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Book Review
Aspects of Muruga faith
MUTHAMIZH MURUGAN: Mangadu Kannappa Manoharan; Published by the author, 4, Bhagavati Street, Srichakra Nagar, Mangadu, Chennai-602101. Rs. 150.
TAMIL LITERATURE has a rich repository of religious texts. The works hailing Lord Muruga form a separate section. Some of them are psalms in daily chanting in homes and temples.
Quite a few have drawn commentaries and are annotated editions by scholars like Kripananda Variar. But they are all religious in import. Here is a welcome change, a mystical, metaphysical and linguistic mix.
The book under review lucidly elucidates the lingual nuances and the metaphysical import. To those unfamiliar with one or the other realm, his expositions might look reading too much into the text.
Yet, readers familiar with Tamil etymology, semantics and Saiva Siddhanta School of philosophy would appreciate him for his gleanings into lexical and iconographic aspects of the Muruga cult.
The author, so confident of his research, throws a challenge to any one who could come out with a similar work, establishing a symbiotic relationship between divinity and language other than Muruga and Tamil. His poser comes along with an offer of Rs. one lakh. It is highly unlikely that there would be any takers, because Tamil language is unique in its synergy with religion, despite a host of Sangam works, which are totally secular.
R. NATARAJAN
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