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M
TRANG
AN EXPLORATION ANDDG
Selvy Thiruchandr
WOMEN'S EDUCATION
 

AND RESEARCH CENTRE

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lullbi's incl (lites, the soothing and mournful 'sleech transmissions, are parts of Sri Lanka's folklore that fall in the domain of women. One is a soothing song that puts a crying baby to sleep, and the other is an expression of deep anguish when a near and dear one has left the world. Both are transmitted orally; both have different versions, and their traditional and modern contents are indicators of growth and continuity over time. These folk songs embody rich innovative skills and spontaneity of words that are captivating. Standard grammar or Syntax is hardly a part of the Songs, which have their own grammar and syntax that is different from the polished vocabulary of the language. The songs have an emotional content and expressive Sentimental Subjectivity, and are characterized as 'speech acts. These 'verbal arts', as they have aptly been described, are made up of 'folk wisdom' through the knowledge acquired from observation and participation, and display a sense of humour, Satire, hate, ridicule and common wisdom of the folk.
The book is a study of the immensely rich verbal arts of lullabies and dirges that encompasses the Socio-linguistic, ethnographic, anthropological and sociological aspects of Sri Lanka's folklore. The material for research was collected from what is available out of what has been published, and symbolises an oral tradition passed on from generation to generation.

Feminine Speech Transmissions
An Exploration into the Lullabies and Dirges of Women
Selvy Thiruchandran
Women's Education and Research Centre
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Acknowledgements
he research on Women's Writings in Sri Lanka has three publications dealing separately, with women's writings in Sinhala, English and Tamil. This small publication deals, exclusively with Tamil women's unwritten narratives called tallattu and Oppari, the lullabies and dirges.
For any project there are a few who are the primary agencies, and then there are the others with whom we have formed subsidiary alliances. However, sometimes the Subsidiary alliances move up towards acting major parts. De Zaaire Foundation and Mia Berden, of course, qualify as the primary agency for the research on Women's Writing in Sri Lanka. While acknowledging with thanks their contribution I also want to say that I personally benefited from their kindness. Women's Education and Research Centre also wishes to place on record their help.
Ms. Vinodini de Silva, Ms. Dhamayanthi Sivasundaram and Ms. Sunanda Seeli of Women's Education and Research Centre were of immense help to me, the former, for coordinating all activities relating to the research, organising the seminar, and the latter two for typing the manuscript. Ms. Sunanda Seeli took on the additional responsibility of formatting the manuscript. To the three of them I extend my sincere thanks.
The help rendered by Mallika Manoharan, Mrs. P. Velupillai, Saroja Sivachandran, Raja Sri Kanthan and Jameel in helping me collect Some of the material had to be acknowledged and I say "thank you" to them too. I am

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υι ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
indeed grateful to Jameel who lent me his valuable collections and even helped me decipher certain Arabic terminologies of the Muslim women's lullabies. I also benefited from the discussions I had with K. Sivathamby, on the traditions pertaining to the singing of Tamil dirges in Sri Lanka.
My special thanks are due to Ms. May Yee for having edited the manuscript and to R. S. Perinbanayagam for his valuable comments.
Selvy Thiruchandran Women's Education and Research Centre Colombo 06

Introduction
oems, proverbs, riddles and Songs, recited, told and Sung
both by men and women, have become sites of research in many disciplines such as anthropology, Sociology and philology. Folklore, lullaby and lament songs have certain special characteristics, the most important being women's participation in them. Owing to certain cultural/traditional restrictions, Tamil women were inhibited from taking part in street theatre. Traditionally most Tamil women are not allowed any space for publicly interacting with men, but there are other art forms such as dancing and music which some women appropriated for themselves where they did not have to act together on stage with men. The fact that men and women who indulge in folklore were generally not literate is widely known and acknowledged. What is less known and not acknowledged is the fact that during the olden days the leisure time that women and men had as part of their simple Socio-cultural life-styles enabled them to engage in these activities. Most unfortunately, women do not generally sing or recite lullabies and dirges now. The tallattu is no longer Sung due to the lack of time in Our present Socio-cultural lifestyles where women have to rush from one vocation to another. With regard to the oppari a certain type of valueridden negative ideology has intervened in the present context which views with disgust and aversion the act of howling or crying aloud or wailing with verbal outbursts. Such acts are constructed as lack of restraint or lack of Sophistication. To display one's feelings and emotions outwardly has come to

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Uiii INTRODUCTION
be considered "uncivilised", lowly behaviour. Hence "oppari" is no longer accepted Socially or culturally. The lack of inhibitions and the freedom that was available for women to sing, dance and recite are equally important factors. While 'folklore' was indulged in by both men and women, lullaby and lament songs are exclusively women's genres. While lullaby and lament songs, known in Tamil as tallattu and oppari, were sung by women within their homes, folk songs were recited or sung in the fields, in the lanes, down footpaths, and across fences.
In the Tamil tradition both tallattu and oppari are generally seen as belonging to the genre of folklore. But folklore is generally considered to be authored by the "folk" the marginalised sections of a Community of people who belong to a particular, caste or class considered lower than the others. They were mostly peasants and workers. Tallattu and oppari however, were not sung only by the "marginalised". Women of all castes and class sing the oppari and tallattu. In that sense, women's voices in all tallattu and oppari are not necessarily the voices of the "folks", though they both share some of the characteristics of "folklore." Both oppari and tallattu share certain commonalities. They are both transmitted orally, have different versions, have both traditional and modern contents indicating growth and continuity. They generally have no specific authors but remain mostly anonymous.The period or date of their origin is unknown. They are sung/recited/chanted as free verse using regional dialects and repetition.They are in a Sense communal creations with stereotypical repetitions,
Joel Sherzer (1990) and William Bascom (1965) have called folklore, "verbal art." They qualify as art forms not merely by the creativity or imaginative skills that the Songs embody but also by the spontaneity of the words that flow, and by the rich innovative skills the authors employ. Typical of the peasant class (implied in the usage of the term 'folk), they mostly exhibit a disregard and disrespect for standard

INTRODUCTION ix
grammar or syntax. They have their own grammar and Syntax which deviate from the so-called polished vocabulary of the language, Syntax, or the so-called refinement of Speech. They arise from simple routine events of simple and unsophisticated people. While folklore may have its class characteristics, may have particular class or caste Consciousness, and is Sung by both men and women - the lament song and the lullaby transcend caste and class belonging, and fall under a specific category of women's verbal arts. Both the lament Song and lullaby have more emotional content and have expressive sentimental subjectivities. However, the narratives of all the three genres can be also characterized as Speech acts. These genres are variously termed as Nattup patal, Natodi patal, Kramiya patal, Pamarar patal, Makkal patal, Eluta patal. (Jameel 1995:1). They respectively mean folk songs of the 'unrefined people, Songs of nomads, Songs of village folk, Songs of the unlettered or illiterate, peoples' songs, unwritten Songs. Though these terms connote meanings which convey a sense of lowly "otherness", they are now elevated to a position of subjective consciousness of people who have left us a legacy, a great deal of history, anthropological and Sociological knowledge.
All three genres can be deconstructed to bring out a whole range of activities, beliefs and behaviour of the people who are represented through them. Of these, folklore in general and women's folklore in particular have received scholarly attention as far back as 1889 (Chamberlain). Reuss (1974:2937) has drawn our attention to the fact that the scholarly and academic accomplishments of the women folklorists have been undermined by two presidents of the American Folklore Society. Of late there has been a fresh interest in the study of women's consciousness and in the historical reconstruction of women in various aspects such as women's aesthetics and creativity, and a recognition that they are indeed important areas of study. Verbal arts being the creation of non-literate women and men, are generally believed to contain "folk

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X INTRODUCTION
wisdom" through a kind of knowledge acquired from observation and participation in active social life amidst the natural phenomenon. They also contain information acquired from history, geography, and the culture of the people. They consist of myths, stories, and Superstition and life experiences. They may transmit to us a particular philosophy with peculiar Symbols and signs of a particular life-style. The life that we speak of here may entail patriarchy and a submission to a hegemonic class or caste groups. The range of these arts is immensely rich and varied. Often they display a sense of humour, satire, hate, ridicule and wisdom. The scope of this study can also become immensely rich, ranging from sociolinguistic, ethnographic and from anthropological to Sociological and literary studies. The emphasis attached to these genres has now shifted. From the monopoly of literary Scholars they have moved into the hands of Sociologists and anthropologists who want to study the people from their own subjectivities. They also render themselves simultaneously to a feminist discourse in its deconstructive project (Mary Ellen B. Lewis, 1974). Through Tallattu and Oppari women project a social identity which is claimed and more often affirmed. This is a double process. The one who is singing is simultaneously claiming and affirming identity for herself and for whom and about whom she is singing.
Since the oppari and the tallattu form part of literary studies, some literary Scholars have taken pains to collect them from knowledgeable sources and from some of the "old folk" and "pundits" (local scholars, both men and women) who could recite them from memory. They are thus collected and made available in print form in Tamil. Hence the limitations of this study must be acknowledged. The material for this research is collected from what is available out of what has been published. They are mostly randomly collected pieces work and cannot be periodised. These collected pieces belong to an oral tradition passed on from generation to generation. Some historical incidents and linguistic constructions may

