Scenes from Tamil Classics

Scenes from Tamil Classics is a book about Tamil poetry. Tamil is one of the very few living classical languages of the world and has a rich and copious literary, musical and religious tradition. This book is primarily intended for expatriate Tamils, particularly to the children of Tamil immigrants in Europe, Australia and North America who are in danger of becoming increasingly alienated from their cultural roots. The intention of the book is to create an awareness and a sense of belonging among those expatriate children who are caught up in an uncomfortable tension between the culture of their own family and ethnic community and the culture of the wider society around them. This book is an attempt to give a taste of Tamil literature through the medium of English. In the selected extracts, the author paints in the details of the story or the situation which the poet has left unsaid, and draws out the inferences and allusions lying implicit in the poem. He thus brings the scene to life, and prevents the eye of the reader from passing too swiftly and superficially over the text. Instead, he stimulates the reader to reflect on the action and the feelings expressed, and enables him or her to appreciate more fully the artistry of the poem. In addition to extracts from ancient and medieval Tamil classics, Scenes from Tamil Classics provides a wide-ranging survey of Tamil literature. This is a fresh and original book which leads the reader into a world which is many centuries and thousands of miles distant from our own. Beyond the particular readership mentioned above, there is much in these pages to give delight to anyone with an interest in literature and in the human condition.