Page:Cilappadikaram The Earliest Tamil Epic.pdf/7

Rh sparkling ornaments light the lamps; the crescent moon, though young, dispels darkness even as the Pandya kings, though young, would annihilate their enemies. Thus the evening came, spreading sweetness among the lovers. To the lonely wives on the other hand who had been sepa- rated from their husbands, it brought only anguish; they discarded their pearls and sandal-paste and chose not to decorate their bed-chamber with flowers.

This is only one description of the onset of an evening. Other descriptions in the book show a pleasing variety in language. They occur in Cantos XIV (1.83 et. seq.), XXII, XXVII, and XXVIII; each has a distinctive splendour. The descriptions of dawn in Cantos XIII, XIV and XXVII are also remarkable for their grandeur.

Cilappadikaram appeals by its fine poetical texture, by its choice of apt and significant words, phrases and lines. The pauses and the stops, the play and counter-play of words found in Canto XVIII (Tunba malai 1. 8, 11, 24 etc., and 11. 9-10 and 11. 25-28) have a subtle effect of their own, which does not perhaps become evident until the second or subsequent reading. The wavering rhythms in which the poet couches the passages breaking the news of Kovalan's murder are also remarkable. Mention must also be made of the austere sublimities to which the poet rises in describing the omens and super-natural occurrences portending evil on the eve of the appearance of Kannaki at the Pandyan king's court. (Canto XX 11. 1-27).

Cilappadikaram is a Tamil epic composed in the second century A.D. and partakes of the characteristics of the Homeric epic in some respects and of the Virgilian epic in some others. The straight and simple way in which Kovalan confesses his faults, short-comings and misdeeds in the presence of his wife is comparable to Homer. Canto XVI (lines 57-70) is charged with the single emotion of Kovalan's repentance. Poetry cannot rise to nobler levels than in these vivid, expressive lines (especially 11. 63-70).