minds of women - 2

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Post 2

 

Dear srivaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

The last sentence in the previous post read "Thus this krithi appears

to be full of contradictions or missed points? Is it correct? Will

such a raama bhaktha do that?

 

The answer is certainly not – there are no contradictions or missed

points. Only thing the points, what the poet or saahithya karthaa -

krithi writer - wanted to say or convey or describe, are given with a

veil. We have to remove the veil and see the beauty of expressions,

ideas. Actually this is a krithi related to `ahalyaa' incident in

vaalmeeki raamaayaNam. How it is will be taken up now.

 

First let us see the raga in which the krithi is set. It is `kalyaaNa

vasantham' – `kalyaaNam' is marriage – vasantham is spring season,

beginning of a new green season with nature in full blossom and green

glow. `VaazhvilE vasantham' means the beginning of a new era or new

face of life. So raama is set on the stage for the marriage and is

going towards achieving it, accompanied by sage visvaamithra and

brother lakshmaNa.

 

Before reaching the ahalyaa's place king sumathi receives the trio

and the battalion of sages. King sumathi asks why these two young

lads who have the looks of two great princes are coming `walking'.

The comments added after the slOkams of baala kaaNdam 48-2,3,4 are

worth reading and hence reproduced from www.valmikiramayan.net

 

"The word dhEva can easily be said as a 'god' but, this is said to be

Vishnu, as implied at 4-3-56 of Kishkindhaa kaaNdam 'There the Cosmic-

Souled God, namely Vishnu...' etc. Now the enquirer himself is no

less than a godly king, hence he identified the boys as non-

terrestrial. No fatherly person accepts youngsters to footslog miles

and miles. So far this is an unobserved and an uncared for aspect, by

other sages and saints, because all of those sages and saints are

footsloggers.

 

This may be one of the reasons for Dhasarathha in refusing to send

raama with Visvaamithra. However, King Sumathi, being a glorious and

fatherly king brought up this topic. Visvaamithra is giving

a 'rehearsal' for these brothers for their real forest trekking later

in the legend. Further, if a divine deed is to be done and a benefit

there from is to be acquired, one has to footslog. Now raama is going

to perform a divine feat called 'bending the bow of Siva' and thereby

winning the hand of an unusual princess Seetha, in marriage. Hence,

he footslogged this much distance for seethaa kalyaaNa artham, loka

kalyaaNa artham Seetha's marriage, which is for the 'universal

goodness."

 

[Dear bhakthaas, I could have just stopped this reproduction with the

last 6 lines. But the context will not come out and hence previous

few more lines added. So please bear with me for increasing the

length of post].

 

Thus there is an apt selection of `raagam `kalyaana vasantham' for

the krithi by the poet. Now let us see the points raised earlier and

their clarification or justification one by one.

1. The point is "When he has not touched other ladies by even by

the eyesight, how can, such a raama, be questioned to give his

viewpoints about their minds. May be a major point for initiating a

full-fledged debate – in the starting line itself – in the pallavi

line itself of the krithi?"

kanulu thaakani parakaanthala manasetulO raama

Meaning:

Oh raama! How are the minds of the women, which cannot be touched by

eyes?

 

Now ahalyaa cannot be seen by the eyes when sage visvaamithra started

explaining the ahalyaa episode to raama when raama asked " this place

seems like a sage's aasramam but looks deserted'as she is stone form.

So eyes could not touch her. But her mind is being described as

muni vEsham sahasraaksham vij~naaya raghu nandhana |

mathim chakaara dhurmEdhaa dheva raaja kuthoohalaath || 1-48-19

 

raghunandhana = oh, Rahu's, legatee - raama;

dhur mEdhaa = ill advisedly

muni vEsham sahasraaksham vij~naaya = in sage's guise of thousand-

eyed one, [though] knowing

dhEva raaja kuthoohalaath = for god's king's impassion

mathim chakaara = mind made - inclined to have union.

 

Meaning: "Oh, raama, the legatee of raghu, though knowing him as the

thousand-eyed indhran in the guise of her husband gauthamar, she is

inclined to have union ill-advisedly, only to satisfy the impassion

of the king of gods. [1-48-19]

 

Comment: ahalyaa's thinking is: 'this is none but indhran in the

guise of my husband, for my husband [gouthama rishi] never asks me

like this nor he violates times. I heard that indhran is seeking me

for a long time, and when king of gods expresses such a desire, it

cannot be refused, let him have it.'

 

Kamban also describes this as

pukku avaLodum kaamap pudhu maNa madhivin thERal

okka uNdu iruththalOdum uNarnthanaL uNarntha pinnum

thakkadhu anRu enna OraaL thaazhnthanaL iruppath thaazhaa

mukkaNan anaiya aaRRal munivanum mudugi vanthaan

 

kamba raamaayanam baala kaaNdam - agalikaip padalam 19

 

So even after realizing that the person who came is indhran she

succumbed to the desire. As a result she lost her physical appearance

and now in stone form and as such not able to see. Is there any thing

wrong in poet saying `kanulu thaakani' `parakaanthala manasetulO

raama'.

 

2. Second point – `raama never talks ill about others. He appreciates

only the good points in them and forgets the bad points or does not

care about bad points. In that case, how can we expect raama to give

an opinion on others – that too about ladies - whom he even do

not `touch' by eyesight'.

Anupallavi of the krithi is

nanabONulapai nEramana nOrEmi rAma

Meaning:

Why the mouth is so bad on so many ladies?

 

For that we have to see this slOkam. Sage gouthama having realized

ahalyaa had the inclination just because of the beauty

personification she was and hence he cursed her that the beauty be

distributed to all ladies – not just her alone.

 

roopa youvana sampannaa yasmaath thvam anavasththithaa

thasmaath roopavathee lOkO na thvam Ekaa bhavishyasi

roopam cha thE prajaa: sarvaa gamishyanthi na samsaya:

yath thath Eka amsam aasrithya vibhrama: ayam upasththitha: -

vaalmeeki uththara 30

 

here kamban's lines are also beautiful.

ellai il naaNam eidhi yaavarkkum nagai vadhu eidhap

pulliya pazhiyinOdum purandharan pOya pinnai

melliayalaaLai nOkki vilai magaL anaiya neeyum

kal iyal aadhi enRaan karungallaai marungu veezhvaaL. – ibid 22

 

So, it is not only the beauty of ahalyaa is distributed, but also the

bad words or easy comments from the mouth are also distributed to all

beautiful ladies. Hence the anupallavi is also very apt.

 

Since the length has already increased we will see other points in

next.

[i am not elaborating the meaning of the slokams and kamban poems

since that will add to the length further].

 

Dhasan

Vasudevan m.g.