Tamil History

INTRODUCTION "jPJk; ed;Wk; gpwH ju thuh" -Kaniyan Poongunranaar.

"The evil and good that you meet in your life is not given to you by somebody else, but it is something that you have taken upon yourself" says the philosopher and his words are true in the case of the Tamil people.

The growth of a civilization depends on several things and one such important thing in philosophy. The Tamil Culture is grown, but where is its philosophy?

Our search started at this point. We were helpless because this Tamil culture, which had, is adulterated.

Who was the cause? It is the Tamil people themselves.

The Tamil people have spoiled their philosophy. The Brahmins who are the so-called top most class penetrated into Tamil culture into every nook and corner. How did they penetrate? They just used the irrational religious behavior of Tamil people says Devaneya Pavanar in jopod; vg;gb nfl;lhd;. Not only that, they also used extra vagency, jealousy, lazy men, and blindly obedient nature of the Tamils and stole away the science, philosophy, education of Tamils. They introduced the philosophy that would make the Tamils always to be under slavery, they misused the science and the blind obedience of the Tamils to make them slaves forever says Guna in kz;Zhpik. Tamil people started to lose everything including land and the political power. "What is now there with Tamil people?" regrets the great U.V.Saminathan Iyer, who tried his level best to bring back Tamil literature. Now this slave mentality has becomes an in born nature of the Tamil people. The Tamil person has now a wounded psyche. The Tamil person has become a beggar. All that he had in the names of science and medicine he receives them back in the forms of Horoscopes, Fate, Vasthu, Ayurveda and Numerlogy.

According to Karl Marx, the history is not supposed to be about the kings and their wars, their achievements, their family problems etc. It is supposed to be people centered. The Indian history will never become complete if the people centered history is included. And one major part of history is the south Indian history, if this is not included then the history is always incomplete, says K.K.Pillai in his book njd;dpe;jpa tuyhW. With regard to it we need to deny a few false teachings. The first of them is the priority given to Vedas, Upanishads in Indian Philosophy. The authenticity of Vedas and Upanishads are to be questioned because it oral tradition, but the philosophy of the Tamils which also has the same antiquity is recorded in the Tamil literature. The second lie is saying, "It is difficult to differentiate philosophy from religion in India." It is a lie because Samkhya, Lokayutha, Ajvikas, Carvakas were materialistic (atheistic). The Vaisesika and Nynya do not mention anything about religion but concentrates

only on philosophy. The third mistake is that we generalise all the Tamil thinkers into the category of writers of Literature. Some of them are not merely writers of literature but also philosophers. They have a philosophy of their own in search of truth, and most of their lives are examples for their own literature.

At the outset we would like to acknowledge the sincere help that was rendered to us by Fr. Amalraj Susai and Fr. Pathiaraj for his guidance and support that made us to bring out this philosophy of our ancestors as well as the contemporary philosophers who are denied in the so called Indian philosophy. We would also like to thank The Retreat community for their encouragement. Some of the limitations for which we ask the readers' pardon are the inability in using the inclusive language and the correct use of symbols for Tamil terms. Another problem that we faced is giving the philosophy in English. Our aim was to find out the philosophy and present it, and since presenting it in Tamil is tedious and time taking we have presented it in English.

THE HISTORY OF TAMIL IN A NUT-SHELL Tamil originated in the Lemurian continent at least 50,000 years ago as a full-fledged language, after having passed through the four stages of development, viz., Monosyllabic or Isolating, compounding, Inflexional and Poly inflexional, which ought to have covered not less than a hundred thousand years, even according to the most modest calculation.

As the primitive Tamilians passed through the three regional stages of civilization, viz., the hilly stage, the pastoral stage, and the agricultural stage, Tamil became more and more developed and attained perfection.

As population increased, people gradually moved in different directions to distant lands, during the various stages of development of the Tamil language.

The first Pāndiyan king of the Lemurian Tamils built his capital „Madurai‟ which was also the seat of the First Tamil Academy, on the banks of the river Pahruli at the southern extremity of the submerged continent. After the submergence of the southern part of the continent, the Pāndiyan capital was moved to „Alaivāy‟, the Kapātapura of the Sanskrit literature, which also became of the seat of the second Tamil Academy, at the estuary of the submerged river Kumari. After this river also went under the sea along with the residuary portion of the ancient Pāndiya Nādu, modern Madurai came into existence on the banks of the river Vaigai.

The Tamils who spread towards the north became Dravidians by reason of their language having changed into Drāvida. A section of the Dravidians in their turn, slowly moved towards the northwest up to Scandinavia, became Aryans, and then was a nomadic horde from the northeast part of Europe, which entered

1

India through Persia as the Vedic Aryans or as their ancestors.

The Vedic Aryans possessed neither a literature nor an alphabet at the time of their arrival.

The Vedas were composed in North India, and their language bears traces of having been largely influenced by the then North Indian vernaculars called Prākrits in Sanskrit.

As the Vedic language became dead on account of the poor minority of its speakers, and its phonological and inflexional over-development, and as the Vedic Aryans wanted to have a separate literature in their name, they came into contact with the Tamilians, derived the Grantha characters from the Tamil script, evolved the semi-artificial literary dialect called Sanskrit out of the dead Vedic language and the then regional languages of India called Prākrits in general, translated all Tamil technical literature into and reduced grammars of the Vedic language and Sanskrit, separate and combined, in imitation of Tamil.

But none of the translations was acknowledged to be such. All were claimed to be original.

The Vedic Aryans, taking advantage of the primitive credulity, religious fanaticism and indiscriminate munificence of the Tamil kings, made them believe that they (the Vedic Aryans), were earthly Gods (Bhusuras) and their ancestral language was a divine language (Deva Bhāsha). In this matter, their white colour and the high-sounding phonology of their language stood them in good stead.

After subjugating the Tamilians in this manner, the Vedic Aryans introduced Sanskrit as the medium of public and temple workship in place of Tamil, and this marked the beginning of the deterioration of Tamil which came to be treated with contempt even by the Tamilians.

Pavanar, Devaneya. The Primary Classical Language of the world. Chennai: Tamilman Publications, 2001.

Primitive Speculation Primitive man wondered about the nature. He speculated and was trying to find answer for the activities of the nature. In Tamilnadu this speculation led to the birth of primitive science and primitive worship. Primitive scientific schools were more realistic in their view and primitive worship was more idealistic. But in later periods of history primitive worship engulfed all the ideas of primitive science and developed religions: the monistic, polytheistic, nondualistic concepts of Sankara, Ramanuja, Saivisim, Vaishnavism, Mimamsa, came into the show. Primitive scientific schools were Lokayata, Valluvam (Ajivika), Samkaya, Vaiseshika, Naya and Yoga. Scholars are in the view that these schools were all Tamil schools and were developed by the Tamil minds. They (primitive science) contributed a lot to philosophical enquires.

There was a constant conflict between primitive

science and religion. They said that primitive scientific schools were heretical schools. Two important schools that were wiped from the faces of the history were the schools of Lokayata thoughts and Valluvam thoughts.

Most of its followers were killed and persecuted.

Primitive worship Traces of primitive worships are seen in the folklore worships of Tamilnadu. Ancient Tamils never followed any particular religion. They were more cultic worshipers. Some of the prevalent worships were: Snake Worship, Tree Worship, Virgin Worship, Astral Worship, Mother Worship (%Njtp), Devil Worship, Koorravai (War Goddess) Worship, Ancestor Worship, Bravery Worship and Hero Worship. These gave birth to many religions in the later period.

Each clan had god and goddess of its own.

They were more ritualistic based, not a passive one but an active ritualism. They gave more importance towards sense experience this is the reason why they even wanted to see their god in some form. It is more a form of animism.

Primitive religion was more dualistic in nature. They considered body and soul as a separate entity. They never had the concept of heaven or hell.

The soul, they consider were moving in this earth so they give sacrifices for them. This concept of the primitive worship was later developed it the concept of rebirth. Primitive worship was more Cosmo centric.

Philosophical concepts in Sangam classics In Tamil classics during the third sangam period we can notice that philosophical ideas were flourishing. Materialistic aspect and idealistic concepts was more prevalent and were in conflict. More than idealistic views materialistic ideas were given importance by the Tamils. Why because out people are followers of natural law and they used their reason to find out the truth.

Realism “Nja;jy; cz;ikAk; ngUfy; cz;ikAk; kha;jy; cz;ikAk; gpwj;jy;; cz;ikAk;" Gwk; 27.

They always stressed on sense experience.

They never had the concept of Maya for them whatever they see is real. That is why in the above poem they say „birth, growth, death everything is real‟. They always said whatever we see is true.

Body and soul They never considered body and soul as a separate entity. Life is only an experience of the body.

When death occurs man looses only his experience.

This was their only view regarding body and soul.

They never said that the soul would go to heaven or hell. They called death has veedu peru (tPL NgW) which means to leave veedai peru (tpil ngWjy;).

2

this concept was later developed into the concept of veenulakam (tpz;Zyfk;).

Cosmology World and its entire fulfillment were formed out of 5 basic elements: air, fire, earth, water and ether.

They combine to form different elements in the universe. The below song explains it: 'kz; jpzpe;j epyDk; epyd; Ve;jpa tpRk;Gk; tpRk;G ij tUtspAk; tspj; jiy,a jPAk; jPKuzpa ePUk;> vd;whq;F Ik;ngUk; G+jj;J ,aw;if Nghy" The idea of five elements is always seen in Tamil classics.

Time and space Universe and its element are in the space and time. They made time and space as the first and necessary thing. 'Kjnydg;gLtJ epyk; (,lk;) nghO (fhyk;) jpuz;bd; ,ay;ngd nkhopg ,ay;GzHe; NjhNu" this statements says this.

Impermance They viewed wealth, youthfulness, and body as impermance. This concept was later adopted by the Jaina and Buddha philosophies. They also stressed the ideas of contradiction very much. They said life becomes sweeter with contradictions.

Creation story Ancient Tamil text speaks about the creation story and the note of the creation story is mentioned in Paripaadal. It mentions of different periods: first period light was created then came air, water, land, and it was followed by a lot of periods, at each period each was created. They say about an ultimate god who was of all creation and god is present in all these. Critiques say that this addition of god into it might be a latter addition. For the people during the sangam period they never spoke of absolute god they speak of many god and goddesses. They never worried about the concept of god. They gave more importance towards the ethical aspect of life. This we can easily identify from the many songs of the sangam classics. Their ultimate goal was to achieve happiness. Not in the sense of personal interest but towards harmonious living.

Determinism The concept of determinism was one of the ancient concepts of the Tamil people. They called it as oozh (Co;). Mans wonder about nature made him to think that there is a cycle in nature or a law in the nature. They named it as oozh. Thus the concept of oozh can be said as the law of nature. They made oozh as the efficient cause and made all other causes as it

secondary causes (accidents, colour, action and other sub – causes). Oozh was made as an unknown cause.

This cannot be seen but can be experienced or perceived when it is done by other secondary causes.

They always said that man has to act according to the natural law (oozh) in order to have a happy life. But when one tries to go against the law of nature then he will face the consequence of it.

But in the later days this theory was given a one sided interpretation, which later gave birth to the fate theory.

That is to say that everything is predetermined and said that no human effort is necessary and led to superstitions.

This oozh was further diveded and the theory of action; secondary cause was stressed more and this led to the theory of karma. Which was stressed by Jaina, Buddha schools and was supported the Brahmins in order to justify the castesism.

The deterministic concept was pure thought of the Tamils. This gave birth to many philosophical thoughts. In later days each interpreted oozh in different ways. And the original concept of oozh (natural law) was forgotten. This led to the downfall of this beautiful concept.

Valluvam – A School That Developed The Theory Of Natural Law Two philosophical schools were completely forgotten by the philosophers. One is Lokayata and the other is Ajivika.

History of Ajivika.

Historians try to understand the term Ajivika as 'a-jiva', which means 'a mode of living'. This was the school that was existing and flourishing even before Buddhism and Jainism. This school is the combination of many philosophies. Six proponents were regarded most important: Makkhali Gosala who proposed the theory of Niyati (determinism), Pakudha Kaccayana who taught the atomic theory it is said that the atomic theory of Pakudha is the most ancient, Purana Kassappa antinomianism, Ajita Kesakambalas materialism, Nigantha Nataputta's (Vardhamana Mahavira) Jaina philosophy and Sanjaaya Belatthiputas skepticism. Makkhali Gosala combined all their philosophy in a book called 'The Nine Rays' but it is not available now. He compiled all other theories. They also discussed other theories basing themselves of the six principles some of it was about God, astrology, body, nature, anatomy, and many other things. But now we do not have the original text which would have revealed to us of how they would have studied about he theories and wrote it in the nine rays.

For the doctrine of Ajivikas we have to completely relay on the secondary sources: Digha Niya, Manimekalai, Neelakesi and Sivajana Sittaiyar. The original doctrine of the Ajivikas was completely

3

misunderstood by these people. This school was called has heretical school.

Doctrine: Determinism Their theory of determinism was more like the natural law proposed by the ancient Tamils. But in a particular time the people wrongly interpreted this theory and it paved the way for the destruction of their thought.

Atomism It is said that Pakudha Kaccayana was the first one to give the doctrine of atomism. Instead saying he gave it the first; we can say that he systematized it. Manimekalai gives us the account of the atomism proposed by Pakudha. The elements in the universe are the combination of seven basic elements: earth, air, water, fire, joy, sorrow, and life. The atoms also combine in a different ratio to form the elements.

Did they say it that there where only seven elements?

They never said that seven atoms but they were in the regard that all the elements were made out of four basic atoms. Joy and sorrow were only forces that made the atoms to combine and form various elements in the universe. They never regarded life as an atom they said life is only the experience formed due to the combination of these atoms only the later interpretations say that they spoke of seven atoms. At the death they regarded the atoms will go to their basic forms. They regarded time and space as the essential thing for the elements to in the universe. They said that god is not needed for the creation of the universe. They rejected the idea of god completely. They gave more importance to sense knowledge. They completely rejected the theory of karma they never held to the view of rebirth. They said man could attain salvation only in this life and that through ones one virtuous living. This is basis of the Ajivika. It is said that the Greek atomist came and learned atomism from our Indian thinkers; Karl Marx said this. In the later days Vaisheseka, Samkhya, Jaina and Buddha schools also picked the thought of atomism from Ajivika thoughts.

Ajivika - a pure Tamil school Ajivika is a pure Tamil school. The name Ajivika was given by other schools that opposed the thoughts of Ajivikas. According to Neelakesi the word 'Ajiva' means those monks who work and earn their lively hood. Monk to work was profane in the other schools, so they cynically called them as Ajivikas.

It may be noted that the followers of this school must be rightly called has Valluvars because they were Tamil scholars. They were more prevalent in the kings' court; they were the chief advisers, astrologers, and peace builders, were respected next to the kings. It was the Valluvars who were known as the Andanars (me;jzH), Parppar (ghHg;ghH), Yogis and so

on. But in the later days after the fall of the Tamil kings and the influence of the Brahmins, Jains and Buddha the Valluvar thoughts lost it value. Their ideologies got mixed up with other philosophical thoughts.

The first atomist Pakudha Kaccayana is none other than the Tamil poet of the sangam era who sang the song 194 in Poorananoor, he was known has Pakkudukai Nankaniyanar. When his name was written in Pali script it was became Pakudha Kaccayana. The other personality of this school was Kanniyan Poogonranar. Both of them clearly brought out the concept of Valluvar school of thoughts in their songs such as: the concept of natural law, impermanence, rejection of god and so on. The people respected Valluvar sect for their ethical way of living.

From this school all other later school (Vaiseisaka, Yoga, Naya, Samkhya) developed.

Ulakayitham (lokayata) Ulakayitham a school, that gave importance to scientific and social perception. The studied about the origin of the world and evolution of life. Their social out look was more humanistic. The philosophy of Ulakayitham is a Tamil based thought given to the world by Tamil scholars.

Etymology: In Sanskrit they tried to find the root word for it but it was not correct. Its root lies in the Tamil term „ulaku + aiyathm‟. Aiyatham comes from the root „Ay’ (Ma;) which means „to find out or reaserch‟. „ulaku‟ comes from the root „ul‟ (cy;)which means round, going round. From this came the word Ulakayitham which means round, rotate and encircling planet. Hence the word ulakayitham means „ulkau + aiyatham‟ which means' the research about the universe'.

Ulakayitham gave more importance to sense perception „katchi’ and accepts inference based on rational thinking. But they denounced the inference that the world is a creation of god.

They held that the world is made out of the combination of five boodas: land, water, fire, air, and space. The universe is the combination of the boodhas the boodas are formed by the combination of the atoms and the nature of the atoms decide the nature of the boodas. They gave importance to space and time and space contributes to the flowering of all matter of the universe. Buddha call them has annihilationist and refer them as saints.

Naturalistic principles: Iyalbuk kotpadu The transformation in the objects in the universe is due to the natural law. So they denied the existence of any external tool like god, to create the universe, they also rejected the concept of soul, heaven

4

hell etc. for them every thing in the universe is due the operation of the nature.

nghpahHjhrd;. ',e;jpaj; jj;Jt kuG ,e;Jj; jj;Jt kugpy;iy ,y;yNt ,y;iy." nrd;id: k.f.,.f ntspaPL> 2003.

The Art of Debating The art of debate was very ancient to the Tamils. Tholkappiyar also speaks about it. It was considered as an art that is very necessary to the kings.

This theory of reason was developed in the later days as logic. It is said that the followers of Ulakayitham followed, practiced, and developed the art of debate.

They called it as „aindiram‟(ma;e;jpupak;) which means „science of debate‟ Tholkappiyar was also known as a person who knows aindiram.

The basic tenents of Ulakayitham is hedonism. This gave more importance to the natural tendency of pleasure. This is called as kamam in Tamil.

Humanism Ulakayitham condemned the concept of god, varnasaradharama and all Vedic rituals. On the contrary it gave importance to agriculture and the best administration of the kings. It gave more importance towards man. This humanism is portrayed as love in married life, charity and socialism in social life and good ruling in politics. All sangam poets were Ulakayitham followers.

The philosophy atomism was very well established and practiced as a branch of Ulakayitham in Tamil nadu. One of the sangam poet Pakkudukai Nankaniyar was head of that school of thought, he was refered to as Pakkuda Kachayan in the Buddhist literature. Later he joined Makkali Gosala and formed a new philosophy called Ajivika.

The scientific based materialistic philosophy was the philosophy of Tamils. But it popularity and importance was lost in the later days.

Bibliography: Fzh. jkpou;nka;apay;. ntspaPL> 1980.

nrd;id: nghJik

fUzhepjp. rq;fj; jkpo;. nrd;id: uhf;/Nghu;l; gg;spNf\d;> 1987. tp[ayl;Rkp u. jkpofj;jpy; MrPh;tfh;fs;. nrd;id: cyfj; jkpohuha;r;rp epWtdk;> 1988. neLQ;nropad;. ,e;jpag; gz;ghl;by; jkpOk; jkpofKk;. jpUr;rp: kdpjk; gjpg;gfk;> 1989.

Fzh. ts;Stj;jpd; tPo;r;rp. ngq;fSu;: jkpof Ma;tuz;> 1996.

NjtNeag; ghthzu;. xg;gpad; nkhopE}y;. nrd;id: jkpo;kz; gjpg;gfk;> 2000. kzprq;fH. vspa ciuapy; kzpNkfiy. jpUtz;zhkiy: ,sturp gjpg;gfk;> 2000.

