[3/4] Poetry, imagery, collagerie and menagerie: some rational approximations to ....
Hari Krishna Tadepalli (harit@co.intel.com)
Wed, 30 Oct 96 16:00:01 PST
"maa klaasu lO paMDavulnee, kauravulnee
aDiginaTTu ceppaMDi
kottagaa kaastu sartifikEtu teccukoni
klaasu lO cErina karNuDiki
naa saanubhootini teliya jEyaMDi"
These lines do little to justify the mapping and the thesis thereof. I have
no problem with the couple of filler lines about PandavAs and KauravAs; after
all, it is a personal letter. The reference to Karna is again a rubix cube
here. What is this Karna supposed to signify, another deprived meritorious student,
who could not enroll without caste certificate ? Thinking of the mahAbhArata,
this is quite true. But what is its parallel in the contemporary society ?
Is it the case that one can not enroll oneself in a school without a caste
certificate ? Or does one have to forge an "upper caste" certificate (like
Karna did) to gain admission to a particular school or college ?
"pratibhaavaMtulu vaaLLu
mee SlOkaalaku cappaTlu koTTEvaaru.
naaku maatraM avi tiTlulaa anipiMcEvi.
nijaM ceppaddoo
manu dharmaalu, vaatsaayana kaama sootraalla vinipiMcEvi."
The other meritorious students in the class applaud at the teacher's
recitation of some Slokas ? What exactly there Slokas and who applauds
them in class rooms for day-to-day lessons ? We shall dismiss the concrete
and resort to the abstract - some specific teachings of the oppressing
classes are applauded by themselves - since the master clarifies in the last
line that "manu dharmAlu" are what are applauded at by the previleged classes,
we shall obey this meaning here. But I shall be delighted to learn about
the schools which teach these manudharmAlu in the entire country. (I assume
from the interpretive mapping that the student who writes this letter is
a contemporary descendent of Ekalavya). Also, I am yet to see these
previleged people who live by these manudharmALu. I see no occassion for
vatsyaayana making a sudden debut here. At the best, I can understand him
as a synonym for "objectionable". At this point, the character of the
student suddenly transforms from one who submissively describes his inability
to comprehend his social deprivation into one who can judge and accuse.
(I am only analysing the masterpiece for its poetic content and masterly
narration, not trying to assert that #manudharmAlu# are dear to me).
"dEvuDi naalugu Sareera marmaaloo
aSleela bhaava citraallaa kanipiMcEvi.
naa janma rahasyaM mee SaastraallO raayanaMduku
nEneppuDoo krutaj~nuNNE"
I thank the master for providing some continuity here. But it is not
clear as to what the diction is trying to convey here. What is the
master objecting to here: the attribution of people to God's parts
or the God's parts themselves ? Assuming the former implies, in conjunction
with the manudharmAlu (I never knew what part of the Hindu theology deals
with this description, is it in manusmRti, vEdas or the purANAs; certainly
pAlana garu provided one source), the author objects to the various population
groups technically being associated with God's anatomy. Also, the use of the
word #marmAloo# is not self-evident. Traditionally, #maramAlu# is the word
used to connote genitals or intricacies. But that is not how the
#manudharmAs# explain the origins of human beings. Then, what is
the appropriate mapping that rationalizes this expression ?
The last pair of lines do not seem to mean anything. Or, are they supposed
to signify social deprivation in some form ? Since, the theme of the masterpiece
is resentment about deprivation, the student here sarcastically resents the
fact that his people are not mentioned in the "sciences" (#sAstrAlu#).
Use of "#mee sAstraalu#" raises another question here: to whom should this
possessive pronoun "#mee#" be attributed - perhaps the wicked teacher who
punishes our student irrationally ? In this case, what is his ownership
over this "#sAstraalu#" ? To what extent are these sAstrAlu taught or propagated
in the contemporary education system ? How many among the teaching community
are familiar with these "#sAstrAlu#" ? But since these sAstraalu have not
troubled our student, one need not trouble oneself about these questions.
"nannEvagiMcu kOvadaaniki mee nighaMTuvullO
saapa naarthaalu doraka nappudellaa
naa talli maaTE mee nOTlO naanu tuMDEdi
pOneeleMDi, dooshaNa lOnainaa naa tallikE
nEnu puTTaanani kharaaru cESaaru."
In this verse, we revert to the recurrent theme of the master piece- the
abusive teacher who applies foul language to rebuke our student. The first
line is the most invaluable part of this masterpiece: the teacher indeed
has a special dictionary for his revelrly against this student. If, on the
other hand "#nighanTuvu#" here refers to a conventional dictionary, are we
supposed to infer here that the teacher is so crafty that he prepares a
choice menu of rebukes against this student by scanning through the
dictionary everytime he rebukes the student ? Or else, the reference
to a dictionary here is extremely fuzzy & needs to be retrofitted. The
next three lines about the teacher using unspeakable language merely
repeat the corpus of this masterpiece. Mr. Kanneganti stresses the importance
of this stanza by referring to those in the contemporary times using such foul
language against the likes of our deprived student. There can be no second
opinion that such people should be brought to book and punished.
"mummaTikee meM talliki puTTina biddalamE.
ammE maaku daivaM
goppiLLu veli vEsina kuMtemma nayinaa
maa iLLakostE goMtemmanu cEsi kolcu kuMTaaM
EkalavyuDu dEvuLLaku kaakuMDaa
tallikE puTTaaDu."
The first two lines are quite prosaic and do not seem say anything
nontrivial. One of the commentators makes the point that the master
is trying to contrast the panchama's normal birth with the psudo-ethereal
origin of the previleged classes. This indeed is a valuable realization
that certainly needs to be hammered into the heads of the previleged
classes.
The third and fourth lines appear quite out of place in this masterprice.
As elsewhere asserted by Dokka Ramabhadra, these lines convey a kind of
impression that such excommunication and their being hosted by someone in
the panchamas is a routine ritual in India. Perhaps the "#kuntemma#" on the
4th line qualifies this class of women. But why "#kuntemma#" : aah, I forget
that the image has to be borrowed from bhAratam, irrespective of its
concordance with the context. Is there an instance of Kunti in the bhAratam
being hosted by panchamas ? Not that I know of.
These lines are perhaps meant to extend the theme of the masterpiece beyond
those eulogized by the commentators: of the depraved school teacher who punishes
his unprevileged students for no fault of theirs and the cause for such
depravity emanating from specific Hindu theological texts. The bonus theme
expounded in the last stanza is the virtue of the panchamas in the face
of those heartless excommunications in the previleged classes.
- T. Hari Krishna