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Thread: Thevarams - The Historical Perspective.

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    Senior Member Senior Hubber Idiappam's Avatar
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    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....

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    Senior Member Seasoned Hubber viggop's Avatar
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    Appar , sundarar, Gnanasampandhar lived druing the 6-th to 8th century AD, according to scholars.

    They wrote a lot of songs.Gnanasampandhar was supposed to be a child prodigy but most of the songs are not available now(unfortunately)

    During their time, i think religions of Tamils were Jainism,Buddism,Hinduism(like vishnu,shiva,murugan worship and other deties of Hindu pantheon)

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    Senior Member Seasoned Hubber viggop's Avatar
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    I dont know how Jainism spread to TN. I think when the Kannada kings captured TN(Hoysalas or kalabrars),they spread jainism.They had shravana belagola as capital.it is important Jain religious place.
    Also, lot of Tamil kings adopted Jainism as their religion.

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    Senior Member Seasoned Hubber viggop's Avatar
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    The first, second and third ThirumuRaikaL were composed by Thiru GnAna Sampan^thar (திருஞானசம்பந்தர்). Born in SIrkAzhi (சீர்காழி) in the seventh century A.D. he is said to have been nursed by umAdhEvi (உமாதேவி), the sakthi (சக்தி) counterpart of Sivan. In a short life span of 16 years he was one of the architects of the Bhakthi movement. In addition to his delightful songs, he defeated the Jain monks in debate and succeeded in bringing the hunch backed PAndya King back into the Hindu fold. He has composed 1600 pathikams (பதிகங்கள்), out of which only 384 are now available.

    The fourth, fifth and sixth ThirumuRaikaL were authored by Thirun^Avuk karasar (திருநாவுக்கரசர்).He is also known as appar (அப்பர்) , the other architect of the Bhakthi movement. He was born in ThiruvAmUr (திருவாமூர்) and was a contemporary of Thiru GnAna Sampan^thar. He joined the Jain movement for a while and after an attack of a severe abdominal ailment, he came back into the Hindu fold and spent his long span of 80 years in social service. Out of the 4800 pathikams (group of 10 stanzas) he wrote, only 312 are available.

    Sun^tharar (சுந்தரர்), the author of the seventh ThirumuRai was born in ThirumunaipAdi (திருமுனைப்பாடி) . In addition to his devotion to Lord Sivan he was instrumental in organizing the followers into a cohesive group. Only 100 pathikams of Sun^tharar are available The first 7 ThirumuRaikaL are collectively known as ThEvAram (தேவாரம்), garland of gods.

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    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?

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    Senior Member Senior Hubber Idiappam's Avatar
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    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?
    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.

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    Senior Member Senior Hubber Idiappam's Avatar
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    Thanks Viggop, for briefly, but clearly telling us about the the Three Saints and giving us a count on the number of Thevaram Songs that are available to us.

    On the Rise of Janism and Buddism in the South, I think, that is probably due to missionaries sent by Ashoka King and ChandraGupta Maurya -- I am not sure - that was about 200 - 300 BC I guess.

    But, we can see some evidences of the Fall of Jainism and Buddhism in the Thevarams - Appar and Sambandar, with their allies - The Alwars comtemporaries, were instrumental in the decline of Jain and Buddist religions in the south.

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    Senior Member Regular Hubber aravindhan's Avatar
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    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.

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    "...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.... "

    Dear Iddiappam,

    What you have said above is absolute truth. In addition to the above we could further extract informations on ancient Tamil Ragas, Musical Instruments, Saiva Philosophy, Saiva Religious Practices, Temple Worship, Religious Festivals, and many more.

    I encourage all research workers in Tamil Culture & History, and on Hinduism to study through these Thevarams, for that matter also through all the Thirumurais to unearth very useful informations belonging to this period.

    Virarajendra

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    Senior Member Seasoned Hubber viggop's Avatar
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    Virarajendra
    Idiappam Sir has explained a lot of things about music found in thevarams in "Thamizh Isai" thread in Music section.

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