#6B8E23
Ain- kurunuru. Five hundred small poems
Nagaswamy R
2014-Feb-22
Ainkurunuru is a n anthology of 500short verses of the Sangam age, dealing with five classified life style of the people in the Aham genre of kâmam/Śringāra rasa and is a very interesting collection from some points of Tamil studies. The work has been published by the great doyen of Tamil literature, dr. U.V.Swaminatha Ayyar in th year 1903 from manuscripts. Seven reprints of the work has appeared since then which shows its importance. Dr.Ayyar has given valuable information about the work and its publication.
The length of the verses range from three to six and are divided into five tinais, like Marutam, Neital , Kurunci, Pālai, and Mullai. There is no logic in the order of this arrangement says Dr Ayyar, though some logic may be attributed to the first three tinais but it means nothing. Each tinai has one hundred verses each on one theme and sung by one poet. Thus five poets have sung these whole group. Their names are
- Oram pokiyār
- Ammuvanār
- Kapilar
- Otal Ā ntaiyār
- Peyanār
The work collected as an anthology by one Kudalur kilār was known as an Expert in Pulatturai, meaning dance (as known from Pulaneri valakkam) at the instance of the Chera ruler Yānaikkat cēy Mantaram Ceral Irumporai, a king of the Sangam age. Evidently the anthology has come into existence by the 2nd cent CE. However it has a prayer addressed to Siva at the beginning by Perum devanār, who sang Mahābhārata in Tamil Besides Aingkurunuru, Perumdevanār has added prayer song to Ahanānūru, Puranānūru, Narrinai, and Kuruntokai, all anthologies of Sangam age. The last one is dedicated to Murugan, the one in Narrinai is dedicated to Vishnu, and the other three to Siva. Interestingly he has sung these poems in the same meter and number of lines as the respective poems in the anthology. The poem in this collection is in three lines.
The king Māntaram Cheral Irumporai was a king of the Sangam age and is considered as one of the kings of the 3rd Sangam age. He is sung by this poet Kudalur kilār. It is seen from a Puranānūru poem that he lost a battle with the Pāndya , the victor of Talai- ālangānam and remained imprisoned. But he managed to escape from the prison and returned to his kingdom and assumed his original power an event mentioned by one Kurung kōliyūr kilār. The Pāndya who imprisoned him was an early king of the sangam age as he was sung by poets like Paranar, Māngudi kilār. Nakkīrar, idaikkunrūr kilār, Madurai Kanakāyanār, kalladanār and others. It seems he was a great conquerer who defeated and captured the wealth of many kings but when imprisoned those who lost their wealth were happy but their joy was short lived. By a clever manipulation the Chera escaped from the prison and returned to his rule like a great elephant which entered into a trap and fell into a huge pit but soon destroying the pit walked out of it.
Later Kūdalur kilār the compiler of the Aingkurunuru sang a poignant poem on him whhch is included in the Puranānūru collection as no 229. The beginning of the poem gives some astronomical data and says on a day when the star Uttaram reached its height ( was in conjunction with the full moon) and started moving away the poet noticed a shooting star falling from the sky. It was a bad omen foretelling some terrible calamity for the ruling king. He and his relatives were worried anticipating some untoward event likely to fall. On the seventh day as expected he heard the shocking news that his king was dead. His elephant fell dead with its trunk lying motionless on the ground. His war drum was torn. His royal parasol scattered with its pole cut to pieces. His speeding horses lay motionless. The king had died leaving his dear queens and other maids weeping. The celestial women caught hold of him and were carrying him to heaven. The Poet and his followers could not forget this shocking scene
The poem does not say in clear terms how the king died but indicates that he met with heroic death in a battle for he was carried to heaven by divine damsels, a faith that heroes on death in battle reach heaven accompanied by apsaras. So it is evident the Chera Mantaram Cheral died in a battle. The poet who sang this event was the same who compiled this Aingkurunūru anthology. As it was commissioned by this king, this anthology should have been compiled before his death.
