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In this episode, we relish a picturesque scene from a mountain country, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Kurunthogai 29, penned by Avvaiyaar. The verse is situated in the hills of ‘Kurinji’ and speaks in the voice of the man to his heart, after being refused a tryst by night with the lady.
நல் உரை இகந்து, புல் உரை தாஅய்,
பெயல் நீர்க்கு ஏற்ற பசுங்கலம் போல
உள்ளம் தாங்கா வெள்ளம் நீந்தி,
அரிது அவாவுற்றனை-நெஞ்சே!-நன்றும்
பெரிதால் அம்ம நின் பூசல், உயர் கோட்டு
மகவுடை மந்தி போல
அகன் உறத் தழீஇக் கேட்குநர்ப் பெறினே
Desire and fulfilment are the beats from the heart of this verse! The first line speaks of a contrast in ‘நல் உரை இகந்து, புல் உரை தாஅய்’ meaning ‘In the absence of good words, you heard useless words’. The nature of those good and useless words, we’ll investigate in a while. When I read the expression ‘பெயல் நீர்க்கு ஏற்ற பசுங்கலம்’, the word ‘பசுங்கலம்’ rang a bell and I located it in Natrinai 308, referring to ‘an unburnt, fresh earthen vessel’ and like the Natrinai verse, here too, this vessel is described as ‘one on which heavy rain is falling’. ‘உள்ளம் தாங்கா வெள்ளம் நீந்தி’ is an elegant expression meaning ‘swimming in a flood, unbearable to the mind’. And, we find something most humans can relate to, in ‘அரிது அவாவுற்றனை’ meaning ‘desiring the impossible’. From these abstract thoughts, a glimpse of the real is sensed in ‘மகவுடை மந்தி’ referring to ‘a female monkey carrying its infant’. Ending with the words ‘கேட்குநர்ப் பெறினே’ meaning ‘if you will find someone to hear you out’, the verse encapsulates a wish and welcomes us within!
A melting pot in the rain and a monkey with its child – Shots from a movie, doesn’t it sound like? The context reveals that the man and lady had been in a love relationship and that the man had been trysting with the lady by night for a while. One night, when he arrives wanting to meet with the lady, the confidante refuses him entry, hoping to make him take steps to seek the lady’s hand. At this time, the man turns to his heart and says, “Instead of good words, you’ve heard futile words, and akin to a freshly made earthen vessel in a downpour, you swim in an unbearable flood and seek what is hard to get, O heart! Listen, your fight would have been good if only you had someone who will listen to your angst and resolve it, akin to a female monkey on a high branch that embraces its infant, with a love from deep within!” With these words, the man is expressing the emotion within, embodying the disappointment he feels in being refused the lady’s company.
That pouring rain and a flood to swim in, beckon us to take a deep dive. An interesting feature in Sangam Aham poetry, is how the protagonist seems to separate himself and his heart as two different entities. Here, the man is addressing his heart and describing how it has not heard good words, or in other words, the kind of words it wants to hear. Rather, the heart has been the recipient of empty words. From this, we can understand that the man is talking about the confidante’s refusal and characterising it as ‘not good’ and ’empty’, only because it does not deliver what he wants. Then, he brings in an apt simile to talk about an earthen vessel, just taken off the wheel, still wet, being caught in a downpour. Just the way the vessel would melt away unformed, the man says his heart too is swimming in the flood of an impossible desire. This far, the man has accurately stated what he’s going through, when he has been refused something he wants.
Approaching the situation from another angle, the man then tells his heart that the only way its struggle would be meaningful were if someone were to listen to its request and make the wish come true, just the way a female monkey would embrace its little one with all the love it holds in its heart. Through that image of a monkey mother holding its infant, it appeared to me, as if the man was giving his heart, a hug at that moment of its distress. So much for us to glean from this lean verse from the past – As life tends to show us, rejections and desires go hand in hand and when that happens, like the man in this verse shows, the first step is to acknowledge whatever is throbbing within and, instead of pushing it away, one should say, yes, I’m feeling this now. As that unforgettable image of a monkey’s hug illustrates, the next and crucial step is giving oneself the warmth and love that is perceived as being taken away by that rejection. Only when these are truly felt within, the mind will slowly rise up and then, face the situation as it should be. Verses like these make me conclude that Sangam poets were indeed masters in understanding the human psyche!
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