body, and honoured it by a kind of dancing in which skilled sword play was a feature. Thus we see that both ritual dancing and war-dance were characteristic features of the śangam age as is evidenced by the Tolkāppiyam. From the rude methods of āṭṭam and kūttu which were of different kinds, there evolved perhaps a kind of dumb show in which ideas were expressed by different postures and gestures. This became in course of time popular, and began to stay as an institution. Though there was a development in the art of dancing, still the old kinds of kūttu and others died hard. They continued to exist side by side with the new institution. Ritual dance, for example, is prominently mentioned in the accredited śangam works. It was inseparably connected with primitive modes of worship, much older than the epoch of the Tolkāppiyam. We have already seen it referred to by the grammarian. The references to it in the Kuṛuntogai, Maduraikkāñci and the śilappadikāram show its popularity even in the śangam age. Especially the worship of Murugan and Māyon had the dance as a relieving feature of the occasion. So also the worship of Koṛṛavai (Durgā). The ritual dance associated with the worship of Murugan went by the names of veṛiyāṭal and velanāṭal. The priest who bore the vel, a spear, in his hands and who was a symbolic representative of the Velan, another name for the War-God, offered worship to the God Muruga in the then accepted ways. The method by which the God is invited to partake of the bali offering is described in an ode in the Kuṛuntogai.1 That the bali offering consisted chiefly of cooked rice and the meat of a sheep is evident from the Maduraikkāñci. The religious dance bound up with the worship of Viṣṇu goes by the name of Kuḍam.1 It is a form of ancient worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa. These dances were primarily conducted by the members of the cowherd community. One example of this is found in the Maduraikkāṇḍam of the śilappadikāram. When the Pāṇḍyan king pronounced death sentence on the innocent Kovalan and he was killed, there were innumerable bad omens which indicated some impending calamity. The cowherd-women noticed these and began to pray to Lord Kṛṣṇa to avert the danger. The form of prayer is known as Kuravaikkūttu. It is a peculiar form of dance wherein either seven or nine women engage each joining her hands to those of another. It was not a mere dumb show for the women engaged in this dance also sang in praise of the Lord. Another example of the Kuravaikkūttu is found in the same classical work. After Kaṇṇaki lost her husband, she left the city and went in the western direction along the Vaigai ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 362. |