Citation link:
https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/taprobanian1885/0172
156
THE TAPROBANIAN.
[June, 1886.
now regarded as orthodox by the Tamils. This
text was carefully revised and collected by A.ru-
mukam Navalar, a very distinguished Tamil
scholar of Jaffna., and then printed, under his
supervision. Kachchiappan’s translation is said
to have been of 10,000 but now is amplified into
10,340 stanzas; representing, it is said, 10,000
slokams in the original Grantham copy, from
which he composed.
The printed copy is now considered by Tamil
scholars to be a better edition than any one copy
in MSS., and, as far as I can learn, is only
slightly shortened from the fullest forms met
with in MSS., by the omission of superfluous
expletive stanzas, here and there, of doubtful
authenticity, and with no bearing on the histories
involved in the Puranam. I have, therefore taken
this printed edition as my guide.
It is divided into 142 sections, of which the
first six are introductory and arbitrarily intro-
duced as panegyrics in no way affecting the rest
of the work. Sections 7 to 17 contain various
mystical and legendary accounts connected with
the worship of Siva and Parvati, concerning
which it is impossible to say how far they, in
part, existed from the earliest times, or are due
to the Pauranic edition. From sections 18 to 118
we have the representative of the text of an origi-
nal kavyam for which the name Asura Bharatam
may appropriately be invented. This contains
most of what was thought worth preserving of
the historical, allegorical, and mythological doc-
trines of the ancient worshippers of Skanda as
Katthirai Andan, whether in Ceylon or South
India.
Section 119 seems to be an interpolation on
its own merits.
Sections 120 to 131 seem to me taken from an
entirely different source. They give a version of
the ancient allegory and tradition of Daksha’s
sacrifice, and the opposition of Supramanian, a
Chaldean god, identified now with the Skanda
of India. This I take to represent a distinct
work, which we may term the “ Sacrifice of
Thakkan.”
The remaining ten sections are introduced to
supplement the “ Wars of Skanda,” and the
(( Sacrifice of Thakkan ” by completing the cycle
of Skanda-Saivite myth, in an epitomised and
brief form. If this view is correct, we can only
suppose notices elsewhere of incidents in this
f‘ Asura Bharatam” have been largely taken
from it. As a matter of fact I can hear of no
pther equally probable source for the history
thus given, and for the connected, but supple-
mentary, details still preserved in Tamil tradi-
tions and Sthala Puranams. Such a compilation
must have been of remote antiquity, long
antecedent, in its earlier forms, to the events of
the Ramayanam and Mahabharatam, and we must
observe the importance that hence arises, for
this pre-historic epic cycle of Dravida may well
have served as a partial model for those poems;
nor must we entirely overlook its possible in-
fluence on the Iliad and Odyssey of the Greeks,
to which many students have thought the Indian
epics were indebted, at least for much of their
construction and development. When we com-
pare the prominence given to the pre-historic
Ajamuki, with that allotted by Tamils to the
dimly historic Surpanakhi, we notice much
probability that the stories followed a common
system of arrangement. The temptation of
Indrani and Sita-devi by Ajamuki and Hayamuki
is also seemingly developed in each, to point the
same moral warning, against the influence of
vicious female confidants. It is not desirable,
however, to occupy the reader’s time in advance,
by considering closely the evidences of a common
structural system in these national poems; I
merely ask him to bear in mind the possibility
of its occurrence, and the importance that may,
therefore, attend an ultimate critical study of the
subject, to which I now invite his attention.
I will proceed at once to give in briefest out-
line an indication of each section of the Tamil
Puranam, indicating the number of stanzas
accepted for it by Arumukam Navalar, and the
Tamil scholars who worked with him.
Birth chapter.
Sect. 1; stanzas 5.
Invocation of Vinayakan (or Ganesa).
Sect. 2 ; stanzas 25.
Praises of the Kadavul (or gods).
Sect. 3 ; stanzas 20.
Introductory and apologetic prelude.
Sect. 4 • stanzas 39.
Treating of the river. This contains an ex-
foliation of the renowned merits of the river Pali,
Sect. 5 ; stanzas 57.
Treating of Thiru-nadu. This is an exfoliation
of the sanctity and renown of the Thiru-nadu, or
Holy Land of Thondamandalam.
Sect. 6; stanzas 124.
Treating of Thiru Nakaram, being an exfolia-
tion of the glories of the Thiru Nakaram, or Holy
city of Kanchi.
