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Bilingual discourse and cross-cultural fertilisation: Sanskrit and Tamil in medieval India

 | 
Whitney Cox
, 
Vincenzo Vergiani

Section I. Literary audience and religious community

Is clearing or plowing equal to killing? Tamil culture and the spread of Jainism in Tamilnadu

Takanobu Takahashi

Texte intégral

1. Introduction

1How a religion spreads to other regions is an intriguing question. This is especially true when one considers how the religions of North India spread to southernmost India or how the local people accepted these religions. The date of their arrival in the Tamil region is generally believed to have been a few centuries before the Christian Era, but it is unfortunate that no investigations have so far been carried out on how they propagated themselves or were accepted by local people.

2However, if we inquire into the manner of their propagation with all available materials, we can gain some leads concerning these questions. For example, the Mānavadharmaśāstra 3.158 mentions that seafarers (samudra-yāyī) are unworthy of oblations to the god and manes. We often forget that the latent meaning of the message expressed by the dharma and didactic works when they say, “One should or should not do this”, using the optative or imperative mood, is “Actually he/she did or did not do that”. Therefore, the above passage tells us that there were Hindus who went to faraway places across the sea. It was considered objectionable for brahmins to go to sea, which means that they actually did so. Judging from various foreign products brought to India and Indian products found in foreign countries, it is clear that there were Hindus who conducted maritime trade, among whom there must have been some who lived in foreign countries. It was essential for these Hindus to invite brahmins to have them perform rituals.

  • 1 Regarding the language, grammar, and contents of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, see Mahadevan (2003).
  • 2 We know nothing about the population in Tamil and Kannada areas at this time. It might have been a (...)

3In South India, Jainism may have been prevalent and active in the regions corresponding to modern Tamilnadu and Karnataka from the earliest days of their history. In the Tamil area, all cave inscriptions of the 2nd century BCE to the 3rd century CE are dedicated to Jains,1 and many important literary works were composed by Jains. This was especially true before the pre-bhakti period, that is, before the 6th century CE. Works of this period are the Tolkāppiyam (1st–5th century CE), Cilappatikāram (ca. 5th century), some of the Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku such as the Tirukkuṟaḷ (5th century?), and the Nālatiyār (6th–7th century?). The same is true in the case of Kannada literature before the 12th century, when the bhakti movement in the Kannada area began, and all important authors, such as Nṛpatuṅga of the Kavirājamārga (9th century, the first work in Kannada literature) and the works of the great trio (ratnatraya “three jewels”, i. e. Pampa, Ranna, and Ponna) in the golden age of Kannada literature (10th century), are Jains. Thus, Jains played an extremely important role in Tamilnadu and Karnataka.2

4In spite of the crucial importance of Jainism in Tamil and Karnataka areas, no investigation has so far been made concerning cultural contact between Jainism and local people. In this paper I will examine how Jainism spread in the Tamil area, with special reference to the word kol “kill” used in connection with vegetation and agriculture in the so-called Caṅkam literature of the first few centuries of the Christian Era.

2. Words meaning “to kill” in Tamil

  • 3 DEDR 2132. Ta. kol (kolv-, koṉṟ-) to kill, murder, destroy, ruin, fell, reap (as the heads of grain (...)

