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Avvaiyar

The Fearless Wanderer

Translations by C. Rajagopalachari

The anger of the little-minded divides like a crack


in stone
There are others who when angered are like gold
That divides but easily welds again
But the anger of noble souls that walk in the
righteous path
Is like the arrow’s wound in water
Which splashes momentarily but itself unites
again.
Avvaiyar

AVVAIYAR is loved and respected in given to a series of women poets. form of an old woman and thus avoid
Tamil Nadu as an incarnation of the Avvaiyar is constructed in legend as a marriage (see pages 18 to 29 of this issue).
goddess of learning, Saraswati. There are grand old woman, with flowing white hair, Avvaiyar is the most popular of the
even some shrines dedicated to her. who was totally fearless, afraid of neither classic Tamil poets. Her poems are read by
The most accepted theory is that she ruler nor wild animal nor supernatural young children — the first thing a Tamil
lived in the Sangam period, the golden force. She struck terror into the hearts of child reads is her Attichudi or alphabet
period of classical Tamil literature and art. the unjust. She wandered the land, aphorisms. She is also read by scholars
Another theory is that she lived in the time admonishing husbands and wives who among classics of the highest rank.
of Cheraman Perumal, the eighth century misbehaved, and advising rulers. Simplicity of expression and terseness are
king. Yet another theory is that she was a Tradition has it that she was the child the characteristic features of her verse.
contemporary of Kamban, the twelfth of an untouchable mother and a high caste
century poet who wrote the Tamil father, was abandoned, and was brought On the hospitality of shepherd girls
Ramayana. These conflicting theories up by untouchables. Another version is Angava and Sangava who sheltered her
have helped perpetuate the legend that she that she belonged to the caste of dancing from rain, fed her and gave her their own
lived for many centuries. It is also likely girls. From childhood, she worshipped small sized half-sari to wear:
that the name “Avvaiyar” or mother was Ganesh and invoked his aid to achieve the

30 MANUSHI
These girls with arms all full of Of the Pandyan King, the royal We cross the wide ocean, we pretend,
bangles, scholar? we enslave and rule,
They served me their feast, warm and I was pressed and was pushed and my We sing eulogies, and we lead our
fragrant hunger sore oppressed me, souls to the Pit:
And asked me to eat as much as I My belly shrank, but of rice I had All for a measure of rice for this
liked, nothing. tyrant Belly.
Pouring the ghee on it,
It was green, and they said it was z z
only vegetables cooked,
But really they served me Amrit! When a woman, at her husband’s bidding, Look at the swallow’s ties’, or the
z very unwillingly served food to Avvai: beautiful lac,
Poor Barri the shelpherd held me by The white ant’s wonderful structure;
my cloth Alas! my eyes blink to see, Look at the honey and the hive of the
And would not let me go at all from My hands shake with shame, bee;
his house. And my good mouth refuses to open Or the little spider’s delicate web:
And simple Kaari of Paliyanur And all my bones burn so with pain No mortal man can imitate these.
Gave me his pick-axe, saying, dig At the sight of food so unwillingly served! Let no one therefore vaunt his skill
with me. Because he can do this or that.
Seraman said, come let us go to z There is none but in something
Kailas. excels.
These three love-offerings rank high The divine poets Kural, the sum of z
And rank with the little blue sari the sacred Vedas,
That the girls so lovingly gave for me The Thevaram of the Three (Shaivite Harshness cannot succeed against
to wear. saints) gentleness,
z The Tiruvaimczhi of the (Vaithnav) The arrow speeds its way through the
(on a woman married to an unworthy sage, wild elephant
man) the Tirukkovai, the Tiruvachakam, But it cannot pierce through yielding
If I could get at the Brahma (the creator) the Tirumantram of Tirumular, cotton.
that yoked All are but one and the same The rock that breaks not for
This deer to this dry log of a man teaching. the blows of the long crowbar
I would wring his four necks and fling We bow to the undeserving we Splits under the gentle stress of the
his four heeds wander, and we beg,
To go the same way that the fifth
went before.

A virtuous wife worthy of her lord


Makes life happy under my conditions.
But when there is incompatibility
Don’t tell any one, but take sanyaas.

