Publication No.' 10 AAROOR ARCANUM AND PRITVI A PLAY A METAPHOR A SERVICE BY S.A. SANKARANARAYANAN KALA SAMRAKSHANA SANGKAM 5-D, SELVAM NAGAR THANJAVUR - 7 SOUTH INDIA SEPTEMBER 1999 Price Rs. 50/ 3 ^Jo my are ntd The Merits are Hers - His The Flaws are entirely mine Let my - ness perish! SAS GRACIAS I wrote Arcanum and Pritvi months ago for only a few, counting on the subject that somewhat cared more about me than I really deserved. Time and pains gave themselves to turn this work into what the few might, - instead of what the many must, - read. I dreaded another thing at last and therfore find as I leave it. the sequence or choric - dramatic form was literarily of no more importance than a backdrop requires, and stress lies on the words in the development of the word. This book is often times the word. The Book is Veena: little else is worth critical strumming ! Let me thank Kala Samrakshana Sangam, Thanjavur, - a body of minds sublime, an organ voice spiritual - that has gracefully condoned my literary excesses through this generous act of publication. The three Foreword - ers are a grand trinity. I salute them. The child in me is delighted, the adult in me is faithful. Punditji Sri Narasimha Raghavan, Thiru T.N. Ramachandran, Professor K.G. Seshadri do reveal me, clarify me, humble me to de - disguise me. In pure words of praise and prayer, let me slope to them at last and set me square with another genesis to seek a lodging, as star following a star! I am greatly indebted to Smt. Nandini Ramani, Secretary, Music Academy, Chennai for her gesture and encouragement. I thank Sri Sethuraman of Venkateswar Printers for his promptest help and staunchest affection for this work to be thus printed. SAS FOREWORD Punditji Thiru S. Narasimha Raghavan and Sekkizhar-Adi-p-podi Thiru T .N.Ramachandr an and _Professor K.G. Seshadri_ smfc 313 3T 3fcl 31F3 ^ II (9) 3TFT4 ^RISR ail’WMR I f§TCJ #IT SjT cRtf #3 sf^ II (?) 3*4 \*3t TOfs&Sfa I W 3STN 3T551T 3^4 w ftnMt II (3) snorter *isq fstsn 33* 1 M<WW 3F3NT 3*3 3$^ II (*) ft 3T33T art 313^3# I 3^*3 3133^53313^ n (?) 3*3 f^FT ^RrT 33S3T I wf Mw<wwgi^ 11 (3) mm: m? 34^53 ^ Ftoww faaq I 4 *pn 33 II («) $t.3<Rfe 333: B It is difficult to read Aaroor Arcanum; it is even more diffict comprehend it. For it is about Arcanum and again about Aaro< Pritvi Kshetra. Pritvi is Earth. The earth presented before us i one sense, untillable stubborn glebe. However, the discerning can very well behold the fertile soil beneath the hard surface ar due time can make use of it and gain harvest after harves unexampled excellence. The opening verse is a concealed invocation of the Lord of Hill (Vanmeekanaathan/Putridam Konda Puraathanan1). H entempled in Poongkoyil (the flowery shrine). The flower, no dc is Kamalam (Lotus). The second stanza reveals this fact when poet affirms thus: *.I hear the calyx whispering the secretive act of the Lord....." Here is also indicated the iila of Veethi Vitangkan in which V< Vitangkan the prince, gets involved. “The car justifies the Highws a fix”. This Highway is St. Sekkizhaar's Arasulaam Veethi2 highway reserved for the royalty). Stanzas 3 and 4, inter alia, ref Nami Nandi Naayanaar. “For his sake waters lit and waters fed. Stanza 5 hails the glory of the militant saivite Naayanaar, a Ker known as Virannmindar. Stanza 6 sings the glories of Ammai-A| (Mother-Father form of Siva). It is this androgynous deity that cor Gnosis on mellowed Bakthas. Tiruvaaroor is indeed the Poli Gnosis. “Tenamar solai Tiruvaarooril Gnanam thannai nai nanmaiyum*3 (The conferment of fhe weal of Gnosis at Tiruvaa girt with melliferous groves) are the words of St. Maanickavaachs The source