In my high school days, I used to read a variety of ancient Tamil books. Comprised mostly of poetic writings, these classic literature books spoke about nature, humans, kings, morality, etc. Initially I read to prepare for speaking competitions and debates. Soon curiosity drove further engagement. We had a single public library with dusty books in its shelves for the entire town of nearly 200,000 people. I was barely allowed to take out a book or two. So most reading happened in the library itself. Then college happened and I was more into applied sciences and math. This meant I lost touch with the literature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past few weeks I picked up the reading of such Tamil Literature. I started reading over phone to my dad who is in Australia. We had a simple routine to read a verse or two. First it started with \u0ba4\u0bbf\u0bb0\u0bc1\u0baa\u0bcd\u0baa\u0bbe\u0bb5\u0bc8 (Thiruppaavai) followed by \u0ba4\u0bbf\u0bb0\u0bc1\u0bb5\u0bca\u0ba3\u0bcd\u0baa\u0bbe\u0bb5\u0bc8 (Thiruvenpaavai). These were short books with 30 and 20 verses each. Now we are onto a big tome \u0ba4\u0bbf\u0bb0\u0bc1\u0bae\u0ba8\u0bcd\u0ba4\u0bbf\u0bb0\u0bae\u0bcd (Thirumandhiram) that has 3000 verses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u0ba4\u0bbf\u0bb0\u0bc1\u0bae\u0ba8\u0bcd\u0ba4\u0bbf\u0bb0\u0bae\u0bcd (Thirumandhiram) is simple and easy to read. However there are multiple layers of meaning and depth to these verses. The verses are created in praise of Lord Shiva who stands above all. The verses also have depth focus on universal consciousness that pervades everywhere. I am enjoying reading it. Learning and understanding the context and meaning adds depth.
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In the coming days and weeks, I expect to have more to share about the reading and understanding. Also I will share more about tools used to help in this journey. Finally and most importantly there are several folks who are helping and encouraging me in this journey. Their help is highly appreciated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my high school days, I used to read a variety of ancient Tamil books. Comprised mostly of poetic writings, these classic literature books spoke about nature, humans, kings, morality, etc. Initially I read to prepare for speaking competitions and debates. Soon curiosity drove further engagement. We had a single public library with dusty books […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,23],"tags":[3,69],"class_list":["post-756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-personal","tag-learning","tag-tamil"],"yoast_head":"\n