5In Tamil, there are more than 30 words which connote the meaning “to kill”, such as aṭi/aṭu, keṭu, kol, citai, tīr, tolai, paṭu, etc., but, apart from kol, their basic meanings are other than “to kill”. Taking examples in the Caṅkam texts into account, the basic meaning of aṭi/aṭu is “to beat, strike to pound (as rice)” (DEDR 77), keṭu is “(v.i.) to perish, be destroyed, decay; (v.t.) to destroy, squander, extinguish” (as animals, valor, strength [DEDR 1942]), citai is “(v.i.) to be injured, spoiled; (v.t.) to injure, waste, destroy” (as woman’s beauty, ornaments [DEDR 2526]), tīr is “(v.i.) to end, vanish, be completed; (v.t.) to leave, quit, finish, complete” (as distress, anger [DEDR 3278]), tolai is “(v.i.) to become extinct, perish; (v.t.) to destroy, kill, exterminate” (as beauty, strength, animals [DEDR 3519]), paṭu is “(v.i.) to perish, die; (v. t.) to lay horizontally, kill, fell” (as animals, plants [DEDR 3852]). The basic meaning of kol, on the other hand, is “to kill”. The TL mentions as its meanings “1. To kill, slay, murder. 2. To destroy, ruin. 3. To fell, cut down. 4. To reap, as the heads of grain. 5. To afflict, tease. 6. To neutralize metallic properties by oxidation”. The DEDR shows that the basic meaning of kol is “to kill” and the meaning is common to other Dravidian languages.3

6Thus, kol is representative of words denoting “to kill” throughout the history of the Tamil language, and naturally there are more than 100 occurrences of the word in the Caṅkam texts along with many idioms prefixed with kol (verbal root) or kolai (its noun) signifying “killing, murderous, ferocious, or cruel”, such as kol kaḷiṟu (--- male elephant), kolkolai ēṟu (--- bull), kol paṭai (--- army), kolai vil (--- bow), kol yāṉai (--- elephant), kolai paratavar (--- fishermen), etc.

3. Laying or felling trees is killing

  • 4 kuṉṟak kuṟavaṉ āram aṟutteṉa // naṟum pukai cūḻntu kāntaḷ nāṟum // …. kuṟumakaḷ.
  • 5 … malai uṟai kuṟavar // aṟiyaatu aṟutta ciṟu ilaic cāntam.

7There are, however, a few examples where kol is used in the context of vegetation and agriculture. A number of examples of cutting, reaping or plucking plants, flowers or crops are found in the Caṅkam texts, but examples of cutting trees are relatively few. The verb aṟu (DEDR 315) is mainly used in the sense of “to reap plants or crops”, but it denotes “cutting” trees in two places. Ain. 254.1–3 reads: “the young girl, who smells the kāntaḷ-lily pervaded by fragrant smoke like the sandalwood cut down by a mountaineer”.4 The same idea is expressed in Nar. 64.4–5 as “a sandal tree with small leaves cut off unconsciously by hill-men living in the mountain tract”.5

8The word taṭi (DEDR 3029) is usually used in the sense of “cut fish into pieces”, but it is also used to mean “cut trees” in several cases. Interestingly enough, the word is used when a symbolic guardian tree of the king is cut down, mostly at its root. Enemies cut down the guardian tree (kaṭi-maram) of the king (Pur. 36, 57). The guardian tree which is cut down is a mango (Patir. 11.5), a kaṭampu (Patir. 12.3, 20.4), and a neem (Patir. 86.6). The God Śiva cut down the mango tree of asuras at its root (Parip. 5.4, 9.70, 19.101, 21.8; TMA 60).

9Along with these words, kol is used in the sense of “cutting trees”, but, compared with these words, its usage varies with the context:

  • 6 maram kol kāṉavaṉ puṉam tuḷarntu vittiya // … iṟaṭi.
  • 7 maram kol maḻa kaḷiṟu vaḻaṅkum pācaṟai.
  • 8 curanta kāviri maram kol mali nīr.
  • 9 naṟu mā koṉṟu … kōcar pōla.
  • 10 … puṉ kaal // ciṟiyilai vēmpiṉ periya koṉṟu // … kaḷiṟu.
  • 11 tēm pāy marutam mutal paṭak koṉṟu // … cem puṉal.

