தினசெய்தி – 12 3 2023
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அருந்தமிழும் அன்றாட வழக்கும் – 152
தேவதைகளின் இசையில்
நீடு துயில் கொள்வாய் !
முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
இங்கிலாந்து மன்னர் சார்லஸ் அவர்களின் 73ஆம் பிறந்த நாள் விழா அண்மையில் மார்ச்சு 9ஆம் நாளன்று பெருவிழாவாகக் கொண்டாடப்பட்டது.
இளவரசராகவே பல்லாண்டுகள் இருந்து ஓராண்டுக்கு முன்னர் தான் மன்னர் பட்டத்தை சார்லஸ் பெற்றார் என்பதை உலகு அறியும்.
மன்னரின் சிறப்பைக் குறித்தும் மகத்துவத்தைக் குறித்தும் பலர் குறிப்பிட்டிருக்கின்றனர்.
மன்னரின் தாய் மகாராணி எலிசபெத் மறைந்த பொழுது இளவரசர் சார்லஸ் தன்னுடைய இரங்கலுரையில் ஆங்கில மாக்கவிஞர் ஷேக்ஸ்பியரின் பொன்வரிகளை எழுதியதும் பேசியதும் குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.
ஷேக்ஸ்பியர் எழுதிய ஹேம்லட் நாடகத்திலிருந்து ஒரேஷியோ சொன்ன வரிகளைக் குறிப்பிட்டு
‘’நீங்கள் மறைந்து விட்டீர்கள்,
நான் தனிமையில் விடப்பட்டுள்ளேன்.
உன்னதமான இதயமே நீடு துயில் கொள்வாய்;
தேவதைகளின் மென்மையான இராகங்களைக் கேட்டு ஓய்வெடுங்கள்‘’ என்றார்.
இந்த வரிகளைத் தன்னுடைய தாயினுடைய மறைவுக்கு அவர் குறிப்பிட்டு காட்டியது நெகிழத்தக்கது.
அதேபோலத்தான் தன்னுடைய முதல் மனைவி டயானா இறந்த பொழுதும் இளவரசர் சார்லஸ் ஷேக்ஸ்பியரின் ஹேம்லட் வரிகளைச் சொன்னது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.
ஹேம்லட் நாடகம் உலகப் புகழ் பெற்ற நாடகமாகும் அதனை தமிழில் அமலாதித்தியன் என்றே சொல்லி நாம் மகிழ்ந்தோம்.
தில்லிப் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் நான் வழங்கிய முனைவர் பட்ட ஆய்வின் மூன்றாம் பகுதி பின்வருமாறு:
Another reason for the ready acceptance of Shakespeare by the Indian audience is the close affinity between the Elizabethan and Indian temperaments.
In the works of Shakespeare, they discovered the spirit of the Renaissance at its highest.
We have the evidence of Norman Marshall who says.
Perhaps rather surprisingly, I found that in
India the reaction of the audiences to
Some aspects of the plays was more
Elizabethan than it is in England.
This observation of Marshall clearly brings to focus the affinities of temperaments between the Elizebethans and the Indians, springing from the conditions of life, the preoccupations and pre-judgments, nature and conditions of men, their beliefs, whims and idiosyncrasies that are common to both. Elizabethans were fond of gaiety, took delight in music and were sensitive to beauty; characteristics that are more or less shared by Indians.
It is for this very reason that a Hamlet or an Othello or a Macbeth or a Lear, appeals to Indians more than any other character in other European and Western epics.
There is a bit of Hamlet in everyone.
For similar reasons, Richard II was a character for whom the Indians had a special sympathy.
The rhetoric of public-speaking and declamatory passages delighted the Elizabethan audience and Shakespeare respecting the popular taste, introduced set speeches in Julius Caeser and his historical plays.
India, being a nation of speech-makers, the passion for rhetoric displayed in his plays no wonder swayed the land.
The reading of the disputations as well as the Tamil Classics made one enjoy Shakespeare’s judicious use of logic, reasoning and disputation in his plays.
Again, the theory of human nature being a compound of the four elements, earth, fire, air and water, tempered by their mixture in varying proportions, has been the basis of human psychology in Shakesperean drama.
And Indians feel quite agreeable when Edmund said that he was compounded in Ursa Major ‘for we too believe in stars and perform rites, to appease unfavourable stars”.
Like the Elizabethans, Indians too believe in ghosts, spirits and witches.
Descriptions and allusions to nature contain historical references of a kind which allude to the goodness, gentleness and kindness of the historical heroes.
When Shakespeare in Coriolanus refers to Valeria as
Chaste as the icicle
That’s curded by the frost from purest snow,
And hangs on Dian’s temple (Act- V III)
he no doubt meant that ice, pure everywhere, becomes purer by association with the temple of Diana at Ephegus, the celebrated edifice in honour of the goddess of chastity.