INTRODUCTION xi
betray some signs of the period in which they originated. For example, those collected from the Hill country Tamils, belong to the British period of our history and are reflective of the labour relations of the period. The narratives have a historicity which often throw light on many a political, Social, and cultural factor with clear linkages to caste, class and gender dimensions. A subaltern view of history also can be discerned from them.
In Sri Lanka one can find these songs in three regions which though of the same language (Tamil), have their specific subcultures. The northern Tamils, the Muslims in the Eastern province and the Hill country Tamils, subjected to and living amidst different Socio-economic conditions, have developed peculiar and particular cultural differences which are reflected in the songs. One notices the active involvement of women, not only in producing the original creations and in passing them on inter-generationally, but also in the process of recollecting and retrieving them for print when Scholars approached them. In Karaivahuppattu and Akkaraipattu, women were experts at Creating such kavis (Songs) and they sing them even today (Jameel, 1995: 2). Others who have collected Songs from the field have amply attested to women's share in the creation of such songs and in their recollection of the songs (Vaddukoddai M. Ramalingam, Elakesari Weekly 28-9-71, 1960, C.V. Veluppillai 1983, and Sathasiva Iyer 1940). a
It is only after 1950 that scholars showed an interest in folklore in Sri Lanka. The pioneering effort in this direction was undertaken by Kanapathipillai, Professor of Tamil at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. There were attempts by various Tamil scholars to search and publish folklore. There was an interesting coming together of both the traditional Scholars, who are popularly called the "pundits" and the progressives. (There is a pundit tradition and a modern and progressive tradition among Tamil scholarship - the former an attempt to maintain the traditional literary genres as they

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xii INTRODUCTION
are, glorifying and romanticizing all that is old; and the latter, an attempt to subject the literary production of different periods to a critical analysis. There was also within the latter group a conscious effort to view folklore from a class/caste consciousness perspective, and to consider it as a part of peoples' literary production; what in the presently referred to as the 'subaltern'. However, women's canon such as the oppari and the tallattu have not been critically analysed exclusively from a women's point of view or as exclusively women's experience. They somehow remain within the romanticised genre.

Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Tallattu.
Oppari
Glossary
Bibliography
Uiii
34
གྲྭགས་)
81.
85

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1.
The Tallattu
Tallattu in fact is the first literary gift of motherhood to our world.
(Tamilannan, 1960: 1)
hough one does not deny the gift of motherhood, Ti: should be extended beyond this point. The feminist critique of motherhood, which males a distinction between the institutionalisation of motherlood and the experience of motherhood, is a pertinent intervention at this juncture. The former, by way of instituting restraints and imposing conditions on the mother, can make motherhood exclusively a woman's vocation, bound by duty and obligation. The latter, by way of experiencing Something at a Subjective level speaks of certain positive feelings, which is found to be enriching and rewarding to mothers. Tallattu does this and this factor is significant. It becomes a joyous experience of receiving something unique, a life within the spectrum of creation after ten months of carrying a life within you, after ten months of expectation, and perhaps ten months of suffering and discomfort. Tallattu is the immediate reaction and response of a woman/mother, to a unique experience. It is spontaneous, free-flowing, free of inhibitions and restrictions mostly within a private domain. The musical

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aspect is also equally important. Whereas music and dancing were prohibited for women and were considered a taboo for a long time in the Tamil cultural milieu, mothers could sing tallattu openly, but only in their homes and occasionally at their workplaces. Tallattu signifies the process of putting to sleep a baby "by the tongue." Tal means tongue, attu means to rock. It means rocking the baby in the cradle with songs sung by the tongue.
The tallattu song by its nature is confined to a particular space and time, and to a gender category'. Sung by mostly mothers and kin group members, generally within the boundaries of the home, the tallattu is related conditionally to childhood. The boundaries of the home, however, are not mandatory for the singing of tallattu. It has been observed that women who work in the field sing tallattu to put their babies to sleep in the fields. Tallattu does not remain and is not confined to the sealm of the personal or the private. It is both a private and a public performance, not restricted to feminine spaces but extends to wherever the baby goes, to the fields, to the markets and to the plantation sites.
Although popularly known as tallattu, this genre is also known by other names such as tarattu, olattu, arattu, orattu (Jameel, 1995:17). However, the last part attu, is common to all of them and signifies the action of Swaying, Swinging, or moving rhythmically back and forth by gently pushing or pulling a cradle. The Swinging action in the tallattu is related to the rhythm and music, and is connected to the cradle or the enai. In the West the lullabies are also called the cradle
SOng.
Before the cradle was invented, a similar mechanism called enai was used as a suspended bed for the babies. The enai was made out of a strong, long and broad piece of cloth, folded midway into two equal parts, and suspended on a strong pole from a height by tying a knot on the two ends of the cloth. The folded bottom of the cloth at the other end is then opened and that becomes the space in which the baby

THE TALLATTU 3
is laid down. The enai then is gently rocked to the accompaniment of a melodious tallattu. The whole device is focused on the act of Swinging to the rhythm of the song. The songs are also sometimes sung to the baby in the arm or on the stretched out legs of the mother or grandmother. The melody is low-pitched and soothing to ear. Often. It is sung Softly but the tone and pitch increases and often has repetitions of phrases. The baby thus falls asleep reacting both to the tune and the rocking. Often when the tallattu stops the baby wakes up and starts to cry and stops crying when the songs are resumed. The act of singing can be even more significant than it appears to be.
Mothers and wives are usually confined to service roles such as cooking, washing, Sweeping and waiting in attendance. In the singing of tallattu women become not only the agents but also agents of creativity. ܡܢ
Most of the lullabies begin with the question “Ar aro, ar ivaro?" Who is this who is he/she? The question has implications of fondly tracing the origin of the baby, marveling at the birth and the arrival of someone who has become one's own to be processed and cherished in body and shape. Whether the questions who are you and who is this have any connections to the theory of karma and rebirth remains only a speculation ?
Women's oral genres including tallattu and oppari should be viewed from four broad areas, though they are not mutually exclusive. They are:
1. Women as performers
2. How women use tallattu,
3. Women's specific creativities being conditioned and
constrained by their Social environment.
4. Women's verbal arts being part of the subjective
consciousness of the self.

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Women, as it has to be emphasised, have become creative but they do so under conditions not chosen by them. The paradox is clear. They are though agents, their agency is simultaneously conditioned by the Social conditions under which they live. Apart from being an individual agent, the mother/woman becomes an agent of communication between her and the Society. In many ways the tallattu offers a space for the mothers to interact at the individual level as women, with the Society. However, the agency, the creativity and the communicating act, it must noted, are manifestations of consciousness of Subjectivities. They have also become sites for deconstructing concepts such as female creativity and women's aesthetics.
That tallattu also reflects high philosophy which has lost some of its meaning and force and become common-sense wisdom, in Gramsci’s terms is seldom taken note of. Are they conceptions of the world and life and in opposition to official "conceptions of the word that have Succeeded one another in historical process". (1991: 189). Gramsci argues that this conception of the world is neither elaborate nor Systematic. By definition, the people (the Sum total of the instrumental and the Subaltern classes of every form of Society that has So far existed) cannot possess conceptions which are elaborated, Systematic and politically organised and centralised in their albeit contradictory development. He also maintains that folklore bears witness to the surviving evidence, adulterated and mutilated in the majority of these conceptions (Gramsci 1991:189).
The women fall into a Subaltern class by their gender, while at the same time they represent other class interest. The tallattu reflects the cultural life of varying complexities of a specific period in history. The reflection is not necessarily the reflection of their own class, but very much of the dominant class as well, drawing out certain motifs which have been borrowed and then inserted. The language loose and ungrammatical has its modifications, and the cultural content

