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A followup to Kamban's verse..

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Vijay Triplicane • February 4, 1997 


> 
> >The real beauty of the poem, which attempts to describe the
> >real beauty of Rama is in the next 2 lines. The poet expresses
> >his continous search for a comparative object to bring out
> > >the black-beauty of his hero. 'maiyO ? maragathamO ?' ...it
> > >continues. It ends with 'aiyO', the normal 'ketta sakunam'
> > >word in Tamil. A friend of mine, while reading out this poem
> > >commented that Kamban also is employing some irrelevent
> > >words like 'aiyO' while describing such a great and 'maN^gaLa-
> > >karamaana' thing such as Rama's divine beauty, just to
> > >rhyme (ie. edugai mOnai) with his previous line 'maiyO'.
> > >
> > >I didn't think so and tried to get a different explanation.
> > >Where else "aiyO" is used?
> > >
> > >To express surprise - when you see a huge building or a drop-dead
> > >beautiful women etc. you exclaim "aiyyyO" ! Kamban does the same
> > >here.
> > >
> > >To express frustration - you try all sort of things to accomplish
> > >something, get vexed and then say, "aiyOOOOOO, chchE !". The poet
> > >also tries out all the "uvamais", still is not satisfied and at
> > >that moment, says "aiyOOO, ivan vadivenbadhOr aziyaa azagudaiyaan !"
> > >
> > >
> > >-Sankara Narayanan
> > >
>
On reading the above, the "aiyO" immediately linked me to our amalanaadhi
piraan. This is my reply. 
-Viji


> Regarding the "aiyo", The first thing that came to my mind was from the 
> excellent piece of work called "Amalanaathipiraan" from the naalaayira dhivya 
> prabhandham written by thiruppaaNaazhwaar. It is just 10 paasurams and each 
> one of them describes one part of araNGgan's  thirumEni. 
> There are 2 occurences of "aiyO":
> 
> 933:
> kaiyi Nnaarsuri sankana laazhiyar, neeLvaraipOl
> meyyanaar thuLapa viraiyaar kamazhn^eeL mudiyem
> aiyanaar, aNiyarankanaa raravi
>  NnaNaimisai mEya maayanaar,
> seyyavaa yaiyO! ennaich
>  sinthai kavarnthathuvE! (7)
> 
> I can loosely translate it as 
> kaiyi Nnaarsuri sankana laazhiyar, - The one with chaNGgu and chakkaram in His 
> hands
> neeLvaraipOl meyyanaar - the one with a body like a long (huge) mountain
> thuLapa viraiyaar - the one who wears a thuLasi maalai ( not sure  abt this)
> kamazhn^eeL mudiyem aiyanaar - My Lord who has a long fragrant hair
> aNiyarankanaar - The one who lives in the beautiful city of thiru araNGgam
> aravi NnaNaimisai mEya maayanaar - The maayan who sleeps on the serpent bed
> seyyavaa yaiyO! ennaich
>  sinthai kavarnthathuvE! - Those beautiful red lips!!! Aiyo!!! 
> 			It attracted me so much
> 
> 935:
> aalamaa maraththi NnilaimE lorupaalakanaay,
> NYaala mEzhu muNdaa Nnarankath tharavi NnaNaiyaan,
> kOla maamaNi yaaramum muththuth thaamamum
>  mudivilla thOrezhil
> neela mEni yaiyO!
>  niRai koNdathen nenchinaiyE! (2) (9)
> 
> aalamaa maraththi NnilaimE lorupaalakanaay - The kid who was on the aala mara 
> 						leaf
>  NYaala mEzhu muNdaa Nn - The one who swallowed the 7 worlds
> 
> arankath tharavi NnaNaiyaan, - The one is Sri raNGgam and who has a serpent as
>  His bed
> kOla maamaNi yaaramum muththuth thaamamum - The one who wears garlands and 
> necklaces made of pearl and other stones (maragatha maNi)
> neela mEni yaiyO! - Oh! That blue Body...
> niRai koNdathen nenchinaiyE! - It completely filled my heart
> 
>-Viji