Bard strumming the harp - Ainkurunooru 402

Pleasing it is, mother!

As the bard strumming the harp!

 Ainkurunooru 402

Mullai Thinai poem by Poet Peyanaar, depicting the words of foster mother to the heroine's mother.

Sangam Literature the Basics - Marutham thinai

Marutham thinai refers to the paddy fields and adjoining lands. It gets its name from the flowering marutham tree which grows in farmlands. 

After the hero and heroine get married and even have a child, the hero leaves the house to live with courtesans. Hence the marutham thinai poems talk about the hero’s infidelity and the heroine’s sorrow and resentment. The subject of the poems is called the uripporul (உரிப்பொருள்), meaning the base characteristic of the poems. Hence in marutham thinai, the  infidelity of the hero and the resentment of the heroine is the uriporul.

The hero leaves and lives with concubine, he plays with concubines in rivers,

Sangam Literature the Basics - Mullai thinai

Mullai thinai refers to the forests and the adjoining lands. It is named after the jasmine flower. Jasmine plants abound in the forests, especially in the rainy season.

Image:Thanks Google

Image: Thanks Google

Typically, the heroine waits for the arrival of the hero, who had left for some job, after having promised to the heroine that he would return before the onset of the rainy season. So when the signs of rainy season show up and the hero hasn’t returned the heroine expects him more and more. The love between the hero and heroine is beautifully depicted as they miss each other and long to be reunited. The hero wishes to finish his job and return swiftly to his sweetheart whereas the heroine waits patiently for the arrival of the hero. These poems absolutely entice the readers' hearts.

Jewels of women loosen - Ainkurunooru 25

'Ettuththokai' meaning the Eight anthologies is a collection of poems from ancient Tami literature or the Sangam Literature. The lifestyle of the people was dependent on the nature of the landforms. Hence the poems are also categorized into five landforms typically called as five 'thinai's. Those are kurinji, mullai, marutham, neithal and paalai. Kurinji refers to the mountains and adjoining lands. Mullai refers to the forests and adjoining lands. Marutham refers to the plains and adjoining lands. Neithal refers to the sea and adjoining lands. Palai doesn't have a separate landform, thereby the Kurinji and Mullai lands dried by drought were referred to as Paalai. This is just a small intruduction to get you all started. I will discuss more about these thinais in different posts from now on. Of the five, Marutham poems speak of the hero's infidelity and the heroine's sorrow.

Among the eight anthologies, Ainkurunooru is a collection of 500 short poems. Each thinai has 100 poems based on it. So a 100 poems numbered 1 to 100 are based on Marutham thinai which speak of the hero's infidelity. These poems were sung by a poet named Orampogiyaar.

Let us see one such poem, which is the 25th poem in the Ainkurunooru collection.