Kapilar
A figure from the books
#Kapilar
Kapilar · fl. c. 1st–2nd century CE by traditional reckoning
In the books · 1 chapter
Who this is
Poetry — the Sangam (caṅkam) age of classical Tamil; the most prolific poet of its anthologies and the master of kuṟiñci, the mountain landscape of lovers' union.
“The most prolific poet of ancient Tamil is remembered less for two hundred poems than for one journey — when the chieftain who loved him was killed, Kapilar took the dead man's daughters on the road, begged chief after chief to marry them, was refused, kept walking, and did not stop until they were safe.”
The big idea, in the book's words:
“The Tamil poets built a code in which geography carries feeling — five landscapes, each meaning one state of the heart — and Kapilar wrote its hill country better than anyone. Then his patron was killed, and he showed what a poem, and a friend, are for.”
From the book
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