Prologue

Table of Contents
Prologue............................................................................................ 3
Benefits of Reading this Work........................................................3
Four Aims of Life: Virtue, Success, Pleasure, Liberation.................4
How Pleasure Connects with Other Aims of Life..........................5
Moderation is Recommended......................................................5
Four Stages of Life.........................................................................6
Virtues and Roles of Women and Men are Different.......................6
Five Phases of Mutual Love............................................................8
Sacred Female Sexuality..............................................................11
Merging of Situational Element with Landscape Element.........13
Storyline....................................................................................... 15

Prologue
Benefits of Reading this Work
Reading this work and learning it1 will result in attainment of the gift
of Release2.
Sexual passion can be beneficial. However, many schools of thought
regard sexual union as evil. Because it leads to family ties which
lead to murder, anger, shame, and other vices.
Some others believe that woman is evil. But we adorn women with
flowers, jewels, perfumes and beautiful clothes. We would have no
need to do that if woman was not inherently good.
Many people have enjoyed the delights of sexual union in many
births as men and women.
Here is how we teach the ignorant people. We show love to the
ignorant and let them go. There is great truth in sexual union: in it
there no old age, no disease, no death. We show a girl of twelve and
a youth of sixteen. They have comparable qualities: wealth,
education, virtues and affection. They can enjoy their delights
without any damaging aftereffects. But this objective is attained not
through strength, beauty or wealth but through austerities. Thus the
craving for sexual union will lead them to the performance of
austerities.
1 As stated by Nakkiranar in his commentary on Iraiyanar Akapporul (IA)

2 Tamil: vitu, Sanskrit: moksha

2

Release comes from within, like the fragrance of a flower. Once they
learn this they will shed worries about death, birth, disease or old
age. This will give them the desire to attain Release. They will
pursue austerities and will attain release.
Becoming well versed in this work will lead to fame, wealth,
friendship and merit. There is no fame greater than being well
educated, since you are praised by both the religious and the
worldly. It also produces wealth. Because, people will give you
wealth to learn from you. It will also bring friendship. Because many
people will think "my wisdom will grow if I associate with this
educated person". You will get merit because there is no better gift
then wisdom.

Four Aims of Life: Virtue, Success, Pleasure,

Liberation
The life of a man has four aims3 or meanings and is not complete
until all four have been accomplished. If anyone of the four is
ignored, accomplishment is not possible. The four aims 4 are these:
Dharma: virtue, duty, man striving to perfect what he is. This is
self-realization on the moral level.
Artha: wealth, success, family, the acquisition of material goods.
This is self-realization on the social or active level.

3 TP 89 sutra uses words aran, porul, and inpam which are Tamil
equivalents of dharma, artha, and kama respectively.

4 Kamasutra lists the first three goals, but relates them to moksha.
3

Kama: pleasure, sexuality, enjoyment in all its forms. This is selfrealization on the sensual level.
Moksha: liberation, final and total, from the chains of existence.
This is self-realization on the spiritual level.
Man must keep these four aims in mind in all his actions and at all
moments of his life. If he neglects one he is certain to fail in the
others.
The first three aims of life determine the value of the human being.
How Pleasure Connects with Other Aims of Life
Pleasure is only easy where social and economic circumstances are
favorable. In seeking to realize himself and in fulfilling his desires,
each clashes with the desires of others. This is life's battle. Such a
state of perpetual conflict can only be avoided by mutual
agreement, by a set of conventions to which all subscribe for their
own convenience. Respect for such conventions is known as ethics
or duty.
The pursuit of pleasure is made possible by self-imposed limits,
which in turn make it possible to lead an agreeable and organized
collective existence. There are also forms of pleasure which run
counter to duty, and upset the balance that makes the pursuit of
pleasure possible, of which intrusions into others' pleasures are an
example. This is why, for instance, it is wrong to entertain a desire
for another man's wife.
Where duty and money are not to be found, the word pleasure loses
its meaning.
4

