‘Avvai Nombu’ is a vratham observed on Tuesdays in the Tamil month of Adi (mid July – mid August) in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu. Women gather at midnight, sing songs and prepare salt-less kozhukattai (dumpling) and eat. No man is allowed to witness this gathering nor are kozhukattais shared with the men. This shows women as holders of power and transmitters of energy through poetry, painting, word and ritual.
“The grey-haired old woman Avvai, who advised women how to survive in a patriarchal society that lays so much emphasis on chastity, was an 18th century poet,” says A. Mangai, relaxing after two evenings of successfully presenting her play ‘Avvai’ for Brahma Gana Sabha and Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. “This is the first time that conventional sabhas have hosted a radical play thanks to the Shraddha theatre group,” says Mangai.
Pathetic depiction
Mangai took to theatre to address women’s issues. According to her, the way women were depicted was pathetic. They were most often shown as helpless and victims of circumstances. So Mangai searched for stories of women who stood their ground when she formed the theatre group Voicing Silence at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. “The first one we encountered was the Kurathi. The gypsy which Prof. Ramanujan helped us put together as ‘Mounakuram.’ Then bard Paadini from the bardic community of the Sangam era came as an eye opener,” says Mangai. “It was the Tamil scholar Inquilab who introduced us to this young woman dancing around with a toddy pot in her hand. She is single and sensuous. We offered an alternative image of the woman, she adds.”
Poet Avvai finds mention in Tamil folk rituals and literature of the Sangam age (between 2nd BC and 2nd AD). The Avvai of the Sangam era was on her own. She worked but without losing the joys of life. There are passionate verses that Avvai has penned about the physicality of desire. “Her body was a vehicle of expressing the joys,” says Mangai.
And she continues: “Toddy drinking by women was part of the daily ritual in the Sangam age. In the North-East even today rice beer is served with food. There are plenty of references to this in Avvai’s poems. Out of 52, 40 poems have references to toddy. Perhaps the image of a woman being on her own, single and wise must have irked people leading to the portrayal of Avvai later as an old woman. However. according to legend, she requested Ganesha to make her appear old with grey hair.”
In some verses, Avvai sang of her friend King Adhiyaman and his son. Her elegy for him is the first and the most poignant one in Tamil literature. But she does not forsake life or writing after his death. That Avvai had an open, intimate and a mature relationship with Adhiyaman is clearly brought out in the play. It tries to understand a relationship that was based on mutual respect for each other’s skills.
Avvai excelled in writing. If her writing was not good, it would not have survived the cataloguing system feels Mangai. “A tradition of didactic, ethical literature, including Tirukkural, Silappadikkaram and Manimegalai are crossed before we meet the Athichhuvvadi-singing Avvai. Then came Gemini Vasan who put the old Avvai image as the only one. But Tamil scholars were aware of different Avvais.”
The play explored the idea that a woman can be young, single, sensuous and still be wise. The first and the last scenes set the context for these debates. The core of the play comprised songs of the Sangam Avvai, who journeys through the five different Tamil landscapes and sings about all of them.
This technique of compelling spectators to perceive intent, considering the context and intention was truly commendable.
The author is a cultural activist and a Gandhi scholar
