Compiled by: Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam
Our oldest written records come from the
civilization of Sumer, which arose in around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in
what is now southern Iraq. Sumerian cuneiform documents dating as far back as
3100 BC have been found and a flourishing literature developed, which reached
its peak in the centuries around 2000 BC. This literature contains a large
collection of love songs, most of them incorporated to annual fertility
festivals. What were intense expressions of love between an individual man and
a woman became wrapped into the larger context of the ceremonial union of
male[Dumuz] and female[Inanna] fertility gods, a union considered essential to
gaining flourishing crops and bountiful livestock.
The male god Dumuz appears to have originally
been Dumuzi, a mythical Sumerian king of Erech[ Erech, Sumerian Uruk] who
reigned sometime in the third millenium after Lugulbanda. In later times, the
ceremony for ensuring the return of spring and successful farming required the
local king to assume the role of Dumuz and a cultic priestess to take the role
of Inanna. The sexual union of the two was the climax of climaxes in a
city-wide celebration of several days at the New Year.The king’s performance in
this Sumerian festival was essential for the well-being of an ancient
community. The king should be demonstrably strong and virile, because he was
the ceremonial link with the gods and the good harvests they alone could
ensure.
Sexual love has been primarily responsible for
the perpetuation of the human race,but it has also been responsible for the
creation of literature-more so than any category of love except ,perhaps,the
love of god.Hence the annual rite on new year day at sumeria developed two sets
of most popular literature/poems ,namely -A long work celebrates the courtship
& wedding of the sex goddess Inanna & her shepherd-lover
Dumuzi,another,the mourning that attended his death.Elsewhere,lyrics lavishly
praise the handsomeness of King Shu-Sin of Ur & the dutifulness of his
queen.These two set of poems may indeed be related for an annual fertility
festivals.
Such Love songs or poems are probably found in
every culture.Also Sangam poems shows a regular alternation of male and female
speakers as in ’courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi’.Similarly, the convention of
lovers addressing each other as brother and sister appears here as normal terms
of endearment. The similarities between these poems and those from southeast
Asia and India suggests that songs of this type may have been part of the oral
culture shared via trade routes between the regions in the second millenium BC.
We are giving below few such songs.Already one
such songs,believed by archaeologists to be the oldest love poem found to date,
with Tamil translation was given in part:15-"Man of my heart, my beloved
man, your allure is a sweet thing, as sweet as honey."
It was understand that the premarital courting
and wooing of Inanna by Dumuzi which became a favorite subject of the Sumerian
poets and bards. One of the most charming of these consists of a two-column
tablet now in the Hilprecht collection of the University of Jena in East
Germany, which may not inaptly be entitled “Love Finds A Way” or “Fooling
Mother.” Its two main characters are the goddess Inanna “Queen of Heaven,” the
Sumerian Venus, and Dumuzi (known also by names Kulianna, Amaushumgalanna, and
Kulienlil), her mortal sweetheart and husband-to-be. The first stanza begins
with a soliloquy by Inanna who says:
"Last
night as I, the Queen, was shining bright,
Last
night as I, the Queen of Heaven, was shining bright,
As I was
shining bright, was dancing about,
As I was
singing away while the bright light conquered the night,
He met
me, he met me,
The lord
Kulianna met me,
The lord
put his hand into my hand,
Amaushumgalanna
embraced me."
Then follows an amorous tete-a-tete between the
two lovers with Inanna pleading:
"Come
now, set me free, I must go home,
Kulienlil,
set me free, I must go home,
What can
I say to deceive my mother,
What can
I say to deceive my mother Ningal?"
But this
does not stop Dumuzi who has a ready answer:
"I
will tell you, I will tell you,
Inanna,
most beautiful of women, I will tell you.
(Say) ‘My
girl friend took me with her to the public square,
There a
player entertained us with dances,
His
chant, the sweet, he sang for us.’
Thus
deceitfully stand up to your mother,
While we
by the moonlight take our fill of love;
I will
prepare for you a bed pure, sweet, and noble,
The sweet
day will bring you joyful fulfillment."
We also find a sangam poem,Kaliththokai 51,
where the title “Love Finds A Way” or
“Fooling Mother.” fit as well & its also in the form of conversation
between two.
"Listen
my bright bangled friend! That wild brat
who used
to kick our little sand houses
that we
built, with his leg,
pull our
flower strands from our hair,
and yank
the striped ball from us,
and
caused us agony,
came one
day when mother and I were at home.
“O,
people of this house,
please
give me some water to drink” he said.
Mother
said to me,
“Pour the
water in the thick gold vessel,
and give
it to him to drink,
my
daughter with bright jewels”.
And so I went unknowingly,
that he had come there.
He seized my bangled arm, pressed it, and
scared me.
“Mother, look at what he has done”, I shouted.
Mother came with a distress cry,
I said to her,
“he had hiccups while drinking water”.
Mother stroked his back gently,
and asked him to drink slowly.
He looked at me through the corners of his
eyes,
smiled, and gave me killer looks,
And what a pleasurable union it was – that
thief."
PART :31 WILL FOLLOW IN
NEXT WEEK
good job
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