Kalaignar’s Fictional Writing Skills and Literary Style

கலைஞரின் புனைந்துரை திறனும் இலக்கிய நடையும்

Abstract

One of the best classical Tamil literary works, Thirukkural, has been heard to be glorified in the centuries as a political discourse and ethically inclined literature. Out of the many commentaries that have been composed on it, the Kural Oviyam by Kalainjar M. Karunanidhi takes a prominent position in Tamil prose commentary. This commentary, which was first published in the weekly magazine Murasoli in 1956, was developed together with the political life and social engagements of Kalainjar. The current paper explores the peculiarities of the commentary style used by Kalainjar in several aspects: his fictional narrative technique (punaindhurai), the language of description (varunanai), prose style of literary narration, the style of the translations (mozhi peyarpu), the treatment of the varieties of sandhi, the expression of emotions, and the narration features of an interview. The ability to combine the examples of the worldly things and literary aesthetics to describe the meaning of every Kural couplet is one of the signs of the outstanding literary skills of Kalainjar. This commentary is written in the form of letters to his contemporaries, and this is why it does not follow the usual commentary tradition, but establishes another direction. His skillful employment of literary quotes of Tolkappiyam, Sangam literature, epics, as well as his creative language and style of translation is added value to the tradition of Tamil prose. With these stylistic devices, Kural Oviyam by Kalainjar has become one of the best pieces of aesthetic prose in the current Tamil literature, establishing a new world to the art of the commentary of literature.