The Metaphysical Thinking
Before we pass over PoruLatikaaram, we should consider in some details what can be called the Metaphysical Thinking underlying it and which was enormously influential and one could say, provided the metaphysical insights for the burst or recovery of the ancient Bakti a few centuries later.
Though Metaphysical Thinking is as ancient as human civilization itself, what Tolkaapiyam
( Tol ) does is to RECOVER it within the Ecological Thinking that became well established as part of the MEANINGS people live with and which is COMMUNICATED by verbal and nonverbal communicative acts.
We have noted that all acts of communications can be classified into 14 TiNais or departments of behavior and that among these there are 2 akam departments called KaikkiLai and PeruntiNai where the sexual behavior is one-sided or where mutual agreement is absent and which applies also to social reflexes of it viz. Kaanjci and PaadaaN TiNais.
Thus the first FIVE of Akam, called also the Anpin AintiNai, the Five departments of LOVE are ethically acceptable while the KaikkiLai and PeruntiNai which are DEVOID of love are said to be UNACCEPTABLE. But the difference does not end here. Tol also notes that these LOVE dominated departments of human behavior have as their animating Deep Structures, various deities - the Ceeyoon (Muruka) for KuRinjci, Maayoon (VishNu) for Mullai, Veentan (Indra) for Marutam, and VaruNa for Neytal. The Paalai is left out and for a good reason. This Paalai is peculiar for it does stand on its own but as the Deep Structure of all the four ecologies, KuRinjci and so forth. As observed in Cilappatikaaram, the KuRinjci and so forth are transformations of this deeper Paalai and hence cannot be put alongside them but as different. The deity of Paalai is simply called Paal, the Brilliant in KaLaviyal and which carries the important metaphysical insight that these deities of surface ecologies are TRANSFORMS of this Paal and hence this Paal or Sivan or Brahman remains the Deep Structure (DS) of these deities.
This understanding only hidden in the body of PoruL (perhaps we have lost a number of sutras related to this theme) is the recovery of the very ancient Metaphysical Thinking where the deities are seen as the animating principles of the essentially inert physical realms and that the Brilliant, the Paal or BEING-as-LIGHT remains the DS of all these ecology pervading deities.
Thus we have an understanding that all departments of human behavior are not only expressions of the instinct of SEXUALITY but also are ordained by specific deities and which are different expressions of the one and same BEING-as-Pure Light, the Paal.
Here we should NOT fail to note that the KaikkiLai and PeruntiNai are OUTSIDE the prevalence of these deities and hence the UNACCEPTABLE in behavior, are also NON-DIVINE. It carries the ETHICAL understanding that the GOOD is divinely ordained and EVIL is NOT so, the unacceptable in ethics are forms of behavior where they are OUTSIDE the Grace of BEING.
The Vedic Gods
It is interesting that in the list of deities we also find Indra and VaruNa who are also mentioned in the Rig Veda. This shows that at the time Tol was composed these Vedic gods were acknowledged and worshiped and there was a kind of continuity with Vedic culture. Tolkaappiyar was also quite familiar with the fact that the Vedic slokas were RECITED with peculiar cadence of their own but which is NOT what he deals with and calls ezuttu, the phonemes of Tamil language. We have a mention by Panampaaranaar in the Payiram, the Preface that Tolkaappiyar had to convince one ataGkooddu Acaan who is also mentioned as well versed in the four Vedas (naan maRai muRRiya). Here we must not JUMP to the conclusion, as is the habit of the Brahmans that Tolkaappiyar was a Brahmin, a dwija by birth etc and which notion never existed or even when mentioned never was accepted by the Tamils. Tolkaappiyar could never have been a Dwija Brahmin for with his casteic thinking he could NOT have written Tol itself, which embodies the principles of Hermeneutic Science. Furthermore he also defines implicitly himself as Munaivan, one who is FREE of all kinds of PREJUDICES ( vinaiyin niiGki viLaGkiya aRivin Munaivan)
There could have been Acaans (< Sumerian, Ga-sa-an) or simply TEACHERS or gurus who were also well versed in the Vedas and since VarNasrama Dharma was absent, it could have been an occupational or academic preference and probably OPEN to all.
Furthermore we must recall that the Rig Vedas and allied scriptures are in Archaic Tamil of a kind and hence maintained by some Tamils during Tol times as part of their OWN ancient heritage. We should also note that Indra and VaruNa are Tamil gods and though Vedic but not gods brought into Tamil culture by some Indo-Aryans with European connections. Indra is to be derived from the Sumerian Indu-ra, an emanation of the heavenly Moon (Indu: moon). VaruNa can be derived from ‘bar” meaning the sun as in Paruti and hence the divine force that expresses itself as the sun etc.
We should also note that while Indra Vizaa, a massive festival for Indra was celebrated even during post CaGkam period as mentioned in Cilappatikaaram and MaNimekalai, NO mention is made of them and no hymns composed in praise of them during the Bakti and Post Bakti period. It appears that there was a revolution among the Tamils where at least it is on the death of Vedic gods that bakti movement crystallized and became the most powerful cultural force that swept across the whole of India and overseas, giving rise to the dominance of Siva and VishNu. Thus Agamic Hinduism with Temples hymns and so forth, not only weakened other belief systems at that time but also Vedism where only the recitations of Vedas were allowed to be continued in the periphery of the Hymns in Tamil that constitutes the Tevaram and Divvya Prabantam.
Loganathan @ Ullaganar
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
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