Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Another Side of the Tale: Vettuvas in The Legend of Ponnivala (Part 2)

Where and why do the Vettuvas in The Legend of Ponnivala actually enter the story action and participate in its events?

Throughout the first half of the Ponnivala tale these reticent forest dwellers stay quiet. One can almost imagine that they purposely hide, allowing a bunch of artisans who live in a service village at the foot of their forested hills to serve as the farmers’ protagonists.

The agricultural settlers also have problems within their own community. Their own cousins are their key rivals. But one small group of artisans, woodsmen and carpenters by trade, join with these clansmen and together they try to trick the farmers into a kind of self-suicide. It is clear why the clansmen do this. They want their cousin’s land.

Why does one small group of woodworkers join them? It seems that they want revenge (as do the clansmen) for what they consider to be an unfair set of arrangements Lord Vishnu imposed on everyone in the land. This event occurs near the very beginning of the story in the presence of the leaders of the previous generation. The artisans and clansmen involved in this incident (the flying temple chariot story) all die.

They are quickly punished by the goddess who rides the flying cart, for their lies and deceptive behavior that wrongly implicate her. But my point here has to do with the Vettuvas. They do not take part in the “Flying Chariot Story" at all. Indeed, it takes three incidents and more than half the Legend has been told before the Vettuvas make their first appearance. These forest dwellers are portrayed as patient, kind and gentle people… that is until they have been three times provoked!

The Farmers’ Provocative Mistake Number One: The first taunt the hunters must swallow comes just months after the twin heroes and their sister are born together (as triplets). Because of farmers’ own male cousins, jealous men who covet the family’s farmland, the two just-born infant boys are in danger. The clansmen would like to kill these babes in order to eliminate any chance they could inherit their family lands later on. They do not care about females born to the queen, because they assume a female will never be able to lay claim to the family property.

As in many folktales around the world, only the lives of the (first born) twin boys are in danger. To protect them the family goddess hides these young souls in a cave under her temple. There she feeds them on tiger’s milk and also becomes their martial arts teacher. For a full five years no one except the goddess even knows that these boys exist. In contrast, the little sister Tangal is raised in the palace as an ordinary child. She lives in plain sight. So now, using the fact that the family has no male heirs as an excuse, the jealous male cousins decide to attack the local palace and its residents. They force the king, queen and their small daughter out and send them into exile.

The couple head for the nearby hills where they think of hiding for some time. During the first days of this exile, the king and queen wander with their young daughter. Soon they reach the hills that lie on the boundaries of Ponnivala. There they come across a lovely palace. It belongs to a fierce ruler named Kali, king of the forest hunters. Two Vettuva maids who have gone to fetch water find the exiled Ponnivala couple resting under a tree near their palace entrance.

They lead the couple to the front porch to meet their powerful employer. The two maids explain that the couple need milk for their hungry baby daughter. The hunter king offers a generous and polite response. Recognizing the couple’s plight he invites them into his palace for a meal and a good rest. But the Ponnivala visitors refuse. What is worse, they generate a conspicuous lie about having “just eaten.” The Vettuva king understands this refusal as a rude put down. Though not verbalized, he understands very well that the couple are refusing food from his hands because they consider him to be inferior (in caste terms) and therefore believe that his food could “pollute” them. The Vettuva king is angered by this insult and quickly retracts his offer of food and shelter. Nonetheless he remains civil and understanding. The story thus continues to portray him in a positive light.

Acting with generosity, he offers the couple shelter in a small hut near his horse corral. He tells them they can live there and that he will not trouble them. The young family will be free to find their own food (in other words, to live and hunt in his forest, taking up the lifestyle he and his relatives have already practiced for centuries as accomplished hunters). The couple accept his hospitality and settle down in this modest abode for several years. But they never start to hunt.

Instead the wife (a humbled queen) now accepts the hard physical job of pounding grain for a merchant nearby. The now impoverished farming couple still insist on their pride, however. At no point in the story do they visit the Vettuva king nor interact with him in any way. It is a standoff in which the Vettuvas get credit for their magnanimity in offering the couple housing even after having had to swallow an insult.


This is all we learn about the (presumed) parents of Viratangal and their life of exile in the forest, with one exception. One day the Vettuva king’s wife suddenly receives an unexpected pair of winged guests. The strangers are a pair of love-parrots sent down from heaven by Lord Vishnu and told they should take up housekeeping in the great banyan tree growing near the Vettuvas’ palace. But before settling in the parrots politely visit the wife of the king. At this meeting they answer her questions about where they have come from.

The Vettuva queen welcomes the parrot couple warmly and tells this pair of birds they should set up their home in the great banyan tree Lord Vishnu has already recommended to them. The Vettuva queen shows the parrots the way and they quickly take up residence in a comfortable nesting hole there. The two birds are lovers and the “emotive story” of how they play together and tease one another is charming and perhaps symbolic as well. As virtually the only “love play” seen in this entire epic story, these parrots’ role is significant. Perhaps they point to a kind of forest paradise found in the Vettuva area (a Garden of Eden in biblical terms). The two birds are innocent, happy and joyful as they play. And they are always together, outwards expressing the existence of a strong social bond between them. Later, alas, the farmer-parents’ two sons will be the ones responsible for breaking apart this beautiful love-bond.

