The Legend of Kolavari Arankan- Set of Two Volumes in Tamil (An Old and Rare Book)

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Ancient Tamil literature is divided into Akam and Puram. The former speaks of love and the latter of the community's external life like agriculture, domesticity, trade and war. The works are grouped as major and minor. However, much of ancient Sanskrit literature is in the form of Puranas. These works inspired Tamil versions in later times. Many of them are translations of Sanskrit puranas. The Puranam genre in Tamil consists mainly of sthala puranams that deal with the myths and legends associated with places of religious significance.

The present publication Kolavarait tuyilarankan caritam (The History of Arankan Resting on Kola Hill) has ' history' in its title but follows the puranic genre. It has been written as the Puranam of the Arankan temple at Cenci. Hence, it becomes necessary to have some idea about the term Puranam.

Puranam means "ancient history ". All religions speak of their supreme lord as the Ancient, the Puranam.

"The truth, the pure, the Ancient, the seer" (Cilappatikaram, 10 - 179)

"The seer, the one who has forded, the one who has performed good deeds, the Ancient" (Manimekalai, 5 - 98)

The Lord is the Truth - signification of creation; himself pure, he purifies living beings; he has ever - increasing glories. Possessed of true wisdom, he shines as the wisdom of every one. He is the very image of Dharma. The epics which praise the Lord thus refer to him as the Ancient one, since one cannot imagine the existence of creation prior to his presence.

Manimekalai questions several scholars (Saivites, Brahmavadins, Vaishnavites, Vedantins, Ajivakas, Nikantas, Sankhyas, Vaiseshikas, Butavadins) on different religions doctrines. The epic says:

"Full of devotion, he recited the Puranam <<p> of the sea - hued Lord; said

Narayanan is the guardian".

Though Puranic literature is quite ancient, every language of our land has a sumptuous amount of the same. Indians have always loved to listen to great poems recited and explained by scholars and poets. The puranams are not fleeting in their popularity. Even today when science has made mind - boggling advances, there is no one who is prepared to reject the Ramayana and the Makaparatam. Meditating upon this phenomenon, one cannot fail to come to the conclusion that the puranams are the most popular of literary genres in India.

The Grammar of Puranams

Puranams speak of earth's creation; they lay down the code for righteous living; they speak of Manu's times; also, of the tradition of sages and histories of royal dynastics. Such is the five - fold grammar of the Puranams. The Puranams have existed from times immemorial and have spread to all the Indian languages. In fact, they may be classed on par with epic literature.

When dealing with the creation of earth and the history of aeons, puranic literature appears as a scientific treatise as well. While speaking of the traditions of sages and histories of dynasties, it appears as political history; enumerating the codes of conduct for societal life, the same Puranam shines as a moral scripture. Though the doctrines and ideas do call for deep thought, they are presented with the aid of simply - understood examples and interesting stories. By this means puranic literature becomes immortal.

Nakkirar who speaks of the history of the three Tamil cankams says: they sang Kali and Kuruku (poems of Middle Cankam period now lost) which belong to this genre. Their inspirations were Akattiyam, Tolkappiyarn, Mapuranam, Icainunukkam and Putapuranam". It thus becomes clear that Puranam was a genre that helped the Cankam poets. Since the other works cited are grammatical in content, the Puranams mentioned also may have been grammatical works.

There are several grammatical works that limn the contours of literature. They refer to Puranam as a literary genre of "the ninety - six genres beginning with Pillaik Kavi to Puranam". Besides, it is said, "The epic poem is indicated on the four concepts like Tarma. It is also considered a Puranam". Hence the Puranam is also an epic.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages