TAMIL
Anthology of literary essays
AAYVUKKOVAI-2004 — Ilakkiyaviyal: International Institute of Tamil Studies, II Main Road, C.I.T. Campus, Taramani, Chennai-600113. Rs. 75.
THIS BOOK is a collection of thoughtful essays on Tamil literature. Out of the 82 papers in this volume, the first 37 mainly discuss the manifold aspects of the Sangam poems on both subjective and objective themes.
They project the hedonistic life, polity, social stratification, common beliefs and cultural aspects of the ancient Tamils. The aesthetic and rhetorical features of some poems are also presented in some essays.
Twenty papers on ethical literature such as the Tirukkural, Naladiyar and the Pazhamozhi throw sufficient light on the inculcation of human values leading to human perfection. In comparison with the Tamil texts, the three Satakas of Bhartruhari and also the Ten Commandments of Jesus Christ are taken into consideration.
Sixteen essays are devoted to the most popular Tamil epics. In one of them, the three main objectives — the unjust would be punished, chaste women would be extolled and the destiny would fructify without fail — being the essence of the immortal epic, the Cilappatikaram have been highlighted.
In an article humanism as delineated in the Buddhist epic Manimekalai has been elucidated. Characterisation in the Kamba Ramayanam and glorification of women in the Periyapuranam form the central theme in some essays.
The papers on the Prabandhas such as Venkai Kalambakam and Tirupalliezhucchi are interesting. The last paper is a scholarly attempt to trace the literary sources quoted in the earliest available commentary on the Cilappatikaram.
S. N. KANDASWAMY
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