}} CAVING by Priya Sarukkai Chabria |

Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










CAVING by Priya Sarukkai Chabria

…darkness opens on darkness, as cave, as womb – or have my hatreds taken form?

What’s that
singing most dear I hear, celestial notes in this grim elulakam[1]? Stumbling on viscid ground I make my way towards the song, towards a figure sitting stooped; nestled in this sooty heat, this distant roar of not quite water. Scent of jasmine, ghee & sandal storm my nostrils as I near the shape that glows like embers fanned. Is she woman? Or ghoul? Throbbing lava of her veins reveals a fearsome form: stomach shrivelled as are her teats, shins thin, hair a halo of shredded fronds, teeth like bodkins, eyes transparent as a fish.

“Mann,[2]’ she purrs, “I wasn’t sure ’tis you or
that other bard who wandered in looking for his wife down here. What do you seek – as you’ve purloined the poetic form[3]I engendered without a nod to me?”   “ Karaikal Ammaiyar!” I prostrate at her feet.  “Karaikal Pey[4] will do. Why do you roam this cremation ground, pure place where illusions cinder?”
Stacks of bones
bank a river of pus & blood, fat & flesh.[5] “Come now Mann, I lack time for jests. Each moment pulses. Pray speak your sins. Did you [6]take bribes, murder a cow, bed your guru’s wife, fell trees wantonly, force your lover to suck cock to enforce your power, kill for sport, destroy beehives or do battle of order religious which I hear still rages above?”

I swear breath wasn’t in my body when Buddhist monks were reduced to ash and Jains chased into caves”[7].    “But you concord with butchery in God’s name. Sathyam shollu[8].” “I’m just a poet singing songs.”   “Mann, that’s the oldest ruse.” She laughs. Temple bells in their thousands ring, lithe flames leap around my feet like wick lamps lighting divinity. “Do better if you want to ford the river.”
In this
torrid shell I’m sweated to the core. My craving grows; I thirst for water’s equitable flow, for love that levels high and low. “Arul[9] I seek for all, that’s all,” I mouth. She coughs. Ash bubbles; snakes shower like sizzling spears; each hair javelins up. “’Tis the secret of myself I seek!” I weep, “Dear Demon-saint, forsake me not, I plead.”

Incense pours, her ruby aura grows. As she smiles her fangs disclose; she takes my hand, her touch cool as lotus buds.

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[1] Seven subterranean worlds of Tamil Shaiva theology; also refers to the seven heavens.
[2] Manikkavachakar’s over 1000 hymns comprise the eighth book Tirumurai/ Sacred Words of Southern Shaiva theology but he is excluded from their cannon possibly because he compassionately proclaimed his sins in a manner ‘unbefitting’ of a saint. His songs are still sung in temples and homes. Represented as a handsome young man who extends palm leaf manuscripts to onlookers. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Manikkavachakar.jpg/220px-Manikkavachakar.jpg.
[3] Karaikal Ammaiyar added to richly alliterative Classical Tamil poetics by creating the antatati chain poem structure in which the first verse’s last syllable or word is repeated at the beginning of the next verse to form a poem ‘garland’. This became the standard, and is still in use, especially on TV shows which feature competing teams singing Bollywood songs. Ammaiyar experimented with meters of the previous age, particularly kattalaikkalitturai and viruttam. She is first of the 63 Nayanmars saints of Southern Saivism. Her iconography presents her as a blissful and emaciated woman holding cymbals.
[4] Karaikal Ammaiyar’s signature line was Karaikal Pey/ Demon of Kariakal, with whom she self-identifies. This figure haunts cremation grounds, keeping company with ghouls, jackals, birds of prey while she composes songs praising Shiva. Her poems, gory and rapturous, include Tiruvalankattut Tiruppatikam / Sacred Decade of Verses on Tiruvalankadu, Arputat Tiruvantati /Sacred Linked Verses on Wonder and Tiruvirattai Manimalai / Sacred Garland of Double Gems. Manikkavacakar glowingly references her in his poems.
[5] Viartarni River of the underworld that atmas must cross on their journey to rebirth.
[6] Twenty-eight hells cited in the Bhagavata Purana and Devi Bhagavata Purana list the abovementioned sins among others and include specific tortures for each wrongdoing. E.g. men who forced their wives to drink semen spend eternity drinking semen.
[7] Buddhism and Jainism were dominant faiths in southern India between the 6th – 8th centuries. As kings were ‘reconverted’ to Hinduism by resurgent Shaivas, followers of the previous orders were sometimes banished or burnt. This is indirectly mentioned by medieval saints Appar and Champanar.
[8]Speak the truth
[9]Divine compassion which follows from the Shaiva Siddantha tenant pati-pasu-pasam, Lord-living beings-irrevocable bonds of affection

 

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