Book Review: An Update on AIT (Part 1)

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

Portrayal of Tamil as a female has a very long history, about 1,500 years at 
least. It occurs in cilappatikAram, the pre-Kalidasan epic (pre-5th century). 
The protagonist of the epic is kaNNaki, a female. She is praised by a 
priestess who worships koRRavai, the female deity. In her possessed state, 
the priestess says of kaNNaki,

ten2 tamizp pAvai ceyta tavak kozuntu  (cilappatikAram 12.48)

She is the sprout/young one ("kozuntu")  born as a result of the 
penance/religious austerities ("tavam") done ("ceyta") by damsel (pAvai)  
Tamil (tamiz) of the south (ten2).

The word for "mother" does not explicitly occur here. But the motherly role 
is indicated by the use of the word "kozuntu" along with "pAvai". According 
to Tamil Lexicon, kozuntu means tender twig, tendril, tender leaf, shoot, 
sprout, anything young, scion, etc. pAvai means puppet, doll, image, woman, 
lady, damsel, etc. Austerities are performed by the parents, family, clan, or 
country for the birth of a child. When a single person is indicated as doing 
penance for the birth of a child, it is either the father or the mother. The 
use of  pAvai along with kozuntu means that Tamil personified as mother 
undertook austerities and obtained kaNNaki as child. Consider the following. 


 ellAm In2Ravan2 tan2n2ai In2ap 
perun tavam ceyta nagkai, 
..       (kambarAmAyaNam. 2.5.62.1-2)

Here kousalyA is described as the woman who performed austerities to give 
birth to Rama who created everything.

Note the following from tiruviLaiyATaRpurANam 

ten2n2avan2 kulEcan2 ceyta tavam urut tirintAl en2n2a   



 tigkaL milaintavan2 aruLin2 vantAn2 
ari maruttan2an2 Am ten2n2an2 arik kuruLai an2n2An2     (56.36.4- 56.37.4)

"As if the penance undertook by the Pandyan king kulEcan2 took shape, because 
of the grace of the one who wears the moon, was born the lion cub-like 
Pandyan arimaruttan2an."

en2Ru mun2i viLampak kETTu irunta kAJcan2a mAlai 
tun2Ru tiraik kaTal ATat tuNivuTaiya viruppin2aL Ayt 
tan2 tirumA makaTku uraittAL ciRitu uLLam taLarvu eytic 
cen2Ru iRaivaRku uraippal en2ac ceziyar tavak kozuntu an2aiyAL ( 9.10)

The above poem shows the use of tavak kozuntu to refer to goddess mIn2AkSi as 
the daughter of kAJcan2amAlai.

So, the commentator aTiyArkkunallAr (12-13th century C.E.) is not correct in 
interpreting the line to refer to kaNNaki herself having performed penance in 
her past life. 

Regards
S. Palaniappan