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Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 11:05:00 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Earliest Reference to muttamiz or "threefold tamiz"
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From: Periannan Chandrasekaran
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Earliest Available Reference to muttamiz or "threefold tamiz"
Zvelebil in his treatise "Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature"
(1992, E.J.Brill, Leiden, Handbuch Der Orientalisk, ISBN 90-04-09365-6) says on
page 140 in the interesting section dealing philologically and metaphysically
with the deeper significance of the concept of muttamiz or triple tamiz:
"How old is the concept of 'threefold Tamil'?
ஸif it was an ancient concept, we have no trace of its left. Neither
pre-Pallava texts nor any ancient inscriptions refer to muttamiz. It seems that
chronologically the earliest reference to the "three fold Tamil" is to be found
in muttoLLAyiram, a fragmentary text mostly in veNpA quatrains, which it is
extremely difficult to date: the end of the sixth century was suggested as well
as the tenth centuryஸ."
But we do find that the cangkam texts paripATal indeed has a reference to
muttamiz. It occurs in the fragmentary lines obtained from commentaries. It has
not been identified with a particular song in the anthology which originally
had 70 songs but only 22 of which have survived in full and we have others
available only in fragments gleaned from commentaries of other books. These
lines, not having the original song number to be associated with, are
categorized under the heading "paripATal tiraTTu". The relevant line referring
to muttamiz was obtained from the commentary to tirukkuRaL by parimElazakar.
Not incidentally, he is also the author of the sole commentary on paripATal
available.
The lines are from the Cologne Digital Tamil Thesaurus :
Qpariti4x01 \BT teri mAN tamiz mummai ten2n2am poruppan2 \et
Qpariti4x02 \BT pari mA niraiyin2 parantan2Ru vaiyai \et
Let us focus on the first line that has the triple tamil reference:
teri = choice; mAN = glorious; mummai = triad; ten2n2am = southern;
Poruppan2 < poruppu = the ruler of the Potiyil hills i.e., pANTIyan2.
[translation mine; there are no commentaries available for this]
"The ruler of the southern mountain (Potiyil) associated with the choice and
glorious tamil triadஸ"
Note the phrase "tamiz mummai" or "the Tamil triad" associated with the Potiyil
hills ruled by PanTiyan2s.
Looks like Zvelebil has missed this critical reference to muttamiz in his
discussion on muttamiz' historicity.
Another important point is that this triple tamiz is associated the Potiyil
hills which is invariably connected with sage Akattiyar (Agastya) who is said
to have resided there and composed Akattiyam, a treatise dealing with muttamiz.
As Zvelebil himself in the same section and elsewhere in the same book and his
earlier work "Tamil Literature" (1975, E.J. Brill, page 60) , asserts that a
treatise like Akattiyam, composed by a semi-mythical figure Akattiyar (Agastya)
must have been extant in hoary antiquity.
This paripATal line further strengthens his assertion.
Regards
P.Chandrasekaran.
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