4th lesson தமிழர் கலைகள் part 2
Vijaya Nagara and Nayakars period
The zeal of Vijayanaga king’s architecture can be seen in their
sculptures too. They constructed temples and their vimanams
with so many sculptures. Halls with high pillars, pillars with
sculptures of human beings and animals ans mythological
stories are their speciality. Their sculptures are strong as it
was made from iron. The shape of Vijayanagara sculptures are
with sharp nose and round stomach. Jewels were carved in
human beings sculptures. After their period only temples were
full of sculptures. They had the custom of carving images of
hunting, snake charmer and dancing with stick. These types of
sculptures are in Madurai Meenakshi temple and
Rameshwaram Ramanathaswamy temple. Nowadays
sculptures are made with wax, glass and sand also.
Painting
Like architecture and sculpture painting is also an art that can
be enjoyed with vision. Poets compared beautiful things with
paintings. People painted whatever they saw in nature. The
findings of Archaeological department’s showed mud pots
with letters and images. In ancient times letters were written
like paintings.
From the verb ‘Ovvu’ the word ‘oviyam’ came. The meaning of
ovvu is to be like one. Painting is reproducing what one saw.
In ancient times even before they found words to express, they
learned to express through paintings. They painted in caves.
With mud, animal fats and herbal colours they coloured it.
Painting was called as vattigai seithi and chithira seithi in
literature. Paintings were painted in walls. Due to this
proverbs like ‘suvar illamal sithiram illai’ is there. Paintings
were painted with straight line, angular lines and circular
lines. Those are called ‘Punaya oviyam’ During ‘panai eruthal’
they painted line like paintings in palm leaves. First time vari
vadiva oviyam( line like paintings) was mentioned in
Nedunalwadai. In this punaya oviyam they filled colours and
called it (muzhu oviyam) full paintings. The painters were
called as ஓவியன், கணணுள்வினைஞர்,
கைவினைஞர், ஓவியவல்லோன்.
We can learn the painting excellence of ancient people
through the embedded paintings in Kaviripoompattinam,
Arikka medu, Kanchipuram and Sengam. Pots painted with
black and red colours were found in the excavation done in
Kizhadi.
The paintings of gathering of people is called Prathimai, and
paintings of gods are called padimai. Paintings were done on
the walls of temples, palaces and halls. And in white walls red
kottoviyams- line paintings were painted. Tholkappiyam
mentions about paintings. To make the sculpture of a soldier
in tombstone, they drew paintings of that person first. Letters
were considered as paintings in those days.
Kings in ancient times built painting halls. In Nedunalvadai
Nakkirar mentioned about the painting hall of
Thalayanganathu seruvendra pandyan. Pallavas also had
interest in paintings. Paintings of Panamalai, Kanchipuram,
Thirumalaipuram were Pallava period paintigns. The
paintings of Shiva, dancing girls, Seraman perumal nayanar,
Rajarajan karuvur thevar are the paintings of Chozha period.
Vijaya Nagara paintings are in so many places.
Rock paintings
Rock paintings found Tamil Nadu is the evidence of
antiquities of this place. It helps to understand the lifestyle
and habits of the ancient people. Paintings were done inside
caves and rocks. To make the walls of cave smooth they coated
those walls with mixer of cow dung, rice bran and lime stone.
Then they painted on those walls. Pallava king mahendra
varman constucted cave temples with paintins on their walls.
He himself was a painter. His got the title of ‘chitrakapuli’.
Madras University archaeological department found
important rock paintings in Mallapadi of Dharmapuri district.
After that so many rock paintings were discovered in Tamil
Nadu.
Cave paintings of Chithannavasal
Chithannavasal paintings in Pudukkottai district is famous for
cave paintings. It belongs to Jain period of 7th and 8th century
CE. These were painted with herbal mixtures. In
Ezhadipattam even roofs were painted.
Wall paintings
There were mentions in literature about wall paintings of
Udayanan and Kopperundevi. There was a mention in
Purannuru about the death of Pandiyan nanmaran in chithira
madam (painting hall).Nakkeerar also mentions about
Pandiyan’s chithira madam. Paripadal mentioned about Ezhu
thozhil ambalam in Thirupparankundram. There were
paintings of Rathi, manmadhan, Indran, Gauthama saint,
Akaligai in this hall. It was ruined in later years. Metal
descriptions mentioned about Thiruverembur temple
paintings.
