A poem from Purananuru

யானை புக்க புலம்

காய்நெல் லறுத்துக் களவங் கொளினே
மாநிறை வில்லதும் பன்னாட் காகும்
நூறுசெறு வாயினுந் தமித்துப்புக் குணினே
வாய்புகு வதனினுங் கால்பெரிது கெடுக்கும்
அறிவுடை வேந்த னெறியறிந்து கொளினே
கோடி யாத்து நாடுபெரிது நந்தும்
மெல்லியன் கிழவ னாகி வைகலும்
வரிசை யறியாக் கல்லென் கற்றமொடு
பரிவுதப வெடுக்கும் பிண்ட நச்சின்
யானை புக்க புலம்போலத்
தானு முண்ணா னுலமுங் கெடுமே.

- பிசிராந்தையார்

The field entered by an elephant

"If an elephant take mouthfuls of ripe grain cut for it,
The twentieth part of an acre will yield it food for many days;
But if it enter a hundred fertile fields, with no keeper,
Its foot will trample down much more than its mouth receives.
So if a wise king, who knows the path of right take just his due,
His land will prosper, yielding myriadfold,
But, if the king, not softened by his knowledge, take just what he desires,
Nor heed prescriptions rule, feasting with song and dance,
Amid his court and kindered, and show no love to his subjects;
Like the field that elephant entered,
His kingdom will perish, and he himself will lose his all".

-Translation by Rev. Dr. G.U. Pope

The above verse is an obituary by a friend in the memory of his master, the King. G.U. Pope comments, they were not exactly "words of love." The players there are Ko-Perum-Cholan, Pottiyar and Piciranthaiyar - the noble King and his two intimate friends, who were also poets. All the three, after death were commemorated by stones placed side by side over their urns.

Apart from the discourse on why and how anyone should use valuable resources without waste, the composition also elegantly applies the Tamil fraction 1/20 'ma' [மா] in the 2nd line.

ㄈபோல் வளை

Avvayar's ancient Attisudi says:

"ஙபோல் வளை"

Edward Jewitt Robinson translated that as, "Consort, like letters [of 'ங' series] in array."

The explanation by Na.Mu. Venkatasamy Nattar is as follows:

ங என்னும் எழுத்தானது தான் பயனுடையதாயிருந்து பயனில்லாத ஙா முதலிய தன் வருக்க எழுத்துகளைத் தழுவிக்கொள்ளுதல் போல, நீ பயனுடையவனாயிருந்து உன் இனத்தார் பயனில்லாதவராயினும், அவரை தழுகிக்கொள்.

ஙா முதலிய பதினொரெழுத்தும் எந்தச் சொல்லிலும் வருவதில்லை. ஙகரத்தில் பொருட்டே அவற்ளையும் சுவடியில் எழுதுகிறார்கள். இனி இதற்கு ஙகர வொற்றானது அகரவுயிர் ஒன்ளையே தழுவுவது போல நீ ஒருவனையே தழுவு என மாதர்க்குக் கூறியதாகவும் பொருள் சொல்லலாம்.

Except ங [ṅa] and ங் [ṅ], none of the others in the series ஙா ஙி ஙீ ஙு ஙூ ஙெ ஙே ஙொ ஙோ ஙௌ are used in any Tamil word. Hence, consort like ங [ṅa].

The aphorism taken more literally translates to "bend like the consonant 'ங'" [ṅa]. This interpretation does not really go well with the rest of the aphorisms in the Attisudi. The Tamil script has undergone major changes every century for various reasons. During the times of Avvayar, 'ங' seems to have been written thus: ㄈ That looks more like a square bracket. The aphorism now lends itself to ethically tenable meanings like: "fortify fences like ㄈ [ṅa]", "encircle and protect like ㄈ [ṅa]".

The middle path

Thiruvalluvar, writing on "prohibited conduct" (கூடா ஒழுக்கம்), said:

280. மழித்தலும் நீட்டலும் வேண்டா உலகம்
பழித்தது ஒழித்து விடின்.

