Ancient Tamil Poetry: Archaic Substratum

Abstract

Thе article is a tribute to the memory of the outstanding Russian dravidologist A. M. Dubyansky; it examines the archaic foundations of ancient Tamil poetry. This poetry is represented by two poetry collections: “Eight anthologies” and “Ten songs or poems”, which were created in the 1st–3rd centuries. A. M. Dubyansky explored the mythological and ritual origins of this poetry, it seems reasonable to reveal in it a deep archaic substratum; this is the purpose of the article. Thanks to phylogenetic memory, its actualization took place at different times in different areas of culture and literature, therefore, ancient Tamil poetry is no exception to the general rule. There are grounds to establish a genetic connection between one of the key terms of the analyzed poetry, namely, aņańku, denoting various phenomena of the sacred sphere, with the ancient archetype of integrity, the origins of which date back to deep antiquity. The ancient Tamil poetic canon also reflected archaic ideas about time-space, the chronotope; they are significantly different from the historical dictated by the usual for us Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm. The image of the ancient Tamil god Murugan depicts the mythology of a young god, who is typologically close to the dying and resurrecting gods of the agricultural cults of the Old World. However, they left the historical scene, but the cult of Murugan is still popular in the Dravidian area, this creates opportunities for a deeper study of this mythology. Thus, the translations and studies of A. M. Dubyansky receive additional source study value and can be fruitfully used for various kinds of humanitarian research.