Sangam landscape

Thinais

The Sangam landscape (Tamil: அகத்திணை "inner classification") is the name given to a poetic device that was characteristic of love poetry in classical Tamil Sangam literature. The core of the device was the categorisation of poems into different tiṇais or modes, depending on the nature, location, mood and type of relationship represented by the poem. Each tiṇai was closely associated with a particular landscape, and imagery associated with that landscape - its flowers, trees, wildlife, people, climate and geography - was woven into the poem in such a way as to convey a mood, associated with one aspect of a romantic relationship.

Symbolism

Classical Tamil love poetry assigns the human experiences it describes, and in particular the subjective topics that those experiences relate to, to specific habitats. Every situation in the poems is described using themes in which the time, the place and the floral symbols of each episode are codified. These codifications are used as symbols to imply a socio-economic order, occupations and behaviour patterns, which, in turn, are symbolized, by specific flora and fauna. Details of secondary aspects are just as rigidly codified - the seasons, the hour a god, musical instruments and, above all, the sentimental connotations of each landscape: lovers' meetings, patient waiting, lovers' quarrels, separation, and the anxiously awaited return.

Geographical and non-geographical thinais

Under this codification, the inner universe associated with love is divided into seven modes, or thinai, five of which are geographical and associated with specific landscapes, and two of which are non-geographical and not associated with any specific landscape. Four of the geographical landscapes are described as being landscapes that occur naturally in the Tamil lands. These are: kuṟiñci (குறிஞ்சி) - mountainous regions, associated with union, mullai (முல்லை) - forests, associated with waiting, marutam (மருதம்) - cropland, associated with quarreling, and neytal (நெய்தல்) - seashore, associated with pining. The fifth - pālai (பாலை), or desert, associated with separation - is described in the Tolkappiyam as not being a naturally existing landscape.

From these basic associations of landscape and subject, a wide range of specific themes suitable for each landscape were derived. Thus, for example, the commentary on the Iraiyanar Akapporul states that as a result of the association of the kuṟiñci landscape with union, it was also associated with the fear of separation, reassurance, the hero's or heroine's discussions with their friends, their being teased or taunted by their friends, their replies to their friends, the friends' role as intermediary, the meeting of the lovers, grief and doubt, and other similar themes. According to the Tamilneri vilakkam, a 9th-century text on poetry, the love themes described by the five thinais constitute "the Tamil way of life" or "the Tamil way of love." (tamiḻneṟi)^[1]

The two non-geographical modes - kaikkilai and peruntiṇai - were seen as dealing with emotions that were unnatural, and therefore were not associated with any specific landscape. Kaikkilai, dealt with unreciprocated or one-sided love, while peruntiṇai, dealt with improper love or love against the rules of custom.

Poetic Attributes of the Landscapes

The relationship between thinai and landscape

Despite the strong association of each thinai with a geographical landscape, in classical prosody it was the conduct described by the poem that constituted its thinai, and that thus determined the geographical region that was appropriate to it. Nakkīranar, in his commentary on the Iṟaiyaṉār Akapporuļ provides an analogy. The word "a light", he says, is in Tamil used not only to describe the flame that gives light, but also the torch or other object being burned by the flame. This, however, does not change the fact that the light is the flame, and not the object that emits it. Similarly, though the tiṇai associated with the union of the lovers is called the "mountain country" tiṇai, the mountain country is like the object that emitting light. The tiṇai itself is the conduct that is the subject of the poem, namely, the union of the lovers.

The Geographical thinais

South India in the 3rd century AD

In Tamil, each of the five geographical thinais are named for a flower that is characteristic of that landscape. In English translation, however, it is customary to use the name of the landscape rather than that of the flower, largely because the flowers lack the cultural association with a specific language in English that they have in Tamil.

Kurinji – Mountainous Region

The mountain is the scene of the lovers' union at midnight. It is the cold, dewy season. The forest is rich with lakes, waterfalls, teak, bamboo and sandalwood. In this region millet grows and wild bees are a source of honey. Love in this setting is exemplified by Murugan, and one of his wives, Valli, the daughter of a mountain dweller. He wears the sparkling red kantal flower and rides a peacock, the bird of the mountains.

