Sunday 10 November 2013

KUULAPPA NAYAKKAN KAADHAL




    During the times of the Nayak rule, Tamil literature was cast into darkness. The country was parcelled out among war lords and military leaders and feudal chieftains. They did not have much interest in literary pursuits. Only once in a while, we come across patrons who would sponsor some poet.
    Poets were generally poor and had now other means apart from composing poems to make a living. And those who were rich did not have any taste for poetry.

    And most of them had Telugu or Kannada as their mother tongues.

    This was the time that a great many literary pieces from ancient times were lost.

    Very few new great masterpieces took shape.

    Poets had to pander to the taste of the war lords and feudal chieftains. They were more tasteful towards pornographic writings and self-aggrandizements. Small pieces which involved intricate word jugglery were the order of the day. The other field that was in vogue, was the Sthala PuraNas - puranic works which
were dedicated to certain towns and temples.

    The times of Tirumalai Nayakkar were not exceptional. Although a great work called ThiruviLaiyaadal puraaNam was composed with Miinatchiyamman PiLLai Thamilz and such like, it should be noted that they were divinely inspired and were composed by poets who were sagelike in outlook.

    They were more exceptions than rule.

    One of the poor poets was one named Surpadeepa Kaviraayar.

    There 96 types of poetic compositions in Tamil. They are known as 'prabhandha's. Of these, there is one class called 'thuudhu'. This would mean a mission, embassy, sending a message. The love-lorn damsel sends a message about her plight to her lover. She has to choose a suitable messenger. According to the grammer governing the composition of a 'thuudhu', certain objects and persons are specified.

    A maid, cloud, a dancer, a bard, a kuil, nd a few others. Even the language Thamilz has been made the subject of thuudhu called 'Thamilz vidu thuudhu'. Even money and tobacco have been subjected to this.

    Another class of prabhandham is the 'kaadhal'. This class deals with all aspects of love and its preludes and follow-ups.

    Supradeepa composed two pieces - a kaadhal and a thuudhu.

    He made Tirumalai Nayakkar as the hero of the 'kaadhal'. Hence he named it, 'Thirumalai Naayakkan Kaadhal'.

    One day, he sought audience with Tirumalai Nayakkar early in the morning.

    At that time, Tirumalai was brushing his teeth and washing his mouth and gargling.

    When Supradeepa told him that he had composed a prabhandham, Tirumalai asked him what language it was in.
    Supradeepa answered 'Tamil'.
    Tirumalai retorted contemptously,
    "Telugu tenugu; kannaram kasthuuri; aravam adhvaanam".
    'The language Telugu is like honey; Kannada is like kasturi; Tamil is forsaken, discarded language'.

    Supradeepa got very much taken aback and upset.
    But who could argue with a most autocratic militaristic sexist despot?

    Certainly not a half-starved hand-to-mouth poet like Supradeepa.
    So he left the presence of Tirumalai.

    After sometime he went to another minor ruler called KuuLappa Naayakkar. With his consent, he made him the hero of the kaadhal and named it 'KuuLappa Naayakkan Kaadhal'.

    He wanted to wreak vengence of Tirumalai.

    He created a scene where two prostitutes quarrel in public.

    During the quarrel, one prostitute derides another, pointing out her very low professional qualities, tastes, and standards.
    She compares herself to the other and says, "Would I ever let a
pot-bellied vadugan who was born because of a very publicly displayed
intercourse session of a maami, to screw me?"

    The thondhi vadugan was Tirumalai. 'Vadugan' is a derogatory term for a Nayakkar. Vadugan literary means a 'Northerner' - the Andras who lived to the north of Tamilnaadu.

    Tirumalai was pot-bellied. This can be seen clearly in many of his statues, especially the one at ThirupparanggunRam.

    Tirumalai got wind of this and had Suprdeepa caught. In those days, there were many types of punishments. One was imprisonment inside a small cage. Sometimes this is shaped like a human figure with limbs. The victim was placed inside and the cage was locked. It was then hung. The victim could not move his
limbs and starved to death. Another type was a simple cage where the victim is placed and locked. This is known as the 'kiLi-kuudu' or 'kiLi-kuuNdu' - the parrot-cage.

    Supradeepa was placed inside a parrot-cage and suspended.

    He was there for three days and finally sang a poem depicting himself as a caged and starved parrot and apolologised to Tirumalai.

    Tirumalai at last let him out.

    Later on, Supradeepa became the Tamil tutor to Father Beschi alias Veera Maa Munivar - the Man who made changes to and standardised the Tamil script.

    And the twin kaapiyams of KuuLappa Naayakkan Kaadhal and ViRali vidu Thuudhu remained popular until about fifty years ago.