millet sown after the field having been hoed by a forest man killing (felling) tree(s) (Kur. 214.1);6
the war camp where young elephant(s),
killing (bringing down) tree(s), walk about (Patir. 16.8);7
plentiful water of the swelling river Kāviri, which is
killing (uprooting) tree(s) (Pur. 68.9);8
like the Kōcars having
killed (felled) the fragrant mango tree
(
Kur. 73.3);9
the elephant, having
killed (laid) big neem trees with tawny stems and small leaves (Nar. 103.1–4);10
an immense flood having
killed (undermined) the fragrant, spreading marutam tree as it withers from its root (Patir. 30.16–17).11

10These kinds of examples show that not only “cutting” but also “uprooting” or “laying” living trees is equal to “killing” them, since the term kol is used, and they naturally suggest that ancient Tamils regarded “laying or felling” trees as “killing” them.

4. Clearing the forest is killing

11The semantic connection between felling and killing trees is quite understandable. If so, the connection between killing and clearing also becomes comprehensible. There are texts that refer to clearing the forest with the term kol, but it is not always evident whether clearing is simply deforesting or slashing-and-burning. Nor is this recognizable from a terminological point of view, as is shown by the DEDR, in which “slash-and-burn cultivation” is dealt with under the entry “jungle cultivation”.

12Pattina. 283–84 describes how Karikālaṉ, the man with “charred legs” (kari-kāl), a very renowned Chola king, having destroyed enemy kings, did the following:

  • 12 kāṭu koṉṟu nāṭu ākki // kuḷam toṭṭu vaḷam perukki.

[he] killed (cleared) the forest, made [it] a field,
dug tank(s), and caused [it] to increase income.
12

13This obviously indicates that the forest was cleared, and so the TL, citing this passage, gives the entry kāṭukol(lu)-tal (“to clear the forest”). Kur. 198.1 indicates that trees are cleared and burned at the place where girls of mountainous regions go:

  • 13 yāam koṉṟa maram cuṭṭa iyavil.

the way where trees were killed (felled or cleared) and trees were burned.13

  • 14 Tamil words in the TL have been added only to the first three meanings, which are closely connected (...)

14Except for these two examples, there are no clear cases in which the word kol signifies “clearing”. However, in connection with clearing and cleared fields, there is an annoying term, namely, kollai, which occurs more than ten times in ancient texts. The TL suggests that kollai is a noun deriving from kol “to kill” and defines it as “n. <kol-. 1. Sylvan tract; mullainilam. 2. Dry land; puṉceynilam. 3. Uncultivated land; taricu. 4. Enclosed garden, grove. 5. Backyard, open space behind and attached to a house. 6. Latrine. 7. Stool. 8. One who transgresses conventional bounds”. On the other hand, the DEDR does not include kollai under the entry kol.14

5. Five divisions of Tamil country and mullai

15Before looking into kollai, I shall briefly mention the division of landscape in ancient Tamil, because hereafter the discussion is closely connected with its division. Traditionally, according to love (akam) poetry, the major genre of Caṅkam literature, it is believed that the Tamil country consists of five regions. The five are kuṟiñci or mountainous regions, neytal or seashore, pālai or arid tracts, mullai or pasture or forest regions, and marutam or riverine or agricultural lowland.

  • 15 DEDR 448 has “iṭai middle in space or time, interval, gap, unfilled space, waist”, and DEDR 450 has (...)

16Among these five regions, the topic of this paper is mainly connected with mullai, and so I shall mention some more of its topographical features. The land of mullai is described as dry land or pasture with or without forest or groves at the foot of a mountain. Its inhabitants are herdsmen or farmers. The herdsmen are called iṭaiyar, and this term aptly hints at the geographical features of mullai. Iṭaiyar, according to the TL, derives from iṭai “middle” and means, literally “people inhabiting the middle region, applied specially to herdsmen as those who graze their cattle in regions known as mullai or forest pasture lying midway between hilly tracts or kuṟiñci and the plains or marutam”. In modern Tamil, iṭaiyar is a caste name, which is generally believed to be derived from iṭai or “middle”, whereas the DEDR seems to regard this interpretation represented by the TL as a folk etymology and differentiates iṭai or “middle” from iṭai or “the herdsmen caste”.15 Although the etymology of iṭaiyar is not certain, the interpretation given by the TL is quite appropriate for understanding the geographical features of mullai.

