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In this episode, we perceive a person’s bewilderment, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 329, penned by Uraiyoor Muthukoothanaar. Set in the ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands landscape’, the verse sketches the unpleasant nature of this domain.
பூங் கணும் நுதலும் பசப்ப, நோய் கூர்ந்து,
ஈங்கு யான் வருந்தவும், நீங்குதல் துணிந்து,
வாழ்தல் வல்லுநர் ஆயின், காதலர்
குவிந்த குரம்பை அம் குடிச் சீறூர்,
படு மணி இயம்பப் பகல் இயைந்து, உமணர்
கொடு நுகம் பிணித்த செங் கயிற்று ஒழுகைப்
பகடு அயாக் கொள்ளும் வெம் முனைத் துகள் தொகுத்து,
எறி வளி சுழற்றும் அத்தம், சிறிது அசைந்து,
ஏகுவர்கொல்லோ தாமே பாய் கொள்பு,
உறு வெரிந் ஒடிக்கும் சிறு வரிக் குருளை
நெடு நல் யானை நீர் நசைக்கு இட்ட
கை கறித்து உரறும் மை தூங்கு இறும்பில்,
புலி புக்கு ஈனும் வறுஞ் சுனை,
பனி படு சிமையப் பல் மலை இறந்தே?
In this trip to this domain, we get to see plenty of sights, as we listen to the lady say these words to the confidante, when the confidante informs her about the man’s intention to part away, in search of wealth:
“As my flower-like eyes and forehead spread with pallor, as this affliction soars, leaving me to lament here, thinking himself capable of parting from me and living apart, will he go to those beautiful hamlets with thatched huts, wherein moving during the day, with their bells resounding, bulls of salt merchants tied to curving ends of carts’ yokes with red ropes, pull with much effort, in those hot and dry spaces, scattering dust, which the wind swirls all around? In those hamlets, will he rest a little, and then crossing many dew-covered hills, will he traverse those harsh drylands, filled with barren springs, which tigers enter to give birth, and where a tiny striped tiger cub leaps about, and stretching its back, bites upon the trunk that a tall elephant extends in thirst, and then roars aloud, in those dark scrub jungles?”
Let’s step onto those dry and dusty spaces and search for the moisture of emotions! The lady starts by describing her state of pallor and pining, filled to the core with lament and anxiety, if the man were to leave away. Then she wonders how he thinks of himself as capable of parting away from her, and concludes wondering if he will dare to go to those hamlets in the drylands, where bulls of salt merchants, the original travellers, kick dust around, which is carried by the swirling hot winds and showered everywhere, and whether the man would rest there a little, and then go onward, crossing many peaks, to those drylands, where the springs have all become parched, and turned into breeding grounds for tigers, and from where, a little tiger cub, leaps up and bites the trunk of an elephant, which comes there, yearning for water!
In essence, the lady is baffled how the man can even think of leaving the joy of being together and go to those dreary spaces. It seems as if the lady is asking that age-old question, ‘How can the other even think of doing something like this?’ A moment of striking realisation that the beloved, who was seen thus far as being of one mind with oneself, wishes to take a path of their own!
