MEENAKSHI AMMAI PILLAI TAMIL

    Pillai Tamil or the "Tamil of Childhood" is one of the ninety-six forms of minor poetical compositions(º¢üÈ¢Ä츢Âí¸û).   It is one of the most popular type of literature.  This is in praise of childhood in all its varying stages whether the child be a male or a female.  "It starts singing of the child from the third month, when we have usually, the prayer offered for the child's welfare.  Then follow the songs of the wavy movements of the body of the child, forwards and backwards or sideways, the lullaby, the song of clapping hands, the song of kisses, the welcome song and the song of the moon.  These seven sections are common to both sexes.  But if the child is male, there are in addition the song of the kettledrum, the song of the childish pranks of brushing aside the toy-houses built of sand by the female children and the song of the toy cart.  If the child is a female, we have any three of the following: the song of the swing, the song of the bath, the song of toy-houses, the song of throwing up and catching seeds or other such things"  These are the general characteristics of this kind of popular literature.

    Love towards a child is the innocent joy of selflessness.  In that mood, poetry becomes sincere and moving and it captivates any heart.  Sivagnana Swamigal states in Amuthaambigai Pillai Tamil, that "even when singing of the omnipotent divinity, it is more charming and enchanting to sing of it as a child."  It is the natural outpouring of the heart of the mother that finds expression in these types of songs.  Dr. T. P. Meenakshisundarar observes that St. Kumaraguruparar has sung of god with love and reverence and with an incomparable joy, worshipping him in the form of the divine child Murukan and in the form of the divine mother in her childhood, Meenakshi.  Dr. M. Varadarajanar,  Vice-Chancellor of the Madurai University declares that Meenakshi Ammai Pillai Tamil is the master piece among this kind of literature and in full of devotion, literary brilliance and sweet rhythmic diction.

    In this literary compositon, Kumaraguruparar expresses his deep love for Tamil, as in his other works also, with apt descriptions and illustrations while delineating the characteristics of Goddess Meenakshi.  In the invocatory song, he praises Vishnu for going behind the Tamil poet due to his love for Tamil while the old Vedas yelled from behind vainly.  Beauties of composition with appropriate similies, metaphors and the like abound in this work.  Love and other tender feelings are very minutely exhibited in songs wherein the meeting of Goddess Meenakshi with Lord Siva in Kailas is depicted. How can we measure and describe the un-fathamable beauty, excellent taste and the depth of meaning in the human form?  The poet has showed in a very telling manner his powers of imagination, comparision and contrast in the 7th section, the song of the moon, which is considered to be very difficult for poets in general.

    In the songs of the bath, the poet makes every one break into laughter by ably describing a dialogue between Meenakshi and her maid touching the exploits of Lord Siva on the banks of the river Vaigai, when it was in floods.  The feelings of sorrow experienced by the maiden Meenakshi are, as graphically depicted, unbounded and heart-breaking, when she heard that Lord Siva worked as a labourer, carried earth on His head and got beaten by the Pandyan King for negligence in His work.  The way in which the miraculous acts and the acts of universal creation and destruction are described in these songs, the language used to describe them, are naturally so majestic and grand that, it is often said, if one studies this Pillai Tamil thoroughly, he will find it extremely easy to go through any other Pillai Tamil and to elucidate the same for the benefit of others.