pallavi / anupallavi grammar

[kamalamba]

There has been a tradition in which the second syllable of the pallavi and anupallavi are similar / identical.

nIrajAkshi-sAradA
mEru samAna --sAra sAra
O jagadambA--- I jagati
alai pAyudE--- nilai peyarAda

Is there any idea when this system started who this innovation is attributable to?

It has been explained to me that the second syllable helps distinguish the anupallavi from the caraNam.

If this has already been discussed, my apologies , I would appreciate the correct link.

[mohan]

This concept is called dvitiya akshara prAsa (second syllable rhyme/alliteration). TM Krishna suggests it has it's orgins from Tamil poetry. See http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/a ... 072944.ece

[keerthi]

PRASA in POETRY

What is commonly called dvitIyAkSara-prAsa is a characteristic feature of South Indian poetry. Any self-respecting verse in KannaDa or telugu had to pass muster by having prAsa symmetry vis-a-vis the second letter of each quarter/ foot of the verse. There are varieties within this, like vinutaprAsa and vargaprAsa, where it needn't be the selfsame syllable, but has to be letters from the same class/ varga - like ka/kha/ga/gha or conjunct consonants (samyuktAkSara-s) that are treated as equivalents - tya-tta or tsa-ccha.

The elements of yati and prAsa have been faithfully conserved, in their flow from the metric/ poetic tradition to the kIrtana/ kRti/ pada genre.


There probably aren't any treatises that prescribe the rules and principles for composing songs, with the exception of the sankIrtana-lakSanaM of TALLApAkaM chinna tirumallayya. However, purandaradasa has said in his song 'tALa bEKU takka mELA bEKu' that 'yati-prAsavirabEku gatige nillisabEku' - which translates to 'yati and prAsa are required, and one should keep time, for good music'.

Thus, in poetry all the South Indian languages (I can't vouch for malayalam, but it must be the same), the principles of yati and prAsa are taken seriously.

KannaDa treatises on grammar and alankAra shAstra like the kavirAjamArga explicitly state the importance and indispensability of prAsa in verse, while saying that yati can be violated for hiher aesthetic reasons.

The telugu poets have demonstrated a stronger adherence to rules of yati and prAsa , following the footsteps of nAnayya bhaTTA (1050 C.E.).

tamizh poetry lay great emphasis on the yati-prAsa dyad, calling them monai and yadugai respectively. e.g.


undu madakaLiRRan ODAda tOLvaliyan
nandagOpAlan marumagaLE nappinnAy
gandam kamazhum kuzhalI! kaDaitiravAy;
vandengum kOzhi azhaittanakAN; mAdavip-
pandalmEl palkAl kuyilinangaL kUvinakAN
pandAr virali! un maittunan pErpADac-
cendAmaraikkaiyAl sIrAr vaLaiyolippa
vandu tiravAy magizhndElOr empAvAy.

[PUNARVASU]

keerthi, thanks for the beautiful and extensive explanation. Happy that we get to learn a lot by such posts.
As for me, this particular rule of 'dvitIyAkshara prAsa' helps me in remembering the anupallavi sAhityam.

[Sundara Rajan]

Thanks Keerthi,for the lucid explanation and the beautiful ThiruppAvai example.

[Pratyaksham Bala]

keerthi:
Thanks for the nice introduction.

PUNARVASU:
You are right. edugai, monai and iyaibu not only add beauty to a poem, but also help in memorising.

Please refer to Post #470 of Kavidaikal by Rasikas:-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
கானல் நீர்
ஓட்டுக்குப் பணம் என்றால் ஓடிவரும் கூட்டம் கண்டு
நாட்டுக்கே தலைவன் என்று நினைத்தவர் பலர் உண்டு!
ப்ரத்யக்ஷம் பாலா
------------------------------------------------------------------------

edugai - ஓட்டு / நாட்டு
monai - ஓட்டு / ஓடி; நாட்டுக்கே / நினைத்தவர்
iyaibu - கண்டு / உண்டு

The easy way to understand edugai is to check Tirukkural, Tirumandiram, Kandar Anubuti, etc.:-
http://www.thirukkural.com/2009/01/1.html
http://projectmadurai.org/pm_etexts/utf8/pmuni0004.html
http://projectmadurai.org/pm_etexts/utf8/pmuni0023.html

One can compare poetry with music and painting. Just as we have a number of ragas and talas in music, in poetry there are a number of established structures and beats, and in painting - a variety of colour schemes and rendering methods. Initially the rules may look complicated and challenging, but they are not impossible to understand and follow. But there is a danger of being carried away by the technicalities; the subject matter and the tone are equally important!
.