Rev. Dr. G.U. Pope translated that as:

What's the worth of shaven head or tresses long, If you shun what all the world condemns as wrong?

Mr. F.W. Ellis:

There is no need of a shaven crown, nor of tangled hair, if a man abstain from those deeds which the wise have condemned.

The English translations limit the verse to just the head and crown - missing the beard and the more general meaning of "shaving". Thiruvalluvar seems to prescribe the middle path with regard to hair - trimmed to taste according to the fashion of the day!

Buddhist monks and other sects have elaborate tonsuring rules and procedures. On the other extreme, Saivaite saints and others sport long tresses and beards. Both symbolise and make their school of thought apparent to the world, through hair growth. Valluvar strongly censures both practices, and declares that both extremes are unwanted when what the world condemns is given up, abandoned and/or destroyed.

Beyond just hair on the head, the verse prescribes the middle path to wealth earned through moral rectitude.

The University of Madras dictionary at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/tamil-lex/ gives the following meaning to "மழித்தல்":

1. மொட்டையடி-த்தல் moṭṭai-y-aṭi- : (page 3374)

மொட்டையடி-த்தல் moṭṭai-y-aṭi-

, v. tr. < id. +. 1. To shave the head entirely; தலை முழுதும் மழித்தல். 2. To strip completely, as a man of his wealth, as a tree of its fruits; முழு துங் கொள்ளைகொள்ளுதல். மரத்தை மொட்டை யடித்துவிட்டார்கள்.

The meaning of "நீட்டல்":

1. நீட்டல் nīṭṭal : (page 2295)

1. Stretching, lengthening; நீட்டுகை. 2. Procrastination; தாமதம். நிலைமை யறிய நீட்ட மின்றி (பெருங். மகத. 23, 51).

நீட்டல் nīṭṭal, n. < id. 1. Lengthening, extending, stretching; நீளச்செய்கை. 2. (Gram.) Poetic licence which consists in the lengthening of a short vowel into a long one; குற்றுயிரை

2. நீட்டல்மானம் nīṭṭal-māṉam : (page 2295)

280). 5. Liberality; பெருங்கொடை. (பிங்.)

The verse prohibits stripping someone of all wealth. It also abjures needless generosity. Both are needless if one maintains rectitude earning wealth. Of course, the verse assumes the reader has freedom to ponder and take correct decisions.

The saint who spoke so clearly censuring extremes, is portrayed with high tresses and a long beard. That does no justice to Thiruvalluvar - he must have sported neatly trimmed hair according to the fashion of his day!

It won't be out of place here to mention that most programmers who have made a huge difference to computing follow the middle path. To read more on them, please visit:

http://www.codethinked.com/post/2007/12/06/The-Programmer-Dress-Code.aspx
http://www.codethinked.com/post/2007/12/The-Programmer-Dress-Code---Part-Deux.aspx
http://khason.net/blog/computer-languages-and-facial-hair-%e2%80%93-take-two/

Tribute to C. Subramania Bharati

It was reported by news.chennaionline.com as follows:

Puducherry, Mar 22 : Chief Justice of Madras High Court Hemant Laxman Gokhale today visited the poet Subramania Bharathiar museum cum research centre here and paid rich tributes at the his portrait.

The museum has been housed in the premises where the poet resided for nearly 11 years during his political asylum in Puducherry in the early part of the 20th century.

Puducherry government pleader in Madras High Court T Murugesan who accompanied the Chief Justice explained to him the various features of the museum and also the chequered career of the nationalist poet.

A video presentation on the life of the poet and his contributions to the literary world and to the freedom movement was displayed.

It was heart warming to read the above report. Bharati suffered untold agony under foreign rule, and the visit by the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court to his house in Pondicherry is an historic event.

