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thiruppavai day seven song seven

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ramani Naidu • December 21, 2002 


TIRUPPAVAI  - DAY SEVEN – SONG SEVEN

Transliteration

kIsukIcenrenkum AnaiccAththan kalantu
pEcina pEccaravam kEttilaiyO pEyppennE
kAcum piRappum kalakalappak kaipErththu
vAca naRum kuLal Aycciyar maththinAl
Ocaippatuththa tayiraravam kEttilaiyO
nAyakap penpillAy nArayanan murththi
kEcavanaip pAtavum nI kEtte kitaththiyO
thEcamutaiyAy thiRavElOrempAvAy.

Translation

DonÂ’t you hear the shrill screech of the king crows?
You are besides yourself, we are sure!
DonÂ’t you hear the churning staff of the fragrant haired
shepherdesses
And the jingle of the lockets on their thali?
ArenÂ’t you the chief of the maids here?
Do you keep lying even as we sing in praise of Kesava?
ArenÂ’t you the lady bright? WonÂ’t you open the doors?

The seventh song, in continuation of what began in the sixth song, is a more
insistent appeal to the maid within the house to get up and join the troop
of women on pavai observance.
The screech of the king crows in the morning is so shrill and so spread
through that they cannot be missed. One should be besides oneself indeed not
to be woken up by such shrill noise. The king crow is a skylark like bird in
India. Like the skylark it has a long tail shaped like a V at the bottom. It
shoots perpendicularly  up the sky and shoots down to float horizontally. As
it shoots up it starts its high pitched screech which grows in volume and as
it descends,  the volume of the screech gradually with a shrill screech
again. The appearance of the bird is a typical morning scene in India.

Churning the curds is a typical early morning activity of the womenfolk.
Besides the noise of the churning staff, one could hear the jingle of the
‘thali’, the mark of marriage worn at the neck by the women. It varies from
the simplest thread to the most ornate gold chain. Whether in its simplest
form or in its most ornate form, it will have two types of lockets. One is
moulded and the other is in the form of thin gold coins. The moulded locket
will have the coins on both the sides. As the women swing their torso along
with the rope round the churn staff, the thali is thrown out and sideways
alternatively and the lockets jingle. This is a very dramatic rendering of
the early morning activity of the household women in the village of the
shepherds. The scene has been graphically evoked in this song.
Moreover, the shepherdess are said to have fragrant hair. While churning
curd, the air will be filled with the smell of fermented curd churned into
buttermilk. Such smell which is slightly offensive to the nose is offset by
the fragrance from the hair of the swinging women as they churn the curd.
The maid  who has not yet joined the others is not one among the many. She
is the leader of the troop of maids observing the pavai. Therefore the
reprove that she of all continues to lie abed though it is time for the
pavai rituals. The maids wonder that such a maid is still abed despite the
song in praise of Kesava they have already started singing.

Kesava is another name of Narayana. The name has three references. First, it
is the name of Narayana, the God of gods. Secondly, it refers to the
glorious hair of Narayana. Thirdly, it refers to the vanquishing of Kesi,
the monster. Kesi was a monster in the form of a horse. Kamsa despatched
Kesi to throw scareballs amidst the shepherds and kill Krishna. Krishna grew
in magnitude; held his huge arm between  the jaws of the horse; knocked away
the teeth and tore the horse diagonally into two.

The maid within is not only their leader.  She is also the one endowed with
brightness by virtue of her happiness at the experience of the Divine. It is
surprising indeed that such a maid is so late to join the others in pavai
observance.

Traditional interpretation of the song associates the qualities ascribed to
the maid with those of Kulasekara Alwar, one of the twelve Vaishnavite saint
poets.

The seventh song has verbal felicity and evocative felicity. It recreates a
typical Indian village scene early in the morning.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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