THOLKAPPIAR: (10th century B.C) He is believed to be the most ancient Tamil author from the available Tamil literature. Tholkappiar lived around 10th century B.C Some schools say that his real name was Thranathumakkiniyar. And that people gave him the title Tholkappiar, due to his great research into the books of old. Various sources tell us that inundation took place during the life time of Tholkappier and that besides many lives, property, land the literacy wealth, the cultural heritage, the rich grammar of the Tamil language was also on the verge of decay and perishment in order by putting them into black and blue, the author wrote this great book. It is just to regard this whole work as encyclopedia in character, since it throws a flood of light on grammar, poetics, and polity. Warfare, socioethics, erotics, biology, astronomy, philosophy and the like.

Tholkappiar staged his magnum opus in the debating auditorium where the scholars or adepts assembled were patronized by the Pandya Monarch, Nilantarutiruvir Pandhyan. The book was named after the author as „Thokappiyam‟. Thokappiyam has a prelude or a prologue called Payiram, which runs in the name of Panamparan, who is considered, by tradition, to be a classmate of the author of Tholkappiyam.

Tholkappiyam has been so far accepted as the Tamil grammatical treatise. But it is not only a grammatical treatise but has got the aspects of philosophy in it. Epistemology and logic are the two important dealings that the treatise is mainly concerned with. It has also the aspects of metaphysics, ethics and philosophical theology.

Tholkappiyar accepts perception, inference, verbal testimony, comparison, and presumption as the sources of knowledge.

Tholkappiyar as a grammarian had sufficient acquaintance with the norms of logic and epistemology. According to Tholkappiyar there can be no effect without cause and there are two types of causes. One is cause to make a thing and the other is cause to know a thing. Tholkappiyar has mentioned four types of arguments for logic, they are tuninthu kural (Jzpe;J $wy;), Kurittumolital (Fwpj;J nkhopjy;), vinavinvituttal (Tpdhtpd; tpLj;jy;), vayvallamai (tha; ty;yik ).

Tholkappiyar metaphysically divides soul from matter and says that soul is the cause to make the matter and matter is the cause to know the soul. He rationally divides six types of soul according to the number of senses a thing possesses. Creatures like grass and tree has only one sense so it is last type of the soul, crawlers like snails has two senses, insects like termite has three senses, reptiles like crabs have four

5

senses, animals have five senses and man has mind as the sixth sense with other five senses.

Tholkappiyar has the view that soul is eternal.

Here he bases his ethics. He says a person who performs virtues enters heaven. The virtues are education, citizenship, behaviour, truthfulness, cleanliness, self-restrainments, impartiality, and nonenviousness. Another aspect that this great grammarian and philosopher had given importance is the concept of god. Though tholkappiyar mentions about personal god according to the landscapes he also has the concept of an ultimate god whom he calls as „theyvam‟. He says that this god is the moral governor of the world, devoid of impuritis and is known as the excellent one. This god is symbolised with the letter „m‟ which is present as the primary sound in all other sounds. Tholkappiyar being a grammarian has also done the works of an historian in giving a detailed account of matters concerning philosophy and religion prevailing at his time. Eventhough philosophical speculations of Tholkappiyar were less we cannot also deny the fact that the philosphy of the soil has also influrnced him.

One more thing to be noted is eventhough a lot of philosophical speculations have been taking place at his period, he has his own reasons of rejecting a few and accepting a few. Here we see his originality.

Space and time according to Tholkappiyar: He says that space and time are inseperable from matter, so he has associated a particular season and time of the day to a particular landscape and has made a rule that the text about the particular landscape should mention that particular season and time which he has assigned to it, e.g. rainy season and evening is assigned to Mullai (forest land), winter and dawn to Marutham (cultivable land) etc. Space and time are the basis for existence of matter, he calls them as Kjy;nghUs;.

Attraction, repulsion, changelessness, increasing and decreasing are the next important operations needed by the existing things. The form is constituted of colour and shape which helps in the perception of the soul through matter. To put it more philosophically existence and operations help us to cognize essence.

Bibliography: Fzh.

jkpoH nka;apay;.

nrd;id: nghJik

ntspaPL> 1980.

S.N.

Kandasamy. Tamil Literature and Indian Phiolosophy. Chennai: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 2001.

jkpoz;zy;> njhy;fhg;gpau;> mf;fhnjkp 1998.

GJby;yp:

rhfpj;jpa

Philosophical concepts in Sangam classics

In Tamil classics during the third sangam period we can notice that philosophical ideas was flourishing. Materialistic aspect and idealistic concepts was more prevalent. More than idealistic views materialistic ideas were stressed more.

Realism “Nja;jy; cz;ikAk; ngUfy; cz;ikAk; kha;jy; cz;ikAk; gpwj;jy;; cz;ikAk;" Gwk; 27.

They always stressed on sense experience.

That is why in the above poem they say „birth, growth, death everything is real‟. They always said whatever we see is true.

Body and soul They never considered body and soul as a separate entity. Life is only as an experience of the body. When death occurs man looses only his experience was their only view.

Cosmology World and its entire fulfillment were formed out of 5 basic elements: air, fire, earth, water and ether.

They combine to form different elements in the universe. The below song explains it: 'kz; jpzpe;j epyDk; epyd; Ve;jpa tpRk;Gk; tpRk;G ij tUtspAk; tspj; jiy,a jPAk; jPKuzpa ePUk;> vd;whq;F Ik;ngUk; G+jj;J ,aw;if Nghy" The idea of five elements is always seen in Tamil classics.

Time and space Universe and its element are in the space and time. They made time and space as the first and necessary thing. 'Kjnydg;gLtJ epyk; (,lk;) nghO (fhyk;) jpuz;bd; ,ay;ngd nkhopg ,ay;GzHe; NjhNu" this statements says this.

Impermance They viewed wealth, youthfulness, and body as impermance. This concept was later adopted by the Jaina and Buddha philosophies. They also stressed the ideas of contradiction very much. They said life becomes sweeter with contradictions.

Creation story Ancient Tamil text speaks about the creation story the note of the creation story is mentioned in paripadal. It mentions of different periods: first period light was created then came air, water, land, and it was followed by lot of periods, at each period each was created. They say about an ultimate god who was of

6

all creation and god is present in all these. Critiques say that this addition of god into it might be a latter addition. For the people during the sangam period they never spoke of absolute god they seek of many god and goddess but not one god. They never worried about the concept of god. They gave more importance towards the ethical aspect of life. This we can easily identify from the many songs of the sangam classics. Their ultimate goal was to achieve happiness. Not in the sense of personal interest but towards harmonious living.

Determinism The concept of determinism was one of the ancient concepts of the Tamil people. They called it as oozh (Co;). Mans wonder about nature made him to think that there is a cycle in nature or a law in the nature. They named it as oozh. Thus the concept of oozh can be said as the law of nature. They made oozh as the efficient cause and made all other causes as it secondary causes (accidents, colour, action and other sub – causes). Oozh was made as an unknown cause.

Which cannot be seen but can be experienced or perceived or done by other secondary causes. They always said that man as to act according to the natural law (oozh) in order to have a happy life. But when one tries to go against the law of nature then he will face the consequence of it.

But in the later days this theory was given a one sided interpretation, which later gave birth to the fate theory.

That is to say that everything is predetermined and said that no human effort is necessary and led to superstitions.

This oozh was dived and the theory of action; secondary cause was stressed more and this led to the theory of karma. Which was stressed by Jaina, Buddha schools and was supported the Brahmins in order to justify the castesism.

The deterministic concept was pure thought of the Tamils. Which gave birth to many philosophical thoughts. In later days each interpreted oozh in different ways. And the original concept of oozh (natural law) was forgotten. This led to the downfall this beautiful concept.

Bibliography: Fzh.

jkpoH

nka;apay;.

nrd;id:

nghJik

ntspaPL> 1980.

S.N.

Kandasamy. Tamil Literature and Indian Phiolosophy. Chennai: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 2001.

Sasaivalli. Religion and Philosophy. Chennai: World Tamil research institute.

THIRUVALLUVAR: (1st century to 1st century A.D)

The exact details of the life of Thiruvalluvar, an ancient Tamil philosopher, are not available. Some schools say that he could have lived in the second century B.C. while, the Tamils believe that he was born in 31 B.C. Tradition holds that he was born in Madurai and worked in the court of a pandia King. He wrote Thirukkural, which condemned the evil practices, unjust and immoral teaching of the Aryans and hailed Tamil giving them courage. Therefore the Aryans opposed him and made him lose his job. Later he moved on to some other place, probably mylapore.

Where he was engaged in spinning work, and also made friendship with Yelelasingan. Since there are noble ideas in his book, many religions claimed him to be belonging to their own religion. But authentic Tamil thinkers and scholars say that he does not belong to any of the religions that exist today, but to “Tamizhar Madham” a religion followed by the ancient Tamils who did not believe in idolatry or inequality of birth.

Thirukkural: Thiruvalluvar has got 133 chapters, which consist of 10 Kurals (couplets) each, so there are 1330 Kurals. Thirukkural is perhaps the most translated Tamil work. There are hundreds of commentaries and interpretations available for this book. Still today many scholars try to interpret it to today‟s context.

ETHICS OF THIRUKKURAL What is Ethics?

Ethics is a systematic study of the conduct and character of human beings. According to etymological definition it comes from the Greek word 'ethos' and Latin word 'mores'. Ethos means ethics and mores means moral philosophy, which means conduct, virtue, customs, or habits. In Tamil, ethics is refered to as, Niti and Aram. The word Niti is itself not a Tamil word, but comes from the Sanskrit Ni, which has several meanings such as to lead, to conduct, to guide, to govern and to direct etc. Therefore Niti refers leading, conveying, conduct, guidance, governing, and action etc. We won't find this word Niti both in sangam literature and Tirukkural. But the word Aram is present in them. The words like Nanru, Nanri, Nanmai, Nallatu etc. refer Aram and Niti. What is Aram? Aru means to cut, to pay way, to form, to sow, to differentiate etc. The suffix 'am' is used as a verbal noun and gives a total meaning as the work of cutting.

In gist, Aram is the morals, which are determined by man for himself. The destruction of the ignorance that is cultivated by bad deeds is also known as Aram. The meanings of Aram would be virtue, custom, justice, duty, bestowing, the goddess of virtue and religion etc.

Therefore, in Tamil Aram or Niti means ethics.

Many people consider and it has become the fact that ethics is a way to control others by the ruling class. This is not true ethics. We need a true and new ethics for our Nuclear age and beyond. What would be

7

applicable of our time? Tirukkural, is a classical work of ethics written by Tiruvalluvar. Ethics of Tirukkural is applicable at all times. Here is the gist of the ethics of Tirukkural, which is one of the best classics in Tamil and appreciated all over the world.

the delusions of "I" and "Mine". So they would even accept the defeat even at the bands of inferiors.

The touchstone of goodness is to own one's defeat Even to inferiors. - (986) These are the qualities of the sanrors.

Ethics of Tirukkural The Moral Life of Man (House-Holder) Tirukkural consists of three parts. Namely, Aratuppal, Porutpal and Kamathupal. Each part is divided into several sub-divisions and chapters. In each of the parts Tiruvalluvar has given a beautiful account on ethical life of the human person. There are umpteen numbers of things that he has given, here are few to them.

Tiruvalluvar says that the average human person or the householder is self-centered and narrowminded in his business. Therefore, he must keep something as an ideal, which would be worth achieving. Valluvar places before him an ideal of 'Puhazh' or 'fame' and prescribes certain virtues to the householder in order to achieve that ideal. When the householder achieves fame, he becomes less selfcentered and is fit to work for a higher ideal than fame.

At this stage Thiruvalluvar places a greater ideal of possessing perpetual inner joy and peace. In order to achieve this he wants the householder to become a contemplator, a mediator, a man of sacrifice, and a renunciation. After having achieved these entire householder is fit to play a significant role as a member of the community, as a citizen of the state and as a universal man. At this stage Valluvar places before him an ideal of the superman or sage, which can be achieved by practicing certain, loiter virtues that valluvar calls as 'Sanror'.

'Sanror' means a person who possesses many great virtues. According to Thiruvalluvar 'salbu' that is the virtues of sanror can be grouped into five different virtues namely universal love, sensitivity, helpfulness to all, compassion and truth speaking. in other words sanror can be described as an ethical person or a person who lives a morally good life. What are the qualities of this ethical person or sanror that Thiruvalluvar conceives? There are so many of them.

The main qualities are: (1) First of all, sanror is a man full of love that he would even love his enemies. To which Valluvar asks, What is good is that good which does not return Good for evil? - (987) He also says that only the moral dynamics of the sanrors enables the earth itself to bear its huge burden.

If the great fail in nobility, the earth Will bear us no more. - (990) (2) Secondly, sanrors will not be distracted by the frolics of the ego. In fact, they have thrown away

What are the virtues that the householder must practice to lead a moral life like sanror? Valluvar attributes many virtues and qualities to the householder to lead a moral life. They are as follows: (1) First of all, free from all dirt A spotless mind is virtue's sum All else is empty noise. - (34) But how can we keep the mind free from dirt?

Valluvar says that we can keep the mind free from dirt by eradicating the four following evil qualities namely; envy, greed, wrath, and evil speech.

(2) The householder must do his duties as interesting as possible; if he does so then he will be placed among the gods.

A model householder on earth Is a god in heaven. - (50) The duties of the householder will be frustrated if he does not have virtuous life. In virtues of the wife, Valluvar regards chastity as the highest of all virtues.

What cage can guard a woman's chastity Except she? - (57) The wife's role in the married life is supreme; she is the queen of the home. To which Valluvar says, With a good wife, what is lacking?

And when she is lacking, what is good?

(3) Both the father and mother must bring up the child to become a sanror.

The good one can do one's son Is to place him in the van of learned men. (67) (4) Love must rain in the family because; it is love that sustains the members of the family.

The loveless grasp all; while the loving With their very bones help others. - (72) (5) The householder must show hospitality to guests.

2000 years ago there was not many inns and hotels in Tamilnadu. The pilgrims, men of business, poets, and scholars in pursuit of truth would be going for a long journey by foot. Since it is a tiresome journey they need to relax themselves somewhere. It is in this since Valluvar placed hospitality to the guests. But it is still applicable in today's context.

The aniccam withers when smelt: A cold look withers a guest. - (90) (6) The householder must cultivate the virtue of gratitude.

To forget a good turn is not good, and good it is To forget at once what isn't good. - (108)

8

It always gives us mental joy and physical pleasure to remember an act of kindness done to us. But it is neither good for the body nor for the mind to remember mental or physical pain caused to us. That is why he says; it is better to forget the evil done to us.

(7) The householder should try to pursue the quality of impartiality. To remain impartial is the ornament of the wise.

Like a just balance are the great Poised truly and unbiased. - (118) (8) The householder should have the possession of humility. The householder should be the person of humility. He says, Self-control takes one to the gods; Its lack to utter darkness. - (121) Humility is the mark of the man of learning who has realized how ignorant he is. The man, who has no humility, may get angry and easily wag his tongue needlessly and will come to grief. That is why Valluvar says, The wound caused by fire will heal within, But not the scar left by the tongue. - (129) (9) Each householder should have the quality of good character.

Right conduct exalts one, while a bad name Exposes one to undeserved disgrace. - (371) Valluvar persuades us to cultivate good character by saying, "Character alone produces happiness."

(10) The householder shall not covet another man's wife. Valluvar is very particular about it.

No sinner so foolish as he who lurks At the door of another's wife. - (142) When one achieves this courage of not coveting another man's wife the dignity will go with it.

(11) The householder should cultivate the quality of forbearance. Valluvar tells the householder, To bear insults is best, like the earth Which bears and maintains its diggers. - (151) (12) Be free from jealousy. Shakespeare points this as "green, eyed toad" Valluvar says, The envious man who runs down charity Will see his folk naked and starving. - (166) (13) Do not covet another man's property.

Inordinate desire destroys the home And leads to crime at once. - (171) (14) The householder should abstain from backbiting because backbiting will destroy love, friendship, and unity. Thus, he says, Those who cannot laugh and make friends Can only slander and make foes. - (187) And Valluvar says that it is out of charity that the earth bears the burden of the one who slanders people behind their backs.

(15) Do not indulge in profitless words.

Plead not poverty for doing ill Whereby you become poorer still. - (205) (16) Be a person of benevolence to all.

Duty is not for reward:

Does the world recompense the rain-cloud? (211) (17) Valluvar concludes with the quality of 'Giving'.

Nothing is worse than death: but death is sweet If one can't help the poor. - (230) Now the outcome of practicing all these virtues is renown. Valluvar tells the householder to seek for it and he underlines the need for achieving fame saying, Be born, if you must, for fame or else Better not be born at all. - (236) But at the same time he says that there is nothing immoral in this world, except fame, which exalts you in the eyes of the world.

Ideal of Living in the World After having cultivated all the above qualities the householder will secure fame in the eyes of society.

After having achieved this Valluvar places before him the loftier ideal of living in the world with eternal and incessant joy. But in order to achieve this ideal, the householder must renounce not the world but certain egoistic habits and tendencies. For this Valluvar asks the householder to become a Thuravi or a renuncient by cultivating some special and difficult virtues. They are as follows, 1. First the householder must acquire spiritual graces because whatever system one may explore he will find that grace alone is the companion. In the view of Valluvar cultivation of graces lead to compassion for all lives. That is why he calls upon the householder to renounce the eating of meat that he may become a man of grace. Valluvar takes this opportunity and asks the householder to denounce the sacrifices of animals, which are made in the name of religion.

2. Secondly, the householder must practice Thavam or meditation.

Performances of austerity and not inflicting injury to other lives are part of Thavam.

When a man increases his spiritual power by Thavam, gets enormous powers of changing his very environment. The persons who perform Thavam are the persons who really perform their proper duties.

3. Thirdly, Valluvar pleads for non-covetousness. He says, as the virtue stands in the heart of those who have sense of measure so the covetous stands in the heart of thieves. And so the householder should be a person of non-covetousness.

4. The forth virtue that the householder should practice is that truthful speech. Truthful speech means speaking those words in which the evil is not present rather, it helps the other. The person who lives renouncing the falsehood from his heart will live in the hearts of all mankind. According to Valluvar truth speaking person is even superior to the person who performs penance.

5. The fifth virtue is to refrain from anger. A person may not be angry with his master, because be cannot do anything, but he must be careful when he is angry with his servant because he may loose his temper.

Thus, Valluvar says that the person is a real restrainer

9

of anger when he restrains it, if it hurt others, hut it is not matter whether he restrains or give it when the anger cannot hurt. Valluvar explaining the destructive effect of anger says, if the person wants to guard him, let him guard against anger, if he does not do so, then the anger itself will kill him.

6. The sixth virtue is non-doing of evil. Valluvar tells the householder not to do evil in any manner at any time, to anyone even mentally. If someone does evil to others in the forenoon, the same will be the result in the afternoon. Thus, always do good.

7. The seventh virtue is non-killing. Man should have reverence for all life. If he shows irreverence to life in any form then he will be sowing seeds of vice. And Valluvar says that the perfect way of living is avoid killing any life.

8. The eighth virtue is renouncing wealth.

Accumulation of a great wealth is like the accumulation of a vast crowd in a cinema theatre. In the same way, wealth disappears as quickly as the crowd metals away after the show. But though wealth itself is impermanent, the permanent value can be attaining with the aid of wealth. Valluvar says not only the wealth but also whatever a person renounces is sure that he is liberated from the pain that is can cause. For example, a man, who renounces his motorcar, becomes free from the trouble and expenditure of maintaining it.

9. Valluvarâ€&#x;s ninth virtue for the householder is to become aware of the ultimate reality. According to Valluvar, even the knowledge obtained through the five senses is useless except for those who have acquired knowledge of ultimate reality.

