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| Sunday, 15 September 2002 |
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Ancient Tamil society as reflected in Sangam literature by ASIFF HUSSEIN The Sangam age which relates to a period extending from about the 3rd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D. is widely regarded as the 'golden age' of the Tamils. The heroic poetry of this period which is replete with detailed descriptions of the Tamil country of South India, its kings and chieftains and the loves and wars of its various peoples has also preserved for us some insights into the Tamil society and culture of the time.
Among the epic Sangam works may be included the Silappadigaram, a moving classic assigned to Prince Ilangovadigal and the Manimegalai, another poetic classic assigned to his contemporary Sittalai Sattanar. Other notable Sangam age works include the Ettuttogai or Eight Anthologies, Pattuppattu or Ten Idylls and the Akananuru and Purananuru, anthologies of poems composed at different times by various poets. These works may be assigned to the early centuries of the Christian era. The Tolkappiyam, a grammatical treatise by Tolkappiyanar may however be assigned to an earlier period and may even perhaps go back to as early as the 3rd century B.C. All these works reflect to a large extent the life as it was lived about 2000 years ago in Tamilakam, the ancient Tamil country of South India, which according to Prince Ilangovadigal, the author of the Silappadigaram, was bounded by the sea on the east and west, Kanya Kumari on the south and the Tirupati hills on the north. Love life The Tamil women of the Sangam age seem to have enjoyed considerable freedom in choosing their mates, as in other matters. The women do not seem to have been rigidly secluded and participated actively in the social life of the community. This was especially evident in the rural areas where women worked in the fields and gardens along with men, sharing their hardships. This contribution made by women naturally enhanced their social status so that they were not looked down upon as a liability as was the case with most nations of the time. V. Vanakasabhai in his renowned treatise on Sangam age culture 'The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago'(1904) observes that owing to the freedom enjoyed by women, it was possible for young people to court each other before marriage. Nor was it considered improper for a young lady to elope with her lover, provided they returned to their relations afterwards and entered into a married life. "Love, and not the greed of gold, ruled the court, the camp and the grove in those days; and the behaviour of the sexes towards each other among the Tamils was far more polite and courteous than it is at the present day. It is no matter for wonder, therefore, that much of the poetry of this ancient period treats of love, and that rules for writing amatory poems were already in use". An important work that provides us an insight into the love life of the ancient Tamils is the Kalit-togai which tells of the maid who acts as a go-between between her mistress and her suitor, of the lovers meeting in a grove outside the village and of elopements. The work has also preserved for us some interesting words of a lovelorn maiden: "Many a day has a youth, decked with pretty garlands and armed with a bow, appeared before me, as if he was chasing some game, and gazed at me long and fondly, and vanished from my sight without uttering a word. The thought of him has driven sleep from my eyes, and I am pining with grief. He speaks not of his love, except with his eyes, and I being a woman am too shy to let him know how deeply I love him. Unable to bear the pangs of a secret love I did an act of which I am ashamed. One day while I was seated on a swing by the side of our farm, he appeared before me as usual, and I called out to him and said "Sir, swing me a little while". "I will do so, sweet maid", replied he, and was swinging me, when I pretended to slip from the swing, and fell on his shoulder. He caught me up in his arms at once, and I lay on his shoulder as if in a swoon. He held me fast and when at last I awoke, he bade me go, caressing me fondly and making me happy in the assurance he loved me fervently". In the Kurinchip-pattu or Highland song of Kapilar which forms one of the ten idylls or Pattup-pattu we have a maiden telling her lady companion that if her mother does not approve of her love for her hunter-lover she should be left to die and be united with him in heaven. Parental disapproval of one's chosen life partner however does not seem to have posed a serious problem and was simply resolved by elopement. An interesting case is given in the Kalit-togai which has it that when the mother of a young lady who had eloped goes in search of her, the pilgrims console her with the advice that her daughter had not acted improperly in having eloped with the youth who loved her. "Of what use is the pearl", they say "to the sea in which it was born ? Of what use is the sandal to the mountain on which it grew ? Of what use is the coral to the reef on which it was formed ? They are useful only to those who would wear them. Even so, has thy daughter gone with the young man of her choice". Marriage customs The earliest known form of marriage amongst the Tamils appears to have been the kalavu, the coming together of man and woman by mutual consent and sans any ritual. This however does not seem to have lasted long, for the Aiyar or Brahmins who exercised