Sandal Mountain Breeze

[N. Ganesan]

          Sandal Mountain Breeze
          ***********************

  I am intrigued by Dr. S. Palaniappan's question
  relating to Sandal mountain breeze.
  Mr. Sarma quotes many passages from MBh.
  But are they from Southern recensions of MBh?

  Also, do they talk of malaya breeze tormenting separated
  lovers?  This theme of malaya mountain breeze tormenting
  lovers in separation and being pleasant when lovers are together
  is as old as Tamil literature (cilappatikaaram, Azvaar poetry,
  Kamban etc.,) Who makes use of this theme first in Sanskrit?
  Is it Kalidasa or Jayadeva? Or is this concept as old as Ramayana
  or atleast Mahabharatha?

The Madurai stalapuraaNam states that Nataraja comes down South
and dances facing South because "the Southern sandal mountain breeze
soothes him when he gets tired doing the cosmic dance".

  potiyilE viLaikinRana can^tanam, potiyil
  natiyilE viLaikinRana muttam, an^ nati cUz
  patiyilE viLaikinRana tarumam, ap patiyOr
  matiyilE viLaikinRana maRai mutal patti.

  kaTuk  kavin peRu kaNTanum, ten ticai n^Okki
  aTukka van^tu van^tu ATuvAn;- ATalin iLaippu
  viTukka, vAra men kAl tiru mukattu iTai vIci
  maTukkavum, *tamiz tiruc cevi mAn^tavum* anRO?!

                    - tiruviLaiATal purANam
                    - by ParaJcOti munivar

N. Ganesan
nas_ng at lms420.jsc.nasa.gov

Thanks to IITS-Univ. of Koeln website of tamil texts,
I could check my memory.