10. The tenth virtue of the householder is renunciation to root out desire. According to Valluvar the persons who are really free from desire. Men may think that they are free merely because they are economically, politically, or socially free. The truth is that in spite of all these freedom, they continue to be the victims of their own impulses.

Thus, renunciation of desire, self-sacrifice, performance of penance, refraining from anger etc., are not end in themselves but the qualities which make the individual fit to become a sanror (sage) and serve society in a better way. We must clearly understand that the sage is not a person who runs away from a life or renounces worldly duties but a person who has eradicated his ego and achieved inner harmony. Thus, the person becomes good spiritually, temperamentally, and instinctively. In this way the person is fit to help people in distress and to spread peace and joy among men and on the basis of the reality of the world and to celebrate the whole life.

Determinism: According to Thiruvalluvar there is no greater power than determinism. All beings are finite and are determined, no person with wrong attitudes can win over determinism (Kural 380) . A person's good actions give him effort and bad actions give him laziness

(Kural 371). So it is good actions that can help man with regard to determinism. Yet to some who do good, bad consequences may occur here the person has to accept the consequences, as they are determined, should not give way to laziness but have more effort (Kural 379). Impermanence is another important theory of Thiruvalluvar. A person who was yesterday may not live today because of the impermanence in the world (Kural 336). So when applied to life the principle of determinism can be won over by the way a person correctly cognises the principle of impermanence, for want of things will lead a person to bad actions. If a person is strong in the principle of impermanence than he will not bother about the consequences of determinism.

Thiruvalluvar’s statements against skeptics: A person who learns the truth though books and by listening to learned people will be liberated (Kural 355). But there are persons who always have the attitude of contradiction and discrepancy will not know the truth. Their knowledge will bring them folly (Kural 857).

The Educational Philosophy Of Thiruvalluvar Thiruvalluvar gives two-fold classification of education by giving letters and figures and comparing these two to the two eyes of a human being. While describing the nature of education he says that education is inexhaustible and free flowing like a water source in a sandy land, useful not only during the period of learning but eternally, imperishable wealth of all wealthâ€&#x;s and makes its beholder to become superior to the ignorant high class people. He says that spiritual emancipation, self-realization, attaining liberation, matured human development and social aspect should be the important aspects of education He gives important place to knowledge in education. He says that knowledge should be the basis for truth, testimony, harmonious co.existence and self discipline.

The important curricular areas of learning that he gives are ethics, philosophy, economics, logic, medicine, agriculture, psychology, political science and he says that there is no limit for learning, therefore individuals should specialize in a particular field and contribute to the development of the society.

When dealing with the methods of teaching and learning he stresses the importance of the harmonious link of the pedagogical triangle which has teacher, students and curriculum as the three sides. He gives important things that a teacher should keep in mind. First of all, the teacher should understand the students, their capacity, psychology, standard and teach accordingly. There should be clarity in teaching and the subject should be simplified to a required level

10

before exposition. The teaching should be interesting, inspiring, appealing and thought provoking.

Whole describing about the methods of learning Thiruvalluvar gives four important methods of learning. They are learning by listening, learning from a teacher, learning by reading books and learning through associating and symposiums. It is to be noted that Thiruvalluvar starts with the most simple method of leaning that is learning by listening that can be done by any ordinary person without much effort, and he ends with the method of learning through association with the learned and symposiums that is mainly applicable to the learned at the advanced stage where learned person has had the knowledge through the three methods of learning that we have mentioned earlier.

Even before two throughout years Thiruvalluvar has found out that the heredity and environment have got a great impact on the education of a student since traits are passed on from one generation to the others through genes.

scholar. To mention all of them we should start with Silapathikaram and Manimekalai, the two very important epics.

The other epics are Seevagasinthamani, Valaiyapathi, Kundalakesi, Udayanakumara Kaviyam, Nagakumara Kaviyam, Yasodara Kaviyam, Nilakesi and Sulamani. Let us now see the philosophical trends extracted from these books.

SILAPATHIKARAM

Introduction: Silapathikaram depicts the story of Kovalan and Kannaki. It is known as „Irattai Kappiam‟ (double epics). And Elango Adigal composed it during the period of 100 – 500 A.D. It consists of three kandas (divisions): Pugar kanda, Madurai kanda and Vanji kanda. The name Silapathikaram comes after the rpyk;G (Anklet) which Kannaki wore and mjpfhuk; (Chapter).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ILANGOVADIGAL He has also emphasized that parents should educate their children and make them great learned persons. Correspondingly the children should also make their parents happy by studying well and coming to high posts and positions.

He has said that the education should make the students to become prudent with foresight in thought, pleasant and constructive in speech and just and moral in deeds.

Education should make the people to eliminate social vices such as inequality, prostitution, consuming liquor, gambling etc… He commands the educated to play a great role in development of the society and the world as a whole. Thiruvalluvar also directs the educated by advising them to be fearless and loyal to the rulers thinking bout the welfare of the people always.

Bibliography: S.N. Kandasamy. Tamil Literature and Indian Phiolosophy. Chennai: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 2001.

Fzh. jkpoH nka;apay;. nrd;id: nghJik ntspaPL> 1980.

V.Perumal, Glimpses of Tamil Culture, Berlin: Berlin Tamil Sangam, 1982.

Justice Maharajan, The Ethics of Tirukural, Madurai: Madurai Kamaraj University, 2003.

NjtNeag;ghthzH. jpUf;Fws; jkpo; kuGiu. nrd;id: ,e;J gg;spNf\d;];> 2000.

TAMIL EPICS There are ten important epics in Tamil. They are divided into two, the five great epics and five small epics. But this classification is not supported by many a

Ilangovadigal would have probably lived between 100A.D.and 500A.D. He was the son of the king of seras, the western kingdom in Tamilnadu. In order to enable his brother to become the king, Ilangovadigal took up asceticism and became a monk in Tamil Ilangovadigal mean young monk. He was also a great poet who was also the first one to write an epic in Tamil named as “cliappadigaram.” Even though the three in Tamilnadu called as seras (in the west) solas (in the east) and Pandyas (in the south) were constantly in fight with each other and were sworn enemies, Ilangovadigal praises all the three kingdoms in his epic and theirs his magnanimity can be easily seen.

The Story Of Silapathikaram: Kovalan was born in the business family at Cauveriboompatinam, the capital of the Chola king.

Kannaki, who was also belonging to the business family, lived in the town. Both the families lived a luxurious life in that place. Kovalan married Kannaki.

They lived a happily life together, but this happiness did not last long.

Madhavi, who was born in the family of prostitutes and who has learned all the folk arts, performed a dance in the capital. Kovalan after seeing this dance fell in love with her. He was attracted to her charm and beauty. He forgot his work and Kannaki and decided to live with Madhavi. They lived a happy life. But slowly Kovalan lost his wealth and riches.

Later he realized his mistakes.

Once, during the time of festival, Kovalan and Madhavi played harp in the beach. During that time,

11

Madhavi expressed her love to Kovalan through a song, but he misunderstood it, left Madhavi, and returned home. There, Kannaki welcomed him with love. Though she suffered the undignified words of the people still she lived with him.

only person who had the authority to produce an epic.

So, he wrote the epic as Silapathikaram and fulfilled all. Then Ilango asked his brother to build a temple for Kannaki and he fulfilled it by building the temple with stones.

Virgin worship: Kannaki understood Kovalan's pathetic situation and sufferings. So, she gave one of her anklets and they moved to Madurai to live a better life.

There, Kovalan was sentenced to death by the king of Madurai. Because he was accused by a soldier for stealing the anklet of the Queen and without knowing the fact the king commanded to kill Kovalan. So, he was murdered. The death news reached Kannaki. She filled with asnger and a quest for justice went to the king's court. There she argued with the king Pandian and proved to him that her husband was not a thief.

Then the king realized his blunder and died in the court. With him his wife also died on the spot.

Then, Kannaki walked out of the palace and she cursed Madurai with fuery of her anger by throwing one of her breasts on the city. The whole of Madurai was on fire. After that she moved to the west and reached a mount and sat under a neem tree for fourteen days without eating, drinking, sleeping and then she was taken to heaven on the fourteenth day.

Origin Of The Story: Once, the king Cheran Chengutuvan wanted to see a part of his kingdom. So he took with him, his queen, his brother, Ilango and his friend Sathanar, the poet. They all enjoyed and admired the nature and the beauty of the nature. They visited all the tribal people and enjoyed watching the performance of the tribeâ€&#x;s songs and dances. The people began to offer their goods on their arrival and they said the story of a lady who was sitting under the tree for fourteen days without eating, drinking, and sleeping. Then on the fourteenth day she was taken to heaven, etc. When they asked her about the situation; she said that she has lost her husband.

After hearing this message, they all began to wonder about it. Sathanar, the poet intervened at that time and explained the whole story of Kovalan and Kannaki. After the poetâ€&#x;s narration the king began to feel for the king Pandian and praised him for his act.

The king looked at the ministers and ordered them to bring a stone from Himalaya or the mount, Pothi to make statue for Kannaki and dip in the Cauvery River.

Ilango who was listening to this, asked his friend Sathanar to write this story of virgin as an epic.

But Sathanar replied, only Ilango Adikal has got the right to write this epic, because there is relationship between the three towns, that is, Kannaki was born in a Chola town, went to a Pandia town where she lost her husband and entered into Cheran town. Ilango was the

The life of Kannaki has made great change in the lives of Tamil women and in the Amman Temple.

Till today Tamil women consider Friday as the holyday. Because Kannaki burnt Madurai on that day.

Kannaki is said to have worn a golden anklet in her leg.

This is the reason why the Tamil women do not wear any golden jewels in their legs. Because Kannaki is considered as a goddess of golden anklet. They wear only silver jewels. On the day of Aadi Friday Kannakiâ€&#x;s life is said to have changed. So that day is celebrated solemnly in the Mari Amman temples.

Elango Adigal makes Kannaki, a virgin, as goddess in his writing. In Madurai kanda Elango gives the death of Kannaki but in Vanji kanda he elaborates about the building of temple in honour Kannaki and the institution of the virgin worship.

Conclusion: From the story of Silapathikaram it is easy to evaluate the negative and positive points it contains.

Silapathikaram gives a good relationship between three kings: Cheran, Cholan and Pandian. Ilango Adigal is the only person to give this relation of the three kings, which prevail in his epic. It also speaks about the ancient cultural pratices which was prevalent among the Tamil. It speaks about the administration of the king which should aim only at a good rule of his country. It stresses about the dignty of the women and about married life.

MANIMEKALAI Manimekalai is called as the second Tamil epic. It is considered to be the continuation of Silapathikaram. Therefore, both Silapathikaram and Manimekalai are called Irattai Kappiam (two epics).

Manimekalai is the story of Manimekalai who was born to Kovalan and Madhavi. Madurai Culavanikan Sathanar has written it during the period of 100-500 A.D. THE STORY OF MANIMEKALAI: Kovalan, who comes to Cauveripoompattinam, sees the performance of Madhavi, fall in love with her. Later they get married.

They live together happily. But Kovalan leaves her alone and goes to his first wife, Kannaki. Madhavi conceives and gives birth to Manimekalai.

12

Traditionally, Manimekalai, who is born to Madhavi, has to learn the folkarts and live the life of prostitute like her mother. But her mother, after hearing the news about the death of Kovalan in Madurai, she leaves her traditional life and becomes monk in Buddhism and makes her daughter also monk and to work for religious services. Madhavi made Manimekalai as the daughter of Kannaki because by calling Manimekalai as her daughter may bring her bad name in the society. Manimekalai starts to live a chaste life. She meets with many problems because of her beauty. Prince of the country falls in love with her and follows her everywhere. To protect her from this situation her Fynja;tk; comes to help her.

Through her deity‟s help, she goes to island of Manipallava where she gets the chance of seeing Buddha‟s foot and returns home after realizing the previous birth. There she receives divine vessel from where she can draw as much as she wants. With this divine vessel, she goes around to preach the moral values and feeds the hungry with good things. Then according to the Buddhism, she enters into the highest and final stage.

graveyard and if you are crying for the life, the body will enter into the place according to the life he lived and we do not know. If you are loving your son, love everyone and be merciful to others life and that is your duty.” Like this, we come to know the virtuous sayings of Buddha through the sayings and the life of Manimekalai.

CONCLUSION: Culavanikan Sathanar does not deal about any religious in general. But he writes on the basis of Buddhism. There is no grammatical style; he deals only with elucidation of Buddhism and teaching.

Silapathikaram gives different expression in different poetic vocal sound. But it is none in Manimekalai. So, the epic is full of same poetic vocal sound, that is, a species of verse.

The thing, we can say about the epic is, it gives the story in simple manner and gives about Buddhism‟s truth, morality and equity.

The epic depicts Manimekalai as an incomparable woman.

THE OTHER EPICS

CHARACTER MANIMEKALAI:

PORTRAYAL

OF

Instead the epic, Manimekalai, many honour Manimekalai, the portrayed character. In the history, the person who is honoured and admired by many is Manimekalai.

She is filled with wisdom and knowledge. Though the king‟s son loves her, she refuses his proposal and becomes Buddhist monk like her mother. All these give fame to her. A higher virtue than this is her divinity. She goes everywhere with her divine … to feed the hungry with food and helps the dumb, deaf patients with love.

Once, she is taken to the prison mistakenly.

Then the king releases her knowing her quality and the truth. While she walks out of the prison, she asks for a favour which says about her greatness and dignity, that is, she requests the king to change the prison into an almshouse where the acts of charity is practiced.

The queen of Cholan gets angry and does many suffering to Manimekalai because of her son‟s death. Then later she realizes that Manimekalai‟s innocence and begins to honour her. But Manimekalai politely advice her not to honour because, she is the queen of the country and the mother of the prince.

Through the epic, we get so much of virtuous acts of Manimekalai.

When the queen mourns for her son‟s death, Manimekalai consoles the queen and makes her know the truth of life. She says, “Queen, are you crying for the body or are you crying for the life? If you are crying for the body, find out who took the body to

Seevagasinthamani: A Jaina monk called Thiruthaka Thevar wrote it. This book gives the story of a king by name Seevagan. This Seevagan was born in the cremation ground to a queen whose husband was defeated and killed by the enemies. Seevagan being brought up in the forest receives a lot of miraculous graces, marries eight wives, collects an army and wins back his father‟s kingdom. This book was a very creative book having the poems totally in a different nature from the poems of others. This type writing was named as „virutham‟ and this book set the trend for the later books. This book is normally termed as the encyclopedia of the ancient Tamils because of the amount of information the book has in it. This book also contains aesthetics of Tamil poems, explanation of music and several arts.

Valaiyapathi: This is also a Jaina epic, but only 70 of its poems are now available.

Kundalakesi: This is a Buddist epic stressing more on impermanence. This book is also not found fully.

Nathakuthanar wrote this epic. This is about a born in Jaina tradition, abandons her faith and joins the Buddist tradition. So the conflict between Jaina Philosophy and Buddhist Philosophy is portrayed in this epic. Only 29 of its poems are available.

Nilakesi: Nilakesi is a reaction against Kundalakesi.

This epic is about the wife of a Jaina monk who

13

indulges in argument with Kundalakesi and defeats her.

Then she defeats a lot of philosophers of various other philosophies prevailing at that time. This book has 894 poems.

Chulamani: Tholamozhithevar who was a Jaina monk wrote this epic. It has 2330 poems. This book is also much similar to Seevagasinthamani.

Nagakumara Kaviyam and Udayanakumara Kaviyam are not available and so it is difficult to mention any thing about them.

Yasodara Kaviyam: It is again another Jaina epic which has 330 poems. This book stresses on the teachings against killings this book does not give much importance for literature but to religion.

All the epics except Silapatikaram were written to substantiate the philosophies of Jainas and the Buddhists. Only Silapathikaram give equal importance to all the religions and philosophies. But these epics are sources to find out the ancient culture and philosophies of the Tamils. The critical evaluation of these epics gives us the nature of the ancient Tamil people. All these epics give more importance to women. The authors of these epics have followed the rules of the grammarian Tholkappiyar.

Bibliography: tujuhrd;. jkpo; ,yf;fpa tuyhW. rhfpj;jpa mf;fhnjkp> 1972.

Gjnly;yp:

PHILOSOPHY OF TAMIL RELIGION Indian philosophy cannot be separated from Indian religion. It is very obvious that Indian philosophy will make no sense without the intervention of religious connotation. It is also true in Tamil philosophy to some extent. The Tamil religion has a philosophy by itself. It has been practical in the life of the people. As we know philosopher emerge out of the dehumanizing milieu that makes his/her to respond to it by his/her rational approach. This is very much applicable in Tamil religion or philosophy.

The primeval Tamil people closely lived with nature. The natural phenomena had impact on their life.

When they experienced the glow of the sun, which dispelled darkness and provided enlightenment to their minds, the sun became the supreme power (god) in their life. When they experienced the pains and suffering caused by wild animals, thunder, fire, ghosts of the ancestors, famine, epidemic they came across the impression that they are all supreme powers. Thus each one of them became small gods. They also experienced the warm love, sacrificing care and protection of their parents who provided every thing they needed in their

childhood days. In gratitude to them the children started honouring, worshiping them as gods. They remembered and hounoured those who protected them like kings, soldiers from adversaries; they erected herostones known as virakal and nadukal for them and worshiped them. In fact they were added to the list of gods. For all these phenomena they thought there was a Supreme Power, which caused, activated all of them in their own way, which also must be par excellent and transcendent. Thus emerged the idea of God and the existence of religion with ceremonial duties. This is a very short history of the knowledge of God that the ancient Tamils came to know.

In the later days there emerged two great religions out of those small gods worship. They are Saivism and Vaishnavism. Among these two, Saivism is said to be the ancient religion. The evidences found in Harrapa, Mohenjo-Daro invention proves this.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SAIVISM It is Saiva siddhanta, which accounts for philosophical thoughts in saivism. This philosophical thought came to existence in Tamil land. It is based on sacred devotional hymns of Nayanmars (Njthuk;), book of Meikanda Sastri (nka;fz;l rh];j;jpuk;) etc.

Siddhanta means the conclusion of conclusions of different schools of thought.

Saiva siddhanta teaches that there are only three realities in the universe. They are God, soul and matter (illusion). Matter, which means a rope made up of three strings action, illusion, pride that bind or limit the power of feeling, knowing and willing of the soul.

Let us discuss about the three realities one by one.

God The Lord Siva is God here. He is immanent, transcendent and co-exists in all the soul. He is SatChit-Anand. Though he lives in the soul and in the entire world he is different from them all. In other words he is all pervading or omnipresent. Love is Siva and Siva is love (jpUke;jpuk;. 275). He transcends space and time. The three strings of the matter do not affect him. He creates, preserves, protects, destroys and showers his graces on creatures through these works.

Those who have liberated from this worldly life alone can perceive and enjoy Siva. Siva and sakthi (rf;jp) are inseparable as the sun and its rays.

Soul Soul is an entity like God. God is pure intelligence, but Pride obscures the soulâ€&#x;s intelligence.

So he has imperfect knowledge. Soul is common name for the life-principle. All beings, which are subject to the three strings - action, pride and illusion, are called souls. They are eternal and are not created by God the

14

Almighty. What were created by God are the body with its external limbs such as eyes, ears etc., and the internal faculties of knowing, willing etc., the world to live in and things necessary for their life. The souls are infinite in number and finite in knowledge and capacity. The soul being eternal and intelligent is mixture of matter and supreme reality. Human beings undergo the consequences of their act in the next births. It happens till all such consequences are fully exhausted. The supreme absolute is the executor of this process.

