A poem, split into five, detailing the flora that characterises the five landscapes of Tamil literature. In the flowers and sprightly growth lies the story of man and his goddess. Each poem will be found in the reblogs, and analysis of each poem will be found under the cut.
I. Kurinji, poem for when I Claim These Lavender Mountains
Hark! As rain from gentle clouds,
his prayers call toward unreachable light.
Such devotion to intangible heaven brings my heart forth,
as do the flames beckon moths into a heated dance.
I press my kiss onto his cool, pale temple;
his eyes, like rising clouds, meet mine. He asks for my name—
Devi, I tell him, with blessings of earthly bounties and material goodness.
He sings, “O Devi, splendorous virgin of the land,
make this supple body forged from the word of Your mind
the arrow of Your desire. I, Manu, will roam the earth
in the shadow of your divinity.”
A circlet of kurinji, the laughter of mountain periwinkle,
passes from Manu’s nimble fingers unto the crest of my brow.
This first poem is about the goddess meeting with man. The kurinji flowers are purple blooms commonly found in the Nilgiri mountains, often symbolising first loves and carefree romantic adventures.
In most religious Hindu stories, characters are often found praying in the mountains. The man's praying for "unreachable light" is a nod to this idea, though what he is praying for is unclear: enlightenment? or is it for a general life of ascetism?
"Flames beckon moths" = moths are inherently tied to spirituality and divinity, and fire can be attributed to human enlightenment.
"His eyes, like rising clouds, meet mine" is a line used to describe the gentleness of his gaze, how he sees the goddess for who she truly is.
An interesting thing to note in the first stanza is that when the Goddess speaks, she does not speak with the traditional quotation/speech marks. She is. Her will and her thoughts and words simply exist. Her words permeate the world. She is the world. You are to bear witness to all she offers you. She tells you her name.
The man, Manu, is named so for being the 'first human man' in older Hindu mythos. His promise to being the "the arrow of [Devi's] desire" is a fun little nod to his peepee. Tamil poets are weird, man (realises im tamil) oh no
"I, Manu, will roam the earth / in the shadow of your divinity." Make note of this.
This first poem also begins a trend of Manu handing Devi various flowers; his care for her is demonstrated through how he gifts the flowers/plants to the goddess. The circlet of kurinji "passing" from his fingers and finding their way onto goddess' head shows you that he is very gentle, and sincere, about his love for her.
Unlike other "ancient Indian" poetry and songs, these are different imo because they talk of people and things which we find normal today.
They're extremely relatable: some talk of people being angry with their significant other, some talk about how beautiful the sunset from the city is, and some about how sad someone is feeling because their spouse passed away.
The poem below, for instance, is a romantic song.
And this one, is a song telling how a woman met her significant other.
