|
Continued from yesterday’s instalment
 Kamban captures the picture of Guha’s anger in eleven verses. He talks of insolent might coming after the life of his generous hearted Lord, he frets, fumes and feverishly shouts about the warrior that he is, though a simple hunter, not being a coward and would not allow himself to be cowed down by the vast army of Bharata. Among other things, that we will see presently, there is something curious that Guha mentions twice in these eleven verses, that captures a facet of his character so very clearly.
‘aazha nedum thirai aaRu kadandhu ivar pOvaarO?’ Will they dare crossing the deep waters of Ganges?
‘vEzha nedum padai kaNdu vilangidum villaaLO?’ Am I an archer who is afraid of the large numbers of elephants in his army? Did he think that I, being a hunter, would be afraid of his elephants, horses and chariots and would take him across the river?
‘thOzhamai endru avar solliya sol oru sol andrO?’ Did Rama not call me a ‘friend’? Is that not a word born of generosity? He called this mere hunter his friend! Does it not show that my Lord is so kind hearted?
‘Ezhamai vEdan irandhilan endru enai EsaarO?’ Will people not ridicule me if I allow them to cross over? Would they not say, ‘Guha, the lowliest, let Bharata cross the Ganges, when he could have stopped him. He should have died instead. He should not have let Bharata to the other side.’
Rama did call Guha his friend. There is no doubt about that.
‘yaadhinum iniya naNba iruththi eeNdu emmodu endraan.’ ‘My friend who is dearer than anything to me! Stay here as you please, along with us,’ was what Rama said when Guha met him in the hermitage, before he crossed over to reach Citrakuta. But Guha became more than a friend soon. He was included in the family and Rama declared that Guha was his brother and that they become ‘five’ with Guha. Going by the final word of Rama, Guha should have actually said
‘sagOdharan endru avar solliya sol oru sol andrO?’ Did he not call me his brother? Am I not one among them? Should I not do all in my power and beyond to stop this incursion?
 After all, it was Kamban who modified the version of Valmiki and created this relationship between Rama and Guha, to emphasise the love that develops between the devotee and the devoted. It would not be without reason that Guha stops with what Rama said at an initial stage and does not mention what he said finally. At least Kamban would have taken care to put that word into Guha’s mouth! Or was it dictated by the golden rules of prosody? The word
‘thozhamai’ is placed in the beginning of the line, where the rhyme scheme of all Tamil verses (known as
‘edhukai’) fall. Is that phrase ‘one who called me a friend’ is a result of an unthinking obedience to rules of prosody, rather than emphasising the truth, while still playing the game well within the rules? Was Kamban not capable of doing so?
Then it becomes necessary for us to look for more evidence. We should find another verse from Guha’s speech, where the same word or a synonym falls from his mouth, in a place, which enables one to safely conclude that the Poet intended Guha to use the word ‘friend’ instead of ‘brother’. To put it differently, the word should occur somewhere in the middle of the line, instead of at the beginning, where it may appear as an attempt to appease the demands of versification.
More follows...
Hari Krishnan
Previous
Articles
|
|