The soul has got three states. 1. Kevela state, in which it is formless and immersed in pride. 2.

Sakala state, in which it is in the embodied state, subject to re-birth according to consequences of action.

3. Suddaha state, in which it is in perfect equanimity with regard to good and evil and is ready to receive God‟s grace.

Matter These three principles, impure in their nature, contaminate the soul and lead to sinful ways. Pride literally means that which makes the soul (mZ) an atom, that is, it makes it indefinitely small and powerless. It constricts the souls abilities to desire, ability to do and does not allow its energy to have its full scope. The pathetic condition is that it is hardly aware of these factors. It is here the illusion (Maya) helps the soul to realize the bad impact of pride and thus soul gets a little knowledge. But this little knowledge leads the souls to other bad consequences that it identifies itself with the body and commits endless blunders. Therefore pride is the root cause of the soul‟s blunders and consequent blunders. This consequence is that the person does not realize for a long time that pride is his bitter foe.

Action The acts of the soul are thoughts, words and deeds. Right action begets happiness. Wrong action begets pain. Though right actions are accompanied by immediate pain, they ultimately bring pleasure.

Similarly a wrong act may give immediate pleasure but ultimately leads to misery. Therefore the consequences of action are experienced in the birth cycle.

Illusion (Maya) The universe is a product, evolved out of a pre-existing substance called primordial matter known as illusion (Maya). This primordial matter gives rise to the existence of multifarious objects. This illusion is unintelligent and formless. God activates it. It is also called Vindhu (tpe;J). Pure Maya is called the world of sound and impure Maya is called the world of matter.

The sound is denoted by „OM‟. This sound creates, preserves and destroys by intervention of God. It also

helps the soul in the struggle with Pride by giving a limited knowledge.

Ways to attain liberation The four ways to attain liberation are doing service in temple, worship, yoga and wisdom. Temple service implies physical actions such as prostrating, chanting prayers and going around the temple. Worship includes ceremonies, sprinkling flowers at the feet of God etc. Yoga is detaching from the worldly things, concentrating on God and being immersed in His grace. This takes place in meditation. Through these three ways the similarities and differences between God, soul and matter are achieved. This knowledge is said to be wisdom, the fourth way.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF VAISHNAVISM Alvars are the people who gave rise to vaishnavism through their sacred devotional hymns known as Nalayira Divya Prabandam. Sri Rangam is known as the holy place for vaishnavites. Alvars did not develop philosophical thoughts as Nayanmars did.

But Ramanuja (11 A.D) who was staunch follower of vaishnavism established philosophical thought in Vaishnavism. There are two divisions in Vaishanvism.

1. The school of northern learning who accept Vedas.

2. The school of southern learning, which accepts Prabandhas and consists of the sacred hymns of Alvars. Let us deal about the Vaishnava philosophy as proposed by Ramanuja who belongs to the southern learning.

God Vindu (Vishnu) is all pervading, all-powerful, immutable, immanent and perfect. He is infinite knowledge. God dwells in all the souls. Yet He is different from them all. He has no birth or death. He creates all the things and being of the world.

Soul Soul is an intelligent being and its knowledge is not limited. It looses its nature because of consequences of actions. It has got divine nature. Selfconsciousness is the characteristic of the soul. The things of the world are the individualization of the souls. The relation between soul and God is the relation between part and the whole.

There are three states or types of souls. The fist kind is that which is in the liberated state. The second kind is that which transcended from bonded state to the liberated state. The third kind is always in bondage. Some say there two more states of souls known as Kevala and Padha, which are not commonly accepted.

15

Ways to Attain Liberation Action (fd;kk;), wisdom (Qhdk;), devotion (gf;jp), total surrender (gpugj;jp) are the ways to attain God or liberation. Action refers to service in temple, pilgrimage, sacrifices etc. Wisdom is the realization that God is in the inner core of one‟s heart and experiencing His presence and extending the duration of that experience through meditation till if becomes an incessant in total vision. Devotion is supreme attachment to God. Total surrender of „I‟ and „Mine” to God is the characteristic of total surrender.

Dear reader, this is only an attempt to outline the philosophy of Tamil religion. This article will serve to indicate that Tamil also had grate minds in the philosophical realm. For the detailed and systematic presentation a lot of research is done.

Bibliography Fzh. jkpoH nka;apay;. nrd;id: nghJik ntspaPL> 1980.

Fzh. Gjpa rka cUthf;fq;fs;. ntq;fhYH: jkpof Ma;tuz;> 1995. ghthzH> NjtNea. jkpoH kjk;. nrd;id: jkpo; kz; gjpg;gfk;> 2000. kiwkiyabfs;. jkpoH kjk;. nrd;id: kzpthrfH gjpg;gfk;> 1999.

Panchakshara (ed.). Saravam Sivamayam: An Outline of Saivite Hinduism. London: London Meikandaar Adheenam, 1988.

Gnanasoorian. The Meaning of Life in Saivite Hinduism. London: London Saiva Siddhanta Centre, 1985.

Sastri, Ramaswamy. (ed.). The Tamils: The People, Their History and Culture. New Delhi: Cosmo Publication, 2002. 5: 4-71.

Clothey, Fred W. “Tamil Religions.” The Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Mircea Eliadle. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987. 14: 261.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE TAMIL SIDDHAS

Siddhas An Approximation 1. History of Siddhas A Siddha is a person who has attained a state of spiritual enlightenment or self-realization. Siddhas live in the natural state of enjoyment with other beings.

Siddhas are those who lived and maintained their bodies, as they desired best. They were mostly of a Tamil Saiva sect, they are great men holding tremendous powers in themselves by way of yogic practices. They isolate themselves from the society and

spend their time in the mountaintops.

jungles and on the

Siddhas lived at a very remote period and the period of their existence is not known in a definite manner. All the stories of Siddhas are not known through the original sources because they are passed on traditionally and orally. The Tolkappiam refers to the siddhas, as arivar who must have lived between 4th and 6th Centuries B.C. Mr.V. Selvanayagam would say that the originations of Siddhas must be between 6 th and 9th Centuries. Siddha literatures have come into existence in the 15, 16, 17th Centuries. This was the period when the people started talking about Siddhas.

In the 17th and 18th centuries Siddhas were very much praised by Christianity, Islam and Saiva scholars.

After the 18th century those who had written books in the fields of yoga, alchemy and medicine, started using the names of Siddhas as authors. It shows the fame of Siddhas at that time. Siddhas are seers and highly evolved and realized souls. Siddha Religion was also known as Kadavul Samayam (Religion of God).

Siddhas believed in God „Śiva‟, but they did not accept the Idol worship of God in the Temples, singing his glory and observance of certain rules.

The main aims of Siddhas were the positive assertions towards the welfare of humankind, to enable them to live in this world without any hindrance and to save the suffering humanity. Siddhas are classified in different ways. The term „Siddhas‟ has different connotations, i.e., „fulfilled‟, semi-divine‟, „arivar,‟ „who are rich in knowledge‟. Those who have attained the state of siddhi are called Siddhas, Siddhi standing for the possession of wisdom. The Sāyujya state, called Siddhi, is attained through jñāna. Those who have attained this state of Siddhi are called the Siddhas.

Normally the traditional Tamil sources speak of eighteen Siddhas. They compiled several treatises like alchemy, medicine, yoga, philosophy, astrology, magic etc., and the language and style of the Siddha literature in general is easy, fluent and colloquial. They could bring out the literature in a clear manner with their superior intelligence. We cannot precisely give the exact number of Siddhas. Siddhas are accounted as 80,000 in the . Buddhism speaks of eighty-four Siddhas. The Nātha Siddhas are said to be nine in number. In Tamilnadu the tradition speaks of eighteen Siddhas. Most of the Tamil Sources agree that the Siddhas are eighteen in number.

2. Socio-Spiritual Concern of Siddhas According to Siddhas renunciation, detachment from society is not the only way of life. To a Siddha, a neighbour is, not only those who are living nearby but every living being who are in need, and because of this attachment Siddhas brought out medicine, philosophy, alchemy, yoga and Tamil literature in a form of poem. Tamil Siddhas did not

16

accept the caste distinctions and social discriminations in the society. Siddhas were spiritually also concerned of the people. The mantras of Siddhas, „Śivāyanama’, are not merely philosophico-mystical concepts, but social too. The term „Śivāyanama’ means „the result of sacrifice is bliss.‟ Siddhas felt the bliss in „sacrifice‟, and they adopted „sacrifice‟ as an opportunity to serve, sacrifice here means sacrifing oneself to the humanity.

3. Methods of Siddhas Science The Science of Siddhas describes the chemical nature of substances. Siddhas preserved this chemistry as a sacred book, because of its usefulness. The uniqueness of Siddha system of chemical medicines lies in gathering the plants afresh, at a certain time of the day or night, during some planetary times, which is not practiced in other systems of medicine Alchemy Among the writings of Siddhas, Alchemy occupies the first place, because Alchemy is the basis for other three branches. It is a science, by which things may be decomposed and recomposed, and their essential nature changed, thus leading not only to change, but it also opens the way for medicine, transformation and Yoga.

Yoga The Tamil Siddhas use yoga as the method to attain liberation. There are four main forms of Supreme yoga: mantra-yoga, hatha-yoga, laya-yoga and rājayoga. Tamil Siddhas practiced the yogic method of laya yoga. It is a deep concentration, which takes one to the infinite or Śiva-aikya. This yoga has been called kundalini-yoga.

the five elements after death. To maintain their body they used the means of Alchemic process, yoga and sādhanā.

Alchemic process The alchemic process is mostly dependent on the Rasāyana School. This school made the immutable by changing the quality of its body by the rasa, a chemical combination of mercury and sulphur. This method contains the doctrine of three elements, namely salt, sulphur and mercury. In the Alchemical works we find also another term muppu. It is a compound of three elements, a kind of liquid which gives the power of prolonged life. When it is taken in a correct ratio, the body gets a golden shape.

Kun alinī and Kun alinī yoga power is an individual bodily representation of great cosmic power. So is also called as serpent power or sleeping power. In some works of Siddhas, is called as 'the hidden Siva in the body. yoga is the second method. Through the yoga practices, the Siddhas avoided the normal elements of the body and then brought them back through a regulated flow of the nectar. The process of yoga unites the microcosmic body with the macrocosmic being.

Sādhanā sādhanā is the third method, which is recommended by some yogis. The sādhanā makes the entire body system function along a contrary way, in order to bring breathing, circulation, and digestive organs under control. In sādhanā it is possible to carry the semen upward, which is the most restless rasā in us to the top most station and change it into a hard element, so that its restless character is destroyed.

Medicine Eighteen Siddhas of Tamil culture compiled the science of pulse. The curability of the diseases and the prediction of death can be diagnosed using the Siddha system of medicine Siddhas speak of 4448 diseases in human beings and there is not a single one, which cannot be cured by their medicine.

Concept of life All the Siddhas have a similar concept of life.

If life moves out of the body then the body is no more a being. The starting point of man is Birth and the final point is Death. Birth and Death are the two realities in the life of all beings. Once a being is born, it has to die.

No one can escape from Death.

4. Anthropology of Siddhas

It is their conviction that the transmigrated body should make use of the present birth to avoid all the wrong merits, in order to live well in the present life and also in the next life. The soul is linked to the five elements of the human body. When one of these breaks, it leads to the death of a person. Death is one of the stages in the soul's journey. Being that dies, returns to the five elements of nature, and it takes another form in the next birth and serves as an instrument for manifestation of life. Among these man is the nearest manifestation to God.

'khDldpd; Nkdp mhpaNjhh; Myak; mij Myakhf itj;jpUg;NghNu mwpQd;"

According to the understanding of Siddhas, human being is a product of the divine mind. Human essence is constituted by the five elements of his nature: earth, water, fire, air and sky. They gave a lot of importance to the human body. Body is superior to the worldly possessions. The human body is like a temple.

Human body is a threshold, according to the Siddhas, a sacred passage to the ultimate Reality. And all earthly things live, move, grow and die, and come again into

5. Ethics of Siddhas

17

7. Mysticism of Siddhas 'MiraWkpd;fs; MiraWkpd;fs; <rNdhlhapDk; MiraWkpd;fs;."

- jpU%yh;.

The ethics of the Siddhas has two aspects.

One that is auxiliary to realization and the other, which flows out of realization. These two are stressed as ethical preparation for self-realization. To free oneself from the limited ego or selfishness and to develope desirelessness and the eight forms of moral qualities: ahimsā (non-violence), control of senses, compassion to all, forbearance, knowledge, penance, truth and sincere-feeling. A Siddha attains realization without accepting śāstras and he goes beyond the Vedas in his action Siddhas wanted to convey their spiritual experiences directly to the people without believing in the śāstras, local Gods and rituals. They were not bound by any religious dogma and place of worship.

6. Philosophy of God 'NfhapyhtJ Vjlh? Fsq;fshtJ Vjlh?

NfhapYk; Fsq;fSk; Fk;gpLk; FykhNu> NfhapYk; kdj;Js;Ns Fsq;fSk; kdj;JNs! MtJk; moptJk; ,y;iy ,y;iy ,y;iyNa..."

- rptthf;fpahh;

Siddhas wanted to convey their spiritual experiences directly to the people without having any belief in the śāstras and rituals. The Temple of Siddhas is their body. They controlled their body through meditation and yoga and experienced God in themselves. The God of Siddhas „Śiva' who is one, without any limitation or attributes. „Śiva‟ is an impersonal conception. The ideal name for „Śiva‟ is „it‟ or „atu’ or „thatness‟ or „suchness‟. God is everything and all pervading, God does exist in two levels namely 'Śivam' and 'Śakthi'. God is activating everything in the universe. The Siddhas have adopted yoga as a method of realization. The Tamil Siddhas can be considered as the „scriptureless‟ school of Hinduism.

Main concept of theology is „God head‟ experience.

Siddhas were against religious doctrines and rituals, which were blocks for experiencing the divine. They declared that the divine is within the human. They ask what is the meaning of laying flowers around a „planted stone‟ and to go around it, saying prayers?

What is the purpose of worshiping the stone, when God is within us? Siddhas say that the primary and coreexperience is the divine within. The experience of the divine within empowers the Siddhas. And all those who experienced the divine-within are „enlightened‟ or „liberated‟ persons. Because they are freed from the enslaving traditions, beliefs and customs of religious, cultures.

Liberation Siddhas considered liberation or as the 'enjoyment' of the consciousness or self or as an inner awareness, a 'seeing' with the soul. Liberation is selfrealization. They say that only through jñāna one can attain liberation. The term jñāna is used in Tamil Siddha literature to mean „the nature of the self‟.

Self Knowledge Siddhas consider the self-knowledge as a realization of one's original identity or 'oneness' with Śivam or God. Self-realization expresses that, what we call 'God', is inside one's own self. Some Siddhas ask: “how is it possible that self in me is the self in Him and vice versa”. To attain the highest spiritual realization in human life, it is necessary to merge the „restricted I‟ and the „Supreme I‟. It is a „Thou-I‟ state.

According to Siddhas the state of „stainless sky‟ is referred as . A few Siddhas called as sunya. . In their philosophy they call as a spiritual principle of all embracing unity or „oneness‟. The term refers to an infinite, transcendental awareness. It is the awareness of being itself. signifies the absence of the elements of earth, water, fire and air. It has been named as „a place of no-ownership‟. In spoken Tamil means „broad daylight‟. When a person tries to define the Supreme Truth through affirmation, he is not able to affirm fully because, the facts that a person affirms limit it, and it is same in the case of negation.

Therefore the Tamil Siddhas have attempted to express through . samādhi ‘Samādhi’ is the final place of beatitude.

Samādhi is a state of complete concentration where the mind becomes super conscious and all external matters and conditions are forgotten. It is a state of 'Sleepless sleep', 'action less action', 'a seeing without aim', 'a seeing without any movement in the eyes' and it is a state of 'rest full alertness' or 'operative rest'. It is discribed in Tamil as or 'Yoga nitthirai’.

The 'sleep' in 'sleepless sleep' refers to the state where the senses are in sleep and the consciousness is alert.

There is only 'one awareness' that is 'ego less awareness'.

8. Conclusion "A man who works day and night gets worldly pleasures (rich men), majority of them do not get this opportunity (middleclass family), some deny all the worldly pleasures (sanyasies)."

Siddhas belong to the third category. They did not long for worldly pleasures rather they were

18

rebels of the society. Their medicine, yoga, alchemy, Tamil literature, and philosophy played a vital role in the society and it was open to all castes and classes, to all men and women irrespective of their birth, culture, tradition etc. With their immense knowledge they were well versed in the field of alchemy and medicine in their time, which our scientists are finding difficult to invent in this century. Siddhas Philosophy is very relevant today even in many forms. Philosophy of God is a classical interpretation of Siddhas, which invites us to be concerned of neighbour and society (md;Ng rptk;). Their mysticism helped them to experience God in themselves and the practice of yoga helps the people to be healthy and it creates good mood to think of God. Siddhas raised their voice against casteism, it is very relevant even today. The Siddhas have shoun us the way to liberation. Are we ready to follow them?

BIBLIOGRAPHY Ganapathy, T.N. The Philosophy of The Tamil siddhas.

New Delhi: Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 1993.

MWKfk;. ~~rpj;jh; ,yf;fpak;~~> G+tpUe;jty;yp> 2002. ehuhazd;> f. rpj;jh; jj;Jtk;. nrd;id: jkpo; Gj;jfepiyak;> 1990

AVVAIYARS AVVAIYAR I: (5th century B.C) In Tamil history two great poetesses were called with the some name, Avvaiyer. The first one lived in the Sangam age around the third century B.C in Tamilnadu. She had been one of the learned scholar and poetess of her time. She has written 59 poems, which are found in ancient literature. She served in the assembly of one of the seven benefactors who were also (landlords) rulers of a particular territory of that times at times she also become a peace maker wherever a big conflict arises between the rulers or kings. She is called as „ Sangam Avvaiyer‟.

Avvaiyer II: This poetess is called as Neethinool Avvaiyer.

She lived around the tenth century A.D. in Tamilnadu she is also the author of four famous ethical works; they are Aathichoodi, Kondraivendhan, Moodhurai and Nalvazzhi.

When we list out the names of all the philosophers of the world we may see the number of women philosophers goes behind the decimals. But women philosophers have written down some of the best philosophies in Tamil. This shows the nature of the Tamil society which had no gender discrimination.

The name Avvaiyar is generally given to women philosophers because of the respectful nature of this common name. One Avvaiyar writes:

,dpaJ Nfl;fpd; jdpneL NtNyha;! ,dpJ ,dpJ Vfhe;jk; ,dpJ mjdpDk; ,dpJ Mjpia njhOjy; mjdpDk; ,dpJ mwptpdHr; NrHjy; mjdpDk; ,dpJ mwpTs;Nshiuf; fdtpYk; edtpYk; fhz;gJ jhNd! Here she says that instead of worshiping and speculating about the unknown beginning it is better to be with the learned and it is still better to think of them always even in our dreams.