In March 2008, the Uncollected writings of C. Subramania Bharati (1882-1921) from the Hindu, titled பாரதி கருவூலம், was published by Aa. Iraa. Venkataacalapati. For the first time, letters by Bharati have been compiled in a book form and made available to the public. It includes a long letter titled "Police Rule in India", addressed by Bharati to Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., that was published in the Hindu, dated 10th February 1914. The police attempted to implicate Bharati in the Ashe murder case, and the letter is painful to read. To rule out grudge by the then government against him, he wrote to the Commissioner asking if there was any warrant pending against him. He followed the trial of the Ashe murder case at the Madras High Court.

Bharati also wrote a letter to the Hindu, dated 19th October 1916 as follows:

National Languages as Media of Instruction
Sir,- In the course of a recent lecture at Triplicane, Mr. J.C. Rollo of the Pachaiyappa's College has supported the use of English as the only right medium of instruction to Indian boys and girls. But he recognises, rightly, that the consensus of Indian opinion is against his view. He thus summarises the arguments on our side. 'It is urged that a student will save much time by being instructed in the vernacular (sic), that text-books in the vernacular (sic) will be within easy reach of all classes of people, that an Indian possessed of literary genius will be able to commit the fruits of his genius in his own vernacular (sic)'. This summary is far from being exhaustive. Our main argument is that one's mother-tongue is the only natural and human medium for imparting instruction. If anyone should doubt this, let him go and make enquires of educationalists in Japan, Scandinavia, England, Italy, Mexico or any other land where human beings are human beings. Speaking of the Tamil country, especially, the blunder of using a foreign medium becomes shocking because the Tamil language happns to be far superior to English for accurate and scientific expression - a fact which naturally enough, Mr. Rollo seems to be quite ignorant of. 'It cannot be denied,' he says, naively, 'that there is no vernacular (sic) in Southern India fitted for the teaching of science or the technicalities of history.' But the self-complacency betrayed by this statement of Mr Rollo is quite pardonable in him, considering the present state of things educational in British India.
'Insufficiency of scientific terms' is the next charge levelled against our languages. But the Nagari Pracharini Sabha is publishing a very useful dictionary of scientific terms in easy Sanskrit which can be introduced wholesale into every Indian language, thus securing the unity of scientific phraseology for India, even as Europe has borrowed wholesale from Latin and Greek for a similar end.
Within a few years, the novelty of such terms will disappear and they will look quite natural in Tamil or Gujarati books, even as all those big classical terms appear very natural nowadays in English or French scientific text-books.
Of course, we have no objection to teaching English as a secondary language in our schools and colleges. I think that any rational Englishman ought to be satisfied with this concession.

Bharati was fluent in both English and Tamil. His passion and fire for promoting national languages spoken by the majority people is writ large. Tamil carries with it the credit of being the oldest language still spoken by a vast population across countries with virgin fervor. It is only fair that Tamil is used as an official language in the Madras High Court. The State Government, through the Governor, should seek the consent of the President under Artice 348 of the Constitution of India, to give Tamil its due at the seat of justice.

One more minor detail. We could not have missed that Bharati used '(sic)' after 'vernacular'. According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,

vernacular
n [C usually singular] [Date: 1600-1700; Language: Latin; Origin: vernaculus 'born in a place', from verna 'slave born in his or her owner's house']//
1 a form of a language that ordinary people use, especially one that is not the official language: in the vernacular //

Bharati vehemently opposed the idea of calling Tamil a vernacular language in the light of its Latin origins implying slavery and subordination. The book cited above also gives the instance when a reporter went to interview Bharati, and his outburst at the very mention of a word, which could have been none other than 'vernacular'.

We still have the "VR (Vernacular Records) Section" at the Madras High Court. It would be a fitting tribute to Bharati to rename it as "OR (Old Records) Section".

திருவாசகம்: Sacred Utterances

Thiru Manickavasagar, the ancient Tamil poet composed a collection of 51 poems devoted to Saivism. The work was translated by Rev. G.U. Pope and published in 1900. To give a sample here:

அச்சப் பத்து. [ஆனந்தம் ஊறுதல்]

புற்றில்வாள் அரவும் அஞ்சேன்; பொய்யர்தம் மெய்யும் அஞ்சேன்
கற்றைவார் சடைஎம் மண்ணல் கண்ணுதல் பாத' நண்ணி
மற்றும்ஓர் தெய்வந் தன்னை உண்டென நினைந்தெம் பொம்மாற்
கற்றிலாத்வரைக் கண்டால், அம்ம! நாம் அஞ்சும் ஆறே !


