It is important to stress that while some poems included in the can.kam
anthologies contain references to these gods or to rites performed in their honor,
these are not religious poems in the sense one would ordinarily understand the
term. In virtually all cases these poems aesthetically and rhetorically focus on
the actions and emotions of human beings in relation to one another and to
their natural environment. References to gods and religious practices are sub-
sidiary to these concerns, and when they do occur, they may be tinged with
irony. For example, in certain akam poems the heroine or her friend mock
Murukan
̄
’s priest for attempting to cure the ailing heroine through rites of
exorcism, when the actual cause for her illness is separation from her lover.
There are however, two significant exceptions to this generalization. The rel-
atively late can.kam anthology, Paripa ̄t.al(ca. fifth century ce), contains a number
of poems that celebrate the gods Cevve ̄l.(another name for Ce ̄yo ̄n
̄
/Murukan
̄) and
Tiruma ̄l. (The honorific prefix “tiru” is equivalent to Sanskrit “s ́rı ̄”.) And addi-
tionally, the can.kam corpus contains a long “guide poem” (a ̄r
̄
r
̄uppat.ai) in praise
of Murukan
̄
calledTirumuruka ̄r
̄r
̄uppat.ai(ca. fifth century). The latter is modeled
on guide poems found in Pur
̄
ana ̄nu ̄r
̄u,the principal can.kam anthology devoted
to pur
̄
am poetry. In these poems a poet praises his patron’s realm, his wealth and
his generosity in conversation with another poet whom he has met on the road.
InTirumuruka ̄r
̄
r
̄uppat.ai, standard elements of the guide poem genre – poet,
patron, patron’s realm, patron’s gifts – are transposed to a devotional register,
becoming, in turn, Murukan
̄
’s devotee, the god, the six hills which are said to
be Murukan
̄
’s favorite dwelling places in Tamilnadu, and the grace Murukan
bestows upon his devotees. ̄
The Canonized Poems of the Tamil Vais.n.ava and
S ́aiva Saints
Tirumuruka ̄r
̄
r
̄uppat.ai, uniquely among the compositions included in the can.kam
poetic corpus, also was canonized in Tamil S ́aiva sectarian tradition. (No poems
from the can.kam corpus are included in the equivalent canon of Tamil
Va i s.n.avism.) Tirumuruka ̄r
̄
r
̄uppat.ai’s dual status is a reminder that early Tamil lit-
erary practices, which probably flourished in a courtly context, and the some-
what later poetic expressions of devotion for S ́iva and Vis.n.u are not unrelated.
This is apparent in the large number of canonized bhakti poems that adapt
and incorporate literary conventions associated with the can.kam poems. Most
famously, in many Vais.n.ava bhakti poems the poet assumes a female voice and
expresses love for Vis.n.u in an idiom modeled closely on can.kam akam poems.^1
Nevertheless, the two poetic corpera significantly differ from one another in
form, content, or function.
The period extending from the seventh through the ninth centuries was the
golden age of bhakti in the Tamil country. During this period temples of S ́iva
and Vis.n.u became a prominent feature of the Tamil landscape, and communities
of bhaktas who hailed from a wide spectrum of social backgrounds and were
tamil hindu literature 147