The Vedic origins of "maattu-poNNu": - Part 11 (to be CONCLUDED)

[Guest guest]

(continued from Part 10 posted earlier)

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Dear friends,

 

With the recounting of a popular story from the

Mahabharatha, this posting will conclude the series on

the theory of the Vedic origins of the Tamil word

"maattu-pONN".

 

The main focus of the theory, if you will all

recollect, was to show that there is a credible

alternative to the popular notion of "maattu-pONN"

being a colloquial term derived from the Tamil

"maatru-pEnn" or "naatu-pEnn" (as some members too

pointed out in their feedback mails). I strongly

believe, however, that there is far more weight to the

argument that the use of the word, over centuries of

past custom, owes its origin more to the age-old Vedic

"gruhya-" or "vivAha-sUtras" rather than to colloquial

usage of some recent Tamil past.

 

In the course of explaining the theory, I quoted

extensive but relevant passages from the various

"gruhya-sUtras". They were all meant to show how in

those Vedic times, the selection of a bride

("maattu-poNN") or groom ("maappillai") was made with

the utmost care, circumspection and anxiety. Also, the

various rites, ceremonies and sacraments performed

during the course of the wedding, and prior to and

after the event as well, were all designed by the

"sUtras" to ensure the choice of a "maattu-poNN" was

made with due regard to "dhArmic" principles and

practices. More specifically, it was to ensure the

chosen bride underwent all necessary "samskArAs"

together with her husband, and the couple began the

marital journey of their life duly purified by Vedic

"mantra" and fortified by Vedic "vivAha-shubha-karma".

 

 

A very well-known story from the Mahabharatha reveals

how the choice of a "maattu-pOnn", if made recklessly,

without paying due heed to "sAstra", and even if

inspired by noble intention, can turn out terribly,

terribly wrong and what disastrous consequences follow

from it.

 

The story is none other than that of

"Bhishma-pitAmaha", the most venerated and noble

character of all in the Mahabharatha.

 

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

 

Greater than many men, as he indeed was in several

respects, Bhishma was still very much a tragi-heroic

character in the "itihAsa". Though powerful and

valorous, and an unquestioned leader of men and

affairs, Bhishma fell victim to Fate which, time and

again, seemed to deal him a cruel and crushing hand.

And the most cruel of Fate's blows on Bhishma was

dealt by -- or rather caused to be dealt by -- none

other than the "daughters-in-law" of his house, the

"maattu-poNNs", who came into his life by act of his

own choice. They came and simply turned his life

upside down, inside out.

 

One "maattu-poNN" deprived Bhishma of all his earthly

birthrights. And the other "maattu-poNN" became his

sworn, life-long enemy. Towards the end of Bhishma's

long life, marked as it was by tragedy and pathos, it

was the "maattu-poNN" who became his final nemesis.

 

 

Let us recount the story.

 

***********

 

The great monarch, King SAntanu was the father of the

young crown-prince, Devavrata (which was the name of

the young Bhishma in his youth).

 

Even in his advanced years, King SAntanu succumbed to

romantic impulses. One day while the aged King was

touring a coastal district, his eyes fell upon a

common but bewitchingly beautiful maiden amongst the

fisher-folk community. On further enquiry, SAntanu

came to learn that she was the daughter of the local

chieftain, an elder of the fishing community. Her name

was Satyavati. SAntanu, by now completely overcome by

amorous feelings for the young Satyavati, asked the

fisherfolk chieftain for the hand of the beautiful

daughter.

 

The chieftain was not only a dear and caring father

but a shrewd businessman too, well-versed in the

tricks of the fish-mongering trade. Fishermen can

usually smell a gathering windfall even when it is

still only a faint whiff of breeze. When it is upon

them and they will do anything to grab the

opportunity, quickly and firmly.

 

The shrewd chieftain told King SAntanu that Satyavati

was his wife for the asking on one condition. A son

born to her must succeed his father, SAntanu as King.

 

The condition, so bluntly and boldly stated, abruptly

put a stop to SAntanu's rosy and romantic dreams.

Though his heart ached for Satyavati, his head -- a

mighty King's crowned head -- said "No!"... There was

no way SAntanu would sacrifice his first-born Prince

Devavrata's natural right to the Crown.

 

Thoroughly disappointed in love, the frustrated King

SAntanu returned to his palace. For several months

thereafter he pined away in silent but desperate

anguish. He simply could not forget the beautiful

Satyavati....

 

In due course of time, Prince Devavarata, (the

latter-day Bhishma) came to know through palace

courtiers the real reason for his father's forlorn

state of mind. The Prince's love for his father was so

great that he resolved no price was too great to pay

to ensure the King regained his old happy, robust

self. The Prince decided to proceed to the fisherfolk

chieftain and negotiate again for the hand of

Satyavati.

 

Devavrata thus set out to seek and secure a

daugher-in-law, a "maattu-poNN", for the royal house!

A new queen for his father and a step-mother for

himself! Normally, it is a father who exerts himself

to find a suitable match for a son. In Bhishma's case,

the boot was on the other foot! It was an

extraordinary irony of circumstance and one which only

the hand of Fate could have fashioned.

 

When Devavrata met Satyavati's father and began

matrimonial negotiations, he implored the latter to

give in and fulfill King SAntanu's all-consuming

desire of the heart. The wily chieftain, Satyavati's

father, said, "You are a noble-hearted prince indeed,

O Devavrata, that you should come in search of a bride

for your old father when you are yourself such an

eligible match for the best of maidens in this

kingdom. But as long as you remain crown-prince, I

know a son born to Satyavati and your father shall

never be King. Of what use then, O Prince, is marriage

to a king, if a son born thereof shall have no claim

to the monarch's crown?".

 

Finding the chieftain adamant in his demand for the

price of Satyavati's hand, Bhishma knew he must make a

fateful choice. Either he must let his love-lorn

father continue to pine away in sadness or he must

renounce forever his claim to his father's kingdom.

 

The noble-hearted Devavrata chose the latter option.

Turning to the chieftain he said, "If the throne of my

father is the price to be paid for your daughter's

hand, then so be it. Let Satyavati wed my father, and

I shall hereby renounce once and for all time, my

claim to be king!".

 

Everyone, including the crafty chieftain, was

astonished by Devavrata's act of extraordinary

self-sacrifice. But the greed of Satyavati's father

was that of a fisherman out to extract the best price

going for his catch. He wanted better than the best of

deals for his daughter and would not let up effort

until it had been secured.

 

"O Prince, you are far nobler than I thought! But even

granting you renounce your claim to your father's

throne in favour of Satyavati's sons, how shall one be

sure that your own sons, when they are born, shall not

one day in the future want to reclaim it? What is to

prevent them saying their father, that is you,

wrongfully renounced away what was rightly theirs? How

is one to be sure my daughter, Satyavati's sons shall

not someday in the future be embroiled in a blood-feud

over your present act of renunciation?".

 

When Devavrata heard this, his heart broke. He knew he

was now about to make another cataclysmic choice in

life --- one that would forever change him and his

destiny ... in ways he would never be able to fathom.

But he knew he must make the terrible choice ... for

the sake of his father, the King SAntanu.

 

That was the moment when Prince Devavrata took the

terrible, frightening vow in life. It was the vow that

earned him the name "Bheeshma" -- "the one of the

terrible Vow"!

 

Bhishma told Satyavati's father, "O Chieftain, my sons

should first be alive if they are to make future

claims to SAntanu's throne at the expesne of

Satyavati's sons. If my sons never at all come to

exist, how shall they make the claim? Thus, do I swear

by God now, I renounce life itself! I renounce my

unborn progeny! I shall embrace celibacy all my life!

The seed of my existence shall die with me! There

shall be nobody remaining on earth after me of whom it

might be said that "There goes Devavrata's son!" or

"Here are Devavrata's children". I vow solemnly never

to wed and never to beget a son to carry my name! Now

shall ye give Satyavati in marriage to my father?".

 

The Mahabharatha describes how the skies trembled and

the earth shook to its very roots in the moment that

Bhishma swore and took such a terrible oath of

self-renunciation....

 

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

 

Bhisma won a "maattu-poNN", a new bride, that day for

his father, King SAntanu but, in the bargain, he had

to lose everything in life... everything that was

birth-right for a young, royal prince like him.

 

Satyavati, the young and beautiful "maattu-poNN" was

herself utterly blameless in the whole affair but it

was Fate itself that had it so destined that the day

she stepped into the house of Bhishma, he would lose

everything, every joy and wealth of life....

 

Satyavati, the demure and beautiful bride

("maattu-poNN"), was utterly innocent of course, but

it nevertheless left everyone wondering why such a

good person as she also brought along with her such

ill-luck and evil presence into her new home? Was it

some evil influence of the family she hailed from? Was

it some malevolent natal asterism ("nakshatra") of

hers that followed her into her new home? Was it the

influence of her avaricious father? Was it the plain

soil, or the smell of the earth, of the fishing

village on which she had been born and bred? No one

could fathom the reason....

 

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

 

Many decades later, at Hastinapur, when the Kauravas

were about to drive out the Pandavas out of the

kingdom, everyone who was witness to the royal feud

could not help asking:

 

"Why are the Kauravas so cruel and avaracious? The

poor Pandavas are asking for only Indraprastha; if not

the whole of Indraprastha, then just 5 provinces

within it; and if not 5 provinces, then at least 5

villages in a province! Can't the Kauravas grant their

brothers at least that? How heartless can Duryodhana

and his kin be that they want to deprive the Pandavas

of everything that is their birthright?"

 

Only Bhishma who was also witness to the feud

understood why! To him the events of the palace at

Hastinapur was a merely a re-play and re-run of what

had been already experienced by him long before the

time of the Kauravas and Pandavas. It filled him with

a sense of morbid 'deja-vu'. His recollections went

back to the fateful day when Satyavati's father ---

the great-grandfather of the Kauravas ---- had shown

equal avarice and ruthlessness in demanding his pound

of flesh from young Bhisma in return for Satyavati's

marriage to SAntanu... It was like a grim flash-back!

 

Watching the Kauravas and Pandavas locked in a feud

that others found cruel, heartless and

incomprehensible, we should imagine, Bhishma alone,

however, might have understood it all; he alone could

have offered some semblance of an explanation for the

senseless events unfolding around him....

 

"It is no surprise to me that the Kauravas behave in

such a ruthless manner", Bhishma might have bitterly

thought to himself, "After all, they are of the same

flesh and blood of Satyavati, aren't they? They come

from the womb of the daughter-in-law of the house

("maattu-poNN") whose father took away from me all the

goodness of life, everything that the Kauravas too now

seek to take away from their Pandava brothers!"....

 

 

Long after Satyavati and SAntanu were gone, we may

thus conclude from the story of the Mahabharatha, the

dark shadow of the "maattu-poNN" and her presence, as

well as that of her fisherman father, continued to

cast its dark and evil spell around the house of

Hastinapur, to haunt, to torment Bhishma, again and

again and again....

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

(to be concluded)

Regards,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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