Madal Urdal

[Guest guest]

Sri Dileepan writes :

 

" Azhvaar went against the Tamil tradition and portrayed

a female performing "madal Urdhal" as expression of

intense and insatiable love. Madal Urdhal is extremely

painful and thus the target of this action, a damsel,

and her family, acquiesces for the fulfillment of the man's

love. Parakaala Nayaki risks public ridicule by venturing

upon this "madal Urdhal" for it is forbidden for women.

 

 

Could someone please explain the practice of madal oordal ? I take it the

explanation for it being forbidden is contained in the practice.

 

Thank you,

 

Sundar

[Guest guest]

Sundar asked:

 

* Sri Dileepan writes :

*

* " Azhvaar went against the Tamil tradition and portrayed

* a female performing "madal Urdhal" as expression of

* intense and insatiable love. Madal Urdhal is extremely

* painful and thus the target of this action, a damsel,

* and her family, acquiesces for the fulfillment of the man's

* love. Parakaala Nayaki risks public ridicule by venturing

* upon this "madal Urdhal" for it is forbidden for women.

*

*

* Could someone please explain the practice of madal oordal ? I take it the

* explanation for it being forbidden is contained in the practice.

 

 

Sampath Rengarajan posted his explanation on this topic.

I merely want to add a few points here.

 

According to "sangam" thamizh tradition, madal oordhal

or madal ERudhal is performed by males afflicted by love

bya female. Roughly translated, this would mean "riding

a palmyrah stem".

 

Love, in ancient thamizh tradition, falls into two large

divisions, kaLavu and kaRpu. In kaLavu, the love is

instantaneous. In case of kaLavu, usually, a man and a

woman fall in love at the very first sight. But, on

occasions this love will be one-sided, called kaikkiLai.

In such cases, the affected person will try to convey the

love through his/her friends. If the love is still not

accepted, the males usually take recourse to the

following action:

 

Using a palmyrah stem, the man makes a horse shaped

object and sits on it. He makes a flag and paints it with

his lover's figure. He will usually wear tattered clothes

and spread ash(?) all over his bosy. His friends will

then carry him around, and along the way the lovesick man

will shout insulting things at the woman and her family,

in the hope that the woman, unable to take the shame

caused by all this, agrees to marry him.

 

This was a last ditch attempt the males took recourse

to. tholkaappiyam poruLadhikaaram prohibits this for

women, suggesting that this is not becoming of a women.

While there is a mention of 'madal ERudhal' in sangam

works, there doesn't appear to be any effort on the part

of the poets to elevate its status. However, by the time

of thiru vaLLuvar's kuRaL, madal ERudhal for men has

already achieved an exalted status. In addition, vaLLuvar

also says that "there is no women better than the one who

didn't perform madal ERudhal even when she was afflicted

by love as large as an ocean".

 

There is a suggestion by a few that the scales of the

sharp palmyrah stem could cause physical pain to the

person riding this. And this is why the women were

forbidden to do this. I don't agree with this theory.

This was prohibited for women more in accordance with the

thamizh custom that a woman is supposed to have achcham,

naaNam, madam and payirppu, and to come out on the street

and perform madal ERudhal would imply she had given up

all those! In addition the woman in her tattered clothes

will be seen by everyone on the streets! So, these were

the considerations that prevented the womenfolks from

following this custom.

 

Taking this too far, various commentators of

tholkaappiyam have argued about whether a woman is

allowed to even think about performing this action (as

opposed to really doing it!). In any case, let us not

dwell deep on this topic for now.

 

"madal" became a type of "small literature"

(siRRilakkiyam) along with other genre like "uLaa",

"kalambakam", "thaaNdakam", "piLLaith thamizh", "thoodhu"

etc. but was quite strict in the sense that it was always

a man performing madal ERudhal, pining for a woman. thiru

mangai aazhvaar was the first one who wrote a madal with

a female performing madal ERudhal (or at least expressing

her intention to do so). [There does exist a solitary

stanza in veNpaa, dates not known, where a woman

expresses similar intentions for a King.]

 

Grammar works (like panniru paattiyal, ilakkaNa viLakkam)

written well after mangai aazhvaar's time, made amends

indicating that one can also write about a woman

performing madal ERudhal provided the object of such an

act is God Himself.

 

====

 

It is interesting to note that siRiya thirumadal also has

a small but very engaging portion on 'thoodhu' (messenger

poems), where parakaala naayaki sends her heart as the

messenger to the Lord, which alas! doesn't return back

after seeing the Lord! The last few lines of siRiya thiru

madal where parakaala naayaki details the insults she is

about to hurl at her 'uLLam kavar kaLvan', are really

humorous!

 

--badri

 

 

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S.Badrinarayanan

Graduate Student

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Cornell University

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