chap_14
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TIRUKKURAL
An Abridgement of Śāstras
R. Nagaswamy
14. Kapilar
G.U.Pope published translations of more than 72 Saṅgam poems from the collection Puranāṉūru. Additionally, he also translated the text Puṟapporuḷ Veṇpā Mālai. These translations were featured in publications such as the Asiatic Quarterly Review, Christava Siddhanta Deepika, and the Indian Antiquary Volumes. These were reprinted under the Tamil Herioc Poems by Saiva Siddhanta Book Publication Society in the year 1978. It may be seen from these publications that Pope was fully aware of Saṅgam poets. Kapilar is the greatest Poet who in his own Poem refers to himself as Antaṇar-Brāhmin. He was a great friend of Pāri, who died fighting a battle, leaving behind his two daughters as orphans. Kapilar took it upon himself to protect these girls and sought out various kings and chieftains, requesting them to marry the girls. However, most of them declined his request. Finally, he approached Malaiyamān of Thirukōilyūr, who married the girls.
There is a historic poem in the Puranāṉūru collection sung by Kapilar himself who introduces them to the chieftain saying that Pāri belonged to the clan of Vēlūr which was born from the sacrificial fire of Ayodhya, who migrated to Tamiḻnāṭu from Dvarakam and that Pāri was the 49th descendent of that family. Kapilar was a Brāhmin friend of Pāri, after whose death he adopted his two daughters as his own daughters and that he is their father now.
This moving poem found in Puranāṉūru collection is in fact a historical event, which is mentioned a thousand years later in Rājarāja's inscription in which Kapilar is mentioned, and the whole episode of Pāri’s daughters is narrated. The inscription further reveals that after having the daughters married to Malayamāṉ, Kapilar immolated himself in fire atop a rock at Thirukōiyulūr which still stands today under the name of Kapilarkal. Kapilar is always mentioned as the foremost Brāhmin Poet of the Saṅgam age, who has sung a maximum number of Poems in the Saṅgam anthology. Kapilar and Paraṇar are always sung as leading poets of the Saṅgam age. Anyone who is even casually aware of the Saṅgam anthology knows that as a translator of Saṅgam Puṟam Poems, one could not have been ignorant of Kapilar’s lineage.
However, we are sure that Pope may have intentionally misrepresented Kapilar’s life in his translation of the Tirukkuṟaḷ, portraying him as a Pariah. It is widely recognized that Kapilar, from the Saṅgam era, was in fact a Brāhmaṇa.
Pope who translated nearly 72 poems of Puranāṉūru, did not give the poem mentioned above, where Kapilar immolated himself, but just says he was an Antaṇar. The omission of Kapilar’s true history and calling him a Pariaḥ is a deliberate attempt by Pope to drive a wedge between the two communities. Christianity was the main motive of Pope. His introduction to Tirukkuṟaḷ by his own admission was to portray an imaginary incident in calling Tiruvaḷḷuvar a Christian which is condemnable as an insincereable scholar and should be rejected as fiction and motivated.
Pope himself has stated that it would have been feasible to illustrate each chapter with parallel passages from Sanskrit authors. “This, I have done here and there, especially where it might seem that the author was translating as from manner for example it would sum that I have indicated it is not probable that Tiruvaḷḷuvar translated a sloka from Sanskrit (see his introduction p.iv)”.
It is clear evidence Pope has not ruled out a few translations from Sanskrit sources. If one could delete all of Pope’s writings on forced imaginary Christian contact, his study would remain a valuable contribution to Kuṟaḷ studies.