THE EYES...

THE EYES....

        I wrote this piece, a few years ago.

It was part of an interesting discussion.
The incidence formed the crux of a small novel by Sandilyan - 'Kavarndha KaNkaL'.
But there is more to it than the novel.....


There was this wrestler called 'URangga Villi Dhaasan'. 'uRanggaa villi' is one of the titles of Lakshmanan. 
'Sundaravilli' is the elder brother.
Sundara Villi and URanggaa Villi are none other than SriRama, and his younger brother Lakshmana.
Sundara Villi got his name because of his incomparable beauty.
As Kamban puts it so succinctly, 


"ThOL kaNdaar thOLE kaNdaar, thodu kalzal kamalam anna 
thaaL kaNdaar thaaLE kaNdaar; thadakkai kaNdaarum ahthE
vaaL koNda kaNNaar yaarE, vadivinai mudiyak kaNdaar?
uulz koNda samayaththu annaan uruvu kaNdaarai oththaar"


" Those that saw the shoulders, saw only the shoulders; So were they who beheld the lotus-like feet which were adorned by the anklets. Similar were those that beheld the strong arms. 
Were there any of the ladies with sword-like eyes who could capture the wholeness of his appearance?"
Lakshmana followed his elder brother Rama and sister-in-law Sita to the forest in an exile which was to last for fourteen years.
During that time, he vowed not to eat nor sleep. But guard both of them. 
Since Lakshmana was the sleepless guardian bow-man, he was called the uRanggaa Villi - 'The Bowman who would not sleep'..
Now coming back to our uRanggaaVilli Dhaasan......
Our Dhaasan was obsessive and passionate about his wife to whom he was very very much attached.


One day, Ramanuja asked him why he was so much attached to his wife.


uRanggaavilli Daasan told him that it was her astounding beauty; especially those breath-taking eyes which were totally captivating.


So Ramanuja threw a challenge to him: 
"If I showed you a pair of eyes which are more captivating than your wife's eyes, would you discard that obsession?"


"If you can show them....", scoffed our friend.


Ramanuja asked him to follow and took him straight to the sanctum sanctorum of Thiruvarangganathan within the SriRangam Temple.


He pointed.


uRanggaavilli dhaasan saw....


Those eyes......


Beyond any description.


Nor comparison.


Thus URanggaaVilli Dhaasan lost himself and dissolved himself within VishNudom and became a monumental model of the prabhathi margam that Ramanuja was striving to show the world.


Well.....


Such were the eyes.

The eyes of SriRanganathan.


About which there is more to say....

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VENGENCE!!!

  VENGENCE!!!!!

    I was looking over a few of the old books that I have.
    It is one of the interesting and very relaxing of my pass-times. Especially when you have 5000 odd books and among them are rare and fantastic books.
    One of the books that I was browsing through was 'Reaping the Whirl Wind'.
    That is the caption of that book.
    There is a reason why it got that title and it has an interesting background.
    Vengence!
    This is one of the traits of the human being.

    Tit for Tat.
    Butter for Fat
    You kill my dog,
    I kill your cat.

    This is a famous ditty which has been in use for the past several hundred years. Describes and defines 'Vengence' in very simple words.
    In the history of mankind, there are so many instances of vengence taken by one party against another.
    How and why the parties exacted revenge, make very good stories. Some of the revengers had cultivated it as an art.
    One of the early historical instances of revenge takes us 2500 years to the kingdom
of Magadha.
    At that time, it was ruled by the Nandha dynasty.
    They had actually usurped the kingdom from the Lineage of Chandragupta who was a
direct heir to the throne. His father and all his brothers were treacherously murdered. Chandragupta alone escaped.
    Kautilya alias Chanakya was a very learned Brahmin who was very poor. He was going through a forest and he was very hungry.
    There was a hunting lodge belonging to the Nandhas.
    Chanakya went in there and occupied a seat and started eating.
    At that time, the Nandhas came inside from a hunting expedition, They got angry at seeing a filthy scrawny emaciated Brahmin in dirty clothes, sitting in their seat and eating their food.
    One the Nandhas jerked him to his feet, dragged him outside and threw him into the dust.
    In the process of being chucked out, Chanakya's hair knot became unwound and his hair fell to his shoulders.
    Chanakya took a wrathful oath that he will not tie his hair knot until he had destroyed
the Nandhas.
    Then he went away in a gust.     But then a grass caught the web of his toes and tripped him.
    Chanakya flew into a frenzy of rage, bent down, plucked the grass with its root, crushed it with his palms and rubbed it over his body.
    All this happening was being carefully watched secretly by Chandragupta.
    Chandragupta befriended Chanakya and Chanakya drew out the blue-print for the destruction of the Nandhas and made use of Chandragupta. After accomplishing it, he made Chandragupta as emperor of the Magada and thus the Maurya dyansty came into being.
    Chanakya became his prime minister and raja guru and drew up the administration
of the Mauryan Empire and went on to write out a treatise about the Art of Politics, Administration, Jurisprudence, and King-craft.
    And that, my dear chaps, is.....
    The famous Artha Sastra of Kautilya or Kautilyam.

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