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Kundalakesi
''Kundalakesi'' ( Kuṇṭalakēci, ''lit.'' "woman with curly hair"), also called ''Kuntalakeciviruttam'', is a Tamil Buddhist epic written by Nathakuthanaar, likely sometime in the 10th-century.Aiyangar 2004, p. 360 The epic is a story about love, marriage, getting tired with the married partner, murder and then discovering religion. The ''Kundalakesi'' epic has partially survived into the modern age in fragments, such as in commentaries written centuries later. From these fragments, it appears to be a tragic love story about a Hindu or Jain girl of merchant caste named Kundalakesi who falls in love with Kalan – a Buddhist criminal on a death sentence. The girl's rich merchant father gets the criminal pardoned and freed, the girl marries him. Over time, their love fades and they start irritating each other. During an argument, Kundalakesi reminds him of his criminal past which angers Kalan. A few days later, he invites her to a hike up a hill. When they reach the top, he tel ...
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Neelakesi
Neelakesi () is a Tamil Jain epic poetry. Tamil literary tradition places it among the five minor epic poems, along with ''Naga kumara kaviyam'', ''Udhyana kumara Kaviyam'', ''Yasodhara Kaviyam'' and '' Soolamani''. It is a polemical work written as a Jain rebuttal to the Buddhist criticism in the Great Tamil epic ''Kundalakesi''. It tells the story of the Jain nun of the same name who was a rival of the Buddhist protagonist of the ''Kundalakesi''. According to the epic, when animal sacrifices of a temple of the Kali in Panchala were stopped due to the influence of the Jains, the Goddess dispatched the local deity Nīli to seduce and destroy the monk responsible for it. However, Nīli herself is converted to Jainism by the monk. Nīlakēci, as she is renamed, travels the country indulging in philosophical debate with rhetoricians of other religions. She debates and defeats several Buddhist rhetoricians like Arkachandra, Kundalakesi, Moggallana (Tamil: Mokkala) and even Gautama ...
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The Five Great Epics Of Tamil Literature
The Five Great Epics () are five Tamil epics according to later Tamil literary tradition. They are '' Cilappatikāram'', ''Manimekalai'', ''Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi'', '' Valayapathi'' and '' Kundalakesi''. Three of the five great epics of Tamil literature are attributed to Tamil Jains, while two are attributed to Tamil Buddhists. ''Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi'', ''Cilappathikāram'', and ''Valayapathi'' were written by Tamil Jains, while the ''Manimekalai'' and ''Kundalakesi'' were authored by Buddhists. The first mention of the ''Aimperumkappiyam'' "five large epics" occurs in Mayilainathar's commentary, the '' Nannūl''. However, Mayilainathar does not mention their titles. The titles are first mentioned in the late-18th-to-early-19th-century work ''Thiruthanikaiula''. Earlier works like the 17th-century poem ''Tamil vidu thoothu'' mention the great epics as ''Panchkavyams''. Among these, the last two, ''Valayapathi'' and ''Kundalakesi'' are not extant. These five epics were written ...
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Five Great Epics
The Five Great Epics () are five Tamil epics according to later Tamil literary tradition. They are '' Cilappatikāram'', ''Manimekalai'', ''Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi'', ''Valayapathi'' and ''Kundalakesi''. Three of the five great epics of Tamil literature are attributed to Tamil Jains, while two are attributed to Tamil Buddhists. ''Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi'', ''Cilappathikāram'', and ''Valayapathi'' were written by Tamil Jains, while the ''Manimekalai'' and ''Kundalakesi'' were authored by Buddhists. The first mention of the ''Aimperumkappiyam'' "five large epics" occurs in Mayilainathar's commentary, the '' Nannūl''. However, Mayilainathar does not mention their titles. The titles are first mentioned in the late-18th-to-early-19th-century work ''Thiruthanikaiula''. Earlier works like the 17th-century poem ''Tamil vidu thoothu'' mention the great epics as ''Panchkavyams''. Among these, the last two, ''Valayapathi'' and ''Kundalakesi'' are not extant. These five epics were written be ...
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Valayapathi
''Valaiyapadhi'' (; ), also spelled ''Valayapathi'', is one of the five great Tamil epics, but one that is almost entirely lost. It is a story of a father who has two wives, abandons one who gives birth to their son, and the son grows up and seeks his real father. The dominant emotion of this epic is love, and its predominant object is the inculcation of Jain principles and doctrines. Palm-leaf manuscripts of the epic likely existed until the 19th-century, but presently only uncertain fragments of the epic are known from commentaries and the 14th-century anthology ''Purattirattu''. Based on these fragments, the epic appears to be the story of a merchant with an overseas trading business who married two women. He abandoned one, who later gives birth to his son. He has children with the other wife too. The abandoned son is bullied by overseas kids for not knowing the name of his father. His mother then discloses the father's name. The son travels and confronts his father, who f ...
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Tamil Literature
Tamil literature includes a collection of literary works that have come from a tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from Tamil people from south India, including the land now comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Sri Lankan Tamil people, Eelam Tamils from Sri Lanka, as well as the Tamil diaspora. The history of Tamil literature follows the history of Tamil Nadu, closely following the social, economical, political and cultural trends of various periods. The early Sangam literature, dated before 300 BCE, contain anthologies of various poets dealing with many aspects of life, including love, war, social values and religion.Akananuru (1, 15, 31, 55, 61, 65, 91, 97, 101, 115, 127, 187, 197, 201, 211, 233, 251, 265, 281, 311, 325, 331, 347, 349, 359, 393, 281, 295), Kurunthogai (11), and Natrinai (14, 75) are dated before 300 BCE. This was ...