The Tamil poets, for example, work in similar associations wherever possible.
The Virgilian tradition in the poetic interpretation of Nature runs through English Literature that followed the Renaissance.
Chaucer and Spenser may have the May-morning freshness of a new literature, but it is Shakespeare that attracts in Indians in a comparative study.
He is the one, who as a dramatist used Nature for “Situations”, to augment happiness or to intensify tragedy.
The same fundamental idea of making Nature a predominant part of the plays is found in Shakespeare as in the works of the Tamil poets.
In Macbeth, for instance, the storm reigns supreme.
Thunder and lightning are the fitting accompaniments of the witches whenever they make their appearances, while as in Julius Caesar; murder is portended by a night of elemental fury and by bad omens.
The storm in King Lear is as impressive, and is brought into close proximity with human action and with the tempest which rages in the breast of the aged king.
It is thus that the Tamil poets portray the feeling of desolation of lovers at separation with the background of desolation during the season of excessive heat, and with the suffering of humanity as in Nedunalvadai.
Likewise, the contemplative aspect to be combined with the call to action has been exemplified in Tirukkural and the Gita.
Indian Literature is replete with the deeds of such men who were at once, men of thought and men of action, like Janaka, Parasurama and Bhishma.
The idyllic scenes in “As you like it” are reminiscent of the rich pastoral and sylvan traditions in ancient epics.
The Forest of Arden is a veritable pastoral paradise.
The shepherds and shepherdesses in Shakespeare remind one of the people who inhabited the Mullai lands with their rich pasture.
That Shakespeare touched the chords of Indian sensibilities is evidenced by the fact, that the ever-disputed issue of a woman marrying the person of her own choice, like Desdemona’s choice of Othello or Jessica’s elopement with Lorenzo or Juliet’s secret marriage with Romeo, interested the Indian reader.
In South India, especially in Tamilnadu, Shakesperean sensibility seems to have resonated with Tamil works, both, ancient and modern.
Dr.V.SP.Manickam in his seminal work “The Tamil Concept of Love”, while analyzing the Sangam classics and the concept of love in Aintinai (moods appropriate to five land types) observes that the underlying vein of Aintinai, irrespective of the means leading to the married status, is that there should be a union of hearts, a sense of co-operation and a sense of duty between the couples. This all-pervading ideal of the Tamil Genius can also be seen portrayed by Shakespeare, as follows:
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
(Sonnet CXVI)
People who have read the Sangam classic Purananooru find Shakespearean sentiment resonating with what they have been brought up on, particularly the one that considers the entire world as a stage.
Dr. K.Chellapan in his scholarly book “Shakespeare and Illango” remarks thus.
If Shakespeare initiated us into the new world,
He also directed us back to our world and
Shakespeare himself came to us not so much
As a discovery, but as a recovery.
The Shakesperean reverence for life was only a
New version of certain values embodied in our
Ancient literature.
It does not mean that
Shakespeare had nothing new to offer us.
He Had so much to offer, but it was also so similar
To, though not identical, with our own past and
That is why Shakespeare led us back to our
Own roots and made us look back at our own
writers from a new angle.
Looking at the works of Shakespeare against the body of modern and ancient Tamil works of literature offers fresh insights.
Reducing the Shakesperean variety of heroines, to a few patterns that can be related to the patterns in Ilango, Dr.Chellappan remarks that “Shakespeare’s tragic women have been reduced to two patterns,that of Cordelia and Cleopatra, and they have been compared with Kannaki and Madhavi respectively”.
Likewise, Tara’s (wife of Vaali in The Ramayana) pleadings with her husband have been equated with Calpurnia’s appeal to Caesar before he goes to the Senate, Brutus’s clandestine dealing with Caesar with that of Rama and Vaali, Portia’s whipping arguments in The Merchant of Venice with Kannagi’s in Silappadikaram.
Hunting for Shakesperean parallels in devotional literature like Nammalvar’s Vaishnava cult, K.Rajagopalachariar observes, “The Tamil tradition has always extolled the virtues of valour, love, charitable nature and fame.
Women endowed with these qualities have always been held in esteem”.
For example, Saiva Siddhanta and Vaishnavite concepts find apt parallels in Shakespeare.
Human aspirations, disappointments, anger, jealousy, vacillations and doubts that assail everyone have been well portrayed only by two writers, Nammalvar and Shakespeare.
Their remarks are applicable to men of all times and have a universal significance. Other writers, may or may not have successfully penetrated into the human mind as deeply as Nammalvar and Shakespeare.
– வளரும் . . . .
– முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
தொடர்புக்கு dr.n.arul@gmail.com
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