Moderation is Recommended
Man must seek intensity in pleasure as he seeks abundance in
wealth, and perfection in the exercise of duty. Ambition is the secret
behind all progress. One should always think, "Could I not do better
in virtue, in riches, in love?" The success of life's journey rests on
this attitude.
Excess in pleasure, however, risks drying up the source and thus
negating pleasure, so that moderation is recommended to maintain
a balance in the aims of life. The field forced to produce too much
grows barren. Seed no longer germinates there and whatever is
sown dies. Similarly, whoever gives himself over to excessive
pleasure ends by losing it entirely. The main defect in love is the
excessive importance attributed to it and its consequent illusions
(moha).

Four Stages of Life

Mans life is divided in four periods or four ashrams. For each of
these stages, mans duties, pleasures and rights are different.
1. First Stage: Quest for knowledge.
2. Second Stage: Family life.
3. Third Stage: Retire and devote yourself to study and
reflection.
4. Fourth Stage: Renunciation

Virtues and Roles of Women and Men are Different

Womens virtues are timidity, modesty, credulity. Delicacy was later
added5.
Mens virtues are dignity and strength of will. Wisdom, moral
firmness, discrimination, and determination were added later.
Men and women have a very different human and social role. Their
very virtues are different, since the consequences of their actions
are not the same, and the ethics that govern their conduct are of a
different order. The ways leading to their spiritual realization are
altogether separate. There are, indeed, very few common elements
in the rules of life for men and women.
The light, strength, sensuality, and wisdom of man dominate the
night, grace, asceticism, and intuition of woman, which is the
reason for woman's subjection to man. The woman is wife,
companion, complement, and shadow and realizes herself in this
role, in which she is the perfection of herself, attaining by her
submission what man must master by force.
For his wife, a man can become the very personification of the
divine: she needs no other image, and her ritual consists in
honoring this god. In worshipping and serving her husband, she
fulfils her whole function, the total realization of her physical
condition.

5 However, it is her bodily beauty that is placed in the focus of the poet's
attention, as it represents her essence and her "value characteristic." To
view a female character as an object perceived by senses was typical of
the poetry.

The opposition of the two roles is particularly evident in the woman,

who is at once humble and exalted, slave and goddess, submissive
wife and all-powerful mother.
From an esoteric point of view, the feminine principle is dominant.
In secret, magical rites, woman plays an all-important, central role,
and the priest worships the goddess and her feminine symbols.
Even in the outer world, woman rules over the housethat inner,
hidden cell, the sanctuary of which she is the priestess.
The esoteric works of the greatest philosopher-poets are dedicated
to the glory of the female principle. The highest initiations in
monastic orders are in shakta form, in which the female aspect of
the divinity is worshipped.
On the other hand, among the lower castes of a matriarchal
character, where the female principle is outwardly predominant,
esoterism is phallic. In the secret rites there, the dances,
ceremonies, symbols, and invocations emphasize the male aspect
of the divine.
As lover, she represents the strength and creative power of the
male principle, which without her is sterile. She is his inspiration,
the instrument of his realization, the source of his pleasure. She is
the image of Shakti, the power and joy of the gods, who without her
would have no existence.

Five Phases of Mutual Love

Love is known by its existence, and not by its form. It is a
phenomenon of emotions.
7

There are five phases or modes of mutual love: union, pining,

separation, waiting, and quarreling.
The five phases or modes of love are divided into two categories of
pre-marital and post-marital love. Their order roughly corresponds
to the course of love between the hero and the heroine.
Love which is not mutual has two modes: the first, one-sided or
unreciprocated love, and the second, violent or abnormal love.
The five stages of mutual love represent the different regional
landscapes of the Tamil Country. These are based on the
psychological and emotional feelings or conducts of the lovers.
Pre-Marital Love
1. Union Mountains (Kurinci)
2. Pining -- Seaside (Mullai)
Neither
3. Separation Wasteland (Marutam)
Post-Marital Love
4. Waiting -- Woodland (Neytal)
5. Quarreling River plain (Palai)
Each phase or mode of love consists of three aspects or
components:
I.

