Page:Cilappadikaram The Earliest Tamil Epic.pdf/8

Rh "How many vain days did I spend with worthless women, indulging in useless gossip and cavil! How have I belied the hopes and expectations of my parents! Alas! I heeded not their behests! Again, how much have I wronged you! What grief have I caused you!! I did not even pause to think it was unworthy of me to ask you to accompany me. 'Follow me', I said, and you came, my beloved one! What a noble act have you done!" There are probably few passages to equal this in any literature.

Just as Homer's characters keep to regular forms of address, Ilanko's courtiers, ministers, ambassadors and commanders adhere to the regular forms appropriate in the presence of a king. This is seen in the trial scene in Madurai Kandam, where the herald ushers in Kannaki and also in the scenes in Vanchi Kandam (the third part of the book).

In another respect also, Cilappadikaram resembles the Homeric epic. Kannaki dies not for the honour of society but for her own honour. True, she lives for others, as she lives for herself but when her husband is killed, she wants to join him in death and only postpones it till she vindi- cates his honour.

Light fun is provided in Canto XIV (Ur Kan Kathai) in the accounts of men and women spending their time in sport and pastime. The descriptions of how they spend their morning, noon and evening remind us of Homer. In the accounts of gods such as those we find in Canto XI (Kādu Kan Kathai) where a jungle deity tempts Kovalan, we have comic interludes. The whole of this canto is replete with an air of the supernatural.

This Tamil epic partakes also of the characteristics of the Virgilian epic. One of the heroes, Senkuttuvan is prepared to die not for his personal glory but for the honour of his land. When he was informed by a wandering minstrel that certain kings of the North had spoken in disparaging terms of the valour of Tamil kings, he gave