thiruppavai day eighteen song eighteen

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TIRUPPAVAI - DAY EIGHTEEN - SONG EIGHTEEN

 

Transliteration

 

unthu mathakaÎiRRan OtAtha thOL valiyan

nanthakOpAlan marumakaLE nappinnAy

kantham kamazum kuzali katai thiRavAy

vanthenkum kOzi azaiththana kAn mathavip

panthal mEl palkAl kuyilinankaL kUvinakAn

panthAr viRali un maiththunan pEr pAta

centhamaraik kaiyAl cIRAr vaLai olippa

vanthu thiRavAy makilnthElOr empAvAy.

 

Translation

 

Mighty as an elephant in musth and

Strong shouldered in the battlefield

Is Nantakopa.

Nappinnai, his daughter-in-law, with perfumed hair!

Throw open the corridor.

Listen to the cocks crowing everywhere.

Listen to the insistent cooing of koels in flower beds.

Supple fingered for a game of balls!

We sing in praise of your Lord.

Open the door with a happy heart

As the bangles at your lotus arms jingle.

 

As stated earlier, the purpose of the eighteenth song of Tiruppavai is to

invoke Krishna’s consort, Nappinnai.

 

Krishna’s consort is identified as Nantakopan’s daughter-in-law. In the

Hindu society, the very identity of a woman suffers a sea change; once she

gets married. She comes not only to enjoy the deference due to the house but

also becomes a symbol of the family’s honour.

 

Perhaps in line with such a tradition that Nappinnai, Krishna’s consort is

identified in the name of Nantakopan’s daughter-in-law.

 

Nantakopan is said to be mighty as an elephant in musth – untu mata

kalirran. This phrase is interpreted in three ways. a) mighty as an elephant

in musth; b)one who holds the elephants in musth in check and c)one who

possesses elephants. The last interpretation is by far the far-fetched.

Insofar as the first two celebrate his might, they can be taken as the right

reading. It is complemented by the next phrase that celebrates his valour.

The might and valour of Nantakopan are rightly cited to indicate the fact

that in the midst of the oppressive rule of Kamsa, Nantakopan alone can

ensure honour and safety. Legendary stories with regard to Kamsa’s

despatching monsters to kill the child Krishna in various forms like

Bhutanai the woman, Sakatasura and Kesi the horse also fall in place.

 

What follows in the song refers to the typical scenes at dawn – the crowing

cocks, the cooing of the koels. But the context is different. Such

references were made earlier in the series to implore the maid to join the

pavai. But here, it is a prayer to Nappinnai. She had Krishna all to herself

during the night and it is time that Krishna graces the maids with his

august presence.

 

The reference to the supple fingers of Nappinnai is also curious. She has

fingers adept in playing a game of balls. Perhaps she holds on to the balls

that she has won in the game even as she sleeps.

 

That the grace of God cannot be compelled even by the best of devotees

appears to be underscored in the prayer to Nappinnai to open the door for

the maids to enter. The gods are to acknowledge devotion for the grace of

God to ultimately abound. It is this acknowledgement that is sought in the

prayer to Nappinnai to open the door herself as the bangles in her arms

jingle.

 

Looking closely at the five songs 18-22, a curious question arises. While in

the eighteenth song Nappinnai, the consort is prayed to open the door, from

19 to 22, the God’s awakening is also invoked. That leads to the curious

question. Ignorance may be considered to be sleep in the context of the maid

or maids in succession being woken up in the previous cluster. Denial for

admittance may be attributed to the sleep of Nantakopan, Yesodha and

Baladeva. To ascribe sleep to God Himself may be construed to be an assumed

awareness of the maids of possible indifference on His part. But to consider

God indifferent is blasphemous. How then is the invocation of God to be

perspectivised.

 

This is explained in two different ways. One is the traditional, theological

explanation and the other is the modern literary imagist explanation.

 

According to the first, Krishna in his manifest form is to be acknowledged

to have been understood in his essential transcendental form of Narayana.

Therefore besides making the maids understand that the essence of the soul

consists of waking up from their ignorance of samsara, Krishna is also

invoked in his essential transcendental nature in the form of awakening him

from his slumber. It is not as if He is woken up but as if the realisation

of the Transcendent in the form of the near and dear Krishna is

acknowledged.

 

Secondly, modern literary criticism which identifies the pavai ritual with

fertility cult, suggests the idea of an image. Nappinnai is an image for the

earth.Vishnu is the God of abundance. The harvest due to follow the next

month is presented in the form of Krishna lying abed with Nappinnai. So the

invocation is an anticipation of the abundance of the harvest due.