Rich people painted their walls. And news about paintings in
Buddhist penancing place place where Kovalan’s father
penanced where found in manimekalai.
Cloth paintings
The waod ‘padam’ was derived from the word ‘padaam’.
Padam means cloth in Tamil. In ancient times when people
draw pictures in cloth it was called ‘chithirapadaam’ ‘
chithirathirai’. The painting is called as ‘thugiligai’. In
manimekalai Seethalai chathanar wrote that the gardens of
Kaveripumpattinam was like a ‘chithiraipadaam’ - painting. In
Sivakachintamani Thiruthakkadevar wrote that the Thakka
country’s ponds and lotus in it were like a paintings painted
on a cloth. Ilango adigal called painting as ‘oviyaezhini’. Even
paintings were painted on boards. It was called as
‘Vattigaippalagai’.
Tanjore paintings
Tanjore paintings were emerged in Chozha period. During
Maratti kings Saraboji period it saw developments. These
paintings are one of Tamil Nadu’s GI – Geographical
Indication. These paintings were framed in a wooden frames.
God’s image occupies maximum space of the painting cloth.
Other images were painted in left over space. The shapes of
the images in these paintings were round and fat. And it
resembles females and were elegant.
These paintings were painted in blue, green, red and white
and the background colours were dark in colours. Thick lines
projects the paintings clearly.
People painted on things they were using daily like pots,
vessels, shields, swords and cots. Chithirakavi is one of the
four types of poems in Tamil. Chithira nadhi, chithira
thadagam, chithira sabhai were names given to beautiful
places. By thiswe can understand the importance of paintings
in Tamil. Recently people are painting with oil paints, colour
stick paintings, artificial colour paintings, water colour
paintings, ink paintings, hot wax paintings, water dispersible
oil paintings.
Paintings filled the gap of unexplainable things by words. It is
one of the antiquities of TN. From rock paintings to modern
paintings it came a long way.
Music
As the written poems are played with rhythm it is called
music(isai) From thirupathigam we learn that there were 7
sounds in music and it was played in separate strings. Kural,
thutham, kaikilai, uzhai, ili, vilari tharam are 7 types of
isai(music). Among these 7 tharam was importance of
development of music. According musical books, music is
produced from following organs or parts of our face. From
The larynx – kural, tongue – thutham, palate – kaikilai, head –
uzhai, forehead- ili, heart -vilari, nose -tharam. From lower
pitch to higher pitch moving is calledarosai, and from higher
pitch to lower pitch is called amarosai. Now we call it
arohanam and avarohanam.
Musical instruments
Musical instruments are differentiated as percussion
instruments, woodwind instruments, string instruments and
brass instruments.
Ancient artists used flute and violin and produced 7 varieties
of music. Valluvar said ‘kuzhalinidu yazhinidu enbar’.
Flute is the oldest woodwind musical instrument. As it is
made from grass family- bamboo, it is called ‘pullankuzhal’
and veinkuzhal.
Later it was made from rosewood, sandalwood and brass.
Flute was Mullai land people’s favourite instrument.
From the sound of the string they understand the quality of
the music and accordingly increased or decreased the length
of the string to get perfect music. Vilyazh is made of many
strings.
According to ‘perum panatrup padai’ one shepherd made
vilyazh using parts of a tree and produced music from it.
Based on this vilyazh, they made beriyazh, makarayazh,
sakodayazh, sengotiyazh and adhiyazh.
Tholkappiyam mentions percussion instrument ‘parai’ . It was
the mother of percussion instruments.
Adiyarkku nallar urai said that there were 30 percussion
instruments like perigai, padagam, idukkai, udukkai,
mathalam, siruparai, perumparai, nazhikaiparai. Among these
mathalam was used more.
Mathalam was the main instruments for music. In between
saligai was also played. So it was called ‘idaikaruvi’.
South Indian stone carvings tells that the temple built by first
Raja raja chozhan – Rajarajechuram had musicians who were
playing mathalam and udukai.
