AKAM 189

Tiṇai:

pālai

Author:

kayamaṉār

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V. M. Subramanya Ayyar (1975) [IFP, unpublished]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:

2006/03/30

Table of contents (by lines):

(1-3) Description of the desert during severe summer

(4-6) The male and female elephants going away from the desert like dancers who travel from place to place thinking of festivals

(8-10) The daughter eloped with talaivaṉ

(11-2) The foster-mother went in search of her in all directions and stayed in the house after returning, in a confused state of mind

(13-5) The village incurred a greater loss in the disappearance of talaivi whom it loved much more than the foster-mother.

Colophon(s):

The foster-mother who was the cause for her daughter to go to the desert spoke thus.

Syntactical link:

see below

Difficult words:

see below

Variant readings:

see below

Notes:

see below

• The place where there are high stones (3)
• are scorched by intense heat of summer (2)
• because the clouds had totally disappeared from the sky (2).
• The tanks have completely dried up (3)
• The forest which has jack trees with fruits in a mature condition is very hot (7).
• The male elephant (6)
• leaves that place (6)
• embracing its female of long breath (4),
• like the dancers who carry on their heads their muḻavu (முழவு) (5)
• thinking of festivals to be celebrated in other parts (4-5)
• converting the desert adjoining the hot side-hills where stones are rising ( 6)
• into rough path (7)
• (My young daughter having a waist with beautiful yellow spots, (9)
• who wore a garments of beautiful leaves of purslane creeper (வயலைக்கொடி) which bangs down the thigh (8)
• eloped with him (9-10)
• and became a complete stranger to us (10)
• When she became like this (10),
• I who am full of distress, always with thoughts about her (11)
• went in search of her in all directions (11)
• and after returning, stayed in the house in a confused state of mind (12)
• This village where the instruments of good bards have the intoxication of drink which are played in harmony with one another, and where they sound without stopping in the big streets, where cars run, has incurred a greater loss of a thing which it loved much, more than myself.

கவா அன்(6) அத்தம் சுட்டி(7), குறுமகள்(9) அவனொடு(9) சென்று பிறள் ஆகிய அளவை(10) என்னினும்(12) ஊர் தன் வீழ்வுறுபொருள் இழந்தன்று(15).

• .11. யுள்ளமொடு

The 15th line may be taken as the mother ridiculing the people of the village who indulge in scandal about her daugher's elopment, as if they had lost a thing which they valued much) cf. naṟṟiṇai verse, 30.