{"id":"IYENGAR1930-001","label":"Taḻal in the millet fields","people_or_site":"Tamil (Sangam-age hill country, kuṟiñci)","country_current":"India","historic_region":"Tamilakam: the kuṟiñci (hill) landscape of Sangam poetry","macroregion":"South Asia / South India","local_name":"taḻal (தழல்)","source_term":"taḻal: sling, also bull-roarer","source_language":"Tamil; English","object_description":"A hand-whirled bird-scarer that sounds of itself.","function_summary":"Whirled by hand by girls guarding ripening millet, its sound drove away parrots and other birds; it also figures as a lover's gift.","attestation_type":"historical_text","source_key":"iyengar1930_tamil_talal","source_type":"secondary_literature","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Pre-Aryan_Tamil_Culture.djvu/46","page_or_plate":"Iyengar p. 44; Kuṟuntokai 223, TVU pp. 416-417","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative anchor for Tamil Nadu; the poems name a landscape type (kuṟiñci, the hills), not a place.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"On the hills where the millet ripened, girls kept the parrots off with noise. Tamil poems of the Sangam age give them two bird-scarers: the taṭṭai, a clapper that was struck, and the taḻal, which, the commentators say, was whirled by hand until it sounded of itself and sent the parrots flying. In one short poem of the Kuṟuntokai the taḻal becomes a love token. A girl remembers the festival where a young man found her. He gave her a taḻal, a taṭṭai and a skirt of leaves, told her they suited her, spoke sweet lies, and carried off the beauty her mother had guarded.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"taḻal (தழல்): a hand-whirled bird-scarer, also glossed sling. taṭṭai: a struck clapper for scaring birds. kuṟiñci: the hill landscape of Sangam poetry, setting of millet-guarding and of lovers' meetings.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["women_special"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":true,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar, Pre-Aryan Tamil Culture (Madras, 1930; repr. 1985), p. 44","url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Pre-Aryan_Tamil_Culture.djvu/46"},{"citation":"Kuṟuntokai 223, with commentary (Tamil Virtual University), pp. 416-417","url":"https://www.tamilvu.org/slet/l1200/l1200pd1.jsp?auth_pub_id=101&bookid=22&pno=417"},{"citation":"N. Periyasamy, \"Paḻantamiḻariṉ payirppātukāppu muṟaikaḷ\" [Crop-protection methods of the ancient Tamils], Ungal Noolagam (August 2020)","url":"https://keetru.com/index.php/2010-06-24-04-31-11/ungal-noolagam-aug20/40827-2020-09-16-08-17-29"}],"source_citations":"P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar, Pre-Aryan Tamil Culture (Madras, 1930; repr. 1985), p. 44; Kuṟuntokai 223, with commentary (Tamil Virtual University), pp. 416-417; N. Periyasamy, \"Paḻantamiḻariṉ payirppātukāppu muṟaikaḷ\" [Crop-protection methods of the ancient Tamils], Ungal Noolagam (August 2020)","source_display":"P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar, Pre-Aryan Tamil Culture (Madras, 1930; repr. 1985), p. 44; Kuṟuntokai 223, with commentary (Tamil Virtual University), pp. 416-417; N. Periyasamy, \"Paḻantamiḻariṉ payirppātukāppu muṟaikaḷ\" [Crop-protection methods of the ancient Tamils], Ungal Noolagam (August 2020)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A hand-whirled bird-scarer that sounds of itself.","function_display":"Whirled by hand by girls guarding ripening millet, its sound drove away parrots and other birds; it also figures as a lover's gift.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"historical text","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"tamil sangam","display_name":"Taḻal in the millet fields","image":{"full":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/SASIA-004_meerwarth1917_pl1.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/hunt_2026_10_03/thumbs/SASIA-004_meerwarth1917_pl1_thumb.jpg","credit":"A. M. Meerwarth, Guide to the Collection of Musical Instruments, Indian Museum, Calcutta (1917), pl. I; photo: S. C. Mondul","license":"No explicit licence or rights statement is given on the Internet Archive item page or in its metadata.","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/guidetocollectio00indi/page/n27/mode/1up","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Indian Museum instrument plate, 1917; the small Chittagong bullroarer","pool_id":"auto-hunt_2026_10_03--SASIA-004_meerwarth1917_pl1","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"iyengar1930-001-tamil-sangam-age-hill-country-kurinci"}