First, basic things such as place (as shown above), season, time
of day or night.

II.

Things born such landscapes flora and fauna, its inhabitants,

their occupation, gods and foods.
8

III.

Proper, specific attributes peculiar to each landscape, such as

the feelings and situations of the dramatis personae in the love
poetry. The third aspect is about the themes of the modes.
The table gives an overview of the phases or modes or themes of
mutual love.

Five
Phases or
Modes of
Love
Pre-Marital
Union

Landscape
or Place

Hero and Heroine

Themes

Stage of Love
Mountain

country/
Mountains/
Kurinci

Pining

Seaside/
Seashore/
Neytal

Background Setting &

Motifs used in Poems

First meeting of
lovers
Love at first sight
Clandestine,
secret meetings
by day or night
Gossip
Heroines parents
watching over
them
Revelation of their
secret love, etc

Impatient lover
who must undergo
forced separation
through the fear of
being found out;
Pangs of
separation

Neither
Separatio
n

Wasteland/
Palai

Separation from
homes and loved
ones in pursuit of
wealth or reasons
of war,
Elopement, etc.

Waterfalls,
mountain pools
Parrots and
peacocks,
Millet fields, wild
rice
Hunter tribes
Flower: Kurinci
(conehead flower)
God: Murukan
Season: autumn
Time: midnight
Melody: kurinci
melodies
Drying fish
Thieving seagulls
Fisher folk
Flower: Neytal
(water lily)
God: Varuna
Season: not
explicitly defined
Time: sunset
Melody: laments
Hot deserts
peopled with
highway thieves,
vultures
dry wells
Flower: Palai
God: Korravi
(Durga),
Bhagavati, Aditya
Season: the hot
season, summer
Time: midday
Melody: pancuram

melodies
Post-Marital Love
Waiting
Woodland/
Forest
pasture/
Mullai

Wifes patient
awaiting for hero/
husbands return
Advent of rainy
season when hero
is expected to
come back
Heros return
journey

Quarrellin
g

River
Plain/
Agricultural
lowland /
Marutam

Hero leaving his

wife (heroine) for
courtesan
The wifes
sulkiness
Hero wishing
reconciliation, etc.

Thick woods,
forest pools,
rabbits, deer
harvesting and
thrashing millet
tending cattle
Flower: Mullai
God: vasudeva,
(tirumal, visnu)
Season: rainy
season
Time: evening
Melody: Mullai
melodies
Complex social
structures,
set in centers of
culture
Flower: Marutam,
Lotus
God: Indra
Season: not
explicitly defined
Time: dawn and
pre-dawn
Melody: Marutam
melodies

Thus, sex and marriage are interwoven with seasonal cycles and
agricultural events. They are interdependent and magically
reinforce each other.
These worlds or landscapes correspond to certain aspects of human
relationships. This is the most remarkable feature of the ancient
Tamil canon of the akam poetry.
Each element of the theme has a particular meaning which is
inherent in the theme. However, the living poetic tradition allows
numerous sidesteps from this canon (for example, the neytal theme
is composed of elements borrowed from the other themes; the palai
theme has blurred contours as well).
10

