Thevarams - The Historical Perspective.

[Idiappam]

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....