A followup to Kamban's verse..

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>

> >The real beauty of the poem, which attempts to describe the

> >real beauty of Rama is in the next 2 lines. The poet expresses

> >his continous search for a comparative object to bring out

> > >the black-beauty of his hero. 'maiyO ? maragathamO ?' ...it

> > >continues. It ends with 'aiyO', the normal 'ketta sakunam'

> > >word in Tamil. A friend of mine, while reading out this poem

> > >commented that Kamban also is employing some irrelevent

> > >words like 'aiyO' while describing such a great and 'maN^gaLa-

> > >karamaana' thing such as Rama's divine beauty, just to

> > >rhyme (ie. edugai mOnai) with his previous line 'maiyO'.

> > >

> > >I didn't think so and tried to get a different explanation.

> > >Where else "aiyO" is used?

> > >

> > >To express surprise - when you see a huge building or a drop-dead

> > >beautiful women etc. you exclaim "aiyyyO" ! Kamban does the same

> > >here.

> > >

> > >To express frustration - you try all sort of things to accomplish

> > >something, get vexed and then say, "aiyOOOOOO, chchE !". The poet

> > >also tries out all the "uvamais", still is not satisfied and at

> > >that moment, says "aiyOOO, ivan vadivenbadhOr aziyaa azagudaiyaan !"

> > >

> > >

> > >-Sankara Narayanan

> > >

>

On reading the above, the "aiyO" immediately linked me to our amalanaadhi

piraan. This is my reply.

-Viji

 

> Regarding the "aiyo", The first thing that came to my mind was from the

> excellent piece of work called "Amalanaathipiraan" from the naalaayira dhivya

> prabhandham written by thiruppaaNaazhwaar. It is just 10 paasurams and each

> one of them describes one part of araNGgan's thirumEni.

> There are 2 occurences of "aiyO":

>

> 933:

> kaiyi Nnaarsuri sankana laazhiyar, neeLvaraipOl

> meyyanaar thuLapa viraiyaar kamazhn^eeL mudiyem

> aiyanaar, aNiyarankanaa raravi

> NnaNaimisai mEya maayanaar,

> seyyavaa yaiyO! ennaich

> sinthai kavarnthathuvE! (7)

>

> I can loosely translate it as

> kaiyi Nnaarsuri sankana laazhiyar, - The one with chaNGgu and chakkaram in His

> hands

> neeLvaraipOl meyyanaar - the one with a body like a long (huge) mountain

> thuLapa viraiyaar - the one who wears a thuLasi maalai ( not sure abt this)

> kamazhn^eeL mudiyem aiyanaar - My Lord who has a long fragrant hair

> aNiyarankanaar - The one who lives in the beautiful city of thiru araNGgam

> aravi NnaNaimisai mEya maayanaar - The maayan who sleeps on the serpent bed

> seyyavaa yaiyO! ennaich

> sinthai kavarnthathuvE! - Those beautiful red lips!!! Aiyo!!!

> It attracted me so much

>

> 935:

> aalamaa maraththi NnilaimE lorupaalakanaay,

> NYaala mEzhu muNdaa Nnarankath tharavi NnaNaiyaan,

> kOla maamaNi yaaramum muththuth thaamamum

> mudivilla thOrezhil

> neela mEni yaiyO!

> niRai koNdathen nenchinaiyE! (2) (9)

>

> aalamaa maraththi NnilaimE lorupaalakanaay - The kid who was on the aala mara

> leaf

> NYaala mEzhu muNdaa Nn - The one who swallowed the 7 worlds

>

> arankath tharavi NnaNaiyaan, - The one is Sri raNGgam and who has a serpent as

> His bed

> kOla maamaNi yaaramum muththuth thaamamum - The one who wears garlands and

> necklaces made of pearl and other stones (maragatha maNi)

> neela mEni yaiyO! - Oh! That blue Body...

> niRai koNdathen nenchinaiyE! - It completely filled my heart

>

>-Viji