The vaḷḷi will not yield its roots, the hilltops will not yield honey, the garden panicum will not thrive, because the mountain dwellers have observed that which is evil. | In the mountain summits which attract the eye, and where the gloriosa superba casts around its fragrance, the bows of the archers fail not, only because their wives are devoted single-mindedly to their sires. |
The inference in the latter part is that the hunters in the hills will not be successful in obtaining food with the bow and arrow if they do not regard the traditional propriety regarding the wedlock in question.16 Such is the power of chastity, that a chaste maid or a chaste wife could merit seasonal rains for her village.17 Such is the power of the prayer of good men that their devotions bring rain when they are in need, and keep away the rain clouds when it threatens to rain in excess.18 Vergil enunciated a principle of poetry much in vogue among the ancients when he said that what is described ought to correspond to the dignity of the theme-si canimus silvas, silvae sint consule dignae. The Tamil poets took pains to describe everything noble even in the landscape of their idealized heroes. In love poems the heroes and heroines may be real or imaginary. The poet may have in mind actual incidents from life, or he may be describing incidents his poetic fancy has built up. The heroes and heroines are chiefly depicted as ideal persons, for Tolkaappiyar and the poets believed in another principle enunciated also by Aristotle, that a class is represented by the best of its type. They chose the best of the types they described, and the nobility of the landscape is always made to reflect the nobility of character of their heroes. Descriptions and allusions to Nature contain historical references of a kind which allude to the goodness, gentleness and kindness of the historical heroes. When Shakespeare in Coriolanus refers to Valeria as- Chaste as the icicle
That’s curdied by the frost from purest snow
And hangs on Dian’s temple, |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16Kali; 39. | 18Puram; 143, 1-3. |
17 Kali; 19, 20; Kali; 39, 6. |