an ambush to drive away the parrots, their raising such cries as frighten the birds in their nests, their sporting in the river whose waters flow from the mountain heights “like white linen”, and their having dried themselves and their hair, gathering flowers on the hillsides. Such pleasurable distractions, sometimes in the company of the hero, were not confined to the hillsides.¹⁹ In the other regions, except obviously in the paalai, the young enjoyed themselves in like manner. The Paṭṭinappaalai gives an account of the neytal regions, how the fisher-folk on full moon days, adorned themselves with the flowers of their own region, played on the beach with crabs and the waves, built castles on the sand, and thus passed the live-long day.²⁰ The Kali odes give many an indication of the festive dance under mullai bowers and the arcadic life of the shepherds in the open air.²¹Marutam was known for its aquatic sports. Not only the long descriptions in Paripaaṭal, but also other verses reveal a keen appreciation of water sports.²² The Paṭṭinappaalai says that the ritual bathing in the tanks of Pukaar were productive of happiness in both worlds.²³

   The people in the poems had their houses built in beautiful surroundings, in the centre of a garden. Pergolated paths led to the central entrance. It is under these bowers that the young heroine is often pictured as engaged in play. Here too the heroine plants a creeper or plant and waters it daily with her own hands.²⁴ Sometimes, it is a plant that is grown in an earthen jar or flower pot.²⁵ When the heroine has left home with her lover, these plants that she has nurtured are among the constant reminders to the nurse of the child now lost to her.²⁶

A Naṛṛiṇai poem (172) speaks of a punnai plant watered by the heroine as having been considered to be her younger sister.

   Natural beauty and flowers entered on a preponderant

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   ²¹Kali; 1; 49; 3; 75; 6; 47.

   ²²Aink; 71-80; Paripaatal poems on Vaiai.

   ²⁵ Akam; 165, 11. 26 Nar; 110; 305.