distracts the attention of the heroine, making her forget the weariness of the journey to the hero's castle by pointing to the pleasing prospect of Nature along their way. Behold! Along our way there is many a hamlet, and many a fragrant cool grove where the cuckoo that feeds on the mango-flowers coos in delight . . . Rest, beloved as often as you meet with shady spots. | (Nar; 9) | Look how the elephant throws its arm around its mate and feeds her and its baby with the golden flowers of the veenkai . . . in your father's forests. | (Nar; 202) | This forest is a truly attractive one. Look at these flowers that lie scattered below the trees. The open red buds of the thorny Murukku which resemble the murderous nails of the swordwise-striped tiger, mixed with kongu, the punalai . . . the paatiri, white kadambu, resemble a votive shrine where lie mixed the flowers that have been used for worship. Further, behold these hills, both lofty and low, that resemble the male elephants surrounded by their mates.
| (Akam; 99) |
The mention of the heroine's father in poems like this are intended to bring home to her that they are yet within her father's realm, and that she must hasten to cross the borders of his kingdom, if her relatives are not to overtake them in their flight. The behaviour of beast and bird in the jungle and the temporary desert, are touching manifestations of how love supports even the direst hardship, and that life together amid the hardest of circumstances is preferable to wealth and comfort obtained in single blessedness. The eleventh Kali ode, like several other poems, contains suggestive references. The heroine consoles herself and her companion saying that her lover did say that the country he had to traverse was fraught with danger and dread but he also added there were touching scenes to be witnessed. Seeing these sights he would, surely, hasten back to her. Says the heroine to her companion: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ He did say that the forest would be so hot that to set foot on it would be unbearable, but he added that in the little puddle whose |
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