of the god Murukan
̄
, especially in his association with the seaside town of
Tiruccentu ̄ r. Paula Richman has summarized the legend that accounts for the
composition of this poem:
According to tradition, Pakal
̄ikku ̄ ttar, originally a Vais.n.ava devotee, suffered ter-
rible stomach pains for a long time. One day an ancestor who had been a devotee
of Murukan
̄(son ofS ́iva) appeared to him in a dream and asked him to sing a pil-
laitamil. The poet then saw that sacred ash and a leaf had been bestowed upon
him. He awoke to find a palm leaf beside him upon which to compose poetry. After
prayer to Lord Murukan
̄cured his illness, he composed his pillaittamil to the deity
as manifested at the Tiruccentur shrine. (Richman 1997: 53–4)One finds here echoes of the legendary life story of Appar (seventh century)
which tells how a stomach ailment played a critical role in securing the saint’s
conversion from Jainism to S ́aivism. Since Appar’s story was firmly established
in the Tamil S ́aiva hagiographic tradition prior to Pakal
̄
ikku ̄ ttar’s lifetime, more
likely than not, the similarities in the biographies are not coincidental. But while
the echoes of Appar’s biography in the later legend establish a linkage between
the pirapantam poem and Tamil S ́aiva bhakti tradition, the fact that Vais.n.avism
has replaced Jainism as the non-S ́aiva Other, indicates a significant shift in the
socio-religious environment in Tamilnadu between the seventh and the four-
teenth centuries.
Many Tamil poets, including Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, have composed
pil.l.aittamil
̄
poems. Besides Tiruccentu ̄r Pil.l.aittamil
̄, two of the best known
pil.l.aittamil
̄
poems devoted to Hindu subjects are Maturai Mı ̄n
̄a ̄t.ciyammai Pil.l.ait-
tamil
̄
by Kumarakuruparar (seventeenth century), which praises the goddess
Mı ̄n
̄
a ̄t.ci, S ́iva’s consort in the great temple located in Maturai, and Ce ̄kkil
̄a ̄r
Pil.l.aittamil
̄
by T. M ı ̄n
̄a ̄t.cicuntaram Pil.l.ai (nineteenth century) on Ce ̄kkil
̄a ̄r, the
author of the canonical hagiography of the 63 Tamil S ́aiva saints, Periya
Pura ̄n.am(twelfth century). While the subjects ofpil..laittamil
̄
poems, as well as
their sectarian and historical contexts, are quite varied, the exemplars of this
genre do display certain common features. Most obvious is the paruvam struc-
ture and the maternal voice that are central to the definition of the genre.
Another feature common to many pil.l.aittamil
̄
poems is the way poets intersperse
images of a god or hero imagined as a child with references to the subject’s heroic
or gracious acts as an adult. These juxtapositions engender in a poem’s audience
a simultaneous sense of intimate affection and awe-filled wonder for its subject.^6
The Tamil literary category of pirapantam is traditionally counterposed to
the category of pura ̄n.am or ka ̄vyam (or ka ̄ppiyam^7 ). In Sanskrit, the category
pura ̄n.a, which denotes the primary textual repository of Hindu mythology, is
often linked with the category of itiha ̄sa, which refers specifically to the
Maha ̄bha ̄rataand the Ra ̄ma ̄yan.a.While a few of the Sanskrit texts included in
the realm ofitiha ̄sa-pura ̄n.aare noted for their poetic language, by and large these
texts are noteworthy more for the stories they tell than for the manner of
their telling. In contrast, in the world of Sanskrit arts and letters, the term ka ̄vya
denotes aesthetically refined poetry, and the “great ka ̄vyas” (maha ̄ka ̄vya) are
tamil hindu literature 151