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In this episode, we appreciate the vision of the ancients in Sangam Literary work, Natrinai 47, written by Nalvelliyaar, a female poet we met 40 songs ago. The poem is set in the ‘Kurinji’ landscape or the mountainous regions and speaks in the voice of the lady’s confidante to the lady, as the man listens nearby.
பெருங்களிறு உழுவை அட்டென, இரும் பிடி
உயங்கு பிணி வருத்தமொடு இயங்கல் செல்லாது,
நெய்தல் பாசடை புரையும் அம் செவிப்
பைதல் அம் குழவி தழீஇ, ஒய்யென
அரும் புண் உறுநரின் வருந்தி வைகும்
கானக நாடற்கு, ‘இது என’ யான் அது
கூறின் எவனோ தோழி, வேறு உணர்ந்து
அணங்கு அறி கழங்கின் கோட்டம் காட்டி,
வெறி என உணர்ந்த உள்ளமொடு மறி அறுத்து
அன்னை அயரும் முருகு நின்
பொன் நேர் பசலைக்கு உதவாமாறே?
Filled with that unique rhyme scheme in Tamil called ‘ethugai’ wherein the second letters rhyme, the poem leaves a lasting taste of melody in one’s mouth. We find ‘பெருங்களிறு’ and ‘இரும்பிடி’, ‘உயங்கு’ and ‘இயங்கல்’ and finally ‘வெறி’ and ‘மறி’ shining in the lines of the verse. There’s a jungle out there in the poem with ‘களிறு’ meaning ‘male elephant, ‘பிடி’ meaning ‘female elephant’, ‘உழுவை’ meaning ‘tiger’ and also making sure, the flora is not left out, we find a reference to the ‘நெய்தல்’ or the ‘waterlily’ as well. I smiled reading the word ‘பசலை’, for although we have encountered many descriptions of women suffering from it in the songs this far, this is the first instance where we read the name of this ‘very Sangam disease’.
Moving into the verse, we find the man coming by to the lady’s house, after a long absence. Knowing of his arrival, the lady’s confidante speaks to the lady, so as to be heard by the man. She says,“Your man hails from a mountain country. A land where the tiger kills the male elephant and leaves the female incapacitated, in its confused affliction. The female elephant rushes to embrace its infant possessing lovely ears like the lush green leaves of the ‘neythal’ flower. It suffers in the agony of one who has been inflicted with a grave wound. Why don’t I go there and tell your man about things as they are? At home, noting the golden pallor of your skin, mother tries to surmise reasons with a priest’s fortune-telling ritual. She has determined that it’s the wrath of god Muruga and intends to sacrifice a goat to appease the god and cure you of your affliction. Shouldn’t I go tell the lord of the mountain country that god has nothing to do with it? I should let him know that the only one who can help you is him!” With these words, the lady’s confidante is hinting that the man should hasten his marriage with the lady.
Quaint cultural practices of the period are revealed in this poem. One is the ritual called ‘கழங்கு’ wherein a ‘velan’ or priest is hired to infer god’s mind from the fall of seeds. Why is this ritual being conducted? It’s because the mother notices the changes in her daughter’s appearance. Apparently, there’s a gold-like pallor on her skin. Being used to seeing ‘gold’ used only in a glorified sense, it’s striking to note that here it’s used to indicate something amiss. As in many Sangam poems, the happenings in the outer world echo the feelings in the inner sphere. If we did not know better, we might have dismissed the description of the mountain country with elephants and tiger as just lending to the scene. However, it’s not just for style and serves as an integral poetic metaphor. The attacking tiger is the parallel of the disease that afflicts the lady and the dead male elephant is her beauty. The female elephant is the lady’s mind and it holds on to the calf, which is the lady’s love for the man. Thus, intricately woven into the metaphor, is the state of the lady’s mind, afflicted by the disease of ‘pasalai’.
Let’s delve more into this Sangam affliction. What we brush off today with a single line saying, ‘she’s missing him’, is the very disease about which so many lines of verse have been written. Has modern life endowed us with so many afflictions that this seems like a mere nothing? And in turn, what does this say about the ancients? Did they live such a healthy life that even the symptoms associated with missing someone were construed as something near fatal? Also note how the world around the lady seems so sensitive to these changes in appearance. Perhaps, to cure one another and the world, we need to learn from these people of the past to stop looking and start seeing!
The very sangam disease 😃😍