Tamil Bharathan T K

M. Phil. Scholar in Tamil

Centre of Indian Languages / School of Language

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

                                                                                                                                                09.10.2019

The Concept of Place and Time in Tolkāppiyam and Aristotle’s Physics

A common perception, supposed to have no connection between “Space and Time”. However, there existing a scientific perception about the concept of “Physical Space”, which is conceived as “Place”. The “Physical Space” is an unlimited expanse of the universe, in which all material objects are located and all phenomena occur. The concept of “Place and Time” has been discussed in the ancient civilization of Tamil and Greek. The present paper is an introductory part of the basic understanding of the notions of “Place and Time”. We have taken two works – Tolkāppiyam from Tamil and Aristotle’s Physics from Greek. These two works speak elaborately about “Place and Time”. 

Tolkāppiyam

            Tolkāppiyam is a comprehensive treatise of linguistics and poetics in Tamil. It is the earliest extant grammar in Tamil. It is supposed to have been written by Tolkāppiyar and named after him. There are different views about the date of Tolkāppiyam. Some scholars speculated that it belongs to the period of before Christ. It is undated but not outdated. Most of the Scholars tend to place it before Caṅkam literature. Recently, Kīḻaṭi excavation report was published by Archaeological Department of Tamilnadu. It reveals that “the sample collected at the depth of 353cm goes back to end of the 6^th century BCE. As there is a considerable deposit below the dated layer and also above the layers, the Kīḻaṭi cultural deposit could be safely dated between 6^th century BCE and 1^st century CE” (2019:8). It is a turning point in the cultural historiography of Caṅkam age. Hence, Tolkāppiyam probably dates before the Caṅkam age.

            Tolkāppiyam as such, seems to be a synthesis of all that had been practiced and recorded by the best of his predecessors, as well as the contemporary linguistic realities. It is necessary to have a look into the structure and organization of this magnum opus in Tamil. It contains 1602 verses in the formulaic structure called nūṟpā, which are extremely condensed statements of norms and conventions (2001: ix). It is divided into three major sections.

1.      Phonological aspects of language (483 verses)

2.      Morphological aspect of language (463 verses)

3.      Glossed as content, deals with the formulation and study of the principles of literary production (656 verses)

Each section is comprised of nine chapters, marked as it is by a perfect symmetry of organization. Particularly, in the third section, poruḷatikāram, treat of the materials and structuring of akam and puṟam literature, the science of creativity, theories of literature, theory of emotions, prosody, imagery, rhetoric, sociology and psychology of literature, etc. First chapter of poruḷatikāram is akattiṇaiyiyal. This chapter deals with the general theory of akam theme. Akam stands for the intimate love relationship between a man and a woman. Tolkāppiyam describes the relationship with reference of place and time too.

Aristotle’s Physics

            Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE) is one of the greatest philosophers of ancient Greek. He made pioneering contributions to all fields of philosophy and science. He invented the field of formal logic. He wrote extensively on a wide variety of subjects including logic, metaphysics, ethics and politics. We do not know their order of compositions.

            The word “Physics” is a transliteration of Aristotle’s Greek and not a translation. The proper translation would be “On Nature”. Aristotle’s many writings fall under this general heading “On Nature”. Although the physics is Aristotle’s prologue to natural science, he is writing here as philosopher, and not as we would expect a scientist to write. Aristotle’s physics initiates that tradition, and that its contribution remained a dominant influence until the 17^th century when Galileo and others founded the modern physics. Aristotle focuses the problem and finds the philosophical solution. In this work, he discusses the concepts of nature.   The work is in eight books,

1.      The principles of nature

2.      The study of nature

3.      Change, infinity

4.      Place, void, time

5.      Change

6.      Continuity

7.      Various points about change

8.      The eternal and unchanging cause of all change

In this above work, the Book 4 “Place, void, time” speaks about the place and time. Place and time were divided as different chapters by later period editors.

Place and Time

Aristotle said that “if place is none of these three – form, matter, and some kind of unchanging extension over and above the extension of the displaced object” (2008:87). For instance, a vessel can move from place to place, but place cannot move as a vessel. However, the place of things is not the same as the world; their place is a part of the world, a limit, which is in contact with the movable body. And so earth is in water, water is in air, air is in fire, and fire is in the heavens.

Aristotle, in the Book 4, defined time as the number of changes with respect to before and after the place of an object as the innermost motionless boundary of which surrounds it. What is worth considering is the prevalent idea that time is variation and change. Now, the change of anything exists only in the thing that is being changed, or where that changing thing happens to be.

On applying the concept of “place and time” in Tolkāppiyam on Aristotle’s concept of “place and time”. Tolkāppiyam divide topography of Tamil land as five major divisions.

Kuṟiñci            – hills and its surrounding area

Mullai              – forest and its surrounding area

Marutam         – agricultural and its surrounding area

Neytal              – sea and its surrounding area

Pālai                – desert and its surrounding area

He develops the division of land as tiṇai concept which identifies three components, mutal, karu and uri in akam poem. Mutal and karu constitute the background while uri deals with the emotional aspect. 

Mutal – mutal or primary object is later defined as the description of land and time.

Karu – karu is the description of representative tokens of an assigned land at a particular time.

Uri – uri is the emotional manifestation of love pertaining to a particular division.

“mutaleṉap paṭuvatu nilam poḻutu iraṇṭiṉ

iyalpeṉa moḻipa iyalpuṇarn tōrē”

‘Mutal’ is the nature of the land type and time, say, those who know the nature of things. (akat.4) (2010:6). Nilam – it is the division of the earth; poḻutu – this denotes the time segment. From later nūṟpā it is evident that time is of two kinds – one based on the seasons of the year and the other based on the different periods of the day. The former is known as perumpoḻutu (larger time segment) and the latter as ciṟupoḻutu (smaller time segment) .

All of these are merged with human life as human emotions reflect on the land basis and time basis. In earlier Tamil civilzation, every major five land divisions had individual day and year time segments, based on emotional aspect uri.

Conclusion

In the Greek civilization, many thinkers discussed the concept of place and time. Aristotle philosophically explicated time and place through his work “Physics”.   In Tamil, Tolkāppiyam also dealt with place and time through five divisions of land. In ancient Caṅkam literature like akam poems is based on the place itself, while place reveals emotional feelings and on the time. Hence, Tamil and Greek civilization attributes to both time and place. 

Notes and References

Gloria Sundaramathy. L & Indra Manuel, Tolkāppiyam – Poruḷatikāram. Thiruvananthapuram: International School of Dravidian Linguistics, 2010.

Kandasamy, S.N., Kirēkka Ilakkiyam Pakuti 1. Thanjavur: Tamil University, 2014.

Murugan, V., Tolkāppiyam in English. Chennai: Institute of Asian Studies, 2001.

Rajan K. (critical editor), KEELADI – An urban settlement of Sangam age on the banks of river Vaigai. Chennai: Department of Archaeology, 2019.

Robin Waterfield (Trans.), Aristotle Physics. New York: Oxford World’s Classics, 2008.