for stanza 7 is the Periya Puranam. St Sekkizhaar s ijSjib ajiT&nsijafm &sh ^fsvd CZu(rQj>m <oai£gpsvib QsiserfuuQ Gw£ssP&> 8>(T0>Si) Wihfan#> S>W6VW(TM iDijQehm msod$^mrsv [In every embodied soul, the heart burgeons Even as a bud blossoms; from the lotus-heart T. / Lfii)St?LJb Q&iTSmL^ L0ff$S8T6ST 2. stfg 3. <a£$3T£0jr (S^iTSSTID £SS16SiS5f ff>6$r$P>WILjW Of the lovely Mother-Earth Whence effloresces the seed of the vedas Aaroor of Ardhanaariswara has blossomed]. Aaroor Arcanum is full of echoes from the Saivaite Tirumurais. It is good to bear this in mind. - T.N. Ramachandran However the work is a poetic projection of Prof. S.A. Sankara Narayanan's conception, perception and visceral response to the sacred city of Thiruvarur with its famous temple of the Lord, the Lotus tank and the many religious and literary associations which they invoke in his mind. The work is an extraordinary one, almost beyond the compre¬ hension of the lay reader. This is because the author has simply recorded his thoughts as they came to him in a rush almost like the rapids of a jungle river. One is reminded of Coleridge's description of the river Alph in his 'Kublakhan’. Words hurl themselves forward, they hurtle, they are spilled out in an uninterrupted headlong flow. The reader has to piece out the meaning from the torrent of words, drawn from all branches of knowledge, languages, Science and Mythology included. Echoes from poets like Tennyson, Shelley, Eliot, Goldsmith can be heard, by a discerning scholar-reader alone, sometimes the writer daringly coins words even like Keats or Shakespeare. . Very often the association of ideas is too rapid, to make sense, except to the creator and his circle. The words seem to gallop like a drunken horse that is riderless. There is a riot of words. One brings out the other by verbal association, by alliterations, rhyme, and assonance as in Anthony Burgess's “Nothing like the Sun” Without meaning to be derogatory, one can say that SAS. has outjoyced Joyce himself, in his pursuit along this stream of consciousness in his chase, after his own private Holy Grail. The total effect is something of awe married to beauty like a block of diamondiferous one. The liberty which he takes with syntax and grammar is something one can never see anywhere. Sometimes a whole line is formed out of hyphenated words. Wheel-Mud-clay-pot-kiln-flame-scud-play-sky-verse. If pun is a golden apple to Shakespeare, rhyme and alliteration are the golden bys and bylanesand tf^ygotna^d ^J?ey0nd ** frack into a while. y 9 on 30(1 on Wl they join the main line a uniquely his oSm. Little nugqTte of ?wa ^ W°rdS °f 0,6 ^ er s attention every now and^hln90 d 2fSh and beckon the rei example, ^ W and then as the P°em rolls along; f L ^nter in abandon, you are bom ahead, Aad for this you become Sivaganam And thme servitor verily become 2' °neS ^ Heart’1116 Bitter, fighter Suffering soars to the rank of Epic^U; gtts wrestle and yield to poetic face. 3' 'b0U mforlmSoais spell bound L^Tf?dTrdS °fmine are last blossoms! Language-Kid lisps with its biteless gums. 4' ^ bowl aud a recipient Lhy vessel and pre-server of Thy flow. 5' u'mt^,sam^’Uem:hk‘vain'! la His Left Hue or Her Rigb red m hK? I ^ . . S.A. Sankaranarayanan fe a hidden 'S "° denying the fact i unique cerebration drives him on ^9eTSItwork a Io9ophile wh cocoeftes scribendi (itch to writeTffl hfe^f UPOn -,m’ t0 m Though communication mayTotbf fe ^ C® 9ives Wm re behind all his granary of wll bt JlS lon9 suit- there is bea fvhefrt baahl eou+tpno^u_rinyg a.n d 9a cclleeaarr c01u1™rre°nt* o*f^ o-iA°*tvt uh/hoiuVgkh t c_ov_er ed. up. - K.G* Ses)ia< AAROOR ARCANUM by S.A. SANKARANARAYANAN