Tanagalai and Vadagalai

[Lakshmi Srinivas]

I seem to have pressed the SEND button before I
actually finished.

Just wanted to add that the terms "Tenkalai" and
"Vadakalai" are of rather recent origin. (16th century
according to experts such as KKA Venkatachari ("
Manipravala Literature of the Sri Vaishnavas').
Whereas the AzvAr himself would need to be dated to
the Ist Millennium AD 8th-10th centuries.

Does anybody know if Patricia Mumme discusses the
etymology of these terms?

Thanks and Warm Regards.


--- Lakshmi Srinivas  wrote:
> --- Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan  wrote:
> > In these usages, the
> > primary meaning of "kalai" is
> > "language" as seen in the AzvAr's usage
> "centamizum
> > vaTakalaiyum tikaznta
> > nAvar" (periya tirumozi 7.8.4) .referring to
> > brahmins whose tongues 'shine'
> > with Tamil and Sanskrit. Thus "vaTakalai" refers
> to
> > Sanskrit and "ten2kalai"
> > refers to Tamil.
>
> 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".
>
>
>
>
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com