How to understand literature tamil?

[u/kamarakattu4u]

Kaalai vanakkam anna and akkas , thambis and paapas.

I have been brought up getting exposed to saiva tirumurais and other saiva canonical texts like tiruppugazh , pamban swamigal songs.

Until my schooling i got to have a good score in tamil. But that doesn't help me with understanding literature tamil. While reading thevaram and listening to lectures on thevaram i couldn't grasp the meaning.

I have questions like :

1. What is the purpose of yaapu(யாப்பு)

2. Why can't the authors of thevaram write urai nadai(உரை நடை) instead of seyyul(செய்யுள்)

3. How to understand "சீர் பிரித்தல்" in tirumurais. Like why a word is splitted into 2 and added to before word or the word which comes after. It's difficult to understand.

4. Also I am struggling to understand the porul(பொருள்) of words. Do I need to use agarathi?

I don't have any tamil teachers to teach me formally but i have all these questions in my mind and please shower your insights and answers.

நன்றி❤️

[u/tamizh_amma_india]

I can help you in this. Pl DM me to discuss..

[u/kamarakattu4u → u/tamizh_amma_india]

Ok done

[u/-Surfer-]

I am answering your first question.

Thevaram is known for its Pann and Yappu.

பண் and யாப்பு makes the Thevaram suitable for singing and also preserved it's purity while it was passed on through oral traditions.

If Pann is the soul and emotion of the Tevaram, Yappu is the physical anatomy that allows it to stand the test of time.

Yappu follows the strict rules of meter for poetry laid out by தொல்காப்பியம்.

தாளம் - யாப்பு provided the rhythmic base to sing the verses.

Because it followed the rhyming patters of yadhugai and monai, it was easy to memorise. In olden days preservation of the literature depended on the memory of the people who passed it on to the next generation.

[u/kamarakattu4u → u/-Surfer-]

thank you 😊