Colonizing the Realm of Words: The Transformation of Tamil Literature in Nineteenth-Century South India

Note on Transliteration, Pronunciation, and Translations of Tamil Primary Sources

Note on Transliteration, Pronunciation, and Translations of Tamil Primary Sources Besides certain obvious exceptions (such as well-known place names or proper names), I have used the standard transliteration system for Tamil as explained in Beythan (1943) so as to satisfy specialist readers and enable non-specialist readers to pronounce the unfamiliar words they encounter. Similarly, words from other Indian languages have generally been transliterated following the standard conventions for the language in question. The pronunciation of Tamil is approximately as follows: Vowels The vowels a, i, u, e, o are pronounced as in Italian and short unless marked by a macron which denotes long vowels (å, ¥, ¶, ª, ø). It is important always to pay attention to that distinction. ai is pronounced as in Engl. stray, au as in house. Word-initial e/ª and o/ø are pronounced with a glide [je]/[je:] (as in Yemen and Yeats) and [wo]/[wo:] (as in wombat and woe). Word-final u is pronounced short with the lips spread [ ], not rounded. Consonants The consonants are pronounced approximately as in English with the following exceptions. Double consonants tt, mm, pp etc. always have to xxi m be pronounced distinctly. †, £, and ¬ are retroflex sounds pronounced with the tip of the tongue curved back to touch the hard palate [ ], [ ], [ ]. Intervocalically and after nasals, k, t, †, p become voiced, e.g., V´tanåyakam [ve:da’na:jagam], Kampa [‘kamban]. Intervocalical k can be softened to h as in akam [‘aham]. Ò is pronounced like the r in American Engl. purr;  as in Engl. pin. c and cc are pronounced [t兰] as in Engl. match, but word-initial and intervocalical c is often pronounced [s] as in Engl. sea, e.g., Ca‰kam [‘sa gam]. ‰ is the velar nasal ng [ ] in Engl. sing; followed by k it is pronounced [ g], e.g., i‰kª “here” rhymes with English sing gay. ñ is pronounced as in Spanish [nj] or like Engl. ny in banyan. r and r¯ are both trilled as in Spanish, but r¯ r¯ is pronounced somewhat like tr in English tree, and Âr¯ like ndr in laundry. Unless indicated otherwise, all translations are mine. While this book is primarily a historical study of the uses of literature, it is also meant—in its reliance on Tamil primary sources—to be philologically grounded. Many of the texts I discuss below are little known and not easily accessible even to Tamil specialists. I have therefore decided to include quotations from Tamil primary sources at some length. The translations from Tamil I give here do not lay any claim to literary status. Rather than “sounding nice,” they are intended as philologically accurate renderings of the original Tamil text. However, given the present state of affairs in the field of Tamil studies, to attempt such renderings is fraught with many difficulties, particularly when we translate pre-modern texts, such as the works of the poets discussed here. In far too many cases, we still do not really understand these texts well enough and thus cannot afford to change texts in translation simply to make them sound better in English. Also, some of the texts discussed here are literary in a very self-conscious way. Their very essence is to play with language and poetic conventions, to mislead and surprise the reader, to obfuscate and to be ambiguous. Consequently, rather than glossing over these problems, I have decided to address them directly whenever possible. As such discussions of textual minutiae might distract the reader from the general historical argument of the book, they have been kept to a minimum and relegated to a separate appendix where the original Tamil texts of all the primary sources used may be found together with brief annotations. These hopefully fulfill a major philological requirement: to illustrate the translation process and to make my decisions transparent, so that the reader can see why I adopted a particular reading and discarded others. All the original quotations are numbered, and this number is found in square brackets [ ] in the main text of this book so as to allow for easy reference. xxii Note on Transliteration However, when my analysis deals with the language of a particular text (as in the discussion of cittirakkavi stanzas in Chapter 2), the original Tamil text had to be quoted in the main text. In the most puzzling of these cases, I have inserted the original Tamil words into the English translation between...