Aganaanooru 193 – The truly difficult path

In this episode, we listen to the declaration of a decision, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 193, penned by Madurai Maruthan Ilanaakanaar. Set in the ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands landscape’, the verse contrasts the two paths that looms ahead in the mind’s eye. கான் உயர் மருங்கில் கவலை அல்லதுவானம் வேண்டா வில் ஏர் உழவர்பெரு நாள் வேட்டம், கிளை எழ வாய்த்த,பொரு களத்து ஒழிந்த குருதிச் செவ் வாய்,பொறித்த போலும் வால் நிற எருத்தின்,அணிந்த போலும் செஞ் செவி எருவை;குறும் பொறை எழுந்த நெடுந் தாள் யாஅத்துஅருங் கவட்டு உயர்சினைப் பிள்ளை ஊட்ட,விரைந்து வாய் வழுக்கிய கொழுங் கண் ஊன் தடிகொல் பசி முது நரி வல்சி ஆகும்சுரன் நமக்கு எளியமன்னே; நல் மனைப்பல் மாண் தங்கிய சாயல், இன் மொழி,முருந்து ஏர் முறுவல், இளையோள்பெருந் தோள் இன் துயில் கைவிடுகலனே. In this trip to the drylands, we get to see striking images and listen to the man say these words to his heart, as it nudges him to leave the lady and go in search of wealth: “Seeking only isolated paths amidst highland scrub jungles, those farmers, who plough with a bow and look not to the skies, join together with their band and hunt down a huge bounty. From those spaces which has seen their attack, drinking up the flowing blood, rises a red-mouthed, red-headed vulture, having a white neck, as if painted with spots, and red ears, as if sculpted and adorned. It flies towards the tall trunked Ya tree growing on the short mound, where its young one is nestled on an intricate spot of a long branch. As it feeds the little one, a thick, fatty piece of meat slips quickly from the mouth, and becomes the food for an old fox with a murderous hunger, roving beneath. Traversing such a drylands domain is easy indeed for me; However, I shan’t let go of my sweet sleep on the thick arms of the young maiden, with smiling teeth, akin to the eye of a peacock’s feather, the one who speaks sweet words and has many esteemed features, the one who adorns my good home!” Time to step on those scary, sweltering spaces again! The man paints a vivid picture of the drylands, and to do that, he zooms on to the denizens of this domain, namely the highway robbers, and he calls them, ‘farmers with a bow’ and ‘hunters of men’. In portraying the profession of this tribe, he brings in two others and says how these men look not to the skies for their succour, like the farmers and plough on with their bows, and have no qualms about hunting their own kind. After that nuanced portrait, the man turns to the characteristic bird of this land, a red-headed vulture, and describes its spotted white neck, and hanging red ears, in much detail. Drinking up the blood flowing in those spaces, with a red mouth, this vulture flies to its young one, nestled atop a ‘Ya’ tree and as it feeds the chick, a fleshy piece of meat falls down and is quickly gulped down by a roving, hungry old fox, the man describes. He ends this depiction by saying to go and cross such a space was nothing difficult for him. He continues and concludes by saying however, something else was impossible for him, and that was the thought of parting away from his precious beloved, with a beautiful smile and sweet words, the one who is the jewel of his home. A statement which declares that parting away from a loved one is even more difficult to fathom and is a thing of fear than even the scariest, goriest of places. The timeless priorities of a heart in love flows like a stream through the lines of this verse, across the years and miles, to that ocean called ‘being human’.