17The land of marutam is the riverine, wet, and fertile lowland in the suburbs of a city, while mullai land is dry and not productive. Hence, in modern Tamil agriculture, dry land for farming such as this is called puṉcey or “dry land” (< pul-cey “mean-land”, according to the TL) and the wet land used as paddy fields is called naṉcey or “wet land” (< nal-cey “good-land”, TL). The DEDR classifies naṉcey under the entry naṉai “to become wet; to wet” (DEDR 3630) and puṉcey under the entry puṉam “upland fit for dry cultivation” (DEDR 4337), which is often used to signify the land of mullai (see below), but, setting aside the question of which etymology is correct, it is certain that the explanation of these words in the TL is more appropriate for grasping the features of mullai land.

6. Is kollai a cleared field?

18Among the meanings of kollai given by the TL, the first three, namely, “sylvan tract” or mullai-nilam (“mullai-land”), “dry land” or puṉceynilam (puṉ-cey or mean/dry land), and “uncultivated land” or taricu (land lying waste or fallow), are closely connected with mullai. As is shown by these varied definitions, the meaning of kollai is not clear in most cases: some seem to indicate cleared and cultivated land and others appear to be uncultivated land.

19Kur. 186 depicts a love-lorn lady awaiting the return of her man.

  • 16 ār kali ēṟṟoṭu kār talaimaṇanta // kollaip puṉatta mullai meṉ koṭi // eyiṟu eṉa mukaiyum nāṭaṟkut / (...)

My eyes, friend, have forsaken sleep for the man
from the land where the soft creepers of the jasmine
of the field in the forest area that mingled with rain with roaring
thunder bear buds like teeth.
16

20This may indicate that kollai is simply mullai land or forest pasture adjacent to puṉam (upland fit for dry cultivation).

21The next text from Pur. 159.15–17 indicates that kollai is a cultivated field.

  • 17 …… kāṉavar // kari puṉam mayakkiya akaṉ kaṇ kollai // aivaṉam vitti… ...

Wild rice has been planted on a wide space of field
which was a dry upland, burned over and then mixed (dug) up by men of the forest.17

22Here the process of cultivation is clearly mentioned. First, the men of the forest burned a cultivated field (puṉam), then they mixed (dug) up its soil, and finally they sowed wild rice on the field (kollai) new to cultivation. Here kollai is equal to the second meaning given by the TL, namely “dry land”.

23It is easy to detect the relationship between such “dry land” and “uncultivated land”, for, although both are fields, the former is ready for cultivation while the latter is not. However, what is the relationship between these two and the first meaning in the TL, namely, “sylvan tract”? Are the former deforested fields? Ak. 288.5 appears to be a good example indicative of this:

  • 18 eri tiṉ kollai iṟaiñciya ēṉal.

[there are] ēṉal millets bent in the kollai which is devoured by fire.18

24The word kollai may be translated in two ways. One is woodland that has been cleared by fire. The other is uncultivated land which has been burned over for new cultivation, like puṉam in Pur. 159. If the former is the case, then it is obvious that kollai is cleared land and a noun deriving from kol or “to kill”. If, on the other hand, the latter is the case, this text does not tell us whether or not the kollai type of field is cleared land. But if we take into consideration the findings of section 4 above, it is highly probable that the word kollai originally meant killed or cleared land. This may be supported from a morphological point of view, since kol has two stems, namely kol and kollu, and kolai (killing) is a derivative of the former, while kollai may be a derivative of the latter.

7. Plowing is killing

25We have seen so far that kol is a word representative of words denoting “to kill”, that it is used when trees are felled and when the forest is cleared, and that cleared land in a mullai area seems to be called kollai, a derivative of kol.