Sacred Female Sexuality

The main situations of the five tinai themes relate to particular
types or patterns of behaviour.
The aim of this behaviour is to attain control over the sacred force
ananku. The control can assume various forms depending on what
kind of situation the woman is engaged in at a particular point:
1. Whether the force is guarded by her parents (pre-marital love),
2. Whether the force is tamed by her husband (married life) or
3. Whether she herself is capable at harnessing it (ascetic practices
performed during separation).
The idea of attaining control is ever present in one form or another.
A loving couple in Indian and particularly in Tamil culture is granted
a sacral status, merging with figures of gods.
The heroes, who are represented in the cycles of love situations
forming the subject matter of Tamil lyrical poetry, are identified with
different mythological figures.
A possible explanation for this seems to lie in the idea of ananku,
woman being its bearer. A perfect illustration for this is a remark
made by a pardhan, clan poet-singer of the Gonds, which
undoubtedly reflects the traditional Dravidian view of woman's
nature:
"During one and the same day a woman appears in various forms.
When she leaves the household at dawn carrying a jug on her head

11

she is a bad omen since now her name is Khaparadhari, an evil

spirit carrying a potsherd.
Yet in a few minutes' time she returns with the jug full of water. Now
she is Mata Kalsahin, the best and noblest among the goddesses.
The pardhan who sees her is now ready to worship her. He drops a
paisa into the jug and walks on, hopeful, with a singing heart. The
woman then enters her house and starts cleaning the kitchen. She
is now the goddess Bahiri Batoran who drives cholera out of the
village. Yet when she starts sweeping the yard and the path in front
of her house she turns to an ordinary sweeper. Yet in another
minute she changes once more when she goes to tend the cows;
she then becomes Mata Laksmi, goddess of fortune and wealth.
Now the time comes to feed the family, and she turns to Mata Anna
Kumari, goddess of grain. In the evening, when she lights the lamps,
she is Mad Dia Motin, the goddess glittering like pearls. Then she
feeds the baby and sends it to bed thus becoming Mata Chawar
Motin. At night she turns to an insatiable lover whose lust must be
satisfied. Therefore she is the goddess who devours her husband,
like Lanka Dahin who destroyed Lanka with flames". 6
The nature of the heroine as represented in ancient Tamil poetry
goes through similar phases depending on the particular condition
of the sacred force inherent in her. Each particular state
presupposes a manifestation of a particular deity in the heroine and
a particular mode of her behaviour. The latter is fixed in a number of
cases by an appropriate rite or its phase. In such a way the meaning

6 Hivale 1946; Quoted from Dubiansky

12

of poetry situations and the contours of corresponding mythological

figures are revealed.
Love Theme and
its Time of Day

Corresponds to

Characterized by

Kurinci
Midnight

Stage of the
onset of puberty
in the young girl
or to the first
sexual
intercourse
performing of
the separation
rite
period of
preparation for
the family
reunion following
the period of
impurity
a deviation from
the norm
(pirital), is a
sojourn in a
dangerous
"heated" state
the situational
element of this
theme has a
composite
character and is
primarily linked
with the sphere
of emotions

Union of the
male and female
principles,
punarcci

Mullai
Evening
Marutam
Morning

Palai
Midday

Neytal
Sunset

Vow of chastity
(iruttal);
Purification
through a
quarrel, rivalry
with the
courtesan,
fertility
Accumulation of
the force

Pangs of
separation
(irarikal)

Mythological
Heroine/
Goddess
Valli

Pattini, the
goddess of
wifely virtue
Devasena

Korravai (Durga)

Goddess Minas

In the morning, the heroine is like Goddess Devasana, with purity

through a quarrel. Rejuvenated, fruit-bearing.
Midday, she is like Goddess Korravai, accumulated with energy and
force.
In the evening, she is like Goddess Pattini, of wifely virtue.
At sunset she is like Goddess Minas, suffering pangs of separation,
withering.

13

At midnight she is like Valli, meeting her lord Murukan.