THE TALLATTU 5
has its contradictions. Viewed both from the point of view of art and aesthetics and history, folklore presents interesting and oppositional heterogenities and stratifications. This perhaps will lead us to flexible conclusions, and that is the uniqueness of folklore. Folklore has many commonalities with tallattu and they share some of these features when deconstructed.
The tallattu songs will be analysed from the above observations. However, from what is said above, the significance of women's tallattu primarily lies in identifying women's conception of the world by way of also knowing their attitudes and anxieties and their Socio-economic roles. Tallattu signifies a relationship between mother and the child through various other relationships within the kin group, an extended family, and with the community at large. It is a unique means of communication - a speech act, where one person does the talking and assumes the other person who is addressed has responded/or is responding. It is basically a Soliloquy - but addressed to Someone who neither listens nor responds to the content but responds only to the tune and the rhythm by falling asleep. It is an intimate area and private domain where the main themes are affection, fondness, glorification (of the object), protection, and rearing. These Songs are full of gentle sentiments with highly imaginative metaphors and similies. Reason and rationality have no place in most of these highly imaginative and romanticised pieces of fantasy.
Lullabies as they are commonly referred to, are sung in many parts of the world. The mothers engage in a conversation with the babies reassuring her/his safety. Other worldly protection is also assured while Saints and angels are invoked. Some of them do also speak of the mothers' sufferings at the hands of drunken husbands (Brakeley, 1950:654). Research on a cross-cultural basis on lullabies brings out certain commonalities. Iraqi Jewish lullabies, it is said, speak of the hard lives of the singers, and reflect the

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mother's status in this culture, while other lullabies express the women's tension, anxiety and depression. A study of American child rearing patterns has shown the mother's ambivalence towards cultural norms that stress increasing separation from the children (Hawes, 1974: 140-480) The songs more than anything else reassures the baby that there is peace and everything around him/her is alright and tell the baby to go to sleep. They convey a wishful thinking that no harm will fall on the baby, the mother reassures the baby and perhaps herself too that the future is fine for both. While most of the songs indulge in a motherly admiration for the baby they also promises various material things such as wealth luxury and comforts. These trends could very well be common to many lullabies across the world. But Brakeley speaks of "threats from the playful to the hair-raising" also entering into lullaby texts (Brakeley, 1950:654). The Tamil lullaby does not seem to reflect such tendencies.
The Tamil tallattus are almost always addressed to the infant baby and uses the vocative case. The baby is referred to as "you, yourself". The mother directly or indirectly projects an identity or rather a social identity for the baby and through the baby for herself and for her kin group."
Though most of the tallattu Songs are anonymously
treated with no knowledge of the author, scholars have identified a few of such authors. Meera Umma, in the eastern province from a place called Irakamam about five kilometers away from Amparai is one of them. She was honoured and a title Antalip - Queen of music was conferred on her in 1991 by the government of Sri Lanka. It was reported that she was totally blind. She was credited with having authored tallattu songs and riddles. The social life of the Muslims is very closely linked with religion, and since their identity as Muslims is constructed mainly on the religion of Islam and not on race or ethnicity their tallattu has religious Over tones, religious sentiments and religious instructions. The tallattu also contains a number of Arabic words. The following

THE TALLATTU 7
translations are rendered freely with no claims to the original metre employed. The sense is conveyed through free verse.
Who is this? Who is she/he
Six miles away Search for the meaning of things, Daughter, Make it known to you, comprehend it And go to sleep
Did you cry for your sleep My loving, little one? Listening to you cry, my mind is disturbed.
Meditate silently on the pearl like Kalima* Keep it firmly on the centre of your forehead, go to Sleep.
To be true to yourself Know and realize Both interior and exterior are but same, daughter. Have a good mental grasp of it, Go to Sleep. Your sleep will sleep and then You will wake up.
Carefully, my daughter Go to sleep, with devotion. Go in search of the protection, Your Lord, worship him with head down Frightening the cunning Satan, Go to sleep.

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Think - take note of the Mohammed in Mecca, Realising the trinity of time Go to sleep.
Smell your food, see those who are keeping your food, . Rise up for your food Oh my sueet daughter, go to sleep.
Keep straight in your mind The name of Allah, the one who created this world so magnificently.
With faith, read the kalima, uvorship The great man, fast for him, And do the haj also, my daughter Daughter, even if you were to get all the Sueetmeats and the materialistic things of this world, They will all perish like the water bubble, impermanent
The tallattu performs many functions. The primary motive is to put the baby to sleep. However, performing that function is interlaced with various other motives and used extensively as outlets for other vocations. It is sung while the baby is breast-fed so that the baby can concentrate on sucking the milk. It is also a manifestation and expression of certain desires of the mother. She expresses her love and concern. She expects the child to become religious, chivalrous and good-natured. She advises the child on what she/he has to do and avoid doing while growing up. The verses convey glimpses of religious philosophy, such as the exterior/interior dichotomy as of equal standing and status and the impermanence of this worldly materialistic possessions. One

THE TALLATTU 9
could see that meditation, keeping the truth "on the centre of the fore-head", the impermanence of materialistic things in life, knowing, understanding, comprehending, treating the interior and exterior (of things) alike, are all indeed philosophical insights, being treated as common-sense wisdom through the mouths of women. The significance of this phenomenon lies in the fact that the philosophy is imparted through women to infants and in the final analysis to the community at large.
The following tallattu is very popular among the Southern Muslims of Sri Lanka and is addressed to a baby daughter. "Seetheu Nittirai Sei" is the title of this tallattu (you the auspicious daughter go to sleep).
Do not shed tears like pearls, Don't you hurt your ring-like mouth by Shouting, Crying, we shall go in the morning.
If your father were here, he would cuddle you Iuith affection on his shoulders He will walk along with you, a bundle of flowers, Be patient go to sleep.
So that others will not ostracise your mother, As barren I gave birth to you, my darling Go to sleep you will continue our lineage.
Did your Mamie Aunt beat you with a Marutondi* branch? Do not Sob precious daughter, go to sleep Did your Sachcha (Aunt) beat you? With the coloured stick?
Do not prattle cry) as if bitten by insects, go to Sleep.

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1O
sense that it portrays the various Sceneries of a life style
FEMININE SPEECH TRANSMISSIONS.
Grandmother will cry, there will be tears in your mother's eyes too, Your aunt will be disturbed if you cry, you, our future lineage.
Your aunt will be surprised, your cousin will be grieved. Without any delay go to sleep - quickly.
Kakka – solder brother Will bring wooden pots and pans for you to cook sand rice Kakka vants to pluck tender grapes in bunches, papaw and apple. He will be here in the evening.
Short Machchan cousin, tall cousin, The cousin who brings vegetables, And the small cousin will bring suveets in a box. Other containers and
The box uill arrive, Flowers, pieces of soap and "scent" perfume) in glass bottle will arrive, In the evening - auspicious daughter, Go to sleep.
"Seetheuy Nitrai Sei" is a very typical tallattu in the
peculiar to a certain location in a semi-urban setting. This is not one of the oldest and contains very modern concepts Such as perfumes in bottles, pieces of Soap, and powdered milk. The mix of the modern and the folk tradition is an interesting combination in this tallattu.
Tallattu also contain rich sociological information on
kinship patterns and how they interact in an extended family.

THE TALLATTU 11
Often the tallattu mentions the redemption of a woman from the stigma of barrenness. The child/baby is considered a holy redeemer and she/he is thanked for the boon of motherhood. The term "aunt" in the translations could either mean the maternal or the paternal aunt - but in the original tallattu the word Mamie refers both to the father's sister or maternal aunt who is the mother's brother's wife; while Sachcha refers to the maternal aunt who is the mother's sister, or paternal aunt, the father's brother's wife. Madani is a female crosscousin or sister-in-law, who by virtue of a cross-cousin relationship has married the brother. By making references to these specific kinship relationships, a message is Conveyed to the parents, and perhaps to the grandparents who are present in the extended family, about the families' intentions of a future marriage contract between their offspring. It is customary in the olden days, that, even at the time of birth, marriage and fixed to cross-cousins. These are some of the residuals of former historical periods which have been recorded.
More intriguing, however, is the question the mother poses in a few tallattu. The usual question of Who is this, who is he/she is followed by another question. Arupetta palakaro? (who gave birth to you little one?) These questions are repeated in a tallattu (Mutturmeeran, 1977:52) collected from a woman called Meerakutty Seyatumma from Nintavur in eastern province. The mother indulges in the tallattu with the usual similes and metaphors, but what is unusual is the following part.
Who is this-who is she/he Who gave birth to you, little baby? Without the villagers knowing, Without caring for the kinship relations.
In the arampal cradle you sleep, without moving

