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In this episode, we listen to a plea from a poet, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Puranaanooru 203, penned to the Chozha King Paamuloor Erintha Neythalankaanal Ilanchetchenni by the poet Oonpothi Pasunkudaiyaar. Set in the category of ‘Paadaan Thinai’ or ‘Praise’, the verse counsels a king on the importance of giving.
‘கழிந்தது பொழிந்து’ என வான் கண்மாறினும்,
‘தொல்லது விளைந்து’ என நிலம் வளம் கரப்பினும்,
எல்லா உயிர்க்கும் இல்லால் வாழ்க்கை;
‘இன்னும் தம்’ என எம்மனோர் இரப்பின்,
‘முன்னும் கொண்டிர்’ என, நும்மனோர் மறுத்தல்
இன்னாது அம்ம; இயல் தேர் அண்ணல்!
இல்லது நிரப்பல் ஆற்றாதோரினும்,
உள்ளி வருநர் நசை இழப்போரே;
அனையையும் அல்லை, நீயே; ஒன்னார்
ஆர் எயில் அவர்கட்டாகவும், ‘நுமது’ எனப்
பாண் கடன் இறுக்கும் வள்ளியோய்!
பூண் கடன், எந்தை! நீ இரவலர்ப் புரவே.
A short song full of dialogue conveying a poet’s expectation from a patron. The poet’s words can be translated as follows:
“If the sky thinks, ‘Haven’t I rained in the past?’ and decides not to pour down, or if the land thinks, ‘Haven’t I yielded plenty then?’ and decides not to render fertility, there is no life for the living; When those like me ask, ‘Please give us more’ and people like you respond, ‘Haven’t you received before’, that cannot be right, O esteemed leader with speedy chariots! Even more than those who cannot give, those who disappoint the ones who come believing in them lose the love and trust of the world; You are not someone like that; Even when the forts of enemies are still held by them, you are one who renders the same to bards saying ‘It’s yours’! Such is your generosity, O lord! Please fulfil your duty of rendering to those who come seeking to you.”
Time to delve into the nuances. The poet starts with a hypothetical question in the mind of the sky. He presents a scenario, wherein the sky thinks, ‘Hey, didn’t I pour down recently?’ and decides, ‘Let me not do it again’. Keeping company, the earth below too thinks ‘Hey, didn’t I let crops flourish here only last year?’ and decides, ‘I’m not going to do it again’. The poet turns to the king and says if such things happen, there won’t be life at all. Likewise, he connects how when people like him ask patrons like the king for gifts and they respond saying, ‘Didn’t I give to you in the past?’ that will not do. He then stresses that even more than those, who do not have the means to give charity, those who can and don’t, disappoint and lose the love of those who come seeking! The poet contrasts this with the king’s nature saying, ‘You are surely not one like that. Why, even before you claim the fort of your enemies, you have the nature of gifting it away to bards’. ‘And so, realising this true nature of yours, why don’t you fulfil your duty to the bards’, the poet concludes.
No matter how persuasive, how logical these statements sound, isn’t the self-interest obvious here? The poets and supplicants then must seen the receipt of gifts from a patron as their unalienable right. We can infer this because we do not see them begging humbly but demanding their due from the kings. Perhaps, patrons too felt they owed it to the poets that they allowed this kind of talk. In another more authoritarian culture, one wherein a king enjoys total supremacy, he would probably say, ‘How dare he demand? Off with his head’. On a serious note however, the one point in which the poet says, ‘You are not like that. You would give away your wins even before it’s yours’, he employs a timeless tactic. One in which we say to another, ‘I know that you can do better. You have it in you’ and more often than not, the other person would rise up and fulfil that vote of faith. Isn’t that a striking lesson from the Sangam world in the art of persuasion?
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