witness 1

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WITNESS

 

Who is a witness? A person who has got first hand information about an happening

or an event is a witness. A person who vouches for the identity or signature of

a person is a witness. A person who stands testimony for an agreement or a

contract or a fact or any other legal binding, is a witness. In case of any

legal violation or accusation, the judiciary immediately looks for the

statement of the witness. The fact that the witness has seen an event or heard

a thing or is helpful in establishing a circumstantial evidence is also legally

very helpful. These evidences provided by the witness, goes into the arguments

by the arms of the justice through advocates, policemen and so on. and are

largely responsible for establishing a true and fair trial of the case. Thus,

when any dispute arises in the court of law, immediately the look out is for

witness, the search for direct/indirect evidence from the witness and the

sifting of these evidences in consonance of the rules of frameowrk of the law,

justice and constitution of a particular nation leads in not only arriving at a

reasonable administration of the law of the land but also natural justice.

 

This practice of legal system has been in vogue for centureis, why centuries

even in earlier yugAs, in the royal dhurbArs, why dhurbArs, has been practice

even as early as, in the times of great epics and silappadhigAram. The lack of

proper analysis of evidence and non-consideration of an appropriate witness led

to rank failure of justice and faiplay in the silappadhigAram. Such is the

import and importance of witness.

 

Have AzhwAr's relied upon any witness? Have they talked about witness? Yes, the

list includes mArkaNdEya maharishi, beetle, arjunA, shivA and so on. What was

the need for witness? Was there any dispute? Well! in case of mArkaNdEya

maharishi, shivA and arjunA they were summoned to establish to the world the

supremacy of Lord nArAyanA whereas the beetle had to establish the promise made

by the Lord to AzhwAr.

 

First let us start with thirumangai AzhwAr - being parakAla nAyaki- longs for

His arrival and calls for thirup pullAni Lord. It may be recalled that there

was an allegation by AzhwAr that the Lord does not keep up His promise and He

has imbibed this habit from his mate thiru anthaZhwAn. The question arises

whether there was any witness for this promise?

 

"konguN vaNdE kariyAga vandhAn, kodiyEARku, mun

nangaL Esan namakkEA paNitha mozhi seidhilan,

mangainalvAi thozhudhum ezhu pOi avan mannum vUR,

pongu munnEr karaikkEa maNi vundhu pullANiyEA"

periya thiru mozhi 8-3-4

 

kari = sAkshi= witness

 

parkAla nAyaki desires to visit thirup pullANi. Her thOzhi -friend- enquires

what connexion she has got with the Lord of thirup pullANi, for which she

explains that she and Lord had met there earlier. The thOzhi's suggestion is

that they should go alongwith a person who is witness to that event. This

pAsuram emerges. The beetle which drinks the honey is the only witness to this

event. This beetle is from the garland of the Lord who is always submerged in

this act of consuming honey, cannot comprehend the agony of AzhwAr and hence

the question of the witness appearing in person is ruled out here. Hence, the

words 'kodiyEARku' .Alas! the only witness is the beetle who will not come up

as a witness is thiru mangai AzhwAr's which leads to my despair.

 

(to be continued)

vanamamalai padmanabhan