thiruppavai day thirteen song thirteen

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DAY THIRTEEN - SONG THIRTEEN - THIRUPPAVAI

 

Transliteration

 

puLLin vAyk kIntAnaip pollA arakkanaik

kiLLik kaLainthanaik kIrththimai pAtip pOy

piLLaikaL ellOrum pAvaik kaLam pukkAr

veLLi ezunthu viyALam uRankiRRu

pullum cilampinakAn pOtharik kanninAy

kuLLak kuLirnthu nIrAtathE

paLLik kItaththiyO pAvay nI nannALal

kaLLam thavirnthu kalanthElOr empAvAy.

 

Translation

 

He tore the monster crane by the beak.

He plucked by the roots the clan of the evil asura.

All the maids are on the arena of pavai singing His praise.

Venus is up and Jupiter has set.

The birds have started chirping.

Beautiful eyed with thin red lines running through!

The sculpturesque!

Will you lie abed deceiving us?

Won’t you join us to bathe in the pond

And soothe the body through and through.

 

The thirteenth song of the Tiruppavai continues with the persuasion of the

previous songs.

 

The maids have already entered the arena of the pavai observance. They sing

in praise of Krishna who tore the monster Pakasura who appeared in the form

of a crane. Kamsa had despatched him to kill Krishna. He swallowed the child

Krishna on the banks of the Yamuna. Krishna started burning him from within.

The crane tried to peck at Krishna. Then Krishna held the beak and tore the

giant crane diagonally. Such is the legend of tearing the crane.

 

The second legend relates to Ravana. It was not only Ravana the asura who

was annihilated by Rama. In a war of mammoth proportions, the entire clan of

asuras was liquidated. Therefore Rama is said to have plucked by the roots

the clan of the asuras. The maids during their pavai observance praise the

valour of Krishna and Rama, the manifestations of Lord Narayana. Their song

is a sure indication of the advent of dawn.

 

The maids are in constant thirst for the experience of the Divine. They may

perhaps have started singing in praise of God even before dawn in their

zealous devotion. As if their assembly is not a sure indication of dawn, the

song proceeds further to cite other indications. The setting of Jupiter and

the rising of Venus in the eastern sky are a sure indication of the

approaching dawn. Perhaps even such an indication may be an unsure sign

insofar as the maids in their enthusiasm may have wrongly read the skies.

Therefore the reference to the third indication - the birds have woken up

and welcome the dawn with their chirping. The third reference may make the

maid withindoors even indignant. Is the human to take their cue of the

morning from the instinctive indicative acts of the birds?

 

When they fail to convince the maid of the opportune time to wake up and

take upon herself the pavai observance, the maids start appealing to her

almost in very flattering terms. “You have beautiful eyes. You have a

sculpturesque beauty about you.”

 

‘potarik kanninay’ can be variously interpreted. It may be a reference to

the thin red lines of blood vessels, which make the eyes at once beautiful

and sensuous. Alternatively, ‘potu’, taken to mean loitering about and ‘ari’

taken to mean the deer, can be understood to refer to the beauty of the eyes

of the maid compared to the beauty of the eyes of the deer. Thirdly, ‘potu’

taken to mean flower and ‘ari’ taken to mean deer, may be taken to mean that

the maid’s eyes are as beautiful as the kuvalai flower and the deer’s eyes.

Fourthly, ‘potu’ taken to mean flower and ‘ari’ to mean the gnat, the phrase

may mean eyes like a gnat in the flower. This is a graphic evocation indeed.

Fifthly, ‘potu’ taken to mean flower and ‘ari’ taken to mean competitor, the

maid can be said to have eyes exceeding in their beauty that of a flower.

 

Ritualistic bathing which is part of the pavai observance shall not be

associated with the routine washing of the body. It is metaphorically

getting immersed in the waters of bhakti, devotion to God. Therefore ‘kullak

kulirntu niratate’ refers to a bath that is soothing through and through.

Those of us who are in India and take bath early in the morning in the

winter month of December in natural water resources like ponds, wells and

rivers know the subtle differences between them. The river waters, flowing

as they are, would be just cold and a bath early in the morning at the river

is not a very attractive proposition indeed. The water in the well will be

warmer and the cold body feeling the warm water in the well experiences a

certain pleasure which verges on stimulating. But a bath in the pond is

different. The upper layer of the still waters will be as cool as the cold

air. Dip yourself in and you will find the warmth of the lower layers of

water. This experience of taking bath in the pond is reinvigorating and has

been rightly celebrated in ‘kullak kulirntu niratate’.

 

Another curious word in the song is ‘kallam’ - deceit. The maid is said to

be deceitful in avoiding the other maids. Instead of leading the others

through the experience of the Divine, she continues indulging in the

experience of the Divine all by herself. The maid ipso facto becomes a

master and the other maids in various stages of spiritual cultivation. By

avoiding the maids, she denies them the privilege of being initiated into

the experience of the Divine. Therefore the appeal - ‘kallam tavirntu

kalantelor’ - leave your deceit and join us Traditional interpretation will

identify the maid in this song with Thontaratippoti Alwar. ‘arikkanninay’

can also be taken to refer to the one with his eyes on the flowers.

Thontaratippoti Alwar had spent his days in making garlands to the God at

Srirankam. So he had his eyes always on all flowers to choose the best of

them for a garland to God. ‘pavai’ which is interpreted in the translation

as the ‘sculpturesque beauty’ can also be taken to mean the most loyal.

Thontaratippoti Alwar was so entirely devoted to the God at Srirankam that

he can be said to have been fastidiously loyal to God. Accordingly are his

songs found to celebrate the God at Srirankam and in no other temple of the

108 places of pilgrimage and divine manifestation in the arca form.

 

‘kallam’ is also a word that can be directly associated with Thontaratippoti

Alwar. He has reiterated his delusion in his songs. Having devoted himself

to the service of God, he had been deluded into lust for a courtesan. God

redeemed him foisting a charge of theft of a gold plate from the temple and

cured him of his lust. ‘sutanakik kalvanaki’ and ‘kallame katal ceitu’ are

such phrases to be found in his songs.

 

Another point of interest is that Thontaratippoti Alwar is supposed to have

been born in the month of margazhi - the holy month of pavai observance.

 

Thus the thirteenth song, beneath its semblance of a catalogue of

indications of the dawn, harbour much information and sensibilities in their

finest form.