That Tolkein's ring Sir Mortimer found
Fits no severed hand below Mohenjo Daro's mound
& Ekalavya suffers Khandava's pain
No upa-Nishaad, let Nala explain
Milesian misprision the Aos Sí detect
Nature is a Resource must defect
& Lob's theorem, by Zorn's lemma
Proves Puissance the Prisoner of its own dilemma.
Envoi
Prince! That thy silver hand its sword outlast
A but cold eye in that Smithy is cast.
Hi windwheel,
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like it's something related to ancient India. It also looks like it describes someone's self. I do not understand it though.
I also want to tell you I just started a new blog on April 15, 2015.
https://themarscolumn.blogspot.jp/
It's a religious blog. I discuss religion there. Just for fun, as and when I get the time for it.
SMME / Iniyavel Sugumar.
Hi Iniyavel,
ReplyDeleteSorry, been neglecting this blog of late.
Love your new blog.
Pillaitamil, as a poetic genre, is believed to be a unique contribution of Tamil region- Sur Das is the most famous North Indian exponent of 'vatsalya bhava' which I took as the basis for my novel- 'Samlee's daughter' using the hasya and 'bibhatsa' rasas. In my books I often refer to myself as proving the glory of Lord Murugan by reason of a miracle not less impressive than, albeit being the reverse of that by which H.H Kumaraguruparar Swami gained poetic glory.
I refer to the fact that I only write my horrible poetry in the idiolects of those who oppressed us viz Arabized Urdu and Victorian English.
As a kid in T.Nagar, Chennai, I was hopeless at English but spoke voluble D.M.K Tamil greatly to the horror of my orthodox relatives. Fortunately, my Dad was posted abroad before I learned to read and write in Tamil so disaster was averted.
Still, since my one link to Religion is my mundan at age 3 at Pallani- which is my paternal Kuladevam- I am a firm believer that it is by the grace of Lord Muruga alone that I am like a imbecile or infant when it comes to the language we consider to be our means of communicating with the Divine.
I have a lot of old devotional movies on video cassette focussed on the Lord at Pallani. What is stressed is that it is not great learning or intellectual distinction but a simple and child-like passion or attachment which suffices for the free gift of the Grace of the Lord. This recent video shows the continuation of this tradition- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R0XOIpq4Nk.
The poem given above has the following meaning-
Tolkein may have got the idea for the Ring from Sir Mortimer Wheeler's work on the 'ring of Silvanus'. Wheeler, of course, also called Mohenjo Daro 'mound of the dead'- whereas the real meaning is ethnographic. Still, Wheeler was identifying Mohenjo Daro with the ancient British concept of the 'sidhe'- those who sleep under the mound.
At that time Yeats was considered the greatest poet. However, despite his exposure to people like Mohini Chatterjee, Tagore, and so on, Yeats chose to subscribe to an elitist view- utter opposite of our Lord's philosophy which is nothing but Beauty- and deformed himself not, such is the nature of Muruga, his work.
I myself am content to write in an ugly manner so long as what abides in my heart is the true beauty of equality- such that an illiterate imbecile like myself remains within the ambit of Mannikavacakar's- or let me say Avvaiyar, who is my favourite- Centamil glory.
This poem references Yeats's epitaph. 'Cast a cold eye, on life on death, horseman pass by'- which privileges the Cavalier view point- the horse riding conqueror over the indigenous people.
My point is that the defeated do not 'go under the mound' only to reappear as spectral creatures because, as an Economist, I can say that (if life has evolved by Natural Selection) there is no such thing as a 'Natural Resource' which can't defect in Prisoner's dilemma- i.e. no non strategic factors of production exist. Lob's theorem has recently been used to show a (specious) result re robustness in the above but this is only interesting if 'Nature' can't defect.
It can. Saivism recognized this and flourished while far wealthier Shramanic sects went to the wall.
One other point- you may recall, from the Lord of the Rings films, that the finger of Sauron is hacked off which is how the ring becomes free. This is a reference to an Irish legend from the Book of Conquests. A silver hand replaces the hacked off limb pointing to the manner in which money replaces the sword when it comes to holding a conquered country and 'driving underground' its spirit of patriotism and love of equality.
Interesting story behind "Cast a Cold Eye." Of course, I would find it hard to keep up with your mind waves, but I don't mind asking.
DeleteOf course, there are a lot more interesting content like the Saiva Siddhantha school of thought, which my parents follow, that I will post as time goes by. I'm just doing what I can to find out if I get the resources I need, and if I can manage to upload them if I can.
If you have problems reading in Tamil, you can of course listen to the chanting of Kandar Kalivenba. It contains short and complete explanations of most concepts of the Saiva Siddhantha school of thought, which will be one of the focal points in my blog.
SMME / Iniyavel Sugumar.
Hi Windwheel,
ReplyDeleteAre you on twitter?
-AK