The Decad of Dread [Absorption in Divine Knowledge]

Not the sleek snake in anthill coil'd I dread;
nor feigned truth of men of lies -,
As I, in sooth, feel fear at sight of those
who have not learnt the Lofty - One
To, know; who fear the Foot of the Brow-Ey'd, -
our Lord, crown'd with the braided-lock,-
You think there's other God. When these unlearn'd we see, -
AH ME! WE FEEL NO DREAD LIKE THIS!

Thiru Manickavasagar is said to have composed the above poem when he made a hut of leaves for himself outside Chidambaram, and lived withdrawn to it as a Yogi. The translation by Rev G.U. Pope takes not only the work of devotion to new heights, but gives meticulous details about the grammar used too. The metre is ஆசிரிய விருத்தம், six feet in each line, with the formula:

கூ	}விளம்	|புளி	}மா	|தே மா	||கூ	}விளம்	|தே	}மா	|தே மா
கரு	}	|தே	}	|	||கரு	}	|புளி	}	|

The Tamil poems use a context free grammar, and are described elegantly at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venpa If there is any scripting work harder than computer programming, it would be composing poetry in High Tamil.

In 2005, Ilaiyaraaja gave new life to the "Sacred Utterances", by setting some of the quatrains, including the "decad of dread" above, to melodious music. A snip from my notes on the album:

---

Songs of Liberation from Thiruvasagam
"The East and the West have influenced one another in a very real and
not yet thoroughly understood way from the earliest times": thus wrote
Rev. Dr. G.U. Pope in his introduction to the translation of Thirukkural
in 1886. The symphonic oratorio "Thiruvasagam" by Ilaiyaraaja with the
Budapest Symphony Orchestra, conducted by László Kovacs, released on 6th
July, 2005 at Chennai, brings out the confluence of the East and West
Pope deeply felt, through a rich classical musical cross-over, in ways
words can never describe. Hats off to Ilaiyaraaja, László Kovacs,
Richard King, Stephen Schwarts, Budapest Symphony Orchestra and all the
other musicians for their brilliant work.

This delightful masterpiece cost more than Rs. one crore to produce.
Tamil Maiyam founded by Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj, its producer, is looking
forward to income from album sales and donations, but it would be a
blessing, if many orgs and govs could join together, pay the outstanding
debts of Tamil Maiyam reported to be around Rs. 75 lakhs, and have the
work released under a suitable creative commons license. There are about
51 chapters in the Thiruvasagam, and the album is a fine selection of
only choice verses presented as six songs. A cc license should help
many musicians to join the project, and soon set entire work
Thiruvasagam of Thiru Manickavasagar in symphony. A brief intro to the
songs:

Song #1
The album begins with the verse "poovar senni mannan..." which is about
the "last journey" towards "ultimate liberation", and it is also
believed to be the last composition by Manickavasagar, on the last day
of his life on earth. The score for this song is quite naturally set to
a score that reminds of "poom poom dan dans" - the sound which anyone in
this part of the world can instantly recognize as a pointer to a death
in its vicinity, and that the last rites and rituals are in progress.
It seems, when the recording started at Budapest with this song, the
score sounded funny to some in the orchestra, who tried to hide their
laughter. Illayaraja observed this, and immediately sung the verse
explaining it, and the orchetra understood and briskly started with the
business of bringing Manickavasagar back to life again.