[vasanthakokilam]

These topics were in our Tamil second paper, weren't they? And then there were things like thEmAngAi .... I have forgotten that now though it used to fascinate me then. Can someone send a link to that material, I would like to reacquaint with that.

On the Edukai, Monai, there are numerous variations on which part of the line it rhymes with. with the Ezutthu ( letter ), Acai ( part of the word ), chIr ( word ) or aDi ( foot ) -- on the generic model that a line of poem ( a paragraph really ) consists of multiple aDis ( feet, like nAlaDiyar poems consists of 4 feet in a paragraph like structure ), and each foot consists of chIrs and each chIr consists of acais and each acai consists of letters. And you can have monai and edukai with each one of these elements. Like you can have a mOnai/edukai between the first letters of the first, third and fourth chIrs as an interesting and unusual example.

Monai can be traced to the world 'mun' - front' and edukai to 'edir - facing'. Especially interesting is with edukai where the stress is usually on that rhyming second letter. In those cases, it maps to a non-samam eduppu when it comes to musical compositions.

Did I get all this right, PB? If not, please provide corrections.

Question for Keerthi and others. While yati is the rhyme on the first letter, why are these poems/krithis with gradually shrinking and expanding lines called 'yati' patterns? Like gopucha yati etc. I have been under the impression that such patterns is what yati is, but then I learnt from what you wrote that yati is same as Monai.. How do we correlate these two uses of the word? Thanks.

[kamalamba]

Keerthi, PB, Mohan, VK
Thanks all for the useful information.
I feel embarrassed that despite learning tamil grammar nearly 35 years ago, I remember almost nothing.
Kamalamba

[arasi]

Kamalamba,
So, I'm truly forgiven for 'remembering almost nothing' after learning all this sixty or more years ago LOL!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

vasanthakokilam:
Excellent!
Please start posting your kavidaikaL!

edugai refers to the rhyming of the second letter of a line with the second letter of the next line. (Check Post #37 of ‘KavidaigaL by Rasikas’ where edugai is applied to all the 20 lines using 17 different words!)

monai refers to the rhyming of the first letter – this is applied to the first words of the first and the second half of a line. If a line has six words, the first and the fourth will have monai. (Check Post #1 of ‘KavidaigaL by Rasikas’ where, in addition to the first and the third word, monai is applied to a number of adjacent words.)

iyaibu refers to the rhyming of the last letters of successive lines.
.

[keerthi]

Question for Keerthi and others. While yati is the rhyme on the first letter, why are these poems/krithis with gradually shrinking and expanding lines called 'yati' patterns? Like gopucha yati etc. I have been under the impression that such patterns is what yati is, but then I learnt from what you wrote that yati is same as Monai.. How do we correlate these two uses of the word? Thanks.

The usage of the word yati in laya and in poetry are unrelated.

In poetry it refers to mOnai, as you've rightly pointed out. In laya, it has a different background. shArngadEva's SangITa-ratnAkara refers to the ten elements of tAla - the tAla-dasha-prANa-s, the ninth of which is yati - It refers to patterns of changing rhythm.

This can be effected in two ways - by creating a pattern within a tAla or by changing the laya across AvArta-s
1. internally,i.e, by making a pattern within the tAla - a tAla with a laghu, druta and anudruta would follow the srOtOgata pattern, if all the tala units are equivalent, it would be called samayati.

2. By singing a few avarta-s with one speed and then speedening up the tAla, as is done in the pratilOma exercise of pallavi singing.

I don't know enough in laya, and request others like Akellaji, who have studied tAlaprastara in detail to comment.

The

[srkris]

There is not a verse in rAmAvatAram without etukai as far as I know.