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Note: This article is dedicated to the memory of M S Subbulakshmi (variously called Nightingale of India, kOkilam, etc.) who left her mortal remains a little over two years ago in December 2004. A little over 40 years ago on October 23, 1966, she gave a Carnatic music concert in the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York to a packed house of international audience. It has been said many a time that whenever she performed on the stage she manifested divinity. Poetry and music are visitations of divinity in humanity. MS, as she was fondly known, was a singular example of that maxim. She manifested divinity through her music. One of the items she sang at the UN was a psalm from SilappathikAram (Thamizh epic poetry), consisting of six stanzas with the first one starting as “vaDavaraiyai maththAkki…” describing the greatness of Lord Krishna. Let us explore the meaning of the verses to understand the poetic splendour and religious accommodation by iLangO aDigaL, who renounced his royalty and embraced the religious order Jainism (and became a saint). MS herself was considered a saint by many and it is fitting that she chose to deliver the song mentioned.
Background:
The hero and heroine of the epic poetry SilappathikAram, KOvalan and KaNNagi, went to Madurai to make a new start in their life together after KOvalan had a fallout with MAdhavi, the dancer in PoompuhAr. KOvalan leaves KaNNagi at the house of a herdswoman (iDaicci in Thamizh) called MAdhari and goes to the city to sell her anklet (silambu in Thamizh). He got betrayed by the king’s jeweller and accordingly he was murdered on the orders of the king, accused of the crime of stealing the queen’s anklet. Concurrently, MAdhari noticed some ill omens in her neighbourhood such as bulls shedding tears, cows wallowing in agony and their neck bells falling on the ground, and milk set to become curd not fermenting in due course. Fearing some impending tragedy she gathered the cowgirls around and arranged a dance called kuravaik kooththu. The following six stanzas are part of that dance. All of them extol the greatness of Lord Krishna. One of the cowgirls was designated as Krishna and all the others took turns to sing and dance around Krishna. iLangO aDigaL refers to Krishna as “mAyavan” throughout. Vishnu is referred to as “thirumAl” or “nArAyaNan”. The stanzas given below can be found in SilappathikAram (Maduraik kANDam, Aycciyar
kuravai)
1. VaDavaraiyai maththu Akki vAsukiyai nAN Akki
kaDalvaNNan paNDu orunAL kaDalvayiRu kalakkinaiyE
kalakkiyakai asOdhaiyAr kaDaikayiRRAl kaTTuNkai
malarkkamala un^dhiyAi mAyamO maruTkaiththE (rAgam: hamsAnandhi)
“Oh Krishna! Using mount Meru (or manthara) as a spindle and the snake vAsuki as a rope you, who has the blue hue of the sea, churned the ocean (of milk) once long ago (with your hands). The very same hands were then tied with a rope used to churn curd (to remove butter) by your (foster) mother YasOdhai to discipline you. Oh, the one who sports a lotus flower on your navel, what a mystery? We are amazed!”
The indication here is that the Lord is omnipotent enough to help churn the vast milky ocean (pARkaDal) but could be kept subdued by the love and discipline manifested by His mother Yasodhai. The poet weaves in the Hindu mythology in this verse with due respect. The churning of the milky ocean involves KUrmAvataram whereby Vishnu took the form of a giant turtle and supported the mountain at the bottom of the ocean when it slipped during the churning by dEvAs and
asurAs.
2. aRuporuL ivanenRE amarargaNam tozhudEththa
uRupasi onRU inRiyE ulagu aDaiya uNDanaiyE
uNDavAy kaLavinAl uRiveNNai uNDavAy
vaNthuzhAy mAlaiyAy mAyamO maruTkaiththE! (rAgam: kamAs)
“The celestials praised you that you are the ultimate. Without being hungry you ate which accrued to the benefit of the whole world. It is the same mouth which also ate the butter that was stolen. You, (who) wear the luscious basil (tuLasi) garland, are a mystery and it amazes us.”
This stanza is very cryptic. Multiple interpretations are possible. The meaning given by ‘Silamboli’ Sellappan in his book ‘SilappathikAram; teLivurai’ (Bharathi Padhippaham) and Sa Ve Subramanian in his book ‘SilappathikAram’ (Gangai Puththaga Nilaiyam) is that Krishna swallowed the whole world (They don’t expand on this explanation). Saint Thyagaraja in his kriti ‘BrOva bAramA’ in the rAgam bahudAri writes
‘shRIvAsudeva aNDakOTula gukSini yuncakO lEdA?’
(Didn’t you protect the crores of the worlds by keeping them in your stomach?). There is also the incident that when YasOdhai accused Krishna of eating dirt and asked him to open his mouth, she was amazed to find the entire universe there.
However, if we take the meaning of “obtain” or “accrue” for “aDaiya”, the interpretation changes. It means that when Krishna ate (even without being hungry), the whole world also felt satiated. This explanation makes more sense than the one given above. In support of this contention there is an episode where Krishna tells his childhood friend SudhAmA (also known as KucElar), who comes to visit him bringing flattened rice (aval) as a snack, “You brought me something which I like most. These grains of beaten rice will satisfy not only me but the whole world” (Srimad Bhagavatam, book 10, ch. 81; episode of sudhAmA). Whatever the poet meant in this verse, it is remarkable for its precision in denoting such mythological details*.
