பாலை-pālai
•13 different varieties of flowers can be addressed as pālai according to University of Madras – Tamil Lexicon.
•Flowers which were not presented earlier are presented here.
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Full Series
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its really a good job and i’m thankfull to you to get such a useful information thank you
Really a nice collection…I didnt expect that I will be able to see the pictures of flowers mentioned in old tamil lit… hats off to you…
Great job indeed!
I would be very interested to know the symbolic significance of these flowers in Tamil literature.
Flowers were used as modes of comparison. The structure/look of the flower were beautifully compared to an activity in man’s day to day life or beauty of the women. Other than that all the technical terms and division in poetry were named after flowers. The five landscapes of the Tamil poems were named after flowers, Mullai,Marutham,Kuruji,palai,Neytal. Also specific themes known as Thinais were also named after flowers like Patan thinai, vanji thinai,vetchi thinai ,vakai thinai,ulini thinai ,kanci thinai. Also each specific flower had some significance. Some flowers are worn as garland when soldiers go to war. Some flowers are worn by the victorious king and so on. So we can flowers in Akam thinai adds to the mood and used primarily for comparison, in Puram they have specific symbolism pertaining to war.
Dear Vairam,
Its good work. I used to refer this site to my students. Yes, Specific flowers have some specific significance as u have mentioned abv. Apart from this, I really wondered in those days they have used flowers to get know the time. This has been quoted in Nedunalvadai (நெடுநல்வாடை)…Like this….
மடவரல் மகளிர் பிடகைப் பெய்த
செவ்வி அரும்பின் பைங்காற் பித்திகத்து@
அவ்விதழ் அவிழ்பதம் கமழப் பொழுதறிந்து. (39-41)
with regards,
Dr.V.Dhanalakshmi
Its really a great work.Many thanks to you for this wonderful work.
Nice
மிக்க நன்றி..