Tamil Epics

Collective name for three early Tamil
epic poems: the Shilappadigaram, the
Manimegalai, and the ShivagaSindamani. These poems were composed in about the sixth and seventh
centuries of the common era, when religious forms and cultural influence
(among them, the composition of epic
poems) were seeping in from the north
and influencing indigenous forms. Aside
from Sanskrit, Tamil is the only major
ancient literary language. All three of
these poems provide important information about life in their contemporary
times, including religious life. In brief,
the Shilappadigaram (“The Jeweled
Anklet”) is a tragedy that highlights several important themes that have pervaded
Hindu culture, particularly the need for
a king to rule righteously and the power
gained by a wife through her devotion to
her husband. The Manimegalai focuses
on a young woman of the same name,
who is wooed by the local prince but
eventually becomes a Buddhist nun.
Although the story clearly has a Buddhist
bias, Manimegalai has numerous debates
with people from competing religious
traditions. Finally, the ShivagaSindamani describes the adventures of
Shivaga, a man who excels at every possible manly art, who with each new
challenge wins a new wife for his harem
but in the end renounces everything
to become a Jain monk. Although the
later two epics are respectively biased
toward Buddhist and Jain religious
values, they all give valuable information about contemporary religious life.
See also Tamil language.