Cankam literature has a considerable ethical portion if you consider the didactic poems as well as those that personify and illustrate virtuous deeds and alludes to virtuous persons. “Ethics in Cankam literature” would certainly form enough matter for a voluminous study. Here is a typical poem of four lines by Avvai, “the Tamil Sappho”: Land whether it be high or low, cultivated or uncultivated may be called good not because it yields good crops, but because it yields good inhabitants.9 |
which is a typical comparison where a certain lover’s words are said to be as faultless and true as the arrows shot by the archers of the army chief, Palayan.10 Tamil poetry abounds with passages in which the fertility of a region or kingdom, unfailing rains, well-watered rivers, abundance of birds and beasts and general prosperity are ascribed as the result of the righteous rule of the sovereign. The panegyric poems of the Pattuppaaṭṭu, the Patiṛṛuppattu and the Puṛanaanuuṛu are impregnated with this idea. The praise of a sovereign’s rule meant the praise of the hills, of the rivers, and the general beauty and fertility of his kingdom.11 Sometimes the panegyrics assume a language reminiscent of Vergil in the fourth eclogue. Describing the region of ˜lantirayan, the poet says, “in his land there are no marauders that attack wayfarers to rob them of their goods. Peals of thunder you will not hear; the serpent will not kill, nor the forest animals hurt. Proceed, therefore, as you will.”12 When praising a sovereign, the roar of the ocean or the cataract, and the sound of thunder, are said to be the drums that announce his greatness. The heights of the mountains bespeak the heights of greatness achieved by him. The streams that descend the mountain sides may be seen shimmering silver-like from far and wide; they are the silver banners which proclaim his victories and his unrivalled prowess in war.13 The waters even in the swiftest and deepest of his ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9Puram; 187. | 10Nar; 10, 6-9. |
11 E.g. Puram; 143, 12; Puram; 231 ff; Maturaikañci;105 ff; Patir; 28. 12Perumpaan 40-43. 13Patir; 69, 78; Akam; 162, 358; Patir; 70, 22; Puram; 126, 8. |