Written by London Swaminathan
Post No. 16,045
Date uploaded in London – 2 August 2026
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Tamil Music Wonders! Purananuru wonders-47, Tamil Encyclopedia-87, One Thousand Interesting Facts -Part 87
Item 702
Peacock danced like a rope dancer/acrobat
Kapilar, the most famous Sangam poet shows us a drunken peacock.
A peacock drinks self fermentedtoddy in a rockpool formed of the water mixed with honey and wit the pulps of te jack fruit and staggers like a lady dancing on a rope. It is in Kurinjippattu lines 187-194.
***
Item 703
In one of the books classified as minor classics known as Tinaimalai Nutraimpatu, verse 3, we read of the parrots that came to eat the millet, in the millet farm, forgot all about their food while listening to the sweet music of the Kurinji girls or the girls of the hills.
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Item 704
In Akam 102, we have an account of a wild rushing elephant which stood entranced at the charming music of a girl.
Akanānūru 102, Mathurai Ilampālāsiriyan Chēnthankoothanār, Kurinji Thinai – What the heroine said to her friend, as the hero listened nearby
The man from the country,
……….where a mountain dweller with the
……….strength of a maned lion, is on a lookout
……….platform in a huge millet field with
……….mature millet, happily drunk with liquor,
……….and in the gently moving breeze, his wife
……….puts her fingers through and dries her
……….perfume-rubbed, thick, long hair, and sings
……….songs in kurinji tune in the lofty mountains,
……….and a brave young elephant, not eating the
……….clusters of millet, and not moving away, puts
……….his green, sleepless eyes to sleep quickly,
came with sandal paste on his chest, wearing
garlands and flower strands buzzing with striped
bees, bore a spear on his right hand, escaped the
security guards, paused and came slowly into our
house through an unbolted door, hugged my chest
and embraced my shoulders, for my sorrow to leave,
spoke mixed words that were sweet and left.
Since he does not shower his graces, my bright
forehead surrounded by dark hair, which gives joy,
has become pale, and this has caused gossip to rise.
How can I survive this, my friend?
(English translations of poems are done by Vaidehi Herbert;thanks.)
***
Item 705
In Kalittokai, Palaikkali section verse 2, we have a similar instance of an uncontrollable mad elephant being subdued by music.
***
Item 706
In Narrinai verse 304, we have a fabulous bird named Asunam which becomes captive to music. Those hunters who want to catch them play melodious music first to attract them and then play loud, harsh music to kill them. Adi Sankara also mentioned how deer are caught through music. American native Indians still use whistling to trap reindeer. Sangam age shepherds and now Scottish shepherds use dogs to round up the sheep by whistling.
Narrinai verse 143 and Akam 318 tell us that the shepherd assembles all the sheep in one place just by a whistle. They are intelligent enough to follow the instructions. In western countries the dogs do the job.
***
Item 707
Parrots recite Vedas
Sangam Tamil poet Uruththirankannan also says that the parrots in Brahmins houses recite Vedas. They repeat it because the Brahmins do the recitation every day-Perumpanaatruppadai: lines 300/301.
***
Item 708 Poet Kapilar used Parrots
When the three great Tamil kings laid a siege around King Pari’s 300 towns, Kapilar trained the parrots to bring the grains into Pari’s territory. Poets Avvaiyar and Nakkirar were all praise for Kapilar for this help (Akam303 and Akam 78).
***
Item 709
Tamil Verse 143 of Kannakaran Korranar of Narrinai gives the information about parrots calling a girl in affectionate terms even after she left home.
New Scientist magazine has published an article about intelligent animals. Under the title of “Animal Einsteins” it has published a s news story about parrots. Alex the parrot owned by psychologist Irene Pepperberg until his death in 2007, was a prodigy. The parrot had a vocabulary of about 150 words. He could also count to 6. But Indian parrots mentioned in the above two references did more than this!!
***
Item 710
In Tamil Puram .247 verse: Monkeys help the temple (priests) by cleaning the land. They first wake up the deer that are sleeping in the temple complex.
Puranānūru 247, Poet Mathurai Pērālavāyar sang when he saw Perunkōppendu enter the fire, Thinai: Pothuviyal, Thurai: Anantha Paiyul – see previous song
In the terrifying front yard,
by the light of the fire kindled by
hunters, and lit with dried wood brought by
elephants, a female monkey scratches the
ground and wakes up large herds of delicate deer.
With water dripping from the hair on her back,
abandoning her youth,
she with large, distressed eyes, walks toward the
burning pyre in the vast ground, she whose sweet
life would tremble if she were to be away from her
husband even for a little bit long, in their
well-guarded, huge palace where drums never stop.
***
Item 711
Apes and elephants mourn when they lose their near dear ones. The zoo keepers have observed this and the newspapers have published pictures of the mourning animals (See mourning ape in Metro London 5th April 2012). Famous Tamil Novel Thekkadi Raja gives the elephant mourning in great details.
Puram 323-anonymous- a deer was caught by a tiger. Its calf was orphaned. A wild cow in the forest fed it with her milk.
Puranānūru 323, Poet: Unknown, Thinai: Vākai, Thurai: Vallān Mullai – Parts of this poem are missing
He is the leader of a town where an old cow with
no anger, feeds a calf of a wild cow killed by a tiger.
He gives without limit to people who come with
need, what they desire.
He owns spears. He draws his sword from the
scabbard only to kill elephants with legs that
resemble pounding mortars, in battles.
If the kings rule the country according to the rules, a tiger won’t attack a deer. Both will drink water from the same lake, say Kalidasa (Ragu. 6-46) and Tamil poets Ilango (Silappadikaram-Purancheri Irutha Kathai), Kamban and Manikkavasagan.
***
Item 712
Forest orchestra is described in many places. Each animal or bird plays its roll in the orchestra
Aninkurunuru 275 poet says a monkey used sticks to burst the bubbles in the stream water. They also play like our children
***
Item 713
A monkey took the peacock eggs and roll them on rocks. For them it is a ball game (Kuruntokai 38) once upon a time people thought all these were poetts’ imagination; but modern research articles show animals behave like men in many areas.
To be continued
Tags- animal Einsteins, Tamil Music Wonders! Purananuru wonders-47, Tamil Encyclopedia-87, One Thousand Interesting Facts -Part 87, item 713
Tamil and Vedas 