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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00077 Dec 2002

 
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Dear friends,

The second perspective of Rain in the TiruppAvai is far less global
than the first. It is what we might call a local, rather provincial
perspective of Rain. It is indicated in the expression "teenginri
nAdellAm tinggaL mummAri peyydhu..." appearing in Stanza No: 3. In
this stanza AndAl speaks of rainfall in the context of "nAdellAm",
and not "ulagellAm" -- i.e. she speaks of Rain as it happens in the
countryside; not Rain in the larger ecological or global sense of the
term we saw above. 

The Tamil word "nAdu" has a distinct local flavour to it. It means
"country", "province", "district" etc. For e.g. we say
"BhAratha-nadu" to localize the country of India from the rest of the
world; we say "Tamil Nadu" to localize it from the rest of India just
to indicate that Tamil-speaking peoples live in that part of the
country; and within T.Nadu, "Rama-nAdu" becomes the local province
surrounding the town of Ramanathapuram... and so on, so forth. In
every case, the term "nAdu" is used as a suffix for the purpose of
localization. So, might we say that the phrase "nAdellAm mummAri
pEyydhu" too has a distinctly local or provincial focus to it. Who
knows, ANdAL perhaps was talking here about the provinces surrounding
her own native SriVilliputtur!

What is revealing about this perspective is that it points us to the
delicate but deep-rooted link existing between Rain and the local
ethos of societies and communities. It is a link that any modern
anthropologist would recognize immediately, understand completely and
attest readily. But we don't really need Anthropology to explain it.
A single epigram of the "tirukkural" will simply do instead.

The great Tamil poet, Tiruvalluvar comes to our aid in understanding
the perspective of AndAl's expression, "nAdellAm mummAri peyydhu". In
his immortal classic "Tirukkural" ("adi:2"; "vAn sirappu": "se:9")
Tiruvalluvar wrote:

"dAnam tavam-irandUn tangA viyanUlagam vAnam vazhangA-dhenin"

"Neither Charity nor 'tapas' (self-discipline and austerities) will
abide in the society of man if heavens should hold back their
showers!" (Kural translation by Sri.V.V.S.Iyer). 

Tiruvalluvar states that it is Rain and Water (the "peru-neer" of
AndAl) which sustain and nourish all deeply held human values of
Charity ('dAnam'), Self-Discipline and Self-Restraint ('tavam').
Without such values no society or community can survive or prosper
for long. Everything that is noble in human community viz. family
life, mutual respect and caring, good neighbourliness, amity,
fraternity, etc., all these fine and lofty qualities to which Man 
aspires in human society, all of them would be impossible to realize
if there was no Rain. 

If you happen today to be a citizen (or ex-resident, as I am) of the
city of Madras, India, you would not need to look far beyond the
circumstance and experience of living in that unfortunate city in
order to have the truth and wisdom of Tiruvalluvar's terse
observation confirmed beyond a shadow of doubt.

Madras today is chronically rain-deficient. The monsoon, alas, fails
it repeatedly, year after year. Drinking water has become acutely
scarce. The wells are dry. The temple-tanks are absolutely dry. No
"teppOtsavam-s" (temple "float-festivals") are celebrated anywhere
anymore! The city's water-lines run empty for most part of the year.
In some local neighbourhoods people scramble daily from pillar to
post, trying to somehow grab their meager daily-rations of water, be
it for drinking, washing or gardening! 

It is a terrible and wretched sight indeed to see the common
women-folk of Madras, who are otherwise known for demure
self-restraint, abusing each other and coming to blows, out in the
streets and alleys, while waiting their turn at the long water-queues
that form at community wells! 

It is tragic to see normally courteous neighbours in large
apartment-blocks in the city, overnight turning hostile towards each
other. They cannot anymore bear to look upon each other as good,
next-door friends since, come morning, they will be facing each other
as bitter contestants for the day's water-rations! 

Perhaps the most heart-rending of all sights however is to see young
Brahmin boys in Madras homes telling their fathers and mothers, "Why
do you keep pestering me to perform the daily 'sandhyAvandam' rite? I
always regarded it as a waste of time. Can't you see now it is waste
of precious water too!"

The folks of Madras (at least those I knew in the neighbourhood I
once used to live in) were once a warm, generous and courteous
society. Today, they are anything but that. Their charitableness,
good-nature and fine human qualties are things of the past. They have
become today a somewhat coarse, surly and uncharitable lot. But the
fault is not all theirs. I believe it truly has something to do with
the Rains ("peru-neer") that kept failing them all these years...
Looking at them I know that Tiruvalluvar could not have been more
right in his wise observation: the culture of a community does
degenerate rapidly when the "heavens hold back their showers!"
--"dAnam tavam-irandUn tangA viyanUlagam vAnam vazhangA-dhenin". 

******** *********** ***********

If we have grasped this important message from the Tirukkural, and if
we are able to appreciate how profoundly cultural values of human
communities or provinces are shaped and influenced by Rain, then we
should have no difficulty at all understanding the perspective
underlying AndAl's famous words in the TiruppAvai: 

"teengginri nAdellAm tinggal mUmmAri peyydhu... niraindhu elOr!"

*********** ************* *************

(to be continued)

Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan

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