As part of the Sahitya Akademi’s modern drama series, scholar and theatre person A. Mangai has translated the modern Tamil play, Avvai, written by Inquilab, a renowned poet, writer and activist.
Read an excerpt from the book.
The discovery, rather the re-discovery, of the Sangam and other classical Tamil texts, in the early decade of this century, was a turning point in the history of Tamil thought, culture and history. With the availability of those texts, the pride of Tamil became unsurpassed. It could contend with Sanskrit traditions. A hitherto unknown paradigm of classifications of lands, codifications of themes and definitions of conventions became a reality. With the growing Tamil nationalism, this discovery gained a new political density. It also led to a great deal of re-thinking of the prevailing religious traditions. A new pantheistic, secular cult gave a fillip to the growing Dravidian movement. Sangam literature became important in the discourses of Dravidian/Aryan, Tamil/Sanskrit and Tamil adu/India. In this complex network, Auvai’s Sangam poems stood out as unique and authoritative. Her songs have been compared to those of Sappho.
By the middle of the twentieth century, there were at least five Avvai cults in Tamil adu. There was the ritualistic Auvai who occupied a female-specific space in some communities, the Auvai of mythical tales who was often connected with Lord Ganesha and Muruga, the Auvai who must have been a contemporary of Ottakkoothar and others, the Auvai who wrote ethical literatures around the eighteenth century and the ‘newly found’ Sangam Auvai. Writing his notes to Simon Casie Chitty’s The Tamil Plutarch (1859), T.P. Meenakshi Sundaram says, “There must have been many such old ladies known in Tamil literature. The earliest was the poetess of Sangam age a contemporary of Adhiyaman. She certainly was not an old lady. Another Avvaiyar is spoken of as the contemporary of Sundarar and Ceraman, and a third as the contemporary of Ottakkoothar. There are certain moral epigrams attributed to one Auvaiyar and certain verses on yoga (Avvai Kural and Vinayagar Akaval) make her belong to the Siddha traditions. It is difficult to get the kernel of history lying buried in this chaff of tradition.[i]” What is of interest is to study which of these Auvaiyars was foregrounded and for what purposes.
[…..]
Auvaiyār: Repeat children—
Mother and father are the first known divinities.
To worship in a temple is extremely good. What is not family life is not virtuous.
Wealth of misers the wicked will loot. Smaller the meals, prettier the women.
Animosity to your community will destroy you entirely.
Auvai:
The Bard has arrived
With her songs and dance she has arrived.
(Auvaiyār comes with her staff; Auvai comes in dancing. Both of them meet.)
Auvaiyār: You keep singing and dancing without any Fear, Simplicity, Modesty, Delicacy?[ii] Who are you, girl?Auvai: You walk without lifting your head and stooping to face the ground, with the support of your staff. Old woman, who are you?
Auvaiyār: I am Auvaiyar.
Auvai: I am Auvai.
Auvaiyār: My namesake. But you are much younger!
Auvai: Auvai-yār! My name… but so much older!
Auvaiyār: All right, girl! Where are you from?
Auvai: From Puṟanāṉūṟu… Saw Kuṟuntokai, took the route of
Naṟṟiṇai, sang and danced a bit in Akanāṉūṟu[iii].
Auvaiyār: These works pre-date my works. Are you the Auvai of those days? Perhaps a thousand years older than I am, but so young? Auvai like a viṟali “with a bright brow, kohl- rimmed eyes, delicate nature, and lifted, beautiful loins decorated with jewels!”[iv] Did you consume the nectar of the gods?
Auvai: ectar? ot at all. That was a myth prevalent even in my times. All I drank was toddy. Old fermented toddy in a jar. Let that be. Who are you in my name?
Auvaiyār: I am a poet, but not a bard like you. I totter because of my age, and I don’t dance around like you do.
Auvai: You are thousand years younger than I am. Why is your hair like a bundle of cotton and how did you get those hundred wrinkles on your face? (whispering) Did you not get any nectar of gods?
