In both the Vatnsdaela Saga and the Legend of Ponnivala there are
stories about outsiders arriving and being resisted by those already
living on land in the area. One Vatnsdaela example is a boat that
lands near the hero’s homestead. It has a skipper called Hrafn.
As leader and first man of the area Ingimund went to meet him as the
ship docked. He politely offered to let the new guest stay in his
home and Hrafn accepted. But it was also the custom that the first
man to meet any ship could select from its wares whatever he fancied.
Hrafn had a fine sword with him that Ingimund admired and which he
asked to purchase. Hrafn refused and Ingimund nursed a feeling of
insult. Sometime later the two men went into Ingimund’s nearby
homestead shrine together. Ingimund went in first. Then he turned
around and found Hrafn coming at him with his sword drawn. Ingimund
was now doubly angered and said that no sword should be drawn inside
a temple. He then asked that Hrafn hand over his sword to pay amends
to the gods. Hrafn did this and soon afterwards he left the area for
good. The fine sword became treasured by Ingimund and was later
handed down to his two sons and then on to their descendants. (Note
that Kolatta and Kunnutaiya worshipped at similar shrines near their
homes. Kolatta’s temple was dedicated to his own family goddess –
Celatta. No other information and no image of Ingumund’s family
temple was available to me (at the time of writing this blog).
There is a somewhat similar but inverted set of stories about Kolatta
and his grandsons that, like the above, involves swords. Again
there is an outsider/insider confrontation but in Ponnivala the
artisans are the first settlers and they have the swords. Kolatta is
the newcomer and has arrived without this important tool. The
artisans resist Kolatta’s announcement that he is going to plough
“their” lands as a skilled farmer. They then proceed to throw
their swords at him in an attempt to behead the newcomer.
Furthermore, as a result of Vishnu’s divine intervention
a social contract formulated. The great Lord announces the terms:
The newcomers will be awarded the right to plow the lands of
Ponnivala, but every time an artisan makes a plough for them to use
the craftsman responsible will receive three handsome measures of
grain. There is no social contract mentioned in the Icelandic case.
However, soon after a key moment where Berg insults Thorstein at a
wedding and Thorstein’s younger brother Jokul then tries to even
things out by launching a reciprocal attack on Berg. The two are
separated but Berg then raises the matter later in a public forum at
the Hunavan Assembly. A decision is reached. Jokul is to lower
himself before Berg by crawling under a mossy arch (see an image of
this in this same blog segment). This public announcement of a
resolution somewhat resembles Vishnu’s to the gathered Ponnivala
crowd that there will now be a set of payment rules detailing what a
farmer must pay an artisan for any completed work delivered (a new
plough, for example). Jokul refuses to crawl under the arch so
Thorstein, his elder brother, steps in to replace him. Apparently
one brother could “replace” another in settling a matter like
this.
In sum, in the
South Indian epic the causes of social tension differ from those
described by the Icelandic story to some extent. In the Ponnivala
tale we see mostly group-to-group confrontations. Most of these
concern a dispute between the representatives of the three
contrastive modes of production described there (artisans, hunters
and farmers). The Icelandic story is more focused on personal
confrontations between evil doers and those upholding what is
presented as “right” or moral behavior. There the heroes oppose
sorcery, theft, and personally insulting behaviour). In this sense
we can say that the Ponnivala story has the stronger “sociological”
perspective, perhaps due to the presence of a denser population and
more highly evolved local economy in the area during the period
depicted. In part two of this segment, however, we will look below
the surface and notice that the artisans versus farmers is a common
underlying theme that does appear to be present in the Icelandic case
as well.
It
seems fair to say that in the Vatnsdaela Saga the owner of the finest
sword (and perhaps also the most magical one) makes the rules. Some
kind of divine backing may also be implied by the presence of a
temple near Ingimund’s home, but this theme is not well developed.
We can be sure that this finest of swords, Aettartangi, came from an
outsider, a somewhat intrusive guest who seems to have had other fine
goods on his ship as well. This is relevant because of the hint that
this visitor had artisan or merchant connections. Clearly the
sword’s original owner was not a farmer. Later, in Part Two of
this segment I will revisit this probable confrontation between a
merchant-artisan and a hero-landowner. (Image 6) This image
extends the theme of divine backing. In the Ponnivala case, as one
further example, Kunnutaiya and his wife turn to Lord Vishnu
for advice before deciding exactly where to locate their new palace.
Indeed, Vishnu’s backing of the Ponnivala family is seen
repeatedly, right through the story. Interestingly, however, Lord
Vishnu switches sides and supports these landowners’ hunter enemies
when it really counts, at the very end of the tale (a reversal too
complex to discuss further here).
In
the Legend of Ponnivala’s third generation Kolatta’s grandsons
have fine swords though we are not told exactly how they acquired
them. This South Indian story also exhibits more continuity in terms
of the long list of adversaries family heroes must face. And grudges
last longer. Now the artisans, who were the area’s original
inhabitants, continue to hold a grudge against the farmers for three
generations. In this image one artisan tries to steal a sword from
Kolatta’s grandsons by sneaking into a palace storeroom where their
family weapons are kept. But the heavy instrument slips in the
thief’s hands and cuts him instead.
Skipping a
few in-between events, the confrontation ends when one
grandson, Shankar, arrives on horseback, rescues his brother and
beheads the thief with exactly the same tool this man had earlier
tried to steal!
~ Brenda E. F. Beck
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