Continuing the review of Passions of the Tongue

[Narayan S. Raja]

On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Narayan S. Raja wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Sep 1999, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan wrote:
>
> > raja at IFA.HAWAII.EDU asked:
> >
> > > Could he just have been stating a simple fact,
> > >  i.e., that ceGkuTTuvan2 was mATalan2's king,
> > >  rather than "articulating a  case of linguistic
> > >  nationalism"?
> >
> > No, because mATalan2's king is a Chola  while ceGkuTTuvan2 is a Chera king.
>
> Thanks for the clarification.
> I will try to find "silappadhikaram"
> in our University library and
> understand who said exactly what
> to whom, and in what context.


I was able to get a copy of the original
"silappadhikAram" (LIFCO, 1964), as well as
a translation by R. Parthasarathi
(Columbia Univ Press, 1993).  It was a
great pleasure to read it (for the first time
after the abridged version we got in school).

You are absolutely correct.  SilappadhikAram,
esp. book 3, shows a clear Tamil self-awareness,
or Tamil national awareness (in a good sense).


But coming to MAtalan... just for curiosity,
where exactly does MAtalan refer to Senguttuvan
as "his king"?  I couldn't yet find those lines.

Also, although this doesn't weaken your main point
(the existence of Tamil national awareness in
SilappadhikAram), it seems to me that MAtalan was
not the best illustration for this.  After all, he
is the person urging Senguttuvan to perform the
Rajasuya sacrifice, which presumably means that he
recognizes Senguttuvan as a paramount king --
Tamil national awareness not coming into the picture.

Best regards,


Raja.