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Monday 16 September 2013

THE SHOOTING


         
    I will tell you an old Zen story.
    I wrote 'Old' because alot of Zen stories are quite new, written by Mat Salleh authors.
    Shaolin monks - apart from reading, writing, composing poems and Koans, and meditating, also indulge in a special form of martial arts.
    There was a shaolin monk who had many students. He was adept in several forms of warfare like archery, swordmanship, wrestling, taekwando etc.

    There was a great archer who came all the way to see this Shaolin master. He was a warrior who had specialised in archery.
    He exhibited his skills. He shot an arrow. It hit the bull eye. Then he shot another arrow which split the first arrow.
    "Can you shoot like this?" the warrior asked with contempt and rancour.
    The master did not say anything. He asked the archer to follow him and went into a jungle and then up a mountain. He came to a chasm which was bridged by a log. This log looked very rickety and could have fallen anytime.
    The master went up the log which immediately started shaking violently.
    He stood in the centre and taking the bow put an arrow and with the greatest of ease and concentration took aim and shot his arrow at a distant tree without any qualms.
    The master came back and gave the bow and arrow to the warrior and asked him to go to the centre of the log and shoot at the same tree.
    The warrior went up the log which started shaking violently.
    The archer got jittery. Then standing on the centre of the log, he chanced to look down. He saw the deep chasm. Suddenly he felt dizzy. He started shaking violently and the log shook violently. He slipped and fell onto the log. And hugging it started to shout for help.
    The master came up to the centre of the log, picked up the warrior, put him on his shoulder and walked calmly back.
   
    The master said, "All your skill lies only in your bow and arrows. You rule the bow. But you dont rule the mind that takes aim and shoots the arrow. Your mind is not under your control.
    The bow, arrow, the target, the aim, the shooting.... everything is from the mind.
    You control your mind and rule over it!"


Regards

JayBee

Wednesday 1 May 2013

KRISHNA'S LOGA MAYA

    KRISHNA'S LOGA MAYA

Here is a nerudal stuff combined from several postings to which further additions have been made.

    Really interesting.....

     What is Prajnya?
    Something that really cannot be explicitly explained in words.
    But let us give it an indirect approach.

      The word 'prajnya' alone also means one of the components of states of consciousness. 
      The states of consciousness are Jagrath, shushupthi, swapna, thurya, and thuryaadhiitha. In Tamil, they are called sakkiratham, sulzhuththi, kanaa, thuriyam, and thuriyaathiitham. 
      The factor 'prajnya' is present in jagrath, shushupthi, and swapna.
      It is absent in thuriyam. 

      When you are fully awake, you are aware -'prajnya' is present.
      In the swapna state, you dream. Unless you forget, you are aware of  the dream. When you wake up, you can  remember the dream.
      Here again, the prajnya is present.
      In the shushupthi state, you are in deep sleep.
      But when you wake up, you say that you slept well.
      Hence you are aware that you were sleeping and aware of the quality of the sleep, because you say that you slept well.
      That is 'prajnya' again. 

      Thuriyam is the state of 'Summa'.
      The Zen master actually dreamt that he was a butterfly flitting through the leaves. He asked whether it was his dream of having been a butterfly or is it the butterfly's dream of being a Zen master?. 
      Its something like the Loga Maya story involving Naradha and Krishna. 
      One day Narada and Krishna were walking along in a forest. 
      During the journey, Narada was asking Krishna to explain what is this 'Loga Maya' of Krishna, all about? What is so great about it? And he(Narada) being a Brahmaputra and Rishi, can never be subdued by such maya because  he was immune to it.
    Krishna smiled and kept silent. 

      After some time Narada was asked by Krishna to bring some water from a river. 
      Naradha accordingly goes to the river to fetch the water. There he meets a most beautiful damsel. He falls in love and follows her to her house. One thing leads to another and finally he marries her. He gets involved in samsaara life; earns a living, has children. Things go very smoothly for many years. 
      Suddenly the place where Naradha stays, is invaded and people get killed. He runs with his family. 
      But soon plague and hunger kill off his kinsmen and some children. 
      One day, during his flight, he and the remaining family are chased by robbers.
      They run. But soon they are stopped by a river. The river was flooded. But the family gets down into the river to escape. They are all washed away. 

         Narada alone remains. Forelornly he looks at the river and hangs around. The flood subsides. 
         But seeing none of his family around, Narada squats down, breaks down, and laments and cries his heart out.     
Suddenly, he hears a voice.
     "Hey Narada! Whats this? Why are you crying and lamenting? I only sent you to fetch  some water a few hours ago. I came to see what held you up? What took you so long?"          Narada looked up, startled, and he said, 

"To understand your Loga Maya, O Krishna!"



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