26Now, we come across clear examples in which kol signifies “to plow”. In Kur. 155, the evening, a key word in mullai poems, when a wife is expecting the return of her husband, is referred to as follows:

  • 19 mutaip puṉam koṉṟa ārkali uḻavar // vitaik kuṟu vaṭṭi pōtoṭu potuḷap // poḻutō tāṉ vantaṉṟē.

the time (evening) has come when the small seed-baskets
of boisterous plowmen who have
killed (plowed) the old fields are full with buds.19

  • 20 DEDR 688 Ta. uḻu (-v-, -t-) to plow, dig up, root up (as pigs), scratch, incise (as bees in a flowe (...)

27If we take the word koṉṟa (past rel. ppl. of kol) as it is, it does not make sense in this context. Commentators accordingly replace it with another word, that is, uḻuta (past rel. ppl. of uḻu).20

28Ak. 133.14–16 is another example in which kol means “to plow”:

  • 21 ital muḷ oppiṉ mukai mutir veṭci // kol puṉak kuruntoṭu kal aṟait tāam // miḷai nāṭṭu……

of the Muḷai country where the buds of veṭci ripening
like the thorn[y foot] of a partridge spread on rocky areas,
with the blossoms of
kuruntu trees in the unplowed upland.21

29Here “the unplowed upland” (which could also be translated as “the uncultivated upland”) is a loose translation of the original, namely, kol puṉam, while a translation faithful to the original would be “the upland which is to be killed (plowed/cultivated)”.

30Now we have two examples in which kol is used in the sense of “plow”. Neither the TL nor the DEDR, as seen before, includes the meaning of “plow” in the entry for kol, and hence some may wonder how these two are semantically connected. But taking all the findings given in sections 3, 4, and 6 of this paper into consideration, the connection may be understandable to a certain degree.

8. Kol and Jainism

31It is well known that Jains have abhorred killing any living beings, including grasses, trees, worms, insects, birds, animals, etc., to say nothing of human beings. That is why they do not like to engage in agriculture, which is equal to killing plants, insects, and worms in the earth, although there is a Jain sect in Karnataka that engages in agriculture. If there was the same type of attitude as Jains among ancient Tamils, it is quite understandable that the word kol was used for plowing fields.

32Did Jains, then, exert influence on ancient Tamils? Cave inscriptions in Tamilnadu tell us that Jains had certainly arrived in Tamil country by the 2nd century BCE, and so in theory it is probable that they influenced Tamils. It seems, however, that Tamils intrinsically had a mentality similar to Jains, because by then Tamil culture may have been established to some extent. Firstly, as mentioned in Aśokan inscriptions, there existed the countries of Chera, Chola, Pandya, and Satyaputa in the Tamil area, which means that they had their indigenous culture in the 3rd century BCE. Next, Brahmī inscriptions usually contain all kinds of letters used to represent the sounds of Indian languages, namely, voiceless consonants, voiceless aspirates, voiced consonants, voiced aspirates, and homo-organic nasals, while Tamil-Brahmī inscriptions adopt the letters for voiceless consonants, voiced consonants, and homo-organic nasals. This means that the Tamil phonetic and orthographic systems had already been established by the 2nd or 1st century BCE.

33Thirdly, judging from the Caṅkam literature, it is certain that people at that time knew of Aryan culture, for there appear loan-words from Sanskrit (or Prakrit), poets or persons having names of Aryan origin, anecdotes from the two great epics, and names of Hindu gods, but Aryan elements in Caṅkam literature remain almost negligible compared with indigenous elements. Therefore, it is almost impossible to say that Aryan elements, including Jainism, had a formative influence on Caṅkam literature.

34Thus, the Tamil language and culture had been established before the arrival of Aryan cultures in Tamil areas. As for the question with which we are concerned here, it was not because of the influence of Jainism but because of a Tamil indigenous idea that “plowing” a field was equated with “killing”.

