Digital Tevaram (new publication: IFP / EFEO, 2007)

[Guest guest]

The following publication has recently appeared (January 2007)

and is available from the French Institute of Pondicherry

(<http://www.ifpindia.org/Digital-Tevaram-Kaninit-Tevaram.html>).

 

 

Digital Tevaram. Kaninit Tevaram.

 

V.M. Subramanya Aiyar, Jean-Luc Chevillard,

S.A.S. Sarma. Collection Indologie n° 103, IFP / EFEO, 2007 [CD-ROM]

Language : Tamil, English. 200 Rs (7 €)

 

The “Digital Tevaram” is a multi-feature CD-ROM

edition of a collection of 800 Tamil hymns to

Siva, possibly dating back to the 7th and 8th

centuries, attributed to three authors

(Sambandar, Appar and Sundarar), traditionally

called Tevaram, and constituting the initial part

of the Tamil Saiva Scriptures.

 

This electronic edition of the Tamil text,

furnished with many maps, [which allow the user

to locate the 274 traditional sites to which the

Tevaram hymns are attached], 109 MP3 audio

recordings [illustrating the 24 pan.-s, or

musical modes, which are used in the Tevaram

hymns and confronting the users of the CD with

the variety of vocal styles that are met with

today] and a complete English rendering by the

late V.M. Subrahmanya Ayyar (1906-1981), combines

the features of the two traditional book-forms of

Tevaram: 1. arrangement according to musical

modes (pan-s), as in panmurai editions of

Tevaram, and 2. arrangement according to sites

(stalam-s), as in talamurai editions. It also

incorporates a concordance, and can be used as a "pre-dictionary" of Tevaram.

 

Keywords: Tevaram, Saivism, Hymns to Siva,

talamurai (hymns classified according to sites),

panmurai (hymns classified according to musical modes)

 

 

 

Jean-Luc Chevillard (CNRS, Université Paris 7, UMR 7597 "HTL")

& S.A.S. Sarma (EFEO, Pondicherry Center)