Origins of Tamils?[Where are Tamil people from?] PART :35

 [Compiled by: Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam]-

 The royal tombs of Ur show headdresses of leaf gold which archeologist suspect served not just as decorations for the hair, but also as portable coffers (or head wallets). Women could detach leaflets of gold from their headdresses or pendants to purchase those things that they fancied as they “shopped”.The royal tombs at Ur also show that women held cylinder seals, these were both royal signature seals and also an ancient version of the credit card, wherein the imprint of the seal would indicate an agreement to fulfill the detailed transaction of a contract, for services, goods, or other arrangements. 

Usually,Women's jobs often grew out of her household tasks.The Sumerian

Hymn to Ninkasi (written down in 1800 BC but presumed to be much older) is both a praise song to the goddess of beer and a recipe for brewing. Brewers were female, most likely priestesses of Ninkasi, and early on beer was brewed by women in the home as a supplement to meals.Hence In addition to household tasks,a woman might sell the beer she brewed,ie,she may be even become a tavern keeper.Also The Hymn to Ninkasi, inscribed on a nine- teenth-century B.C. tablet, contains a recipe for Sumerian beer. It describes the entire process from sourcing the yeast, soaking malts and grains and keeping the liquid in fermentation vessels and filtering into another vessel.

 ".........Ninkasi, you are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel,Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date] - honey,.......Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,.....Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,......Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,The waves rise, the waves fall.....Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,Coolness overcomes,....You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort,Brewing [it] with honey [and] wine .... Ninkasi, the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,You place appropriately on a large collector vat....."  

We also learn from this text the kinds of praises sung for the beer goddess. The link between Ninkasi and beer is very strong; “Ninkasi, it is you who pour out the filtered beer out of the collector vat; it is like the onrush of the Tigris and the Euphrates.Another favourite quote from the Hymn to Ninkasi,was a praises her for producing beer which created in drinkers “a blissful mood… with joy in the [innards][and] happy liver”!!.We also found a Clay plaque around 1800 B.C in Mesopotamia depicting a woman drinking beer (?) from a jar while having copulation.

“Slumbers are no different from the dead; nor alcoholics from consumers of

poison” (Kural 926) said Thiruvalluvar,But when we look at Sangam poems There are scores of references to indicate that alcoholic beverages played an important part in the daily lives ancient Tamils, both men and women. The renowned poetess Avvaiyar of the Sangam period has sung [Purananuru -235]: "When he had only a little toddy, he would give it to us, but now no longer; when he had ample toddy he would give it to us and then happily drink what was left to him as we sang. But now no longer"[as a supplement to meals] &.A poem from Akananuru (336) also mentions young women consuming toddy and dancing near a village tank beneath the shade of a kanchi tree as:"...women  come to fetch water with their pretty pots,who drink clear liquor  talking about their men,who keep the company of concubines, as they perform kuravai dances under a kānji tree....".Also we found from Perumpanatrup padai[275-81], a recipe for brewing & from Pattinappaalai[106 -110],how young woman drinking it,while enjoying with their husbands at bed.

"when you are hungry, you will receive cool fish

dishes and fine, fragrant liquor that is made by

making a mash of unpounded, boiled rice spread

on pots with wide mouths to cool, mixed with fine,

tender leaves whose back sides look like the combs

of termite mounds where snakes live, stirred twice

morning and night with fingers in a jar with firm

mouth, and aged and filtered with warm water".-Perumpanatruppadai[275-81]

"Delicate women who unite with their

husbands wear cotton instead of silk and

drink wine instead of toddy.

Men wear women’s garlands and women

wear men’s garlands."-Pattinappaalai[106 -110]

PART :36 WILL FOLLOW IN NEXT WEEK