Le Paripatal - Texte tamoul

by François Gros

Within a secular corpus, the Parip?t?al, composed around Madurai city and its river, Vaigai, contains unique devotional songs to M?l (Vis?n?u) and Cevv?l (Murukan?), the first to be written in classical Tamil, and conform to the Hindu lore. The date is controversial, but the horoscope which opens poem XI is discussed in the introduction with the help of Roger Billard, historian of Indian astronomy. It may well be a sheet anchor for the whole corpus of Sangam literature, as astronomical data correspond almost certainly to 17th July 634! Musical data were interpreted according to P. Sundarecan’s reading of ancient Tamil music. This first complete translation in a western idiom received the Saintour Prize 1969 (French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres).