personal addresses like those of Catullus or Shakespeare. Though the sentiments are the same, the form of Tamil love-poetry differs widely. The Tamil poet of the Cankam period may be writing to his own Tamil lover, but convention binds him. He must take a topic out of the many provided in Tolkaappiyam’s ample code and express his feelings through an imaginary situation such as “What the lover said to himself when separated from his beloved”. The desire for anonymity and impersonal expression is a characteristic of ancient Indian poetry. In puṛam, there is neither impersonation nor imaginary situation. A poet is free to express his thoughts and feelings and describe events in the manner he deems best, though his poems too are subject to the codification contained in the section of Tolkaappiyam pertaining to puṛam poetry.7 Except for the five major divisions of warfare and their sub-divisions, which are made parallel to the akam regions, the treatment of Nature in puṛam poetry is in no way controlled, and is left to the genius of each poet.8 Nature and Man Since a minute and accurate study of Nature was prescribed to the Tamil poet of the Cankam age, we find the poetry of that age very faithful to Nature. Stopford Brooke observes in his study of Naturalism in English Poetry: “There are two great subjects of poetry; the natural world . . . and human nature. When poetry is best, most healthy, most herself, she mingles together human nature and Nature, and the love of each. Human nature is first in poetry and Nature second. but they must be together, if the poetry is to be great and passionate, simple and perceptive, imaginative and tender. It is a terrible business for poetry when it is wholly employed on man, or wholly employed on Nature. In either case the poetry becomes thin, feeble, unimaginative, incapable of giving ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 T. 1002-1037. 8 T. P. MEENAKSHISUNDARAN, Collected Papers, p. 35 f, Annamalainagar, 1961. |