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 JULY 5, 1872.]

POPULAR TAMIL POETRY.

199

Ukkamatu keividèl.

AUvei YAR is chiefly noted as a poetess for her unrivalled collection of brief moral aphorisms.

Whilst the genuineness of several of her re puted works is open to the gravest question,

Enneluttigalel. Erpat’ igalcchi. Eiyamitt’ un.

the authorship of the Attisudi has never been

Oppura volugu.

doubted. This remarkable poem, possessed of a sublime simplicity, contains the same num

ber of lines as there are letters in the Tamil alphabet ordinarily in use. Each line begins with a letter of this alphabet. Thus the first line commences with an Ana, the next with an Avana, and so on, the proper sequence of letters in the Tamil alphabet being strictly adhered to. It is quite a unique poem, and has been styled by the learned Beschi as “worthy of Seneca him self.” The following are the opening lines:— Aram seya virumbu.

Otuvatoliyel.

Avviyam pèsèl. Desire to do thy duty. Cool thy heat Of wrath. What thou can'st give, do not secrete. Hinder not alms.

Of wealth make not a show.

Of perseverance never let thou go. Numbers and letters scorn not.

To go a begging.

'Tis not meet

First give alms, then eat.

According to established custom walk.

From learning cease not. Without envy talk. All Tamil poems, popular or otherwise, begin with a formal invocation of some deity. One of

Aruvatu sinam.

the most famous of such invocations is that pre

Iyalvatu Karavel.

fixed to the Nalcali of AuveiYAR.

Ivatu villakél.

is a translation of this in vocation and of two

Udeiyatu vilambel.

subsequent stanzas of the poem :—

Pålum, telitenum pāgum parappum,_ivei Nālum kalant’ unakku nãn taruvén.

Kólam sey

Tungakkari mugattu, tu maniyê, ni yenakku Sanga Tamil mundrum tă

The following

Milk and clean honey, sugar and pulse,_these blent, To thee, O Holy Gem, will I present, Thou elephant-visaged, graceful, eminent;. So in return do thou vouch safe to me

Of sanctioned Tamil the varieties three."

Attrup perukkattradi sudumannălumavvá Luttrup perukkâlulaguttu. Mettravarkku

Nalla gudipprantár naikurntár ànàlum “Illei’ yena märttär, iseintu. Attrang kareiyin maramum arasariya Vittrirunta valvum vilumandré. Yêttram

Ulutundu vălvatark' oppillei, kandir, Palutundu vérôr panikku. There is a pretty little legend connected with one of Auvei YAR's most popular verses. The

When the dried rivers sands you hap to tread Your feet are scorched; yet, ev’n then, in its bed Lurk springs, by which the neighbourhood is fed.t Thus men, of good stock born, will never say, Ev’n when impoverish'd, to a beggar—‘Nay.” Trees, growing by rivers, fall; and fall, too, they Who in some monarch's favour flourish gay. Have ye not seen the truth of what I say? All else is faulty:—naught compared can be With Agricultural Prosperity. manded, so KAMBAN took the money, dashed off the following incomplete stanza, and went away ! —

poetess visited the town of Ambel. It happen

Tannirum Kävéri T ârvéndarit Sólan Mannāvatum Sóla Mandalamé, Pennäväl—

ed that a dancing-girl named Chilambi lived in this town. On a former occasion the great KAMBAN had visited Chilambi's house, and the

maiden had given the author of the Ramdiyana a

very large sum of money to write a stanza in her

praise. The sum which the unfortunate girl offer ed the miserly poet was only half of the sum he de Tamilians who used to hold their assemblies in the temple
 * Tamil sanctioned by the conclave of learned

at Madura. We speak of “Queen's English": “Sanga Tamil” is a similar expression.

Of streams, the stately Kāveri– Of kings, is Cholan, best; f This alludes to the well-known native custom of dig ging small temporary wells in the sandy bed of rivers for water, after the rivers have been dried up in the hot 80aSQLl,