We have seen this anthology consists of .500 verses divided into five groups of hundred verses each, dealing with five tinais Marutam, Neital, Kurunci, Pālai, and Mullai landscape. These groups of 100 each are further formed by ten poems of Ten verses each. So they are called "tens" (Pattu").each Pattu makes use of one poetic device of word which is repeated in all the ten verses for example one ten uses the word peacock mayil. That is repeated in all the ten verses; similarly another ten uses the word parrot in all the ten verses, a third uses the word seagull in all ten verses; a fourth uses monkey in all ten verses and a fifth uses pig in all the ten verses. This device is t o compare the behavior or character of the hero with that of the bird or animal in a subtle way. Virtually these form a method of simile Upama a mode of expression. It is called in poetics an Alamkāra and as it is not explicit comparison but a very subtle comparison it is called in Tamil poetics as "Ul-urai uvamam". Uvamam is Upamā of the Sanskrit tradition.
It is important to note that Bharata in his Nātya sāstra deals with poetic embellishment under Upamāna and recommends employment of birds like peacock, parrot, seagull, and animals like monkey, pig etc for comparison. It is known all the Tamil sangam poems were based on the grammar Tolkāppiyam. I have shown that Tolkāppiyam follows Bharata . This group of Aingkurunuru poems are excellent example of this Bharatan tradition.
Besides this alamkāra tradition, the Aingkurunuru poems also employ another device of addressing either " mother", or foster mother, or the girl companion of the heroine or a wandering Bānan, in all the ten verses. Even some actions like "coming" varavu etc employed in similar fashion. in this sense this Aingkurunuru collection is an interesting anthology in Tamil sangam group.
Aingkurunūru 3
All the ten verses in the first ten of Aingkurunuru begins with the Words " Vāli Ādan Vāli Avini" I.e. hail Adan Vāli Avini" Adan is a family title of the Cheras; Avini is his personal name. So the first ten verses praise the Chera "Adan Avini" evidently he was the patron of first ten poems dealing with Marutam, in this collection. It is possible that either he is identical with Mantaran Cheral Irumporai or a close relative for the first ten appears as the vālttu of the whole anthology.
There is a tradition in Tamil literature, that the name of neither the hero nor the heroine should be mentioned in the Aham group of poems. So Adan Avini could not be the hero of the poem, but the patron off the poet Oram pokiyār.
This shows there were patrons in the sangam age who encouraged poets to write such creative poems, which could be sung and danced by dancing girls to be witnessed by the kings, and chieftains during their erotic sports in what is called Pannai in the Porul adhikaaram of Tolkāppiyam. Thus we can say all the Aham poems of the Sangam age , are not spontaneous poems but structured classical poems conforming to grammatical formats based on Tolkāppiyam . Tolkāppiyam as has been shown by me, followed Bharata's Nātya sāstra. These poems were composed by poets for Pannai vilaiyāttu of Meypāttiyal.
Secondly the Aingkurunuru anthology was compiled by Kūdalur Kilār, who was said to be a master of "Pulatturai murriya" , dance tradition. As mentioned earlier the first line of the first ten poems starts as Vāli Ādan Vāli Avini" which means hail Âdan hail Avini" a vālttu Pādal.
The second line of all these ten verses are as follows
- 1. Let paddy pop up in plenty and gold available in good quantity.
- 2. Let the fields grow plenty of crops and seekers of gift come in large numbers
- 3. Let milk be overflowing, and carts be many
- 4. Let the opponents be reduced to eat dry hay but Brahmins learn Vredas
- 5. Let there be no starvation, and diseases disappear
- 6. Let the righteous law prosper and unjust be eliminated
- 7. Let the rulers rule justly and let there be no looting
- 8. Let the king lessen the opponents and rule for long years
- 9. Let the good things grow and evil disappear,
- 10. Let there be plenty of rains and fertility increase
All these prayers remind us Jnanasambandar 'savers " Vâlka antanar vânavar an inam"
The most interesting point is that these prayers were made by the heroine.in all the ten verseseo there is no doubt that this first ten appears as vālttu for the whole anthology.
This anthology has a total of 501 verses. Two verses in the middle are missing.the last ten has only five verses. There are other five others which see to be some other poems of the same format but included at the end by the Editor.