2. The term tinai has four
distinct, but interconnected
meanings. They spring from
the basic meaning, namely,
'to join’
Tinai refers to, ‘Human
community indigenous to a
specific ecoregion'.
3. • Tinai is an order of community life found
among early Tamils and, perhaps, others. Its
characteristic feature is its emphasis on land-
life relationship. Accordingly, human
communities like other organismic
communities were organised on eco-regional
basis.
(Tinai studies by Dr.Nirmal selvamony)
4. Tinai has no perfect translation
in english because it is a typical
tamil word used in sangam age
of tamilnadu .
It is a bad thing to translate as
landscape
But both of them has some
similarities.
5. Daniel and Cosgrove defines it as an
outward expression of human
perception, “a landscape is a
cultural image, a pictorial way of
representing, structuring or
symbolizing surroundings”(Daniel &
Cosgrove,1988).
6. This ‘Tinai concept’ is evidenced from Tamil
literature(poems)
Poetry is a literary art that reflects human
life in an aesthetic way
It deals with many concepts like love, war,
truth, happiness, frustrations, hopes,
friendship, enmity and beliefs.
The Tamil poems deploy nature and its
surrounding landscape (Tinai) as a framework
to express human love.
7. Aham (Inner or subjective)
• Poems that view life from inside
the family, and concern the love
between man and woman.
Puram (Exterior or objective)
•Poems that view life from outside
the family
8. According to Tolkappiyam (Tamilbook which
is considered to be a encyclopedia for
sangam age)there are three aspects which
are very basic to akam poetry
Tolkāppiyam, in sutra 3 of Aka-t-tinai Iyal,
lists the components of the Akam poem as
follows:
On examination, when we list them,
the entities which constitute the poem
are, excelling in order,
mutal, karu and uri-p-porul
9. These are all called
1.Muthal porul (principal or
first thing)
2.Karupporul ( Naturo-cultural
element)
3.Uripporul (Human action)
10. A typical oikos is a nexus in which
the sacred, the humans, natural and
cultural phenomena stand in an
integrated relationship.
The Tamil equivalent of oikos is tinai
that integrates specific space and
time(Muthal) ,naturo-cultural(Karu)
elements and human action(Uri).
11. Muthal means first or principal, and refers to
the setting in 1. Time – Poluthu , and
2. place – Nilam,
in which the activity of the Akam poem takes
place.
1. Time is conceived of in two aspects, the
time of the year, or season and the time of
the day or night.
12. Tinai Major time Minor time
1.Kurunji
2.Mullai
3.Marutam
4.Neytal
5.Palai
Winter and early
dewy season
(mid-October to
mid-February)
Rainy season
(mid-August to
mid-October)
All seasons
All seasons
Summer mild and
wild,late dewy
season(Mid-
February to mid-
August)
Midnight
Evening
Small hours an dawn
Sun-set
Mid-Day
13. Tamil literature has classified our land into
five landscapes(Tinai)
Each of these was name after a flower
In the Sangam Age, the Tamil people had a
common language and culture. But, they
lived in five different natural landscapes.
These natural landscapes or geographical
regions were known as Thinais (Eco zones)
Land refers to the landscape in which the
poem is set
14. Kurinji - Mountains, Hilly tracts
Mullai – Forest and pasture;
Marutham – Agricultural lands
Neytal – Lands by the seashore;
Pālai – waste lands,Drylands.
15. The kurinji region was hilly and
mountainous.
Obviously the kurinji was the region
particularly suited to the early or primitive
mode of living man could take shelter from
wild beast as well as from sun and rain in
the natural caves of the hills.
As civilization developed ,the people of
kurinji abandoned their caves an started
building small houses
Some type of agriculture also undertaken
16. The pastoral region was called “Mullai”
The cattle breeding were their major
occupation , this profession required a group
of people .
The emergence of the joint family system
was one of the features of this
On account of the facilities afforded by
nature in the mullai region , the
domestication of animals had developed in a
large way.
17. The most advanced tinai among
early Tamilnadu was those who
occupied the fertile riverine
valleys in Marutam
Houses big and small were
found constructed for the
purpose of storing food grain ,
cotton and other materials and
also for the residence of the
cultivator and his family
18. The coastal region was called
Neytal
Near about their home the
people of Neytal earned their
livelihood by selling fish and
salt
In due course, they took fish
and salt into the interior of the
country and bartered them for
other kinds of foodstuff
19. Another division was palai, the sandy
desert region which occupied a rather
insignificant but singular place in the
Tamil country
The term Palai refers to the desert region.