Take it not always that relatives


Are those whom blood unites.
Disease that is born with you,
Does it not kill?
The herb that grows in the distant
jungle,
Does it not save you?
Will you hear me how 1 feasted at the
great Wedding

NUMBER 50-51-52 (January-June 1989)


green treeroot. from the sun.
Compare the king and the man of Of afflictions hard to bear,
learning; Hard, very hard to bear is poverty;
The scholar’s dominion is greater Harder still is poverty in youth.
than the king’s. Greater affliction than that
The king’s glory is limited to his Is disease incurable.
domains; But harder is his lot
But the scholar is esteemed wherever Who is yoked to a wife
he may go. Who loves him not.
And his affliction greatest,
z Who has to look to such a one
Men may do deadly evil unto them; For his daily food.
Consider it well, this body is but a The wise will yet exert to save these
worthless home men. Verses by Avvaiyar, translated by C.
For poisonous worms and diseases Have you seen men aim deadly blows Rajagopalachari in his monograph Avvaiar,
numberless. With axes at the stately tree? Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1971, which had
The wise know this and so like the Until the end when the noble tree earlier appeared in Gandhi’s Young India.
water on the lotus falls down Commentary compiled from this
Without attachment pass their lives It throws its hospitable shade monograph, and from material sent in by
in silence. On the axe-men, and protects them Akhila Shivdas and Shri Ramachandran.

S.S. Vasan’s Avvaiyar


THE life and times of a legendary in a storm. Picked up by a childless the rest of her life, her voyages take her
mystic have been portrayed in S. S. Brahman couple, she grows into a through the kingdoms of the Cholas, the
Vasan’s Avvaiyar (1953), which was re-run precocious young girl, far ahead of her Pandyas and the Cheras, the three great
on national TV recently. Vasan has used years in poetic ability and philosophical powers, whose territories are depicted in
material drawn from folklore and tradition wisdom. The major crisis of her life, which Sangam literature. This gives Vasan an
with incidents born of his own invention. leads her to recognise and accept her opportunity to introduce several incidents,
In any case, authentic information is religious vocation, is depicted with a which are supposed to throw light on
lacking regarding this saintsinger of the generous dose of the miraculous. An Avvaiyar’s benign influence on the spiritual
early days of the Christian era, on which elephant appears before the young girl and intellectual life of the day. There are
Vasan could have based his screenplay. and guides her away from her carefree miracles galore. Avvaiyar sings and draws
In Vasan’s hands, the film has developed companions to an image of Lord Ganesha, forth rain from the skies to succour a
into a strange blend of fable and fantasy, set in a forest clearing. The Lord reveals droughtstricken population. She moves
revealing less the beliefs of the Sangam to his teenage devotee her life’s mission among the common people and advises
age to which Avvaiyar belonged, than the as a peripatetic religious teacher, in the them not to be avaricious and wicked;
ideas of contemporary Tamilnadu southern kingdoms. Avvaiyar is then those who do not heed her advice are
regarding women who take to the pledged to be married to the son of a local punished miraculously.
independent life of a religious leader and chieftain, who is emamoured of her looks. Avvaiyar’s role in the Tamil renaissance
litterateur. Realising that her beauty is an obstacle, of the Sangam age has been portrayed by
In order to cover Avvaiyar’s life-span, that would prevent her miraculously from Vasan in loving detail. Her words of
Vasan has adopted an episodic approach fulfilling her godgiven vocation, Avvaiyar wisdom couched in the simple language
to the story. Incidents are strung together seeks and is granted the boon of the loss of the ordinary man, replete with images
loosely. We start with Avvaiyar’s birth as of her youthful good looks. Transformed drawn from daily life, have been set to
the daughter of a low-caste mother and a into a middleaged, greyhaired woman, she haunting melodies. Although she is not a
Brahmin father, abandoned and left to die then sets out on her lifelong travels. For member of the Sangam (the poetic group

