Akam (140)

Tiṇai:: neytal
Author:: ammūvaṉār
Translation:: V. M. Subramanya Ayyar (1975) [IFP, unpublished]
Original MS location:: IFP Library [TA LIT-CL 180 (1)(2)(3)]
Original data entry (VYAPTI format):: Ramya (1999-2000, IFP)
HTML conversion, text revising & editing:: jlc
Date of last revision:: 2002/10/23
Table of contents (by lines):: (1-5) The salt vendors carrying bags of salt in the hot hills.; (6-8) The girl belonging to the community of salt vendors bartering it for paddy; (9-10) The dog barking at her and her looks exhibiting fear causing pain to talaivaṉ; (11-14) talaivaṉ comparing himself to the bullock that got stuck up in the mire resembling the smoke in colour when the inhabitants of the hilly tract (குறவா) set fire to the forest to turn it into an arable land.
Colophon(s):: The talaimakaṉ who parted after the first union brought about by destiny (providence) spoke to his confident friend.
Syntactical link:: see below
Difficult words:: see below
Variant readings:: see below
Notes:: see below
:

The salt vendors who hold a stick to goad the bullocks to go fast, travel in the hill which has fissures as a result of sun's heat (4-5)
They mention the price of salt of white crystals (3)
which was produced without ploughing, in the salt-pans of big backwaters, (2)
by the fishermen (inhabitants of the maritime tract) who go catching fish in the big ocean and live in the small hamlets (1).
Their dear and young daughter swings her arms so that the few bright bangles of exquisite workmanship make a clinking sound (6)
She says as she barters salt, `The price of salt of white crystals is equal to the price of paddy' (7-8)
The dog that is at the house barks on hearing the stranger's voice (9)
The startled and frightened looks of her eyes which resemble two proud carps (கயல்மீன்கள்) fighting with each other, (9-10)
makes me feel sorrowful to heave a hot sigh (15)
like the suffering he-buffaloes (14)
which are held in the hands (14)
of her father, (15)
and which drag with strenuous effort to lift (13)
the cart which got stuck up in the black, old mire (12)
which resembles the colour of the smoke of the fire (11)
that consumes the trees when mountain-dwellers (குறவன்) tries to change the plot of ground into a new cultivable land for dry crops, by setting fire to it. (11)

உமணர் காதல் மடமகள்(5) சேரிக்கண் விலைமாறு கூறலின், மனைய(8) ஞமலி குரைப்ப வெரீஇய(9) கண்(10) எமக்கு(10) நோயாகின்று(15).

In ancient days necessary commodities were changed by barter. Selling salt for paddy refers to that custom.