Ethics is not outside the pale of this Nature poetry: The trees were heavy with flowers, like the bounty of him who realises the transitoriness of life. (Kali. 32. 11) | Like the wealth of the bountiful man, the trees bloomed; like the effortless of those who enjoy the wealth of such a man, the bees sported among the flowers. (Kali. 35. 1-2) |
IV. Epic of the Anklet-Cilappatikaaram The Epic of the Anklet by the Prince ascetic, Ilanko Adikal, is a magnificent synthesis of the Tamil Culture of the period of its composition, the end of the second century A.D. The poet has synthesised in this epic a description of the triple monarchy of the Tamils, their historical greatness, their principal cities, the lives of the people of the five regions, and their characteristic music and song and dance. BERYL DE ZOETE who is an authority on dance and drama in South and South East Asia has paid particular attention to the elements which are of interest to her. The reading is from The Other Mind, A Study of Dance in South India, Victor Gollancz, London, 1950, pages 38 to 41. THE CILAPPATIKAARAM IS a romantic, one might almost say mantic, epic in Tamil, concerning events which may have taken place in the second century of our era. It is supposed by some to have been written about the same period by a younger brother of a king who comes to a sad end in the epic for a noble reason; a reason which today would hardly cause dictators, kings or ministers to lose a night's sleep, much less to feel they could not bear to live. This younger brother Adigal, it is said, renounced his right to the throne and became an ascetic. But the fact is that we really know very little about the date of composition of the epic; like other famous things-histories, poems and works of art of all kinds-it has come tumbling down the centuries till it ends up, provisionally, towards the end of the first millennium A.D. during the Cola dynasty. Its date is not what concerns us here, but the fascinating picture we obtain from it of life in two great south Indian cities in Saxon times. This picture of a highly developed civilisation, in which the theatre, music, dancing and poetry, architecture and painting,1 and seasonal feasts celebrated with enchanting fantasy formed part of the daily ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1All of which were included under "theatre", |