Musical books
According to irayanar kalaviyal urai, mudunarai, mudukurugu
books were there. Uraiayiram tells about sitrisai, perisai
books. Adiyarku nallar mentioned about, perunarai,
perunkurugu, panchabharathiyam, idrakaliyam and also
mentioned that Pandya king sayanthan wrote ‘isai nunukkam’.
We got a musical book named ‘panchamarabu’ written by
Arivanar. Pa.Sundaresanar published this book with meaning.
Musical artists
Panar (male)and padini (female) were experts in singing and
playing instruments. They were classified as isaipanar,
yazhpanar and mandaipanar.
Silapathikaram explains about the classification according to
the type of instruments they played.
Singers were called isaipanar. Those who can play yazh-string
instruments were called yazhpanars. There were mentions
about yzhpanar in sirupanatrupadai and perupanatrupadai.
Those who were singing with skul in their hands were called
mandaipanars.
Musical artists entertained people in festivals and temples.
And they acted like ambassadors between kings of different
countries.
Sangam literature and music
In sangam literature music was named according to the
landscapes. Kurinji – Kurinjipan, Mullai-sadari, Marutham –
Maruthappan, palai- panjurapan, Neithal- sevvazhipan.
In agananuru there was a description. When a wild elephant
came to eat thinai in a hill side land, it heard the kurinjipan
played by the girl who was guarding the field, it forgot to eat
the thinai.
Puranauru tells that Kanchipan was sung to protect the
injured soldiers from ghosts. Maduraikanji tells that
Maruthapan was recited with yazh by musicians during early
mornings. And it also tells that inthe evening they played
sevvazhippan with instruments like akuli and muzhavu. And
also mentioned that when heroine heard sevvazhippan she
was sad due to the separation from the hero.
Apart from these 5 types of music there were also kamaram
and naivalam in sangam era.Notes were there that kamaram
sounds like murmuring of insects.
Paripadal describes about veriyattappadal and vallaipadal.
There were notes about the method of singing also there in the
end of each song.
Silappathikaram and music
According to silappathikaram, music teacher, mathalam
teacher, flautist, string instrumentalist were supported during
Madhavi’s performance in stage.
According to the speed and performance of music it was
divided into 5.
Slow pitch or rhythm is mudal nadai. Fast and high pitch is
called thiral. In between them is vaaram. If the music is rich in
lyrics with good meaning that was called kudai.
In Silappathikaram the chapters like arangetrukathai,
aychiyarkuravai, kanalvari, venirkathai, kadaladukathai,
purancheri yiruthakathai had notes about music and Yazh.
The epic perunkathai also had mentions about music.
Bhakti movement and music
Sometimes, the writers of the poem themselves make tunes
for their poems and sing it. And in some other cases musician
make tunes for the poems of others. Thevaram belongs to first
type. Manikkavasakar said that poems of thevaram is carrying
music. So Thirugnansambandar, Thirunavukkarasar and
Sundarar made tunes for their poems.
Thirunavukkarasar was singing that, after grazing in the
fields, all the cows and all the buffaloes except one returned to
the owner’s house. He found out that one buffalo was missing.
But he can hear his mooing. The owner played music from his
flute and after hearing the music the missing buffalo returned
to the house.
Thirunavukkarasar was doing service to god in Thiruvathigai.
One day Sundarar came to visit the God Shiva of that place. As
a respect, he didn’t want to set his feet on the soil where
Thirunavukkarasar did service. He stayed in Sithavamadam
outside Thiruvathigai and was sleeping. At that time Lord
Shiva showed his mercy and put his feet on Sundarar.
Sundarar composed ‘Thammanai ariyadha’ poem in ‘Kolli
kauvanam’ tune.
Later he sang poems on God Shiva of Thiruvarur in Kollippan
tune. Sekkizhar mentioned that these 2 tunes were sung
during night.
When these tunes were in endangering stage,
Thirumuraikanda Chozhan revitalized these tunes with the
help of padini. New pans(tunes) were also added. These are
mentioned in Thirumurai puranam. He appointed ‘Odhuvar’
for singing thirumarai in temples. This tradition is still
prevails in temples.
