In both the
Icelandic and South Indian epic accounts wealth is redistributed by
the (senior) hero. In the Vatnsdaela Saga Ingimund kills a wealthy
robber and returns the goods he had stolen to its rightful owners.
In the Ponnivala Legend the clansmen have tried to ruin Kunnutaiya’s
maize crop by having their cattle trample it.
But with Lord Vishnu’s help those plants spring back and
his wife Tamarai then finds that all their cobs contain jewels! She,
rather than he, decides that all this surprising and unexpected new
wealth should be given out to the thousand beggars who suddenly stand
at their homestead door. This parallel story of gift-giving, found
in both epics, illustrates the generosity and social responsibility
of a key story character. But it is interesting to note that in the
Ponnivala case this character is a female. She rather than her
husband, is driven by an instinct for generosity. Ingimund, the
gift-giver in the Vatnsdaela story was not married at the time he
gave his newly acquired wealth back to the people. We don’t know
what would have transpired had he had a wife. Nonetheless, the
emphasis on female generosity in the Ponnivala epic matches other
evidence found in this legend that credits women with key decisions.
Speaking in general terms, females are given a heightened and more
visible role in the South Indian story than they are in the Icelandic
counterpart we are discussing here.
In both
legends the sons of a generous senior figure become more violent than
their father ever was. These young men, especially the second and
younger of the two (Thorstein & Jokul from Vatnsdaela and Ponnar
& Shankar from Ponnivala) kill a variety of challengers in each
story. Jokul kills a man thought to have magical powers while
Shankar kills an (unnamed) Chola king similarly described as having
used his powers inappropriately.
Jokul
sometimes kills multiple men at a time, as in the image here that
shows him with a bunch of thieves. Shankar also kills multiple men
in quick succession, as in this second illustration. Here we see
Shankar attacking a bunch of clansmen who earlier tried to take land
from him and his father too.
~ Brenda E.F. Beck
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