Panjali Sabatham: Prosodic Features and Poetic Style

Abstract

Bharathiyar was the one who created Tamil so that the honey-like Tamil music could spread all over the world. He made many innovations with his songs to remove the distance between people and Tamil poetry.  He composed poems following tradition in traditional forms like song and poetry. He introduced innovation into traditional forms of poetry and gave rise to modern poetry. Panjali Sabadham is a unique record among Bharathiyar's songs. This book is full of simple Tamil, subtlety and emotions. The Panjali Sabatham consists of two parts. This book contains four hundred and twelve songs in five chapters namely Sulchicharukam (Duryodhana's trickery Chapter), Chuthattacharukam (Gambling Chapter), Adimaicharukam (Slavery Chapter), Thukilurithal charukam (Draupadi in the assembly Chapter), and Sapadhacharukam (Imprecation Chapter). Bharathiyar's poems have all been explored from a prosodical perspective. However, the Panjali Sabatham is not known to have been explored with specific focus on prosodic features. Therefore, the article researches Panjali Sabadham based on previous studies explaining the prosodic features and the verse Style based on Tolkaapiyam construction under the title “Panchali Sabatham: Prosodic features and Verse Style.”  This book is made up of poetry that are Sindhu (slightly shorter than average), Kattalai Kalippa, Nilai Mandila Aasiriyum, Arusir (a four-bar song consisting of six words), Ezhusir (seven words and four bars), and Ensir Vridham (a four-bar song consisting of eight words). Among them the references made in previous studies are also reviewed. The way poetic style of the characters of Ammai (not based on the original word), Thonmai (prose is mixed with ancient subject matter), Thol (finer terms), Virunthu (Novel, Modern Poetry), Iyaibu (the consonants from 'jna' to 'na' as the last syllable), Pulan (understand the meaning without examining), and Izhaibu (adverbial verbs from related words), added strongly as the poet is highlighted. Although Tolkappiyam has mentioned 34 elements, considering the theme of Panchali Sabatham, considering the incompatibility of elements such as munnam (Intention), kaikol (Virtuous life), thinai (Location), porul vahai (Theme), etc., only numerical patterns which are considered as internal patterns are taken as the data for the study.