Mahendravarman I was a genius was expert in all arts. His
stone carvings in Kudumiyanmalai phrase Ettirkum ezhirkum
ivai puriya’ refers to Sangiranam music. The Salaraparani
tune is in Thiruisaippa but not in thevaram.
Kirthanai form of music started in later years. Gopalakrishna
Bharathi and Arunachala kavirayar composed many
kirthanais.
Fromthe ancient times music was mingled in the lifestyle of
TN people. From sangam era panars, padini, virali were
developed music. After sangam era Kalapirargal ruled TN. The
converted to Jainism. The literature in this period was in
‘venba yappu’ But in sangam era there were no vanba yappu.
In pathinenkizhkanakku,( lower 18 books) Thirukural,
Naladiyar, Nanmanikkadigai mentioned about musical
instuments. Chozha period epics and Nayakar period
literature carried the legacy of music and Tamil and created
nalvar isai marabu.
Dance
Art if dance is called Nadanakalai, adalkalai and koothukalai.
The ancient grammer book Tholkappiyam mentioned about
some varieties of koothu. Valan (MURUGAN) played
varikoothu, soldiers played karunkoothu, women played
vallikoothu, wictory ofyoung soldiers were appreciated and
both men and women played kazha nilai koothu.
Koothargal developed the art of dance. Males in koothargal
community were called Koothan, adukalamagan, and
adumagan. Females were called virali, adumagal and
adukalamagal. Scholars like kovurkizhar and Mangudi
Marudanar praised the kings for giving prizes to viralis. Ilango
adigal also mentioned about them as Nadaga magalir.
The girl who had interest in dancing should have learnt
dancing from the age of 7 to 12, for 6 years. The teacher of
dancing art was called Nadana kol san. He should be an expert
in vethiyal and podhi iyal.
According to Adiyarku nallar, koothu was divided in to four
types. Sokkam , Meikoothu, Abhinayam and Nadagam.
Sokkam was musical dance. Meikoothu was dance with music
but belonged to internal life. Abhinayam is coordinating dance
with music. Nadagam is dramatic dance with musical story.
Adal refers to all types of dance.
Please refer the table in page 76.
Mudras
During dance hands were used to express the meaning and
feeling. It was divided into pindi, pinayal – in purakoothu,
and ezhirkai, thozhirkai in agakoothu. Pindi is a mudra shown
by single hand and it has 24 varieties. Pinayal is a mudra
shown by both the hands and it has 13 varieties.
From silapathikaram phrases we came to know that even
before that books on dancing were there. In yapparunkalam
urai, 13 types of dances and its uruppu and padal were
mentioned. (Read the names of dance page 77)
Kuravaikoothu
Dancing by 7 to 9 females standing like a circle is called
kuravaikoothu. It is called as Kundrakkuravai and Aichi
kuravai. Kurinji land women dancing about Lord Muruga is
called kundrakuravai. Mullai land women dancing about Lord
vishnu is called aichiyar kuravai.
Pallava period.
Mahendraverman I mentioned about Lord shiva’s thandvam
in his book ‘mathavilasa prakasanam’
In kailasanathar temple built by Rajasimman, sculptures of
Thandavam dance - pathaakai nadanam, lathavruchika
nadanam, urthuva thandavam, Ananda thadavam- by Lord
shiva can be seen.
In vaikunthaperumal temple, Kanchipuram sculptures of
koothan koothi (dancing male and female) are carved. From
literature we learned that Sundarar married dancing woman
named paravai nachiyar. Natarajar in Thillai was called
‘Koothaperuman’ by nayanmars. In pallava period dancing
girls were called manikkathar and kanigaiyar. Documents
shows that there were 42 kanigayars in Kanchipuram
Muktheeswarar temple.
Chozha period
Chozha period was golden period of arts. Saivaism and
Vainavaism were emerged in these period. Temples were
converted into stone temples. Even in sanctum sanctorum
sculptures of dancing girls were carved. Chidambaram,
Thanjavur, Thiruvannamalai, Gangai konda chozhapuram are
evidence to this.
In the walls of Tanjore big temple one can see the paintings of
dancing girls. From the minutely painted hairstles,
decorations o these paintings we can understand the
importance given to these dancing girls at that time.
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