considerable influence over the Tamils of the time ensured that marriage was solemnized according to Aryan rites, at least as far as the more cosmopolitan urban areas were concerned. Tolkappiyanar, the author of the Tolkappiyam tells us that the Aiyar 'the wise men of the community' formulated the marriage rituals as the kalavu or free love came to be abused. He also refers to the form of marriage known as karpu (literally chastity) which involved the giving away of the bride by those entitled. The Silappadigaram in describing the marriage of the Tamil couple Kovalan and Kannagi, says that on the day of the wedding, a Brahmin priest lit the sacred fire under a lofty shed erected for the purpose in front of the bride's house, while drums, pipes and chanks sent forth their music. The bride and groom were then led round the sacred fire three times, following which a number of damsels bearing lighted lamps and trays of incense and fragrant powders strewed flowers on the wedded pair and escorted them with songs and blessings to the bridal chamber. The modern Tamil custom where the bridegroom points out to his bride the northern star in Ursa major also finds mention in Sangam literature for Kapilar in a poem in the Purananuru says of King Kari and his Queen "Thy Queen, pure as the Northern Star, to matrons shown sweet voiced, is all, great King, thou call'st thine own". This custom, like the circumambulation of the fire evidently has an Aryan origin for the star which is pointed out to brides as an example is said by Hindus to be Arundhati, the chaste wife of Vasishtha whose faithfulness was so great that the gods rewarded her by making her a star that shines forever. The solemnization of marriage with Brahmanical rites however seems to have been largely confined to the higher classes of the urban areas and not the ordinary rural folk who seem to have had their own usages. For instance, we find in a poem by Nallavur Kilar in the Akananuru, an allusion to a matron who performs the marriage ceremony by pouring water on the bride and beseeching her to be faithful to her husband and live with him as his wife. Another poem in the same work by Virrurru Mudiyinanar refers to the relatives of the bride giving her away. There is evidently nothing Aryan about these rites, no lighting or circumambulation of fire nor priest to receive offerings. In other words, they appear to be purely Dravidian in origin. The married life of the early Tamils seems to have been a happy one for we come across numerous references to nuptial bliss and marital fidelity in Sangam literature. It is however a matter for regret that as in most other cultures of the time, emphasis should have been placed only on the faithfulness of the wife. The Tamil women of yore as of now were renowned for their patience, self sacrifice and devotion to their husbands. The model Tamil wife is perhaps best epitomised by Kannagi, the heroine of the Tamil epic Silappadigaram, a moving story of wifely love and devotion that appears to have been based on an actual incident that took place in the days of the Chera monarch Senguttuvan who is said to have lived in the 2nd century A.C. Thus we are told that Kannagi loves and adores her husband Kovilan although he is faithless to her. She is ever attentive to his wants and devotes herself to his service. She willingly parts with her jewels in order to please him after he has squandered his patrimony on her rival, an actress named Madavi. She joyously follows her husband to a strange city, Madura, to start life anew and when he is killed there after having been falsely accused of theft, she goes sobbing and crying through the streets telling the people that her husband was no thief and that he had been unjustly killed. In order to prove his innocence, she boldly appears before the Pandyan King and having done so cuts off one of her breasts and throwing it in the streets of Madura, prays that the wicked town be destroyed by fire. She then wanders along the road leading to the Chera country and dies broken-hearted on the fourteenth day after her husband's death. Dress and ornament Another area in which Sangam literature furnishes us with valuable information is in the matter of dress and ornamentation. It would appear from the Purananuru that the Tamil men of the Sangam age ordinarily wore two pieces of cotton cloth, one wrapped round the loins and reaching to the knees and the other loosely tied round the head. The men also allowed their hair to grow long and gathered it up to form a knot on the crown. Coloured strings of silk with glittering blue beads were used by the higher classes to fasten the head knot, so that the ends of the strings hung like a tassle. It would appear from the Kalit-togai that the ordinary dress of the Tamil women of the time merely consisted of a raiment that descended from the loins downwards to the ankles.From what we may gather from the Kurinchip-pattu, the women of the hill tribes merely wore bunches of green leaves tied to a string round their waists. At any rate, nudity does not seem to have been shunned, for according to Kanniyar's Porunar-arrup-padai, the wives of the wandering minstrels known as Panar who accompanied their husbands in their wanderings were perfectly nude. |
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Sangam literature to put it simply is a veritable goldmine of
information providing us with a glimpse into the romances, marriages,
dress, ornamentation, culinary fare and religious life of the early Tamils
before they came under Aryan influence.
