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In this episode, we relish a comical scene in a millet field, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Natrinai 147, written by Kollampakkanaar. The verse is set in the mountain country of ‘Kurinji’ and speaks in the voice of the confidante to the lady, relaying a curious incident involving the lady and her mother, to the man, listening nearby.
யாங்கு ஆகுவமோ ‘அணி நுதல் குறுமகள்!
தேம்படு சாரல் சிறு தினைப் பெருங்குரல்
செவ்வாய்ப் பைங்கிளி கவர, நீ மற்று
எவ்வாய்ச் சென்றனை அவண்?’ எனக் கூறி
அன்னை ஆனாள் கழற, முன் நின்று, 5
‘அருவி ஆர்க்கும் பெருவரை நாடனை
அறியலும் அறியேன், காண்டலும் இலனே,
வெதிர் புனை தட்டையேன் மலர் பூக் கொய்து
சுனை பாய்ந்து ஆடிற்றும் இலன்’ என நினைவிலை
பொய்யல், அந்தோ! வாய்த்தனை, அது கேட்டுத் 10
தலை இறைஞ்சினளே அன்னை,
செலவு ஒழிந்தனையால், அளியை நீ புனத்தே?
The poem opens with the Sangam equivalent of ‘Oh my goodness! What’s going to happen’ in the words ‘யாங்கு ஆகுவமோ’. We see the exquisite epithet ‘அணி நுதல் குறுமகள்’ meaning ‘My young daughter with a beautiful forehead!’ How affectionately mothers seem to call their daughters and this instance is even more surprising, because the mother is speaking words of anger at her girl. We get an inkling of this with the word ‘கழற’ which means ‘ask angrily’. There’s a striking contrast in the imagery of ‘சிறு தினைப் பெருங்குரல்’ meaning ‘long-stemmed, little millets’ and ‘செவ்வாய்ப் பைங்கிளி’ meaning ‘red-mouthed, green parrot’! The lady’s response to her mother’s angry question is the kind of stuff that tickles your funny bones no end! What exactly she said and why she brought doom on her head, we’ll discover in a minute.
First, some background! The man and lady have been in a love relationship for a while and have been trysting with each other during the day. Observing that the man is not taking steps towards a formal union with the lady, the confidante comes up with a ruse. One day, seeing the man arrive, the confidante pretending not to notice him, turns to the lady and says, “Wonder what’s going to happen to us! When mother badgered, ‘O young girl with a beautiful forehead, letting the red-beaked, green parrots steal away those long-stalked, little millets on these honey-smelling, mountain slopes, whither did you go from there?’, you stood there before her and blurted out, ‘I don’t know the lord of the mountains, in whose domain echoes cascades many. I haven’t seen him too. All I had in my hands was the bamboo sling. Neither did I pluck flowers nor play in the mountain spring with him’! Without any thought about the consequences, speaking not a lie, you spoke your truth. Hearing that, mother walked away with her head bent. You have gone and got yourself banned from visiting those millet fields, O pitiable one!” With these words, the confidante cooks up an imaginary incident to incite the man into thinking that the lady’s mother is aware of their relationship and thus the lady will be confined to the house. To savour the grace of the lady’s company, the man must seek her hand in marriage, the confidante implies.
Now, to the essence of this hilarious piece! Like a funny movie scene that makes you laugh every time you see it, no matter how many times I read the poem, I burst out laughing. Imagine the lady’s mother, raving mad, because her millets have flown away in the parrot’s belly! Her daughter, the lady had just one job. That was to guard the millet field and chase away the parrots that come to feed on the crop. No wonder the mother is full of questions about where the lady went, leaving the field to its ruinous state! The confidante, thus paints a portrait of mother, asking these questions repeatedly to the lady. She then recollects how the poor girl made a fool of herself by answering, “No, I don’t know the lord of the mountains. No, I didn’t see him! No, I didn’t play with him in the mountain spring! And no, I didn’t any pluck flowers with him!” Any self-respecting mother would see what’s happening to her daughter, the minute she hears this blabbered answer! Mother may have bent her head and walked away but we know what’s going to happen shortly. The confidante illuminates the consequence by saying, ‘You poor thing, now you can’t even go to the fields!’ With this ploy, the confidante hopes she can nudge the man into seeing what an innocent soul the lady is, and that it would be wise to seek her hand in marriage, without further delay.
Although the confidante says it in a serious tone to the man, to me, it felt like a deadpan comedy that evokes the loudest of laughs! It brought to my mind how Jeeves, that brilliant character, carved by P.G. Wodehouse, often follows the same ruse of making his master, Bertie Wooster, look like an idiot, in order to save him from a sticky situation. No matter how culture or time separates us, it’s stunning to see how the same threads seem to link all of humanity, as echoed by our love and our laughter!
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