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In this episode, we perceive a subtle way of revealing a secret, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Kurunthogai 23, penned by Avvaiyaar. Set in the mountain country of ‘Kurinji’, the verse speaks in the voice of the confidante to a fortune-teller, passing on a hidden message about the lady’s relationship with the man.
அகவன்மகளே! அகவன்மகளே!
மனவுக் கோப்பு அன்ன நல் நெடுந் கூந்தல்
அகவன்மகளே! பாடுக பாட்டே;
இன்னும், பாடுக, பாட்டே-அவர்
நல் நெடுங் குன்றம் பாடிய பாட்டே.
A deep-throated call to a person echoes throughout! The words ‘அகவன்மகளே’ meaning ‘soothsayer’s daughter’ is repeated thrice in the verse. Likewise, the words ‘பாடுக பாட்டே’ meaning ‘sing that song’ appears over and over again. All these repetitive words end up rendering a trance-like effect to the verse. Ending with ‘நல் நெடுங் குன்றம் பாடிய பாட்டே’, which means ‘the song about the good mountains of the man’, the verse beckons us to take a trek within!
What a curious song! The context reveals that the man and lady had been leading a love relationship for a while. Whenever the man parted away, the lady languished in ill health. Observing the differences in her, the lady’s mother worries about her daughter and invites a fortune-teller to divine the reason for the girl’s malaise. In the courtyard of the lady’s home, where the proceedings are unfolding, the confidante turns to the fortune-teller and says, “O daughter of a soothsayer! O daughter of a soothsayer, with fine, long tresses, akin to a garland stringed of conch shells! Do sing that song. Go on and repeat that song – the one extolling his excellent, tall mountains!” With these words, the confidante is revealing to the lady’s family that the lady’s heart belonged to the man from the mountains.
Fortune-tellers, illness and love – an odd combination indeed! To understand, we have to travel back to the past and perceive their customs. In many ancient societies, there seems to have been a custom of predicting the future with various different items. In this Sangam land, to understand the causes of illness, the ancients seemed to employ fortune-tellers, who would see patterns in the paddy spread out, and supposedly, offer insight into unresolved issues with divine help. In most cases, the fortune-tellers would end up saying that the reason for the illness was the wrath of god and then, the families would try to appease the angered one, with the help of Velan, the priest. Amidst all this, there is one person, who knows the truth behind the lady’s symptoms and that is her best friend, the confidante. This expert doctor of the human mind first describes the fortune-teller, evoking a beautiful simile for her tresses, equating it to a garland made of conch shells. This simile brought forth an image of curly, long hair in a dazzling sight of white!
After celebrating the fortune-teller’s age and beauty thus, the confidante then seems to put to her, a seemingly innocent request, asking her to sing a particular song, the one which praises ‘his’ tall mountains! That’s all she says and who she means by this ‘his’ has the potential to change the course of events in the lady’s life. For, the confidante is telling the fortune-teller that if she really wanted to resolve the lady’s ill-health, all she had to do was to sing about the man’s mountains, and with that, she informs the lady’s kith and kin about the reason for the lady’s illness and her relationship with the man, thereby setting up suitable circumstances for his eventual proposal for the lady’s hand. In a few words, the verse tells so much about the customs and beliefs of the people then. Even amidst all this superstition, in the voice of the confidante, who dispels misguided notions to point out the real reason for the lady’s trouble, there, rings aloud the unmistakable sound of rationality!
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