Tamarai, the mother of the three twins, to beget a boon for offspring, from Lord Shiva embarks on a long pilgrimage to Kailasa, the abode of Shiva. With the help of Lord Vishnu, she begins her arduous penance as part of which she loses her life seven times after which Shiva grants her a boon for three twins, ‘two boys for the field and one girl for the home.’ The seven deaths and subsequent rebirths of Tamarai are in line with the curse of barrenness for seven generations which the first-generation farmer-migrant, Kollatha got from Shiva for killing innocent cows that grazed on his farm.

A pair of parrots from the God’s chamber that come out of the Tamarai’s (the mother of the three twins) nostrils, in anticipation of separation, sing to each other; a song celebrating Kunnutaiyya gently pushing Tamarai’s swing, and an unlikely pair - Viratankal (the forest queen) and the wild boar, Kompan, as Viratankal, full of love and the fear of estrangement, unable to find Kompan, cries in agony. These three episodes, across the spectrum of human/non-human love, non-human: non-human, human-human, and non-human: human, elicit in poem and song the textures of love and estrangement sensitively.

Death, separation, grief and childlessness episodes are expressed in song through various laments across the epic. Be it Tamarai’s lament in anticipation of losing her husband, Kunnutaiyya, or the child Kunnutaiyya’s lament on losing his parents to Yema, the God of death, or of the pair of parrots losing their beloved, or the lament of Tankal, on losing her two twin brothers, Ponnar and Sankar. A characteristic feature of these laments is a vocal cry that the lead bard employs, emphasizing certain words such as saami and naada as you can hear in the following snippet.

There is a variety to the rhythm, meter, and poetic usages of the lullabies in the Epic based on who’s singing it and to whom - be it the Goddess Cellatta to the twin brothers, or the mother, Ariyanacci’s lullaby to Kunnutaiyya, the father of the triplets or Campuka’s cleverly worded lullaby to Kompan, the boar. Syllables such as Raa Raa Ro, Raa Ri Raro are often opening lines and refrains within the poetic verse of the lullaby is structured. This section describes these lullabies with examples from the live performance.