The pivotal role of a public poet in nation building

Perhaps, it is the fate of the first generation of writers after independence to be so deeply committed to the issue of nation and nation building. The writers who came later have not been exposed to the pressures, challenges, excitements and pain of a nation coming into being,

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ENCOUNTERS

Buddhist confessional poetry: Narratives of self-conversion
 

Last week I discussed the general importance of the Theragatha and Therigatha as examples of Buddhist confessional poetry. I pointed out some of the dominant features associated with these two sets confessional poetry.

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Cultural SCENE

Cilappatikaram as a major Tamil literary work

In this week’s column, I would like to discuss, briefly, the importance of Cilappatikaram in the Tamil literary culture. Cilappatikaram is considered as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, long narrative poems in Tamil.

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