Part 4
Sivaka Chinthamani
The first epic wrote in Viruthppa is Sivaka Chinthamani. It
tells about jainism. Thiruthakka devar describes the
uncertainty of life through a scene happened in a garden. A
monkey gave jack fruit to a female monkey in a garden. And
the gardener chased both the monkeys and took the jack fruit.
When sivakan saw this incident he remembered that
kattiyankaran snatched his country from his father and then
he (Sivakan) himself reclaimed his country from
kattiyankaran. Then he realised that strong people always
capture the country and kingdom of weak people, and wealth
and power is not permanent, and he resigned as a king.
Sivaka Chinthamani explains the following moral values.
King should discuss things with ministers many times before
coming to conclusion. Those who want to win an enemy will
not reveal his thoughts to anybody till the right time comes, if
any life is in danger he should protect it. Even if he suffers, he
should not torture people who are not his enemy. Should
listen to his parents. Give charity to needy ones. Those who
are going in wrong/bad way in life, should have mercy on
them and make them to do right things.
Valayapathi Kundalakesi
Valayapathi’s moral advises are :- Should not tell lies, don’t do
gossips, don’t talk ill of others, don’t talk bad things, don’t kill
other species and eat their flesh to maintain your health, don’t
befriend thieves, don’t steal.
Youth is not permanent, happiness is not permanent, wealth
is also not permanent. The sorrow we experience in life is
increasing day by day. Farmers keep one part of their products
as seed for next year. Like that we should do charity daily for
the betterment of next birth. So according to Valayapathi life
is uncertain charity is certain.
Kundalakesi tells the uncertainty of life - we take birth, then
after stages of life getting older. Then we die. (9)
Kambaramayanam
When Chozha dynasty was in peak, Kambaramyanam was
written. This epic introduced In order to keep his word,
Father Dasarath separated his loving son, to keep his father’s
word son Rama gave away his prince post and went to forests,
brother Bharat refused prince post due to unlawful method,
friend Guha who can give his life for the friendship with
Rama, Sabari who was an example of hospitality, Sita who
went along with Rama telling ‘The separation is more painful
than the wild forest’, Lakshmana went along with Rama to
forest protecting brother, hanuman who had determination
and ready to cross even ocean to finish the job ascertained to
him are the characters introduced to us by this epic.
Ayodhya described as following :- The seed of education
germinated and came out. Knowledge spread like the plant’s
branches. Its leaves are penance. The love to other beings
bloom as buds. Good activities/charities are its flowers. The
fruit of this plant is like happy experience. And Ayodhya is like
this plant. Education gives modesty, modesty brings wealth,
wealth brings prosperous life, that yields to
generosity/charity, and with the charity one gets happiness.
According to Kambar, education is basic of all things. In such
a great city Ayodhya Rama was born.
In Ramayana Ravan was shown as a man with so many good
qualities. He was a great musician, bhakt of Shiva, had great
strength, fought with elephants in wars and won with injuries
in his body. And he had a brother Kumbhakarnan who was
not afraid of criticising his brother but at the same time stood
with him during the war. And also had courageous son
Indrajit/Megnathan.
Ravana who had wealth, designation, family ruined because of
his lust for the wife of another man.
Ethics of Villi Bharatham
Mahabharat is the epic which in all the languages of India.
Based on the Mahabharat written by Vyasa in sanskrit, all the
versions were written. In Tamil it is called Villi Bharatham.
Those who indulge in competition, jealous, gambling will
always face defeat. Controry to that those who are following
good ethics in life made by scholars will always win. Goodness
win and evil lose is the moral of Mahabharata. The jealous
between relatives lead to deception, treachery and then war.
That was the reason for ruins. (Thirukural168)
Even when Dharma faced so many difficulties, he was
attached with his morality, and emphasised the strength of
unity. The 5 brothers were born in different situations. But
they were united. Win many wars with Bima’s strength,
Arjuna’s archery. Because of this fame, Duryodana was jealous
and trickily he defeated them in gambling. Because of the
defeat they suffered in forest and were living in disguise. Lost
their children in the war. But because of the unity they won
the war.
Drudarashtiran had 100 sons. They were called Kauravas.
Elder son was Duriyodana. Because of his bad character he
was suffered. He had enmity of Pandavas from their childhood
itself. Because of his greed he dis not want to share the
country with pandavas. He had bad qualities like hatred,
scheming mind, doing disgrace to women and misbehave with
elders. So he had his end. He neither listen to Vithuran like
scholars nor listen to criticism from Bhima and Dharma. The
great people like Bhishma, vithura, Dhrona, Krupa, Karna
stood with Duryona’s side in the war. Bur because of Sakuni’s
friendship and advice he faced the defeat and death.
Villibharatham reveals the ethics of patience through the
character of Dharma. He was apolitical and did not tell lies.
When Krishna asked Dharma to tell lies as Ashwathama died,
he refused and told Krishna that if we tell lies we will lose
living partner, scholars, relatives, love, fame, wealth,
efficiency, wisdom, penance and good returns.
Previous paragraph reference in ( poem 3687)
When Krishna went to Kauravas as an ambassador he stayed
in Vithurar’s house. When Duryodana asked him why he
stayed in vithura’s house, he told the following reasons :-
The following four types of people will always suffer in life. - If
the knowledgeable minister purposefully ruins his
government, one who ignores scholar’s advice, one who
forgets the helps received from others, and one who had food
in a person’s house and after that gets angry with that person
and thinking of war with him. This ethical explanation fits to
all the times.
When Duryodana called Dharma for gambling he told that –
getting angry, criticising others stating their mistakes,
doubting a friendship, evil act of gambling, walk away from a
commitment will bring evil only. By that statement it is
cleared that gambling is equal to many evil things. (1103)
In Mahabharatha war when Ashwathama killed the children
of Pandavas in unethical manner, Duryadana scolded him – it
is not a courageous act to kill children and why you did this?
You killed our family’s progenies. Now we don’t have
generation and it is not a moral act. By this we understand
that even in war-field they followed ethics and moral.
Ethics of living in Tamil literature
There are so many characters in epics and mythology which
were portrayed as images of moral qualities. For motherhood
visayai, Madhavi anf Kunthi; for purity, chastity, Kannagi,
Sita, Panchali,; For father’s love Dasarathar; for patience
Dharma and Rama; for friendship Guha and karnan; For
service Lakshmana, Hanuman; for charity Karnan; for justice
Pandyan; for sacrifice Bhishma Bharatar; for wisdom
Vithurar; are the examples of these characters.
For bad friendship Kuni, Sakuni, Kattiyankaran; for i
mmorality Kovalan, Ravanan; for jealous Duryodana,
Surpanaka, Kandhari; bad father Dhruthrashtra; for
disgracing woman Duchadanan are depicted as images of evil
things.
Literatures did not speak moral and ethical opinions directly
but make those points realised through the characters and
incidents in the stories. Because of this only moral points stay i
n people minds longer.
Conclusion
Through Tholkappiyam we knew that Sangam literature kept
the love between a man and a woman in great place and
appreciated it. Friendship considered as the best relationship.
People considered speaking truth is moral and kings were
generous. Thirukkural is moral book for all over the world.
Silappathikaram registered the king’s justice. Those who do
immoral activities will face evil end those who follows moral
values will be successful in life are the ethics we get from
Villibharatham.
No comments:
Post a Comment