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12 FEMININE SPEECH TRANSMISSIONS
who gave birth to you, little baby? Disregard with hatred all the differences, Pluck them away from the root, Follow the path unity, Go to sleep following the moral path.
While the mother is preaching universal love and Solidarity and the value of being morally correct, she also insists that all differences should be eliminated. One should not have any problems with these Sentiments, and they are in line with the content of the other tallattu except for the note or eliminating all differences and cultivating unity. What is intriguing here is question, who gave birth to you?" and the requests thereafter - to go to sleep without moving, without the villagers knowing and without bothering about kinship relations - are also intriguing. Do they suggest that the baby is not hers or an "illegitimate" baby and perhaps an orphan or abandoned baby who cannot claim any kinship relation with her? Is it because of this that she says that differences should be thrown away and one should cherish qualities of unity? Has she then become an adopted mother to an abandoned or an "illegitimate" child? The answers remain only speculations. However, the importance of this lies in the fact that it is unconventional and in fact it is a piece "written" against Culture. That a woman could sing Such tallattu openly without fear of public opinion signifies a process of a subversion or an expression of a covertly bold step of resistance to conventional norms. The question who gave birth to you is posed in another tallattu (P. 44) quoted by the same author, but is immediately answered as "born of poor me."
In the Eastern Province, among some of the Muslims the tallattu Songs have different beginnings. Some of their tall'attu begins with Orore Orakande (Muttume eran, 1997:41). Etymologically one cannot explain these terms. Muttumeeran quotes two such tallattu collected from two

THE TALLATTU 13
Muslim women, Meera Umma Sinnatamby (p.42) and from Mariya Kandu Meera Lebbai (p.46).
The tallattu known as upatesapillai tallattu Sintu (talattu Songs which preach to children) usually contain a religious message. They explain the duties of a good Muslim citizen and give instructions on cultivating good habits and virtues. They also preach about the Supreme duty to God, Allah and how he/she should be honoured and worshipped
Some of the tallattu songs of Mannar convey a mixture of Muslim and Tamil cultural symbols. While the religious message is predominant, the romanticised images of the Tamil literary productions are constantly interwoven with an attempt to raise emotions and feelings in order to give the impression of possessing Something great - a singularly rare and fortunate object - which is the baby. Traditional Tamil literary motifs, similes and metaphors employing fauna and flora are used to convey that message. In traditional Tamil literature they are employed to convey messages of love and romance between lovers, often expressing marvel and praise for the female form.
Who is this, who is this, who is this? Who is this, who is this, who is this? Darling, sleep by your eyes, sleep by your eyes, Darling, Sleep by your eyes, sleep by your eyes The forest beetle will also go to sleep. The tiger, the cuckoo of the forest will go to sleep you too, my loving son, go to sleep.
IWe made The cradle with green and raw illupai wood from which drips the fluid of milk The ropes that touch the cradle bed are made uith pearls. You, the son given by Allah,

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14 FEMININE SPEECH TRANSMISSIONS
The pearl, that shines like a pearl, The sea pearl, the ruby You will do well under the protection of our Lord You will not face any obstacles.
The rest of the five stanzas are prayers to the Allah.
Within the type of tallattu called Saintatu (lean on the parents on the lap and Sway) there are a range of similes and metaphors (moon, parrot, peacock, cuckoo, nectar and pearl). There is a slight difference in the way the meanings are constructed. The above comparisons to the birds, moon and pearl are used to express the affection and the possession of something rare, beautiful, and magnificent. Like other Tallattu songs they have also borrowed motifs from traditional mainstream Tamil literature. The tallattu songs speak of the period where the baby is fed only on the mother's milk. The saintatu Speaks of the child who is able to sit up, having grown up. There is a difference in the eating patterns also. So the Song requests the child to Swing back and forth to a rhythm. He/she is requested to Swing for a plate of rice and plantains.
sway back and forth before the great Mohammed Beautiful moon, Suvay back and forth Peacock, cuckoo, sway back and forth For a plate of rice Swing back and forth for plantains.
Following the stage of the saintatu in the growth process of a child, the child learns to sit up. The support here is the hands of the mother, which the child takes hold of while Swinging. The child sits up on her/his own. Having sat up, with confidence, the child joins both hands and Swings on both sides. This is referred to as the sappani kattutal (sitting cross-legged on the ground and playing). The mothers have special Songs called sappani kottutal, though there are not

THE TALLATTU 15
too many in circulation. Nadarajah (1962:71-2) refers to one of them.
The tallattu Songs of the Northern Tamils have slight regional variations in the way certain region-specific characteristics are mentioned, but basically they retain the same features, emotions and sentiments. They are mostly Secular, and express deep emotions and kinship ties across members of extended families. They too continue the traditions of Tamil literary productions in the way similes and metaphors are used to convey beauty, gentleness, Sweetness and uniqueness of the phenomenon of the baby. In most of them there is progression in the sentiments from simple questions, to elaborate Social rituals, to a range of social activities. The following, which I got a mother to sing, is interesting for many reasons.
Who is this, who is she/he Who is this, who is she/he Why do you cry, who hit you? Tell us who hit you and made you cry. Darling who beat you? Who touched the katpaham ? Tell us who touched you and then cry We will imprison his shoulders tell us who hit you, we will put curses on him.
Did your grandmother hit you with the hands that fed you milk? Did your grandfather beat you With the walking stick he uses? Darling, auspicious thing My precious, go to sleep
Did your aunt hit you with the hands that feed you rice? Did your uncle hit you

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With the hands that delight in carrying you? Did your brother hit you With the hands that fondle you?
Did your small-mother hit you, With her playful hand?
Did your small-father hit you With a red-flower stem?
Green branches were cut, with Sap oozing A Cradle uvas built; The Cradle uvas golden The binding strings were Of pearl; My pearls of pearls From the root of the ocean
The rest of the stanzas speak of the rituals undergone to get an offspring. They also speak of the Stigma of barrenness for women. Barrenness or childlessness among women has been constructed as a major stigma among the Tamils of northern Sri Lanka, as among all Hindus "Malady," "iruli" are usages often used both in Social contexts and in literature to refer to such women. The women themselves often react negatively to Such references. With a lot of anxiety, anguish and depression they shed tears and keep away from auspicious events and rituals. Hence the social and religious significance attached to offspring has become proverbial. The tallattu Songs invariably mention how the women as mothers are redeemed from Such an awful and depressing situation and experience. This concept of malady is used for women who have had no children for several years. In emphasising the connection of the birth of the baby to her barrenness the mother is alluding to a Series of social conventions and rituals that would have otherwise made her an unlucky

THE TALLATTU 17
inauspicious woman. Socially, motherhood is valorised as a progeny is needed to continue the lineage. Very often the woman is blamed for the inability to produce an heir and thereby making it possible to continue the family and the dynasty. The same tallattu also speak of the various rituals and fasting undertaken and how they were finally rewarded by Siva and Vishnu.
A child for the malady who I got begging the Mayavan So that people will not refer to me as "Malady, Malady.”
However, the important message the mother is projecting is very much linked to the creation of a social identity for her, of being a fertile, auspicious mother. It is a statement to the community at large and to her baby in terms of placing him/her in kinship network. By invoking the kinship terminologies Such as mama, mannie, Small mother (maternal aunt/uncle), the mother is making claims to the duties obligations and roles they have to play jointly in bringing up the baby/child, who in many ways is assumed to be joint property with joint Ownership claims.
Three stanzas speak of the Social acts of charity done by the father so that he will be granted a son in return.
The same meaning is expressed throughout the same tallattu employing various other words and similes in six StanZaS.
On the new moon day I fed a thousand people. Because of the merit I gained You came into me, my precious treasure.
You came to change a condition, oh King. If not, those of this uorld would have called me a barren woman

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FEMININE SPEECH TRANSMISSIONS
Millions of flouvers I gathered, Went round the temple praying. You Carme rising into mée like Gopi Lord Krishna so that Our lineage would prosper.
With a thousand flowers I worshipped at the temple. You came rising into me like a king. You drowned me in the sea of happiness.
I raised my hands and worshipped at all temples just being built with the ritual laying of stones like the katpaham. You came rising into me, Oh darling go to sleep.
Day and night I underwent thousands of penances to beget you. By God's grace you were born, oh magnificerit thing/being.
To the distant temple he presented a lamp,
Gave noney to a temple close by, Your father the blessed one.
Dug a pond for people to bathe,
Built a pond for people to worship,
built a hut for people to sleep.
Fed those who were hungry, Produced rice in baskets and buttermilk in pots.
The rest of the stanzas are strewn with metaphors, such
as pearls, rubies, brown Sugar, white Sugar, gold, precious stones, and coral. There is a pattern in the way the four Senses Out of the five are employed as pleasure-giving: Smell, touch, taste, and sight.

