People prayed to Maayon (a form of Perumal) or Murugan. They don’t talk much about temples or anything. “Sangam poetry shows indications of indigenous religious beliefs without an organised structure. Tracking the journey of Tamil literature can be a door to trace the route in which religion spread in Tamil Nadu, he says. Because other epics speak about kings and royalty and hence this is a different take on the society back then,” he explains. “Because it is about the lives of the common people. Kabilar and Velliveethiyar are his favourite poets from the Sangam era.Īpart from the Tirukkural, the Silappathikaaram is his eternal favourite. While others were fighting for their tiny kingdoms, for someone to rise and say that we are all one family, is something we don’t find in the poems of that time,” he explains. “In Puranaanooru, poet Kaniyan Poongundran begins a poem with the words ‘Yaadhum oore yaavarum keleer’ which means the world is one big family. This line is used to denote the togetherness of a couple.Īnother collection of poems which is close to his heart is the Puranaanooru, which talks about external feelings and happenings like war, politics etc. The best example of famous lines from Kurunthogai which have been extensively used in Tamil cinema is the phrase ‘Red earth mixed with water’. It makes Kurunthogai attractive,” he says. “More than the fact that the poems are short, the emotions, the similes and metaphors that have been used in those poems are very modern. Sangam literature has around 2,400 poems of which Kurunthogai, a collection of short poems, is one of his favorites. “I also try to make the post relevant to that day’s happenings – political or otherwise,” he shares. It was to keep the engagement going so that the community has something to look forward to,” says Chenthil, pointing out that the tip has helped him build a community, which now has around 12,700 members.Ĭhenthil says that he mixes up genres and topics to post on the page so that the readers are always kept on their toes. “He told me to continue posting something every day, even if I hadn’t translated anything new for that day. He also got to meet his inspiration Joel Christensen in Chennai, when the latter had flown down a few years ago. u0dBLCxjbT- OldTamilPoetry April 24, 2019 "My tears fill the valley of my bosom like the wide pond where storks roam"īlog : /kHZZoRJJWw- OldTamilPoetry April 24, 2019 That somehow clicked with the readers,” he says. Therefore I started taking screenshots and putting it up. “Nobody has the attention span for long posts nowadays. Hence he experimented first with posting the link to his blog page where the readers can find the entire translation. Readers: Ming-Zhu Hii, Fiona Macleod, Louise Siverson, Danielle Carter, Peter Curtin and Felix Nobis Sound engineer: Garry Havrillay Production: Prithvi Varatharajan The Interior Landscape translated by AK Ramanujan is published by Oxford University Press.Twitter’s character limit of 140 back then restricted Chenthil from posting the entire translation of the poems. Akam poems also tend to focus on a single striking image, which conveys a whole emotional state. Through symbolic imagery, each akam poem alludes to every other akam poem within the Sangam tradition.
For instance poems set on a mountain are about lovers' union, while the countryside represents infidelity. In akam poetry landscapes represent various stages in a romantic relationship. Love, in all its manifestations, was the subject of akam poetry. This Poetica focuses on the akam poetry of the ancient Tamils. The poetry was classified as being either akam (of the interior) or puram (of the exterior). In the Sangam period in India, between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, 461 poets contributed to a total of eight anthologies of Tamil poetry. Readings of ancient Tamil love poetry, translated into English by AK Ramanujan, and accompanied by music.