D01125 Lesson 5 Akananuru-2

    
This lesson speaks of the salient features of ‘Akananauru’. It discusses the concept of ‘Agathinai’ expounded in this anthology. It explains the ‘mudarporul’, ‘uriporul’ and ‘karuporul’ found in ‘Akananuru’. It also offers a brief study of the characters i.e., (akaporul maantharkal), situations (akaporul nikazhvugal) and monologues or utterances i.e., (kootrugal) in the poems.

The poems in ‘Akananuru’ sing of the inner universe and speak of the intangibles of life such as human emotions, love, separation and marriage. There are 7 types of agathinai. The poems in ‘Akananuru’, however, pertain only to 5 of these. There are no songs based on the 2 non-geographical tinais- ‘peruntinai’ and ‘kaikilai’.

The situations and incidents dramatized by the poems are called ‘Thuraigal’. The ‘Thuraigal’ are classified on the basis of the nature and the significance of the utterances of the various characters. The thalaivan i.e., (lover), thalaivi (beloved), thozhi (thalaivi’s friend), paangan (thalaivan’s friend), sevili (foster mother), nattrai (mother) and kandor (people who see the thalaivan and thalaivi meeting each other) are the chief characters in these poems.

The akam poems depict the relationship between the thalaivan and the thalaivi. The songs pertaining to the thalaivan may be in the form of the thalaivan’s soliloquy, his utterances to his charioteer or the thalaivi or his friend or the thozhi. Similarly, the songs of the thalaivi may be in the form of her monologues with the thozhi, the thalaivan or the paangan and the virali, the wandering minstrel. The thozhi plays an important role in bringing the thalaivan and the thalaivi together. The poems centering on the thozhi are usually dramatic renderings of what she says to the thalaivan, the thalaivi, or the sevili. Those poems that pertain to the sevili may be in the form of her utterances to the nattrai, the parathai (courtesan) and the kandor.