On the Date of Classical Tamil Poems

Sat Oct 20 19:06:00 UTC 2012

Dear Dr Palaniappan
I am not sure if the paaNar are directly involved in the fighting, as you seem to think. One can only agree with Swaminathaiyar, when he wrote that they are the bards of the two fighting kings, the veentar and the vicciyar perumakaN respectively. The bards are looking on while the battle goes up and down (uraL nilai). Admittedly, I do not know as yet what to do with puli nookku. The main point is that the bards are the subject (or implied subject, depending on the meaning of puli nookku) of the participle kaNTa.
Best
Herman Tieken 

-----Original Message-----
From: Indology on behalf of Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan
Sent: Sat 10/20/2012 7:11 PM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: [INDOLOGY] On the Date of Classical Tamil Poems

DearScholars,

I hadearlier written about the chieftain mentioned in Classical Tamil poems as Pa?a? who ruled in a northern border area of Tami?akam. (See http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1009&L=INDOLOGY&P=R912&D=0&I=-3) Although the poemseemed to refer to a single individual, I had suggested that it referred to thedynasty of the 'Bana' kings whose names had originally been Pa?a? (in singular) before the variation p->b- in thename took place.   

Now I havefound one more Classical Tamil poem that confirms my thesis. 
...........................alare
vil ke?u ta?ai vicciyar perumaka?
ventaro?u poruta ña??aip pa?ar
puli nokkuu?a? nilai ka??a
kali ke?u ku?umpur arppi?umperite (Ku?untokai 328.5-8)

Thiscan be translated as given below:
"The gossip was louder thanthe roar of the noisy village in the arid tract, that saw the stance of the Pa?arthat resembled the look of the tiger, when the chief of Vicciyar of armyabounding in archers fought against the kings."

Inthe past, commentators like U. V. Caminathaiyarhad interpreted the word "Pa?ar" here as the homophon,'pa?ar',meaning 'bards'. They interpreted thebards as standing between the two armies and looking at both armies as a 'lion'does!. The real meaning of 'lookof a tiger' can be seen in the following Kalittokai poem

valimu?pi? valle??a yakkai puli nokki?
cu??uamai villar curi va?ar pittaiyar
a??am parttu alkum ka?u?ka? ma?avar .(Kalittokai 4.1-3)

This canbe translated as "the warriors of the arid tract with hard bodies ofextraordinary strength, looks of tiger, bows with string/leather(?) coiledaround, locks of hair with curls, and fierce eyes, who are on the watch intenton killing."

So the 'lookof tiger' in Ku?untokai 328.7 should refer to the fierce look of 'Panar'warriors who were engaged in fighting. It cannot refer to 'panar' bards, ifthey are supposed to be bystanders.  The context of the poem indicatesthat the Pa?ar had fought on one side. Since the Vicciyar wereonly minor chieftains engaged in a battle against major kings, we can guessthat the Pa?ar fought fiercely on the side of the underdogs,the Vicciyar. This was probably why their bravery was appreciated by thevillagers.

Interestingly,Akam.226.13 describes the Pa?an as "vali mikum mu?pi? pa?a?" reminding us of Kalittokai 4.1.

Thisidentification of Pa?ar with the Ba?akings mentioned in later inscriptions and the epic Ma?imekalai is very important for the dating of Classical Tamil texts.

It shouldbe noted that the 5th century Ta?agu??a inscription refers to the dynasty under consideration as B?had-Ba?a. Later non-Tamil inscriptions continue to referto them as Ba?as while Tamil inscriptions refer to them as Va?a- where b- > v-. The name Va?a? occurs as the lord of Ci?uku?i,probably a coastal village on the east coast of the Pa??iyan kingdom. There is aninstance in the Maturaikkañci 203 where the name Va?a? seems to refer to Ba?asurain the context of referring to his fabulous wealth. We should note that theCilappatikaram refers more explicitly to Ba?asura,son of Mahabali, as Va?a? and not as Pa?a?. The same is true of the Ma?imekalaialso.  Clearly if the ClassicalTamil texts had been composed in the 5th century CE or later, they would bereferring to the Pa?ar chieftain as Va?a? and not Pa?a?. So the Classical Tamiltexts would have been composed earlier than the time when Pa?a- has changed toBa?a. Interestingly, Mamula?ar, the author of Akam 31, has also authored Akam325, which mentions Pa?a?, thechieftain. As I had discussed earlier, Akam 31 was composed earlier than theKalabhra rule in Tami?akam.  
 (http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0908&L=INDOLOGY&P=R4899&I=-3,http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0908&L=INDOLOGY&P=R6548&I=-3) 

Froma historian's viewpoint, Akam 325 is probably the earliest mention of theBanas.

Thanks inadvance for your comments

Regards,
Palaniappan

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