{{Sangam literature}} {{italic}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox poem | name = | author = [[Nakkirar I]] '''(Son of [[Madurai]] Kanakayar)''' | original_title = நெடுநல்வாடை | original_title_lang = tam | written = Around [[100 BCE]] | language = [[Tamil language|Tamil]] | genre = {{unbulleted list|Romance|War|Betrayal|Despondency}} | meter = Akaval/Asiriyapa | lines = 188 }} '''''Neṭunalvāṭai''''' ({{langx|ta|நெடுநல்வாடை}}, (pronounced as ''ˈnedʊ' nəl' vədaɪ'') ''lit''. "good long north wind", metonymically "cold season") is an ancient [[Tamil language|Tamil]] poetry belonging to the [[Sangam literature|Sangam literature era]].{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1974|pp=18–19}}{{refn|group=note|According to Kiruṭṭin̲an̲, ''Neṭunalvāṭai'' means the "long pleasant breeze of winter".<ref>{{cite book|last=A. Kiruṭṭin̲an̲|title=Tamil Culture: Religion, Culture, and Literature|year=2000|publisher=Bharatiya Kala Prakashan|isbn=9788186050521| page=58|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rCZuAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>}} Also referred to as '''''Nedunalvadai''''',{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|p=167}} it is a blend of a love and war story, highlighting the pains of separation of a woman i.e., A queen waiting for her beloved Protagonist i.e., The king to return from the distant war.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=60–61}} Authored by [[Nakkirar I|Nakkeerar]], it is the seventh poem in the ''[[Pattuppāṭṭu]]'' anthology.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=29, 58}} The poem is generally dated to the late classical period (2nd to 4th century CE).{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=41–42}}
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Nedunalvadai contains 188 lines of poetry in the ''akaval'' [[Poetic metre|metre]].{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=60–61}} It is a poem of complex and subtle artistic composition, its vividness and language has won it many superlatives, including one by the Tamil literature scholar Kamil Zvelebil, as "the best or one of the best of the lays of the [Sangam] bardic corpus".{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=60–61}} According to G. John Samuel, the "Netunalvatai belongs to the great corpus of ancient classical erotic poems of the world which include the beautiful love poems of the Grecian world, the [[Song of Songs]] of the Hebraic world, the ancient [[Pastoral#Pastoral poetry|pastoral]] poems of the [[Latin]] literature and the ''Muktaka'' poems of the Sanskrit tradition".<ref>{{cite book|author1=G. John Samuel |title=On Tamil poems and poets: essays and speeches|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OoRqAAAAMAAJ| year=2006| publisher=Institute of Asian Studies| isbn=978-81-87892-37-3| pages=67–71}}</ref>
==Summary/Poem plot==
The Main Antagonist of the poem is A [[Pandya dynasty|pandiyan]] king [[Netunceliyan I|Nedunchezhiyan]] hailed as '''"Thalai Aalanganathu Seruvendra Nedunchezhiyan"''' The poem weaves two themes, one of a beautiful palace with a queen inconsolably weeping and missing her husband, another of a chaotic war camp with the [[Pandya]] king Netunceliyan busy and attending his injured soldiers.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1973|pp=60–61}}{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|pp=167–168}} The former is the ''akam''-genre poetry, the latter the ''puram''-genre.{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|pp=167–168}} The poem neither names the king nor the queen, but this is alluded to by the metaphors and the words that paint where she lives with her attendants (palace) and by the role and achievements of the man who is at the war front.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1974|pp=21–22}} Similarly, the city itself is not explicitly named, but alluded to by the details included.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1974|pp=21–22}} In the Tamil tradition, as linked in a medieval commentary on this poem, the unnamed king is presumed to be Netunceliyan.{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|pp=170–171}}
The poem paints the Tamil region in the cold season, with the northerly wind and retreating monsoonal rains. The people are described as huddling around fires, people then putting their warmed hands on their cheeks, how animals and birds shiver. Women wear simple clothes and minimal jewelry (wedding bracelets) inside their homes and mansions, as their husbands are away on war. In contrast, on the war front, men are decked up in their protective gear inside their simple tents.{{sfn|Kamil Zvelebil|1974|pp=21–22}}{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|pp=167–169}}
The ''Netunalvatai'' verses provide social and cultural information. Musical troupes were accompanied by dancing girls in the city. Women prayed to Korravai goddess in temples seeking the safe return of their husbands (lines 48–52, 185–194). They would light lamps, offer flowers and rice with their prayers.{{sfn|JV Chelliah|1946|pp=168–170}} Lines 101–102 suggest that Tamil merchants traded with Greek-Romans (''yavanas'') for designer lamps.
== Verses ==
==See also== * [[Eighteen Greater Texts]] * [[Sangam literature]]
==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}
==References== {{reflist}}
===Bibliography=== {{ref begin|30em}} *{{cite book|author= JV Chelliah|title= Pattupattu - Ten Tamil Idylls (Tamil Verses with Englilsh Translation)| year= 1946|url = https://archive.org/details/PattupattuTenTamilIdylls_20180715/page/n1| publisher= Tamil University (1985 print)}} * {{cite book |author=Edward Jewitt Robinson |title=Tamil Wisdom: Traditions Concerning Hindu Sages and Selections from Their Writings |url=https://archive.org/details/tamilwisdomtradi0000robi|year=2001 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |location = New Delhi}} * Mudaliyar, Singaravelu A., Apithana Cintamani, An encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature, (1931) - Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi (1983) * {{cite book|title=Tamil Literature|last=Pillai|first=M. S. Purnalingam|year=1994|pages=115|publisher=Asian Educational Services|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QIeqvcai5XQC&pg=PA115|isbn=81-206-0955-7}} * {{cite book|title=The archaeology of seafaring in ancient South Asia|last=Ray|first=Himanshu Prabha |year=2003|publisher=Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge|location=Cambridge|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=iHHzP4uVpn4C |isbn=9780521011099}} * Selby, Martha Ann (2011) Tamil Love Poetry: The Five Hundred Short Poems of the Aiṅkuṟunūṟu, an Early Third-Century Anthology. Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|9780231150651}} *{{cite book|author=Takanobu Takahashi|title=Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgCHuVGyZoEC|year=1995|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-10042-3}} * {{cite book|author=Kamil Zvelebil|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=degUAAAAIAAJ|year=1973|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-03591-5}} * {{cite book|author=Kamil Zvelebil|title=Tamil Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ33i496MsIC|year=1974| publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn= 978-3-447-01582-0}} * {{cite book|title=Companion studies to the history of Tamil literature|last=Zvelebil|first=Kamil|author-link=Kamil Zvelebil|year=1992|pages=73|publisher=BRILL|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qAPtq49DZfoC&pg=PA73|isbn=90-04-09365-6}} {{refend}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Netunalvatai}} {{Tamil language}} [[Category:Sangam literature]]