Sangam Literature
in Animated Stories
Ancient Poetry for Modern Audience!
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Centuries before the dawn of common era, the commoners of ancient Tamil folks, thriving at Southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent witnessed breathtaking rains in its forests, scenic sunsets at its coasts, melodious tweeting of the birds over their paddy fields, amorous romances of youth on its mountain tops, pining hearts of parting couples in its wildernesses. These scenes drove the common villagers, citizens, merchants, and farmers to pen them all, in poems composed of the most beautiful and passionate wordings that our fortunate souls can savor today, in the collection of poems called Sangam Literature!
Why Study
Sangam Literature?
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Although Sangam Literature is amongst the most revered pieces of literature in South India, rest of the Indians seem to be out of touch with it. It is unfortunate that such a beautiful and unique collection of poems is not admired by larger audiences. Most of the ancient poetry is composed around religion or a patron king. But Sangam Literature is uniquely personal. It is about the daily lives of commoners dealing with relatable emotional conflicts that we can relate to even today!
“Sangam poems are ‘classical,’ i.e., early, ancient; they are also ‘classics,’ i.e., works that have stood the test of time, the founding works of a whole tradition.
Not to know them is not to know a unique and major poetic achievement of Indian civilization”
- AK Ramanujan
Dravidian linguistics Scholar
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Unlike other ancient poetry, Sangam is not about kings or gods but the everyday lives of ordinary people like you and me - their worries, joys, sorrows, concerns, and longings. Helping us see that we haven’t changed over the ages!
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Sangam is an embroidery of beautiful natural landscapes, the lives of animals and birds, and the turmoils of the human heart!
It is a unique, unprecedented, and inimitable literary accomplishment of mankind that more people, especially Indians, must cherish and learn.
A Mesmerizing Experience!
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Sangam Literature is a window to the ancient Indian Past. It makes us realize how, even after two thousand years, despite the drastic change in how we see and live in the world, human worries, concerns, emotional upheavals, the facets of its relations have remained the same!
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Sangam Literature is the most ancient Tamil Literature and is among the oldest compositions ever written in India. This series aims to help the audience know ancient India and the lives of its commoners better.
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Each story will be weaved from different verses from the hundred poems of each thinai
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The story will capture the differentiating elements of each thinai such as emotion, landscape, season of the year, time of the day
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All stories will also exhibit uniformity to highlight their being a part of the Sangam literature -
a. Carnatic music
b. Character Drawing and animation style - tender and expressive
c. Beautiful Landscapes
d. Detailed animation for emotions and body language
Five Animation Stories -
One for each Thinai
Sangam Poetry in its
Authentic Form!
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Thanks to Vaidehi Herbert Ma’am’s painstaking translations in English and continuous refinements (sangamtranslationsbyvaidehi.com), the Poetry has reached larger audience in its authentic form!
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​We are referring to these translation, with the guidance of Vaidehi Ma’am herself, to maintain authenticity for the content being showcased.
The Power of Animation & YouTube
Animation
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​“Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.” - Walt Disney
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Anything that can be imagined can be drawn and anything that can be drawn can be animated. Animation, unlike live-action, is not restricted by reality.
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Animation is loved by everyone of every age, owing perhaps to its association with childhood.
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It is hence a cost-effective method to bring historical scenes with varied landscapes on the screen.
YouTube
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YouTube is the most popular video platform. - Statista
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India has the most YouTube users globally, followedby the US. - statista
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It’s free and a preferred source of educational videocontent. Science Direct
Project Process: Project Stages & tentative timeline
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Scripting: Curating verses from all the 100 poems of each thinai to weave a story from it (Week 1)
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Rough Storyboard and Animatic to get all team members a visualization of the story-to-be (Week 2-3)
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Final Drawings. Detailed and colorful drawings of characters, background landscapes, and the props to be animated during later phases. (Week 4-6)
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Voice Over acting. Professional voice actors shall enact the characters in the story (Week 4-6)
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Animation. The Final Drawings shall be animated for facial expressions, body language, etc. (Week 5-7)
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Music Production suiting the theme and mood of the thinai and in sync with the animation (Week 8-9)
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Film Editing to compile all the animated shots, adjust colors, add sound effects, etc. (Week 10)
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Publication and Promotion Glimpses Studio channel (Week 11-12)
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We have studied all the hundred poems from each of the five thinais and made one story for it from the few chosen verses from them. This story aims to capture the essence of these thinais and present it in as beautiful a form as we can manage to match with the original anthologies.
