The document discusses Tamil Sangam poetry and how it uses landscapes and seasons to signify human emotions and experiences of love and war. It notes that Tamil poetry divides poems into Akam (internal) and Puram (external) categories and associates the five landscapes and six seasons of Tamil Nadu with different human feelings. It provides an example poem where the needle of a cobbler working swiftly signifies the urgency of a woman going into labor during heavy rains at sunset.

1. Ammuvanar,
Ainkurunuru (500 short poems) 142-145,

2. Her soft plump shoulders
that gave you pleasure once
on the sands
where seabirds made a din
on the tigerclaw tree
are now angry
Ammuvanar,
Ainkurunuru (500 short poems) 142-145,
translated by A.K Ramanujan

3. PLACE AND MEMORY
THROUGH SANGAM POETRY

4. Two broad classification of Tamil
poems
• Akam (Inside, internal, heart, home)
• Puram (Outside, external, body, public areas)
• Akam poems are about love. About ones own
quest to be with what one’s heart desires
• Puram poems are of war, of public events and
discourses, a quest for territory and fame

5. The five landscapes of Tamil Nadu
• Kurinji – Hills and hilly areas
• Mullai - Forests
• Neythal/Neytal - Coasts
• Marutham – River-fed plains
• Palai – Deserts/dry wilderness

6. The six seasons of Tamil country
• Rains (August – September)
• Cool season (October – November)
• Evening Dew (December – January)
• Morning Dew (February – March)
• Early Summer (April – May)
• Late/High Summer (June – July)

7. Sign, signified, signifier
• Every sign is a union of the signifier and the
signified. In the Tamil system of
correspondences, a whole language of signs is
created by relating the landscapes as signifiers
to the appropriate human feelings.
A.K Ramanujan, in 1985

8. With the festival hour close at hand,
his woman in labour,
a sun setting behind pouring rains,
the needle in the cobbler’s hand
is in a frenzy
stitching thongs for a cot
swifter, far swifter,
were the tackles of our lord
wearing garlands of laburnum
as he wrestled with the enemy
come all the way
to take this land
Cattantaiyar on Porvaikkoperunar Killi,
Purananuru (Puram 400) 82
Translated by A.K Ramanujan

9. Going back to Nacht und Nebel
• Invokes suppressed memories for those who
were there/then
• For those who weren’t around, it sets context
and taps into “tribal memory” to invoke
reaction
• Much like Tamil poetry, it uses minimal “text”
to maximum impact.

10. Nuit et brouillard
• Beautiful landscapes create the contrast to its
dark past.

11. Questions
• How is memory of a place invoked?
• If you had to “see” a place in your mind, what
would trigger this vision?
• Do people (poets, filmmakers) have to paint
the full picture of a place for you to know the
place? Or would a small piece do?