Written by London Swaminathan

Post No. 15,974

Date uploaded in London – 11 July 2026

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

xxxx 

Purananuru wonders-39, Tamil Encyclopedia-79, One Thousand Interesting Facts -Part 79

Item 614 about Tiger

Two thousand year old Sangam Tamil poems praise tigers which will eat only when its prey falls on its right side. If it kills a deer and it falls on the left side, it won’t eat! Valam = right carries more weight than Itam=left in Tamil poems.

Tamil Ref. Puram.190, Akam 238, 252 etc.

***

Item 615

About rat, mouse (Puram 190)

Rat or mouse eat others food. I don’t like friends like it – Puram.190

Choza king Nalluruthtiran , Mr Good Rudra , rhymes with Tamil words  PULI / tiger and ELI/rat.

He says that he likes friends like principled tiger and not rats.

***

Item 616- About turtle /tortoise

Tamils believed that the mother turtles aways care for its little ones by facing towards them or looking at them. Whenever the poets want to show the care of a hero towards a heroine the poets use this simile

Kuru. 152;

Kurunthokai 152, Killimangalam Kizhār, Kurinji Thinai – What the heroine said to her friend
Those who state firmly that I
should bear my situation, do not
understand love even a little.
Love is like a young tortoise that
is nourished by the sight of its
mother.

If my lover abandons, making me
feel helpless, what else is there, except
to keep my love inside and get ruined
like an egg abandoned by its mother?

Alao in Ainkuru. 44; 48;

***

Item 617-About Nagaratna

We find the following references about the cobra jewel in Tamil and Sanskrit:

·        Kumara Sambhavam of Kalidasa: 2:38, 5:43, Raghuvamsam 6:49, 10:7, 11:59, 11:68,13:12, 17:63;Rtu Samharam 1:20 (In Kalidasa);

·        Tamil Aka Nanuru 72, 92, 138, 192, 372;

·        Pura Nanuru 172, 294, 398;

·        Kurunthokai 239;

·        Natrinai 255;

·        Kurinchipattu Lines 221,239;

This is not an exhaustive list. We find such references in innumerable places.

Kurunthokai 239, Āsiriyar Perunkannanār, Kurinji Thinai –

What the heroine said to her friend, as the hero listened nearby

My bangles have slipped.  My arms
have become thin.

Is there any more modesty to lose,
O friend,
for the lord of the mountains with
spiny bamboo fences, where bees with
short wings, that buzz on the pollen of
swaying glory lily flower clusters whose
fragrance spreads into crevices and caves,
appear like gems spit by snakes?

**

“Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head”

Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ Act 2:1.13-14

****

Item 618; About crocodile

Ainku. 24

Tamils believed that mother crocodiles eat their own banies.

***

Item 619– About Lizards

The lizrd’s clicking noise is considered  as an omen sometimes  prophesying  good news. He hero finishes  his duyy in the distant country and starts to his village when he keenly desires that the lizard at home should tickle whenever  she thinks of him  and thus gives her hope of his return and relieves of her  distress and despair . it is in Akam..351

In Narr. 333, the lady companion at home  hears its lovable sound at midnight and consoles the heroine by interpreting its suitably

Akam. 387;88;

***

Item 620–

Even animals listen to lizard’s prophesy!

In Akam 88, there is an interesting scene. A wild boar  is depicted to be very careful while entering the millet field. There is a picture  in which a boar is  about to walk into a trap kept by watchmen in the field but hearing a lizard’s tickling hesitates and slowly steps back and wisely retreats  to its rocky dwelling.

Lizards are very common in Indian houses, particularly in villages.

***

Item 621 Crows and Guests

Crows are associated with guests!

Crows are found everywhere in India.

If crows caw in any house that means guests are going to come.  There is some science behind it.

If anyone expects guests, then they make spicy, good smelling, special food and the crows can smell it easily.

Then they gather there. But Tamils believed that it can even prophesize about guest’s visit

A foster mother grieves over the elopement of her daughter with the hero and requests the crow to caw and foretell their return to her house; in grateful recognition of this timely help, she promises to feed it and its kith and kin with raw mutton and fat offered in a gold vessel (See Aink.391)

***

Item 622- About Bird Migration; birds flying like a necklace; pearl garland.

Puram .209; 67;

Akam. 113; 120;273;234

Ain.325;

Narri.356;

To be continued…………………………

Tags- lizards, tortoise, crocodile, Nagaratna, Cobra jewel, Crows, Bird migration, item 622, Tamil Superstitions, Purananuru wonders-39