Merging of Situational Element with Landscape Element
In the mythological mind of the early Tamil, love situations were
tightly interwoven with certain processes in Nature.
This view arose from the basic concept of the sacred energy
inherent in equal measure in Nature and in woman. Therefore
similar states of this energy are recognizable in love situations and
in the seasonal cycle. Thus parallel routes for events and images
are constructed.
In ancient Tamil poetry, we deal with at least three such parallels:
situational (ritual), landscape and mythological. Their fundamental
link is to be found in their function: to represent, by various means,
one basic mythologeme: the female sacred energy.
In much the same way as each condition experienced by a woman
is characterized by an appropriate state of the energy inherent in
her, the landscapes of the five regions, likewise, correspond to
certain phases of the calendar: each phase is paralleled by an
appropriate state of the energy in woman and is associated with a
definite idea (contamination, purity, virtue, fertility, withering,
energy accumulation, rejuvenation, fruit-bearing etc.).
This is the foundation upon which the ideological and semantic
parallelism between the poetry situations and the natural
environment rests.
From this soil grows one of the cardinal principles of ancient Tamil
poetics: symbolic representation of the actions and states of the
14

poetry's characters and the meaning of the lyrical situation with its
various shades, through images of landscape.
This is the way the main landscapes (or regions) were formed in the
poetry: the regions which represent geographically recognizable
areas and, simultaneously, acquire symbolic meanings.
Becoming symbols they attain a certain degree of autonomy: each
region comes to represent a particular stage of love relationship and
the idea central to it.
The principle of correspondence between the landscape, the
characters and the love situation, being characteristic of ancient
Tamil love poetry, forms foundation for a system of poetic imagery
which is capable of producing an indirect symbolic characterization
of the heroes as well as expressing shades in their relationships and
the deeper meaning of the situation as such.

Storyline
The idea of fertility played key role in the ancient Tamil love poetry.
It is not accidental that the figure of Murukan frequently makes his
appearance in the kurinci poetry.
Firstly, Murukan is the patron deity of the kurinci region, the
background against which the love story is typically set.
Secondly, it is Murukan who is worshipped as the lord of ananku,
the god who inspires love passion.
The image of Murukan in the sphere of eroticism is so significant
that his romance with Valli, a maiden from a tribe of mountain
15

hunters, kuravars, is essentially the pattern on which the lyrical

subject of the kurinci theme is based.
Let us have a closer look at the myth of Murukan's and Valli's
passion. Its most complete and authoritative version appears rather
late, in the source dated to the 14th century A.D., the
kantapuranam ("The Skanda purana"). It is included into the last,
24th canto of the 6th part of the purana, "The Chapter on the
sacred marriage of Valli" (valliyammai tirumanappcitalam). I shall
relate it briefly.

25

In a village beneath the hill now called Vallimalai lived a hunter

called Nampi; all his children were boys, but he longed for a little
girl. On the mountain slope, an ascetic by the name of Sivamuni
was engaged in austerities. One day a gazelle went by, and the
ascetic was aroused by its lovely shape; his lascivious thoughts
made the gazelle pregnant. The daughter of Mal (=Visnu) was
incarnated in the embryo. In due time, the gazelle gave birth to a
female child in a ditch which was dug out by the women of the
hunters' tribe when they searched for the tubers of the sweet
potato (vafii). The female deer, having found out that she had given
birth to a strange being, abandoned the child, which was discovered
by the hunter Nampi and his wife. Overwhelmed with joy, they took
the little girl to their but and named her Valli.
When Valli reached the age of twelve, she was sent to the millet
fields in agreement with the custom of the hillmen to guard
the crops against parrots and other birds, and against wild boars

16

and other animals, sitting up in an elevated hut, and chasing the

potential enemies of the millet fields away.
The sage Narada, who visited Vallimalai and saw the girl, went to
Tanikai, to inform god Murukan about Valli's beauty and about her
devotion to the god.
Murukan assumed the form of a hunter, and, as soon as he arrived
at Valli's field, he addressed the lovely girl enquiring after her home
and family. However, at that moment Nampi and his hunters
brought some food for Valli (honey, millet flour, sweet potatoes,
milk) and Murukan assumed the form of a tree vetikai.
When Nampi and his company disappeared, the god reappeared in
a human form, approached Valli and told her that he would like to
love her. Valli silently lowered her head and then answered that it
was not proper for him to love a woman from the low tribe of
hunters. At that moment they heard the sound of approaching
music. Valli warned Murukan that the hunters are wild and angry
men and the god transformed himself into a very old Saivite
devotee. Nampi and his hunters asked his blessings and returned
home.
25 See [Zvelebil 1977]. The folklore version of the myth is
represented in a modem poem about Murukan by an anonymous
author, published by Beck [Beck 1975].

