In this episode, we listen to a mother’s lament, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 315, penned by Kudavayil Keerathanaar. Set in the ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands landscape’, the verse sketches the thoughts of a mother at a moment of loss.
‘கூழையும் குறு நெறிக் கொண்டன; முலையும்
சூழி மென் முகம் செப்புடன் எதிரின;
பெண் துணை சான்றனள், இவள்’ எனப் பல் மாண்
கண் துணை ஆக நோக்கி, நெருநையும்,
அயிர்த்தன்றுமன்னே, நெஞ்சம்; பெயர்த்தும்,
அறியாமையின் செறியேன், யானே;
பெரும் பெயர் வழுதி கூடல் அன்ன தன்
அருங் கடி வியல் நகர்ச் சிலம்பும் கழியாள்,
சேணுறச் சென்று, வறுஞ் சுனைக்கு ஒல்கி,
புறவுக் குயின்று உண்ட புன் காய் நெல்லிக்
கோடை உதிர்த்த குவி கண் பசுங் காய்,
அறு நூல் பளிங்கின் துளைக் காசு கடுப்ப,
வறு நிலத்து உதிரும் அத்தம், கதுமென,
கூர் வேல் விடலை பொய்ப்பப் போகி,
சேக்குவள் கொல்லோதானே தேக்கின்
அகல் இலை கவித்த புதல் போல் குரம்பை,
ஊன் புழுக்கு அயரும் முன்றில்,
கான் கெழு வாழ்நர் சிறுகுடியானே.
In this trip to the drylands, it’s more about a mother’s inner landscape, as we listen to her say these words, when she learns of her daughter’s elopement:
“Her tresses had taken to forming little curls, and her bosoms, round and soft, had blossomed with finesse. As my eyes showed me all this many times, thinking, ‘Oh! She’s turning into a woman’, even yesterday, my heart let out a sigh. And yet, owing to my ignorance, I failed to put her under guard. In our well-protected, wide mansion, akin to the renowned Vazhuthi’s town of Koodal, without letting the ‘anklet ceremony’ happen, she has left afar and would be languishing, near a dried-up spring, where fruits of the rough-trunked gooseberry tree, pecked on by pigeons, shed by hot winds, lie in heaps of green, appearing akin to marble discs that have slipped from a severed string, on that barren land. Such is the drylands space, where she has left to, hastily, with that young man, wielding a sharp spear, listening to his lies. In that bush-like, little hut in a hamlet, where forest dwellers relax in their front yard, sharing cooked flesh on wide teak leaves, would she now be resting?”
Let’s listen to this mother’s cry and learn more! Mother starts by recollecting the thoughts that had gone through her head, just the previous day. Having glanced at the lady’s changing form, noting the curls in her tresses, and the blossoming of her bosoms, mother had been sighing, thinking of how her little one seemed to be becoming a woman. Even so, mother kicks herself now for not heeding these changes and doing what mothers then did, which is to keep their daughters under lock and key! Because of this oversight on mother’s part, now there’s no room for an important ceremony in a girl’s life to take place in their wealthy mansion, the ceremony of changing a girl’s anklets before her marriage, mother laments. Why because, the lady had left listening to the lies of that young man with a spear, and left to the drylands, where the springs are dried up, and even the gooseberries are pecked by pigeons, and lie on the ground, appearing like marble discs broken from a necklace string, mother explains. Then, she concludes by wondering if that precious daughter of hers would now be resting in a hamlet of foresters, where in the front yard of their huts, they would share cooked flesh on teak leaves.
In the final lines, beyond all the pain and disappointment in mother’s voice, we sense a hope that strangers somewhere will be taking care of her daughter. A simple verse that echoes a mother’s love, which silently wishes well for her offspring, no matter where they are or what they have done!
