DEIVATHIN KURAL # 11 (Vol # 5) Dated 21 Jun 2011

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 11 (Vol # 5) Dated 21 Jun 2011

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavaaL of Kanchi Kaamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the last para on page No 65 of Vol 5 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that herein 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
Chitra Kavita
102. In Mysore State, in Chamaraja Nagar there was a poet by the name of Rama Saastry. He has written a small Kavyam in the form of a conversation between Sita and RavaNa. It is named, “Sita – RavaNa Samvaadam”. Though Sita’s name is given first, her participation in the conversation is rather limited. It is RavaNa who talks a lot on each subject selected by him and Sita will disapprove his statement with the most terse and succinct reply (known as ‘Ratna Churukkam’ in Tamil). In each sloka thus the first three lines will be that of RavaNa and the fourth line will be the reply as spoken by Sita. The heading for the book as I said is ‘Sita – Ravana Samvaadam’, as you may be aware that as per protocol names of divine beings are given the precedence. The name of the work is normally mentioned with a word ‘Jaree’ added at the end, meaning a ‘cascade’. It is a fall of words like a waterfall, like the word ‘Sor-pozhivu’ in the Tamil language!
103. In each sloka in the first three lines, RavaNa will either praise himself to high heavens or say something critical of Sri Rama on some flimsy grounds! Sita will counter his statement with the fourth line of the sloka. The poet’s and the poem’s stamp of speciality is in the last line! For RavaNa’s ramblings, Sita will not give a detailed reply. She would simply say, “From what you have said, remove/replace/add so and so letter from/to such and such a word and that (the changed meaning) is my reply!” Applying her direction, what RavaNa said will become the opposite of his original statement! Either it will show RavaNa in a poor light or will be a praise of Sri Rama! Thus the fourth line will stand out as evidence of the poet’s mastery of the language.
104. This will be understood more clearly, only if I give you an example. Let us say that someone is claiming that he has lot of brains. In the Sanskrit he will say that he has ‘jaasti’ brains let us say; now if you replace the letter ‘ja’ in ‘jaasti’ with a ‘na’, the word will become ‘naasti’, to mean no brains! In the name of ‘Rama’ to show that these two letters of ‘ra and ma’ are as important as the life in the body of a person, they used to remove those two letters from ‘Ashta aksharam’ and ‘Panja aksharam’ respectively and show how the meanings of the Mantras change drastically. To make it clear, from “Om Namo NaaraayaNaya” if you remove ‘ra’; it will become ‘Om Namo NaayaNaya’, meaning changes, from ‘prostrations to NaraayaNa’, it becomes ‘prostrations to the directionless’! Similarly, from the mantra “Nama: Sivaya” if we remove ‘ma’, the meaning changes from ‘obeisance to Siva’, to ‘Na Sivaya’ meaning a ‘no to Siva’! These are examples for the changes in the meaning by removal of one letter.
105. One example of adding one letter. Let us say that there is a gentleman whose name is Ranga Swamy. He is normally called ‘Rangu’. Someone says, “In front of your name add a prefix ‘ku’” for example. His name will become, ‘Ku Rangu’ and in Tamil that means a Monkey! To omit a letter from a word is known as ‘Syavitaaksharam’ in Sanskrit grammer, as part of decorative writing. Similarly to add a letter is known as, ‘Ati dattaaksharam’ and to substitute a letter is called, ‘Prati Dattaaksharam’.
106. Thus Sita’s replies were either omitting or adding or substituting a letter, either in one word or wherever it occurs in the previous three lines; was the sort of terse and brief replies that Sita is supposed to have given as a reply to RavaNa! In this vein Rama Saastry has done 50 slokas. He must have had very vast and detailed knowledge of the language to have been able to do so! He started with the idea of doing 100 such slokas, but could not proceed beyond 50 and I am told that his disciple added the balance 50!
107. Slokas with play on letters is known as ‘VarNa Chitra Kruti’. It is interesting to note that in Sanskrit, all these three words have parallel meanings in the Arts of Painting, Music and Literature! For example the word ‘VarNa’ could mean letters, alphabets, colour, musical sound or note. Chitra could mean painting and description. The word ‘Kruti’ could mean a song, piece, work and or magnum opus in any of these art forms! In Chitra Krutis normally we find much scope for brainy, intricate and puzzling work. There are two main divisions in this. One is play on words and the other is play on meaning. The play on meaning is known as ‘Artha Chitram’ and the play on simply the words is known as ‘Sabda Chitram’. In the ‘Artha Chitram’ category, the subdivision with changes in letters giving different meanings is ‘VarNa Chitram’!