17

3 The Love-situations and the Heroes103

The old man asked Valli for food, and she gave him some
millet flour mixed with honey. When he had eaten, he
wanted to drink, and he followed the girl to the small
forest pond, where he quenched his thirst. Then he told
her: "You have satisfied my hunger and quenched my
thirst. Now I suffer from the fever of love, and only you
can cure me." Valli reproached him, and wanted to return
to her fields.
At that moment, Murukan invoked the help of his brother
Vinayaka who appeared behind Valli in the shape of a
frightening elephant. The tenor-stricken girl rushed into
the arms of the Saiva ascetic, who dragged her into a
thicket and, while embracing her, assumed his real form,
with six heads, twelve arms, and seated on his peacock.
Carried away by this vision, Valli prostrated at his feet and
worshipped him as her god. He told her that she was, in
fact, the daughter of Tirumal, and that she should return
to her millet fields, where he would follow her. Valli
complied with his wish.
A female companion of Valli questioned the girl about her
absence and the striking changes in her physiognomy, but
Valli answered in an evasive way. Soon after that,
Murukan, again in the shape of a hunter, appeared in front
of the two girls and the companion observed that Valli and
the hunter exchanged amorous looks. Therefore, she
18

demanded that the hunter remove himself. He then

admitted his love for Valli and warned her that, if she
would not help them to meet and enjoy their love, he
would resort to the custom of matal. The companion
agreed and took Valli to a nearby forest, where the divine
hunter met her, and the lovers enjoyed their love. After
that, Valli returned to her millet field and joined her friend.
As the harvest time approached, the tribesmen called Valli
back to the hamlet and, with a heavy heart, she returned
to the house of Nampi. Her clandestine-love affair with
Murukan ended. The mother, who noticed Valli's
unhappiness, invited a soothsaying woman, who stated
that the trouble was due to the lack of devotion to
Murukan. Hence, a ceremony in honour of the god was
organised.
Cevvel-Murukan went to the millet field, and, not finding
Valli there, he came, at midnight, to the hamlet, and with
the aid of her companion, Valli and her divine lover
eloped.
The next morning Nampi's wife discovered Valli's
disappearance. The furious hunter-chief organized a party
of hillmen in pursuit of the fugitives. When they reached
them, they discharged their arrows at Murukan, but the
divine cock who accompanied Murukan crowed, and the
hunters fainted and died. Valli lamented the death of her
adoptive parents, but Skanda-Murukan took her along. On
19

their way they encountered Narada who explained to

Murukan that he should obtain the consent of her parents.
The god therefore turned and ordered Valli to resuscitate
her parents, which she did: Nampi, his wife and his
companions rose as if from deep sleep. Murukan then
assumed his true shape. Amazed and awed, the hunterchief worshipped him and begged him to return to the
hamlet to be married in accordance with the customs of
the tribe.
The whole village rejoiced. The young pair was seated on
a tiger's skin, Nampi placed the hand of Valli in the hand
of Murukan and declared them married, while Narada
assisted. At that moment, the god of gods, Siva, and
Parvati, Hari, Brahma and Indra, appeared in the air,
blessed the newlywed, and disappeared again. Nampi
then offered everyone a feast: plenty of honey, millet
flour, and jungle fruits.
After a short stay at Ceruttani (Tanikai, Tiruttani), Murukan
and Valli returned to Skandagiri, where they were
welcomed with joy by Devasena. The two wives of
Skanda-Murukan lived in harmony like Galiga and Yamund,
in affection and respect for their husband.

