DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Thevarams

**Lillie_Steins** · 11-13-2005, 10:04 AM

Nice lines...

Yes, the entire song is one of my favourites.

I don't really understand, what is 'puram imagery'. Some light please.

My wording certainly wasn't clear! What I meant was that the songs of Kampan, and to a lesser extent, the Azhvars, make heavy use of the types of metaphors and other associations, particularly in relation to landscapes, that one finds in the akam poetry of the cankam period, but of course with a religious twist. For example, Kampan uses the image of a deer caught in a barren landscape with "parunthu"s circling overhead in describing Sitai's reaction to Iraman's accusations. One similarly often encounters of rice fields, the sandy seashore, hilly tracts, etc. This has been much analysed by scholars - the essence is that the language of feelings developed by sangam poetry for secular love is appropriated to refer to religious devotion.

I've heard some scholars say that in a similar way, the Tevarams use the poetic techniques and metaphors which puram poetry developed for describing its themes - heroism, generosity, virtue, glory, stoicism, etc. -, but to convey aspects of saiva philosophy. Thus if the puram songs praise a particular mode of conduct for secular reasons, the Tevarams, according to these scholars, praise the very same mode of conduct, using poetic devices which are quite similar(if one keeps in mind the time separating them) but giving it a religious colour. I would like to find out more about this, and that basically was my question. I hope I've explained it better now.

11-13-2005, 10:04 AM	#22
Lillie_Steins Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 4,508 Senior Member	Nice lines... Yes, the entire song is one of my favourites. I don't really understand, what is 'puram imagery'. Some light please. My wording certainly wasn't clear! What I meant was that the songs of Kampan, and to a lesser extent, the Azhvars, make heavy use of the types of metaphors and other associations, particularly in relation to landscapes, that one finds in the akam poetry of the cankam period, but of course with a religious twist. For example, Kampan uses the image of a deer caught in a barren landscape with "parunthu"s circling overhead in describing Sitai's reaction to Iraman's accusations. One similarly often encounters of rice fields, the sandy seashore, hilly tracts, etc. This has been much analysed by scholars - the essence is that the language of feelings developed by sangam poetry for secular love is appropriated to refer to religious devotion. I've heard some scholars say that in a similar way, the Tevarams use the poetic techniques and metaphors which puram poetry developed for describing its themes - heroism, generosity, virtue, glory, stoicism, etc. -, but to convey aspects of saiva philosophy. Thus if the puram songs praise a particular mode of conduct for secular reasons, the Tevarams, according to these scholars, praise the very same mode of conduct, using poetic devices which are quite similar(if one keeps in mind the time separating them) but giving it a religious colour. I would like to find out more about this, and that basically was my question. I hope I've explained it better now.
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