Thevarams - The Historical Perspective.
My dear Hubbers,
Thevarams - they are all about prayers! And a lot of things seem to be achieved by "prayers" that by any other means. Social reform, togetherness, arts, charity, hope and dreams, - and many other 'good' things.
Thevarams are devotional songs written by Three - Appar, Sambandar and Sundaramuthy Nayanars. They run into volumes! Of the 12 Saivite Thirumurais (we can call them 'books'), Thevarams occupy the first seven!
Leaving the Devotional (praises) and Mythological parts that are mentioned in the Thevarams, it would be interesting to see how much of History we can extract from these songs - The description of people, rulers, villages, towns, temples, social conditions, agriculture, customs, commerce and perhaps science. We will see....
We may also take a few of their verses for a literary analysis, just to compare them with other Tamil works done before or after the Thevaram period. - The Language, versification etc.
The scope is just the Saivite Tamil Literature, though we can examine what references to Saivism that existed in Sangam Tamil Literature prior to it - before 200 CE.
But first, these questions have to be answered,
1. When did Appar, Gnanasambandar and Sundarar live?
2. What is the extent of their works - how many songs?
3. The religions of Tamils during their time?
Ok, shall we start....
Re: Thevarams - The Historical Perspective.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Idiappam
But first, these questions have to be answered,
1. When did Appar, Gnanasambandar and Sundarar live?
2. What is the extent of their works - how many songs?
3. The religions of Tamils during their time?
Ok, shall we start....
Dear Idiappam,
Ithartku thaana 'Mahweshwar bhaktha's -63 nayanmarkal -nu oru thread aarampichuvaichen, apuram, y open a new thread? :roll: :?
Re: Thevarams - The Historical Perspective.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raghu
Dear Idiappam,
Ithartku thaana 'Mahweshwar bhaktha's -63 nayanmarkal -nu oru thread aarampichuvaichen, apuram, y open a new thread? :roll: :?
That thread is to talk about the biographies of the 63 Nayanmarkal and perhaps some of thier works - if any.
Here we are going to takle Thevarams only - with relavant quotes from the Thevarams themselves. For example - when it comes to 'importance of education' we can see that Appar was the foremost in stressing that --
"kallAthAr manath thaNukak kadavuL..." 6.84.8.
Other verses from the thevarams may be quoted.
On women of the Thevaram times:
They were educated, lived with familes, went around with their husbands etc... says Sambandar
kazhal malku panthodammaanai moondrin..
..... kaRRavar siRRidai kanni maargal. 1.4.2
So, I hope to see more such lines from the Thevarams, telling us more about 'the times' - the Historical Perspective.
Re: Thevarams - The Historical Perspective.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Idiappam
when it comes to 'importance of education' we can see that Appar was the foremost in stressing that --
"kallAthAr manath thaNukak kadavuL..." 6.84.8.
The importance of education is a very old theme in Tamil puRam literature. There is a song of AriyapaTai kaTanta neTunceziyan in the puRanAnURu in praise of learning:
உற்றுழி உதவியும் உறுபொருள் கொடுத்தும்
பிற்றைநிலை முனியாது கற்றல் நன்றே
பிறப்பு ஓர் அன்ன உடன்வயிற்று உள்ளும்
சிறப்பின் பாலால் தாயும் மனம் திரியும்
ஒருகுடிப் பிறந்த பல்லோ ருள்ளும்
மூத்தோன் வருக என்னாது அவருள்
அறிவுடை யோன் ஆறு அரசும் செல்லும்
வேற்றுமை தெரிந்த நாற்பால் உள்ளும்
கீழ்ப்பால் ஒருவன் கற்பின்
மேற்பால் ஒருவனும் அவன்கண் படுமே
(Obviously, kaRpu in this context means "learning")
I have heard it said by Tamil scholars that the tEvArams adopt themes and imagery from the puRam tradition, not to praise heroism and generosity, but to foster specific moral and religious ideas - could this be an example of that? Kampan (and, less obviously, the AzvArs) do something similar with akam imagery, as some of the verses posted in the Ramayana thread have shown. It would be wonderful if anyone can explain the tEvArams' use of puRam imagery in more detail, it's not something I know very much about, and I would like to learn more.