vasya10:
This is the first time that I hear somebody sing one of Bharathi's songs almost in its entirety. Santhanam sings 11 of the 12 verses in that song. He left out the second verse starting with "nenjciR kanal maNakkum pUkkaL..". Bharathi says the wild flowers are fiery and fragrant. How can something be fiery and fragrant when you think about them? But yet it is so pleasing. Santhanam delivers it in soft tones.
The song starts with describing the beautiful sylvan landscape surrounded by rivers and hills and replete with wild animals, the madien's tiresome journey looking for kaNNan, and her falling asleep. Then she has a nightmare of a hunter telling her that he is madly in love with the maiden but yet while declaring his love to her and the life that they can live together he does not dare do any harm to her. The maiden requests the hunter to see her as his sister and tells him that he should not even look (with lust) at someone who is married to another person. The hunter is persistent in his demand and he wants only the damsel saying that a look at her makes him intoxicated (like what aged toddy does). The denoument is delectable in that our maiden wakes up to see the hunter gone from the scene. She thinks that kaNNan sent the hunter fleeing away and thanks him for his grace. Beautiful song!
A visit with Subramanya Bharathi
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vgvindan
- Posts: 1430
- Joined: 13 Aug 2006, 10:51
IMHO, the kRti 'dikkutteriyAda kATTil' is a description of the search of paramAtma - husband - by jIvAtma - wife - in the midst of the lovely (endless) woods of Worldly Existence where the hunter 'mAya' (co-born of viShnu) masquerading as the lover seduces the jIvAtmA every moment; the search will be over only when we wake up from this (bad) dream.
Ramalinga Adigal would joyously cry out about the bondage between paramAtma and jIvAtma as 'unakkum enakkum isainda poruttam enna poruttamO!' (what a match between You and Me!)- a bondage symbolically expressed as between husband - wife.
Kannadasan would sing - 'vIDu varai manaivi, kADu varai piLLai, kaDaisi varai yArO' (wife comes upto the gate; the son comes upto cremation ground; after that who?)
That 'who' is the person being searched.
This is the upaniSadic example a pair of birds in the tree.
This is also the essence of the story of Tulasi; SankachUda - her husband goes for war; Vishnu comes to Tulasi in the form of her husband and lives with her; with the innate feelings one has, Tulasi identifies the person whom she considers as husband is only an imposter and when Vishnu reveals himself, she says that her chastity has been violated. It is actually the other way round and Vishnu had to tell Tulasi what her original desire was and how she was lost mid-way.
Ramalinga Adigal would joyously cry out about the bondage between paramAtma and jIvAtma as 'unakkum enakkum isainda poruttam enna poruttamO!' (what a match between You and Me!)- a bondage symbolically expressed as between husband - wife.
Kannadasan would sing - 'vIDu varai manaivi, kADu varai piLLai, kaDaisi varai yArO' (wife comes upto the gate; the son comes upto cremation ground; after that who?)
That 'who' is the person being searched.
This is the upaniSadic example a pair of birds in the tree.
This is also the essence of the story of Tulasi; SankachUda - her husband goes for war; Vishnu comes to Tulasi in the form of her husband and lives with her; with the innate feelings one has, Tulasi identifies the person whom she considers as husband is only an imposter and when Vishnu reveals himself, she says that her chastity has been violated. It is actually the other way round and Vishnu had to tell Tulasi what her original desire was and how she was lost mid-way.
Last edited by vgvindan on 22 Feb 2007, 10:43, edited 1 time in total.
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mahakavi
Nice interpretation vgvindan! Bharathi's mind was expansive as well as inclusive.vgvindan wrote:IMHO, the kRti 'dikkutteriyAda kATTil' is a description of the search of paramAtma - husband - by jIvAtma - wife - in the midst of the lovely (endless) woods of Worldly Existence where the hunter 'mAya' (co-born of viShnu) masquerading as the lover seduces the jIvAtmA every moment; the search will be over only when we wake up from this (bad) dream.
Kannadasan would sing - 'vIDu varai manaivi, kADu varai piLLai, kaDaisi varai yArO' (wife comes upto the gate; the son comes upto cremation ground; after that who?)
That 'who' is the person being searched.
Just a small correction. Kannadasan wrote, "vIDu varai uRavu, vIdi varai manaivi, kADu varai piLLai, kaDaisi varai yArO". All relationships (of relatives) end outside the house, the wife comes up to the street (when you depart), the son comes up to the cemetery to cremate you, and who is to guide (take care of) you thereafter? Very philosophical that is appreciated when one is at the end of his journey!