Tiruppavai-த த த த பப Hindu Newspaper: Monday, Jan 12, 2009. VIRUDHUNAGAR: Collector K. Raghupathi presented prizes to the winners of Tiruppavai recitation competition held as part of “Marghazhi Thiruvizha (= மமமமமமம ம ம )” at Nachiar (Andal) Temple in Srivilliputtur in the district on Sunday. According to a press release, the recitation of Tiruppavai was conducted for the last two days for school students under the auspices of the Department of Art and Culture, Tirunelveli region, Thanjavur Art and Culture Centre and District Cultural Centre. end The Tamil poets have had the added advantage of using a language medium that is perhaps not as heavily encumbered as the rest; where the quality of sound and the impact of meaning seem to share a common ground as far as function is concerned. The whole of the Tamil language is the poet's ally. It was born vibrant and malleable, ever ready to be shaped into rhyme or reason. It simply waits for the expelled breath. A breath that is filled with a great passion for life: be it the sighing of heart or the winds of thought. Even the most dry and linear idea, when voiced with the Tamil tongue, is enlivened by this expelled breath. The sound produced has shape: fine curves & subtle contours, texture & color. The beauty of Tamil does not rely on any trivial meaning which the mind might attach to it. The richness of the sound imbues the words with a life of their own, independent of any meaning that our concepts strive to convey. There is an inherent sweetness to the Tamil tongue; and to the Tamil people themselves, "Life" (birth, growth, love, work, death; the struggle of it all) has a sweetness all it's own. --by Layne Little