Kurunthogai 253 – A meat-smelling resting spot

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கேளார் ஆகுவர்-தோழி!-கேட்பின்,
விழுமிது கழிவது ஆயினும், நெகிழ்நூல்
பூச் சேர் அணையின் பெருங் கவின் தொலைந்த நின்
நாள் துயர் கெடப் பின் நீடலர்மாதோ-
ஒலி கழை நிவந்த ஓங்கு மலைச் சாரல்,
புலி புகா உறுத்த புலவு நாறு கல் அளை
ஆறு செல் மாக்கள் சேக்கும்
கோடு உயர் பிறங்கல் மலை இறந்தோரே.

‘A dangerous journey’ is the core theme here. The opening words ‘கேளார் ஆகுவர்’ meaning ‘he knows not’ talks about how a person doesn’t understand what’s happening there. In ‘விழுமிது கழிவது ஆயினும்’ meaning ‘even if wealth were to be lost’, we see an instance of a hypothetical situation. An object of luxury can be glimpsed at in ‘நெகிழ்நூல் பூச்சேர் அணை’, meaning ‘a bed made with softened threads and strewn with flowers’. From the drylands setting, we are taken to the hills in ‘ஒலி கழை நிவந்த ஓங்கு மலைச் சாரல்’ meaning ‘thick bamboos that fill the soaring mountain slopes’. A sensorial description of a place can be seen in ‘புலி புகா உறுத்த புலவு நாறு கல் அளை’ meaning ‘a rocky cave, smelling of raw meat, stacked by a tiger’. Ending with the words ‘மலை இறந்தோரே’ meaning ‘he who left to the mountains’, the verse welcomes us to know more.

There’s the comfort of a soft bed on one side and danger of a tiger strolling on the other. The context reveals that the man and lady were leading a happy, married life when the man parted away to gather wealth. In his absence, the lady started to lose her health. Seeing this, the confidante says to her, “He doesn’t know, my friend. If he did, even if he were to lose that excellent wealth, he wouldn’t continue to be parted away, that which causes your great beauty to fade and makes you filled with sorrow, day after day, as you lie on the flower-strewn mattress, woven with softened threads. In the slopes of soaring peaks filled with luxuriant bamboos, stone caverns waft with the scent of meat, that being the place where tigers store their food and where people who traverse that path take rest. To that prominent mountain with high peaks, your man has left!” With these words, the confidante talks about the love in the man’s heart for the lady and also, in a subtle manner, about the importance of letting him complete his mission.

How does the confidante manage to assuage the lady in this verse? Let’s listen to her words closely to find out. The confidante starts by talking about how the man doesn’t know what’s happening to the lady. If he knew, he wouldn’t even mind that the wealth he goes in search for, is lost, for he would just drop everything and return to the lady. When we ask what’s happening to the lady that would cause such a reaction in the man, the confidante explains how as the lady lies on her flower-strewn, soft mattress, she seems to be losing her illustrious beauty, and is filled with a deep sorrow at the man’s separation. 

After having established the man’s devotion to the lady thus, the confidante goes to describe in detail where exactly the man is travelling now. She zooms on to some bushy bamboos growing in the slopes between soaring mountain peaks and travels to a cave therein. As we near this place, a strong scent of raw meat wafts to our nostrils and the confidante whispers to us that this is where a tiger hides its stash after its kill. But that is not the only use for that cave, for in that scary place, travellers who walk that path take rest, she says, and concludes this description by saying that’s where the man has left to search for wealth. 

On the surface, it may look as if the confidante is simply telling that the man has no way of knowing what the lady is feeling, and if he did, he would return immediately. But when we look closely, we see how she’s contrasting the comfort of the lady’s physical space with the danger in that of the man’s surroundings. Here, the lady is lying on a fragrant bed of flowers, and there, the man must rest in a meat-smelling bed of rocks. That dangerous cave where the tiger stores its food, and which happens to be the resting place of wayfarers nevertheless, implies a metaphor for the danger and exertion needed to gather wealth. The man has to snatch away what he searches from the fierce jaws of danger, the confidante tells the lady and thereby points out the least the lady can do is not stop the man in his endeavour by relaying her own pain of pining. In essence, the confidante seems to be asking the lady to bear with the man’s parting, confident of his love and his prompt return as soon as the task is complete. The wise confidante demonstrates a thoughtful way of consoling a person by acknowledging their pain first, and then, elevating them to see beyond their immediate situation. That’s the spark of holistic thinking, which has the power to light up a person’s way out, no matter how dark a cave they have fallen into!