WITNESS
Who is a witness? A person who has got first hand
information about an happening or an event is a witness. A person who vouches
for the identity or signature of a person is a witness. A person who stands
testimony for an agreement or a contract or a fact or any other legal binding,
is a witness. In case of any legal violation or accusation, the judiciary
immediately looks for the statement of the witness. The fact that the witness
has seen an event or heard a thing or is helpful in establishing a
circumstantial evidence is also legally very helpful. These evidences provided
by the witness, goes into the arguments by the arms of the justice through
advocates, policemen and so on. and are largely responsible for
establishing a true and fair trial of the case. Thus, when any dispute arises in
the court of law, immediately the look out is for witness, the search for
direct/indirect evidence from the witness and the sifting of these evidences in
consonance of the rules of frameowrk of the law, justice and constitution of a
particular nation leads in not only arriving at a reasonable administration of
the law of the land but also natural justice.
This practice of legal system has been in vogue for
centureis, why centuries even in earlier yugAs, in the royal dhurbArs, why
dhurbArs, has been practice even as early as, in the times of great epics
and silappadhigAram. The lack of proper analysis of evidence and
non-consideration of an appropriate witness led to rank failure of justice and
faiplay in the silappadhigAram. Such is the import and importance of witness.
Have AzhwAr's relied upon any witness? Have they
talked about witness? Yes, the list includes mArkaNdEya maharishi, beetle,
arjunA, shivA and so on. What was the need for witness? Was there any dispute?
Well! in case of mArkaNdEya maharishi, shivA and arjunA they were summoned to
establish to the world the supremacy of Lord nArAyanA whereas the beetle had to
establish the promise made by the Lord to AzhwAr.
First let us start with thirumangai AzhwAr - being
parakAla nAyaki- longs for His arrival and calls for thirup pullAni Lord. It may
be recalled that there was an allegation by AzhwAr that the Lord does not keep
up His promise and He has imbibed this habit from his mate thiru anthaZhwAn. The
question arises whether there was any witness for this promise?
"konguN vaNdE kariyAga vandhAn,
kodiyEARku, mun
nangaL Esan namakkEA paNitha
mozhi seidhilan,
mangainalvAi thozhudhum ezhu pOi avan
mannum vUR,
pongu munnEr karaikkEa maNi vundhu
pullANiyEA"
periya thiru mozhi 8-3-4
kari = sAkshi=
witness
parkAla nAyaki desires to visit thirup
pullANi. Her thOzhi -friend- enquires what connexion she has got with the Lord
of thirup pullANi, for which she explains that she and Lord had met there
earlier. The thOzhi's suggestion is that they should go alongwith a person who
is witness to that event. This pAsuram emerges. The beetle which drinks the
honey is the only witness to this event. This beetle is from the garland of the
Lord who is always submerged in this act of consuming honey, cannot comprehend
the agony of AzhwAr and hence the question of the witness appearing in person is
ruled out here. Hence, the words 'kodiyEARku' .Alas! the
only witness is the beetle who will not come up as a witness is thiru mangai
AzhwAr's which leads to my despair.
(to be continued)
vanamamalai padmanabhan
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