The Farmers’ Provocative Mistake Number Two: Later in the story, when the twin brothers reach sixteen years of age, their sister begs them for a pet parrot. She says she is lonely and complains that these two regularly leave her alone in the family while they take off on exciting adventures. So the brothers decide to catch their sister a pair of parrots. The young brothers soon look to the Vettuva forest and the famous parrot tree there to find a pair of beautiful birds. Meanwhile Tangal, their “little sister,” changes her mind. She says she now realizes that her brothers should not enter the Vettuvas’ territory on any account.

She predicts that this will cause trouble. Tangal thus asks her brothers to cancel their hunting plan. They say it is too late as their village supporters have already been called for the expedition. They ask the local craftsmen for a large iron net to be made, especially designed for this parrot-catching plan. However, the artisans soon complain that the iron they have will not make a good net. Now the heroes’ assistant, named Shambuga, steps in. He says he knows the Vettuvas have a stash of very fine iron which they keep near their Kali temple, deep in the forest. He says he will go there and somehow, using trickery, he will bring this needed iron stockpile back with him.

Shambuga enters the forest, finds the Vettuva palace and calls Viratangal, the young Vettuva maiden, out to speak with him. He asks her politely if he may “borrow” her family’s stash of iron rods. At first Viratangal says no, but Shambuga gradually manages to persuade her. Viratangal now goes to ask her brothers’ permission. They are hesitant. But because Viratangal is a strong and pervasive speaker, they finally say OK, setting just one condition: the iron be returned soon. Tangal, again expressing Vettuva generosity, conveys the news to Shambuga that he may borrow the iron. She asks him to bring a cart the next day.

But the minute she turns her back Shambuga magically lifts the whole pile of metal rods onto his head and runs off. The Vettuvas never see their iron again. The farmers have become thieves and they are angry. The Vettuvas feel that they have been robbed. But still this is not enough to make them seek revenge. These forest gentlemen remain reserved, polite and well-mannered despite this second insult.

The Farmers’ Provocative Mistake Number Three: In folk tales things often come in threes. In the Ponnivala story the farmer’s third mistake is the act that finally makes the Vettuva hunters decide to act. This incident begins the minute the farmer-twins do not heed their sister’s advice. Despite her warnings and her request that they cancel their hunt, the farmer brothers decide to proceed anyway. They will pursue their quest for a parrot hunt inside what they know to be Vettuva territory. And what’s more, their sister Tangal soon loses her resolve to resist her two siblings’ plan further. Despite her conscience telling her otherwise, Tangal bends to brothers’ demand that she bless their swords before they depart. Tangal does this but then stays back at the palace as they set out on their hunt.

The hunting party is large. The Ponnivala village farmers are accompanied by their powerful assistant Shambuga, and also a number of local farm workers. It is their duty to help the twin kings, their masters, on just such occasions. As this organized farmer expedition enters the forest the group is first confronted by 5,000 tigers. Viratangal herself has stationed these beasts along the path she knows the men will follow. Her intent is to protect her beloved parrots from a raid. But her magical control of those tigers cannot out power the heroes’ own fighting skills. Remember… these men used to drink tigers’ milk as children! Furthermore, they were raised by the goddess herself… who taught them many fighting skills. 

After the tigers are defeated Viratangal then sends 5,000 cobras to attack, with the same purpose in mind. But the farmers manage to defeat these awesome forest guardians as well. When the hunting expedition finally reaches the great banyan tree where the parrots live, Shambuga climbs. Soon he finds a good spot from which to throw his special net. Ironically, of course, this net has been made from the Vettuvas’ own iron. The net files through the air with ease but the parrots are forewarned. They have noticed all the commotion occurring at the base of the very tree where they have chosen to nest.

Thinking quickly, the parrot couple try to escape as the flying net moves toward them. (#28) But only the male parrot succeeds in rising above this airborne metal trap. Alas, the female parrot is soon captured and taken down the tree. Meanwhile, her partner escapes. Once on the ground, at the base of the great tree, the female parrot is transferred to a specially built cage. Then she is carried back and presented to Tangal as a fine gift. There is much fanfare. Tangal is happy to have this beautiful companion.


She does not realize how sad her new parrot is, and how this lovely bird is crying inside. It is longing for its forest mate. Meanwhile, that parrot husband flies to the Vettuva palace where he promptly complains.

Viratangal understands his language and she is told all about the capture of the parrot’s sweetheart. She also learns how their beautiful love-bond has been cruelly broken apart. Symbolically, the story’s Garden of Eden has now been illegally penetrated and its essence (freely given, natural love) is now destroyed.


This third violation is too much. The Vettuva hunters can no longer bear the ever-increasing escalation of insults. They are also incensed by the havoc it has wreaked upon their beautiful forest domain. In response the Vettuvas plot their answer. Their innocent female (parrot) has been kidnapped and caged. So they now plan to capture the farmers’ own sister and make her their kidnapped prize. Logically, this will be the exchange of one trapped female for another. By this point one cannot say that the Vettuvas are in the wrong by trying to equal matters out! They have endured three provocative insults on their honor and pride. It is time for them to react. 

Ponnivala’s great and final war starts in this manner. As a result the kingdom of Ponnivala is finally brought to ruin. Ponnivala will be no more. But interestingly, as the story ends the Vettuva kingdom is never destroyed. Unlike in Ponnivala, the Vettuva palace is never burnt down. The Vettuva forest stands intact, but the farmers’ fields lie in ruin. Only in Ponnivala is life as a whole brought to an end. One can understand the story as quietly celebrating a Vettuva victory. But one must read on to understand this (somewhat hidden) ending and its still deeper significance.

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