THE TALLATTU 19
Pearl and coral you are, Brilliant gem, you Sugar-candy, you Came to our dynasty Jasmine, the good flower, you Lord Murugan's lotus, you Jasmine flower you Smell-scattering rose, you My eyes, Sleep, Sleep The gem of my eyes, sleep, sleep Golden one, nine germs My king, Sleep, sleep
Milk, you are, ripe fruit you are Sleep well. Pearl and coral you are, Three fruits you are, Sugar you are, Rich flavours you are, sleep well.
The metaphors are indicative of very special feelings and Senses. Fragrance and beauty, Colorfulness and brightness are Selectively conveyed by the metaphors employed, the tastes of the tongue are conveyed through wholesome and Sweet. foods, prosperity and wealth are Conveyed through words Such as pearls, rubies Coral and others precious Stones.
The gift of a child is a cherished bond which is treated as the continuity of the lineage. If the woman does not conceive it is not merely a simple disappointment but it takes the form of a major failure in womanhood and the household becomes embedded with a social and ritual stigma. Finally the woman/wife is forced to bear the Stigma as if she alone is responsible. Hence the parents and the wife in particular, take great pains to achieve that blissful auspicious state. Hence also is the mention of the ritual offerings and Sacrifices to gods. The hungry are fed so that the karmic returns will

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result in the wife conceiving. A great deal of social and ritual significance is attached to child/children and more particularly on Sons and hence the event is celebrated. For a Hindu family a Son is needed to do the last rites to prevent the parents from entering hell
Class or caste membership and their corresponding consciousness have been transcended through feminine and motherly Sentiments. Tallattu from these two regions that spoke of class/caste Consciousness with Selected caste/classspecific metaphors, are hard to come by whereas the other types of folklore and oppori had very specific caste/class Connotations. The glorified element of the baby is a recurrent theme in the tallattu.
The Tallattu of the Hill Country Tamil Women
The upcountry Tamil women are notably different from the Eastern and the Northern Tamils. Brought to Ceylon by the British in 1828 to work in the tea plantations as indentured labourers, they were deprived of citizenship rights until recently in Sri Lankan history. They are a community which is marginalized Socially, politically and economically, and subjected to various types of deprivations: at the beginning only the men were brought in and Settled, but in 1858, when tea was introduced by the British, they were brought with their families. While the men were engaged, in "hard labour on the hills and in clearing the forest, the women were Gngaged as tea pluckers. One could easily agree with Prakash that this is part of "a violent institution of a set of racial, political, epistemic and economic Systems' designed in the last analysis to benefit the colonial regime (Prakash 1992: 177). The hill-country tallattu are a testimony to the complex historical process and they throw light on the some of the cultural forces that shaped their lives.
From the folklore which belonged to these Hill country people, Scholars have identified differential patterns of Socio

THE TALLATTU 21
economic conditions and ethos based on the exploitation Suffered by this community. The tallattu discussed in this section are taken from two sources, from a book by C.V. Ramiah (1963) and by C.V. Veluppillai (1983). C.V. Velupillai in his acknowledgement gave credit to three women from whom he had collected the tallattu and the oppori Songs: Chandra Rasiah, Ms. Sarangavadivu, and Ms. Nallaselvam.
The “Ar Aro Ar Ivaro”, (who could it be? who is she/ he?) has taken a somewhat corrupted form as "Arirao, Ariro” in the Hill country tallattu. This is symptomatic of a move from women who were semi-illiterate or literate to illiterate women. This is evidence of a shift in a linguistic and Social phenomenon due to the changing Socio-cultural life styles of a community. Although literature as historical evidence has been contested on various grounds, there is indeed very hard historical evidence in literature that mainstream historiography has ignored, neglected and avoided both deliberately and unknowingly. Though one could not argue for meticulous objectivity in deducing from literary productions yet, evidence in linguistic formations, one should think, is the hard evidence of historical experiences of the people. Texts, verbal texts in this instance, (though they should not be seen totally as given and unproblematic) can be treated as partially "embedded" in history as well as the culture of these people. The conditions of their production Sometimes limit and define their meaning. Treating Cultural material as historical evidence is Something, we attempt with the folklore of the Hill country Tamils. What the women have produced can be treated as a way of Saying (singing) things Out of experience and without any political or cultural vested interests, either of the masters or the working-class men. The women were neither the masters in the estates nor in their own homes, nor were they in the organised labour force. There would have been certain absences but no impositions in their texts.
While it was difficult to attempt a homogenisation of the women of the other two communities, who would have been

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divided by Sub-cultural determinants belonging to specific Caste/class or geographical locations, the upcountry Tamil women during the period they produced the tallattu or Oppari were in fact a more homogenised group politically, culturally and Socially. They were all homogenised under the same rubric of the phenomenon of trapped labour, living in "lines" (line houses) and working as pluckers within the same economic and Social structures. From being poor agricultural labourers in Tamil Nadu to becoming pluckers and plantation labour in the tea estates was an economic transition. They brought with them a labour culture and modified it to their surroundings in Ceylon amidst the fauna and flora, the temples and gods and the structure of the plantation economy. The tallattu and the Oppari were brought from villages in Tamil Nadu and reconstituted and reconstructed within the new cultural and physical structure into which they have become embedded. The tune, melody, and the rhythm retained essentially the old patterns but Some of the content changed. グ
In the same way the tallattu of the Muslims in the Eastern Province had primarily a religious content, the upcountry Tamil women also constructed the God of Hills as their Saviour. In one tallattu there is reference to their old god, the mountain child-god, the lord of Palani. The child-god of Palani is a god found in Tamil Nadu with an interesting myth behind it. The scene shifts and moves now to God of Kataragama, the youthful god.
With kavady on shoulder, with tulasi beads around the neck comes the god Suinging.
Kataragama is shining with lights Teiuanai green in colour Valli like the Colour of ruby Suppiah (Lord Murugan) the colour of light

THE TALLATTU a 23
After the initial invoking of gods, the stanzas then go back to the traditional theme of tallattu.
My darling go to Sleep, the forest peacock, My golden being, the beetle of the flower tree.
Oh my darling, Valli ran and ran, Went into hiding, seeking the forests Lord Velavar searched for her, Crossing the seven milky oceans.
To the beauty of Valli, to the termal On the left shoulder of Valli, To the beauty of her hair, Vela var uvas raging with. desire.
Then again the theme shifts to the glory of the son:
You are the Senpaham flower, Begotten by love Oh my honey, you are The flower of Tinai Darling, you are the ever-tasty mango Are you the plantain, The mango of the month of May?
With Oblations, oh our precious boy! We went to Kandy and Kataragama, We walked along the path, oh precious boy! We went seeking a boon.
The flower garland fades away, The flowers when joined together
vill vither auvay, A flower will fade, hence I uvas given a Pillaiyar to sing the tallattu.

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The Velavan (God Kataragama) metaphor to refer to the child is now changed to that of Pillaiyar (Ganesh). Hereafter the metaphor of God - "sami” (Swami) is maintained throughout without identifying whether the baby is Pil laiyar or not. These transformations, though denoting a transition, gain a significance at other levels of the consciousness of the
WOle.
The mattress with the feathers of parrots that was full of jasmine flowers. These are not enough, so cried the Sami And asked for a chariot with rubies.
The Brahmin women gave birth - Sami You were named by Nagakanni You were brought up by Niraha manath You will be blessed with gifts by Mayavar (Krishan).
To you the godly son, the mother will give milk Your great-grandmother will give fruits Your mother will give rice Lord Siva will give you happiness.
These three verses have Strange Connotations and are Somewhat of a different character. Do they convey a desire, a desire for caste or class mobility? Godly interventions sought for happiness, boons of various types, and calling or naming the child with god's names - Pillaiyar Velavar - are a kind of elevating of the child/baby to godliness. Milk rice and fruits are given by women and happiness by god Siva.
However, to refer to the baby as being born of a woman of Brahmin caste is an unconscious desire deeply felt by the WOman. It is a desire to Seek the privileged position, that she thought the women of the upper-caste Brahmin enjoyed, Compared to her status of a tea plucker. She relinquishes in her mind the role of having given birth to the baby and gives

THE TALLATTU 25
that status to a Brahmin woman to seek a better Socioeconomic and ritual status for her child.
The message of being unique is continued;
The cradle decorated with silk, The ropes of the cradle inlaid with rubies, Jewellery with pearls. My precious thing, You will also have a mirror to look at your face.
The wishful thinking symbolised through various objects of wealth and riches continues but with such meticulous Selection of vocabulary. Fanciful and highly imaginative. constructions evolve out of the words:
With a brass hood under the hall where snakes Can't climb My precious one you go to Sleep.
The reference here is to the cradle/enai. A fear, that reigns in the mind of the mother, is of Snakes climbing into the enai or the cradle. Perhaps it is a real fear in the jungles and amidst tea bushes.
Having expressed the fear of the Snakes she goes on again to dwell on objects of wealth. A golden book, an easy chair to rest, a fortress with rocks, and a hall where accounts can be taken down - you will possess them all. Jasmine flowers, strings of pearls, honey, wealth, the mango fruit with which "I am never fed up," juice of Sugar cane, and brown Sugar are Some of the similes Selectively used at the end of the tallattu. An easy chair, a rock fortress, and a hall to sit and do accounts, are items the labourers have seen around them being enjoyed by their masters, the estate owners. They Connote a wealthy and Comfortable life, along with highly paid jobs which involve a lot of accounting. These are conscious are desires of the labouring women that have found an outlet.