35What does this mean in the present context? In the case of Buddhism, there are tales that it spread from one country to other areas because kings sent regional missions to other lands, or renowned monks traveled to other countries. But the propagation of a religion may not have been so simple. Later, Christian missionary records, such as letters and diaries, during the Age of Great Voyages and afterward inform us that the difficulty or ease of missionary work differed from area to area and from culture to culture. This tells us that the spread of a religion to other lands must have largely depended on the relationship between propagators and local people, or between the cultural background of the former and the latter. Thus, the cultural milieu among ancient Tamils, who regarded “plowing” as “killing”, must have been a critical and desirable factor for Jains to propagate their religion.

9. Concluding remarks

  • 22 See Lévi (1937).

36It is a question yet to be solved whether the instances pertinent to the topic of this paper occur mostly in mullai areas. All the Tamil-Brahmi cave inscriptions, as well as most of the Jain sites, are located in dry areas, which are classified as mullai according to the ancient division of the landscapes. In this connection, it is noteworthy that, unlike Jain sites, most of the Buddhist vestiges in South India which have so far been found are located on riversides or coasts, such as Nagarjunaconda, Amaravati, Kaveripattinam, Nagapattinam, and the like. Does this suggest that Buddhists had connections with wetness and/or water transport and shipping? At least, the relationship between Buddhists and shipping is supported by a few references to Maṇimekhalā, or the guardian goddess of the sea, in Jātakas,22 the Cilappatikāram, and the Maṇimēkalai. It should be also noted that a direct sea route between India and South-East Asia had been established by the 4th century CE, since the Chinese monk Faxian (ca. 337–422) returned from Sri Lanka to China by this route in 411 CE.

  • 23 See K. Rajan (2009: 68).

37According to one writer, “Buddhists mostly lived along the Tamil Nadu coast and actively involved in maritime trade whereas the Jains are mostly involved in internal trade.”23 This is mere conjecture at the present stage of our knowledge, but further studies should be conducted concerning the relationship between religions, people, cultures, and landscapes.

Bibliographie

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Abbreviations

Ak.: Akanāṉūṟu, an anthology of 400 love poems consisting of 13 to 31 lines.

DEDR: T. Burrow and M.B. Emeneau, A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (2nd edition).

Kur.: Kuṟuntokai, an anthology of 401 love poems consisting of 4 to 8 lines.

Nar.: Naṟṟiṇai, an anthology of 400 love poems consisting of 9 to 12 lines.

Patir.: Patiṟṟuppattu (literally “Ten Tens”), an anthology of 80 poems eulogizing Chera kings.

Pattina: Paṭṭiṉappālai, one of the Pattuppāṭṭu (“Ten songs”) of 301 lines.

Pur.: Puṟanāṉūṟu, an anthology of 398 heroic poems.

TL: Tamil Lexicon, 6 volumes + Supplement.

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Notes

1 Regarding the language, grammar, and contents of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, see Mahadevan (2003).

2 We know nothing about the population in Tamil and Kannada areas at this time. It might have been a little higher before the bhakti period than in the modern period. According to the latest census, the population of India in terms of religious communities is Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, Buddhist 0.8%, and Jain 0.44%. The percentage of Jains in Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala is 0.13, 0.78, 0.055, and 0.14 respectively (Census of India. Population by religious communities: http: www.censusindia.gov.inCensus\_Data\_2001Census\_data\_finderC\_SeriesPopulation\_by\_religious\_communities.htm).