But, there was no desert in the Tamil
country. Therefore, it could be said that
whenever there was drought due to failure of
rains, that region was called as Palai.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25. Karu means embryo, nucleus,
and refers to the various
elements of flora, fauna, food ,
Inhabitants , soil ,Musical
instruments, and so on, which
are native and specific to each
tinai.
This is a naturo-cultural thing
33. Kurinji-Millet , wild rice and bamboo grain
Mullai- Mutirai (a pulse-variety),paspulam
frumantaceum
Marutam-Rice
Neytal-Food obtained by sale of salt
Palai-Whatever is obtained by loot
34. Kurinji-Indian kino(Santanam) ,
Silk cotton tree
Mullai-Indian laburnum (konrai)
Marutam- Arjuna(Marutam) , Myrobalan
Neytal-Alexandrian laurel , Fragrant screw
pine
Palai-south Indian mahua,purge,soorai
35. Kurinji-People cultivated fruits and
vegetables and gathered honey
Mullai-Being shepherds, they produced dairy
products like milk, curd and ghee.
Marutam-They cultivated paddy, sugar cane
and a variety of fruits like mango, plantain
and Jackfruit. Irrigation methods were also
known to them .
Neytal-People of this region produced and
sold salt
36. Kurinji-Red and black soils
with stones and pebbles
Mullai-Red soil
Marutam-Alluvial
Neytal-Sandy ,saline soil
Palai-Salt affected soil
37. These five tracts had such clear cut socio-
cultural traits that they had their own Gods
to worship and forms of worship.
The God for Marutham was Indran(Rain God)
The God for Mullai was Thirumal (Lord
Vishnu)
The God for Kurunchi was Murugan (Lord
Karthikeyan)
The God for Neythal was Varunan (sea God)
The God for Palai was Kotravai .
38. The Neidal or the fisher folk worshipped
Varuna, the God of the seas as well as the
shark which they propitiated naturally.
This reference is not merely to a literary
convention but a living socio-religious
practice compelled by the local regional
environment suitably embellished with the
divine activities of these Gods and gave
meaning to the beliefs of the mortals who
worshipped them.
39. Marutam tinai had cultivation land so the people
need water to agriculture.
In Hinduism Indran is the god who give rain so
they worshipped in Indran and celebrated indra
vilza
According to hindu holy books kali or durgai is
the symbol of braveness .so palai people
worshipped in kali
Murugan is the god of kurinji . Because Murugan
has six hands, six heads (Hindu books) .His power
and wealth is used to protect all hills and
animals ,plants living there . And a belief is that
he married a tribal girl called valli . so Murugan
was worshipped in kurinji.
40. Apart from these, we know that totemic
worship also was well known and widely
practised.
Rivers, mountains, animals, reptiles, birds
etc. were objects of worship and deemed
sources of protection.
It was a tribal practice to hold such objects
in reverence and this kind of religion also
developed its own mythology
41. “The jungle tracts close to Vishnu dear,
The mountain slopes, fav'rite haunts of Skanda,
The river-fed regions by Indra blessed,
The sandy sea-sides under Varuna's care,”
42. Uri is connected with the word urimai –
ownership, appropriateness, propreity, and
refers to the distinctive mood that characterises
each tinai. The correspondence between the five
tinai and their associated moods is as follows:
Kurinji – union of lovers (punartal)
Palai- Separation of lovers (pirital)
Mullai- patient waiting ( Iruttal )
Neytal-Mood of despair (Irangal)
Marutam- Love quarrels (Utal)
43. Poem (Ainkurunuru-214):
He will go back to his glorious country
where heavy rains fall on mountains,
and where huge sweet jackfruits on mountain
slopes
fall down below between cracked black
boulders,
breaking the large honey combs.
The friend says this at a place where the hero
can hear her. This is a way of nudging him to
come and marry her friend
44. Poem (kuruntokai-234) :
The sun goes down and the sky reddens, pain
grows sharp, light dwindles .
Then is evening when jasmine flowers open,
the deluded say.
But evening is the great brightening dawn
when crested cocks crow all through the tall city
and evening is the whole day
for those without their lovers
Heroine (who languishes because of the
separation of her lover)speaks to her friend
about her lover who has gone in such of wealth
45. Poem (Ainkurunuru-17)
Hovering like the heron
in the sky over the white cane-blossom
waving tall among leaves of grass,
he goes after new women,
My simple heart stands empty.