Song #2
The entire album is sweet as honey, but at about the 5th minute of this
song, the first stanza of Thiruvasagam, "Namasivaya vazhga, nathan thal
vazhga.." comes, and this is very easily the best part of the album, a
little more sweet than the rest. Illyaraja has freely arranged the
various verses, to convey meaning even through the topography and
arrangement of verses. Ilaiyaraaj and Roy Harcourt sing mixing Tamil
and English verses creating a very deep and stunning effect. A brief
snapshot from the lyrics, translated by Stephen Schwarts:


I'm just a man
imperfect lowly,
how can I reach for something holy? ...

So many forms I must wear!
So many lives I must bear!
Grass and shrub and stone and tree!
Worm and bird and beast and demon
heaven the sky and turn the earth
how long till I'm fin'ly worthy?...

Hail! Hail! ...

I am beginning
to be free...


The symphonical oratorio is a rich tribute especially to Rev. Dr. G.U.
Pope who translated the entire work of Thiru Manickavasagar. (Available
online at http://siddhanta.shaivam.org/thivacha.html ) We could be
certain that Manickavasagar would have composed his verses with our
traditional music in mind, but for sure, Pope had only a western
symphony in mind as he worked on the translations. The frequent "Hail"
we come across succintly summarises the essence of "Namasivaya Vazhga"
and other praises, and sets the work in symphony with great effect.

Song #3
pooerukonum Purantharanum is yet another sweet composition picturising a
king bee singing praises.

Song #4
Umbarkatkarrsaey

Song #5
Manickavasagar paints a picture of women pulverising gold and perals to
dust with ural and ulakkai (pestle and mortar), singing Muthu Natramam
in praise of their lord. At the inauguration, this song was enacted on
stage by a classical troupe, and at the same time a pair danced swift
ballet moves sharing the stage with them.

Song #6
This is like a "hello world" introduction to setting Thiruvasagam into
symphony. Ilaiyaraaja takes a simple score, searches for suitable
verses and finally finds that the verse beginning "putril vazh aravum
anjen.." fits the score rather well, and finishes the album with great
grace. He makes the whole exercise appear very easy and simple, but
none other than the mastero could have undertaken the task of setting
the fairly difficult classical tamil verse of Thiru Manickavasagam, that
is more than 2000 years old, into symphony.

Tamil script at Unicode

Unicode.org is an attempt to provide a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, program, or language. All Indic language scripts in the VIII Schedule of the Constitution of India are supported in the present version of the Unicode chart, except Manipuri.

Tamil script in Unicode was allotted the B80-BFF Range (128 characters, code points 2944 to 3071) in plane 0, the Basic Multi Lingual plane (BMP). The standard is widely implemented using UTF-8. A quick test - read this: "தமிழ்". Those who know Tamil, would have read "Tamil" in Tamil.

The Unicode chart for Tamil is very usable but has a painful drawback. Tamil has 12 vowels (உயிர்/uir) and 18 consonants (மெய்/mei), and for these unicode code points were obtained. Every vowel consonant combination produces உயிர்மெய்/uyirmei compounds, for which no unique code points were obtained. This means, for 216 Tamil characters, instead of using a single code point that would take 3 bytes each, 6 or more bytes would be required. While ascii chart has intelligent order, and faithfully adopted by Unicode for Latin script based languages like English, Tamil missed the bus and how?

http://www.tunerfc.tn.nic.in/ promotes "New Unicode TUNE" that is based on encodings for Tamil chars in the private user space of the Unicode charts! This is pursuant to the GO at http://www.tn.gov.in/gorders/IT/it_e_13_2006.htm Looks like the Govt of TN and the Tamil Virtual University sites at http://www.tn.gov.in/tamiltngov/sitemap.htm and http://www.tamilvu.org/ publishes pages are in TUNE.

We need to work on improving representation of Tamil in the Unicode chart, but giving the oldest living language a place in the private user space does not help Tamil. An article I wrote last year on some of the issues is available here.

The present Unicode standard for the Tamil script is usable, not withstanding the defects. Promoting TUNE is wasteful. Instead, the Government of Tamil Nadu should promote the Unicode standard for Tamil as it stands in the public SMP space, research the pros and cons thoroughly, and come with a better solution or at least leave the existing Unicode standard in peace.

