திருமுருகாற்றுப்படை காட்டும் தமிழகத்தின் நிலவியல் கூறு மற்றும் அறுபடை வீடுகளின் இயற்கை அமைப்பு - ஓர் ஆய்வு: The Geographical Features of Tamil Nadu and the Natural Settings of the Six Abodes of Murugan as Depicted in Tirumurugarruppadai: A Study

Abstract

Tirumurugarruppadai, the first work of the Pattuppattu, is an arruppadai (guide-poem) of 317 lines composed by Nakkirar. Until now it has been studied mostly as devotional literature and as a text of Murugan worship. This paper approaches it from a new angle, as a “geographical document.” The basic hypothesis of the study is that the structure of the arruppadai, in which a poet guides others along the way to Murugan, can be read as a “transect” that crosses Tamil Nadu’s mountains, plains and coast. It is the earliest geographical document of Sangam-age Tamil Nadu. The poem describes the natural settings of Murugan’s six abodes (Arupadai Veedu): Tirupparankundram, Tirucheeralaivai (Tiruchendur), Tiruvavinankudi (Palani), Tiruverakam (Swamimalai), Kunrutoradal (Tiruttani) and Pazhamudircholai. It relates these settings to the five Tamil landscape types (kurinji, mullai, marutham, neithal and paalai). The study compares each abode’s elevation above sea level, soil type, vegetation and water source with Nakkirar’s verses, and thereby establishes the geographical knowledge of the Tamils. The central idea of the study is that the Tamils did not separate God from nature; they worshipped God as one with nature.

Keywords

• Tirumurugarruppadai
• Nakkirar
• geography (nilaviyal)
• arruppadai
• the six abodes of Murugan
• kurinji landscape
• sacred ecology
• Western Ghats
• physical geography