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Subject: nacciyar thirumozhi english
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 12:15:10 +0530
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From: "Ramani Naidu"
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It is the first of Margazhi today, 16.12.2001. During the last two years,
God had willed that Ramani sends the text of Thiruppavai and Thiruvempavai,
Thirupalliyelucci along with his interpretations in Tamil and English. This
year He has willed that he sends the text of Nacciyar Thirumozhi in Tamil
and in English Translation along with his interpretation of the same. Ramani
wishes that the friends on the internet enjoy the pious heart of Andal as
they did during the last two seasons.
Ramani does not know if he has to re-send the Thiruppavai and Thiruvempavai
series written last year. Anyhow he does not want to miss the first day and
so has re-sent the introduction he wrote for Thiruppavai and Thiruvempavai
along with the text and interpretation in Tamil and English. If it is so
desired that he need not re-send the same this season, he may kindly be
advised accordingly.
The postings on Nacciyar Thirumozhi will appear in three parts. In the first
part Ramani intends to trace the origin and nature of Andal Literature in
the context of the literary history of Tamil. In the second part, he intends
to write an introduction to the nature and course of Nacciyar Thirumozhi in
Alwar literature in general and Andal literature in particular. During the
next twenty eight days he intends to send the text, translation and
interpretation in Tamil and English for the 143 stanzas in Nacciyar
Thirumozhi at the rate of 5 stanzas a day.
The Origin and Nature of Andal Literature in the History of Tamil Literature
The history of Tamil Literature begins with the Sanga Literature. The Sanga
Literature is two-fold : the akam and the puram. The songs of the puram
present dramatic snippets from the life of the ancient Tamil society. There
realistic pieces as well as exaggerated pictures drawn for the sake of the
reader. The akam literature speaks of the element of love. And yet it cannot
be said that the akam speaks about the psychology of love as much as the
actions on the external world springing from a love-laden heart.
Think of that song wherein is described the sympathetic nature of the hero.
He had been away from home for making money. He is on his way back home and
his heart is filled with the anticipated meeting with his lady love. Just
then he notices how the insects in the wayside bushes run helter-skelter at
the noise of the bells of his chariot. He stops his chariot and asks his
charioteer to remove the tongues of the bells. Though it cannot be said that
we do not have poetry that speaks of the gentleness of love, the longing in
the heart filled with love and the singleminded devotion of love in the akam
poetry, we have to state that they speak more of bundled emotions rather
than the finer aspects of love in terms almost psychological.
Coleridge is said to have been the first to bring in psychology when he
accounted for the nature of genius in his literary criticism. Along with him
other Romantic Poets like Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats brought in
the personal passions of the individuals in their writings. There are
feelings like desires, ambitions, frustration, helplessness and other such
finding an expression for the first time in English literature.
If the Romantic Movement in English had been a turning point in English
Literature, it can be said that the Alwar literature in Tamil is the first
of its kind in that it brought into play the psychological implications of
emotions into literary composition.
The Sanga Age was followed by the Age of the Epics during which the first
two extant epics in Tamil, the Cilappathikaram and Manimekalai were written.
Still later the Ethical Literature appeared in Tamil. The period of the
Kalappira Dynasty is said to have existed a little later or during or a
little before the period of Ethical Literature in Tamil. Next came the age
of Devotional Literature in Tamil. Particularly when the Vaishnava
literature came into existence in Tamil, the new path towards the expression
of emotional intricacies was laid in Tamil. Let us not try to reason out the
why and wherefore of such development. On the other hand, accepting the
literary phenomenon for what it had been, it would be in place to consider
what a majestic course such literature pursued. That would take us to the
content, nature and trends of Alwar literature in general and Andal
literature in particular.
The Alwars were twelve in number. The first three of them had been Peyalwar,
PoykaiAlwar, Bhuthathalwar. Their songs are said to have been on a
particular occasion inspired by a particular instance of the manifestation
of God. These three are not given human origin for their existence. They are
not even said to have had normal human life or emotions.
Beginning the Alwars who came next, though human origin is not suggested to
all of them, almost every one is said to have a normal human existence with
the exigencies thereof. Thiruppanalwar and Andal do not have human origin.
But they had lived a very human life. Nammalwar had human origin. But he had
not lived a normal human life of growth, maturity, realization and
expression. Nammalwar and Andal make a contrastive pair in this respect. The
others are said to have had this kind of birth and to have lived such and
such a kind of human life. That is how the Guru Parampara Pirabhava accounts
for the history of the Alwars.
So when we look at the Alwar literature excluding the songs of the first
three Alwars, it will be fitting to look at Alwar literature as being
expressive of the experiential aspects of life. We can even exclude
Nammalwar literature from such a consideration. He is supposed to have
answered the question, “When the miniscule is born in the dead, where and
how will it remain?” as “It will remain there undergoing that”. The person
who asked the question was an elderly Brahmin who became an ardent devotee
to Nammalwar who was then a boy of 12 years. Nammalwar had been vegetating
for twelve years in his life since his birth. That was the first occasion he
came to his senses. After the answer, he is supposed to have come out with
about 1000 stanzas of poetry which are composed as the Thiruvaymozhi.
Whatever emotional content be there in Nammalwar’s poetry, they can be taken
into discount as expressive of what is usually experienced by the living
rather than as lived experience. His songs crystallize the human predicament
of living a life swayed by passions weaning man away from God and the
inescapable longing for union with God. Caught between these two, man’s life
is something alien to the soul condemned to live the bodily existence until
it expends the accumulated karma of the previous births all the while
praying for redemption by divine intercession. That much can be said about
Nammalwar’s poetry though literary critics cite evidences contrary within
the text to establish that the songs might have been written over a period
of time.
The songs of Andal are directly on the other extreme. Every emotion
expressed in her poems are those which had been experienced in finer
details. In the case of Andal’s songs also the literary critics have their
own opinions. They are of the opinion that Andal who is said to have been
just a girl before she merged with the Divine at Srirangam could not have
expressed such adult passions as are to be found in her songs. Let us leave
such questions of speculation to the learned pundits. Let us take the
contents of the songs for what they are. While doing so, anyone can
experience the psychological aspects of her poetry; the grace of the
feminine therein. So the emotional overload in Andal’s songs could verily
had been experiential by nature rather than projected.
The thirty songs in Thiruppavai and the 143 stanzas in Nacciyar Thirumozhi
are the extant Andal Literature. There had of course been love poetry
written before Andal in the devotional literature. But there are plenty of
differences between those poems and Andal’s songs. We can see the details
thereof during the course the next few days. Let us now stop with the
following:
The thirty songs of Thiruppavai had been written for a particular
ritualistic worship of God. The Thiruppavai extends to social devotion, the
emotional surges thereof, the vows made as part of the ritual, and prayers
for prosperity. But Nacciyar Thirumozhi had not been written for a
particular occasion. There is no indication of social devotion in it. There
are no prayers seeking a few and pleading protection from a few others. All
that is prayed for is divine presence. Personal determination is spoken
about in Nacciyar Thirumozhi. Colourful personal dreams are painted there.
Personal longing is spoken about. All these are not born of hearsay or by
tradition, literary or social. Andal has longed; had become happy; had
celebrated; had enjoyed the bliss of union; had felt the pangs of separation
and have expressed the emotional outcome of the varied experiences. Thus it
has to be said that Nacciyar Thirumozhi is verily the climax of experiential
literature. As such let us hail Andal as the origin of experiential
literature in Tamil and proceed to the next posting tomorrow.
Ramani
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