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A feature commonly identified in the tallattu are references to the Mahabharata mentioned as offering boons, Draupati, Rama, and Sita are shown as waiting in attendance to the baby. The Mahabharata, Ramayana Culture is significantly based on a different history, that of the South Indians and it connotes a history brought with migration. The northern and eastern Tamils of Sri Lanka do not easily take on the Mahabharatha, Ramayana metaphors and idioms as the South Indians do,
When Rama 7 brought the cow Latshnanan milked the cou, Sita Cooked the milk, kindling the fire. From a golden container maids in waiting feed you milk, my rare precious gem/jewel
There is a mix of both the "great tradition" and the "little tradition in the way the meanings are conveyed. While living
amidst the "little tradition" there is no escape from it, but there is an intensely strong desire to rise up the ladder to the "great tradition."
The importance of the maternal uncle's role in the kinship patterns of the South Indian have found reference only in One Sri Lankan (upcountry?) One tallattu. This remains as a residual of their South Indian Social structure. It would appear that the transition from homes to "lines," from settled agriculture to the plantation economy, has erased Some of the cultural Systems of these people.
From a community of agricultural labourers of the villages they have moved into a Sort of nuclear families with line rooms as their homes.
With pearls your uncle will bedeck you. With silk he will make your cradle. With soft gold he will adorn you uUith pottu.

THE TALLATTU 27
Most of the tallattu Songs of the women are adopted from the usual tallattu which convey love and affection but they reflect the living conditions of the people of the working classes, uprooted from their home and land, and subjected to various types of deprivations.
We came to the forests having abandoned the rich Ayodhi. In the forests and hills live Bears, lions, tigers, together In this frightening forest you Sleep my darling, Sleep Are you going to sleep here in this frightening forest? Sleep, my darling.
Who is uho, who is he/she? Why did you search for my Stomach to be born, my son? you with pearl - like Smile, You with teeth like mullai flowers, Did you come to play In an empty hut?
The floor, uneven, and rugged, If you roll on it, won't you be hurt? If you touch the floor, dirt sticks on If with the bundle of clothes I have made, the Cotuhich is uncomfortable suinging it with my tallattu
Will you ever sleep in it?
The men who came first with a few women to this country were employed to clear forests, inhabited by wild animals.

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A woman takes her baby to her work-site, up on the hills where she has to pluck tea leaves. The baby is in a makeshift enai. The mother sings the following tallatitu:
The talai tree on both sides The punnai tree on both sides, Within those trees the five-headed red Serpent is hatching its eggs. The Serpent may come out hissing with red eyes. You Sleep, my darling, Sleep.
Talai and punnai are forest trees around which, it is believed, Serpents coil. First she speaks of her uprootedness from India, and about life in the frightening forest among wild animals (alienation), then about the empty hut, the dirty hut, the uncomfortable cot. These are allusions to her pOverty. The Second stage moves on to the work-site to which she is compelled to carry the baby (oppressive working Conditions). There are the poisonous Snakes, ready to come Out hissing with red eyes, but you sleep, darling, you go to sleep is how she ends this verse. This portrays the utterly helpless and hopeless situation of the mother. The last verse is even more pathetic:
I gave birth to you, I to you, the perya turai Gave a name, Go to sleep, my darling
The "I" is mentioned twice to emphasise her right, but she had to abdicate the right to name the child to the Superintendent of the plantation. The estate Superintendent's power, within existing labour relations extends into the personal arena and appropriates what should be exclusively the mother’s or father’s right — the right to give a name tó

THE TALLATTU 29
her child. Within the total scenario of various Socio-economic conditions, what is implied or suggested is the message of her helplessness and Out of which her powerlessness. The helplessness is manifested in the manner in which things take over, which finally leads to a powerless condition. Powerlessness occurs within various factors such as alienation, poverty, and dependence. The dependence takes three forms, - economic, Social and personal - personal to the extent of appropriating the mother's right to name the child. This tallattu has expressed not only the hard lives of the woman like that of Jewish mothers, but also the tensions, anxiety and depressions of the American mothers that Jorde and Caro have drawn our attention to (1986:510).
Contrary to the popular patriarchal views that a birth of girl child is not happy tidings but a burden cast on the parents, we find in tallattu that are expressions of love and care for the newborn daughter. There is no difference in the way mothers and kinfolk have treated the girl babies in the manner in which they have expressed concern, or in the way they have constructed fanciful images. There are indeed differences in the way they sometimes employed metaphors and similes, but most of the time the tallattu are gender neutral. These representations may not be a simple mirror image of Society, since there still could exist Subjective differences between how the mothers and fathers treated their Sons and daughters. When the children are infants the mothers perhaps treat them alike without showing any differences. The cradles have equalised the gender identification and hence the reason for the mothers to construct gender-neutral similes and metaphors. The child's female Sexuality is still not vulnerable and, hence, poses no problems for the parents.
It is relevant to note the religious discourse that is present in the tallattu because it appears as a recurrent theme in both the Muslim and the upcountry tallattu songs. Religion as part of Tamil and to a certain extent Muslim, social life usually falls within the domain of women. Women are

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generally found to be more religious than men. As part of a common-sense education process where children are taught at home, certain Cultural norms and religious values are imparted. In the final analysis it becomes religious instruction. Therefore it is not Surprising that mothers have used it even with infants. It has become very natural to them. Hence this worldliness is effectively combined with the divine. The tallattu Songs bear witness to this phenomenon. The deity is represented along with Social roles and duties.
For the Hill country Tamil women the belief in unity with the divine has to be addressed according to changing Socioeconomic conditions. The Palani Murugan of Tamil Nadu shifts to Kataragama. Religious discourse is rewritten and shifts with new deities and new conceptions. The child Palani Murugan shifts to become Kataragama Murugan, the One who courts Valli, the Vedda woman. Religious and devotional norms are re-conceptualised to Suit appropriate Community and Social demands. While the language is retained, the Content changes. The Syntax and Semantics (motifs and loose ungrammatical sentences) do not change. This community of people and women, who belonged to the "little tradition" and worshipped village goddess and gods, have shifted themselves to a god of "great tradition." It is not an exercise in "sanskritisation" or an attempt at upward Social mobility, but rather an attempt at falling in line and accepting what is in vogue, and succumbing to cultural norms of the people into which they have been integrated. This process has become a communicative act through the voices of women.
However, one cannot deny that they share commonalities with folklore, such as the original unwritten oral forms though they cannot be totally identified with folklore. All the women who sing tallattu are not illiterate, hence there is refinement in language, and the Syntax also changes. The literary levels of tallattu depend on the region, location, and on the Socioeconomic conditions of its production. Tallattu from the mouths of the illiterate has passed on to the mouths of the iterate, and hence is not a homogenous category.

THE TALLATTU - - , 31
At the time when written literature came into being and assumed an elevation as literature, or classical literature as distinct and separate from popular literature, oral literature, primitive literature, and folk literature, or folklore as it was commonly referred to tallattu also was differentiated. Classical literature was carefully separated from folklore. However, that some of the features of folklore were anyhow assimilated into the classical. Early classical literature did absorb folklore' tales, assumptions caricatures, beliefs, and even Some linguistic formations peculiarly signifying particular Social processes. The evidence is vast across the globe. While classical literature assimilated certain features of folklore in borrowing, adopting and reconstructing the Tamil tallatu is simply and totally recast with their content and meaning into classical literature. In Vaishnava Alvar literature and in Some of Sri Lankan literature, tallattu is reproduced without any change in the content and language, though changes are inevitable in the metre employed. The Vaishnava - Saint poets have borrowed the tallattu concepts and used them in classical Tamil literature to sing the praise of Lord Krishna as an infant. Based on the tallattu model there has evolved a literary type called Pillai Tamil. (Tamil for children), which deals with the life of children from the infant stage. The authors usually represent the gods/goddesses as children. This takes on many aspects of the bhakti cult. Tallattu, are used here, to convey intense feelings of love for their children, through addressing Gods and goddesses, who have been recast as babies or children in their characterisations. This is another instance where the differences between high and
low literature, classical literature and folklore, are blurred.
A question worth pursuing is how mothers came about creating the tallattu and singing them to their babies. Was it merely an outlet for motherhood experiences? Both literate and illiterate mothers were involved in this. Does this come within the spectrum of some psychological release of suppressed feelings? The discussion could be slightly modified

