Master Valluvan, the Long-Misunderstood Tamil Mentor - Part Five

Part Five Some couplets apart much remains redundant even obvious inapt by way of pointing to fresher vistas and those that follow the rarity of your verse imbibe nothing else from this age’s handy cornucopia of instant wisdom Your lines served an eminent purpose in your time now we bed our minds down by encyclopaedic libraries we live on another planet Your chain-ganged lines served to teach the meek the lame of mind the dislocated of your time Yes some still wallow in the same myth today not from want of will but from the fear of rebirth imprisoned in conditioned belief and the essor of Dravidian identity only defering to the feigned purity of Aryanising blood reverts to the same mythic belief some kind of imagined power of breed History is in the past It cannot help the present to liberate itself If one has not understood the difference If one has not disowned and let fall meaningless myths If you dear Valuvan lived in these times Would you not have disowned your own lines well perhaps some or more not all finding their way into a florilège of your choice for you know how love in the third part changed with moeurs changing with the times so has the art of governance and the unconscionable ways and practices of the artha classes other precautions more pressing than mere friendship would have compelled you to jettison many a couplet Who knows even your first ten would have found their way into a bin ethical lines of advice would turn sour in today’s ear No child would heed to the letter your admonitions on behaviour Nor no wife take her place in the humiliating role of kitchen-helper No political king will base his reign on your strict plans of concern for etiquette No youth seek virtue in the puritanical preachment of bygone observances One singular contention: No peasant revolution No women’s liberation No religious reformation grace your pages the establishment the status quo the traditional hierarchy the Almighty All find mindful foundation in your ardent didacticism and extend licence to those who cry sacrilege in the coming dismantling of the clans of castial power (Continued in Part Six)