''Iraicchi'' (
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
People, culture and language
* Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka
** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
இறைச்சி ''iṟaicci'', literally, "flesh") is a technique of suggestion used in the classical Tamil poetic tradition, particularly akam poetry.
Iraicchi is closely connected with the extensive descriptions of natural phenomena or objects that characterise classical Tamil
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
. The technique of iraicchi involves using these descriptions to create an implication, or suggestion, which differs from the plain meaning of the words. This implication flows from the conventionalised
symbol
A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...
ic meanings which the natural objects described in the poem have. Readers familiar with the conventions of
Tamil poetry
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 T ...
can, therefore, perceive these meanings "reading between the lines".
Modern commentators disagree on the precise relationship of iraicchi with other
literary technique
A narrative technique (also, in fiction, a fictional device) is any of several storytelling methods the creator of a narrative, story uses,
thus effectively relaying information to the audience or making the story more complete, complex, or engag ...
s used in Tamil poetry. Some, such as
Zvelebil, Nadarajah and Mariaselvam treat iraicchi as being synonymous with
uṭaṉuṟai, which is one of five types of indirect metaphor discussed in the
Tolkappiyam, an early text on grammar and poetics. Thus, according to them, iraicchi is an alternative to other literary techniques such as ''
uḷḷuṟai uvamam'', and is therefore distinct from them.
Other commentators, such as Selby, treat iraicchi as being the ''goal'' of these indirect metaphors. In Selby's interpretation, poets use descriptions of natural objects forming part of the
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
in which the poem is situated (the poem's ''
tiṇai'') to generate implicit
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
s (''
uḷḷuṟai''). These metaphors suggest an implied meaning (''iṟaicci'') which goes beyond the plain meaning of the words of poem. This implied meaning conveys to the reader the emotion, feeling or mood (''meyppāṭu'') which the characters of the poem experience. Thus ''uḷḷuṟai uvamam'' and other types of metaphors are, in this reading, simply ways of conveying iraicchi, rather than alternatives to it.
In either sense, iraicchi has some similarities with the technique of ''
dhvani
In Indian aesthetics, a rasa () literally means "juice, essence or taste".Monier Monier-Williams (1899)Rasa Sanskrit English Dictionary with Etymology, Motilal Banarsidass (Originally Published: Oxford) It is a concept in Indian arts denoting t ...
'' used in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
and
Maharashtri
Maharashtri or Maharashtri Prakrit (') is a Prakrit language of ancient as well as medieval India.
Maharashtri Prakrit was commonly spoken until 875 CEV.Rajwade, ''Maharashtrache prachin rajyakarte'' poetry. Selby, however, points to important differences. Tamil poems are conventionalised, and the descriptions of nature used in them have a clear and rigid symbolism. A reader who is aware of the symbolic significance of the various natural objects described in the poem can easily understand the various levels of meaning contained in the poem. Dhvani, in contrast, lacks the structure of this type of convention and as a result is naturally polysemic, and the reader of poem requires the aid of commentators to fully understand its various levels of meaning. As a result, she argues, the process involved in the two systems are entirely different, as far as the reader is concerned.
Notes
Sources
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*{{Citation , last=Zvelebil , first=Kamil , author-link=Kamil Zvelebil , title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India , publisher=E.J. Brill , place=Leiden , year=1973 , isbn=90-04-03591-5
Tamil poetics