their eyes on their fathers for the first time, saw them in the panoply of war adorned with the garlands of warfare. It was the custom then that a few days after the birth of the heir, the king, dressed in battle-array which included also garlands of flowers, should show himself to his son, so that the child’s first sight of his father might be that of his father as warrior.14 Infants had a few flowers tied to their fore-locks which were brushed back to a side above the forehead. The fifth poem in the Akam collection speaks of a heroine who went up to her husband about to depart for another country. She was silent; a forced smile broke the pressure of her lips; tears welled up in her eyes. Her entire countenance bespoke a pleading that he should desist from parting. She pressed her child to her bosom and smelt daintily the fragrant flowers adorning the boy’s hair. She breathed a sigh and the flowers faded-so warm was her breath of anguish.15 The younger children, counted among their toys, little dolls, made out of the petals or pollen-bed of flowers. Children young and old, played games under the shades of trees, games in which the seeds of fruits or dried fruits themselves formed the indispensable materials of the games.16 Their leisure was spent in the gardens and groves gathering flowers and leaves of the region, weaving garlands out of them, or preparing the leafy dresses with which they adorned themselves. The garlands were either of one kind of flowers or of diverse flowers or of flowers interspersed with leaves.17 Bathing in the sea, the river, the lake and tanks, was one of the most pleasurable pastimes of outdoor life seen in Cankam literature. Young and old of both sexes dived and swam and played merrily with the surf or with the waves and eddies in rivers and tanks. Even in places of religious pilgrimage, there were large tanks where bathing for sport and pleasure was common.18 The Kuṛicippaaṭṭu of Kapilar mentions the many ways in which girls delight themselves on the hills, their sitting on an eminence prepared as; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14 Puram; 100. 15Akam; 5. 16Kur; 48; Nar; 3, 2-4; 79, 2-3; cfr. Nar; 68, 155; Puram; 176. 17 The leafy-dress also had flowers interwoven with leaves. 18Paripaatal; 9, 61. |