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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00039 Mar 2003

 
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Dear friends,

A young of mine has sent me a question for which adiyane is unable to
give a ready response. It is a question related to use of Tamil idiom
and poetic 'rasanai' (flavour) and perhaps knowledgeable ones amongst
you might be able to clarify.

In the TiruvoimOzhi decad on Tiruvengadam, NammAzhwar sings as
follows:

vaNNa maruLkoL aNimEga vaNNaa!* maaya ammaanE,*
eNNam pugundhu thiththikkum amuthE!* imaiyOr athipathiyE,*
theNNal aruvi maNipon muththalaikkum* thiruvENGkadaththaanE,*
aNNalE! un adisEra* adiyERku aavaa vennaayE!    6.10.3

The phrase "thiththikkum amuthE!", my correspondent says, sounds
rather unusual. "thiththikkum" means "sweet" and "amuthE" means
ambrosia, the divine nectar, the elixir of immortality in God's
world.

Nectar or "amutham" is said to be naturally "sweet" ("thiththippu").
No such thing as a bitter ("kassappu") or sour ("puLippu") ambrosia
exists. In such a case isn't NammAzhwAr's use of the adjective
"thiththikkum" to qualify "amutham" rather redundant or tautological
-- from a strictly literary/grammatical standpoint? It sounds a bit
like saying "O sweetening sugar!".

The AzhwAr might have easily said "eNNam pugundha amuthE!" or
something similar, and still have conveyed the same degree of delight
savoured in the thought of 'tiruvengadatthAn'! Did NammAzhwAr add
"thiththikkum" merely for the purpose of ensuring poetic metre/rhyme
or is there some other subtle message he sought to convey through the
seeming redundancy of phrase?

Comments/views welcome.

Thanking you,
Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan






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