32 MANUSHI
organised around the Pandyan court), lyrics attributed to Avvaiyar and set them and are later married off bigamously to the
Vasan makes Avvaiyar play the main part to inspired, enthralling music. same king (played by matinee idol, Gemini
in compelling the Sangam to extend Vasan and Sundarambal between them Ganesan). Avvaiyar’s vocation therefore
recognition to Tiruvalluvar, the author of have also made Avvaiyar’s religious poses no challenge to the traditional
the great Tirukkural. When the leading vocation appear perfectly credible. This bastions of male superiority nor to man’s
lights of the Sangam criticise the two line redounds to their credit, especially when divine right to rule over woman.
stanza and simple poetic diction of we remember how sadly, later films like Vasan shows the same preference for
Tiruvalluvar, Avvaiyar challenges them to Gulzar’s “Meera” have failed to make a the status quo in other matters. He steers
a test in which the miraculous again comparable impact. Hema Malini in Gulzar’s clear of anything that could be construed
intervenes. She drops the Tirukkural into movie is gauche and unconvincing; there as controversial. The fact of Avvaiyar’s
the temple tank at Madurai and it is raised is in her none of the dignity and confidence birth as the offspring of an intercaste union
to the surface in a vast golden lotus, proof of Sundarambal’s portrayal. Neither the is not developed by Vasan as an occasion
of the enduring quality of this great piece character of Avvaiyar nor the poetic to criticise the rigidity and cruelty of the
of literature. ambience of the period have been caste system. Avvaiyar unlike other
By and by, her life draws to a close. cheapened and for this Vasan must be religious reformers, does not deride
Avvaiyar cries out to god to relieve her of complimented. meaningless religious rituals. Both of these
the weary load of duty and devotion, Lord Granted all this, however, nowhere has are topics on which most saints of the
Subramanya of Palani appears and takes Vasan used the film to comment on the
bhakti tradition have generally voiced
her up to heaven amidst general rejoicing. low status of women in society. In the
their views. But Vasan’s intention is
This is Vasan’s storyline, told with a context of narrating the story of a woman
evidently not to focus on Avvaiyar’s role
great deal of spectacle and ceremony. poet and religious leader, such a reference
as a social reformer.
Vasan is a producer cast in the Cecil B. de would have been most natural and
Vasan stints no effort, however, in
Mille mould. He was among the earliest of appropriate. The producer skirts the issue
projecting Avvaiyar as a leading
the Indian moviemakers to imitate the itself. Avvaiyar hands out advice in all the
protagonist in the revival of Tamil
Hollywoodian style of massive situations that confront her. But Vasan
productions, full of scenes built on a grand makes her opinions conform strictly to the language and culture during the Sangam
scale. His sole preoccupation is current stereotypes of the respective roles age. Glorifying the poets of this period
straightforward entertainment. To this end. of the sexes. would have been popular in Tamilnadu
he is prepared to put in anything that would Avvaiyar’s independence and during the early ’50s when the DMK was
keep his audience riveted to the screen. intelligence are confined to her alone; she mobilising mass support in the state by
Although Avvaiyar is a three-hour is never presented as a role model for other arousing the pride of the people in Tamil
extravaganza, Vasan succeeds in holding women. She is qualified to be a votary of (as opposed to Sanskrit) culture. In
his viewers spellbound. Marvel is piled on god only because she has been set apart addition to the incidents built around the
marvel. Elephants storm a huge fortress from the ordinary run of mortals from birth Sangam and the Tirukkural, throughout
wall. The ground cracks open in a itself. Other women are not entitled to the the movie, Avvaiyar is referred to as the
terrifying earthquake to block the path of same privilege. The distinction between “mother of Tamil” and the great reviver of
an invading army. A ghost shrieks and Avvaiyar and other women is clearly drawn Tamil civilisation. Vasan’s “Avvaiyyar” is
screams in a haunted temple. The structure at the moment when Avvaiyar surrenders the personification of Tamil culture; she is
of the film itself encourages digressions her beauty and youth to god and moves never meant to be the embodiment of ideal
and Vasan moves swiftly from reel to reel beyond the pale of social norms. This womanhood.
with no other thought than to fix his action liberates her from the usual Vasan has used the story of Avvaiyar
viewers’ attention. compulsions of a woman’s life—she does principally to extol the nascent Tamil
For all his gimmicks, however, Vasan not have to make a satisfactory marriage nationalism of his days and to entertain
has succeeded in imbuing his heroine with or become a dutiful wife. the masses with music, magic and marvels.
some of the essence of true religious Avvaiyar is fully conscious of the To a certain extent, he has succeeded in
exaltation. His choice of K.B. Sundarambal difference between her destiny and that capturing the solitary quest of the mystic,
for the main role is a tour de force. Her of the rest of womankind. She sees no drunk with god and fixed ori salvation for
glorious singing voice and serene contradiction in advising an “erring” self and the world. But the impact of the
portrayal bear the stamp of an extraordinary woman to submit herself patiently and film in terms of what it has expressed
personality. Sundarambal strides devotedly to her husband. There is much regarding the right of women to lead
majestically through the film, the very else in the movie that is derogatory to the independent and fulfilled lives is
picture of intelligence and humanity, status of women. The two daughters of negligible.
breaking into song in almost every frame. Parivalluvar are blessed by Avvaiyar to
Vasan has drawn on the rich repertoire of become worthy wives of a great husband —Renuka Viswanathan

NUMBER 50-51-52 (January-June 1989)

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