-By Balu
It was during the first workshop by GAP, a reference to “Acham , Naanam, Madam’ (Timidity, Modesty and Credulity respectively) was made and a related song sung by Samarpa Kumaran, a ballad singer active in social movements was played to the students. I was eager to know more and found that ‘Tolkāppiyam,’ the earliest extant work of Tamil literature has a verse with this string of words. (Generally the fourth word in the above string is Payirppu- aversion towards other men, but Tolkāppiyam does not mention this word; instead this word is found in a commentary by Ilampuranar).
I came across some of the works in “Sanga Illakiyam” (Old Tamil Literature) and studied it with a gender perspective. I have heard people contending that women were considered or treated equally in Sangam period (period disputed but roughly between the years c. 350 BCE to 300 CE) and I wondered what this equality meant. The arguments for ‘women were treated as equal in sangam’ would be in the lines of, women were educated, some women chose their partners, women learnt and performed arts and they were poets etc. However compared to the privileges enjoyed by the men, as could be derived from the literature, the status of women was significantly less.They were educated but only at home, whereas men went out for education and women could perform art only in the confines of their homes mostly.
I am not a scholar in Tamil, but, with my interest in Tamil literature I also wanted to see how gender was treated then. Therefore I wish to clarify that I have not extensively studied the Sangam literature but only those that I stumbled upon. Whenever I read its amazing to see the beauty, elegance, richness of language, imagery and metaphor in Sanga Ilakkiyam. (Literature of the Sangam period). Another caveat is that by gender perspective in Tamil literature I only mean the binary – of how men and women were treated. I don’t know if there was any awareness about gender fluidity or any references about transgender people. There is a saying in Tamil: ‘One grain of cooked rice is proof enough for the entire pot’. I think we have a sample sufficient enough here to arrive at concrete conclusions
Tholkapiam is supposed to be the master guide for all Sanga Ilakiayam. It describes (not prescribes) the Tamil grammar with three divisions Ezhuttadikaram (The formation of words), Solladikaram (The syntax of language) and the final Poruladikaram that talks about the meaning and thoughts that are conveyed in the literary works. It is here in the last division how a Man and Woman should be and should be portrayed are expounded. Thus this chapter throws light on how gender was viewed and treated before, during and after Tolkāppiyam . Let me quote a few verses with the meaning and try to understand what it signifies.
Acham means timidity (or being cautious) , Naanam means bashfulness (or being reserved) and Madam means modesty (even if she is knowledgeable, she is not suppose to show it out). This has been further stated in few other poems too.
Apart from these, the qualities like chastity, good conduct, tenderness, patience, temperance, self control are supposed to be that of a woman as seen below.
Among all these above Nanam (Bashfulness) is supposed to be more important than life itself, and untainted chastity superior to bashfulness. It is claimed that these were the words of ancestors. The claim probably attempts to give a stamp of credibility and authority to the prescribed qualities of a woman.
Now let us see the traits prescribed for a man.
Short and sweet isn’t it? Just bearing and fortitude. However education, valor, charity, cooperation, impartiality, fearless, brilliance, rigid, merit, bravery and many more qualities are attributed to these two words in the commentaries (Urai). It could be readily seen that a woman was invested with patriarchal notions of ideal attributes and so was the man.
The next verse talks about who could be superior among them. There are 10 qualities – Lineage, fortitude, age, physical form, tendency to do something great, inclination to sexual passion, steadfastness, graciousness of demeanour, discerning mind and material endowment, that are supposed to be matched between a couple.
If in the process, a man is not equal but superior to the woman it was acceptable.
That basically seals the question of whether men and women were treated equally in the ancient Tamil culture. The statement that ‘the man being of a superiority standing does not matter’ begs the question what if it was the other way round. Obviously the answer is that it matters but why it matters is left unsaid. And the fact that it is unsaid reveals that the patriarchal society easily understood the why.
The Sangam literature is basically of two types – one is Akam and the other is Puram, The Akam poetry talks about inner aspects like Love, marriage, household, relationships, etc., whereas Puram talks about exterior aspects like War, business, social life, etc.
Were women’s ideal qualities extolled only in Akam? We find that there are instances of lauding the bravery of a women but there is a difference. A woman was considered courageous if she faced the death of her husband or son in the war bravely and considered this as pride. This is prominent in Purananuru .
In one poem the woman hears that her son was killed when he ran away from war showing his back (puramudugu kaattudhal). She vows to cut off the breasts that fed the son and goes to the war field. She searches for her son’s body among the blood and bodies and when she finds that he was not hit at the back but cut into pieces, her happiness was more than what she had on the day he was born. How gruesome! But this was what was demonstrated as valour for women.
Women were basically considered property of men. Crimes like stalking, kidnapping the woman and harassing her were mentioned either in a lighter vein or were glorified.
Will be continued in Part 2
References:
http://www.tamilvu.org/library/libindex.htm
Book : Tolkāppiyam in English by Dr. V.Murugan Published by Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai
The author can be contacted at equalgenderpro@gmail.com
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