Kandhar Shashti Kavacam

[murugadas]

Sanggam Literature is a body of literature that dates back about 2000 years. How long before that time, it started? This is one question that nobody is able to answer. The origins and past history are shrouded in mystery.

Tholkaappiyam is the earliest that we have. It is a mini-encyclopedia dealing with grammer, etc. It contains 1700 lines.

There are a class of poetry known as the 8 anthologies and 10 songs.
These belong to the Third Sanggam.
There were 3 Sanggams altogether.

More than 2000 poems are extant now in this body of literature.

[viggop]

[

There are a class of poetry known as the 8 anthologies and 10 songs.

Is this the ettuthokai and pathupattu?
Not wanting to divert the topic,but curious to know what these two deal with? Religion? King? Love?War?

[murugadas]

You are correct.
Theye are the Eight Anthologies - ettu thogai
Paththu Paattu - Ten Idylls or songs.

They deal with all the above aspects that you have mentioned.
Paripaadal, ThirumurugaaRRuppadai deal directly with religion.
Murugan Paripaadal and ThirumurugaaRRuppadai are dedicated to Murugan.

[viggop]

Who has composed Paraipadal?
Nakeerar is supposed to have composed thirumurugatrupadai dealing with the 6 abodes of Lord Muruga.

[murugadas]

Paripaadal is a collection of songs which have been composed by various poets.

The number of Paripaadals must have been large. But quite a lot has been lost.

What we have today is a meagre number - just a mere twenty-two songs.

They have been sung by a total of thirteen poets.

The songs are unique in the sense that they have been sung. Not recited like the other works.

Each song has been composed by one set of poets; but the tunes to the songs have been set by a dfifferent set of poets/musicians. Ten poet/musicians have set the tunes.

The songs have been dedicated to:

Thirumaal - 6
Murugan - 8
The River Vaigai - 8

The places which receive mention are Madurai, ThirupparanggunRam, Vaigai River, and Thirumaaliruncholai.

These songs reveal a lot of factual details about the Age and the environment which were prevailing at the time.

They also differ from other Sanggam poetry in an important sense, i.e., they have been dedicated to gods and they are Theological in nature.

I dont know whether there are exhaustive descriptions about each piece of Sanggam Literature in the Web. I know that the text versions are available. But what about the descritions? Commentaries? Meanings? Analysis? Research?

[murugadas]

Talking about Paripaadal again,

I said there were 70 Paripaadals, out of which only 22 were found.

Further research had revealed another 11 songs. These songs were found in the commentaries made for other literary works. The commentators had quoted the songs as 'eduththuk kaattu'.

These songs have been incorporated into later compilations.

The category of Paripaadal songs is very ancient. In the commentary to 'iRaiyanaar agapporuL', mention is made of Paripaadals among the works of the Second Tamil Canggam at Kapaatapuram.
That would place them before 300 BC.

[murugadas]

The Paripaadals are another unique group of literature.

Not only the diction is good, they were also sung to tunes.

They must have been set to the scales of various types of lutes, harps, flutes which were in existance in those days.

We would'nt know a lot of facts about these things. But we can surmise somewhat, if we draw parallels with contemporaneous things which were found among the Ancient Greeks.

[murugadas]

There is an old veNbaa which serves as a sort of mnemonic about the vaious works which compose the 'ettu thogai'.

Perhaps it would be good if I give the verse in Romanised Tamil?

'naRRiNai', nalla 'kuRundhogai', 'aingguRunURu',
oththa 'padhiRRuppaththu', Onggu 'paripaadal',
kaRRaRindhaar Eththum 'kali'yOdu 'agam', 'puRam', enRu
iththiRaththa 'ettuth thogai'

Those names within inverted commas are the .Eight Anthologies'.

So....you see, paripaadal is elevated with the addition of an accolade of 'Onggu'.

Paripaadal is further eulogised with this:

canggam ennum thungga mali kadaluL
aridhin elzundha paripaattu amudham.

Many people know about the puranic story about whipping the
Sea of Milk by the Devas and Asuras to obtain the Divine Nectar called Amirdham.

Amirdham is alluded to Paripaadal which has been obtained from the Sea of Canggam.

[viggop]

Murugadas Sir
Hope you are fine! Please continue to post on Skanda Sashti Kavacham.Thanks

[JayBee]

I forgot my user name and the password.

So I could not post anything.
This morning, it took me more than half hour to get a new password and log in.

May be the Forumhub chaps could sort of recognise me and let me in without this hassle of logging in or registering.

Some of these cities present certain certain people with golden keys as honorary citizens of the city.