In this episode, we listen to a message of acceptance, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 107, penned by Kaaviripoompattinathu Kaarikkannanaar. Set in the ‘Paalai’ or ‘Drylands landscape’, the verse visualises the journey ahead for a couple.

நீ செலவு அயரக் கேட்டொறும், பல நினைந்து,
அன்பின் நெஞ்சத்து, அயாஅப் பொறை மெலிந்த
என் அகத்து இடும்பை களைமார், நின்னொடு
கருங் கல் வியல் அறைக் கிடப்பி, வயிறு தின்று
இரும் புலி துறந்த ஏற்றுமான் உணங்கல்,
நெறி செல் வம்பலர் உவந்தனர் ஆங்கண்,
ஒலிகழை நெல்லின் அரிசியொடு ஓராங்கு
ஆன் நிலைப் பள்ளி அளை பெய்து அட்ட
வால் நிணம் உருக்கிய வாஅல் வெண் சோறு
புகர் அரைத் தேக்கின் அகல் இலை மாந்தும்
கல்லா நீள் மொழிக் கத நாய் வடுகர்
வல் ஆண் அரு முனை நீந்தி, அல்லாந்து,
உகு மண் ஊறு அஞ்சும் ஒரு காற் பட்டத்து
இன்னா ஏற்றத்து இழுக்கி, முடம் கூர்ந்து,
ஒரு தனித்து ஒழிந்த உரனுடை நோன் பகடு
அம் குழை இருப்பை அறை வாய் வான் புழல்
புல் உளைச் சிறாஅர் வில்லின் நீக்கி,
மரை கடிந்து ஊட்டும் வரைஅகச் சீறூர்
மாலை இன் துணைஆகி, காலைப்
பசு நனை நறு வீப் பரூஉப் பரல் உறைப்ப,
மண மனை கமழும் கானம்
துணை ஈர் ஓதி என் தோழியும் வருமே.

We pass through different scenes in this trip to the drylands as we get to hear the confidante say these words to the man:

“Hearing about your wish to take her away with you, pondering a lot, with a loving heart, seeing how my bosom had thinned away with the pain of this unbearable burden, wanting to end my suffering, she has agreed to come with you.

Spreading on the wide space of a black boulder, after eating to its full, a huge tiger abandons a stag’s meat. Seeing this dried-up carcass, wayfarers passing through feel much joy. Taking rice that came from paddy grains of luxuriant stalks, adding together the thick curd that came from the community of cattle herders, and the fatty meat of the carcass, they cook the rice, and then spread the food on the spotted-trunked teak tree’s wide leaf and savour the same, in those formidable spaces, belonging to the Vadugars, who possess hunting dogs, and speak an unknown language from long ago. She will traverse through such a drylands domain with you.

With much sorrow lies a once-strong bull that has been forsaken to live alone, owing to its broken leg, when it slipped on a dangerous slope. As it fears to tread a narrow path with loose sand, little boys with scanty tufts of hair, with their bows, bring down a beautiful cluster of flowers, with hollow tubes, from the Mahua tree, and after chasing away the deer that comes to munch on it, they bring it to the bull and feed it, in those little hamlets by the hills. Staying as your sweet companion in these hamlets in the evening, then, during the day, as fragrant, fresh flowers drop down on dense rocks, through that forest, wafting with the scent of a house of wedding festivities, as your mate, my friend, the maiden with moist tresses, shall walk on!”

Time to trail this couple through the drylands! The confidante starts by giving a message the man had been waiting to hear, and that is acceptance on behalf of the lady to elope away with the man. The confidante talks about how the lady took pity on the confidante, caught between the two, and worrying about where this was going, and offered her decision to leave with the man. Then, the confidante goes on to sketch two different places, the first being a scorching space, where a tiger had left behind a deer carcass, after feeding on it. When wayfarers come that way, they are delighted to find some good food, and they prepare a unique ‘Paalai Biriyani’ by cooking that meat, along with rice, and some thick curd. Then, placing this food on the biodegradable plate of a teak leaf, they savour it. A moment to note how humans are also much like the scavenger birds, who have no qualms about eating what they did not work for! Let’s return to this thought in a moment. 

The confidante has mentioned that harsh drylands space to be the domain of a tribe of people called ‘Vadugars’, who are said to speak an old language, but not a developed one, possibly meaning that this language had no script of its own, unlike Tamil. Next, these nuggets have been mentioned by the confidante to talk about how the lady will bravely cross such spaces with the man. 

Next, the confidante takes us to a little town with kind-hearted boys, who bring down flower clusters of the Mahua, and take it carefully to feed a bull that has broken its leg, slipping on a slope, as it went to drink water. In such a town, the lady will rest with the man at night, the confidante connects, and concludes by saying, in the morning, the lady would wake up and walk on through the forests, which smell like a house filled with wedding festivities, thanks to the flowers that fall and spread on the rocks beneath.

In short, wherever you take her, the lady shall follow and be your sweet companion, the confidante conveys to the man. Returning to that scene of wayfarers relishing food hunted by the tiger, the confidante places this scene as a metaphor for the man, choosing the path of elopement, instead of taking steps to gain the lady’s hand in marriage. In the scene of the boys feeding the bull, after chasing away the deer,  the confidante places it as a metaphor for her own action of sending the lady with the man, away from her kith and kin, as the man had not been able to succeed in claiming the lady’s hand. Thus, seamlessly scenes in the journey ahead are woven with the dynamics of the situation at hand, presenting to us a time travel through those spaces of the past!