Heroine speaks to herself about the
unwanted attitude of her companion
46. Poem (Ainkurunuru-50)
Man from the flourishing town
where vanji grows abundantly!
My friends and I are sad
because you left her.
Please show her some mercy.
Your wife who has you in her heart, cries.
The friend of the heroine speaks to hero
about her friend’s situation without him
47. Poem(kuruntokai-130)
He will not dig up the earth and enter it,
he will not climb into the sky,
he will not walk across the dark sea.
If we search every country, every city,
every village, can your lover escape us?
Heroine’s friend (relaxing)
the herione who is feeling bad about the
‘separation of her lover’
48. Example :
Neytal’s karupporul (Human action )
Is Mood of despair
It is because hero went to sea for
fishing .Heroine waiting for his returning
home .But she worried about his journey in
the sea .sea traveling has a lot of difficulties.
storms ,big waves, Cyclones will kill her lover
so she has a mood of despair still his lover
will come to home.
49. ………the systematic symbology depends on the
association between these two aspects (karu and
uri).
They are distinct and co-present . They require
each other ; together they make the world .
Mutal and karu, First things and Native elements
are seen as the objective correlative or rather
than correlative objectives , of human
experience .
It is also significant that in the Tamil system ,
though gods are mentioned ,they are only part of
the scene ; they preside , but as natives of the
landscape.
50. People from each tinai went out interacting
with the peoples of the other tinaisand entered into
barter of goods.
Example: the people from the hilly backwoods came
down to other zones for exchanging their resources
like honey , meat, fruits and other wild goods.
The people of pastoral tracts exchanged their dairy
products and the coasted people fish and salt.
The small, self-sustaining tinais grew up into larger
eco-zones through such interaction and
interdependence.
society was essentially simple and consisted of clans.
51. P.L.Samy shows the connection between tinai,
ecosystem and ecology thus:
'The modern concepts of Ecosystem and
Ecology are surprisingly close to the concept of
Thinai Division in ancient Cankam literature…
The term ecology means the relationship of
plants, animals, and people to their
environment from time to time through change
of season, rainfall, climate and the influence of
man himself‘
However, systematic ecological approach begins
only later in the eighties when ecological
concepts like biome (are adopted to elucidate
tinai theory.
52. As in the pre-historic period, the life of the
people in the Sangam age had remained
simple and natural.
The Sangam Tamils had chosen their
occupation according to their natural
environment.
Although they lived in five different regions,
there was a close interaction between them.
This interaction had resulted in the
development of a common language and
culture in the Tamil country.
53. Because people, like other organisms, have a right to their own
traditional community order.
To help people integrate with their environment better and
rediscover their lifestyles compatible with their environments.
Because tinai can help grapple with most present-day problems -
- environmental, social (caste, untouchability and other forms of
discrimination and oppression), economic (class conflict),
political (corruption, law and order problems, and inadequate
participation in government) and other such.
To free people from their dependence on power centres,
knowledge systems, affective systems, technologies, and other
pervasive forces that lie outside their home environments.
54. In the Sangam Age, the Tamil people had a
common language and culture.
But, they lived in five different natural
landscapes.
These natural landscapes or geographical
regions were known as Thinais.
The five Thinais referred to in the Sangam
literature were Kurinji, Mullai, Marudham,
Neydal and Palai, Each Thinai was
geographically distinct from the other.
Moreover, each of these regions had
reflected their own social characteristics.
56. 1.Popular Culture In Ancient Tamilagam
by Dr.A.Singaravel
2.The Interior Landscape by
Prof.A.K.Ramanujan
3.Akananuru translated by
Dr.A.Dakshinamurthy (vol1,vol2,vol3)
4.Kurunthogai translated by
R.Balakrishna mudaliyar
5.School 3 std social science book vol
2(TN Gov)
57. Tamil literature ,wikipedia
sangam landscape, wikipedia
Tinai studies by Dr.Nirmal selvamony
OSLE India newsletter (vol 1.No 3)
The poetic landscapes of Tamilnadu
Essays in ecocriticism by Rayson K.Alex,Nirmal
selvamony,Nirmaldasan (e-book)
Definition of Tinai, wikipedia
Oikopoetics and Tamil poetry by Dr. Nirmal
selvamony
