How Yarlpanam got its name

by Subashini Pathmanathan

Many ancient Tamil musical instruments are now not in use. With the passage of time, many new musical instruments take the place of old ones. Earlier the musicians were called Paawalar and the dancers Koothier.

In ancient times, male musicians were known as Paanar and female musicians Paanathiyar. Those who danced to their music were called Koothar. Female dancers were called Koothiyar or Vraliyar.

During those days, even the lands were divided into five categories according to the landscape, climatic conditions and the nature of the land.

The five categories were Kurinchi,(mountain and mountainous area), Mullai (forest and forest area), Marutham (paddy field and paddy field area), Paalai (desert and desert area), Neithal (sea and seaside area). The categories of lands had each distinct (Pun Isai ) music, as well as different musical instruments, including leather drums, string instrument and wind instruments.

In the Tamil cultural history the instruments were divided into four main categories Thatha, Shasesra, Avanththatha and Gana. Thatha was a string instrument, Shsesha was a wind instrument, Avanththatha was a leather instrument and Gana was a metal based instrument such as the hand cymbals.

History of Jaffna

Yarlpana Vaipava Malai, the history of Jaffna, was written by Mayilvagana Pulavar, a Tamil poet. The Tamil encyclopaedia Kalaikalanjeyam has confirmed this fact.

However, Yarlpana Vaipava Malai contained some crucial historical facts of the ancient Tamil city of Jaffna. It was translated from Tamil into English by C. Brito and published in 1879.

The ancient Yarl instrument is the main cause to name Jaffna as Yarlpanam in Tamil and Yapanaya in Sinhala.

In ancient Tamil literature the musician was called Pannan. According to ancient Tamil history a blind Pannan Veera Raghavan came from Chola to the north of Sri Lanka during the reign of king Jeyathunga Veera Singhan. As there was a tradition that the ruling king did not meet blind people Pannan Veera Raghavan was not allowed to perform before the king.

However, a curtain was drawn between the king and the blind musician. The king gave him a plot of land known as Manatri.

Thereafter, Pannan Weera Raghavan came to be known as Yarlpadi (Yarl instrument musican).

The land gifted to him was known as Yarlpanam. During the Portuguese period the land was renamed as Jaffna. Even today Jaffna is often referred to in Tamil as Yarlpanam or Yarl.

A few years before the war against terrorism the symbol of Yarl was depicted on top of the Town Hall building. At night the Yarl instrument was beautifully decorated with colour lights.

According to the ancient Tamil cultural history the Yarl instrument implies the historical link of Yarl with the flat land. However, the string instrument is no longer in use today. One reason for its disappearance is that it was a heavy instrument.

Later, the Veena and Violin replaced the Yarl. Earlier there were many varieties of the Yarl in use. They were Sakoda yarl, Senkodi yarl, Makara Yarl, PeeriYarl, Athi Yarl and Ariya Yarl.

Each Yarl instrument had a number of strings.

The total number of strings for Sakoda Yarl was about 14. Senkodi yarl had 17 strings. Peeri yarl had three varieties of strings.

The strings were divided according to their thickness. Each string had only one particular pitch. But today's string instruments can produce many pitches on one string.

Makara Yarl was often referred to in literaturue as Makara Veena. It had its origin in Greece and was later introduced to the East. The shape of the Makara Yarl is that of a fish.

Numerous ancient temple pillars of South Indian temples depict the yarl instrument.

Famed Sri Lankan scholar Vipulanada Adikal did major research about the instrument. According to him, the Ariya Yarl had 1,000 strings. The size of the Yarl was over six feet.

The second century Silapathikaram of Illango Adikal is the oldest Tamil epic which contained numerous references to dance, drama, and other literary works.

The commentator of Silapathikam Adiyarkunallar of the 13th century also wrote about the Ariya Yarl. His research on the Yarl was published in Yarl Noo.

Yaya Padal or Kailayamalai reveal many facts about Yarl in relation to Yarlpanam.