in depicting Nature’s mortars and costly pestles, the poet seeks to embellish a common scene by presenting a closer touch with Nature and with primitive life. From Puṛam poetry too a similar illustration may be given. According to the literary conventions of Tolkaappiyam, the first stage of war is cattle-lifting. This again is a reminiscence of earlier society when cattle was the chief wealth of Tamil chiefs and when cattle-lifting was the predominant cause of warfare between clans and settlements. But later poetry treated of cattle-lifting as a preamble to war even when no cattle-lifting preceded war.11 Similarly, tree-worship, primitive dances and ritual as portrayed in Cankam literature, all refer to a time when life was physically more intimate with Nature. A surprising evidence for the earlier contact with Nature, is not merely the use of leaf-garments, but also the names of the ornaments of Tamil women, which recall the time when rolls of strips of the palmyrah leaf were used for the perforations in the ear, and branches of creepers were entwined about the arms and legs and neck.12 The names of the ornaments are the names of leaves, or creepers or flowers, as for example: tootu, arasilai, kulai, poomkulai oolai, kontilavoolai, talikkoti.13 |
Intimate Life with Nature A love of Nature cannot but be engendered in a people that come often in touch with Nature. The influence in fostering an appreciation and love of Nature is mutual between poets and people. The Tamil poets came from the people who as a nation were intimate with Nature, and the people were encouraged in their enthusiasm for Nature by what the poets wrote. The Tamil learnt to love flowers and plants even from his very childhood. The eldest sons of warriors when they set ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11 H.T. pp. 63-71, where the author is brilliantly original in his suggestions. 12Puram; 63, 12; 352, 5. 13 Cfr: Sentamil. Vol. VI, Parts 7 and 8; S.GNANAPRAKASAR, The Tamils, their Early History and Religion (Tm), p. 38 Jaffna, 1932. |