Drama of surpassing interest

KALITTOKAI IN ENGLISH: Translation with critical introduction by Dr. V. Murugan; Institute of Asian Studies, Chemmancherry, Sholinganallur, Chennai-600119. Rs. 700.

ONE OF the ancient Sangam classics, Kalittokai is verily a grammar of Akam aesthesis. The inner space of the heart and the nuances of human love get exemplified through colourful imagery and a poetry that literally speaks to us across the divide of almost two millennia. Apparently romantic, Kalittokai yet contains didactic significations and hence has been the delight of Tamil scholars. Especially because the classic has a fine commentary by the legendary Nachinarkiniyar (14th century), a work that is a treasure-trove for research scholars. It may be mentioned here that each of the 149 lyrics in the work stages a drama of surpassing interest.

The entire text has now been made available to a global readership by Dr. V. Murugan. His introduction helps us understand the Akam aesthesis so that we are able to view the dramas in our mind's inscape with subdued excitement.

For instance, no names are mentioned ``which may imply that the Akam poet should not pin down his characters to any particular time or place. It might also be that the ancient Tamils wanted to hand down a cosmic poetry with universal men and women as characters living the rhythm and joy of human life.'' The world of Kalittokai is interested in life, not in death or speculations about after-life. Naturally this turns the focus on man-woman relationship all the time. It then becomes natural for the poet to deal with love before and after marriage, the problem of extra-marital relationships and the existence of a courtesan world.

The courtesan (Parathai) of this work is no ordinary prostitute. She is more in the line of the Japanese Geisha, an accomplished companion for man tired with the tensions of work-life. Tirukkural and other ethical works frown upon men seeking the companionship of prostitutes and works like Kalittokai make use of the wife to criticise the courtesan. Thus the poet Marudan Ilanagan makes a wife address her baby son, coaxing him to drink milk:

Your father goes about

Taking to enticing of harlots of his choice,

With the crafty minstrel wont to make many a guile

Serving to angel for those women;

You can drink his share of the milk.

Apart from such normal lives, we have also other snippets of reality. The conversation between a lusty dwarf and a daring hunchback provides a contrastive picture (Marutam, 93). The heart-warming poesy in the Tamil original is a continuous interaction with nature. Copious imagery drawn from nature marks these verses. This is Kapilar's heroine singing even as she hulls the millet:

We'll sing a song

Denouncing the slopes of the lofty hill hard of access

Of the one,

Who my ailment of passion caused

Leaving my beauty to wither,

The beauty that resembles

The shoots of the boughs

With full-blown flowers overspread in thick clusters

Weighing them down.

Dr. Murugan's English translation flows on with conversational ease and he speaks of the Sangam closeness to nature as ``a hylozoistic vision of life where inanimate objects are endowed with animation, or even with a soul.'' Our warm thanks to the patience and perseverence of the translator who has made the reading of Kalittokai a joyous experience as if one were relaxing in a world that knew the art of gracious living.

PREMA NANDAKUMAR

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Ancient history of Tamil Nadu
Next     : 'Hidden agenda of TRIPS'