Dear Indologists,

 

I have noticed some ōṭuvārs sing the first verse of the Cuntarar Tēvāram by 
splitting the word perumāṉē by splitting it into peru and māṉē, which does not 
sound right semantically. Other ōtuvārs keep the word perumāṉē whole. When I 
mentioned it to a musicologist, he offered the following versions of the verse.

 

Tiruppaṉantāl Edition

pittāpiṟai cūṭīperu māṉēaru ḷāḷā

ettālmaṟa vātēniṉaik kiṉṟēṉmaṉat tuṉṉai

vaittāypeṇṇait teṉpālveṇṇai nallūr aruṭṭuṟaiyuḷ

attāuṉak kāḷāyiṉi allēṉeṉal āmē

 

Saiva Siddhanta Edition

pittāpiṟai cūṭīperu māṉēyaru ḷāḷā

ettāṉmaṟa vātēniṉaik kiṉṟēṉmaṉat tuṉṉai

vaittāypeṇṇait teṉpālveṇṇai nallūraruṭ ṭuṟaiyuḷ

attāvuṉak kāḷāyiṉi allēṉeṉa lāmē

 

Prof. E. Angayarkkanni, in her discussion of the first line of the same verse, 
considers the line to be of 4 cīrs made up of one īracaiccīr followed by three 
mūvacaiccīr (cuntarar tēvārap pāṭalkaḷil icai, p. 104), which gives rise to 
pittā piṟaicūṭī perumāṉē aruḷāḷā. Although she does not discuss other lines of 
the verse, we can see the third line of the verse would not fit the pattern of 
the first line.

 

Is there a ‘correct’ way of splitting the cīrs? Even if such a way exists what 
would have been the relationship between that and the actual manner of singing 
by Cuntarar or his followers?

 

Unfortunately, the Pondicherry T. V. Gopal Iyer edition of the Tēvāram does not 
give the cīr-based version. Does anyone know if TVG has discussed the prosody 
of this verse in any of his other publications?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Regards,

Palaniappan

 

 

 

 

 

 

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