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In this episode, we relish an interaction with the feathered friend depicted in Sangam Literary work, Natrinai 70, written by Velliveethiyaar, who happens to be a female poet sung about by another famous female poet, Avvaiyaar. The poem is set in the agricultural farmlands of the ‘Marutham’ landscape and speaks in the voice of the lady to a little bird, pressing it to pass on a message to her man.
சிறு வெள்ளாங்குருகே! சிறு வெள்ளாங்குருகே!
துறை போகு அறுவைத் தூ மடி அன்ன
நிறம் கிளர் தூவிச் சிறு வெள்ளாங்குருகே!
எம் ஊர் வந்து, எம் உண்துறைத் துழைஇ,
சினைக் கெளிற்று ஆர்கையை அவர் ஊர்ப் பெயர்தி,
அனைய அன்பினையோ, பெரு மறவியையோ-
ஆங்கண் தீம் புனல் ஈங்கண் பரக்கும்
கழனி நல் ஊர் மகிழ்நர்க்கு என்
இழை நெகிழ் பருவரல் செப்பாதோயே!
For some reason, as I read this poem, I feel like it’s the voice of a little child. Maybe it’s the repeated references to ‘சிறு வெள்ளாங்குருகே’ meaning ‘little white bird’ that infuses it with a rhyme-like flavour. The word ‘அறுவை’ encountered in another Marutham poem, appears again with the meaning of ‘cloth’. ‘அறுவை’ is currently used more frequently to mean ‘surgical procedures’. The connection to ‘cloth’ comes from the base word, which means ‘to cut’. The word ‘செப்பு’ used in the meaning of ‘tell’ made me smile because the same word is still used in the Telugu language, to mean the same, thus illustrating the oneness of South Indian languages. We meet ‘மறவி’ or ‘forgetfulness’ and realise this human trait has been alive for thousands of years. Remembering to return from our wanderings, let’s move on to learn more about this song to a bird.
The man has been in a relationship with the lady for some time. Then, he stops visiting her for a while. The lady is anguished and laments to a bird nearby saying, “O little white bird! Like clothes washed in the lake, lying fresh and folded on the bank, your feathers shine with brightness. Coming to my village, searching in those fresh waters, you feed on pregnant catfish swarming there. Then, you depart to his village, the good place from where flows the sweet streams that flood the farmlands in my village. Was it the lack of love for me or some great forgetfulness that stopped you from conveying the sorrow of my bangles slipping, to my man, the last time you were there?” Through these words, the lady hopes the bird will pass on her message to the man or perhaps more realistically, hints to a kindly soul listening nearby, to become that messenger.
Let’s get to know the bird depicted in this poem. While Sangam poems seem to use the word ‘குருகு’ to refer to most birds, we find some hints in the similes used. The bird is said to have the bright white colour of freshly washed clothes. This also tells us that there used to be a ‘laundry service’ in the farmland regions, where clothes used to be collected in bundles from homes and taken to rivers to be beaten on rocks and washed. Before the advent of washing machines, I remember, as a child witnessing washermen visiting houses in my native village and walking off with a cloth bundle on his back. Even today, when travelling by car, we find white clothes washed and drying in the sun, along rivers in interior Tamilnadu. Returning back to the poem, the bird is said to contain folded white feathers akin to these freshly washed clothes. Then, we are also given the information that the bird feeds on ‘கெளிறு’ or a type of catfish, found in the lakes and marshlands here. Putting all this together, the bird has a high probability of being a ‘little egret’. The poet captures the later name of the bird succinctly with her ‘சிறு வெள்ளாங்குருகே’! Moving into the poem’s layers, we find that the lady telling the bird that she has caught a glimpse of the bird feeding on not just any plain old catfish but a pregnant one. Taking claim for the rich feed of her village’s farmlands, she turns to the bird and says, even though you’ve fed yourself to the full in our waters, why did you not pass on the message to my man, conveying to him that I’m afflicted in yearning. She then describes his village, as the origin of sweet streams that pour and flood the farmlands of her own village. With this, she also points out that just as the waters from her man’s village fill the waters of her village with abundant life, the man’s arrival would fill her life with joy and delight too.
The core of the poem lies in the question the lady puts to the bird. She says, “You did not tell him the last time over! Did you not tell him because you don’t feel kindness towards me or is it that you are so forgetful?” Indeed, a question we can ask ourselves when we do not complete what we set out to do and reveal to ourselves the reasons why we do what we do!
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