"aiyO!" and the AzhwAr

[Guest guest]

Dear bhAgavatOttamAs,

 

When I was a little boy I was told the use of the Tamil expression,

"aiyO" must be scrupulously avoided in speech… both in private

conversation and in public audience as well.

 

"You must never utter "aiyO, my mother used to tell me those days,

"The expression is taboo… it is "apa-sabdam" If you have to use it,

then, please make sure you suffix it with the blessed name of Rama or

Narayana…. , "aiyO Rama!" or "aiyO Narayana" is alright… but never utter

just "aiyO!".

 

"apa-sabdam" in Sanskrit, I learnt, meant "inauspicious verbalizing"….

in other words, "aiyO" as a phrase was held to possess tonal properties

displeasing not only to the ear but strongly offensive to some deeply

held religious sentiment which, at that time, my mother did not think it

necessary to reveal or explain to a mere boy of my age.

 

Thus I grew up as a lad to be extremely careful in conversations (and

indeed in all my dealings with the polite SriVaishnavite society of 3

decades ago) to completely shun the use of the word "aiyO" in much the

same punctilious way I have learnt today to exclude from my workaday

vocabulary all similarly four-lettered epithets!

 

Since those memorable days of unquestioning boyhood obedience to

maternal commands, I have however always continued to secretly wonder

why so reflexive and spontaneous a human expression as "aiyO" should

have been so vehemently expelled from the society of SriVaishnava

parlance. After all "aiyO" is the first thing we all involuntarily utter

when in pain or when we encounter with the smallest of accidents or

vagary in life, isn't it?

 

For instance, when I cut my finger while sharpening a pencil I

instinctively yelp, "aiyO!"!When my wife goes to market and inquires

about the soaring price of brinjals she throws up her arms and exclaims,

"aiyO!". When my little daughter closes her eyes and bravely takes her

small-pox shot in the arm I see her softly but reflexively whimper in

pain, "aiyO". When we go to condole someone on the death of a dear one

we hear him lament, "aiyO! I have been widowed! How shall I bear this

desolation?! aiyO, aiyO!""! When my son brings home a filthy puppy

picked off the streets and tries in vain to persuade me that we should

adopt it as our pet, he pleads with me, "aiyO pAvam" this puppy, he has

no one to look after him! Why can't he stay with us, please appa?!".

 

Expressions of genuine human pain, of disappointment and disbelief, of

sorrow and pity… all those profound emotions are indeed so universally

and spontaneously acknowledged through uttering "aiyO!", I find it

extremely strange that SriVaishnava orthodoxy should regard the term as

repugnant and unfit for use in everyday parlance.

 

***** ***** ****

 

It is only very recently I came to learn the real reason why "aiyO" is a

particularly unfortunate or "inauspicious" expression :

 

"aiyO", I understand, is actually the name of the spouse of Yama, the

Lord of Death in the Vedic pantheon of gods! I am not sure of the

source of authenticity… or the "pramANam"… of this mythological nugget

but it is indeed such a revelatory piece of news to me that everything

hitherto mystifyingly taboo about "aiyO" has at last now become clear to

me!

 

I now know that if "Mrs.Aiyo Yama" is who they say she really is, then,

she is verily 'Our Lady of Death'! If Yama is the god who brings Death

then "aiyO", his Consort, must surely be the goddess who brings all with

her all of Death's kinsmen … pain, grief and affliction.

 

Thus, whenever we involuntarily invocate "aiyO! aiyO!", if for no

purpose other than to momentarily vent feelings of pain, we may actually

be deemed to be also putting out, albeit unwittingly, a standing

invitation to Death itself ! For if "aiyO" is near can her spouse Yama

be very far ?

 

It's now very clear to me why my mother forbade me in boyhood to cry out

"aiyO, aiyO!"!

 

***** ***** *****

 

Given the rather dark and unsavory connotations the term "aiyO" has come

to be rightly or wrongly invested with, I've never ceased to be

fascinated at "tiruppAnn-AzhwAr's" choice of the term in his

incomparable hymn, the 10 "pasuram-s" beginning with the celebrated

"amalan-Adi-pirAn…".

 

In the 7th verse the AzhwAr ends with the expression "aiyO" as follows:

 

"kayinAr-surisanganalAzhiyar, neelavarai-pOl-meyyanAr-

thulava-biraiyAr kamazh-neelmudi~yemm~aiyyanAr,

aNi-aranganAr aravin-annai~missai~meyyam~AyanAr

seyya-vAyya-aiyO ! ennai sindhaikavarn~thathu~vE!"

 

Again, in the exquisitely worded Verse 9 the AzhwAr uses "aiyO!":

 

"Ala-mA-maruthun~illai-mEl oru bAlagan-Ay

gnyalum-ezhum-unddAn aranga~tharavinn~annaiyAn

kolamA-mani-Ara~mmUm mutthu-thAma~mUm

mudivilla-thOr-ezhil, neela-mEni aiyO!

neerai-kondatthu en-nenjinayE !

 

In the first of the above 2 verses the AzhwAr witnesses the "bewitching

smile" ("seyya-vAyya") of his beloved Rangan… is overwhelmed by it ….

and exclaims "aiyO!".

 

In the second verse the AzhwAr goes into raptures over Ranga's

"neela-mEni" … the azure hue of the Lord's person… and cries out

"aiyO!". Here we must imagine it is the ethereal substance of the Lord's

corporeality … the "apra-krita-divya-mangala tirumEni" of the Supreme

One … it is the sheer beauty of His "body" and His "demeanour" which

simply bowls the AzhwAr over.

 

Both these verses, we must remember, are the outpourings of a soul in

the throes of a heightened mystical consciousness. They are not

idolatrous raving.

 

The question I therefore ask myself sometimes when I reflect on the

sublime verses of the "amalanAdipirAn" is this :

 

Does an element of "pain" inherently reside in the consciousness of the

Supreme One, Sriman-NArAyaNan? Is "pain" a natural concomitant of

superior consciousness?

 

You may wish to qualify it, if you like, as "pleasureable pain" or

"painful pleasure"… but "pain" it is certainly is, isn't it? Otherwise

why should the Azhwar have cried out "aiyO! aiyO!" ???

 

Any comments and views on this matter ?

 

adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan,

sudarshan

 

 

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