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fascinating to a student of Tamil. Here is how Guhan describes Bharathan who is coming to meet Rama and beg him to come back to Ayodhya: thaay uraikontu thaathai uthaviya tharanithannai thiivinai enna niithu sinthanai mukaththil thekki poyinai endra pozthu pukazinoy thanmai kantal aayiram iraamar nin kez aavaro theriyin amma (Oh famous one! You shunned as evil the kingdom given to you by your father who listened to your mother’s words. And with a grief-stricken face you came to the forest. If both of you are compared, will a thousand Ramas be equal to you? I don’t know.) He ends the verse with the exclamatory word ‘Amma’ (theriyin amma) peculiar to Tamil which adds wonder and an intimacy to the exclamation. Kamban plays with the number five Imagining Rama – C.S. Lakshmi when he describes Hanuman. He uses the number five to mean the five elements: anjile ondru petraan anjile ondrai thaavi anjile ondru aaraaga aariyarkaaga yegi anjile ondrana anangaik kantu ayalaar ooril anjile ondrai vaithaan avan nammai alithu kappaan (He who is born of one of the five elements [wind] crossed one of the five elements [water] and with one of the five elements forming his way [the sky] he went for the sake of the Aryans, and met one of the five elements [Sita, who is born of the earth and also known as the earth] and in a foreign land he placed one of the five elements [fire; he set fire to Lanka]. He will bless us and protect us.) While the language of Kamban throughout the epic keeps one close to the texture of the text, where one is overwhelmed by the language is when Ravana describes Sita. Reading the text one understands the love Rama feels for Sita and Sita’s love for him. After the abduction of Sita, Rama wanders in the forest saying he can’t live without her. It is moving to see 97
98 ArtConnect: The IFA Magazine, Volume 6, Number 1 such emotion in Rama. But when Ravana describes Sita there is passion throbbing in his description. Sita takes a different form in one’s imagination. She is not the Sita we see in Ravi Varma’s painting—docile, supportive and gentle. She is the one who kindles desire and lust. ambum analum nuzaiyaak kana anthakaarathu umbar mazai kondu ayal oppu arithu aaya thuppin kombar kurumpaik kulam kondathu thingal thaangi vembum thamiyen mun vilakku enath thondrum anre marul oodu vantha mayakko! (In this darkness so thick no fire or arrow could pierce it, she appears, with a thundercloud for her hair, her body an utterly incomparable branch of fine coral, with her breasts like a pair of young coconuts and her face like the moon, a lamp that she raises before me burning here alone.) In yet another verse Ravana is overwhelmed by Sita’s beauty. mathi matrum undoe! therulaathu ithu ennoe? thini mai izaithaalum ovvaa iruluudu iru kundalam kondum irunda niilach churulodum vanthu oer sudar maa mathi thondrum anre! (Am I confused because of my delusion or is there another moon? What is this that I can’t understand? Through this darkness blacker than when thick collyrium is mixed, with two earrings and her deep black hair, a full moon coming up now she appears, shining!) And then Ravana describes Sita’s body: pudai kondu ezum kongaiyum alkulum pulki nirkum idai kantilam allathu
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Contents EDITORIAL 3 READING VISUAL
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IFA has collaborated with Adishakti
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Reading Visuals: Timeless Voyages o
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The divine messenger (Agnipurusha)
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they sit in mournful contemplation
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upon a blue-gold sky. Or elsewhere
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his daughter in marriage. Dasharath
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Reading Visuals - Gulammohammed She
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It is difficult to summarise the na
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There are numerous other sights tha
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produces a rare form of intimate ye
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Reading Visuals - Gulammohammed She
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set upon a luminous red ground. In
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Myth Retold: Variants of the Story
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Page 72 and 73: Wayang Kulit - Eddin Khoo the Javan
Page 74 and 75: I could explain what Malaysia is, c
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Page 78 and 79: Wayang Kulit - Eddin Khoo 77 Hanuma
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Page 86 and 87: Wayang Kulit during the 1970s, 1980
Page 88 and 89: Wayang Kulit - Eddin Khoo Winged in
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