Translation:Tolkappiyam/Public life (Pur’am composition)

by Tolkappiyar

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Source in Tamil

Note

The serial number at the end denotes the verse in the part of the literature

Translation

Example to the verse, cited by Elamburanar, an interpreter to the literature ‘Tolkappiyam’ who belongs to 11th century A.D. and others is given indented star-mark.

This chapter deals with the subject matters of the human public life.

• Basic notes to follow

1. Composition of public-affairs is classified into seven themes. They are
   1 [Ve’tci] - the cattle war, the other side of union love (Kur’inji theme),
   2 [Vanji] - the territory war, the other side of endurance love (Mullai theme),
   3 [Uzinjai] - the seize of fortress, the other side of sulking love (Marutham theme),
   4 [Thumbai] - the attack on invader’s territory, the other side of lamentation love (N,e’ithal theme)
   5 [Vaagai] - the exaltation of person’s behavior,the other side of separation love (Paalai theme),
   6 [Kaanji]- ephemeral nature of earthly existence, the other side of deviant love (Pe’runthin’ai theme) and
   7 [Paadaan’] – words of praising other’s attitudes, the other side of unrequited love (Kaikkil’ai theme).
   They are like back of the palm in hand could not be folded that means open to all.
2. Among the seven, the first four concern with war events and the remaining three with the public events (common life of people).
3. The names of the themes above, except the last one, are named after a flower. According to scholars of some latter period, the warriors fought against their foes, wearing the named flowers.

1 [Ve’tci] - the cattle war

• The Pur’am composition on public affairs is the other side of the Agam composition of love affairs. On the basis the theme of Ve’tchi the cattle war is the open side of Kur’inci the union-love according to experts. It has been ramified into 14 sub-strands. (1)
• The men at the border-post, charged by their ruler, capture the cows of the hostile king by stealth and keep them right under guard. (2)
• The fourteen above are as follows: 1 the glamour of army’s movement, 2 hearing of good omens utterance from the village-folk, 3 marching secretly, 4 spying, 5 waiting for the moment of opportunity, 6 encircling the foe-men’s positions, 7 capturing the cows of foes, 8 defending foes, 9 bringing the cattle without affliction, 10 witnessing cheer and accolade, 11 securing the herd of cows at home, 12 sharing the cows captured among the village-folk, 13 revelry making the victorious seizure of cows and 14 gifting the cows others too. (3)
• Extolling the clan of warriors rooted in valor and worshiping Kor’r’avai the goddess of victory are also fall on the theme. (4)
• The ramification of the above theme - 21 sub-strands – 1 Kaan,thal’ ripe-dance performed by Ve’lan uttering prospecting word wearing the flower Kaan,thal’ the gloriosa superba, 2 dance wearing the flower Poo’n,thai the Palmyra, 3 dance wearing the flower Vee’mbu the morgosa, 4 dance wearing the flower Aar the mountain ebony, 5 the golden leg-anklets endowed with honor of distinct warrior, by the ruler, 6 honoring the men those told the right time to march reading by Unnam omen, 7 praise Maayoo’n the God of help wearing the symbol of his flour Puuvai, 8 praising the victorious warriors, 9 recovery of the cows captured, 10 praising the ruler, 11 taking vow of his perseverance, 12 recovering the cattle by the owners, 13 facing the counter-attack, 14 fencing-war, 15 gift of land to the victorious sword-warriors, 16 (the stages of erecting statue for the man, died in victorious war) finding stone, 17 first step of starting, 18 cleaning the stone by water, 19 erecting the figure-stone on foundation, 20 ceremony on it and 21 praising-festival. (5)

2 [Vanji] - the territory war

• The theme of Vanji, the territory war is the open side of the theme of Mullai the patience-love. It is the war to extend the territory. (6)
• It ramifies into thirteen plus sub stands; the glamour of armies march, setting foemen’s land on fire, the radiant glory that attained by feats of powerless, proud of receiving tribute, dauntless daring of foemen as if they were a trifles, tribute offer by invade, destroying without accepting the tribute, ruler’s award of boost with Maaraayam-award, fighting without any award, one soldier fight against several others, feast before attack, excelling the victory, sorrow of defeater, praising-song by woman while pounding food-grains by wood in a pit, [thazinchi] braveness of defending, etc. (7)

3 [Uzinjai] - the seize of fortress

• [Uzinjai] - the seize of fortress and other parts of the war are the other side of sulking love (Marutham theme). (8)
• It ramifies into eight kinds. (9)
• They are – 1 the intention to invade by overweening pride of the monarch, 2 the action of the intention, 3 climbing the ancient fort, 4 the greatness of the armed force, 5 the greatness of arms inside, 6 destroying them, 7 individual combat and 8 the fight of the inside-army. (10)

4 [Thumbai] - the attack on invader’s territory

• It is parallel to the [agaam] theme [n”eithal]. The theme of the strand is undoing the overweening pride in his prowess of the invading monarch (12)
• Being the above one part, the other part is wondrous spectacle that a warrior’s body, leaving its life, is fighting against the foe-men swards, spears, arrows, etc. (13)
• It ramifies into twelve sub-strands; [muuvagai-n”ilai] the three columns of infantry, elephant and cavalry that strike among the foes to fear, [thaar-n”ilai] single warrior defends the king surrounded by many foe-warriors attacking, [thabuthi pakkam] the kings of both side die in fight, [kuuzai] defending the self-side defeating army, [paazi] invading the foe-army to break into two, pride of killing foe-elephant, sward-dance after killing foe-king, both sides that ends destroyed, triumph of brave warrior after his king’s loss and [n”uuzil] one warrior destroys the entire foe-army. (14)