A xaos script on an ancient paradox

;Position file generated by XaoS 3.0
;  - an realtime interactive fractal zoomer
;Use xaos -load  to display it
(initstate)
(filter 'palette #t)
(palette 1 150949959 23)
(formula 'barnsley)
(cycling #t)
(cyclingspeed 30)
(juliaseed 1.0221656976744186705 -0.037500000000000002407)
(plane 1)
(view 0.1341 0.03897 9.02 9.02)

The above script generates a fractal image of what may appear to be a pair of eyes connected to a mind viewing the cosmos. The mind beholds the cosmos through the eyes. The truth that the mind is within the cosmos, and that the cosmos is perceived within the mind can be visually seen in the fractal. This is yet another way to visually show the paradoxical connection between macrocosm and microcosm. The paradox is that it is both true to say that the microcosm is within the macrocosm and the macrocosm is within the microcosm.

The inspiration to seek the fractal came from a poem by Avvayar, titled "Periathu Ethu", that translates to "What is significant?"

Periathu ketkin erithazhal veloi, Perithu Perithu Bhuvanam Perithu, Bhuvanamo Nan mugan padaipu, Nan mugan kariamal undhi vandhon, kariamalo parkadal thuindron, parkadalo kurumuni angail adakkam, kurumunio kalasathil piranthon, kalasamo puvil siru man, Puvio aravinukku oru thalai baram, Aravo umaiaval siru viral modhiram, Umaio Iraivan bagathu odukkam, Iraio thondar ullathu odukkam, Thondar tham ullathai potruvathum      ullatho perithu?

If you ask what is big, thrower of the fiery spear, Big, big the world is big, But the world was created by Brahma, Four headed [Brahma] came from dark Thirumal's middle, Dark Thirumal rests on the milky ocean, Milky ocean fits the fist of the short sage, The short sage was born in kalasam, Kalasam is a tiny grain in the Universe, Universe is borne on a head of the serpent, Serpant is Uma's little finger ring, Uma is within Sivan's half, Sivan is within the beholder's mind, Could there be anything bigger than      praising the beholder's mind?

Commentary:
Murugan, son of Sivan, asks Avvayar, the tamil poetess, what is big? Avvayar starts with the world that is big. But bigger is Brahma who created the world. Even bigger is Vishnu from whose middle, Brahma emanated. But then, Vishnu himself rests on the milky ocean. The ocean fits the fist of the short sage Agathiar. Agathiar is believed to have swallowed the ocean once, and he was born in the "kalasam". The "porul" or meaning in tamil poems is usually very deep and varied. In Ramayanam, Sage Valmiki narrates the birth of Agathiar in a pot or kalasam. It could also be taken to mean the birth of Agathiar under the constellation of kumba, that is represented by the symbol of a pot or kalasam. The next line makes sense with either interpretation. The kalasam in which Agathiar was born is but a tiny grain in the universe. The constellation kumba, under which Agathiar was born is also a tiny grain in the scheme of the cosmos. The universe is lightly borne by the serpent. The serpent is a symbol for the sense organs, and also a symbol for the string of heavenly objects that appear like a snake. The serpant is merely a ring for Umai, who is exactly half of Sivan. Sivan is a symbol for life, love, mind, and the cosmos. Such Sivan is in the mind of the beholder. Sivan is believed to hold court in the plane of the mind, lying between the eyes. Tirumular's Tirumantiram says:

Straight within the fore-head
Between the eye-brows
Is the astral space vast;
Peer, peer within there
The luminous Mantra (Aum) will be;
The place where they in yearning sought Him
Is the place where He in yearning is;
That verily is the Holy Temple of Chittambara
And there did I firmly sit. [2770]¹

Avvayar concludes that the most significant of all things is praising and admiring the vast cosmos that is experienced within the mind, the macrocosm within the microcosm.
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Reference:
[¹] Quoted from Tirumantiram by Tirumular, English Translation by Dr. B. Natarajan, published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras 600004.