KURINJI-PATTU
-KAPILAR-
- J.M. NALLASAMY PILLAI, B.A., B.L.
Taken
from “Five Tamil Idylls”
“Hail mother: Be pleased to hear me.
The secret malady preying your daughter’s mind and beauty is of so delicate a
nature as to prevent me hitherto from disclosing the same to you, till now,
from disclosing the same to you, till now,. It is incurable and you have
accordingly sought in vain its eradication by consulting astrologers and
magicians and by performing various vows to various Gods and other ceremonies;
and you have become sorely distressed. (In this respect, we are as
superstitious as our ancestors of old). And my young mistress in her extreme
distress says, to me, “What, gold and diamonds and pearls if lost once can be
recovered again. Unlike this, family prestige and nobility of character and
good name if once tarnished, it will not be possible to brighten it again even
for the greatest seers. I have been united to my ……..a train of accidents and
my go …to the destruction of the …..Plans of my parents. Think that anything
but good …result from disclosing our love to my mother: If she does not approve
of our innocent and legitimate love, let me die, and let us be united to
Heaven: so saying her gazelle eyes fill with tears and she is pi ing away. If
you would know my own state of mind I am, like the arbitrator between two
enraged potentates, highly distressed, unable to bear the sorrow of yourself
and your daughter. I will now narrate to you how your daughter fell in love,
without previously ascertaining if he was a proper match in respect of birth,
wealth and character and extent of relations. Etc., and you can judge how far
we are to blame. Be not incensed, therefore, before you hear me. You may
remember you sent us one day to watch the millet field where-in the ripe ears
are bent around the stalk like the trunk of the elephant on its tusk, when it
felt wearied after its vain attempt, to reach the ears of the tall bamboo. We
sat watching for a time perched on the bamboo platform built on the topmost
branches of the tallest tree, and we were chasing away the green parrots with
our slings and by making noise with divided bamboo sticks. The day was growing
hot, when happily the clouds came up the sky thick and dark, with peals of
thunder like the repeated sounds of the drum, and flashes of lightning as from
the spear of God Kumara, brandished for the destruction of the wicked Asuras
and dispersed pell-mell by the rising gust of wind, poured down on the mountain
heights flushing the mountain torrents with bright and limpid water like the
well washed clothes. We could not keep quite; we jumped into the stream and
played, and we could not leave the deep pool shining like molten crystal in a
stone basin; we wrung our hair dripping with water, our hair which was lying on
our backs like a big bluestone on a base of gold, we dried it, and we reached
the bank with our eyes red like anything and began to cull all sorts of flowers
(Here follows a list of 99. Flowers-name all of which except Champac and Palasa
are pure Tamil words; in fact we could scarcely recognize any other Sanskrit
word in the whole poem), and heaped them all on a now freshly cleaned rock and
began to deck our parts with leaves and our heads with strings of variegated
flowers and sat under the cool shade of the flaming Asoka, chatting among
ourselves, and now and then bawling out to drive away the parrots. When lo! And
behold, who should come? But a man, with scented hair with flower adoreed on
the head ears, and neck, with sandal converted body, holding a bow, with
thikling bells attached to his ankles, followed by dogs. The dogs sighted us
and with gnashing teeth like young bamboo shoots, staring and flaming eyes,
were coming nearer and nearer to us, like young warriors driving back their
enemy; we shuddered, we got up and ran; our feet faltered and our minds filled
with intense fear. The young man noticed our fear and feeling sorry called to
us in soft and re-assuring tones and addressing us, asked if we had seen any of
the animals he had been hunting flee past us; we were pleased, but did not
reply him, and he felt offended, and asked us if we could not at least spare
him a few words, even it we did not choose to do him a service, and like an
elephant which leaving off the lead of its trainer, runs off breaking and
brandishing branches of trees laden with flowers, where on the bees and beetles
hum the Nattarakam tune, he broke a flower laden branch and silenced the
barking dogs and stood awaiting our answer”.
(Here-in
is given first Occident which brought the lovers together. The maid continues
her address to the mother and sets forth the particulars in the love and
courtship of her lady and lover),
“While we were standing so, the
fields were entered by a rogue elephant, and were being laid waste, through the
negligence of the watchman, who had gone to sleep over his pot of date-toddy;
very considerately handed over to him by his wife with gazelle eyes, dwelling
in the low hut thatched with millet stalks. The man got up with rage and
aimlessly sped his fiery snake-like darts and raised a halloo and whistle after
it in which others also joined, which become tremendous and shook the whole
forest; and elephant driven out from fields, with rut and rage, snapping trees
and branches and striking its majestic trunk on the ground and raising a roar
like that of a black cloud in the rainy season, came upon us unawares and
suddenly like the veritable Black Death. We were paralyzed with fear and did
not know where to fly for life, and forgetting our modesty, more dear to us
than our life, we ran to him, (the lover of the lady,) for protection, the
bright bells tinkling round our feet, and stood shaking with fear as the
dancing peacock in a frenzy. The young hero seeing our danger, most intrepidly
aimed his unerring shaft at the beautiful forehead of the magnificent tusker,
and the blood flowed in torrents over that spotted face, like unto the ground
where cattle are slaughtered in fulfillment of vows to God Muruga; and the
elephant not being able to bear the pain, turned its back on us and fied away.
(To be continued)
KURAL
NERI ---01.10.66
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