பக்கம்:தமிழியல் கட்டுரைகள்.pdf/114

விக்கிமூலம் இலிருந்து
இப்பக்கம் மெய்ப்பு பார்க்கப்படவில்லை

107 coral, pearls and precious stones, the marvellous joint handiwork of expert diamond-cutters from Maghada, goldsmiths from Maharashtra, artificers from Avanti, carpenters from Yavana and and skilled craftsmen of the Tamil country.” In this context, the words of Căttanār, the author of the epic of Manimékalai, who says that ‘it was happily done by the work so jointly done by the artists of Magadha, Maharashtra and Avanthi along with the Tamil artisans’ are worthy of note. In the same epic, the author speaks about the people of eighteen languages living together at Kancheepuram in the chapter on ‘the story of Manimékalai entering the city of Kancheepuram’; and this perhaps the most significant reference to substantiate the point.” HX It appears that the ancient Tamil poets were not satisfied by the meeting of North and South alone, but they wanted the West and the East also to join together. Hence they were always fond of drawing a picture in which we can find things from the four directions mingle together. Here we can have two typical examples to substantiate the point. - In Pattinapālai, one of the Ten Idylls, Katiyalār Uruthirafikannanār, describes the wealth available at Kāviripũmpațținam as follows: 108 “The Himalayas send gems and gold, while Kuda hill, sweet sandal-wood and akhil; pearis from the south sea come, red coral from the eastern sea'. (The Himalayas is in the north and the Kuda hills is in the west). In Cilapatikāram, Ilango Atikal describes how the ladies of Käviripúmpattinam decorated themselves in the evening as follows:i99 w ‘Besides Mātavi, there were others with lily-like eyes who were sleeping blissfully on the breast of their lovers.........But first they put out the fumes of incense made up mixing the white ayir of the western hills with the black agar of the eastern hills, they (still) wore the sandal paste prepared by rubbing the sandalwood of the southern mountains upon the sandstone of the northern hills............ 3. -