A Short History of Metaphysical Tamil - Part 1

A Short History of Metaphysical Tamil

 

The Metaphysical Tamil - 1

I want to write briefly about the major metaphysical treatises that are available in Tamil. I believe that these texts do not yet belong to the mainstream Indological studies for a variety of reasons. These great treatises with their deep scientific character is not known to the outside world until today. I  also believe that our understanding of  Hinduism and Indic traditions will be quite different if these texts are also taken into consideration  along with Sanskrit and Pali texts. The western world, due to their orientation to Sanskrit, as to their classification of Sanskrit as an Indo-European language, has totally ignored these great treatises until today. The Indian scholars too have failed to capture the immense knowledge found in these treatises.

With this preliminary, let me give in a nutshell, the essences of the major books with approximate dates and where we can also discern a historical continuity that dates back to the Sumerian times.

Tolkaappiyam ( c.300BC)

This is the oldest extant Tamil text, a grammatical treatise that is divided into three major books, Ezuttatikaaram ( On Phonology), Collatikaaram ( Syntax and Semantics) and PoruLatikaaram ( On Meaning in Existence). The Third book is the most essential and it is understood that syntactic and phonological studies are subservient to the PoruLatikarram, the study of MEANINGS that configure human existence as a whole.  Tol. seizes upon the notion of “Speech Act’ ( Tamil. KuuRRu) and analyses both the natural language( vazakku) and literary language ( ceyyuL) in order to understand the various intentional meanings that configure the various events in life, the activities of people that make up existence as we know. It also incorporates  a study of  gestures and other body languages that come along with the verbal ( KuRippu Mozi). It is only on the basis of such studies that behavior is grouped into Akam( the inside or domestic) and PuRam ( the external, the public) and which are further divided into various ecological grounds where pervade the deities Muruka, VishNu, VaruNa, Indra and so forth configuring their essences. It is this ecological thinking that later led to the development of Ataara Cakras,  the metaphysical realms configured  by mantras also with a Deity as the ordaining power.

The treatise also has as an appendix another one , Marabiyal and in which we have the presence of the VarNa concepts. I think  this text is earlier than Tol. proper as many archaic elements are found there. However the most important aspect of this text is that it has  the earliest statement on Indian Logic  which is already recognizable as Hermeneutic Logic with its circular structure. I believe that Nyaya Sutras is not only an adaptation of this logic but also something that  introduced some distortions. The original shape  was later recovered by Meykandar and used as the essential Logic of metaphysical studies in his Civanjana Botham.

The last sutra of this text is concerned with literary hermeneutics,  the art of understanding a text without errors and where the INTENTION of the author is seen as it is with the application of utties ( otta kaaci utti). Kaudilya’s Artha Sastra also incorporates a similar list of utties ( Sanskrit. Ukti) showing that both are taping the same  ancient tradition. I have pointed that this notion of utti, the movement of understanding in the direction of greater clarity dates back to the school pedagogy of the Sumerian edubba, the tablet house, the elementary schools for children.

TirukkuRaL ( 200 AD-  400 AD)

Of all the philosophical books in Tamil this is the most famous and belongs to the eighteen KiizkaNNu texts produced during the post CaGkam period. Another famous book, a Jaina one is Naladiyar but probably belonging to the 8^th cent AD or so. KuRaL outlines for the first time ‘samayaatiitam’ the transcendence of religions  so that it is claimed by people of all Indian religions as their own book.  KuRal stands neutral  both in ideas and  descriptive terms so that it cannot be classified as belonging to any religion, Jainism Buddhism Saivism VaishNavism so forth but at the same time appealing to all by its universality. It also introduced a novel metre, the KuRaL VeNba, just a terse verse with two lines and altogether there are 1330 verses divided into  ARattupaal ( On Dharma) Porutpaal ( On Politics) and Kaamattuppaal ( On Love) . There are already many websites devoted to this book. It has been also translated into all the major world languages. This book is immensely alive to this day and has become the Bible or Bagavath Gita of the Tamils including an interesting phenomena by itself. No one can understand the essence of Tamil culture unless they grasp the essence of KuRaL, written by VaLLuvar , a low caste in later times.

This text also constitutes a watershed between the essentially secular CaGkam and the  Bakti epoch that produced an enormous range of Bakti literature that constitutes the Teyvat Tamil, the Divine Tamil and which constitutes the foundation of the religious life of at least the majority of Tamils to this day.

Naladiyaar, also a famous book has been translated into English and some other languages. There are  400 verses collected together and these verses are said to have been written by various Jain monks. Most of them speak of nilaiyaamai, the transient character of human existence. They also contain deep insights into the dynamics of human life.

The Bakti Literature (300 AD to 900 AD)

While CaGkam epoch produced the massive collections of essentially secular poetry, the Eight Anthologies, the Bakti period produced the Divine Tamil, the Saivite Tevaram and VaishNava Divvya Prabantam, altogether numbering about 16 000 verses the bulk of them being Saivite.  Among the VaishNava Mystics we have Namazvar whose Tiruvaymozi is the foundation of Sri Vaishnava tradition and which  honors it  more than even the Vedas. The Tevaram Adangkan MuRai contains the hymns of Sambantar, Appar and Sundarar among whom Appar is the earliest ( c. 6^th cent AD) and Sambantar his younger contemporary. This was the time the polemics with the Jains and Buddhists were at the highest and there was a tremendous cultural turmoil as a result of which Saivism and VaishNavism became triumphant again with the consequent decline of Buddhsim and Jainism.

Now among the earlier Nayanmars and Azwars such as Punitavati and Poykaiyar, we see the ancient tradition of NOT separating into Saiva, VaishNava sects and quarelling which is greater and why. There is a unitary Saiva-VaishNavism present in their thinking and where both speak of both families of icons with equal reverence. Now I am studying some of their texts translating into English with commentaries.

Tirumular certainly belongs to this period (c. 7^th cent) and who wrote the massive Tirumantiram with three thousand verses. Since he deserves a detailed presentation, we shall do that in the next posting on this series.

ULLAGANAR

( Editing and re-paragraphing by his student )