Sadhyavandana and place it on their forehead saying “let all the bad dreams get destroyed”.

That is a mantra from Rig Veda:

adya no deva savitah prajavatsavjh saubhagam. para duhsvapniyagum suva.

ii i i

om visvani deva savitur duritani para suva.

 yad bhadram tanna asuva.

Send us this day O Savitar, prosperity with progeny, drive from us the nightmare. O God Savitar,

drive away from us all sorrows and misfortune, and send us all that is for our good. (R.V. 5 : 82 : 4 – 5 )

Sangam poet Mr Dasan Kannan, son of Kanna Dasan (in Tamil Thaayan kannanaar) sings, that “on the mountain slope bee goes to the venkai tree flowers , sucks honey from them, then flies to the honeyed Kantal flowers and sleeps there dreaming of the flow of rut in the face of the elephant”.

So here we see a bee dreaming for rut on the face of elephant.

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MISS SULOCHANA’S STRANGE POEM

There was a poetess by name Miss Sulochana 2000 years ago. Her name in Tamil was Nakkannaiyaar.

Tamil women followed Sanskrit names by affixing ‘Su= Good ‘with their names. In Sanskrit we see Su sila, Su mathi, Su Gandhi, Su Keerti , Su Haasini, Su Vaasini etc. Tamils used the same Su= Na in naming girls. We have Nap Pinnai, Nac Chellai, Nak Kannai, Nal Velli, Nan Mullai- all Sanskrit prefixed names in Sangam Tamil period.

Nakkannai means – Su=Nak, Lochana=Eye or look.

Good looking or Good eyed girl or woman is named Sulochana= Nakkannai.

English word Look came from Lochana.

This poetess Nakkannaiyaar (Sulochana) sings about a rare animal called Yaali (in Tamil Aaali). It was a lion like animal, extinct now. So it is considered a mythological animal. She says,

“Even the tiger that which hates prey falling on its left, is trembling at the sound of Yaali, which attacks the elephant ferociously, strikes at its facea nd pulls off its tusks” (See Akanaanuru verse 252)

Yaali is rarely mentioned in Sangam literature . We find the word in eight places only. Actually, the word Lion or Leo is a mirror image of Yali (Liya= Yali/Leo/Lion)

To be continued……