The Pitfalls in the Study & Translation of the Ancient Tamil Texts 

Tamil Intellectual Domain- Inconvenient Questions

 

When emotions dominate over reason elevating the scholars to the status of demigod, then the reasonable questions related to their research findings become inconvenient. When the inconvenient questions were buried without discussion, it would initiate process of the intellectual stagnation culminating in intellectual decay later.

The sources of the unbelievable decay in Tamil (explained in the earlier posts including 

'தமிழாராய்ச்சியில் நடைபெறும் தவறுகளும், தமிழுக்கான விடுதலையும்') could be traced to the inconvenient questions related to the researches in Tamil. Let us face those questions now.'

     1.How did Vipulananda Adigal  (VA) ignore the research of Abiraham Pandithar (AP) with   respect to the pitch frequency calculations, which in turn, resulted in the pitfall of his research?

First a brief note on the pitfall in the research of Vipulananda Adigal   with respect to his calculations on the frequencies of the pitches of the musical notes, explained in his book ‘yAzh nhool ‘ (1950).

Among the seven music notes (with their names)  (1) Sa – ச- kural- குரல் , (2) Re – ரி- thuththam-துத்தம், (3) Ga – க- kaikkiLai- கைக்கிளை, (4) Ma – ம- uzhai- உழை, (5) Pa – ப- iLi-இளி, (6) Dha – த- viLari-விளரி , (7) Ne – நி- thAram-தாரம்,  the relation between Sa – ச and  Pa – ப was known as the consonance fifth relation. By multiplying the frequency of the pitch of the music note Sa by 3/2, one could obtain the frequency of the pitch of the fifth above music note Pa. Similarly the fifth note above any music mote could be obtained by multiplying its frequency by 3/2.

Assuming the frequency ratio of Ne as 1, VA started applying the above multiplying by 3/2 to get the frequency ratios of all other notes landing in a problem of the value 2.1357 instead of 2 with respect to the next higher octave music note Ne. Instead of attending and explaining the problem, VA applied the octave relation to get the value 2, by-passing the problem.

Evidences in ‘KaruNamirtha sAgaram’ (Page 512) confirmed that Abraham Pandithar (AP) undertook the above calculations and identified the above problem.There was no reference in 'yAzh nhool ‘ (1950) published in Thanjavur about the ancient Tamil Music researches of Abraham Pandithar published ( in Thanjavur)  in his book ‘KaruNamirtha sAgaram’(1917). Had VA referred to the findings of AP with respect to the calculations of the consonant fifth, he might not have committed the above mistake.

Also strangely, based on ‘yAzh nool’, VA, a science graduate from the University of London, (like the Karnatic Music Scholar Prof.P.Sambamoorthy) was not aware that “in 1939, an international conference recommended that the A above middle C be tuned to 440 Hz, now known as concert pitch.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pitch_standards_in_Western_music#History_of_pitch_standards_in_Western_music ).

In just Intonation, middle C shall be tuned to 264Hz, following A = 440Hz. Instead VA had used the tuning fork frequency 256 Hz in his calculations with few short comings, as I had proved in my doctoral thesis ‘Physics of Tamil Music’ (1996), later published in ‘'தமிழ் இசையியல் - புதிய கண்டுபிடிப்புகள் ( thamizh icaiyiyal – puthiya kaNtupitippukaL 2009, சேகர் பதிப்பகம் – Sekar Pathippakam, Chennai  சென்னை ) .

      2.    How did Vipulananda Adigal   ignore the research of Abiraham Pandithar with respect to identifying the Tamil word for the music note ‘sa- ச‌’, which in turn, resulted in his wrongly identifying ‘iLi- இளி ‘as ‘Sa- ச‌ ’?

We had seen that the seven music notes are (1) Sa – ச- kural- குரல் , (2) Re – ரி- thuththam-துத்தம், (3) Ga – க- kaikkiLai- கைக்கிளை, (4) Ma – ம- uzhai- உழை, (5) Pa – ப- iLi-இளி, (6) Dha – த- viLari-விளரி , (7) Ne – நி- thAram-தாரம்,  ‘ kural- குரல்’ was identified as the musical term for ‘ Sa – ச’ by AP, the first scholar in the modern period to explore the ancient Tamil texts for Tamil Music research.  (‘KaruNamirtha sAgaram’ (Page 527). Also ancient texts like thivAkara nhikaNtu -   திவாகர நிகண்டு, mahAbhAratha chUdAmani -மகாபாரத சூடாமணி, paratha cangkirakam - பரத சங்கிரகம் had arrived at the same result.( பஞ்ச மரபில் இசை மரபு – pancha marapil icai marapu, E.AngaiyaRkaNNi,  இ.அங்கையற்கண்ணி , page - பக்கம் 66 )

 Ignoring all the above references, VA had identified ‘iLi- இளி ‘ as ‘Sa- ச‌ ’, and he had explained five kinds of reasons for it. I had disproved them with proper evidences in my doctoral thesis ‘Physics of Tamil Music’ (1996), later published in ‘'தமிழ் இசையியல் - புதிய கண்டுபிடிப்புகள் ( thamizh icaiyiyal – puthiya kaNtupitippukaL 2009) .
  

3. What were the defects in the calculation of the frequency value of Sa in the flute referred in ‘pancha marapu’ , undertaken in ‘yazh nhool’ by VA?

Details about the defects as well as the right method of calculating the frequency were explained in my thesis referred above. Briefly the defects are

(1)  While calculating the vibrating length of the air column, VA did not consider the anti-node at the center of the seventh hole and do the necessary correction.

(2)  VA did not do the end correction while calculating the vibrating length of the air column.

(3)  VA did not consider the temperature dependence on the velocity of sound in air and use the appropriate value.

(4)  VA did not use the international pitch standard value in his calculations.

(5)  VA did not bother to note the differences between the calculated frequency values and the tuning fork frequency values he had used for the calculation and offer explanations.

(6)  VA had needlessly assumed the value of 81 C.M for the middle octave –Madhya Sthayi Ne complicating the calculations ending in the pitfalls. Instead he could have followed simple multiplication of 3/2 for frequency ratio for the fifth as done by AP.

Had he followed any Physics book related to acoustics available during his period, VA might not have committed the above mistakes. .Just praising any research finding without bothering to understand the content as well as its validity will not help any development in research. Instead it will lead to intellectual decay in the related field, one unfortunate result of elevating the scholars to the status of demigod.

     Note: If anyone or more of the above ‘inconvenient questions’ were raised before and clarified

                – I shall be thankful to anyone who could draw my attention to it.


Tamil scholarship, in the digital age, is becoming inter-disciplinary, with the scope for developing new marketable products. With the introduction of spell check, grammar check, and search options of Lexicon and the commentaries, Tamil literate scholars in science and technology, bypassing the duration to acquire the traditional Tamil scholarship, could subject the ancient Tamil texts to inter-disciplinary research.

'DECODING ANCIENT TAMIL TEXTS – THE PITFALLS IN THE STUDY & TRANSLATION'

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T8QV6RT/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=DECODING+ANCIENT+TAMIL+TEXTS+%E2%80%93+THE+PITFALLS+IN+THE+STUDY+%26+TRANSLATION&qid=1561275540&s=digital-text&sr=1-1