*I am indebted to some friends in an online forum for bringing some of these mythological details to my attention.
3. thiraNDu amarar tozhudhu Eththum thirumAl! n^insengamala
iraNDaDiyAn mUvulagum iruLthIra n^aDan^dhanaiyE
n^aDan^dha aDi panjcavarkkuth thUdhAga n^aDan^dha aDi
maDangalAy! mARu aTTAy! mAyamO? maruTkaiththE. (rAgam: indhOLam)
“All the celestials gather and praise you Oh, ThirumAl! With your red lotus feet you crossed all the three worlds to redeem the people from their evil environment. The very same feet went on a diplomatic mission on behalf of the pANDavAs. You also took the form of the half-lion/half-man to destroy the enemy. All these acts are mysterious and astonishing indeed!”
The reference here is to Vishnu’s narasimha avatar (maDangal means lion). In this avatar Hiranyakasipu was killed as a punishment for his evil deeds. The poet (iLangO aDigaL) was familiar with details of all the avatars of Vishnu to describe them in precise and crisp terms.
The foregoing three verses were all written in second person (munnilai in Thamizh) addressing Krishna. The next three verses are done in third person (paDarkkai in Thamizh) describing Vishnu’s activities in the avatars.
4. mUvulagum IraDiyAn muRainirambA vagaimuDiyath
thAviya sE aDisEppath thambiyoDum kAnpOn^dhu
cO araNum pOrmaDiyath tol ilangai kaTTazhiththa
sEvakansIr kELAdha seviyenna seviyE!
thirumAlsIr kELAdha seviyenna seviyE! (rAgam: shanmugapriyA)
“Thirumal measured all the three worlds in two steps with his feet. Those very same feet got bruised while walking with his brother (ilakkuvan) in the forest. He destroyed the fortress (surrounding the city) and those inside it. He also destroyed the city and kingdom of ilangai. If we do not listen to the greatness of such a valorous person, what is the use of the ears we have? Not listening to the greatness of ThirumAl with our ears is really a waste of that organ.”
Here the reference is first to vAmana avatar who ended the life of Mahabali by asking for three foot-measures (paces) of land and after covering the three worlds (by growing in stature to tiruvikrama) with two steps, placed the third step on Mahabali’s head and ended his life. The next reference is to Ramavataram mentioning Rama’s walk in the forest with his brother (in deference to his father’s command). The destruction of ilangai is also mentioned. In iLangO aDigaL’s period the kingdom of ilangai was an independent entity. The king kayavAgu built a temple for kaNNagi (a reference to this is found in
“varan^dharu kAdhai” (vanjcik kANDam).
5. periyavanai mAyavanaip pErulagam ellAm
virikamala un^dhiyuDai viNNavanaik kaNNum
thiruvaDiyum kaiyum thiruvAyum seyya
kariyavanaik kANAdha kaN enna kaNNE!
kaN imaiththuk kANbArtham kaN enna kaNNE! (rAgam: paras)
“He is supreme; he is an expert in creating illusions; He has a fully blossomed lotus on his navel which carries all the worlds. He is dark-complexioned with beautiful eyes, feet, hands and mouth. If our eyes can’t see him they lose their value! One has to look at him without blinking in order to realise the value of the eyes!”
Again mythology is mentioned with respect to Brahma being created on a lotus flower stemming from the navel of Vishnu. Brahma is the creator of the worlds and hence it is considered that all the worlds are contained in the navel of Vishnu.
6. maDamthAzhum nenjcaththuk kanjcanAr vanjcam
kaDan^dhAnai, nURRuvarpAl nARRisaiyum pORRap
paDarn^dhu AraNam muzhangap panjcavarkkuth thUdhu
naDan^dhAnai EththAdha nA enna nAvE!
nArAyaNA ennA nA enna nAvE! (rAgam: kApi)
“He (Krishna) conquered his ignorant and cruel uncle, Kamsan. Krishna went on the diplomatic mission on behalf of the five pANDavAs to the hundred some Kauravas with the accompaniment of the resonant ringing of Vedas. What is the use of the tongue if it doesn’t praise his greatness? If the tongue doesn’t utter the name ‘nArAyaNA’, what is the use of it?”
The foregoing three stanzas, describe sensual means to experience divinity. The poet was very gracious and liberal in acknowledging the honour that is due to the Hindu god Vishnu, despite the fact he embraced Jainism. He is not being just secular but very much accommodating the sensitivities of those who constitute the subject matter of the epic. Great poetry expressing supreme thoughts with splendid diction is seen throughout.
It is interesting that the poet makes the herdswomen recite these eulogies for Krishna in order to forestall any evil happenings to their cows and their community. One tragedy (the murder of KOvalan) had already occurred which the community would learn in due course. The recital of the kuravaik kooththu is all the more relevant in view of the similarity of the profession of these women (tending cows) of Madurai with those of gOkulam where Krishna grew up. The cow-tending community in Madurai was on the banks of the river Vaigai and that in gOkulam lived on the banks of the river
Yamunai.
You can listen to the rendition of this and other songs by MS at the 1966 UN concert at the following URL. The rAgams mentioned alongside the verses were set by
S V
Venkataraman, an associate of MS.
Sethuraman Subramanian
subramaniansethu@hotmail.com
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