Kuṟuntokai

Kurunthogai (Tamil: குறுந்தொகை), a classical Tamil poetic work, is the second book of Ettuthokai, a Sangam literature anthology. Kuruntokai contains poems dealing with matters of love and separation (அகம்) content matter and were written by numerous authors. Kurunthogai compiled by Pooriko. Nachinarkiniyar (உரை), a Tamil scholar living during the sixth or the seventh century C.E. has annotated this work.

Red earth and pouring rain

மெல்ல மெல்ல நம் காதல் மாரி பெய்யலீல் நீர் உவமையிடவதி்ல் என் தந்தை மற்றும் உங்கள் தந்தை, எப்படி அவர்கள் தொடர்புள்ளனர் என்றும் நானும் நீயும் எப்படி ஒருவருக்கொருவர் அறிந்திருக்கிறோம் என்றும் புரிய செய்தது.

A beautiful poem from Kuruntokai is the famous Red earth and pouring rain by the Sangam age poet Sembula Peyaneerar. This poem is the verse 40 in the Kuruntokai anthology. The image of "red earth and pouring rain" evokes pictures of the first monsoon rains falling on the red-earthed hills typical of the Tamil lands to mingle with the dry, parched soil forming a cool, damp clay, and of the flowers blooming in the rain. The mood created is that of lovers, clandestinely meeting in the hills, their hearts waking suddenly, unexpectedly, to each other.

A second level of meaning is created by the imagery of progression. The poem opens with the possible bonds of friendship, and then kinship, between the parents. Then, it moves to bonds formed by two people learning and getting to know each other. From these abstractions, it comes to concreteness with the picture of red earth in the rain, drawing a parallel with the lover's journey from aloneness to union.

Finally, there is the image of the kurinji flower itself. Though never mentioned in the poem, it is nonetheless present as a fundamental part of a landscape of hills. A kurinji flower only blooms once in twelve years,^[1] the period associated in Tamil tradition with the coming of a girl to sexual maturity. Unspoken, but present, in the poem through the image of the flower is a sense of a woman awakening to herself and to union.

Translations

• Translated to English by Dr.Jayanthasri Balakrishnan. It shall be noted that she was awarded doctorate in the early days of career for her study in the English renderings of the text.^[2]
• Translated to Assamese as 'Kurundoheir Kabita' by Bijoy Sankar Barman^[3]

In popular culture

The poem has been used in the song Narumagaye in Iruvar and in the song Yaayum in Sagaa.

See also

• Sangam literature

References

• Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983)
• http://tamilnation.co/literature/
• Project Madurai Kuruntokai eText - http://www.projectmadurai.org/pm_etexts/pdf/pm0110.pdf

External links

• English Translations of Sangam Literature
• Kurunthokai poem in easy to read comic book format