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In this episode, we perceive the emotion of possessiveness, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Natrinai 390, penned by Avvaiyaar. The verse is situated in the agricultural regions of ‘Marutham’ and speaks in the voice of a courtesan to her friend, passing on a hidden message to the friends of another courtesan.
வாளை வாளின் பிறழ, நாளும்
பொய்கை நீர்நாய் வைகுதுயில் ஏற்கும்
கை வண் கிள்ளி வெண்ணி சூழ்ந்த
வயல் வெள் ஆம்பல் உருவ நெறித் தழை
ஐது அகல் அல்குல் அணி பெறத் தைஇ,
விழவின் செலீஇயர் வேண்டும்மன்னோ;
யாணர் ஊரன் காணுநன்ஆயின்,
வரையாமைஓ அரிதே; வரையின்,
வரைபோல் யானை, வாய்மொழி முடியன்
வரை வேய் புரையும் நல் தோள்
அளிய-தோழி!-தொலையுந பலவே.
Opening with the words ‘வாளை வாளின் பிறழ’ meaning ‘the silver scabbard-fish leaps like a sword’, the verse conjures a picture-perfect simile connecting the appearance of this long, eel-like fish with a sword. Incidentally, this fish belongs to the family of cutlassfish and what is a ‘cutlass’, if not another name for the very ‘sword’ mentioned in this ancient verse! Adding to the wildlife, also appears an ‘otter’ in ‘நீர்நாய்’. As if the bell for the next hour has been rung, in the succeeding line, the subject changes from biology to history and we get to meet the king ‘கிள்ளி’ and his town ‘வெண்ணி’ as well as the ‘white lilies growing in the fields of this town’ in ‘வயல் வெள் ஆம்பல்’. The phrase ‘விழவின் செலீஇயர் வேண்டும்மன்னோ’ meaning ‘Should leave to the festivities, shouldn’t I?’ expresses the core theme of the verse. Thereafter, we get to meet another king ‘முடியன்’ and the ‘mountain bamboos’ that grow in his land in ‘வரை வேய்’. The verse ends with ‘தொலையுந பலவே’ meaning ‘the loss is plenty’ and intrigues our curiosity!
The man and lady had been leading a married life when the man took to keeping the company of a courtesan. At this time, the man’s courtesan hears of the arrival of a new courtesan to the town’s festivities. She fears that she will lose her man to this courtesan’s beauty, and so, one day, seeing the friends of the new courtesan nearby, she says to her friend, “While the scabbard fish leaps looking like a sword, the otter in the pond sleeps during the day, in ‘Venni’, the town of the generous king Killi. Adorning my soft and wide loins with a well-woven garment in the hue of white lilies that grow in this town, I must leave to the festivities! If that wealthy man were to see me, it would be hard for him to part without uniting with me. If he were indeed to do so, those fine arms, akin to bamboos that grow in the mountains of the truthful ‘Mudiyan’, the possessor of hill-like elephants, would be pitied for they will lose their great beauty!” With these words, the courtesan expresses how the man would remain steadfast to her, no matter the lure of the newcomers.
Time to delve into the details! The first image that this courtesan sketches is that of a scabbard fish leaping up, flashing like a shiny sword. Indeed, that’s an image that we can’t take our eyes off. However, there’s an otter in the pond that seems to be unaware of all this drama and is sleeping calmly during the day. A moment to meander! On exploring, I found that the common freshwater otter found in India is the ‘Asian small-clawed otter’, which is said to appear in the regions around the Nilgiri and Palani hills, situated in Tamilnadu. The fact that connects this species of otter to this verse is that they are said to be active during the night. If a worker is doing the night shift, you can expect them to sleep during the day, and so does this otter, as captured by the courtesan’s words. She has described this scene to mention the town of ‘Venni’ belonging to the generous Chola king ‘Killi’, where white lilies bloom in the fields. In turn, those white lilies are mentioned to present the hue of the garment that the courtesan plans to wear. In Natrinai 328, we saw how it was custom to present ‘white cloth’ and ‘sesame oil’ to dancing girls. So, we can conclude that the courtesan is boasting about the whiteness of her dress by placing it in parallel to the lilies in Killi’s town!
Where is the courtesan planning to go, all dressed up in white? It’s to the festivities, she says. Then she continues adding that if the wealthy lord were to glance her way, he would want to be with her. If he were to do so, the fine arms of that new courtesan, which she equates to the bamboos in the hills of king ‘Mudiyan’, who possesses hill-like elephants, would lose their acclaimed beauty, the courtesan concludes. In that scene of the otter sleeping even when the scabbard fish is leaping about, the courtesan places a metaphor for how the man would not change his mind, no matter the radiant beauty of the new courtesan. Here’s a verse, where the entire focus of the women is on the man. Possessiveness and jealousy rise their heads in this expression. The dearth of men, owing to death in battles and wealth-gathering missions, is the central cause for this state of affairs. Holding on to a man, breaking the morale of the competing woman sounds like the singular aim of this protagonist!
Curiously, it reminded me of similar situations in fairytales about how the only thing that a female character could do was to wait for the prince to come to her rescue. And yesterday, my son mentioned a connection with one such fairytale in a comic book called ‘Catwad’ that he was reading. In the original story of Rapunzel, the princess is cursed with incredibly long tresses and locked in a tower. All she can do is wait for the prince to come on a horse and save her. In the story my son described, the prince does come and ask her to let down her long hair so that he can rescue her. But she shouts back saying, ‘I have cut my hair into a mohawk’! After this, she tricks the prince, ties him up with the long cords of her hair and escapes the tower. Then, she opens a mohawk hair salon and gives haircuts to one and all, living happily ever after. Returning to the verse, the past is the past and they lived lives according to their reality, which we cannot judge with our hindsight. However, it makes one realise what a gratifying time this is, when a woman need not be preoccupied with a man. She has all it takes to make her life her own!
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