THE TAPROBANIAN.
[June, 1886.
now regarded as orthodox by the Tamils. This
text was carefully revised and collected by A.ru-
mukam Navalar, a very distinguished Tamil
scholar of Jaffna., and then printed, under his
supervision. Kachchiappan’s translation is said
to have been of 10,000 but now is amplified into
10,340 stanzas; representing, it is said, 10,000
slokams in the original Grantham copy, from
which he composed.
The printed copy is now considered by Tamil
scholars to be a better edition than any one copy
in MSS., and, as far as I can learn, is only
slightly shortened from the fullest forms met
with in MSS., by the omission of superfluous
expletive stanzas, here and there, of doubtful
authenticity, and with no bearing on the histories
involved in the Puranam. I have, therefore taken
this printed edition as my guide.
It is divided into 142 sections, of which the
first six are introductory and arbitrarily intro-
duced as panegyrics in no way affecting the rest
of the work. Sections 7 to 17 contain various
mystical and legendary accounts connected with
the worship of Siva and Parvati, concerning
which it is impossible to say how far they, in
part, existed from the earliest times, or are due
to the Pauranic edition. From sections 18 to 118
we have the representative of the text of an origi-
nal kavyam for which the name Asura Bharatam
may appropriately be invented. This contains
most of what was thought worth preserving of
the historical, allegorical, and mythological doc-
trines of the ancient worshippers of Skanda as
Katthirai Andan, whether in Ceylon or South
India.
Section 119 seems to be an interpolation on
its own merits.
Sections 120 to 131 seem to me taken from an
entirely different source. They give a version of
the ancient allegory and tradition of Daksha’s
sacrifice, and the opposition of Supramanian, a
Chaldean god, identified now with the Skanda
of India. This I take to represent a distinct
work, which we may term the “ Sacrifice of
Thakkan.”
The remaining ten sections are introduced to
supplement the “ Wars of Skanda,” and the
(( Sacrifice of Thakkan ” by completing the cycle
of Skanda-Saivite myth, in an epitomised and
brief form. If this view is correct, we can only
suppose notices elsewhere of incidents in this
f‘ Asura Bharatam” have been largely taken
from it. As a matter of fact I can hear of no
pther equally probable source for the history
thus given, and for the connected, but supple-
mentary, details still preserved in Tamil tradi-
tions and Sthala Puranams. Such a compilation
must have been of remote antiquity, long
antecedent, in its earlier forms, to the events of
the Ramayanam and Mahabharatam, and we must
observe the importance that hence arises, for
this pre-historic epic cycle of Dravida may well
have served as a partial model for those poems;
nor must we entirely overlook its possible in-
fluence on the Iliad and Odyssey of the Greeks,
to which many students have thought the Indian
epics were indebted, at least for much of their
construction and development. When we com-
pare the prominence given to the pre-historic
Ajamuki, with that allotted by Tamils to the
dimly historic Surpanakhi, we notice much
probability that the stories followed a common
system of arrangement. The temptation of
Indrani and Sita-devi by Ajamuki and Hayamuki
is also seemingly developed in each, to point the
same moral warning, against the influence of
vicious female confidants. It is not desirable,
however, to occupy the reader’s time in advance,
by considering closely the evidences of a common
structural system in these national poems; I
merely ask him to bear in mind the possibility
of its occurrence, and the importance that may,
therefore, attend an ultimate critical study of the
subject, to which I now invite his attention.
I will proceed at once to give in briefest out-
line an indication of each section of the Tamil
Puranam, indicating the number of stanzas
accepted for it by Arumukam Navalar, and the
Tamil scholars who worked with him.
Birth chapter.
Sect. 1; stanzas 5.
Invocation of Vinayakan (or Ganesa).
Sect. 2 ; stanzas 25.
Praises of the Kadavul (or gods).
Sect. 3 ; stanzas 20.
Introductory and apologetic prelude.
Sect. 4 • stanzas 39.
Treating of the river. This contains an ex-
foliation of the renowned merits of the river Pali,
Sect. 5 ; stanzas 57.
Treating of Thiru-nadu. This is an exfoliation
of the sanctity and renown of the Thiru-nadu, or
Holy Land of Thondamandalam.
Sect. 6; stanzas 124.
Treating of Thiru Nakaram, being an exfolia-
tion of the glories of the Thiru Nakaram, or Holy
city of Kanchi.