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NOVEMBER, 1879.)
NOTES ON THE KURRAL.
307
The Personality of God is very distinctly Thus, in this Kurra! we have ăgara in the brought out by the Tamil poet.
first foot, and ddi in the fourth foot. Mudal (S. mukha) - first. The Tamil idiom In the second line p is sufficiently responded here is peculiar. To understand it, let us sap- to by m, both being labials. pose that a noun, say frost, is made into a kind 2. 'Rhyme' is called in Tamil edugai or of participial adjective, frosted, the glass is yethugai (S. yumaka). It is as in English, but frosted'). Suppose then that this word frosted occurs in the beginning of the lines only; as is declined (like a Greek participle) sing. nom. in Keltic poetry. Thus aga, in this couplet, neut. frostedadu; and pl. nom. neut. frosteda. rhymes with paga. Then, remember that Tamil never inserts the The very learned Ellis translated this couplet mere copula: thus we have, the glass is frosted = thus: glass frostedadu; the glasses are frosted glasses As ranked in every alphabet the first, frosteda. Thus a noun is partially conjugated The self-same vowel stands, so in all worlds, as a verb, and at the same time declined as a Th' eternal God is chief.' noun, and used as a finite verb in the predicate. He, following the native commentator, desSo here, erutt 'ellám mudala 'letters all are troys the simplicity of the poet's conception : a is firsted;' ulagu mudattu = 'the world is firsted.' the first letter, the Eternal God is first of Beings. This makes Tamil poetry very terse.
Beschi translates : agara = 'the letter a.' In S. kára (action) Literae omnes principium habent literam A: is added to letters to form their names. In Mundus principiam habet namen primordiale.' Tamil this has been refined upon: a short letter The epithets applied to God in the chapter shortens kára into kăra ; thus ăgăra; but ágára. are various and instructive. These are : The Tamil always changes a single tenuis into I. The eternal (first) adorable one'; its appropriate media in the middle of a word II. "He who hath pure knowledge'; thos, kara becomes gara.
III. He who hath moved (as a bronth of ulagu, 'the world,' is a Tamil form of S. Loka. | air) over the flower (of the expanded soul)';
1. No Tamil word begins with l or r. Thus IV. He to whom is neither desire nor ů is prefixed.
aversion'; [qu. Lucretius : deos secure agere 2. K is changed to its tenuis.
aevom.'] 3. Such nouns are made to end in Tamil in v. "The Lord'; (and X.) am ort, which are neuter nominative case VI. "He who has destroyed the gates of the endings.
five senses'; [?without parts or passions.'] eruttu, 'letter.' Here final u is cut off before VII. He to whom no likeness is'; vowel e of following word; and the singular is [* nec viget quid quam simile aut secundum.'] used for the plural. [Verud - write, paint, draw. VIII. "The ocean of virtue, beautiful and The Telugu root is vrá. Kan. is bare. Tamil gracious one'; has also voare. Comp. A.S. writ.]
IX. "He who possesses eight qualities.' ell-am 'all'. [comp. A. S. eal. whole.] I have It is quite evident that the poet has selected already spoken of alliteration and initial rhyme epithets to be applied to the Supreme which as essentials of Tamil verse.
admit of being explained in various senses. It is curious that these characteristics of There is room for men of many systems to Scandinavian, Anglo-saxon, and even of English import into his verses, under the guise of comverse should be found in Tamil. The hunting mentaries, their own dogmas. Ellis sees in of the letter' as the Elizabetban poet calls it, is them an enlightened and sublime monotheism. the most essential ornament of Tamil verse. To Beschi they serve as exponents of the Chris.
1. Alliteration is called in Tamil mônai, tian Theology. The Jains, delighted with the which is a contraction of muganai (that which appropriation by the poet of one or two beautiful belongs to the beginning).
terms from their writings, claim him as their If a begins the line, a, a, ai or au must begin own. Perhaps it may be allowed me to say that some other foot in the line.
I see in Tiruvalluvar & noble truth-loving If ka begins the line ka, ká, koi, &c. most devout man, feeling in the darkness after God, begin some other foot in the line.
if haply he might find Him.
