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In this episode, we observe a house in mourning, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Puranaanooru 250, penned by the poet Thaayankanniyaar. Set in the category of ‘Pothuviyal Thinai’ or ‘common themes’, the verse reveals the former prosperity of a place.
குய் குரல் மலிந்த கொழுந் துவை அடிசில்
இரவலர்த் தடுத்த வாயில், புரவலர்
கண்ணீர்த் தடுத்த தண் நறும் பந்தர்,
கூந்தல் கொய்து, குறுந் தொடி நீக்கி,
அல்லி உணவின் மனைவியொடு, இனியே
புல்லென்றனையால் வளம் கெழு திரு நகர்!
வான் சோறு கொண்டு தீம் பால் வேண்டும்
முனித்தலைப் புதல்வர் தந்தை
தனித் தலைப் பெருங் காடு முன்னிய பின்னே.
The song is unique because it’s addressed to a house! The poet’s words can be translated as follows:
“Those gates used to stop supplicants in their tracks with the smell and sound of frying spices with fleshy meat and rice; That cool and fragrant shelter used to wipe away the tears of those who came seeking; With her tresses shaved, small bangles removed, akin to the wife, who eats lily seeds, now you too have lost your lustre, O fine and prosperous mansion! This is your state after the father of those young boys, who wish for sweet milk when eating white rice, has departed to the huge and lonely resting place in the drylands jungle.”
Let’s explore the details herein. The poet starts by listing the former beauty of a house, whose very gates used to stop people and welcome them as the smell of spices, meat and rice being cooked emanated from within the house. Then, she talks about how the shed that was installed for the comfort of travellers always wiped away the tears of those impoverished people who came trusting there. Turning from the house, the poet talks about how the woman of the house now stands bereft of her tresses and ornaments and eats only lily seeds. Likewise, the house too has lost its shine and radiance, she relates. She concludes by explaining that all this has happened because the father of the woman’s young boys had departed to his final resting place.
Smell of spices beckoning one in and the pillars of the shed wiping away tears depict the benevolence of the lord of the house as a sensory experience. We also learn of the custom of shaving a widow’s head, which was a practice that went on in certain castes in India even as late as a century ago. Today, I learnt that this was a practice followed by some ethnic groups in Nigeria and Ghana as well. Perhaps, from Africa, this custom travelled to Asia and was later embraced by certain castes. Also, the way the poet describes the house has lost its everything when the man died clearly etches the patriarchal atmosphere of this period. In some Aham poems, we see how the man thinks that a woman’s tresses is his by right, and perhaps, it’s an extension of this thought that led to this practice of shaving a woman’s head after the death of her husband. Why should a lady be subject to such harsh traditions when she is already grieving for her beloved? Today, rationality and gender equality has grown to some extent that such traditions accepted as the norm have now been questioned and overthrown. A moment of gratitude and appreciation for the world which has learnt to rise above the need to do things that have always been done, and instead, to move away and ahead!
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