The Metaphysical Gynecology of Tirumular - Part 1

The Metaphysics of Gynecology

The question : How there is the urge to procreate and propagate themselves among all the creatures and sexuality as an expression of it seems to be the basic question that Tirumular poses himself in writing these verses. 

And he begins with  Cosmology and relates the creative urges to the fundamental metaphysical realities and for which reason the gynecology is not simply biological or biophysical but rather metaphysical in essence.

One of the basic themes of Tirumular is that the creature body is a micro version of the macrocosm that's the universe and that there  is an isomorphism between the universe and the human body. Any understanding that does not relate the bodily functions to the cosmological realities would not have  achieved the ultimate in the hermeneutic scientific understanding of the phenomenon.

The word Bintu (> Vintu) can be traced to Sumerian  bi-ji, that which gives (bi) life (ji) and which exists in Tamil now as Vittu, the seed and in Malay as Biji, also the seed. Thus the investigation is into the Vintu, the primordial seed from which all sprout or made to sprout.

He brings the study of human gynecology and the sexuality that founds it, within such a global cosmological understanding, something quite unique to him.

1.

20. VintuRpaNam, விந்துற்பனம்

1923.

உதயத்தில் விந்துவில் ஓங்கு குண்டலியும்

உதயக் குடிலில் வயிந்தவம் ஒன்பான்

விதியிற் பிரமாதிகள் மிகு சத்தி

கதியிற்  கரணங் கலை வைகரியே

உரை:

ஆணவ இருளால் முற்ரிலும் விழுங்கப்பட்டு தோற்றம் இல்லாது கிடந்தது விட்டு உளதாய் இருக்குமாறு தோற்றுவிக்கப்பட்ட உலக உதயகாலத்தில் , அதில் ஒன்றாய்த் தோன்றிய அபரவிந்துவில் ஓர் கூறாய் குண்டலினி சக்தி விளங்கும். டூந்த குண்டலினியிம் மூலமாகிய குடிலையில் இருக்கும் வைந்தவமாகிய சக்தியே பரதெய்வங்கலாகிய பிரமன் திருமால், உருத்திரன் மகேஸ்வரன், சதாசிவம் சக்தி சிவன் என்றும் சிவதத்த்டுவங்களாகிய நாதம் விந்து என்றும் ஒன்பது வடிவங்களை பரசிவனின் விதிப்பில் தோன்றும். இத் தெய்வங்களின் கதியாகவே உலகத்தில் நின்று நிலவும் கரணங்களும் கலைகளும் அவற்ரை மொழிப்படுத்தும் வைகரி மொழியும் ஆகும்.

1.

1923.

utayattil vintuvil ooGku kuNdaliyum

utayak kudilil vayintavam onpaan

vitiyiR piramaatikaL miku cattti

katiyiR karaNaG kalai vaikariyee

Meaning:

When BEING violates the Malam, the Dark Killing Energy that swallows the whole world and causes its absence, and let them be present, there emerges also the Bindu within which also emerges the KuNdalini. Now the Kudilai is the primordial source of this KuNdalini and which transmutes itself into the nine root archetypes or ICONS - Brahma, VishNu, Rudra, Makeswara, Cataaciva, Sakti, Sivam and the Siva Tatvas, Natam and Bindu and which are powers behind all. Now it is as the blessings of these root Icons that we have all the technologies, sciences and the language of Vaikari that serves as the medium for them.

Comments: 

Though  ‘karaNam” has come to mean narrowly the ritual actions, but in general it means the various kinds of sadhanas or technologies. In the same vein by ‘kalai' is meant all the sciences and arts or simply all those which are LEARNED ( kal-a> kalai: that which are learned) These are the kinds of things that are not innate but rather those which are acquired through learning and which are quite often transmitted as part of the culture and traditions into which one is born. 

Now “Vaikari' is the form language that is audible and hence the normal media of communication with others and hence the social shape of language. As opposed to other shapes. This will include not only the human but also that of birds, insects and other animals, which also have very sophisticated languages of communications of their own

What Tirumular is at pains to articulate is that ultimately their presence is to be related to the POWERS in the form of the nine archetypes or icons mentioned and which are themselves differentiated forms of the primordial Vaintavam or Kudilai. It is BEING whose shape shifts into all these by differentiating the primordial Kudilai. Now it also noted that in this presenting of the universe as there, there emerges also the Vintu, the seed of all creations and KuNdalini, the sexual libido as part of this.

Thus Tirumular observes that the creative urge and sexuality which is an expression of it, are already there as integral parts of the universe and since the human body is homologous with it, this urge is also part of the human nature (in fact creature nature as a whole).

Dr Loganathan @ Ullaganar

( to be continued )