20

In the first situation of the kurinci theme, some maidens

from a mountain hunting tribe of kuravar go to a field
where millet is ripening to shout and scare away birds and
wild animals (a maritime version of the same situation:
fisher-girls are scaring away birds from the fish).
A young man who has been hunting in the wood comes to
the field (the sea-shore in the littoral version). He is
attracted by one of the maidens, they exchange glances
and fall in love with each other.
Back in their homes they miss one another and dream of
meeting again. Their meeting is arranged by the young
man's close friend.
At later stages of their relationship this function of an
intermediary is taken by the heroine's close friend who
carries messages, arranges the heroes' clandestine
meetings and carries out negotiations with the hero to tell
him of the pangs of love suffered by her friend. Their
trysts are indeed secret, as the heroine's parents are quite
strict toward their daughter's ways. When the millet is ripe
and the time to reap the crops has come the parents lock
the door of their house and never take their eyes off their
daughter. The heroes' meetings are rare, not easily
arranged. As a rule, the lovers meet at night.
Scarce meetings and the agony of parting affect the
heroine's health and good looks: she has become thin,
sallow, her beauty is fading. The parents are worried by
21

their daughter's condition and, anxious to find out the

cause of it, call in a velan, Murukan's priest. He duly
arrives and, having diagnosed the case as possession by
an evil spirit, arranges an exorcism rite to be conducted at
night, with shamanic dances and sacrifice, ecstatic
appeals to Murukan, chanting, drum beating and the
ringing of bells (veriyatal). Telling the heroine's parents
how matters stand in their daughter's heart the friend
thus hints at the real cause of distress and thus reveals
the mystery. This step marks the beginning of the family's
preparations for the wedding, being, as a matter of fact a
recognition of the lovers' de facto relationship. The news
spreads across the village. Meanwhile the heroine's
confidante, in her address to the hero, relates to him
details of his sweetheart's miserable state and mentions,
as well, that rumours are spreading that worry the girl.
Thus indirectly she makes it clear that the stage of secret
love is over, and the lovers should enter a legal marriage
without further delay.
If there are obstacles on the way of the hero towards the
subject of his passion when the heroine's friend or her
parents set barriers to their clandestine meetings the
hero, driven mad by despair, will resort to an extreme
measure the custom of "riding a palmyra palm horse,"
matalerutal: mourning his fate, he will sit astride a prickly
palmyra palm branch, while his friends are carrying him in
this uncomfortable posture through the village.
22

In case the heroine's parents refuse their consent to the

marriage, the young lovers revert to elopement. They
settle for a while in the wilderness, then return to their
home village to be acknowledged as man and wife. If the
parents' consent has been obtained and the parties
involved agree to marriage, the wedding is arranged.
During the wedding ceremony the newly-weds are
scattered with the "rain" of flowers and rice and are
bestowed with greetings and wishes for a happy family
life.5
The married life of the heroes is generally represented in
the poetry as a state of separation. The husband leaves
his wife and goes to war (or, "to do a man's duty," that is
to plunder, to obtain wealth). He promises to be back at a
fixed time. The heroine is in distress, yet reserved, trying
not to show her feelings and only when the appointed
time comes (usually at the onset of the rainy season,
when her suffering reaches climax) does she convey her
hitherto suppressed emotions to the understanding
confidante.
Another motif related to married life is the hero's
profligacy. He leaves the household to meet a courtesan.
The young wife is overcome with jealousy, she accuses
the husband of being base, makes caustic remarks when
he himself returns after his adventures or sends a
messenger to carry out negotiations about the terms of

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reconciliation. The terms being negotiated, the young wife

is still hesitant, not knowing whether she should accept
his apologies. Finally the quarrel is settled, the family's
happiness restored.

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