108. In this book of ‘Sita – RavaNa Samvaadam’, the poet has given a MangaLa Sloka on GaNesa. It is in this that he has PiLLaiyaar’s prank with the crescent moon on Siva’s hair locks, is described. As a piece it was responsible for bringing Parvathy and Parameswara together again, when they were having a tiff with each other of ‘praNaya kalaham’ and were ardently looking for an excuse to end their dispute! So, as a Mangala Slokam it is really very pleasing. This sloka is not a ‘chitrakavi’ but is naturally very sweet. The poem is like this:-
“kreedarushta adrija angri praNata – siva – siraschandra khande karaagram / leelaa lolam prasaarya spuratamalabhisaa sankayaa aakrashtu kaama: I udyat hrudya smitaabhyaam aha maha mikayaa aalingyamaana: sivaabhyaam / kachchin – naschintidaartham kalayatu kaLabo baala leela abhiraama: II”
109. This small baby elephant GaNapathi is relishing in playing: “kaLabo baala leelaa abhiraama:” This happy baby may grant us all that we wish for: “na: chintita artham kalayatu”. This is the last line. The way it is playing is described in the first three lines. What are we to call it? Is it mischief or innocent play or childish prank or what? Whatever it is, it is simply captivating to be seen and enjoyed!
110. The Inner Meaning of ‘oodal and koodal’! The word ‘oodal’ as I said before is a tiff between two lovers on some flimsy grounds and ‘koodal’ means reconciliation and rejoining! This daughter of Himawaan the Mountain Himaalayaas is ‘adrija’ that is, Parvathy. She is having a quarrel with her husband, as mentioned by the poet, ‘kreedaa rushtaa’, angry because of having some difference of opinion. Poetical tradition demands that the Lover is to fall flat in the Lady Love’s feet to cajole her! If you see in ‘Geeta Govindam’ you will notice that KrishNa falls in Radha’s feet on such an occasion. In ‘Thiruppugazh’ AruNa Giri Naatha describes as to how Lord SubrahmaNya falls in the feet of VaLLi, the damsel of mountain forest tribe!
111. What is the meaning? This Jeevaatma (the man who thinks of himself to be having a separate existence) is the Naayaki. The Paramaatma is the Hero Nayaka. However much the Jeevaatma may rebel, the Paramaatma will somehow win over by whatever means including beseeching, begging, imploring and pleading! In classics there will be a common friend in the form of a ‘saki’ who will be ready to try high heavens to reconcile and reunite the lovers. She will be a messenger between the warring parties. The Guru who reunites Jeevaatma and Parmaatma is that ‘saki’. Though outwardly it will be as between the Lover and the Loved; the inner meaning that is the ‘tatva artha’ will be about the very Love of Life! In our sloka what the ‘saki’ or Guru does, has been done by the Baby Elephant Lord Ganeshwara!
112. Parvathy is sitting with her face turned away in mock anger. Parama Siva goes and literally falls flat in her feet doing a ‘Namskaar’: ‘praNata Siva’! When he bends and brings his head close to her feet, the ‘Jataa Bhaaram’, the weight of his plaited locks arranged in a cone on his head touches Parvathy’s feet horizontally. At that moment the crescent moon on his head is suddenly, brilliantly seen as a shining piece of whiteness! It is now, here that the ‘Chandra MowLi’ episode comes to the fore!
113. When the elephants get in to a lake or pond and start frolicking, they will catch hold of the stem of the lotuses and eat them. The lotus stems have thin white thread like tissues. The grip of the elephants tusk at a time will be catching hold of a few lotuses and pull them out while twisting and turning them, exposing the white thread like tissue in a bunch. This is the favourite eat for the elephants. Now seeing the white streak of the crescent moon, our baby elephant GaNesha is suddenly reminded of the tuft of white tissues of the lotus flower! He had a doubt: ‘spurat – amala – bisa – aasankhayaa’; meaning, “What is this? Is this a tuft of lotus flower stems?” The phrase ‘aasankhayaa’ means, ‘by this doubt or question’. Instead of doubt, we could call it a guess. So he wanted to grab it; “aakrashtu kaama:”! For what, did he go for it? He did so for eating it of course. May be in his desire to bring the parents back he enacted a scene! After all, the poet has finished saying that ‘the child being fond of play and sport’; “baala leelaabhiraama:”!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.