Theory Of Causality: The Avvaiyar had also the theory of causality from which her metaphysics can also be derived. She writes: nghpaJ Nfl;fpd; vhpjto; NtNyha; nghpJ nghpJ Gtdk; nghpJ GtdNkh ehd;Kfd; gilg;G ehd;Kfd; fhpakha; ce;jpapy; te;Njhd; fhpa khNyh miyfly; Japd;Nwhd; miyfly; FWKdp mq;ifapy; mlf;fk; FWKdpNah fyrj;jpw; gpwe;Njhd; fyrNkh Gtpapy; rpWkz; GtpNah mutpDf;F xUjiyg; ghuk; muNth cikatH rpWtpuy; Nkhjpuk; cikNah ,iwatH ghfj;J xLf;fk; ,iwtNuh njhz;l Us;sj;J xLf;fk; njhz;lHjk; ngUik nrhy;yTk; nghpNj For the question „what was the cause of the world?‟ she answers by saying that God caused everything and she substantiates them with the folklore of her period. She gives these folk stories in order to make the people understand it easily. She says that this God who created the world is in the hearts of the believers. So we need not go in search of this god in the Macrocosm (the reality outside) but it is enough to discover the God in the Microcosm (the reality inside the mind).

The anthropology of Avvaiyar: All things in the world have two states of motion. One is static motion and the other is dynamic motion. A rock when it is standing still is in static motion. It does neither good nor bad. But when the same rock rolls from the mountain towards a valley, it becomes dynamic and brings a lot of mishaps. In the same way human beings do nothing when they are static but when they are dynamic they do a lot. She expresses this in a poem: nghJtpy; J}q;Fk; tprpAW jz;Zik tspnghU njz;fz; Nfl;gpd; mJ NghH vd;Dk; jiytd;.

She also says in the text called Porunmozhikanchi in which she had written only one poem that ehlh nfhd;Nwh fhlh nfhd;Nwh mtyh nfhd;Nwh kpirah nfhd;Nwh

19

vt;top ey;ytH MltH mt;top ey;iy thopa epyNd! In this world there are plains, valleys, jungles and mountains but they remain static and there exists no good or bad thing but making the world good or bad is in the hands of the people. So she ultimately looks human beings as ethical beings. jkpoz;zy;> xsitahu;> GJby;yp: rhfpj;jpa mf;fhnjkp 1998.

PROVERBS Generally the word philosophy is translated to Tamil as „tattuvam‟. But the right word for philosophy in Tamil is „Meymavial‟ which means „concerning truth,‟ the truth about reality which makes the people awestruck. Tattuvam is also used in a context where a person says something at the right time summarising the whole motion of thought and presents them directly or indirectly. In Tamil language there are lots of sayings passed on orally. They are called as proverbs and they are readymade sayings that summarises the whole motion of thought. We cannot compare all of these proverbs to the proverbs of English like, “ a stitch in time saves nine,” or “too many cooks spoil the broth.” There are some orally passed statements which are philosophical like Descartes‟s “cogito ergo sum” and Wittgenstein‟s “whereof one cannot speak; thereof one should be silent.” These philosophical proverbs does not bear their author‟s name because Tamils do know that philosophy is of the land and not of the individual. We cannot also trace the authors because they are passed on orally. Some examples are: ehiaf;fz;lhy; fy;iy fhNdhk; fy;iyf;fz;lhy; ehiaf;fhNzhk.; The people of literature take it in the sense of equating it with “the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” But this proverb also presents the metaphysical principle of “a thing be and not be at the same time in the same way.”

Another important proverb in Tamil is ",lk; nfhLj;jhy; klk; gpLq;Fthd;.” This proverb is normally transliterated as “give him an inch and he will take an ell.” It is not to be understood in this manner. It is an invitation to liberation. A person who is in ignorance (klk;) can dispel it by knowledge when he gives importance to it. This is an epistemological quest of a person. Here knowledge is personified and is being used with the suffix „van‟ which is the suffix used for a male person. Since these proverbs are much allegorical, using figures of speech like pun, personification, and simile, these proverbs are misinterpreted. But if they are still taken in right connotation we find that a lot of these types of proverbs come into philosophy.

There is another epistemological proverb that shows the inferential nature of Tamil people. “xU ghid Nrhw;Wf;F xU NrhW gjk;” this proverbs says that on observing one part of the whole, possessing a character, we claim that the remaining parts of the whole too must possess the same character.

This inference leads us to believe the homogeneity of nature. The Tamils then conclude that the laws of nature or the natural order that is operative in one part of the universe must be operative in the other parts also.

Another important and a short proverb is “Fjpiu nfhk;G Nghy.” This is normally used in the context when an incident occurs rarely or a person appears after a long time. This is again another epistemological proverb that expresses the inferential nature of Tamil people. To see a horse with horn is impossible but it is here used in terms of rareness. This shows that Tamil language does not make universal statements but always singular statements like “this horse does not have horns.” By induction they might have come to the conclusion that all the horses probably do not have horns. And they left the end open to probability. So this proverb exhibits „rareness‟ rather than impossibility.

V.Perumal, Glimpses of Tamil Culture, Berlin: Berlin Tamil Sangam, 1982.

ST. RAMALINGAR 1823-1874 LIFE He was born in October 5th, 1823, as the fifth child of Ramiah Pillai and Chinammal. He was born in Marudhur near Chidambaram. He had a mystical experience when he was five months old. That is, when he was five months old, his father took him to the Chidambaram Nadaraza Temple for a Pooja. When the temple priest was offering pooja, Ramalingar saw the vision of Lord Nadaraza and started to laugh aloud.

After this incident the temple priest said to Ramaiah Pillai that, “this is not an ordinary child, this is the son of God”. When Ramalingar was six months old his father died. After his father‟s death they went and settled in chennai with his elder brother Sababathi.

EDUCATION When Ramalingar was five years old, his elder brother decided to formally educate his brother. The young child however demonstrated a deep disinclination towards the formal education.

He preferred to stay in the temple than to go to school.

One day he did not go to school. His teacher came to know that Ramalingar is sitting in the temple. This teacher went to the temple and heared the praise song to God by Ramalingar after listening it, his teacher came near to him and said, “You can get anything from God”. His teacher‟s blessings encouraged him to spend his life in the temple. He learned everything with out the help of the other person. This is the greatest gift he received from God. That is Oothathunarnthavar (XjhJzHe;jtH) with out the

20

help of any person he learned everything, afterwards he was teaching to the scholars.

MARRIAGE With the compulsion of his mother and his brother Vallalar accepted to marry Dhanakodiammal (jdf;Nfhbak;khs;). Even in Marriage his heart and mind was related with God. On the day of the first night he was praising God. His wife joined with him and she also praised God. This was happening everyday at night. He did not show any interest in Married life. His wife died after six months.

GOD There is only one God. He followed the aspects of Saiva Sidhhanta. Each religion has a God in the world, there are many religions. Are there are many gods? According to him there is only one God and he does not any form. But for the sake of worship he gives the form LIGHT, he built a temple and kept light and a mirror, symbloiszing that human person is the manifestation of God. Whoever sees the light and mirror will worship the God within him/herself. He forbade the worship of petty gods and sacrificial offerings by killing animals. This forms the nature of his anthropology.

MAN All men should be in union with god always.

Because god is best realized in man. All human beings are equal. So he worked for the abolishment of all distinctions of the people, mainly the caste distinctions and the gender distinctions. Human beings relationship with other creatures in the world should be through compassion. The best example was Vallalar himself, whose essence of life was compassion. He said, 'kz;ZyfjpNy capHfs; jhk; tUe;Jk; tUj;jj;ij xU rpwp njdpDk; fz;Zwg; ghHj;Jk; nrtpapwf; Nfl;Lk; fzKk; ehd; rfpj;jpl khl;Nld;."

This forms the basis for his ethics. He gave four disciplines to follow in each oneâ&#x20AC;&#x;s life. By nature he had all these four disciplines in his life. These four disciplines are: 1. Indiriya Ozhukkam (,e;jphpa xOf;fk;) It teaches the discipline for the senses.

Example: Eyes- See only good things and do not see the bad things Ears- Hear only what is good and do not hear what is bad.

2. Karna Ozhukkam (fHk xOf;fk;) Not feeling the jealous of the other person.

He speaks about the relationship between the human beings.

3. Jeeva Ozhukkam ([Pt xOf;fk;)

Every jeevan or creature is equal. There are no degrees among creatures.

4. Aanma Ozhukkam (Md;k xOf;fk;) We should see god in every creature. From Elephant to Ant there are 84 lakhs jeevas or creatures, we should be compassionate towards all the creatures.

Society: He worked for the unity (oneness) of all the persons without any caste or religious distinctions. For the upliftment of the poor people he started Sanmarga Sangam and gave basic education to the people. He also started the Satya Dharma Salai to feed the poor people. He fulfilled the needs of the people. He tried to remove all the traditional practices that were there just for the sake of tradition. He reformed the society and gave it anew outlook.

Bibliography: rptQhdk;. ts;syhH fz;l xUikg;ghL. nrd;id: G+q;nfhb gjpg;gfk;> 1962.

Fzh. jkpoH nka;apay;. nrd;id: nghJik ntspaPL> 1980.

SUBRAMANIYA BHARATHIYAR: He was born on 11.12.1882 A.D. in Ettayapuram. He had developed the poetic talents by the age of 11.

Therefore he was given the title Bharathi at the age of 11 by great poets of his time. He married at the age of 15. The lord of his province supported him but he was later deserted since he opposed the evil and unjust dealings of all the lords. He became a writer in many Newspapers and journals and thus he contributed for the freedom of India and for social reform. He developed friendship with Tilak, V.O.Chidambaranar, and many other freedom fighters. He was also under government threat for life and security. Therefore he went to Pondicherry, which was a French colony. Even there he wrote a lot of poems and essays on freedom.

He died on 11.9.1921 at the early age of 39 when a mad elephant stamped him.

Bharathi was an eminent poet who came out with a lot of ideas especially with the need for a fight for free India. He was an ardent lover of Tamil Language.

Concept of God and Religion.

He wrote numerous poems on the various Hindu deities such as Ganesh, Muruga, Kannan, Govinda and so on. Amidst all these the prominent one is the worship of the Creative Force. He sees this Creative Force as goddess Kali. This Creative Force is omnipresent, omniscient and everything. Though he wrote poems on many deities he believed that they are all one and the same Absolute. Since India is a secular state he said all religions propose the same thought and saw unity in diversity.

21

It is evident that his thoughts were not consistent, rather it was constantly changing. Some scholars criticize it while there some who see it as an effort in constant search of knowledge and truth.

Social Outlook: Bharathi was basically a Brahmin. But his thoughts were condemning the varna system which upholds the Brahmins. But whenever he referred to India he named her as an Aryan land or country. So it is felt that his aim was to revive the Brahmin culture by way of criticising some of the evils it had.

Educational Philosophy: Schools, colleges and universities are indispensable for the education of the children and all the grown-ups. The knowledge of the ancestors should be passed on from generation to generation. The young generation should imbibe them and thereby enhance their growth and the growth of the nation – this was his dream. Poverty should not be a hindrance to the education and it is the duty of the rich and the government to remove this hindrance and make education possible to the poor. He sets out a curriculum for the primary education upon which the whole process of education should be built: - Alphabets, Studying and Mathematics.

- Initiation into History.

- Geography.

- Religious studies.

- Civics.

- Economics.

- Physics.

- Handicrafts, Agriculture and Gardening.

- Business/ Commerce.

- Physical education.

- Excursion.

Education through the mother tongue was his basic and fundamental principle. A country flourishes through industrial growth. Through exports the foreign exchange should be increased and that will enhance the growth of the country. For this technical education is necessary.

His contest was that the respect and honour given to women in the epics was not given to the women in the present day society. Women were always considered as inferior to men. So he wrote many poems and short stories to liberate them. Just as India that has the right to freedom so to women have the right to be considered equal with men. There should be no sex discrimination. Man and woman are the two eyes of the society. Both have to be respected and preserved. Only when they two work together then there will success. For the restoration of their rights and for their growth education is very important.

Education to females should not be denied for they will educate men later.

To bring renaissance among the enslaved women who were deprived of all their rights he brings in the concept of woman who is free, courageous and responsible – this is the New Woman of Bharathi. It was said that woman must have fear and shyness. But he said that they were not necessary but it was intellect, courage, rights and awareness that were necessary. He, in his writings, personified woman as the nation, language, Moon, Goddess and poetry. In olden days men who wanted to have women as mere sex objects imposed chastity on women. He changed the whole concept of chastity of the olden days. He said that chastity is not only for women but for men too. As long as men are unchaste then rapes will continue. But once men begin to be chaste then there will be no woman who is raped.

There were many social evils against women like: child marriage, female infanticide, sati and widow torture. He was against all these and he gave a strong voice to and was an ardent supporter of widow remarriage.

Bibliography: nul;bahH> Rg;G. ghujPak;. nrd;id 1983.

FUehjd;. ghujpngz;zpak;. nrd;id.2000.

Social Philosophy: In his time the people were immersed in a lot of superstitions like ghosts, sorcerer‟s magic, black magic, false religious doctrine. There were divisions based of caste and religion. He is saddened at this sight and seeks for a society where peace and brotherhood prevails. An individual is a part of the society. If an individual transforms himself into an uprightperson then the society too will be an upright society.

Feministic Philosophy:

godpag;gh

ghujpjhrd; mk;kd;

gpujH];:

ghly;fspy; gjpg;gfk;:

PERIYARISM LIFE: 1879-1973 E.V.Ramasamy, popularly know as Periyar, was born on September 17th, 1879 at Erode, Tamil Nadu, in a wealthy and orthodox Kannada Naidu family. They were now called Naickers but originally Naidu inhabitants.

(Naikers are the upper stratum of the Sudra). Periyar stopped his studies at the age of tem and joined in his studies at the age of ten and joined in his father‟s business. Though he was from rich and orthodox family yet he became an atheist. He worked for the poor and out caste people and for their enlistment. He started an anti-Brahminism, which was called

22

as Dravida Kazhagam (D.K.). He propagated his thoughts through Justice party and later through Self-Respect Movement. He was not just a social reformer but a great Rationalistic Philosopher, hence he was rightly praised 'gFj;jwpT gfytd;‟.

DOCTRINE Periyar synthesized both philosophy and movement. He adopted the maxim of Karl Marx who said, “Philosophy is necessary to change the world.”

So he studied the society as a philosopher, in which he searched for the truth and knowledge.

His philosophical approach lead to a movement called SelfRespect Movement to establish a free society from caste, religion, and superstition etc. thus, the synthesis of both philosophy and movement of Periyar is called is „Periyarism‟. Periyarism is consists of three aspects, they are i) Eradication of Caste, ii) Rationalism and iii) Equal Justice. He strives to achieve all the three aspects through one movement called Self-Respect Movement.

So, Periyar developed the basic concept of human SelfRespect, to aim at freedom in all the three aspects namely freedom from discriminated society, ignorance and slavery.

empirical evidence all the myths of god, religion, fate, soul and rebirth. Periyar explains rationalism as, “analysing everything with courage and intelligence according to the occasion and need, rejecting what should be rejected, contributing what should be contributed, to reform, without fearing change.”

Knowledge born of rationalism is the real knowledge. Unless people use rationality they will not realise that they are being thrown out of the society.

God: Periyar was the first greatest rationalist leader the world has ever known to declare assertively “that there is no god, and no god at all, that he who created god was a fool, who propagated god was a scoundrel and who worships god is a barbarian.” He further disputes the existence of god by following arguments.

It is said that god is omnipresent, i.e., existing everywhere, but the theist repudiates this concepts by worshiping only in Temple. Again it is said that god is omnipotent i.e., controls activities of human but in reality, there are thieves, murderers, rogues, and the suffering, which only proves that god is not responsible for all the miseries of the people. Thus, according to Periyar the conception of god is without foundation.

SELF-RESPECT The Tamil word for Self-Respect, suyamariyadhai is a combined Sanskrit word. The original exact translation of suyamariyadhai is Thanmaanam, which means self-dignity. Periyar‟s doctrine of self-dignity can be explained with the help of the principle of cause and effect, which says that there is no effect without a cause. In the same way he says that every action (effect) has its own reason (cause) behind it. One should respect one‟s own reason and should act according to it. Here one must notice that every action has an intended reason, hence, an effect of a cause becomes a cause of another effect.

So, Periyar asks everyone, while judging one must consider not only the immediate cause but also the previous cause too.

It is self-dignity that gives freedom to every human, likewise it is freedom that makes one to act according to one‟s own self-dignity.

Therefore, freedom and self-dignity are identical and this becomes an indispensable for the eradication of all social barriers. Thus he started to propagate the concept of Self-Respect to all common people through a movement called Self-Respect Movement.

RATIONALISM It is a philosophy of life, which is based upon the reasoning faculty of human. It is a scientific approach of Periyar towards the problems of society.

Using this faculty of human he examines in the light of

Religion: Theist says that religions are the means to reach god. Periyar says they are the creation of man.

The existence of various religions only shows the existence of many gods. But the theist escapes by arguing that the various religions are the different means of seeking asylum with that one god. However, we find religious conflicts by condemning other religions. Thus, in the name of religions, they only create or inject inequality, discriminations and slavery into the society.

Human Person: Human being is like another being in the world. Every being in this world is a composite being (Kootuporul). As the table is made up of different parts and elements, human is also made up of different parts. Therefore, there is nothing special in human person to say s/he is the Supreme Being.

Though all the beings are composite yet they are unique. For example, a bird has a uniqueness of flight and a human person has a power of speech. Periyar further explains that it is the power of reasoning, more than any other power in human that makes him/her supreme to all the other beings. He also explains that the difference in the human character and behaviour is due to the formation of one‟s own sense organs. For example, if one does not use his/her sense of rationality properly s/he will be called noble person but if not s/he will be called wicked or a primitive wo/man.

Soul: Theist speaks of soul in man, but it is not understandable by the five senses. Periyar said that human lives when the various elements in him/her are in motion and when they cease to operate s/he dies. He compares it with a clock. A clock works if all the parts operate well but when one part of it stops, the clock

23

does not work. Here, why a theist does not speak of soul in a clock. So, it is evident that, the concept of soul in man is the invention of the vested interests to build up the doctrine of rebirth. Periyar disputes the concept of rebirth in the following manner. According to the theory of rebirth, a soul gets into another human life, if it is so, the population should continue to remain same form the beginning to till now. But we see it increasing every year. In this case he asks whether the animals and plants have souls. He asks everyone to reasonably contemplate on this unreasonable concept.

Human created soul, to create the concept of hell and heaven, through which people can be brought inside the religion and to create inequalities in the society.

Therefore, the reason behind all the chaos in our country is that people have been hindered from enquiry and repressed from the use of rationality.

Thus, the bedrock of Periyar‟s philosophy and the movement that he started was „Rationalism‟. In other way, Periyarism aimed at Equality, Justice and Liberty by creating Self-Respect in each wo/man through reason.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Periyar, Thantai.

Thattuva Vilakkam.

Chennei: Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution, 1987.

Bandiste, D.D. Understanding Rationalism. Indore: Rationalist Publication, 2002.

Diehl, Anita. Periyar E.V.Ramasami. New Delhi: B.I. Publication, 1978.

Jerry. Manitham. Chennei: Justice Publication, 1994.

Subramaniyam, M.K. “Suyamariyathai Thattuvam.”

Periyar Meiiyal, 1 May 1997,22-23.

The Periyar, Self-Respect Propaganda Institution.

Periyar-An Anthology. Chennei: The Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution, 1992.

PAVENDHAR BHARATHIDHASAN: He was born on the 29th of April 1891 as the third child Mr. Kanagasabai and Mrs. Lakshmi in Pondichery. His name was Subhurathinam but later he changed it as Bharathidhasan because of his love and respect to Bharathiiyar the famous Tamil poet. By the age of 10 he learned to compose music, poems and to act. After his studies in Pondichery, he became a teacher in Karaikal. He became a great friend of Bharathiyar and helped him and other freedom fighters even at the risk of his own life. He was imprisoned for taking part in freedom struggles, but he continued to write many articles and poems to supporting the freedom struggle and to enkindle the freedom spirit.

