War in Ancient India c15.60

c15.60

8. Puram consists of seven tiṇais or themes, and of these veṭci, vañci, uliñjai, tumbai and vāhai are related to war efforts on the part of the ancient Tamils. Later on the tiṇais became twelve. It is veṭci when a chieftain sends out his troops to seize the cattle of the neighbouring chief and to distribute the prize among the villagers and others. Here it was usual for the conquering chief to wear veṭci garland. This is the explanation of the theme given by Tolkāppiyanar. Recovering the cattle from the enemy is said to be Karandai where, as a consequence of the success, the Karandai flower was worn. It is really curious that the Tamils attached significance to the different flowers representing various stages of an expedition. In fact the whole of the Purapporul veṇbāmālai of the 7th century A.D. deals with these various themes in detail, though by this age the mode of wars in general in South India had been considerably changed. At the best the Purapporul Veṇbāmālai can be said to record the old tradition rather than the contemporary usage.