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In this episode, we observe a convincing technique of consolation, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Kurunthogai 22, penned by Cheramaan Enthai. The verse is situated in the drylands of ‘Paalai’ and speaks in the voice of the confidante to the lady, allaying her fears about the man’s parting away.
நீர் வார் கண்ணை நீ இவண் ஒழிய,
யாரோ பிரிகிற்பவரே?-சாரல்
சிலம்பு அணி கொண்ட வலம் சுரி மராஅத்து
வேனில் அம் சினை கமழும்
தேம் ஊர் ஒண்ணுதல்!-நின்னொடும், செலவே.
The scent of foreboding about an upcoming travel wafts from this verse! Even at the very beginning, the feeling of sorrow is evident in the words ‘நீர் வார் கண்’ meaning ‘tear-filled eyes’. A question, central to the verse, appears in ‘யாரோ பிரிகிற்பவரே’ meaning ‘who can part away?’, the nature of which, we will explore in a while. Next, we turn to nature and glimpse at ‘வலம் சுரி மராஅத்து வேனில் அம் சினை’ referring to ‘the beautiful branches of the bur flower or Kadamba tree, with right-swirling petals in the season of spring’. Ending with the words ‘நின்னொடும், செலவே’ meaning ‘travel, only with you’, the verse intrigues us to explore more!
There is a sense of anxiety as well as resolution in here! Let’s delve into the context to understand. The man and lady had been leading a happy married life when the lady guessed that the man was making plans to part away. At this time, she’s filled with worry about this and shares her pain with her confidante. In reply, the confidante says to her, “Leaving you here, with tears streaming from your eyes, who would dare to part away? Decorating the mountain slopes, in the season of spring, the right-swirling petals of the ‘maraam’ tree render those beautiful branches fragrant. Akin to that, is your radiant forehead that makes bees swarm around. His journey is sure to be in your company!” With these words, the confidante seems to point out the loving nature in the man and how he couldn’t bear to part with his beloved.
How does the confidante fight with the demons of worry in the lady’s mind? First, as if telling the lady ‘I see you’, in the full sense of the phrase, the confidante talks about the lady’s eyes, shedding copious tears. Then, she asks a question, who will have the heart to leave the lady in such a state. Indeed, a rhetorical question that resounds with the reply ‘No one’. While that is the case for any random person, how can the good-natured man leave you, the confidante seems to ask. That too, when the lady is one whose forehead makes bees buzz around. Why because it wafts with an exquisite fragrance and not of any old perfume, but exactly the way, a branch of the bur-flower tree would smell in spring, when the right-swirling petals of its flowers add beauty to the mountains entire! I was wowed by this intricate simile that links a subtle element such as the fragrance of a forehead with florescence in the spring. The concept of ‘petals, swirling to the right’ in a bur-flower tree is vague to me and makes me want to find one such tree in spring and stand there gazing at it, until I understand what this Sangam poet meant by those words!
Returning to the verse, the confidante concludes that the only way the man is going to take off on his travels is in the company of his beloved lady. So many questions arise! If custom allowed the man to take his wife along, then why wouldn’t they choose to do it more often? Why would the men let their women languish in their absence? Was it one of those things that was allowed by society but, with an unwritten rule that it should not be done? Anyway, whether it was true or not that the lady could travel with the man, the confidante uses that path to convince the lady of the man’s devotion to her and to console her friend in her hour of misery. Looking back with the lens of the twenty-first century, let us wish this couple happy travels, for don’t we know that nothing cements a relationship like a journey together!
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