He has received many awards in appreciation of his great works . He died in the year 1964.

He was a revolutionary poet. He sought Political Freedom, Social Equality and Economically Just Society. He was an ardent lover of the Tamil language.

Feministic Philosophy: In his writings he portrayed women as having courage equal to men. In his period there was a lot of sex discrimination. Bharathi and Periyar were ardent fighters of women‟s rights. These people inspired him and he started writing on women. He personified women in different ways: he saw God as a woman, nation as a mother, language as a mother, beauty as a woman, nature as a mother.

Without women there can be no men, no family life and no joy either. So men and women must love each other and this love must be based on equal rights. Only women with rights and freedom can beget children with rights and freedom. So they should be given their rights and freedom. He also criticizes women for their narrow outlook but blames men for making them so. For the formation of a good society women should be given their rights and especially education. In order to eradicate their ignorance, enslavement and to be transformed as rationalists they should receive education. Only women can liberate these women in ignorance and so he sees a bright future in a female child. Caste and Religion have resulted in bringing inequality, superstitions and ignorance. To change this there need to be a change of heart that too in women. Women show greater involvement in caste and religion and so it is through them a change can be brought in. He sees interreligious and inter-cast marriages as a means to abolish the differences among the people. He was against the social evils such as child marriage, dowry system, unmatched marriages and devdasi system. He was an ardent supporter of widow remarriage. He strongly said that chastity is both for men and women. He says women too have right to property not just the property of their fathers alone but also their husband too.

Bibliography: FUehjd;. ghujpngz;zpak;. nrd;id.2000.

ghujpjhrd; mk;kd;

ghly;fspy; gjpg;gfk;:

cyfj; jkpo; khehL tpoh kyH. nrd;id 1968.

THIRU. V. KALANASUNDHARNAR (1883-1953) He was born on 26-08-1883 in Chennai. He was born to Mr. Viruthachalam and Mrs. Chinnammal, as the sixth of the eight children after his school studies; he worked in a British company called Spencer. But he resigned his job later since it was a

24

British company, which suppressed any sort of feeling for freedom; later he became a Tamil teacher in Wesley School and Tamil professor in Wesley College. He resigned his job and became the Tamil daily called „Dhesabhakthan‟. He started a Tamil daily called „Navasakthi‟. He brought out many new Tamil works and authored of 56 books. He was actively involved in the freedom struggle and became the friend and collaborator of Anne Bezant, Periyar, Tilak, and V.O. Cidhambaranr, and Gandhi. He was also the Vice.

President of the Labour Union in Chennai. Therefore he was put into prison many times. He died on 17-091953 at the age of 70 in Chennai.

TAMIL METHODOLOGY Thiru. V.Kalyanasundaranar has shown the unique Tamil methodology. It is very clear from his book „kristhu Mozhi kural‟

thop toptop tha;g;G (34)  tha;ik vOjpa kj;NjA khu;f;FYf; fha;tpy;Nah thd;top fhy;.

(35) PREFACE: mg;gd; mUs;kiyia mg;gbNa Ngh;j;njLj;jy; vg;gbvd; dhypaYk; <q;F (43) jOtpNa dk; kiyiaj; kz;lkpohy; Ngh;j;Nj cOKad;Nwd; fpl;ltpy;iy xa;T (44) fz;zida ehl;lhr;rp fz;zw;w jhdikahy; ez;zpaNj xa;T eae;J (45) Jg;ghf;fp #oypiaj; J}a kiyf;fhl;rp ,g;ghtp ngw;Nwd; ,dpJ (46) Page (16) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Tamil Methodology:

vy;Yk; tifjOtp xjTk; thd;kiyia ,y;iy jFjp vdf;F (49)

There is no separate table of contents, bibliography, preface, acknowledgements or footnotes as it is there in English or other languages. But these are not left out. They are mentioned as the writing proceeds. They are also mentioned in the same style as the matter is written.

In the beginning of the work the author gives a general introduction for the book. Then he says about the content of the work. Then he explains what were his main sources. He explains about the social background or the circumstances on which he has written the book. This also becomes a part of preface.

Towards the end of this introductory part he acknowledges his limitations. After this introductory part the author goes to the main text. In the concluding chapter the author wishes well for all and for the whole world. Thus the need for writing separate table of content, preface, bibliography, footnote, endnote, conclusion becomes null and void.

Everything becomes part of the text itself.

vLf;Fk; tifmwpNad; vg;gbNah Nru;e;Njd; njhLf;Fk; tifAkpiy njhl;L (53)

EXAMPLES FOR TAMIL METHODOLOGY: TABLE OF CONTENTS: 

fpwp];J nkhopapidf; fpz;lapL $whg; nghwpj;jype; E}ypd; nghUs;.

(25)  xd;W kiynkhopkw; nwhd;W kzpnkhop vd;W gphpAkpe; E}y;.

(26)  mwe;J nkhopfs; mlq;Fk;,e; E}w;Ngh; fpwp];J nkhopf;Fws; Nfs;.

(27) BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

thop kiytha;ik thor;nra;- kj;NjA

[ad; mUs;nkhopia md;ghy; CWfpd;Nwd; itad; nghWf;f kW. (54) mstpd; nghUs;nkhopia md;ghy; Fog;Gk; Cwy; nghWf;f cyF. (55) Page: (17) REMINDER: Another important feature of Tamil methodology is that a separate poem which has got the list of many series of books of the same poetic nature for the purpose of preserving the names of the books and restoring them of they are missing. Two examples are given here. "ew;wpid ey;y FWe;njhif> Iq;FWEhW> xj;jgfpw;W gj;J> Xq;Fgupghly;> fw;wupe;jhu; Vj;jk; fypNa> mfk; Gwk; vd;W ,j;jpuj;J vl;L njhifNa" 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

ew;wpid FWe;njhif Iq;FWEhW gfpw;Wg;gj;J gupghly; fypj;njhif mfehDhW GwehDhW

gj;Jg;ghl;L: "KUF nghUEhW> ghzpuz;L Ky;iy ngUF tskJiuf; fhQ;rp kUtpdpa Nfhy neLwy; thil Nfhy; FwpQ;rpg; gl;Bg;ghiy flhj;njhLk; gj;J" k.uh.Ngh. FUrhkp> jpU.tp.f> GJby;yp: rhfpj;jpa mf;fhnjkp 1998.

25

MARAIMALAIADIGAL: He was born to Mr. Sakkanadhapillai and Mrs. Chinnammaliyar on 15.07.1886 in a place called kadambadi near Nagappattinam. His parents named him as vedhachalam but due to his love for Maraimalaiadigal. He learned many Tamil books before 1897. He married Sundaravali in 1893 and had seven children. He worked in Madras Christian College as Tamil Professor from 1898 to 1911. Many of his students became Tamil Professors and leaders.

He has written more than 50 books. He took up religious life on 27.08.1911. He collected more than 4000 books for his research and studies and later he gave it for the public use in his library. He also is the founder of “Thanithamizh Sankkam”, a movement to establish and propagate the authenticity and originality of the Tamil and their language. He passed away on 15.09.1950.

The Epistomology Of Maraimalaiadigal: The human cognitivity is basically a soul factor. The soul‟s beauty is intelligence; it is visible more empirically only in human beings. But the human soul does not bother about things that it frequently cognizes. And it always tries to experience something new. A Chinese in an Indian village will be looked and cognized more than any Indian walking through the village. The soul is governed by the will.

The will that is supposed to concentrate on one thing at a time is unable to concentrate on one thing only. This is the reason why there is difference of action and thought. In human beings the concentration of will is always after trial and error learning. Man learns to concentrate only after he experiences a difficulty or a hindrance because of non-concentration. A person while on his way to his friend‟s house, which is in a big city, does not concentrate and cognize the way to go there. If he has to go there for a second time he will face the same difficulties to go since he did not cognize the way during his first visit. This will lead him to cognize the way during the second visit, so that he could easily recognize the way during the third visit.

Human cognitivity is a relative factor; a person sees in things what s/he prefers to see. Poet sees the forest, the beautiful mountains and valleys and the animals in tem, looks the beautiful deer and writes poems while the hunter looks at the deer and judges the meat content. This is because of the background that a person belongs to. In order to cognize a reality in the exact way a person must choose a life of austerity, leaving the family and leading the life of a monk.

Yoga and pure vegetarian life can make a person more austere and will help in cognizing the reality and find the God who created it.

Man fears death because of the affection that he has towards the things and persons that lived with him. He does not know how his life after death will be.

Soul does not have annihilation, it is a subsisting being but the body gets annihilated. So we cannot have a materialistic outlook on reality since reality also consists of something immaterial like the soul. Human being is made up of five types of bodilines among these the material body alone gets annihilated while the other four types of bodiliness take rebirth. The four types of bodiliness are called #f;Fk; rhPuk;> Fz rhPuk;> fQ;Rf rhPuk;> fhuz rhPuk;. These four constitute the soul of man. The material body has time and space but these four bodies do not have time and space and they are common to all human beings. The rebirth that human beings take does not take place in this world again but they take place in some other world with the material bodiliness needed for that world. For this rebirth human beings are supposed to live a virtuous life. If the life of a person is not virtuous, he or she may take one of the four bodies other than material body and roams in this world for eternity. This is called the ghostliness. A person can pass on from one world to the other and may sometimes remember the past life in the same world as well as in the other world.

Bibliography: kiwkiyabfs;. kuzj;jpd;gpd; kdpjd; epiy. nrd;id: eHkjh gjp;g;gfk;> 2000.

kdpjtrpak; my;yJ kdf;ftHr;rp. nrd;id: G+k;GfhH

kiwkiyabfs;.

gjpg;gfk;> 2003.

DEVANĒYA PĀVĀNAR (1902-1981) He was born on 7.2.1902 in Thirnelveli District in Tamilnadu. His parents were Mr. Jnanamuthu and Mrs. Paripoornam. After his studies he worked as a teacher in various schools, lecturer in various colleges and universities. He was a linguistic anthropologist and has conducted many researches on linguistics, history of the Tamils have proved to the world that Tamil is the primary classical language of the world. More than 50 of his research works were published as books and he has also written many articles in various journals and magazines, He has received many awards and honorary titles due to his tireless and deep researches. He has brought to light, the antiquity, the authenticity and greatness of Tamil and the Tamils. He had participated in the world Tamil congress meet and has delivered powerful speeches. He has contributed a lot to Tamil research and was the rising sun of the Tamils. He died due to poverty and at the age of 79 on the 15th of January 1981 at 12:30 P.M. The government has honored him by opening a magnificent library in his home in chennai.

The Anthropological Out Look Of Maraimalaiadigal On Death:

26

Devaneya Pvanar is also called Mozhignahiru Pavanar. He is one of the important philosophers that Tamilnadu had had. He is a linguistic anthropologist.

His anthropology is based on the language research that he did on several languages. He is a multi linguist who has learnt more than five languages including Greek and Sanskrit. According to him human being‟s social need for relationship made man to form language. This language was orally transmitted and was very much primitive. The need of man for remembering things easily and to make communication exact made him to develop a language with writing skills. There are two types of written languages, one is primitive or natural language, and the other is derivative language. In a primitive language, if a word is used to denote a thing the same word will be used to denote the same thing always in order to avoid confusion. This word is the root word, e.g. „FO‟ meaning „a group‟. When the language develops further we find that the words with similar meanings derive their existence from this root word, e.g. FOkk; family, Fok;G - a collection of Vegetables these words are derived words and Pavanar calls them stem words.

All the derived languages get their words from the primitive language, so these derived languages has to find its root from the primitive language. The derived language differs from the primitive language because of geographical conditions and the new discoveries that they make.

He then analyses that all the derived languages can have root words, e.g. in English words like suicide, accident, genocide etc. has their root in Greek where „cid‟ means „endanger‟. Tamil has a large number of root words for all Dravidian languages as well as Sanskrit. He does not stop with this but he substantiates it by proving the primitive nature of Tamil. According to him Tamil is proved primitive because it has not only the largest number of root words but also sprout words and seed words. The sprout word is the next stage of seed word and the previous stage of root word. These sprout words are normally the suffixes and particles that is added to the seed word to add meaning to it, e.g. FO - a Group, has the sprout word c and f. c is the suffix which is normally used in pronouncing the present and future tenses perfectly ngWfpwhd;> ngWthd;. f; is the particle in the consonant form that helps in making the difference in the pronunciation from similar words like FO> GO> etc.. The basic seed word is cs; or co; which means „inside‟ (f;+o;(s;)+c=FO. Let us now see the way a primitive language had grown through this example. co;(s;) means inside [seed word] co; + c = cO means „to plough‟ (making the inside mud to come out)[sprout word] f; + cO = FO means „group‟ (members together) [root word]

k; + cO = KO means „completeness‟ or „absorption‟ [root word] g; + cO = GO denotes an organism that lives inside the ground [root word] Fok;G from FO denotes a collection of vegetables [stem word] Goq;F from GO denotes using something inside the house or the country [stem word] kPd; Fok;G and gzGof;fk; are the other words that are derived from the stem words.

This analysis of Devaneya Pavanar on language does not portray him as a narrow-minded person who thinks only Tamil as the basis of all the languages, but he proves the characteristics of primitive languages. These characters need not belong only to Tamil but to any written primitive languages.

His proof is limited only to many Indian and European languages but there are several other languages that have their root from some languages that may be existing or not.

Socio-Political Philosophy: According to Pavanar the state should do the work of a family in a broader perspective. As the father is the bread winner of the family the ruler should be for the country. Politics is only for friendly relationships and not to be seen as a master slave structure. To make the best political state, Democracy is the best means, for even if the best one rules, he may turn into rouge because of the powers that he possess. The society needs communism where no one is greedy, where everyone does his duty properly, where everyone has equal rights and opportunities and where there is unity.

According to him a communistic society and democratic government is the need for any country. A society needs to have culture and development.

Development is living a sophisticated life while culture is living a moral life. Culture is more important than development, but both are important for a better social living.

Bibliography: NjtNeaghthzH. gz;ilj; jkpo; ehfhPfKk; tuyhWk;. nrd;is: jkpo;kz; gjpg;gfk;> 2000.

NjtNeaghthzH. NtHr;nrhy; fl;Liufs;. nrd;is: jkpo;kz; gjpg;gfk;> 2000.

Pavanar, Devaneya. The Primary Classical Language of the world. Chennai: Tamilman Publications, 2001.

PAVALARERU PERUNCHITHIRANAR (1933-1996) He was born on 10.03.1933 to Mr. Duraisamy and Mrs. Kunjammal as the second child in Salem. His parents named him as Rasamanikkam but later he

27

changed his name as Perujithiranar and people gave him the title â&#x20AC;&#x153; Pavalareruâ&#x20AC;? to honor him poetic knowledge. He received his education from great teachers of those days in Salem, like Devaneya Pavanar, who also guided him later. He worked in Indian postal department from 1954. He married Dharmaraiammal and had six children born to them.

He started three monthly magazines to assert and vindicate Tamil language culture. He developed the good friendship with great Tamil poet Pavandhar Bharathi Dhasan, and many other great men of his time. He protested against foreign culture and other cultural infiltrations in Tamilnadu. He was also arrested and prisoned many times for taking up social and cultural causes, particularly for refusing to accept Hindi as the ruling language. The government did not support him since he was against the extremism of the centered (Hindi) government and struggled for the freedom of Tamilnadu. He resigned his job in 1963 and found the world Tamil Development Forum to work for Tamil Liberation. He also visited Tamils in various countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Maldives, France and many other countries and delivered powerful speeches. He passed away on 11.06.1996 at the age of 63, in Chennai; his son continues to print the three magazines that Perunchithiranar had started to publish in his publication.

PHILOSOPHY OF PERUNCHITTIRANAR Perunchittiranar is one of the Tamil scholars, who are known for his great Tamil research. Though he is research scholar, he is also one of the efficient Tamil philosophers.

COSMOLOGY The Nature: Universe is plenty. One of these Universes is our world. This world, which is like a little sand in the seashore, has got thick forest and crores and crores of stars and planets around this world. The place, measures, and eight directions are created things for this world. All questions and answers are the result of the activities over here.

memory. His life is like a small drop of water that is fallen of the ocean. All his longings are like a mist that disappears when the Sun light comes up.

The End: This world which is very big in perception and which is vast in space and which is far from our sight and language is the oldest creation. This old world one day will come to an end. At one point light of the Sun will be reduced, and without light the world will become cold and dark. Thus, the whole world will enter into darkness and will be destroyed totally.

ANTHROPOLOGY The Nature: The place of man in this world has got ten different divisions. Out of ten different divisions the earth is one part, the water is two parts, the living creature that live in the world are three parts. Their functions are four parts.

The parts, which are necessary for these functions, are five parts. The emotional effects, which arise as the result of these parts, are six parts. The external aspects, which are necessary for the functioning of these creatures, are seven parts. Their activities consist of eight parts.

Human life, which is the higher level of these entire creatures, has got nine deficiencies. The good aspects, which are done to these human creatures, are ten parts.

The Way of Life: A good way of living consists in renunciation of slavery, the uninterested of remove the slavery ness, the ignorance, the faults, which are done because of the ignorance, the sufferings that arise because of the faults etc. To those people who have these attitudes, the rights can be given. In order to get these rights they can be made to work. They can be encouraged in order to work. During this process, if they make some mistakes they can be corrected. If the ruler does all these then only his glory will last long.

The Division: If two families are divided and when the apt time comes, they can come together. This is a praise worthy act. It is the same as water, which is respected because it helps in mixing two things but if it looses its waterness then it is good for the water to be separate.

The Resemblance: The Universe has got thousands of planets and satellites. In the same way there are crores of stars both separatively and together operate the Universe.

The language: The language, race, and the land have to be respected and given a proper place in the society.

If it is not done so then it will be slowly destroyed.

Because of this the predecessors also will be rebuked.

Thus, the whole race will be destroyed.

The Ignorance: The earth is round in shape and it constantly rotates.

There is both darkness and brightness in the earth caused by the Sun. Since the earth in ordinary perception looks flat and stable, some people are in confusion. This is their ignorance.

The Punctuality: The value of punctuality is achieved through three things namely, when we are not hungry, when we have proper job, when we have good education. Out of these three if one is not there then there will not be punctuality.

The misapprehension: In the big world man is only a mustard seed. The superior of all this feeling is his

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

28

The Government: Though there are different types of government like, monarchism, democracy, dictatorship etc. Yet it is natural that the people will undergo the sufferings and sorrow.

The Law: The law and order is something that is made by these persons who are in authority and ruling the country that is made for their welfare. But it is in no way help the poor. It is just like the group of elephants who make their own rules and regulations in that place there is no respect for the cat.

The Children: The seed of the husband is sowed on the wire‟s land. Then it slowly grows up and becomes a child and drinks the milk of the mother. This child then grows with knowledge feelings and intelligence.

With the help of other beings the child grows in all aspects and bears fruit.

The Co-operation: A family is the result of the love and knowledge. The members of the family namely the husband, wife, and the children grow in knowledge and wisdom. They are not collapsed because of the difficulties and sufferings that come on the way.

Rather they walk forward with the help of each one and are a model of all families.

The Defense and Protection: Mother for the child, father for the virgin, husband for his wife, sons and daughters for the parents are defense. Even though a king has got all the powers, if he has lost his own strength all his other protections are of useless.