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by posing the question whether, through the tallattu, women
found a kind of relaxation and an escape from household
chores, which normally bound them to the domain of the
home. Social interaction, visiting friends or going out of the
home were Social taboos for Tamil women of all castes and
classes for a long time in their history. Women of the low
Castes went Out of their homes Only for the purpose of labour. Their visits were usually on Some specified purpose, either
for remuneration, or for Collecting food or firewood. Singing
tallattu Obviously was a fine recreation where all their
feelings, love, and attachment, would be channelised into just
One VOcation, that of child-rearing. Its origin had connections to domestic conditions, but its distribution has over time acquired the characteristic of a Cultural practice across various
regions Connected by the Same language (lullabies on the
Continent and tallattu in Tamil regions).
Notes
1. Tallatu (Lullaby)
Tallattu is a kind of lullaby Sung by mothers and women. In a Sweet melody the contents and idioms are couched in a motherhood ideology Overpowered by a deep sense of affection, kindness, love, nurture, and care for the little infant. These are also constructed and improvised by women and carried inter-generationally. They were Collected and published in the early 19th century. The women are the authors of these poems/songs. Uncles, aunts, and grandparents and women who look after the babies welcome the infants and cherish them as worthy of human dignity and love. It begins with the question: who is this person? In the final analysis the song is merely to put the baby to sleep with a Sweet melody while the messages are strewn with a lot of personal and emotional underpinnings connected with fanciful romantic notions and kinship ties. 2. An exception
There are, of course, exceptions which I would like to take note of. The Songs Saintatu are not sung by women alone. The other members of the household take Some part of the responsibility of Occasional child rearing, especially when the mothers are busy. They keep the children entertained by singing Saintatu and playing with them till the children go to sleep. The Second exception is singing of tallattu by

THE TALLATTU 33
men. Contemporary Tamil films have used the genre of tallattu occasionally with men to express sentimental filial love. Usually the motherless child is put to sleep by a faithful father. The tallattu is purposefully selected to give the message of a male surrogate mother whose love for the baby is boundless as that of a mother. The melody is sad and the content full of sorrow. Often the virtues of the departed mother are sung by a lonely and lamenting father. On another occasion tallattu is sung by a brother, lamenting for the separated sister, expressing deep affection for the sister recollecting good old times they have had together, while putting his baby to sleep (Paalum palamum). Affection and love of good fathers are expressed through the medium of tallattu, while they also convey the message of a faithful and "chaste" husband who has not taken a second wife. 3. Kalima
Kalima literally means to preach or to say. This concept is fundamental to Islam. This can be conceptualised as a kind of prayer which is mandatory for anyone following Islam. 4. Sandrice
The children in their attempts to imitate their mothers' play the mother's role. One of them is cooking in small pots and pans specially made for them with mud. They cook with sand treating it as rice and leaves as vegetables. The oppari refers to this child play. 5. Illuppai
This is a tree, the South Indian Mahua. The cradle is made out the branches of illuppai tree which usually oozees with its sap when cut. There is a belief among the Tamils that like the tree from which the sap flows so will milk will flow from the mothers' breasts if the cot is made out of this tree. 6. Katpaham
This is a mythological tree which is supposed to grant all the things that one asks from it. 7. Rama, Lakshmana, Sita
These are characters taken from the epic Ramayana. Rama is the righteous king, Sita his queen and Lakshmana his brother. They lived in the forest for fourteen years as part of a conspiracy by Rama's step-mother so that her own son could become the king. 8. These verses of the tallattu are taken from the Congress paper (Congress in Tamil 01/06/1985). This is from ad hoc, without a specific author which appeared in the column called Kalai Arangam.

Page 25
Oppari
Introduction
nlike the tallattu, oppari has a ritual status and therefore UE itself more to analytical, Sociological and anthropological research. Oppari can be translated as ritual lament Songs. Etymologically oppari means, to make noise together (oppu together; ari, to make noise.) Crying and lamenting together at a funeral is called Oppari. This custom is peculiar to Indian and Sri Lankan Tamils. Usually crying or lamenting is a prerogative of the women, though occasionally the men take part. Oppari has a ritual status and has dramatic elements involved in it. When a death takes place, the women in the house get together and weep loudly. Indirectly this act initially intimates the death to the neighbours. The women in the neighbourhood immediately assemble and sit in a circle around the body with their hands around each other's necks and cry. Beating on the chest is also a common sight. The lamentations flow poetically with rhymes and alliterations in a tune that is Symptomatic of grief. This spontaneous and instantaneous verbal outburst usually entails the praising of the dead persons, calling attention to their virtues, personality, demeanor, deportment and their worldly achievements throughout their life history.

OPPARI 35
This genre, usually associated with death, also has a crosscultural presence across China, Finland, Ireland, Greece, India (Jordan and de Caro 1986, Alexiou 1974, Caravelli Chaves, 1980) However, in India, Sri Lanka, China and Finland there are other types of lament songs more closely associated with women's suffering. At the time of a wedding it was customary in Finland for the bride and the mother to sing lament songs as part of the wedding ceremonies. In China the ritual can go on for weeks. These are, in fact, indicators, and symptomatic of the anxiety of the daughters and the mothers about to be separated from one another. On another level, they also indicate the anxieties over the future of the brides who have to leave their homes and go away to a new home where they have to form new relationships. Those with husband, father-in-law, mother-inlaw and sisters-in-law. Weddings, structurally and emotionally, connote a break-up from old and familiar homes, and establishing relationships with new, alien and strange homes and relationships.
At this, the mother and the bride both suffer and lament. The mother from her own past experience recollects her memories of this break-up and separation. In matrilocal and matrilineal Societies there is no need for this separation. Where patriarchy is the norm and where patrilocal residence, is mandatory for women, it is a painful experience to leave home, parents, kin group, pets, the land and its surroundings. This affects only women and hence becomes a women's lament.
In Sri Lanka we have come across different kinds of lament Songs particular to women's experience. They fall under particular traditional titles and could be classified as lament songs, and not all of them have ritual status like the oppari. Neither are they communicative events of a collective nature. M. Ramalingam, who had collected two types of such lament songs, one type called Inamil Ilampenn Olam (this can be literally translated as the lament in loud Uoice of

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women who have no kin group members), Sung by young and Orphaned widows, and the other Sung by unmarried women who lament about their unmarried status. These are composed and Sung by individual Women. The young widows choose a funeral and sit by the corner near the entrance perhaps, unseen by others, and wail. These three types of lament Songs will be discussed in detail later in this chapter.
There is also a view that though oppari is a vocation for Women, there are instances of men taking the responsibility of initiating the process by singing the first few words (from a discussion with Prof. Sivathamby). But usually a senior lady, who in the kinship Category is closely related to the dead perSon's family, starts the Oppari, and then it goes from group to group, which has been formed, with three or more women in each group. They usually sit around the body and the ritual is done for public view of those who have assembled for the funeral.
In the public discourse following a funeral, one of the topicS is about who cried the most. The wailing becomes the Social indicator of one's personal involvement and attachment to the family. Another interesting feature of this Oppari genre is what is called the professional mourners, Koolikku Maratital, which literally means "beating on the chest for a payment." The Oppari is often accompanied by wailing and the physical act of beating on the chest. In ancient Jaffna Society, the status of a person was communicated, measured and made publicly known by the number of professional mourners who wail at the funerals. The duration and the period of wailing and the depth of the voices of the wailing Crowd are also equally important. All these demonstrate the Social Status of the dead, whether men or women. It was customary then to hire mourners to come and sing funeral laments. These were usually women of the 'low' caste, who by caste rules, had duties and obligations to perform when their masters or their masters' wives or children died. This was done as part of the funeral rituals.

OPPARI 37
While the women who were kith and kin, mourn from inside the homes, the professional women mourners were seated Outside.
This phenomenon, while illustrating caste hierarchy, caste rules and the general oppressive structures relating to the caste System of Jaffna Society, also demonstrates gender dimensions. Women, belonging to particular castes, in addition to performing Subservient private roles for their men in the family, also had to perform menial roles, duties and Services as Socially necessary obligations, for payment. It was a peculiar System where their labour power - the labour of their wailing voices and the labour of the act of beating on the chests - is valorised. The act of mourning, wailing and crying, is by definition, deeply associated with emotions of loSS and deprivation and feelings of love and affection, and done voluntarily. However, the act of professional mourning is done involuntarily without feelings or emotions. The performing women are objectified and treated as signs of an oppressive System which has multiple significations.
It was not possible to obtain any written documents about this System. Perhaps the System was in Vogue Over twentyfive or thirty years ago. But older people have recollections explaining the context, the location and style of this wailing. This remains only as oral historiography. A short story written by Alagu Subramanium in English in the sixties, has captured vividly some of its salient features. He refers to these "wretched women." Though lost within the genre of fiction, this short story is illustrative of many historical facts, Speaking of the Social reality that existed during his young days.
In the story the high caste man goes in search of professional mourners and Orders them to come and mourn at his aunt's funeral. Very respectfully the two sisters, refuse - having a very valid reason: their mother had passed away and they were in real mourning. He would not be appeased with that reason.