3 DEDR 2132. Ta. kol (kolv-, koṉṟ-) to kill, murder, destroy, ruin, fell, reap (as the heads of grain), afflict, tease; n. act of killing, affliction; kolli that which kills; kolai killing, murder, vexation, teasing; kolaiñaṉ, kolainaṉ, kolaivaṉ murderer, hunter. Ma. kolluka to kill, murder; kollikka to make to kill; kolli killing; kula killing, murder. Ko. kol act of killing. kol gaḷ thief; kolga· rn murderer. To. kwaly murder; murderous (in song, of buffalo, kite, dry season); who has died or is near death (in song, old man or woman); kwalyxo· ṟn murderer; kosn the messenger of the god of death (lit. the killer). Ka. kol, kolu, kollu (kond-) to kill, murder; kolisu, kollisu, kolsu to cause to kill; kole killing, murder, slaughter; kolega murderer; kolluvike killing; kuli a killer. Kod. koll-(kolluv, kond-) to kill. Tu. kolè murder. Kor. (M.) koru, (T.) kori, (O.) korru to kill. Te. (B.) kollu id.; (Śaṅk.) kola sin, (K. also) murder, holocaust, enmity. Br. xalling to strike, kill, fire (gun), throw (stone);?xalh pain, labour pains, colic (cf. Ta. kol affliction). DED(S) 1772.

4 kuṉṟak kuṟavaṉ āram aṟutteṉa // naṟum pukai cūḻntu kāntaḷ nāṟum // …. kuṟumakaḷ.

5 … malai uṟai kuṟavar // aṟiyaatu aṟutta ciṟu ilaic cāntam.

6 maram kol kāṉavaṉ puṉam tuḷarntu vittiya // … iṟaṭi.

7 maram kol maḻa kaḷiṟu vaḻaṅkum pācaṟai.

8 curanta kāviri maram kol mali nīr.

9 naṟu mā koṉṟu … kōcar pōla.

10 … puṉ kaal // ciṟiyilai vēmpiṉ periya koṉṟu // … kaḷiṟu.

11 tēm pāy marutam mutal paṭak koṉṟu // … cem puṉal.

12 kāṭu koṉṟu nāṭu ākki // kuḷam toṭṭu vaḷam perukki.

13 yāam koṉṟa maram cuṭṭa iyavil.

14 Tamil words in the TL have been added only to the first three meanings, which are closely connected with the content of this paper.

15 DEDR 448 has “iṭai middle in space or time, interval, gap, unfilled space, waist”, and DEDR 450 has “iṭai the herdsman caste; iṭaiyar men of the herdsman caste inhabiting the mullai country; fem. iṭaicci”.

16 ār kali ēṟṟoṭu kār talaimaṇanta // kollaip puṉatta mullai meṉ koṭi // eyiṟu eṉa mukaiyum nāṭaṟkut // tuyil tuṟantaṉavāl tōḻi em kaṇṇē.

17 …… kāṉavar // kari puṉam mayakkiya akaṉ kaṇ kollai // aivaṉam vitti… ...

18 eri tiṉ kollai iṟaiñciya ēṉal.

19 mutaip puṉam koṉṟa ārkali uḻavar // vitaik kuṟu vaṭṭi pōtoṭu potuḷap // poḻutō tāṉ vantaṉṟē.

20 DEDR 688 Ta. uḻu (-v-, -t-) to plow, dig up, root up (as pigs), scratch, incise (as bees in a flower); uḻavaṉ, uḻavōṉ, uḻāaṉ plowman, agriculturalist; fem. uḻatti; uḻavu plowing, agriculture… (Note: DEDR uses ṛ instead of ḻ of the TL system, but I have changed ṛ to ḻ for convenience.)

21 ital muḷ oppiṉ mukai mutir veṭci // kol puṉak kuruntoṭu kal aṟait tāam // miḷai nāṭṭu……

22 See Lévi (1937).

23 See K. Rajan (2009: 68).

Auteur

Professor in Tamil at the Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo. His main research interests are poetry, poetics, culture and society of ancient Tamil. His works are Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics (E. J. Brill, 1995), Japanese full translation of the Tirukkuṟaḷ (Heibon-sha in Tokyo, 1999), and Japanese translation of some 170 poems from the Eṭṭuttokai (Heibon-sha in Tokyo, 2007), along with several articles in both English and Japanese.

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