Bibliography: ngUQ;rpj;jpudhh;> cyfpay; EhW> Gspak;gl;b: kiwkiy mr;rfk;> 1982. “ngUQ;rpj;jpudhupd; tho;f;if tuyhW> nrd;id: njd;nkhop gjpg;gfk;

The State of Ruling: If the king wants to lead his people in a right path, he has to do well to them and has to shift their interest from evil to good them everything will go on well. But on the contrary if he threatens them of beat them or imprison them or give them seven punishments it is of no use.

THE REALISTS

The Government: If it is a monarchy the good government depends on his good heart and intention, if it is a democracy it depends on the knowledge of the people, if it is a dictatorship, it depends on the army etc.

SOCIOLOGY (FAMILY LIFE) Love between Man and Woman: The heart of the youngster is like a good land in which the thought and eyes are sowed like a seed. The dialogue of these lovers is manure for the seed. The bodily feelings and the heart level feelings are like the rain. The rebuke of the people against their love is like the sunlight for the seed. With all these nourishments the love grows like a bud. Then it gets strengthened and bears fruit.

The Husband: He is like a strong stick in which the wife and children grow. He is like a metal blade in a plough, which prepares the land for cultivation. He is like an umbrella in which his family members find shelter. He is like a ladder in which the family members reach the high place. He is the person who shares his joys and sorrows with his wife and children.

The Wife: The wife has got in herself five elements namely, knowledge, action, body, life and inner feelings. She makes her husband and the children happy in their own degrees. She does not faint or upset because of the weight of the family works, rather she takes up everything and does them well.

There was a time in Tamil nadu when philosophical speculation on God was stopped and many became realist and humanist. Thinking was more towards betterment of the people rather the some speculations. The ideas of philosophy were more people centered. It was simpler and was more appealing to the people. A few thinkers who influenced the people are given below.

PathuKootai Kalyana Sundaram Pathukottai Kalyana Sundram is basically humanist. He longed always for a better world. He never wanted to confuse people with great philosophical theories or ideas. He always wanted himself to be seen as a realist. He searched for truth and he expressed it through his poems, which was more accepted by people than any then philosophical thoughts. He never accepted the concept of fate. Even though if one feels that everything is determined he says that it can be changed by ones effort. He was convinced that one receives knowledge only from the society he lives. His stressed more on social change.

He says that when the tendency of giving grows in oneself then there will not be the tendency to grab from somebody. He always stressed on aspect of freedom.

Only man who is free can think. He always had the idea to see this world as one united community. He gave more stress towards human being. “For me there his reality other than human. Human has the power to invent and change. Human has the power over the nature. This is only possible only when he works, he can achieve the possibility. We can only gain through reality.” He was more anthropocentric. His way of expressing was more humanistic.

29

Jeevanandam He was not a speculative who sat in a corner to think about reality. He went to the people and he learned from them about the reality. Reality not filled with abstract ideas but filled with wisdom and truth received from the lives of the people. Jeeva was more attracted towards communistic views. Spread the message of fraternity, equality, and liberty where ever he went. He dreamt of a society, which promises every thing for everyone. He was a humanist. He uses to say, “God and religion is the cause of evils. A total revolution is the only solution. He gave more importance to individual freedom.

Singaravelar A rationalist, born in Madras - Mylapore.

From his from his young age onwards he was interested was on scientific invention. He loved Buddhism. He was a humanist and an atheist. “The word „god‟ had made man lazy…had made man to say that every thing is destined and made him to believe in the concept of fate…the concept of god was not used by anybody in the ancient days…primitive man never thought about god …when man‟s knowledge grew he was more interested to invent new things the concept of god was also such a crazy invention…in later days what he invented (concept of god) made him a slave to it which made man to move towards dusk.” He was against all, which was enslaving man superstition, religion, and caste. He stressed on the importance of equality and dignity. He was the first to start the labour movement in Tamil nadu. He based his knowledge more on sense knowledge. He was a realist.

Kuttusy Gurusamy An atheist who was a member of Periyar‟s self respect movement. He gave importance top matter. He said that in the world matter came first then only religion started in later period. “Religion is against knowledge … it always waged war against intellectual knowledge and development” this was Gurusamy‟s statement towards religion. He was against Brahmanism, which was the root cause of all social evil and practices. From him a spade is a spade. “Truth is one when it shows itself it is rejected by all” “the concern of the atheist is only about his humans … culture which influences man makes him a alien towards reality… he spends lakhs for the development of culture but not a single pie for his neighbour… culture is for man and man id not for culture…” he gave importance to knowledge and rationalism.

Mu. VARADHARASAN He was shortly called as Mu.Va. He was a professor in Tamil literature and a person whom we can believe to have had a comprehensive knowledge of

Tamil literature. He was a writer and a novelist. He is also a social and political thinker. Not only a mere thinker and writer but was also a philosopher. He was an existentialist like Sartre who philosophized on the present day need and on the freedom of the individual.

His novels and short stories also express his view and he used this mode to transmit his social and political thought.

In one of his novels he starts to explain about the future. He imagines a world where there equality, liberty and fraternity very much visible. In the novel he starts to put forward his idea as the protagonist looks at the problems of life, the inequality of the society, the cultures of the poor and still hopes for a better future. The protagonist and his friend had a lot of ideas about making the world into a better place in their college life but they were unable to do anything because of the struggles in the married life. Yet the author hopes for a better future. His hope takes the form of a dream.

The dream that he presents shows about the world in the year 2000 AD which he imagines. In this new world, there are no poor people and the act of begging is a great suffering that they cannot imagine.

The science and technology grows in such a way that anyone can interact with any other person in the world freely. The food, clothes and shelter is common. All have equal rights and duties. One of the important rules is “rule out the differences for all the people in the world have to live.” The concept of “The whole world is my country and all the people are my relatives” is very much visible throughout the novel.

The election in the news world is conducted in the same way as the ancient Tamil people used to conduct elections because it was the just method. The children in the school study the Guru Kula method of studies and learn the way of life rather than technical knowledge.

Bibliography: tujuhrd;. fp.gp.2000. nrd;is: ghhp epiyak;> 1963. tujuhrd;. jkpo; ,yf;fpa tuyhW. Gjnly;yp: rhfpj;jpa mf;fhnjkp> 1972.

GUNA The political philosophy of Guna is mainly based on the rights of the people. The rights collectively he calls them as „right to live‟. According to Guna the „right to live‟ has constituted the origin of a state. He says that when an ethnic race was not allowed to lead an independent life and when it was constantly bullied by another race the need for a „right to live‟ sets in. this theory of Guna is similar to the force theory of the German thinkers like Karl Marx and

30

Max Weber. The „right to live‟ according to Guna has a few basic elements. First of all is the need for territory.

When people are deprived of their territory it is equal to genocide. The second element in the „right to live‟ is the language. When the language of the people is adulterated the ethnic race begins to lack two important things gradually. One is the culture because the culture and language are closely knitted. The second thing that the race begins to lack is the history. Guna says “to destroy an ethnic race it is enough to do away with its history, in the same way to revive an ethnic race we need to revive its history. The gradual loses of history and culture results in disunity. The third and important element that constitutes the „right to live‟ is philosophy. The philosophy does not belong to the individual but to the land, the philosophy is a very important ingredient that differentiates a race from the other. The philosophy becomes the basis for religion and science.

Guna‟s political thought can be called also as „revival politics‟. He says that not only in the study of the way of oppression help the person to form a political thought but it is trying to bring forth the method of relieving the oppressed from the oppression we form a political thought. The „revival politics‟ of Guna has three phases, first to get back the land (kz;Zhpik), secondly to revive the language by which we revive history and culture, the third phase is to revive the philosophy (ts;Stj;jpd; tPo;r;rp). Guna in his life have lived his „revival politics‟, he has tried his level best to revive the history and philosophy of the Tamils through his books „Manurimai‟ and „Valluvathin Veelchi‟. He chose the Tamil race because according to him the ethnic race that has been subjugated for a long period of time is the Tamil race.

Bibliography: Fzh. tho;Thpik. ngq;fSH: jkpof Ma;tuz;> 1999.

Fzh.

Gjpa rka cUthf;fq;fs;. kz;Zhpik Kjw;ghfk;.

kUijad;> ,irAk; gpurhuKk;> nrd;id: kf,f ntspaPL> 2002.

jkpof

Ma;tuz;> 1999

Fzh.

by the Tamil people. These forward thinking likeminded people wanted to revive the original arts, culture, and literature of the Tamil people. Since the present generation of the Tamils do not bother about their own ethnicity and are proceeding toward slavery, they try to conscientise them towards freedom.

According to them the oppressors of the Tamil race are the Brahmins. So they are deadly against the adulteration of Tamil culture done by the Brahmins.

They even call the Brahmins as the Terrorists who have intruded into the land of the Tamils. The penetration of Brahmins is in all aspects. According to them the first redemption that is to be done is the redemption of culture and literature that is more basic for an ethnic race. This view is opposed by the communist who are in the politics as they say that this method is not communism. The political communists want to redeem the political power away from the Brahmins through which the other thing can be redeemed. But this welfarist front does not share this view because of the corrupted nature of these political communists. They even call them as „false‟ communists. The RSS movement of the Brahmins and the Globalization theory that supports the Brahmins are thoroughly criticized by this social movement. Even though these people are under the disguise of redeeming Tamil culture, they are basically communist. Yet they struggle for Tamil freedom. It is also difficult to find out their target group for whom they serve. Is it the Tamil people? Or the suppressed class? This question arises because some of the Tamil people have also joined the oppressing class and there are also people of other ethnic races within Tamilnadu who are suppressed. The answer that we can think about them is, so far they have worked for the suppressed Tamil people.

Tamil Nationalism ngq;fSH: jkpof

Ma;tud;> 2000.

THE PRESENT IDEOLOGIES There are some recent ideologies of some of the social movements which are not only worth mentioning but also they influence the present motion of thought in Tamilnadu. They are indifferent about politics and their influence is very subtle but always has an impact on the rural people.

The Ideology of Makkal Kalai Ilakiya Kalagam Makkal Kalai Ilakiya Kalagam is a welfarist social movement. People arts and literature front is the meaning of the name of the movement. Their basic ideology starts from oppression that is being undergone

“Nature is my friend; life is my philosopher; history is my guide”. This new ideologies has taken its own time to grow. An ideology based on ethnic rights.

They try to create a just society according to the context. The British regime which divided and formed India on the basis of religion did a mistake of including different nationalities into a country and brought it as one nation for their administration sake. The Tamil nationalists say that it is not a division that is just.

Because today we find the central Government is favouring on other ethnic groups and disregard the Tamils. The Tamil nationalist always claimed for a separate nation. It all started with Sankaralinganar who laid his life in a fast for change of name of the then Madras presidency to Tamilnadu. Even before this Maraimalaiadigalar started the Tamil movement which aimed at restoring Tamil language.

31

Aim Their main aim was to bring in selfconfidence within the Tamils. They wanted to restore into the minds of the people the love for the soil and a patriotic feeling towards the Tamil ethnicity. Through the feeling of one race they feel all other social evil can be destroyed.

Warning Many have a view think that Tamil nationalism is a fanatic movement or ideology. It is not so. Tamil nationalism is a call to love your own mother and not to consider or love any other woman as your mother. It is call towards self-respect rather than slavery. It is a call to demand for our own rights. It is call to give a true history. It is a call, which aims at true socialistic democracy. Any new ideologies will always be criticized for its betterment.

Tamil nationalism is a new ideology, which is making its way with all its difficulty. But one day it will achieve its goal.

Conclusion The philosophy of the Tamils that we have expounded starts with the Tholkappiyam and end with the present ideologies. The original religion of the Tamils and philosophy of the Siddhars are all denied part of the Indian philosophy. The way we chose the philosophers was those philosophers who have had Tamil origin and those who have written in Tamil. The only exception that we have given is to Thanthai Periyar because of the nature of his philosophy that was for the welfare the Tamil people. We know our shortcomings in bringing out this text. Our aim in bringing it out was to present the truth that there are also philosophers in Tamil Nadu. We did not want to present all the philosophies of the philosophers but to show the fact that they are also philosophers. Some of the text needs additions, some may need more research.

The philosophical quest of ours that we made into the Tamil literatures and poems did not end but it had just begun. The proceedings that we have done are like a drop in the ocean. We need time, money, and encouragement to make this research to be a fruitful one. We are well convinced that Tamil people need to revive its philosophy back and this work will help us somehow to do this. Each ethinic group has its own philosophy. We have given you a short presentation of the Tamil philosophers who the world has forgotten. This is only content a starting point. You can add, delete, find out the truth, and proclaim it to the world.

32

APPENDIX: We would like to tell you that our valluvars were one of the best astronomers in the world. Its said that inorder to remember the astronomical details like the positions of the stars and the planets they said lot of stories, which in the later days was misunderstood by the Brahmins who gave a different meaning to it. They thought all the characters in the stories were god and goddesses. This led to the birth to religion. This we have explained in the following chapter. gpd;dpizg;G fzpaHfs; tFj;j thdpay; ehs; Nfhs; epiyfis itj;J muritapy; MrPtfH (ajivikas / valluvam) fzpak; nrhy;yp te;jduhk;. ,tHfis Mrhd; ngUq;fzp vd;W jkpo; E}y;fs; Fwpg;gpLk;. njhy;fhg;gpaKk; ,tHfis jhgjH vd;W $Wk;. ,jw;F nghUs; $wpa ,sk;G+uzhH ,e;;j jhgjH vz;tif nray;;fis nra;jjhf $WthH mit ePuhly;> epyj;jpilf;fplj;jy;> NjhYLj;jy;> ril Gidjy;> vupNahk;gy;> Cuilahik> fhbYs;s czT Nfhly;> nja;t G+irAk; mjpjp G+irAk; (astral worship) mjpjp vd;gJ fzpaHfspd; cL topg;ghl;Lld; njhlHGilaJ.1 rq;f fhy muritapy; ,UngUk; mYtyHfs; ,Ue;jdH> xd;W fzp vd;W $wg;gLk; Mrhd; ngUq;fzpfs; ,th;fs; jiyik fzpaHfs; MthHfs; ,tHfs; fhyj;jpd; eyd; jPq;Ffis vLj;J $wpAk;> Mz;LfisAk; khjq;fisAk; fzf;fpl;ldH> ,tHfs; murHfSf;F mLj;j gjtpia tfpj;jdH> kw;nwhUtH ehopif fzpaHfs;. XU ehs; nghOjpy; Xiuia fzf;fpl;L kzpf;fzf;if Ma;e;J $WtH.2 thdpay; mwptHfs; G+rupfshfNt ,Ue;Js;sdH. Kjypy; fzpaj;Jtk; (astrology) thdpaYf;Fk; (astronomy) cs;s NtWghl;il ghHg;Nghk;. thdpay; vd;gJ xU mwptpay; ,J thd; Nfhs;fspd; ,af;Fepiyfis gw;wp $WtJ. fzpak; vd;gJ ehs;kPd; Nfhs; kPd; epiyfis itj;J ,d;dpd;d fhuzj;jhy; cd; tho;ifapy; ,J epfo;e;Js;sJ vd;W $Wk; xU nrhj;ij nfhs;if. thdpay; mwpT tsHe;j gpd;Ng fzpak; te;jpUf;f Ntz;Lk;.3 mwptpay; fz;Ndhf;Fila MrPtfHfs; Vd; fzpaj;jpy; ,wq;fpdH? vd;gJ njupatpy;iy. fzpaj;ij gw;wp MAk; Kd; thdpaYf;J nry;Nthk;.

MrPtfHfs; ,aw;ifapy; XU #ow;rp ,Ug;gjhf vz;zp Co;nfhs;ifia tbj;jdH. Ntshz; njhopYf;F ,d;dyhf ,Ue;jJ gUtq;fspd; khw;wq;fs;> mJ ve;j fhyj;jpy; vij gapup;l Ntz;Lk; vd;W $Wtjw;F ,aw;ifapy; cs;s Row;rpia vLj;J $w Kw;gl;l mrPtfk; thdpaypy; ,wq;fpaJ.4 thdpay; mwpit je;jtHfs; ahH? ghHg;gdHfspd; fiyNa thdpay; vd;W epidg;Nghk;> Mdhy; mJ cz;ik my;y. ghHg;gdHfs; Mf;fpaNjh fzpaNk> jtpu thdpay; my;y. ghHgg;dHfs; thdpaypYk; fzpaj;jpYk; Kd;Ndhbfs; ,y;iy ,th;fSf;F Kd;Ng rpukzHfs; ,ij gofpte;jdh;5 ,q;F rpukzHfs; vd;W Fwpg;gpLtJ mrPtfHfisj;jhd;. cyfpNyNa fzpaj;jpy; rpwe;jtHfs; jkpou;fs; jhd; vd;W X. epA+nfghntH (o. Neugebsuer) $WthH.6 vgpNdrH GUfr; (Ebenezer burgess) vd;Dk; kw;nwhU thdpayhH thdpay; mwpT fpof;F Njrq;fspypUe;Jjhd; Nkw;F Nehf;fp nrd;wJ vd;W $WthH.7 thdpay; mwpit cyFf;F je;jtHfs; jkpoHfs; jhd;> ek;kplk; ,Ue;J ,ij fw;Wf; nfhz;l ghHg;gdh;fs;> jhq;fs; jhd; ,ij cyFf;F je;jtHfs; vd;W ngha; ciug;gH.

njhy;;fhg;gpaj;jpy; tUk; thdpay; $Wfs;

1

Fzh> ts;Stk; 115.

Rg;ukz;ad;> rq;ffhy tho;tpay; (nrd;id: epA+nrQ;Rhp Gf; mT];> 1986) 130 3 Madhava Rao, Hindu Astrology (Trichinopoly: Indian Catholic Truth Society, 1922) 3 4 Fzh> ts;Stk; 127 5 Madhava Rao, Hindu Astrology 3.

