Thai Pongal and Tamil New Year
Thai Pongal and Tamil New Year
The Tamils, who were very tribal, lived a life in harmony with nature. The Tamils, who originated in the mountainous Kurinji land, migrated due to various natural and social reasons and went to the forest and forest-related Mullai land. Then from there they reached the field and field-covered Marutha land. Finally, they belonged to the sea and sea-related Neithal land. Kurinji and Mullai, due to the heat, took on a desert-like form. When describing the nature of the Tamil lands, it is generally customary to say that there are five types of lands.
The trees, animals, birds, etc. in each land are different. Flowers. The availability of water is also different. The food available in one land is different from the food available in another land. The industries also differed from land to land. It is true that there was land discrimination in ancient times. But there was no caste discrimination, the land leaders who lived in those lands and guided the people by doing immense service were later revered as land deities. The ancient Tamils had a simple way of life in harmony with nature, a sense of gratitude, respect and a tradition of heroism. The ancient Tamils worshipped natural objects. They worshipped their ancestors and warriors who had died in battle.
In ancient times, a man who married a woman was responsible for taking care of her completely. The risk of facing danger was high in those days. A man had the duty to protect his wife and children from dangerous wild animals. One of the ancient marriage rituals was to test physical strength in an environment where he and his family could survive only because of physical strength and mental courage. In the Mullai land, taming a bull was an essential requirement for a man who grazed a mulberry tree. The women who got married also wanted a young man who could tame a bull. The idea that a man who is afraid of a bull will never be able to marry an Aichi woman was strongly expressed. The Aichi wedding was considered an essential act. Today, on the day of Thai Pongal, the Aichi wedding is celebrated under the name of Manju Virattu. Since people always lived in a war environment, in a time when protecting the motherland from the enemy was considered the first duty, a warrior who was not afraid of war was considered superior.
In the Koodirkaala (October, November), seeing the blooming of the Bichi flowers they had placed in the flower bed, they knew that dusk had come and lit a lamp, sprinkled rice and flowers and worshipped the Illurai deity (the ancestors of the clan). They knew that the middle of the world had come due to the flowering of the flower called Nallirul Nari. An old Sangam poem (Kuruntogai 241) states that the joyous shouts of the children herding their calves, who saw the beauty of the vengai tree blossoming, echoed in the caves of the mountain, which covered the sky. This is a good example of the Tamil mentality united with the beauty of nature. Marriages were also held on the full moon days when the great trees that were special to that land bloomed. The marriages of the people of Mullai were held on the full moon day when the vengai flower bloomed, and the marriages of the people of Neythal were held on the full moon day when the punnai tree bloomed.
Tamil festivals are also united with nature. The first day of the month of July, which is the rice planting season, was celebrated as a great festival. When I was a child, the Aadiparappa festival was celebrated as a great festival. For us, that day was a school holiday. On the first day of that day, the headmaster would give a lecture to all the students at the school on how to celebrate the Aadiparappa festival at school. In our textbook, there was a song called “Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Friends”. Today, this festival is not celebrated as much. This festival is an ancient festival that has become obsolete in my time.
The month of November marks the end of the Koodirkala (October, November). The Karthigai lamp symbolizes the people who were suffering from the lack of sunlight in the heavy rains and were enjoying themselves by lighting it on the mountain to see the light of the sun. Many Sangam songs talk about this. One such festival connected with nature is the Thai Pongal festival. The Tamil festival. The Thai Pongal festival, which is also known as the farmer’s festival with great joy, has been celebrated as the Tamil New Year by the Tamils for centuries since the Sangam period.
In this context, I think it would be appropriate to explain ”Farmer’s Day”. Tribes existed all over the world as primitive social organizations. In the lives of all ethnic groups, food gathering and hunting were the occupations in the Old Stone Age, in the New Stone Age, primitive agriculture and animal husbandry, and then the method of plowing with water, which burned forests and cultivated crops, emerged. The first plow was made of wood. At that time, all our ancestors, the Tamils, were farmers. In turn, after the introduction of iron, a great agricultural revolution took place. After the introduction of the iron plow, large areas of forests were destroyed and many times more food was produced than before. Surplus production created many communities that did not take agriculture as their profession. Unique craftsmen such as potters, stonemasons, and carpenters emerged. It was on this occasion that the first division of labor emerged. Before this division of labor, the Thai Pongal festival, which was called the Farmers’ Festival by the Tamils, is still called that today.
The fact that the Thai Pongal festival was celebrated as our New Year is evidenced by the proverb that is still passed down today, “If you are born with rice, you will be born with a family.” It is the time for working in the paddy fields from July to December. With the help of rain, the farmers bring the paddy they have worked tirelessly day and night in the seasons and bring it home at the end of December. Surrounded by it and friendship, they celebrate this festival with joy at home with their wives and children. Sunday is the day when rain is abundant. The farmers use cows to cultivate. According to their traditional practice, the Tamils worship the sun on Pongal and the cows on Mattu Pongal. The way the festival is celebrated is proof that Thai Pongal is the Tamil New Year. Everything is new on that day. They wear new clothes and pour rice from new paddy in new pots. They put new turmeric on the new pots as a new thread. They make a kolam of new sugarcane, new betel nut and new yam, and they light a lamp in their house, which has been covered with red soil, and they worship the sun and start Pongal. All the new accounts were started on the first day of January, the Tamil New Year. On the day of Mattu Pongal, the cows are washed well, bathed, beautifully decorated, tied to the cowshed in the evening, and Pongal is offered and worshipped. In some places, in the evening, bullocks are tied to carts and taken in procession. On that day, cows are not hired for work.
Celebrating the first day of the month of April as the Tamil New Year is not at all in keeping with the natural life and knowledge of the Tamils. The sixty years that are called Tamil years are too many in number and all their names are in the northern language. The way in which those sixty years were formed is not in accordance with reason. During the period when the Tamil social life was disrupted by Aryanization, our New Year was also changed in a way that was not in accordance with nature. It is enough that we were slaves to a foreign culture and way of life for two thousand years. Tamils should now gain freedom from foreign culture along with political freedom. As a first step, let us resolve to stop celebrating April Pongal as the Tamil New Year and celebrate our traditional Thai Pongal as the Tamil New Year.
– Greetings
– Venugopal Author
(Translation by Kaanagan)
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