Select at least one example each from the Tamil and Sanskrit lyrics. Write a journal entry comparing the poems you’ve selected, focusing specifically on what is distinctive about each tradition, and how your selections do or do not reflect those characteristics.

Tamil and Sanskirt

1. Make a quick chart that lays out the distinct qualities of Tamil and Sanskirt lyrics.

2. Select at least one example each from the Tamil and Sanskrit lyrics. Then, write a journal entry comparing the poems you’ve selected, focusing specifically on what is distinctive about each tradition, and how your selections do or do not reflect those characteristics.

Use the following Poems

What he said

Her arms have the beauty

Of a gently moving bamboo.

Her large eyes are full of peace.

She is faraway,

Her place not easy to reach.

My heart is frantic

With haste,

A plowman with a single plow

on land all wet

and ready for seed. (Ōrērullavanār 979)

As the sun rises and sets

As the sun rises and sets,

Comes and goes,

Life is whittling away day by day,

Engrossed in business,

Weighed down by many tasks,

We don’t know

how time passes,

we witness birth, old age,

misfortune, and death

but they leave us

unshaken.

The world has taken leave of its senses,

drunk on the heady wine

of worldliness

and the gratification

of the senses. (The classical Sanskrit lyric 1060, 1061)