It was a sultry afternoon. A poet expresses the intensity of the heat in a sublime fashion. The short poem appears in Gaha Sattasai, a collection of ancient Prakrit verses, whose selection of verses have been translated into Tamil with a detailed introduction on their close affinities with those of Tamil Sangam literature.
Even your shadow takes shelter under your feet, escaping from the scorching sun.
O traveler, come to the shade
Thus the poet beckons a traveler.
Though the verses in Gaha Sattasaiwere written in the Prakrit language of Maharashtra, they have close affinities with the content and style of the Tamil Sangam lyrics. Translated into Tamil by contemporary authors Sundar Kali and Parimalam Sundar, the Prakrit collection of poems, is a feast to the modern Tamil poets, who have a flair to know the roots of their poetry in classical pieces of literature.
Quoting fromThe Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and their Sanskrit Counterparts by George L Hart, the famed Tamil scholar and professor of Tamil language at the University of California, the translators say, 'George L Hart, who discusses the affinities between the poems in Gaha Sattasai and those in Sangam literature in their prosody, themes and tradition, proves the similaritiesbetween the love-lyrics in the Prakrit literary work and those in Sangam literature. However, the poetic style differs each other in the two literary works.
While the songs in Gaha Sattasai are adorned with similes, the Sangam poems hardly use the figure of speech. Rather, in Sangam poems, the expressions to compare one thing with the other, stand disconnected without the words 'like' or '. It is an idea in the Sangam poems to leave the work of comparing one thing with the other to the readers themselves'
The translators say George L Hart has opined that Gaha Sattasai and Sangam lyrics are from a common Dravidian literary root.
'Nevertheless, it is nothing wrong to say that Gaha Sattasai rather drew a direct inspiration from the ancient Sangam lyrics, with the latter's period being dated back to 3rd century BCE after several artifacts related to Sangam literature have been excavated in places including Aathichanallur and the ones in Kongu region - Kodumanal and Porunthal' say Sundar Kali and Parimalam Sundar.
The translators say Gaha Sattasai is attributed to king Hala. According to certain puranas, Hala was the seventeenth king, who ruled the Andhra Pradesh for five years.
Even your shadow takes shelter under your feet, escaping from the scorching sun.
O traveler, come to the shade
Thus the poet beckons a traveler.
Though the verses in Gaha Sattasaiwere written in the Prakrit language of Maharashtra, they have close affinities with the content and style of the Tamil Sangam lyrics. Translated into Tamil by contemporary authors Sundar Kali and Parimalam Sundar, the Prakrit collection of poems, is a feast to the modern Tamil poets, who have a flair to know the roots of their poetry in classical pieces of literature.
Quoting fromThe Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and their Sanskrit Counterparts by George L Hart, the famed Tamil scholar and professor of Tamil language at the University of California, the translators say, 'George L Hart, who discusses the affinities between the poems in Gaha Sattasai and those in Sangam literature in their prosody, themes and tradition, proves the similaritiesbetween the love-lyrics in the Prakrit literary work and those in Sangam literature. However, the poetic style differs each other in the two literary works.
While the songs in Gaha Sattasai are adorned with similes, the Sangam poems hardly use the figure of speech. Rather, in Sangam poems, the expressions to compare one thing with the other, stand disconnected without the words 'like' or '. It is an idea in the Sangam poems to leave the work of comparing one thing with the other to the readers themselves'
The translators say George L Hart has opined that Gaha Sattasai and Sangam lyrics are from a common Dravidian literary root.
'Nevertheless, it is nothing wrong to say that Gaha Sattasai rather drew a direct inspiration from the ancient Sangam lyrics, with the latter's period being dated back to 3rd century BCE after several artifacts related to Sangam literature have been excavated in places including Aathichanallur and the ones in Kongu region - Kodumanal and Porunthal' say Sundar Kali and Parimalam Sundar.
The translators say Gaha Sattasai is attributed to king Hala. According to certain puranas, Hala was the seventeenth king, who ruled the Andhra Pradesh for five years.