5 [Vaagai] - the exaltation of person’s behavior

• It is parallel to [agam] theme [paalai]. The theme is the exaltation of the unsullied attainment of persons as they abide in their victorious of expertise. (15)
• It has been folded in seven themes sites; exaltation of six fold behavior of [paarppan] (the first creamy layer), of the king (the second creamy layer), the merchants (the third creamy layer), the farmer (the fourth creamy layer), [arivan] the man of thought on three phases of time, the sages of eight fold benevolent behavior and [porun”ar] the acters. (16)
• Its sub-strands are two-fold nine; staying on the war-camp in cold season and hot season, the harvest platform of corn and that of chariot-war, [kuravai] dance before and behind the victorious chariot, [vallaan’] the Excellency of spear-war and mighty-war, scarifying life for the benefit of king, throwing foes on left-side, honoring the man of good behavior having them on elephant and chariot, forsaking the household life, the royal court of eight-fold, strong abeyance character rule, endowing gifts without break, upholding the fallen, wealth-sharing with others, renounce the material life with grace-behavior and freed of desire. (17)

6 [Kaanji]- ephemeral nature of earthly existence

• The [puram] strand [kanji] is parallel to the [agam] strand [pe’runthinai]. The ephemeral nature of earthly existence is the theme of this strand. (18)
• The theme is based on two sub-strands, one speaks on his braveness and another speaks on partner’s loss; speaking the greatness of inevitability of death, the death teaches the living-beings, the warrior’s suicide by tearing his great wound in battle field, the wounded soldier pinning himself without care-taker of his relation, [mannai] others morning on great man’s loss in war-field, [vanjinam] one indicates his swearing if he fails to accomplish his task in the war, let him below his dignity, [thodakkaanji] wife guarding her wounded husband in war-field without fear, [vanji] the braveness of wife, that she dies wounding herself by the spear which wounds her husband in war-field, [makal’-paal] refusal of giving his daughter to marry with the king’s family by the chieftain of ancient warrior linkage, wife’s bravery of suicide in war-field nestling her face and breast with her husband’s face – are ten in one part. The bewildering wail of the kin surrounding the warrior ends in glory, [muuthanantham] witness’s compliment on the wife’s bravery of death along with her husband in war-field, [muthu-paalai] eloping lover’s bitter wail losing her beloved, [kaiyar’u-n”ilai] the help-less cries of anguish of the kindred folk losing their chieftain, [thabuthaara-n”ilai] the piteous state of a bravery husband on the loss of his wife, [maalai-n”ilai] wife’s behavior burning herself in the fiery which is burning her husband’s corpse, loss of a mother after delivery, praising the grave-yard. (19)

7 [Paadaan’] – words of praising other’s attitudes

• The theme of the [paadaan’] sub-strand in [pur’am] is parallel to [perunthinai] sub-strand in [agam]. It ramifies into eight subclasses. (20)
• The learned says that six-fold unblemished worship is structured in one. (21)
• The practice of composition of worshipping and praising are structured in another. It follows the traditional theme of thought revealing in the prosody composition of [se’nthur’ai] with music. (22)
• The learned pronounced that the composition of woman’s love matter will fall on God as well as other persons. (23)
• The love matter falls on celestial child. (24)
• The praise and worship will fall on God and hero who appear in the street to grace others. (25)
• Here the reasonable (or celestial) name of God or hero is used to denote. (26)
• The functional theme of [kodi-n”ilai] flag-hoisting, [kanthazi] heroic-games, [vall’i] bestow-festive is composed in prayer song. (27)
• Theme of [korr’a-vall’ai] adding other kingdom is also praised in one part. (28)
• Some four kinds of performance are come in [padaan’] strand; adorning the munificent, condemning the non-philanthropist, [iyal-mozi] praising the nature of a hero, revealing the purpose of journey to the watch-man of the fort of the munificent, lullaby song to the munificent, cow-gift to the ceremonial performer of firry-sacrifice, [vil’akku] praising the spear that bear victory, [vaayur’ai-vaazthhtu] praising by words like medicine, [se’viyar’ivuruu] saying words how to behave, [puran”ilai-vaazththu] praising the hero’s special characteristics, [kaikkil’ai] woman speech on non-reciprocal love on the part of her beloved, etc. (29)
• More themes in the sub-strand are; [suuther]’s wake-up song of praising, guidelines of route etc. to reach munificent who endowed earlier the guide, [perumangalam] coronation of king’s ceremony, king’s umbrella ceremony, sword ceremony in the event of war-beginning, [perumangalam] birth-day celebration of a munificent, revealing the aim of coming, standing in front of the gate of munificent, farewell song after receiving wealth-gift, oo’mbadai-kil’avi instructions to behavior; what are actions to be avoid in fear, what are the actions to be enjoyed, what are the actions will follow in future life, the omen of the day, the omen of the bird’s voice, etc. (30)