of her songs, rouse his suspicion that he was not the only one, and he immediately leaves her, having spent all his fortune. His faithful bride utters no word of reproach, only begs to accompany him to Madura, where he must now go in search of a living. After an arduous journey through the jungle, guided by a celebrated woman ascetic, they reach the city. An embassy from the heartbroken Madavi3 is dismissed by Kovalan ignominiously, and they are handed on by the ascetic to a cowherdess, while she herself remains outside the city walls, discussing philosophy with other itinerant sages and sagesses. Kannaki cooks what is to be their last meal4 and after it Kovalan goes off to sell their only remaining capital, Kannaki's gold anklet, in the bazaar, leaving the footsore and anxious Kannaki in the care of an "elderly cowherdess of dynamic charm". The poet cannot let slip this opportunity for a digression on bazaars, where every kind of blade and weapon of war was sold on the open market, from machines fitted with spears for mowing down your enemies, to delicate instruments for cutting ivory and those enchanting palm-leaf decorations in which the Tamils are still skilled-as I hope to show later in writing of the ephemeral, lovely structures which are part of the ritual of magic ceremonies in Ceylon. The kinds and qualities of gems were as highly differentiated as the classes of dance and their accompanying melodies; and in the goldsmiths' street there were flags hung from every door to indicate which of four qualities of gold was sold within. If you have wandered through the still unspoilt souqs of Fez or Marrakesh you will be able to visualise these business streets of Madura in its prime, as well as the exquisite outskirts of the city. After the slow pace of the digressions to which we have become accustomed, the central episode of the epic moves with terrific speed. The humped bull which Kovalan met on his entrance to the souqs was, unknown to him, a prelude to disaster; a little further on he meets the king's goldsmith, followed by a hundred other craftsmen in gold and precious stones. Immediately Kovalan, impressed by his importance, accosts him with the fatal question: Can he estimate the value of an anklet like this one, fit for a queen to wear? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 The courtesan Madavi was very much in love with Kovalan. The daughter she had by him became a Buddhist nun during the Festival of Indra some years later, as related in Manimekhalai, another Tamil epic, as yet only fragmentarily translated. See pp. 146, 147. 4 It is typical of this epic to anticipate the sequel, to which many omens are shown to point; but I seem to have met the same technique in western fiction. The thrill is not everything, except in thrillers, and I suspect that there is a clue even in them for the thriller specialist. |