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TIRUPPAVAI - DAY SEVEN – SONG SEVEN

 

Transliteration

 

kIsukIcenrenkum AnaiccAththan kalantu

pEcina pEccaravam kEttilaiyO pEyppennE

kAcum piRappum kalakalappak kaipErththu

vAca naRum kuLal Aycciyar maththinAl

Ocaippatuththa tayiraravam kEttilaiyO

nAyakap penpillAy nArayanan murththi

kEcavanaip pAtavum nI kEtte kitaththiyO

thEcamutaiyAy thiRavElOrempAvAy.

 

Translation

 

Don’t you hear the shrill screech of the king crows?

You are besides yourself, we are sure!

Don’t you hear the churning staff of the fragrant haired

shepherdesses

And the jingle of the lockets on their thali?

Aren’t you the chief of the maids here?

Do you keep lying even as we sing in praise of Kesava?

Aren’t you the lady bright? Won’t you open the doors?

 

The seventh song, in continuation of what began in the sixth song, is a more

insistent appeal to the maid within the house to get up and join the troop

of women on pavai observance.

The screech of the king crows in the morning is so shrill and so spread

through that they cannot be missed. One should be besides oneself indeed not

to be woken up by such shrill noise. The king crow is a skylark like bird in

India. Like the skylark it has a long tail shaped like a V at the bottom. It

shoots perpendicularly up the sky and shoots down to float horizontally. As

it shoots up it starts its high pitched screech which grows in volume and as

it descends, the volume of the screech gradually with a shrill screech

again. The appearance of the bird is a typical morning scene in India.

 

Churning the curds is a typical early morning activity of the womenfolk.

Besides the noise of the churning staff, one could hear the jingle of the

‘thali’, the mark of marriage worn at the neck by the women. It varies from

the simplest thread to the most ornate gold chain. Whether in its simplest

form or in its most ornate form, it will have two types of lockets. One is

moulded and the other is in the form of thin gold coins. The moulded locket

will have the coins on both the sides. As the women swing their torso along

with the rope round the churn staff, the thali is thrown out and sideways

alternatively and the lockets jingle. This is a very dramatic rendering of

the early morning activity of the household women in the village of the

shepherds. The scene has been graphically evoked in this song.

Moreover, the shepherdess are said to have fragrant hair. While churning

curd, the air will be filled with the smell of fermented curd churned into

buttermilk. Such smell which is slightly offensive to the nose is offset by

the fragrance from the hair of the swinging women as they churn the curd.

The maid who has not yet joined the others is not one among the many. She

is the leader of the troop of maids observing the pavai. Therefore the

reprove that she of all continues to lie abed though it is time for the

pavai rituals. The maids wonder that such a maid is still abed despite the

song in praise of Kesava they have already started singing.

 

Kesava is another name of Narayana. The name has three references. First, it

is the name of Narayana, the God of gods. Secondly, it refers to the

glorious hair of Narayana. Thirdly, it refers to the vanquishing of Kesi,

the monster. Kesi was a monster in the form of a horse. Kamsa despatched

Kesi to throw scareballs amidst the shepherds and kill Krishna. Krishna grew

in magnitude; held his huge arm between the jaws of the horse; knocked away

the teeth and tore the horse diagonally into two.

 

The maid within is not only their leader. She is also the one endowed with

brightness by virtue of her happiness at the experience of the Divine. It is

surprising indeed that such a maid is so late to join the others in pavai

observance.

 

Traditional interpretation of the song associates the qualities ascribed to

the maid with those of Kulasekara Alwar, one of the twelve Vaishnavite saint

poets.

 

The seventh song has verbal felicity and evocative felicity. It recreates a

typical Indian village scene early in the morning.

 

 

 

 

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