Thanks, Dr. Ashraf. Yes, aaDu-puli aaTTam is a board game played inside or outside in tree shade throughout Indian subcontinent. It exists even in Nepal. Its shape traditionally comes from temple cars in one way or another. what is famous as Tamil Nadu variety is just one shape, a simplification from Carnatic ones.
what prompted me to write is the first line in an important Sangam verse, NaRRiNai 341. While Yavanas brought in their famous wines, spirits in ceramic amphoras or in glass bottles, the country arrack, caaraayam, was stored in them as well. Just like Sangam era kings used Roman emperors' coins to issue their coins. For example, the Chera kings who had Karur as their capital then called Vanji and Muziris as their most important port where Periyar meets the sea, issued Kolli-p-purai/porai coins in honoring their family mountain (kula-parvata). Just like Pandyas valued Pothiyil/Malaya pavata, Cheras who has scores of mountains valued Kolli mountain in their home provenance. Like Roman coins' copies, the Yavana madhu bottles/jars were to store the local moonshine. The chieftain of Kurinji landscape, perhaps the bro-in-law of the hero of the poem who was posted in the war-front, drinks and gets mildly rebuked by "maDanthai". As Pinnathur and Kanmani say, I also believe there are two different women in this important verse.
The first line, as given by S. Vaiyapurippillai's checking of manuscripts, is "vaGkA varippaRai ciRupATu muNaiyin2", Tiru Podhuvan Aiya has written taking vaGkA (which is storks, egrets or cranes) as vaGkam boat and tries to explain the meaning. But it does not fit with tech terms like muNai, the hoop at the bottom of the kettle drum, a rice-harvest drum throughout the paddy cultivation areas in Asia, nor with ciRupATu, the bottom of the kettle drum. sama-pADu is in drums like ceNDai (cf. caNDai) and marakkaal, a tubular paRai. In Sangam, kiNaiyan-s are kettle drum players, while tuTiyans are hourglass drum, like urumi, players. It is from the samapADu drums, we have paRai, a paddy measure in TN and Kerala. It is unique that drums, as well as grain measure, bears the same name paRai in Tamil. I am looking into what people wrote about Paddy in English. Like kaRi > Curry in English, PaRai/paDi gets transformed into paddy of English, due to ancient trade between Java and South India. In my considered view, putting Paddy's etymology as of Malay origin is an error to be corrected.
பிற பின்!
N. Ganesan