Auvaiyār: Be gone, girl… you drunkard! I hardly found my gruel. I actually had the title “the one who sang for gruel.” All right! What’s it in your pot—gruel or porridge?
Auvai: o gruel and porridge for me! Toddy. Thousand-year- old fermented toddy. Would you like to try? Once you try, no nectar can match this!
Auvaiyār: (Closing her mouth) How dare you ask me to drink? I sang the didactic texts like Ātticcūṭi and Koṉṟai vēntaṉ, you know? Would my tongue that recited Nalvali,[v] the good path, taste the nasty toddy?
Auvai: Toddy was the drink of our age; we never drank alone. I last had it with Atiyaṉ. A thousand years have passed. I thought you would give me company. Sorry if I have offended you.
Auvaiyār: Still… I just don’t get it. How come you are so youthful?
Auvai: I ask you the same, how come you are so old and haggard?
Auvaiyār: (Keening)
I wasn’t old when I sang Ātticcūṭi.
I wasn’t old when I sang Koṉṟai vēntaṉ.
My hair wasn’t grey when I sang Nalvazhi.
Did not have a hunchback when I sang Vākkuṇṭām. After I completed all my songs, I became Auvaiyār.
I became a grandmother to even an old man older than me
They gave me a staff that I did not want,
They dyed my dark hair white.
Auvai: Don’t keep whining on and on! Even when Atiyaṉ died, I did not shed so many tears. Everybody gets old, their hair turns grey and they totter.
Auvaiyār: Auvai, I was given this image since I sang didactic texts.
Auvai: Does that matter? It is good in its own way. Let us take a stroll on this beach.
Auvaiyār: Look, Auvai! Whose statue is this, paraded on this road?
(She goes near the statue.)
Auvai: (Reading the plaque at the bottom of the statue)
“Where men are good You will be a good land.”
This is my song. Did we live in the same time period?
Auvaiyār: The date reads “Tamil poet Auvaiyār – 1st century BCE”
Auvai: What’s this BCE?
(A young woman appears from behind the statue walking erect.)
Young Woman: Greetings Auvai and Auvaiyar!
Auvaiyār: What is BCE?
Young Woman: We categorise time period as Common Era and Before Common Era.
Auvaiyār: Oh, the Cālivāhaṉa era got over then?
Young Woman: Don’t all eras come to an end?
Auvai: (Pointing out to the statue) Is that me? I’ve always danced about. ever wobbled. How is that me?Auvaiyār:
“Where men are good You will be a good land.”
I wrote so many didactic poems. But never wrote anything like this.
Young Woman: This… this here is a statue made by the men of this world with over a thousand years of accumulated dust.
Auvaiyār: How? Why?
Young Woman: This has been made by minds that don’t accept the fact that as times change, thoughts change. Auvai, you spoke a woman’s heart. Auvaiyār, you supported the ways of men. Auvai, people who couldn’t erase your face, buried it within the face of Auvaiyār. ot just the history of your time, but the Tamils are blissfully unaware of their own contemporary history. There could have been many more in the name of Auvai. But the truth is buried – by some Tamil scholars and producers of a film. Dear Auvais, Let’s throw the shackles of the past into the sea.
Auvaiyār: You say so much! Who are you?
Auvai: Girl! Who are you?
Young Woman: Me? I am Auvai.
(The three of them walk together)
Auvaiyār: Where are you from?
Young Woman: From beyond the seas. Eezham[vi]!
Auvai: And your occupation?
Young Woman: Poetry.
Auvaiyār: You have our name. Can we listen to a poem of yours.
Auvai: The Auvai of today—sing for us!
Young Woman:
Assuming all breeze to be southern wind And all sounds to be music,
Spreading the wings wide
One can’t fly, my girl.
With a heart wounded and festering And in pain
One can’t live.
Rise!
Take on the form of the earth,
Like a fire Blazing within Expand and rise!
Physical beauty adorned with Vermillion and the rest
Is not your beauty.
Rage, insolence And authority—
Arise, smashing them to pieces.
Let not anything touch your body Without your consent.
Come alive,
Rising like a flame.[vii]