6 Basham (ed.), A Cultural History of India (Great Britian: Clarandon Press, 1975) 151-152.

7 Subhash Kak, The Astronomical Code Of Rig Vedas (New Delhi: Adity Prakasham, 1994) 5.

2

33

fof E}y;fs; ekf;F ,Ue;j thdpay; Gyikiag;gw;wp $Wk;. jkpoHfs; ehs; Nfhs;fs;Ak;> VO fpoikfs;> XiufisAk;;> ngUk;nghoJ (seasons) fisAk; rpW nghOijgw;wpAk; (division of days) fzf;fpl;lduhk;> ,J ek; thdpay; mwpit Gyg;gLk;> thd; mwpit gw;wpa thdE}Yk; ek;kplk; ,Ue;Js;sJ. mJ fly; Nfhs;fshy; mopTw;wd.;8 gjpw;Wg;gj;jpy; tUk; Fkl;^Hf; fz;zdhH vOjpag;ghl;by; jkpoH fz;l thdpay; Gyik tpsq;Fk; 'ehs; Nfhbq; fz; QhapW fidaoy; ie;njhUq;F GzHe;j tpsf;fj;jida" mjhtJ ehs;kPdf ; Sk;> Nfhs;fSk;> jpq;fSk;> QhapWk;> fidaoYk; Mfpa ahTk; xUq;Fw NrHe;jjhy; tUk; xspia cilatd; vd;W nghUs;gLk;> ,jpy; jpq;fisAk; Qhapw;iwAk; ehs;kPdf ; shNth Nfhs;fshfNth nfhs;shky; ,Ue;jJ tpsq;Fk;. thd E}y; mwpQDf;F jkpopy; fzpad; vd;W ngaH (xg;G: fzpad; G+q;FdwdhH> gf;FLf;if ed; fzpadhH). fzpad; fhyj;ij fzpg;gtd;. gz;ila jkpo;ehl;by; ts;StNu ngUk; ghYk; fzpauhfj; ,Ue;Js;sH> fzpaj;jpYk; thdpaypYk; ty;ytuhf ,Ue;Js;sdH.9 thdpy; cs;s cLf;fisAk; ehs; kPdf ; isAk; vspa Kiwapy; Qhgfj;jpy; itj;Jf;nfhs;sTk; kf;fSf;F GupAk; gb $wTk;> thd; Nfhs;fisAk; cLf;fisAk; khe;j cUtq;fshf;fp mtw;wpd; epfo;Tfis fl;Lf; fijfhsf Gide;J vLj;jpak;gpdH. ghHg;gdHfs; ,tHfsplk; ,ij miuAk; FiwAkhf fw;wf;nfhz;L> ts;StHfs; Gide;j thdpay; fijfis cz;ikahdit vd;W epidj;J> mitfis flTshf ghtpj;j epiyNa ngUe;nja;t topg;ghbw;F mbNfhs; ,l;lJ.10 ,j;jifa njhd;kq;fis (Guhzq;fs;) cz;ik vd;W $wp tsHe;j nfhs;ifNa ,e;J kjk;. ,Uf;F Ntjk; vd;gJ xU KOKjy; thdpau; E}y; vd;ghHfs; mdhy; mJ cz;ik ,y;iy ts;Sth;fs; Gide;jpUe;j thdpay; fl;Lfijfspd; nkhop ngaHf;fg;gl;l njhFg;Ng ,Uf;F Ntjk;.11 fsj;jpy; ,wq;FNthk; Qhapwpd; ngaw;rpiaAk; fhyj;ij fzf;fplTk; xU Fr;rpia el;Litj;J mjd; epoiy fzf;fpl;ldH> tpOk; epoiy 'rhia" vd;wdH. Fr;rpia tpOtd;Fr;rp vd;wdH. G+kpia Rw;wp xU thd;Nfhs; (celestial sphere) ,Ug;gjhf fw;giz nra;J nfhz;L G+kpia ikakhf itj;J nfhz;L jiyf;F Nky; thd;Nfhis njhLk; xU Gs;spia 'cr;rk;" (zenith) vd;wdH. ,e;j thd;nfhis ,uz;lhf gpupf;Fk; ,lj;ij (glk;: rk) thd;eLtiu vd;wdH (celestial equator). Qhyj;ij QhapW Rw;Wk; ghijia Qhapw;Wkz;byk; (glk;: fd) (ecliptic) vd;wdH. thd;eLtiuAk; Qhapw;Wkz;byk; ntl;Lk; ,lj;ij> tpOf;fs; vd;wdH. xd;W Nkoj;jpYk; kw;nwhd;W JiyapYk; tpOkhk; ,J KiwNa khHr;rp 21 (NkotpO) nrg;jk;gH 21 (JiytpOtk;) ,e;j ,U Gs;spfspy; QhapW tUifapy; ,uTk; gfYk; rkkhf ,Uf;Fk;.12 (gpd;dpidg;G ghHf;f) jpq;fspd; ngaHfshy; khj msitAk;> (mjhtJ tsHgpiw - tsHgpiw fhy msT) Qhapw;wpd; Row;rpia itj;J Mz;lsitAk; fzf;fpl;ldH. QhapW xU Xiuapy; ,Ue;E kw;nwhU Xiuf;F nrd;W> jpUk;gTk; Jtf;f epiyf;F tUtij ( Nkoj;jpypUe;J Nkoj;jpw;F jpUk;GtjHf;F) gd;dpU khjk; vLf;Fkhk;. QhapW jq;fp ngaUk; Xiuia KiwNa Nkok;> tpil> flfk;> klq;fy;> fd;dp> Jiy;> esp> rpiy> Rwtk;> Fk;gk;> kPdk; vd;W ngaupl;ldH. ,e;j 12 XiufspYk; nkhj;jk; 27 ehs; kPd;fs; cs;sJ xU ehis mjd; ehs; kPdf ; is itj;Nj fzf;fpl;ldH.13 Xt;ntU Xiuf;Fk; 2.5 ehs; kPdf ; s; cz;L. ehs; kPdf ; s; KiwNa Gutp> mLg;Gf;nfhz;il> Muy;> rfL> khd;wiy> %jpiu> fio> fhw;Fsk;> fl;nrtp> nfhLE}fk;> fiz> cj;juk;> Itpuy;> mWit> tpsf;F> Kwk;> Klg;gid> Jsq;nfhsp> FUF> cilFsk;> filf;Fsk;> Kf;Nfhy;> fhf;if> nrf;F> ehop> KuR> Njhzp vd;gd.14 ,e;j fhyfzf;Ffis Ma;e;J ehs;fhl;bfis (Ie;jpuk; / gQ;rhfk;) vOjpdH. ,j;jifa ehs;fhl;bfspy; vl;L tif khjq;fis fzf;fpl;ldH mit: cth - khjk;> QhapW - cL khjk;> tpahod; khjk;> jpq;fs; - QhapW khjk;> njhy;fhg;gpa Mz;Lkhjk;> kiyahs (guRuhk) khjk;> jpq;fs; cLkhjk;> ntg;gkz;bykhjk;.15 cth - khjk; ,J vspa Kiw fhy fzpg;G. xU fhUth (mkhthir) ehspypUe;J mLj;j fhUth tiuapyhd khjk; ,J. ,jd; ePl;lk; 29 ehs; 12 kzp 44 epikak; 2.7 nehbfshFk;.16 8

NjtNea ghthzH> xg;gpad; nkhopE}y;; (nrd;id: jkpo;kz; gjpg;gfk;> 2001)1: 222.

NjtNea ghthzH> xg;gpad; nkhopE}y;; 225.

10 Fzh> kz;Zhpik (ntq;fSH: jkpof Ma;tud;> 2000) 290.

11 Fzh> ts;Stk; i.

12 Fzh> ts;Stk; 143-144.

13 Fzh> ts;Stk; 259.

14 NjtNea ghthzH> xg;gpad; nkhopE}y;; 222.

15 Fzh> ts;Stk; 149.

16 Fzh> ts;Stk; 150.

9

34

QhapW cL khjk; ,J ehs;kPdf ; s; topNa QhapW ngaUk; fhyj;ij gw;wp $WtjhFk;.

6kzp 9 epikak; 9.6 nehbfshFk;.17

,jd; ePl;lk; 365 ehs;

tpahod; khjk; xH Xiuia rhHe;j Qhapw;iw tpahod; Rw;Wk; fhy epl;lNk tpahod; Mz;L. Qhapw;iw Rw;w 12 Mz;Lfs; vLf;Fkhk;.

tpahod;

jpq;fs; - QhapW khjk; tl ,e;jpatpYk;> njYq; fd;dlj;jpy; khjf;fzf;Nf jpq;fs; - QhapW khjk;. jpq;fs; Mz;by; mlq;Fk; gd;dpU fhUthf;fSk; gd;dpU nts;Sthf;fSk; 354 ehl;fs; MFk;> ,J Qhapw;W Mz;L fzf;if tpl 11 ehl;fs; FiwAk;. ,jdhy; %d;whz;LfSf;F xU Oiw xU kpif khjj;ij NrHj;jdH.18 Kjypy; jpq;fs; Mz;il gad;gLj;jpa ghHgdHfs;> mJ Ntshz;ik tho;Tf;F nghUe;jtpy;;iy vd;W tUe;jpNa jpq;fs; QhapW Mz;il ifahz;ldH. ,jpy; 11 ehl;fs; Fiwgl;ld. Mjyhy; gUtfhyq;fis ghHj;J tpijf;fTk; mWf;fTk; Ntz;bAs;s Ntshz;ik njhopypy; Fog;gq;fs; NeHe;jjhk;. mjyhy; NjtHfs; fUjp te;j gUtfhyj;jpy; mRuHfs; gapiu mWj;jduhk; vdr; rjgj gpuhkzk; Xntd mOjjhk;19 ,J jpq;fs; ehs; fhl;bapypUe;j FiwfisNa fhl;Lkhk;. ,jdhy; kpif Mz;il GFj;jpduhk;.20 ,JNt jpq;fs; QhapW khjkhdJ. njhy;fhg;gpa Mz;L xU kiof;fhyk; Jtq;fp mLj;j kiof;fhyk; tiuapyhd fhy ntspia fzf;fpl;ldH. ,J klq;fy; Jtq;fp flfj;jpy; KbAk;. ,tHfs; fhH fhyj;ij fzf;fpl;ldH.21 kiyahs Mz;L ,J JiytpOit Mz;bd; njhlf;f ehshf itj;J fzf;fpl;ldh;.22 jpq;fs; cL khjk; xU ehs;kPdpypUe;J kw;Nwhh; ehs;kPDf;F jpq;fs; ngaUk; fhyj;ij Fwpf;Fk;. ,jd; khj fzf;F 27 ehs; 7 kzp 43 epikak; 11.5 nehb. ntg;gkz;by khjk; ,J jpq;fs; NkotpOtpypUe;J NkotpOtpw;Nf kPSk; fhy ,ilntspNa ntg;gkz;by khjk;. ,jd; khj fzf;F 27 ehs; 7 kzp 43 epikak; 4.7 nehb.23

thdpaNy ngUe;nja;t topghL ,Uf;F Ntjk; $Wk; nja;tq;fnsy;yhk; thdpaiy mbg;gilahf itj;J Gidag;gl;l fl;LfijNs> ,itNa njhd;kq;fs; (Guhzq;fs;) Mfpd> gy nja;tq;fis mRufs; vd;W $Wtij itj;J ghhf;Fk; NghJ ,it njd;dfj;jpy; Njhd;wpajhf ,Uf;f Ntz;Lk; vd;W $WtH. rpy thdpay epfo;Tfis gw;wp ghHg;Nghk;> mjd; njhd;kq;fs; vd;dntd;Wk; ghHg;Nghk;. jpUkhy; tpz;L 17

Fzh> Fzh> 19 Fzh> 20 Fzh> 21 Fzh> 22 Fzh> 23 Fzh> 18

ts;Stk; ts;Stk; ts;Stk;; ts;Stk; ts;Stk; ts;Stk; ts;Stk;

150.

156.

159.

160.

168.

169.

170.

35

QhapW kz;byj;jpy; #w;wp tUk; Qhapw;iw jhd; tpz;Lthf (jpUkhyhf) fw;g;gpj;jdH. 24 QhapW tpOk; ,U tpOtq;fis tpop Fwptiue;J fzpaHfs; Fwpj;jdH. ,e;j tpopf;Fwp jpUkhiyAk; Fwpf;Fk;. tpop - tpO vd;Dk; jkpo; nrhw;fNs rq;fjj;jpy; tp/o;Z vd;whfp cs;sJ> Qhapw;wpd; vOif> cr;rpnryT> tpOif Mfpa Ke;epiy ,af;fq;fSf;F 'tpz;L" vd;W nghUs;gLk;> jpUkhiyAk; tpz;L vd;W $WtH.25 jpUkhy; Kd;wbahy; tpz;Zyfk; nrd;wjhf ,Uf;F Ntjj;jpy; tUk; ghly; Qhapw;wpd; ngaw;rpiaNa Fwpf;Fk;. njhy;fhg;gpa khj fzf;Fgb fhHfhyNk Jtf;fkhf itj;jhy;> Jiy tpOtpypUe;J Jtq;fp njd;nfhbd; (gdpKlq;fy;) Rwtk; tiu Xub> njd;nfhbypUe;J NkotpOtpd; CNl Ntdpy;Klq;fy; miltJ ,uz;lhtJ mb.

Ntdpy;Klq;fypUe;J jpUk;gTk; Jiyf;F nry;tNj %d;whk; mb. ,g;ngaHr;rpia cUtfg;gLj;jpNa Qhapwhfpa jpUkhy; Kd;wbahy; tpz;Zyfk; nrd;wjhf ,Uf;F Ntjk; $Wk;. jpUNthzk; vd;Dk; ehs;kPidj; jpUkhypd; ehs;kPdhf jkpoHfs; nfhz;ldH. ,J fOF tbtpyhdJ MjyhNy fOif jpUkhypd; thfdkhf nfhz;ldH.26 fgpyH - cUj;jpuH - rptd; rptid %jpiu (jpUthjpiu) (orionisis) ehs; kPNdhl ,izj;J 'Mjpiu Kjy; td; vd;gH" Mjpiu jpUtpoh ,ijNa czHj;Jk;. jpUthjpiu ehs; kPd; jPr;RlH; Nghy; rpte;J fhzg;gLk;. ,jdhNyNa rptid rpte;j NkdpNahd; vd;wdH. thdpay; tUk; nrk;G+j tifia NrHe;j fgpiy (rptg;G) epwj;jpyhd 11 ngUk; cLf;fNs 'cUj;jpuH" vd;Wk; fgpyH vd;Wk; fij Gide;jdH. cUj;jpuHfSf;F jiytH cUj;jpudhk; (rudra)> cUj;jpukPdf ; s; vy;yhk; nre;epwkhf (red giant) tifia NrHe;jit. ,jd; jiy nja;tk; cUj;jpudhk;. Nre;epwkhd kPdf ; is vy;yhk; cUj;jpuh vd;W mioj;jdH> gpd;dhypy; ,t; cUj;jpuHfspd; nrk;ikia $wpf;Fk; rptd; Mdhdhk;. cUj;jpuid xU mRuhdhf ,Uf;F Ntjj;jpy; $Wtij itj;J ghHf;Fk; NghJ ts;StHfs; fw;gpj;j xU thdpay; $whf ,Uf;fyhk;. cUj;jpuHfs; kwpkhd; (orion) vd;Dk; cLNt kpfTk; njhd;ikapy; fz;l cLthk; ,t;Tlit rptNdhL cwt gLj;jpAs;sdH. ,e;j cLtpy; cs;s khd;wiy (位 - orion) Kf;NfhztbthdJ ,ij #ykhf cUtfg;gLjpdH. kwpkhd; cLfs; nrk;G+j tifia rhHe;jit. khd;wiyapd; jiynja;tk; jpq;fs;> cLf;fs; mlHe;j ghy;ntspahfpa thd; fq;if khd;wiyapy; ,Uf;Fk;;. ,e;j khd;wiy gw;wpa thd; Fwpg;GfNs rptdpd; jiyapy; cs;s gpiwAk; fq;ifAk; mike;j fl;L fijf;F tpsf;fk;. kwpkhd; cLf;$l;lj;jpy; mUfpy; tpil ,Ue;jhy; (fhis khl;il) ,ij rpt thfdk; Mf;fpdH. gdpfhyj;jpy; %jpiuAk; khd;wiyAk; fj;jpupAk; kpfj;njspthf njupAk; ,jdhy; rptd; gdpkiyapy; tho;e;jhd; vd;Wk; $wpdH. rptd; vd;gJ gpd;dhypy; tbf;fg;gl;lJ.27 KUfd; Muy; ehs;kPd>; VO cLf;fisf; nfhz;lJ. ,jpy; nghJthf MW cLfs; kl;Lk; jhd; fz;fSf;F njupAk;. ,ij fhHjpif ngz;BH vd;Wk; KUfdpd; jha; vd;Wk; $WtH> KUfDf;F MWjiyfs; vd;Wk; $WtH. Jiy Xiuapy; Kwk; jiykPd; cs;sJ> MW kPd;fSs;s Kwj;ij KUfd; vd;wdH. Kwj;jpd; jiynja;tk; KUfd;.28 fly; Fbj;j mfj;jpad; mUfd; ehtha; (agro navis) cLf;$l;lj;jpNyNa xsp kpf;f mfj;jpad; (canopus) vOe;j cld; 'miy Xa;e;j fly; mikjpahtijf;" Fwpf;Ffkhk;. Mfj;jpakPd; Qhapw;iw Nehf;fp vOtJ> $jpHfhyj;jpd; (autum) tUifia Fwpf;Fkhk;. fhHfyjjpd; Kbit Rl;Lk; td;dk; thd; fliy mfj;jpad; Fbj;J tpl;lhd; vd;Dk; fl;Lfij mij $Wkhk;.29 ,e;jpud; ,e;jpuidAk; tpupj;jpuidAk; ,Uf;FNtjk; xd;whfNt $Wk;; tpupj;jpud; cUtfg;gLj;jg;gl;l esp XiuFs; mlq;Fk; Nfl;ilapd; jiyj;nja;tk; ,e;jpud;. ,e;jpud; tpupj;jpuidAk;> mfpiaAk; nfhd;whdhk;. mfp vd;gJ njd;ghk;ig (hydra) Fwpf;Fk; xU cUtfNk. ,t;TL kio ehspy; 24

Fzh> Fzh> 26 Fzh> 27 Fzh> 28 Fzh> 29 Fzh> 25

kz;Zhpik 291. ts;Stk; 201. ts;Stk; 195. ts;Stk; 200-205. ts;Stk; 235. ts;Stk; 250.

36

njhLthdk; NkNy vOk;.30 tpupj;jpud; mNj cLtpd; ,d;NdhU cUtfk;. ,e;jpud; tpupj;jpuid ntl;b vwpant mtd; gpbj;J itj;jpUe;j kio ePnuy;yhk; G+kpf;F te;jjhk;.31 ,J thdpay; Fwpg;G. ,e;jpud; vd;gj Ntdpy;Klq;fypy; QhapW tpOk; thd; epfo;it Fwpf;fNt $wg;gl;lJ. tpupj;jpud; cs;s Jiy Xiuapy; cs;s xU cL $l;lk;. ,e;j ghk;gpd; eLg;gFjpf;F NkNy Ntdpy;Klq;fy; ,Ue;jJ. Ntdpy;Klq;fy; (#d; 21) md;W QhapW tUifapy; njd; Nkw;F gUt kio nga;Ak;. ,J flfj;jpy; Jtq;fp Jiyapy; KbAk;. ,J njd;f #oiyg;gw;wp $Wtjhy; ,Uf;F Ntjj;jpy; $wg;gLk; ,e;jpud; tpupj;jpud; fij ts;Stu;fshy; Gidag;gl;l xU fijahf ,Uf;fyhk;.32 ehs;kPd;fisAk; Nfhs;kPdfisAk; mtw;wpd; epfo;Tfis epidtpy; itj;J nfhs;s Gidag;gl;l fijfs; vy;yhk; ngUnja;t topghLf;F toptFj;Js;sij rpy ,q;F $wpAs;Nsd;. thdpay; mwpT njhd;W njhl;Nl ek;kplk; ,Ue;Js;sJ> ,ij gyu; jk; Ra ey Nghf;fhf nfLj;Js;sdH vd;gNj cz;ik ts;StHfSk; ghzHfSk; jhk; fz;lwpe;j thdpay; epfo;Tfis fijfshfTk; ghl;Lf;fshfTk; $wpdH ,j;jifa fijfshy; te;jNj njhd;kq;fs;. ek;kplk; fsthba mwptpay; Nfhl;g;ghLfis vy;yhk; kjnfhs;iffshf;fp ekf;Nf filtpupj;Js;sdH gpuhkzHfs;. ,jdhy; jhd; Ma;thsH Re;juuhR ,Uf;F Ntjk; xUtif jkpo; gQ;rhNk vd;W $wpAs;shH> ,e;J kjk; vd;gJ ntWk; thdpay; gw;wpa Fwpg;G vd;gJ Kd;Ng njupe;jpUe;jhy; ,e;J kj jiynaOj;J NtW itifahf ,Ue;jpUf;Fk; vd;ghH.33

30

Fzh> ts;Stk; 178.

Rig Veda (Great Britian: Penguine Books, 1984) 148.

32 Fzh> ts;Stk; 178-179.

33 Fzh> ts;Stk; 250.

31

37

38