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In this episode, we perceive scenes from the mountain country echoing fears within, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Kurunthogai 141, penned by Madurai Perunkollanaar. Set in the hills of ‘Kurinji’, the verse speaks in the voice of the lady to the confidante, passing on a message to the man, listening nearby.
வளை வாய்ச் சிறு கிளி விளை தினைக் கடீஇயர்
செல்க என்றோளே, அன்னை” என, நீ
சொல்லின் எவனோ?-தோழி!-”கொல்லை
நெடுங் கை வன் மான் கடும் பகை உழந்த
குறுங் கை இரும் புலிக் கொலை வல் ஏற்றை
பைங் கட் செந்நாய் படுபதம் பார்க்கும்
ஆர் இருள் நடு நாள் வருதி;
சாரல் நாட, வாரலோ” எனவே.
‘Dangers many in the path’ worries this one! Opening with the words ‘வளை வாய்ச் சிறு கிளி’ meaning ‘small parrots with bent beaks’, the verse sketches the frequently mentioned denizens of the mountain country. If there’s talk of ‘parrots’, ‘millet fields’ cannot be far behind, and sure enough, we hear the request ‘விளை தினைக் கடீஇயர்’ meaning ‘go on to chase them away from the blooming millets’. From these tamed portions of the mountains, the verse turns to the wild and talks about ‘நெடுங் கை வன் மான்’ meaning ‘the powerful elephant with a long hand’ and ‘குறுங் கை இரும் புலி’ meaning ‘the huge tiger with short hands’. Note how the word ‘கை’, which refers to ‘a human hand’ in contemporary Tamil has been used here to refer to the trunk of an elephant and the forelegs of a tiger, treating them as if they were humans with slight modifications. In addition to these two animals, we also get to see ‘பைங் கட் செந்நாய்’ meaning ‘a red dog with green eyes’. Ending with the words ‘சாரல் நாட வாரலோ எனவே” meaning ‘say, O lord of the mountains, do not come’, the verse welcomes us to explore this wild country and glean the secrets within.
That sure sounds like a nature documentary. The context reveals that the man and lady had been leading a love relationship and that the man had been trysting with the lady by night. One night, observing the man near their house, but pretending not to notice him, the lady says to her confidante, “Little parrots with curved beaks are intent on stealing the full-grown millets. Please go there to chase them away, said mother. Why don’t you take this message to him, my friend? Go tell him, ‘In the forest land, suffering with the fierce enmity of the long handed powerful elephant, the short handed huge male tiger, with power to kill, bides its time to attack the green-eyed red dog in the deep darkness of midnight. At this time, you arrive, O lord of the mountains. Please do not come then.'” With these words, the lady conveys the dangers in the man’s tryst by night and requests him to tryst with her by day.
What do the conflict between animals in the mountains have got to do with the lady’s relationship with the man? Listening to the lady’s words carefully may help us decipher that. She starts not with those wild animals but by mentioning little parrots that would be intent on stealing the millets growing in their mountain farms, now that these crops are mature. To save the crop from being pilfered, the lady’s mother seems to have asked her to go to the fields and chase away these parrots. As we have seen in many other poems from the ‘Kurinji’ landscape, the predominant occupation of young girls there seems to have been to chase away parrots from the millet fields. Then, the lady asks a question to her friend saying, would it be wrong if the confidante were to go and tell this to the man. She doesn’t order her friend to do it, but simply asks a seemingly innocent question, would there anything amiss if the friend were to do what she asks her to do.
From these concerns of the heart, the lady turns to describe how a tiger, with an age-old enmity for the elephant, waits to pounce and kill the wild dog that passes its way, in the dark hours of midnight. Why is she talking about wild animals in the black night? Only to say that this is the time the man walks there to meet with her. She concludes by asking her friend to insist to the man not to come at this time. Through this, the lady conveys her worry about the many dangers in the man’s nightly path and illustrates her love and care for her beloved. Instead of simply refusing the tryst, she offers an alternative of meeting with her in the millet fields during the day, as her mother had bid her to go there and chase away the parrots. Some questions pop up in my mind. Why couldn’t the lady tell this directly to the man? Why did she have to tell it to her friend, while the man was listening, and that too, in an indirect manner? It seems to have been the custom to project the lady as someone docile and meek, not someone who would directly challenge the status quo. While that seems to have been the state of things then, thankfully no more, the one thing we can learn is how to deliver a thoughtful refusal, and that is, by saying no with kindness, and most importantly, offering an alternative to cushion the blow of that refusal.
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