The Smile of Murugan
This is a digitization of The Smile of Murugan . It is available in web form and downloads are available for PDF and ePub. Mobile web users can navigate chapters using the book icon in the upper left.
Front Cover
From the collections of the Rijksmuseum voor volkenkunde, Leiden, Holland. Obj.no.: 1403-2843.
This book was printed with financial support of the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.)
Camarppaṇam | Dedication
The great drums beat
As Asura warriors marched.
Their burning rage cut asunder
Corpses scattered
Scorched with a spark
From your radiant smile
O leader of men
With leaf-edged spear
Lover of Vaḷḷi the gypsy
O lord who resides on Tiruttaṇi hills!
—
(Arunakiri, Tiruppukaḻ 5.71)
Transl. S. Kokilam
Somehow or other, Murugan, the youthful god of victorious war, is ubiquitous in Tamil writing and culture; he is present in the earliest classical poems of Tamil as well as in the splendid “Lay of the Anklet”, in the ruby-red and sea-blue and golden songs of Aruṇakiri as well as in the very recent prayers to Murugan by A. K. Ramanujan.
His wars are, of course, not only victorious, but just. He destroys evil, decay, death. His smile is the light of life and eternal youth. “His face shoots forth myriad rays of light, removing darkness from the world” (Tirumurukärruppaṭai 91-92).