വരികൾ: വയലാർ രാമവർമ്മ

ഈണം: ജി ദേവരാജൻ

പാടിയത്: മാധുരി

This song is from the cinema Akkarappacha അക്കരപ്പച്ച. Akkarappacha means ''The grass on the other side is greener!''. Since I have not seen the film, I need to write by solely listening to the words in the song.

For some reason or other, this is a song which I have found quite attractive. Words seem to acquire a very rounded and curvaceous rolling feature in this song. Or rather words with some kind of fabulous oily rounded wholesome smoothness are there in this song.

It is not easy to forward the delicious roll of these words into English. In fact, the universal fact might be that all feudal languages do have an eerie tone of sweetness that shall defy all attempts to render them straight into planar languages like English.

Sir W. Ouseley, in his ancient work “Oriental Collections,” (1797) has indeed mentioned that: 'Many of the Hindu melodies possess the plaintive simplicity of the Scotch and Irish, and others a wild originality pleasing beyond description.” (sic)

It might be noted that the Celtic languages of Great Britain might also be feudal languages. The Celtic languages of Great Britain include Gaelic (Scotland), Irish (Ireland) and Welsh (Wales).

As to Sir W. Ouseley mentioning the melodies of South Asia as 'Hindu melodies', it is certainly an error that seems to have sprung up from another erroneous belief of the Continental Europeans and also of the English writers and administrators of the English colonial period. That everyone in this subcontinent, who is not a Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Jain, must necessarily be a Hindu.

The fabled Ettumanoor Mahadevar temple was quite a famous temple in the Travancore region of South-Asia. Ettumaanoorappan is seen mentioned as Lord Siva. And this song does allude to the Siva-Parvathi fables from the puranic antiquity of the subcontinent. However, there does seem to be some kind of a mix-up between Shamanistic spiritual worship systems of South Asia, and the Hindu (Brahmanical) worship systems, in the words mentioned in the song. However, I am not much sure about this, though.

The temple festival, Aaratt ആറാട്ട്, is conducted on the Thiruvaathira-nakshatra-day (തിരുവാതിരനാൾ) in the Kumbam (February - March) month every year. On the 8th and 10th day of the 10 day festival, the elephant idols in thick gold covering (പൊന്നാന) are brought out and kept for darshan (beholding by the worshipers).

Oh Ettumaanoorappa, to you who enters regally on a parade of seven and half golden elephants (ഏഴരപ്പൊന്നാനപ്പുറത്ത്), my devotion, worship and my total submission (തൊഴുന്നേൻ, തൊഴുന്നേൻ, തൊഴുന്നേൻ), do I place upon thy sacred-naga coiled (തിരുനാഗത്തളയിട്ട) holy feet!

The line does slightly allude to the Naga worship / serpent worship antiquity of the location. In Travancore, many a Nayar household did have a tradition of serpent worship right from the hoary days of yore. Even though it is generally mentioned in a spiritual mood that these divine serpents are different from the terrestrial serpents, it is a fact that a Cobra family or even more than one family used to reside inside Nayar households in a most royal fashion. They were quite tame, and would not attack anyone, unless trodden upon. In fact, they were treated as deified beings, and treated with topmost decency and respect, their every care attended to.

Whether the Brahmins (the real Hindus) also have this tradition of serpent worship is not very clearly known to me. There had been, off course, a lot of mixing up of spiritual traditions between the Hindus (Brahmins) and the various Shamanistic worship systems, over the centuries.

The song is a prayer to Ettumaanoorappan, whose regal entrance and parade is on the seven and half elephant idols spiritual tableau.

When I come in the early daybreak hours, for beholding the propitious sight (കണികാണാൻ) of thy idol dazzling in heady sandalwood - flower carpel - camphor creamy adornment (കളഭമുഴുക്കാപ്പ്), would you not offer me, in the chalice (കുമ്പിളിൽ) of my worshipful hands (തൊഴുകൈ), the holy waters (തീർത്ഥജലം) of the celestial river (തിരുമുടിപ്പുഴയിലെ) that flows from the tresses of thy divine hair-tuft?

This is followed by the Panchaakshara mantra homage to Lord Shiva. Nama Shivaaya! നമഃ ശിവായ! It is a five-letter code mantra. Na Ma Shi Vaa and Ya. What powerful software codes of reality are encrypted into the insides of these letters or sounds is not known. However, interested readers can check this book👉: Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c.

In the Thiruvaathira-day night-hours (ആതിരരാവിൽ), when the divine radiant damsel of the towering Himalayan heights (ഹിമഗിരികന്യക), your betrothed lass Parvathi, drapes your angelic figure (തിരുമാറിൽ) with your much loved Koovala flower garlands (കൂവളമലർമാല്യം), would you not offer me the delicious glitter of thy cosmic crescent, to wear as thy twinkling emblem on my forehead?

Koovala tree is considered to be a divine tree in Shiva mythologies. This tree is a much-loved tree of the Shiva-Parvathi divine duo. It is seen said that this tree is given a place of prominence in Shiva Temples. The thorns of the tree represent, it is said, the Shakthi-figure, the branches the Vedas and the roots the Rudra-form of Lord Shiva.

The lyrics are by Vayalar RamaVarma. As always, his command over words and usages are of the mythical kind. His legendary scholarship in Sanskrit needs no mention. The feel of the boundless infinite, the feel of the unfathomable depth in Shamanistic rituals and also the feel of the inscrutable invincibility of ancient gods, can be felt in the slow paced rolling of the words.

As to the tune and tone of the song, it is also seen set deliberately in a very slow-paced tempo, so as to stay in step with the esoteric tenor of the song and words. The sharp rising and falling din of the distinct drum-beat that accompanies the rolling words also, if heard precisely, does induce a spellbinding affect in one’s mind and sensation. It is another legend who has crafted the tune. Devarajan!