Aganaanooru 10 – Fishing in life’s seas

In this episode, we listen to persuasive words, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 10, penned by Ammoovanaar. Set amidst the waves and sands of the ‘Neythal’ or ‘Coastal Landscape’, the verse transports us to an ancient shore. வான் கடற் பரப்பில் தூவற்கு எதிரிய,மீன் கண்டன்ன மெல் அரும்பு ஊழ்த்த,முடவு முதிர் புன்னைத் தடவு நிலை மாச் சினை,புள் இறைகூரும் மெல்லம் புலம்ப! நெய்தல் உண்கண் பைதல கலுழ,பிரிதல் எண்ணினைஆயின், நன்றும்அரிது உற்றனையால் பெரும! உரிதினின்கொண்டு ஆங்குப் பெயர்தல்வேண்டும் கொண்டலொடுகுரூஉத் திரைப் புணரி உடைதரும் எக்கர்ப்பழந் திமில் கொன்ற புது வலைப் பரதவர்மோட்டு மணல் அடைகரைக் கோட்டுமீன் கெண்டி,மணம் கமழ் பாக்கத்துப் பகுக்கும்வளம் கெழு தொண்டி அன்ன இவள் நலனே. And finally, we get to meet the fifth and final landscape of the coastal regions and the promise is that every multiple of 10 in the series of Aganaanooru poems, all the way to 400, is going to be a beach trip for Sangam travellers! Here, the lady’s confidante speaks her mind to the man, as he prepares to leave after trysting with the lady: “Facing the spray of the wide ocean, stands the ancient curving ‘laurelwood’, with soft buds appearing like the stars, and upon the dark and wide branches, birds rest in your gentle shores, O lord! Leaving her kohl-streaked eyes, akin to blue lotuses, to cry with suffering, if you think of parting away, remember this! About how you attained that rare thing with much good effort! I speak of her fine beauty, akin to the prosperous town of Thondi, wherein pushed by the eastern winds, ocean waves pounce and break sands of the shore, and here, fishermen with ancient boats and new nets, dig up a beached shark in the moist sand dunes, and share it with the people, who live in the fragrant little hamlet of theirs. You must rightfully claim such a beauty and part away with her now!” Time to soak in the salty spray of the ocean! The confidante starts by mentioning how the ‘Punnai’ tree, stands on the shore, so close to the droplets leaping from the waves, and details how the tree has star-like flowers and how birds many find an abode on its branches. This scene is in the domain of the man, the confidante connects. After talking about the man’s place, the confidante details how the man’s thought of parting is going to make the lady’s eyes shed copious tears. Instead of following that track, the man must choose to do something different, she says. Before that, in the unique Sangam style, she starts equating the lady’s beauty to the prosperous town of Thondi. To describe Thondi, the confidante talks about how fishermen with very old boats, find a beached shark and share it with all the people of their hamlet. Though it seems like a mundane scene in the shore, the description holds within a metaphor for how the man seems not to do the difficult task of seeking the lady’s hand, just like these fishermen, who do not take their boats out into the roaring waves of the wide sea and get their catch by fishing there, but rather embrace the easy thing of digging up a beached fish, and likewise, the man too was intent only on the transient pleasures of trysting. This is a hidden message, nudging the man to seek the lady’s hand, and the confidante concludes by connecting that the man must claim the lady’s beauty and part away with her rightfully. Reverting to the simile involving the lady’s beauty and a Sangam town, this comparison never fails to amaze me as I ponder on how picturesque such a town must have been, to be placed in parallel with a Sangam lady’s beauty, something that has always been described in the superlative! This, no doubt is literature’s way of hinting to students of history and archaeology, about the wealth and joy reverberating in those ancient Tamil towns!