The name of the region, Kurinci, is also the name of the famous Kurinji flower (Strobilanthes kunthiana) from the lofty hills of Tamil country. The Strobilanthes, a shrub whose brilliant white flowers blossom for only a few days once every ten or twelve years, blanketing the slopes in radiant whiteness under the sun. This event of jubilation and purity symbolizes the frenzy of a sudden love shared, in concert with the unleashed forces of nature: the amorous dance of peacocks, their echoing cries, the splash of waterfalls, the roar of savage beasts. The lovers hold each other tighter still and forget the dangers of the mountain path.

Mullai – Forests

Mullai is the land of the forest. The forest is rich with lakes, waterfalls, teak, bamboo and sandalwood. In this region millet grows and wild bees are a source of honey. Mullai or Jasmine (Jasminum auriculatum) is the flower of the forests.

The theme of the forest and of shepherds at play, the image of confident waiting for the loved one, produced an original offshoot; for this is the region of Vishnu, and the love theme it represents symbolizes the devotee waiting in the hope that Vishnu, as Krishna, will eventually come and fill his soul, thus experiencing the joys of expectation.

Marutham – Cropland

Pictorial representation for geographical thinais named Marutham, which relates to that of a characteristic feature of areas surrounding in and around Cropland's (or Fields) by classical poetry in Tamil language

The plains were the scene of triangular love plots in which the hero's visits to the courtesan oblige the heroine to counter with a mixed show of coquetry and moodiness, tactics whose limits are described in the Thirukkural ("Sulking is like flavouring with salt; a little suffices, but it is easy to go too far.").

The Marutam (Lagerstroemia speciosa) tree was the characteristic tree of this region.

Neithal – Seashore

The seashore affords many examples of the compelling charm of Sangam poetry and the extraordinary freshness of its realism. From behind the conventional symbolization of waiting there emerges a picture of the life of the fisherfolk; the nets and boats drawn up on the beach, scuttling crabs and cart wheels bogged down in the sand, the odour of drying fish, cut into thick slices, which attracts the birds, beautiful village girls peering through the Pandanus hedges, and the wind blowing through the cracks in the roughly constructed straw huts at night.

Water lily is the characteristic flower of the region.

Pālai – Desert

In classical Tamil prosody, the pālai or wasteland is not seen as being a naturally occurring ecology. Ilampuranar, in his commentary on the Tolkappiyam, explains that instead, the landscape of the wasteland with which the paalai is associated emerges when other landscapes whither under the heat of the burning sun. Thus this landscape is associated with the theme of separation, which occurs when love is subject to external pressures that drive the lovers apart. Paalai could thus be seen as a mixture of Mullai and Kuṟiñci tracts, rather than as a mere sandy area.

The theme of wasteland and separation occupies half of one of the most famous anthologies, the theme of the mountain being only secondary.

Paalai tree is identified as Wrightia (Wrightia tinctoria).

Non-geographical thinais

Whilst the palai landscape is not associated with a permanently existing landscape, it is nonetheless assigned a definite landscape. The two thinais of kaikkilai and peruntiṇai, however, are assigned no landscape, nor are they named for flowers, instead, they are named directly for the emotions they describe. In Tamil prosody, the reason for this is stated to be that they deal with unnatural emotions, and consequently cannot be associated with a landscape that is part of nature. Although kaikkilai and peruntiṇai, too, deal with emotions that are similar to those dealt with in the poems that belong to the five geographical thinais. The difference, however, is that in these non-geographical thinais, the situation of the lovers makes the emotions unnatural.

In kaikkilai, the situation that is describes is made unnatural by the fact that the love that animates the feelings is one-sided.

In perunthinai, the situation is made unnatureal by the fact that it has occurred as the result of acts contrary to tradition, such as a union of a man with a woman who is much older, a union where one of the parties does not consent, or a separation that occurs as the result of the breach by one party of his or her duties.

See also

• Sangam Literature
• Sangam

References

• Gros, Francois, Poetry in a landscape; the world of Sangam - Indian literature, UNESCO Courier, March 1984.
• Kaḷaiviyal eṉṟa Iṟaiyaṉār Akapporuḷ. South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society Ltd., Madras: 1976.
• Tolkappiyam porulatikāram, iḷampūraṇar uraiyuṭaṉ. Vol 1: akattiṇaiyiyal, puṟattiṇaiyiyal. South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society Ltd., Chennai: 2000.