Chidambara Nataraja Temple
Research paper written by London Swaminathan
Research article No.1536; Dated 1 January 2015.
1.Tamil Humour!
A humorous picture of a crab’s encounter with a beetle is found in Natrinai ( A collection of 400 Tamil poems). A beetle wanted to taste a black naval fruit. A crab mistook it for a fruit. The crab thought that there two black fruits lying on the ground and grabbed the unfortunate beetle first leaving the real fruit. The poor beetle made a pitiable cry like the yaz/veena instrument and attracted the attention of a crane standing nearby. The crane rushed to its rescue and relived the beetle from the clutches of the crab (Natrinai verse 35).
2.Love and ‘’Naaval’’ fruit
Akananuru , part of Sangam literature, describes another scene. A male crab noticed a fruit falling down from a naval tree. It seized it with its claws, crushed it out of shape and carried it to its mate (Akam verse 380).
The crab on the sea coast is assigned its own place in the life of the lovers. When the hero seeks the favour of the lady-companion to approach his sweet heart, he notices a crab taking with its pincer like legs a naval fruit and offering it to its loving mate in the burrow among the screw pine roots. He then remarks that the creature is blessed and fortunate to be so loving. He makes this remark in the hearing of the lady-companion who later conveys it to the heroine and convinces of her of his sincerity in his love (Akam 380)-from The Treatment of Nature in Sangam Literature by Prof.M Varadarajan
Avvaiyar — Murugan; pictre from murugan.org
3.Avvaiyar’s encounter with Lord Skanda
Jambu (Naaval in Tamil) is associated with Lord Ganesh and his brother Lord Skanda (Murugan) in Tamil Nadu. During Ganesh Chathurthi in August/September they buy it and offer it to Lord Ganesh. His brother Skanda/Murugan was teasing the grand old lady of Tamil literature — poetess Avvaiyar by sitting on a jambu tree.
When Avvaiyar came under the tree and looking for ripe fruits, young Murugan (Skanda) sitting on the tree asked the old lady, Oh, Grand ma! Do you want burnt/hot fruits or not burnt fruits? Avvaiyar was puzzled by this question. She wondered whether fruits are cooked on the tree. When asked for explanation Murgan revealed himself and gave her the explanation. Burnt fruits are the one which you blow with your mouth to remove the sand sticking to the fallen fruits.
4.Kapila’s Achievement!
Kapila was the poet who made the highest contribution to Cankam corpus .His poems form nearly one tenth of the Cankam anthologies. He was praised by other poets as ‘A Brahmin of spotless character’. He was the Sangam poet who was praised by more than anyone else. Kapila composed over 235 poems.
Kapila, though a Brahmin, was the first to throw the caste barriers into wind and took a Tamil Chieftain’s (Paari Vallal) daughters to other kings for marriage alliance. But no Tamil chieftain came forward to marry them, fearing the enmity of the three powerful kingdoms. The three great Tamil Kingdoms Chera,Choza and Pandya were against Paari and eventually killed him. At last the daughters of Paari were put under the trust of Brahmins and Kapila entered fire (self immolated himself).
Madurai Meenakshi temple
5.Auspicious Tamil Words
Tamil grammar says that the books should begin with an auspicious word (Mangala Sol) like the world, sun, Moon, letter ‘a’ etc. Famous poems begin with the world “ Ulakam” in Tamil ‘Lokam’ in Sanskrit. Tamil Tirukkural begins with ‘a’ like the Rig Veda!
6.One of the Four Famous Saivite poets is Manikkavasagar. His Tiruvasagam attracted even Christian preachers like Rev. G U Pope. He learnt Tamil just to study Tiruvasagam. He translated it in to English 100 years ago. But one poet by name Kadavul Mamunivar who wrote the life history of Manikka Vasagar (Tiruvatavurar Puranam) never mentioned Manikkavasagar’s name throughout his book, probably forgot. He simply calls him ‘a man from Vaathavur’ (Vaathavuurar). Vaathavur is the birth place of Manikkavasagar and it is 20 miles from Madurai in South India. We did not know the true name of Manikkavasagar as well.
7.Paranar’s Achievement
Nine similes in one poem: Aka nanuru poem 178 by Paranar has nine similes in just twelve lines. Scholars compared it to a bride loaded with jewellery from head to foot at the wedding time. Though a Vedic hymn has got 27 similes (Please read my post 27 Similes in one Vedic Hymn posted on 18 August 2012) Paranar did it in 12 lines!
Srirangam Temple
8.Tamil Book Launch
Tamils do the Arangetram (Book Launch Events) of their books mostly in temples:
a)Periya Puranam- launched at Chidambaram Temple
b)Kandha Puranam- launched at Kumara Kottam,Kanchi
c)Kamba Ramayanam- launched at Srirangam Temple
d)Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam- launched at Madurai Meenakshi Temple
- e) Tirukkural – launched at Madurai Meenakshi temple
f)Meenakshi Pillai Thamiz- launched at Madurai Meenakshi Temple
g)Narayaneeyam- launched at Guruvayur Temple (Book is in Sanskrit)
h)Tolkappaiam, oldest Tamil book, was launched in the court of king Nilantharu Thiruvil Pandyan, presided over by a Brahmin well versed in the four Vedas.
(Palm leaf manuscripts of the great Thevaram poems were found in Chidambaram Temple. Annamacharya’s copper plates were found in Tirupati temple).
Contact– swami_48@yahoo.com
Tamil and Vedas 
You must be logged in to post a comment.