kuRuntokai 22

[Lakshmi Srinivas]

--- Swaminathan Madhuresan <smadhuresan at YAHOO.COM>
wrote:
> Have you seen rA. rAkavaiyaGkAr's commentary on
> kuRuntokai?
> I think his urai on all of kuRuntokai has been
> published
> recently.

Well, his kuRuntokai viLakkam (kv) which contains the
urai for the first 111 verses was published by
Annamalai U in 1983. It contains a foreword by A.
citamparanAta ceTTiyAr which is basically a review of
the entire commentary.

Sri ceTTiyAr does say in his foreword that this is an
outgrowth of rA. rAkavaiyaGkAr's lectures at Annamalai
U on the kuRuntokai and has *the U Ve Ca urai" as the
basis text.


The commentary to this verse in the kv is brief. For
the most part, it dwells on the usage "cAraRcilampu",
quoting paripATal 6 and tiruvAymozi 3.3.9.

But it does have the line "kaNNiRku ayalatAya nutal
utan celaviR kamazum enRatanAl kaNkaL mikak kaLittal
kuRittAL" and some more extra poetic statements.

So I don't know if that's a traditional understanding
or if the kv is influenced by the u Ve Ca commentary.

I was (and am still) under the impression that this
kind of ascription of real life (and real time!)
effects to poems was a late medieval tendency. For
example stories of Kampan, auvaiyar etc have this
element in them.

Thanks and Warm Regards,

LS



> --- Lakshmi Srinivas <lsrinivas at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> >  I have a question re KuRuntokai 22 which I
> reproduce
> > here for quick reference:
> >
> >      nIrvAr kaNNai nIyiva Noziya
> >      yArO pirikiR pavarE cAraR
> >      cilampaNi koNTa valaJcuri marAattu
> >      vEni laJcinai kamazum
> >      tEmU roNNuta ninnoTuJ celavE.
> >
> >  Loosely translated:
> >     You're crying that you remain here
> >     who'd want to part with you -
> >        with a bright brow sweet as the fragrance
> of
> > the
> >        right whorled white kadamba flowers
> >        blooming on the mountain slopes in spring
> >
> >     It's with you that he will go.
> >
> >  In his commentary to this verse, U Ve
> cAminAtaiyar
> > writes,
> >
> > "ArrAmai mikka talaivi, 'yAro pirikiRpavarE' enRu
> tOzi
> > kURiya mAttirattil tuyar nIGkit talaiyetuttu
> nimirntu
> > nOkkinALAka, neRRiyin viLakkaGkANTA tOzi, " tEmu
> > roNNutal' enRu viLittAL." (kuRuntokai, u. Ve Ca.,
> > kapIr Press, 4th impression, 1962, p 64)
> >
> > Loosely translated:
> >
> > The grieving heroine, feels cheered by her
> companion's
> > words "who would want to part with you" and looks
> up.
> > The companion observing the (now) shining forehead
> > calls it, "fragrant bright brow".
> >
> > It seems to me that this interpretation seems to,
> at
> > least implicitly,  subscribe to the view that
> poetic
> > utterance has creative potential. In other words,
> > poems have a mantra like power.
> >
> > It may be noted that M. Shanmugam Pillai's usually
> > brief commentary does not contain this little
> > interpretative excursus for this verse.
> >
> > Can this interpretation be considered to be
> justified?
> > I'd like the list members view on this topic.
> >
> > Thanks and Warm Regards,
> >
> > LS
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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