From Periannan Chandrasekaran Sun Sep 19 14:25:24 1999
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Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 14:37:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Periannan Chandrasekaran
To: agathiyar@egroups.com
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Subject: [agathiyar] Re: Poetry, Science and Marabhu
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--- "Chandrasekaran, Periannan"
wrote:
> -
> Manivannan had forwarded Ramanitharan's message
> ----Original Message-----
> > From: K.Ramanitharan
> > To: webmasters@...
> > Date: Monday, September 13, 1999 8:55 PM
> > Subject: Re: [webmasters] Ianesco again
....
> >
> > At 09:57 AM 09/13/1999 -0700, you wrote:
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: Chandrasekaran, Periannan
> >
> >
> >........
> > Even in the earlier time, yaappu was only for the educated elites,
> > who preserved the language within their clans... whatever their
> > reasons were.
> >
>
> I do not know what you mean by "preserved the language".
> yAppu by itself is, as is the case with all elements of classical
> Tamil (
> such as
> iyal (different types of books such as kuravanjci, paLLu)
> ,akam/puRam (based on actual practice), icaith thamiz (which includes
>
> musicology for folk dance forms such as vaLLai, ammAnai, Ucal etc ),
> derived
> from the popular.
>
> Tamil people naturally employ(ed) (I should say "used to spea" :-)))
> ethukai and mOnai in day-to-day speech. Country vidukathais and
> proverbs are
> with ethukai, mOnai and the adis would be in equal measure
> (aLavoththal)....
> The great linguistic genius thEvA nEyap pAvANar says that Tamil is
> uniquely
> rich in
> root words occurring in ethukai pairs. Tamil accent (speech pattern)
> stresses the first part of a word
> and George Hart states in his exquisite translation of AraNyA kANdam
> of
> kampan that this
> makes ethukai natural for them.
> Tamils are also naturally music-oriented. It is a well known comemnt
> that
> Tamils always sang and
> never simply spoke...anybody old enough would recall elders "reading"
> newspaper prose in
> a tune of their own.
> Also various acais and thaLais correspond to a pattern of drum beats
> (or
> rhythm syllables).
> nEr acai = thAm, thIm
> nirai = thaka, thimi etc.
> thaLais determine the over all sound effect and rhytmic flow.
> veN thaLai is said to be the most pleasant and is used in various
> settings.
> kummi and (kAvadic) chindhu employ veN thaLais.
> All these are completely rooted in folk arts.
>
> George Hart also says that Tamil poetry began with the ordinary clans
> such
> as pANars
> which got adapted by others.
> So It is very untrue to say that yAppu was elitist. Tamil never had
> anything
> elitist, period.

It was in Sanskrit that unnatural prosodic elements were introduced
that had nothing to do with music...
Page 201 of "Ancient Tamil Poems: their milieu and their Sanskrit
counterparts" in whose chapter titled "Prosody" Hart says:
"In other words each cIr [in Tamil prosody] is divided into a doublet
or a triplet rhythm, the two simplest subdivisions that can be made
musically.

The inherited meters of Sanskrit, anustubh and tristubh, contain
respectively eight and eleven syllables to a quarter. In classical
poetry, there appear a large number of meters such as mandakrantha in
which the number of syllables in each pada, or quarter, is constant and
in which the length of each syllable is specified. These classical
meters do not appear to have been derived from a popular poetry: they
are too difficult for any folksinger ot bard to improvise in. Rather,
they are certainly the artifical creations of the classical poets,
fashioned specifically for sophisticated Sanskrit poetry- to which they
are well adapted. In both types of meter, inherited and artificial, the
length of a line is detremined by the number of syllables it contains,
not by the number of time units, or syllabic instants, in it, as in
Tamil. Thus it would be pointless to search for Tamil parallels aming
them.".

I suppose that says it all. Tamil prosody has its roots planted
originally, directly and deeply in the popular folk practice.
Let us stop disparaging something so uniquely and divinely Tamil as
yAppu. We are all the losers.


> Tamils held kuyavas in the highest posiiton as evidenced from Indus
> Valley
> artifacts,
> vedic, purAnic and cangkam texts.
> Tamils never let any particular group arrogate to themselves any
> particluar
> classical form.
> pulavaras were from all walks of life; knowledge in all arts was
> expressed
> in yAppu
> because Tamils simply because it was natural for them and it also had
> built
> in mnemonics.
> It also conveniently allowed ciphering (encypting) the knowledge.
>
> > விவாககால நியதி
> >
> > செம்பொனா லோன்சே யோரை
> > சிந்தபத் திலாப மேவக்
> > கம்பநீர்ப் புவனி மீது
> > கருதிய விவாகஞ் செய்யிற்
> > பைம்பொனாட் டரசர் கோமான்
> > பராக்ரம வாகு பூபன்
> > றம்பைநாட் டாரைப் போலத்
> > தலைமையும் வாழ்வு மாமே.
> >
> > -
> > caracOthimAlai
> > (sOthidan_l), pOcarAca paNdithar, 1310
> >
> > வாய்ரோகம்
> >
> > இரட்சை
> >
> > தியதை யுண்ணாக் கதிலுற முன்னர்ச்
> > செப்பிய முறைவழு வாமற்
> > றேனன மொழியாய் வைத்தபி னகற்றித்
> > தீயினில் வெந்தநீ ரதனால்
> > பாவுற வலசிக் கொப்பளித் திடுவாய்
> > பயின்முறை யைந்துநாட் செய்தே
> > பகர்ந்திடு வத்தி ராஞ்சனப் புகையைப்
> > பத்துநாட் காலைநன் மாலை
> > இருபது தியும் புகைத்திடப் புண்போ
> > மியல்புளி யுப்பிவை நீக்கி
> > யேற்றநற் பசுப்பா னெய்யுடன் முருங்கை
> > யிலையதன் பிஞ்சுமே யாகும்
> > தொவுற வதற்பின் குளிர்ந்த நீர் மூழ்கச்
> > செப்பினான் றென்மலை யிருந்து
> > தீந்தமி ழாராய்ந் திலக்கணம் வகுத்த
> > செய்தவத் துயர்முனி தானே.
> >
> > -pararAcacEkaram
> > (vaiththiya n-Ul) n-allOr pararAcacEkaran, 1478 - 1519
> >
> > Even these fall into relatively simple verses, I think they
> > are still hard
> > for a layman to understand.
>
>
> These are professional knowledge and a layman was supposed to have no
> business
> to start understanding them without some training in the trade!
> These are called nURpAs or cUththirams (formulas) just as with
> physics
> today!
> You are supposed to understand what the capital Sigma stands for in a
> formula.
> Just as with an article in nuclear physics or programming languages
> theory
> where you would
> find terms such as superstrings, term-rewriting etc thrown in without
> any
> explanation whatsoever. Even when stating advanced facts, it would
> simply
> cite publications.
>
>
> Regards
> Chandra
>
>
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