Dear List members,

You may find another short article on Tamil Caṅkam poetry on my website (publications>articles), titled 

          "Mud in the Mouth. Akanāṉūṟu 101"

It ends in a note on the ease with which modern translators (Hart, Wilden) accepted the information provided by the  commentary, according to which the cattle thieves mentioned in the poem put mud in their mouths to stop the itch in their throats. I challenge the translators to retrospectively produce a passage from the extensive Indian medical literature which prescribes mud for that purpose. Not that it would make any difference for the interpretation of the poem. I am just interested to know if such a prescription exists.   

With kind regards,

Herman