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In this episode, we perceive the angst of a lady, parted away from her beloved, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Kurunthogai 302, penned by Maangudi Kizhaar. The verse is situated in the hills of ‘Kurinji’ and speaks in the voice of the lady to the confidante, when the confidante worries about the lady’s ability to bear with the man’s parting.
உரைத்திசின்-தோழி!-அது புரைத்தோ அன்றே?
அருந் துயர் உழத்தலும் ஆற்றாம்; அதன்தலைப்
பெரும்பிறிதாகல் அதனினும் அஞ்சுதும்;
அன்னோ! இன்னும், நல் மலை நாடன்,
”பிரியா நண்பினர் இருவரும்” என்னும்
அலர்-அதற்கு அஞ்சினன்கொல்லோ? பலர் உடன்
துஞ்சு ஊர் யாமத்தானும், என்
நெஞ்சத்து அல்லது வரவு அறியானே.
‘To my heart, he appears, but not to my eyes’ laments a voice in this verse. In the opening words ‘உரைத்திசின் தோழி! அது புரைத்தோ அன்றே’ meaning ‘answer me, my friend, is it an estimable thing to do?’, the verse begins with an abstraction about an act. The phrase ‘நல் மலை நாடன்’ meaning ‘man of the good mountains’ is a one-line portrait of the hero of the verse. Tangentially, this oft-repeated word ‘நாடன்’ in poems from the Kurinji landscape tease my taste buds by making me connect it with the spicy and tasty gravy from Kerala cuisine -‘Nadan curry’. It makes me smile to think that this ancient Tamil word lives on in the tongues of today’s people, in more ways than one! Returning, ‘பிரியா நண்பினர் இருவரும்’ meaning ‘an inseparable friendship, those two have’ talks about a deep bond. Ending with the words ‘நெஞ்சத்து அல்லது வரவு அறியானே’ meaning ‘He doesn’t know how to arrive, other than before my heart’, the verse welcomes us to know more.
Inseparable friendship and an honourable act – What do these abstract references mean? The context reveals that the man and lady were leading a love relationship when the man parted away to gather wealth for their wedding. The confidante feels anxious about the lady’s ability to bear with the man’s parting. To her worried friend, the lady says, “Tell me, my friend! Is it an honourable thing to do? I can’t bear with this deep suffering; Even more than that, I fear losing my life. Alas! Does the lord of the good mountains fear those slanderous words saying, ‘they both are inseparable lovers’? For, in the middle of the night, when all the townsfolk sleep with their loved ones, he knows not how to appear other than to my heart!” With these words, the lady verbalises the tormenting thoughts in her mind to her caring friend.
Time to explore the nuances. The lady starts by asking a question to her friend about whether that could be called an honourable thing. Then, without saying what that is, she starts to talk about how it seems impossible to bear with this pain, but the alternative of losing her life worries her even more. Then, she wonders if the lord fears the words of gossip about them both by the townsfolk calling them inseparable. This was the most puzzling sentence to me. If strangers look at two people and say, ‘see how inseparable they are’, it would be a positive thing, whereas these same words, said about the man and lady, was considered as slander and something to be feared! When years have passed, it seems difficult to understand where people are coming from. It sure looks like it’s obvious to the people who lived then, and this makes me wonder if people in the future will look back at some things, similarly obvious to us today, and break their heads as to why we did what we did!
Stepping away from our rumination about the past and future, we find the lady saying that even at the midnight hour when the whole town sleeps, the man knows only to appear to her heart and not in real, before her. Another way of saying that the lady is sleepless, thinking about the man and wishing he were near her. It’s the context recorded by scholars that makes this verse confusing. They say that the man has left to earn wealth for the wedding, and if he has done so, the lady would be aware of that. If she’s aware of that, why would she ask if he fears to come meet her at night? What sounds more logical is that this is a situation when the man went missing for a few days during this trysting period with the lady. This would make the lady say these words missing the man, echoing the anxiety about their precarious situation. We can never be sure what the poet really meant and where he wants to place his creation in the context of things. All we can do is to go with the flow, relish the images presented with picturesque clarity and ponder on those thoughts that seem to have a timeless quality!
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