vaTakalai and ten2kalai (3)

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In light of the discussion so far, let us look at the verse cited by Lakshmi
Srinivas.

On Mon, 10 May 1999 Lakshmi Srinivas <lsrinivas at YAHOO.COM> wrote

<<It is not very clear if the word  "kalai" means
language even if the context quoted by Dr Palaniappan
may seem to suggest that.

In another work viz., ciriya tirumaDal, in the opening
lines of which the same AzvAr uses the phrase

"cIrAr irukalaiyum eytuvAr"
meaning " (they) will attain both types (of objects)".

The objects here refers to the puruShArtha's already
mentioned by the poet a few lines before. The word
"both" refers to aRam (dharma) and poruL (artha), so
kalai seems to mean here "types" or "categories".>>

The relevant lines are:

pArOr colappaTTa mUn2Ran2RE - ammUn2Rum
ArAyil tAn2E aRam poruL in2pam enRu
ArAr ivaRRin2 iTaiyatan2ai eytuvAr
cIrAr irukalaiyum eytuvar cikken2amaRRu

The usage "iru kalai" or two kalais in this verse seem to refer to knowledge
contained in Tamil and Sanskrit texts. Those who gain such knowledge will
attain the three goals. Alternately, one can take iru kalai as referring to
texts on dharma and artha with "kalai" meaning texts.

The conclusion is that the name of the sects, vaTakalai and ten2kalai, should
be based on the relative emphasis placed on Sanskrit and Tamil texts
respectively by these sects.

Regards
S. Palaniappan