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Manthiri Kumari
''Manthiri Kumari'' () is a 1950 Indian Tamil-language historical fiction film directed by Ellis R. Dungan, starring M. G. Ramachandran, M. N. Nambiar, Madhuri Devi and G. Sakunthala. The screenplay was written by M. Karunanidhi based on his play of the same name, itself inspired by an incident from the Tamil epic '' Kundalakesi''. This was the last Tamil film directed by Dungan and is considered to be among the most successful films of that decade. Shortly after directing this film, Dungan left the Tamil film industry. Plot The King of Mullai Nadu is dominated by his Raja guru (head priest) ( M. N. Nambiar). The guru wants his son Parthiban (S. A. Natarajan) to be appointed as the General of the army. But the King appoints Veera Mohan (MGR) instead. The enraged Parthiban becomes a bandit and starts raiding the countryside. Parthiban lives in the kingdom during the daytime and loots merchants and passengers who pass by in groups, in the road during nighttime or at times w ...
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Buddhism Amongst Tamils
Buddhism amongst the Tamils was historically found in the Tamilakam region of India and Sri Lanka. India Origin The heritage of the town of Nākappaṭṭinam is found in the Burmese historical text of the 3rd century BCE and gives evidence of a Budha Vihar built by the King Ashoka. An inscription from Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka dated to 2nd century BCE records the association of Tamil merchants with Buddhist institution. For several centuries in the second millennium of the common era Buddhism among the Tamils in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka was neglected and virtually abandoned due to shifts in political patronage and the revivalism among non-Buddhist religions. According to A.J.V. Chandrakanthan who recently (2019) published an article about an 11th-century comparative work named Veerasoliyam, codifying Tamil and Sanskrit Philology and Poetics is a clear indicator of the prominence given to Buddhism in Tamil scholarship. However the pan Saiva revival in Tamilagam in the second h ...
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Tamil Cinema
Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Chennai neighbourhood with a high concentration of film studios, and Hollywood. The first Tamil silent film, '' Keechaka Vadham'', was directed by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1918. The first Tamil talking feature film, '' Kalidas'', a multilingual directed by H. M. Reddy was released on 31 October 1931, less than seven months after India's first talking motion picture '' Alam Ara''. Tamil cinema has been noted for its advanced narratives and diverse films, with several productions in the 1990s and early 2000s cutting across ethnic and linguistic barriers. Such films include '' Roja'' (1992), ''Bombay'' (1995), '' Indian'' (1996) and '' Enthiran'' (2010). Tamil cinema has since produced some of the most commercially successful actors, direct ...
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Epic Poems In Tamil
Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) or EPIC(s) may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Film * ''Epic'' (1984 film) * ''Epic'' (2013 film) * ''Epic Movie'', a 2007 film Gaming * ''Epic'' (tabletop game), a series of tabletop wargames * ''Epic'' (play-by-mail game) * ''Epic'' (video game), a 1992 video game * ''Epic: Battle for Moonhaven'', a 2013 video game by Gameloft based on the film ''Epic'' (2013) * '' Epic Card Game'', a 2015 strategy card game by White Wizard Games Literature * ''Epic'' (Kostick novel), a 2004 novel by Conor Kostick * ''Epic Illustrated'', a 1980s anthology series published by Marvel Comics Music Albums * ''Epic'' (Blood on the Dance Floor album), 2011 * ''Epic'' (Borknagar album), 2004 * ''Epic'' (R. Kelly album), 2010 * ''Epi ...
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Buddhist Poetry
Buddhist poetry is a genre of literature that forms a part of Buddhist discourse. Origins The first examples of Buddhist poetry can be found in traditional scriptures such as the ''Dhammapada'', according to which, Siddhārtha Gautama (the founder of Buddhism), upon his reaching enlightenment, proclaimed: Form Traditionally, most Buddhist sutras have a prose component supplemented by verses (known as ''gatha'') that reiterate and poetically summarize the themes of preceding prose passages. Gatha functions as a mnemonic device helping the Buddhist practitioner commit to memory a certain doctrinal maxim. And in fact, the earliest extant forms of Buddhist discourse appear in verse, which is hardly surprising, considering that the texts were not originally written, but memorized. Linguistic analysis shows that the prose component of the sutras is likely to have been modified by later editing, while the poems often contain earlier forms of language. This view is confirmed by Japan ...
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Tamil-language Literature
Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India" (p. 7). attested since 300 BC, 300 BCE.: "...the most acceptable periodisation which has so far been suggested for the development of Tamil writing seems to me to be that of A Chidambaranatha Chettiar (1907–1967): 1. Sangam Literature – 200BC to AD 200; 2. Post Sangam literature – AD 200 – AD 600; 3. Early Medieval literature – AD 600 to AD 1200; 4. Later Medieval literature – AD 1200 to AD 1800; 5. Pre-Modern literature – AD 1800 to 1900" at p. 610 Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders in South India, with Tamil inscriptions found outside of the Indian subcontinent, such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Egypt. The language has a well-documented history wit ...
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