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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY 5, 1872.
And Chola-land the fairest land
On all the earth's broad breast :And of all womenShortly afterwards the poetess Auveiyar visited Chilambi, and found the poor girl in tears. She told the poetess of her sorrowhow she had given Kamban nearly a thousand rupees, and the poet had scribbled an unfinished stanza in charcoal on the wall, and had hastily left her. Upon hearing this Auveiyar rose up, and finished the stanza as follows:
Ambar Silambi
Yaravinta tâļaniyum Sempot silambe Silambu!
-Chilambi Of Ambel is most sweet, - ...nd the best of golden anklets
Those on her lotus-feet! Auveivar for these lines would receive nothing but a little rice-water, to assuage her thirst. And to the present day the poetess goes by the name of Kûlukkupadi, i.e., -"She who sang for some rice-water."
One of the most popular poems in Tamil is the Mudurei. It is perhaps the most wonderful collection of fine similes, within a small compass, in any language. The diction is plain, pure, and extremely beautiful. It has all the marks about it of having been composed by the authoress of the Nalvali and the Kondreivendan. Indeed the internal evidence in favour of this is extremely strong. The phraseology, the rhythmic flow, the copious use of similes and metaphors, all point to her as its author. But there is one stanza in the Madurei which could not possibly have been written by Auveiyar, viz., the one beginning :
Kanamayilada, kaņdirunta Vânkoli," &c.
In this stanza a comparison is instituted Siriar kettâlum sîriyar siriyarê Allátár keţtâlum enägum? Siriya Ponnin kudamudeintal ponnâgum : enâgum Mannin kudam udeintakkal? Nellukk' ireitta nir vâykkal valiyodi Pullukkum angê pusiumam. Tol uligil Nallar oruvar eruntal avar porutt' Ellarukkum peyyum malei.
between the stately peacock and the strutting turkey-cock. It has been pointed out that the turkey was introduced into India by the Portuguese about three hundred years ago.t Auveiyar, the reputed sister of Tiruvalluvar, obviously could not have penned the stanza in question. But on this ground, and it really appears to me on this ground only, some scholars of great learning and undoubted critical acumen, have refused to accredit Auveigar with the authorship of any portion of the poem containing the stanza. A defence has lately been set up, in the assertion that by “ Vânkoli" Auveiyar meant a pea-hen; but nowhere in classic literature is a pea-hen so denominated. The safest explanation is to reject the stanza as a spurious interpolation. Yet it must be allowed that if the stanza be a spurious one it is a marvellous imitation of Auveiyar's style. In the third line a trick of alliteration, very frequent in the verses of Auveiyar, is skilfully adopted.
Polla sira ei viritt'-Adinál nálum. The alliteration which, as the star...a is in the Venbê metre, should occur at the first syllable of Adinal is kept in suspension till the last word is reached, without the ear being last word is reached. offended.
But even if it be allowed that the Mudurei is not the work of Auveigar, it does not affect the main question at issue. Whoever wrote it, and nothwithstanding that it is but a short poem, it occupies a foremost place in Tamil literature as a composition dear to every Tamilian. It is full of the brightest of Oriental thoughts, conveyed in language at once chaste and highly elegant, and on this account it is perhaps more frequently quoted than any other Tamil writing. I beg the reader carefully to weigh the following five stanzas from the Modurei, which, I think, must commend themselves widely to the general English taste : Gold vessels, broken, still as gold we prize, And wise men in adversity are wise : But worthless men, when ruired, what are they? Vessels of clay, when broken, are but clay!
When the tank's water to the rice field flows, It feeds the grass which by its channel grows; Thus for the sake of one good man, on all In this old world, the gracious rain-drops fall.
• The story is mere myth. Auveiyar could not possibly have met Kamban, who probably flourished a couple of centuries after her.
+ Vide Dr. Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, p. 87.
