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Xvi
It is true that in giving free rein to his lively fancy in this
fashion, the poet sometimes involves himself in minor inconsis-
tencies. Thus it is difficult to understand how if Yama could
not die, because there was no other Yama available to give him
the coup de grace, the asuras could still manage to die on the
battle-field and thus become the inhabitants of Svarga over-
night; or how, if Svarga had neither ramparts nor foundation,
(see pages 9, 226, 69, 71 and 96) it could still be reduced to debris !
The reader must not go away with the impression that the
prose in this Champu is everywhere laboured or heavy. There
are many brilliant cameos. Such are the passages which make
vivid Indra's extraordinarily forceful personality; the panic of
the multitude in a beleaguered city; the jubilation of the asuras;
the lightning appearance of Vishnu as the Great Tortoise to sustain
the sinking Mandara mountain; the intensely sinister quality of
the Hala-hala suggested by the vividly vague imagery, conveying
the impression that it is not just one kind of poison, if a terrible
one, but that it symbolises primordial evil. The Champu-kavya
has for its main purpose the telling of a story. So prose is
naturally used for the narrative links where no intensity of
emotion comes into play. If the nature of the episode which
our poet selected for his subject does not admit of much diver-
sity of treatment, his prose, where it brings out great moments of
experience, is authentic poetry.
This Champu contains about two hundred and fifty verses.
And some of them are among the best the poet ever wrote. It
reflects his many moods with crystal clarity. He is finely con-
temptuous of the gods who even in heaven must hug servitude
(1-12). But, perhaps remembering his own service under the
mercurial Tirumalai Naika, he makes Brhaspati say with
humorous detachment that if you want the gilt, you must not jib
at the gingerbread (III-3). In another mood, the verse (II-20) in
which Brahmã says that the insult to Nārāyani, which brought
about Durvasas' curse, can be expiated only by Narayana's grace,
the two being in essence one, passes beyond mere conceit and is
true poetry by reason of its vivid imagery. And the statement of
the unity of S'iva and S'akti in metaphysical terms is even more
poetical (IV-24). A universal truth is stated with that simplicity
and economy of which Kālidāsa is the supreme master, when the
poet speaks of the dark stain left on the milk-white transparency
of the Lord's throat (IV-35). And the emergence of the world
from the dark menace of the Kalakūta is. compared, with an
It is true that in giving free rein to his lively fancy in this
fashion, the poet sometimes involves himself in minor inconsis-
tencies. Thus it is difficult to understand how if Yama could
not die, because there was no other Yama available to give him
the coup de grace, the asuras could still manage to die on the
battle-field and thus become the inhabitants of Svarga over-
night; or how, if Svarga had neither ramparts nor foundation,
(see pages 9, 226, 69, 71 and 96) it could still be reduced to debris !
The reader must not go away with the impression that the
prose in this Champu is everywhere laboured or heavy. There
are many brilliant cameos. Such are the passages which make
vivid Indra's extraordinarily forceful personality; the panic of
the multitude in a beleaguered city; the jubilation of the asuras;
the lightning appearance of Vishnu as the Great Tortoise to sustain
the sinking Mandara mountain; the intensely sinister quality of
the Hala-hala suggested by the vividly vague imagery, conveying
the impression that it is not just one kind of poison, if a terrible
one, but that it symbolises primordial evil. The Champu-kavya
has for its main purpose the telling of a story. So prose is
naturally used for the narrative links where no intensity of
emotion comes into play. If the nature of the episode which
our poet selected for his subject does not admit of much diver-
sity of treatment, his prose, where it brings out great moments of
experience, is authentic poetry.
This Champu contains about two hundred and fifty verses.
And some of them are among the best the poet ever wrote. It
reflects his many moods with crystal clarity. He is finely con-
temptuous of the gods who even in heaven must hug servitude
(1-12). But, perhaps remembering his own service under the
mercurial Tirumalai Naika, he makes Brhaspati say with
humorous detachment that if you want the gilt, you must not jib
at the gingerbread (III-3). In another mood, the verse (II-20) in
which Brahmã says that the insult to Nārāyani, which brought
about Durvasas' curse, can be expiated only by Narayana's grace,
the two being in essence one, passes beyond mere conceit and is
true poetry by reason of its vivid imagery. And the statement of
the unity of S'iva and S'akti in metaphysical terms is even more
poetical (IV-24). A universal truth is stated with that simplicity
and economy of which Kālidāsa is the supreme master, when the
poet speaks of the dark stain left on the milk-white transparency
of the Lord's throat (IV-35). And the emergence of the world
from the dark menace of the Kalakūta is. compared, with an