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Although there have been renditions of Sangam poems, we are perhaps among the very few who shall be making animated stories around them.
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Sangam Literature is a window to the ancient Indian Past. It makes us realize how, even after two thousand years, despite the drastic change in how we see and live in the world, human worries, concerns, emotional upheavals, the facets of its relations have remained the same!
​​
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Sangam Literature is the most ancient Tamil Literature and is among the oldest compositions ever written in India. This series aims to help the audience know ancient India and the lives of its commoners better.
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When we speak of ancient Indian Literature, Sanskrit, Pali & Prakrit material comes to our mind. This is largely due to the lack of awareness about the Tamil works composed contemporary to the other oldest Indian Literature. It’s important to study the Tamil Sangam to widen the perspective about ancient India amongst the general audience.
Tamil Sangam Literature:
an Overlooked Treasure
Although ample content exists on YouTube on Sangam Literature from the Historical and academic perspective, not one of the top 20 search results for “Sangam Literature” is about the poetic and artistic side of the Literature
Why Glimpses Studio for
Sangam Literature?
Glimpses Studio: Let’s reconnect with our roots!
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Daily 500+ views on animated stories on mentioned topics
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Close to 1 Million views on the 6-video series Mauryan History which is part of the ICSE Class 9 Curriculum and CBSE Class 6 curriculum
a. Class 6 CBSE: Chapter 7 is on Ashoka and Chapter 8 has a section on Sangam Literature
b. Class 9 ICSE: Chapter 4 is on the Mauryan Empire and Chapter 5 is on Sangam Literature
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Glimpses Studio has made 50+ animated stories since 2018 and the leadership has experience of 9 years in the Animation and Design Industry having worked with Brands like Coca-Cola, Google Cloud, Plasto, etc.
Pilot Episode: Marutham Thinai
We have already made one episode, of length on Marutham Thinai
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Script Writing: It is composed of verses from the poems numbers 22, 17, 64, 36, 47, 51, 59, 48, 63, 46, and 58
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Background Drawings: Drawings picture the pastoral settings signature of the Marutham poetry
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Character Drawing & Animation: Tender, young, sensitive, and beautiful characters, whose expressions and body language convey the emotions of sorrow, pain of betrayal, anger, guilt, etc.
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Background Music: we used Carnatic Raga Sindhu Bhairavi by Jatayu using Mandolin, Ghatam, Mridangam, and more!
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Voice Acting: Two female characters and a male narrator
The Potential Impact
Awareness among Wider Audience
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Glimpses Studio has 10,000+ subscribers with a daily viewership of 500+ people watching related content
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The format of the stories is entertaining while authentic to the source material. Aiming to attract the interest of more people to Vaidehi Ma’am’s blog for further study and deeper understanding
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The project can thus contribute to preserving and promoting Tamil heritage.
Options for Contribution
Although the sole purpose of this project is to take Sangam Literature and its translation by Vaidehi Ma’am to a global audience, the association/organization/company funding the project has the option to include a 30-second promotion of themselves/their services/products in each Episode to leverage the opportunity to reach thousands of adolescents every month potentially.
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For the 30-second part, Glimpses Studio shall bear the costs for
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Simple Video Editing using the material (Script, videos, images, etc.) provided by the supporter,
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Single-character Professional Voiceover Narration along with its recording by an Indian voiceover artist of our choice,
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A link to the supporter's website shall be included in the YouTube video description, on the Glimpses Studio website, in related Facebook Posts, on LinkedIn Posts, and on Instagram Posts related to the project.
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The Funding can be split between up to five entities according to their mutual understanding and agreement.
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Videhi Ma’am and Glimpses Studio will take the final decision on such a sponsorship and their supporter pitch based on the content of the pitch.
“Even one’s own tradition is not one’s birthright; it has to be earned, repossessed”
- AK Ramanujan
Let’s unite and share our strengths to spread the word about Sangam Literature…
…Vaidehi Ma’am, Glimpses Studio, and you!
Thank you
All Drawings used in this page are made for the proposed series.