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FEMININE SPEECH TRANSMISSIONS
"Impudence” cried the master.
“Tuvo mourners are not enough for my aunts funeral? Remember who she is."
"Please excuse them", said one of the relatives of the chief mourner, who acted as the spokesman, and uho had agreed to go with the nephew.
"It is not fair as they will have to shed tears of genuine sorrow on the loss their mother instead of pretending at your place."
... Rushing like water through fresh sandbanks, he
shouts in anger.
"His honour, the Supreme Court Judge and the Police Magistrate are coming - what will they think about us if we don't have enough mourners?"
The sisters still on bent knees, begged to the excused - But the master shouts again.
"You miserable creatures, I will have you flogged by the Magistrate for such impudence."
Upon reaching his home, they let their hair loose, beat
their chests, cry and wail. It is not clear whether it is a mockery or a staged act for the high-cast lawyer's mother or whether they were mourning for their own mother's death.
This short story though an attempt to illustrate the caste
based backwardness that operates in the Society, has also revealed the gender-based hierarchy and the gender oppression prevalent in it.

OPPARI 39
A fiction called Rudali by Mahasweta Devi deals with the theme of women professional mourners in India. The fiction depicts the pathetic plight of a struggle for Survival where personal emotions are turned into a commodity. Wailing and beating on the head become the labour for which the women are remunerated. However, one of the Rudali women turns. the whole process into a tactic subversion. She empowers herself and manipulates the situation whereby many women are inducted into the profession of mourners. She assembles a whole range of "whores" in the red light area, who have no ritual status and in fact tabooed from performing the "profession at funerals. To the funeral of Gambir Singh, an influential upper caste member of the community, she brings them to sing and wail and thereby initiates them into the profession, into the community of professional mourners. That is not all. She gets the nephew of the dead man to pay large sums of money he had kept aside for this purpose before he died. Customarily his power and privilege, in fact. his Social status is indicated by the number of mourners who are present at his funeral to mourn for him. Gambir Singh's nephew and his clerk thought they could get the money for themselves by bringing only a few of the professional mourners, but having got wind of that, the Rudali woman had outwitted them both and helped the women who could now earn not by Selling their bodies but by their wailing.
Catholic writers in Jaffna have composed oppori for the death of Jesus Christ - and used this highly emotive literary form for conversion. Vyakula Kirtanai (Song of despair) is one such piece.
The Wanni region in the North of Sri Lanka is famous for various kinds of folk tradition Such as those of Songs drama and dance. In fact this region qualifies to be a typical area where little tradition flourishes. Velapannikan Oppari is part of that tradition. This is sung by a husband on a heroic woman who has Supposedly tamed a wild elephant and killed it. This Oppari was later transposed into a play variously

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known as Velam Pattuta Virangani (the heroic woman who killed the elephant, Ariyattai peril oppari oppari on Ariyattai), the name of the wife on whom the oppari is sung). On various complaints taken to the king that a wild elephant is causing a lot of damage to the crops and fruit trees the king in consultation with his ministers assigns the job of taming the elephant to Vella Pannikan. However, the job doSen't fall on him. Neelapannikan, who wanted to marry Ariyattai, his cousin and who was rejected by her, plans a plot to avenge her. He calls into question Vellapannikan's capacity. "He is neither valiant nor courageous. He is a coward and he cannot be entrusted with a task” he asserts," but his wife who is arrogant can of course do the job" He provocatively emphasises on the latter and Ariyattai who is enraged, takes up the challenge and kills the elephant. For Nila panikkan who expected Arriyattai to die having been killed by the elephant this was a disgrace and a pain. Unable to bear the shame and dishonour he contemplates Suicide. His wife wants to safe him, and together they plan to poison Ariyattai and Succeeded in killing her. The oppari then springs from Vellapannikan and he commits sati along with his wife. It is essentially from this Oppari which was sustained orally that this tragedy is reconstructed and was known originally as Vellapannikan oppar. This Oppari is significant for more than one reason. Both the concepts of chastity and sati which are treated as virtuous qualities for a good woman find a reverse order here. This is perhaps the only incident in the history of the institution of sati that we find a husband Commits Suicide along with his wife on the funeral pyre. But the reason for the Suicide here is grief and he gets on to the funeral pyre and dies along with her.
In addition to the soliloquy forms of oppari mentioned earlier, when young widows and unmarried women take part, there are other forms of soliloquy. On the third-day ritual called Antiratti and on the death anniversaries called tivasam or titi, the closest kin, either the mother wife sisters, or the

OPPARI 41
first cousins, remember the dead by singing the oppori by which they also to the dead pay homage. This is done individually and not necessarily in groups.
Oppari also serves as a day of remembrances on which the closest of kin, mothers, wives sisters and aunts get together and remember the dead person by singing. They together pay respect to the dead Soul, remember him/her and convey the message that they miss him/her on festive occasions like New Year, Deepavali, and Taipongal.
There is also a belief that singing oppari has an Otherworldly motive. It is asserted that the dead person's Soul will be appeased by the oppari, that oppari helps achieve a peaceful ascent to the other world, and that they really belong to the 'dead island' (Shanmugasundaram 1974:72).
Most importantly, common-sense wisdom comprehends the Oppari from a social-psychological perspective. Oppari, is seen as catharsis of the Self. Oppari is explained as a process, or as a technique picked up by grieving people to relieve anxiety and pent up tensions through an outward outlet for repressed feelings. It is a common sight at funerals, where older people say "let her cry' "crying will do her good, don't stop her."
Oppari, it may be added, is a continuation of the Sararm kavi traditions of the Tamils. Saramakavi are postdeath poems, composed by poets on the death of kings and nobles. Over the years this custom has become a post-death ritual of the high-caste people. Later it spread to other castes as well, where a sense of loss and grief is expressed for the departed Soul. Being connected to Sentiments and emotions and by the nature of its expressiveness, Oppari becomes the responsibility of women.
Though Oppari generally is done in a group, Collectively and jointly to express Sorrow and grief there are Occasions where womensing alone by themselves. Oppari has served as a means of catharsis for lonely and afflicted women. Such experiences of singing Oppari are connected with particular

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incidents. Two such incidents are related here to explain women's lonely experiences in real-life situations. The limited Social avenues do not offer many alternatives for lonely women in times of distress, and oppari offers one such outlet. Oppari acts as an agent of catharsis for the female self.
As Related by The Son
The mother, an old lady, and a widow, was living alone. On one of the days when her son was visiting, there ensued an argument. There was a difference of opinion. The Son lost his temper and perhaps used harsh words. The mother was quiet, and the Son left. On his way home the son suddenly realised that he had hurt his mother's feelings. He was unhappy and turned back to see his mother and console her. When he reached her home, the mother's wailing in the form of oppari was heard. She gave vent to her wounded pride, remembered her husband and with loneliness weighing heavily on her, with no children around her, the only recourse was to burst into an oppari. The son was so moved that he too cried and consoled her and spent the rest of the day with her. Part of the oppari the son heard was:
The doorsteps of the houses, whose inmates We did not consider respectable, The doormats we have now become To those doorsteps. -
The son related this incident to me as first hand information.
Though old in age and though she was his mother, she could be dictated to by the Son. Being a male, he had the power to over rule her, disregard her views and ignore her opinion, and also indulge in harshness of speech. The particular dimension that this oppari signifies, in addition to

OPPARI . . . . 43
the general pattern of giving vent to grief, is the male-female relationship of power within a patriarchal System.
The second incident symbolises the despair of a mother when she hears that her only son has married on his own without informing the mother. Upon hearing about it from a third party, her shock was great. She was also a widow and a possessive mother, according to my informer. Her proud boast in the neighbourhood had been that her son, unlike others, would do nothing to hurt her, would always listen to her. This was a loss of prestige for her - she felt . cheated personally and humiliated Socially among neighbours, friends and relatives. The personal degradation, loss of respect and Social humiliation rendered her emotionally vulnerable. The result was a Soliloquy in oppari. The neighbours then rushed to her house and consoled her. My informer was one of them. The contents of this oppari, in short, was how much she sacrificed to bring her Son up and how much love, care and concern she had showered upon him. How could he have such a heart then tp betray her trust and confidence.
Funeral Oppari
This Section will deal with a few oppari Songs. The emotions expressed through the Songs vary according to the age, gender, and the caste/class status of the person who had died, and also depend very much on the relationship of the dead to the mourners. (daughter/son, niece/nephew, grandfather/ grandmother, uncle/aunt neighbour/service relationship, as that of professional mourners).
The following is typical of a mother who is the chief mourner, on the untimely death of her son:
"You did not lie down on the mat, Even for ten days las sick With fever, you did not suffer, For many days.

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FEMININE SPEECH TRANSMISSIONS
Why did the letter of death Come so soon?
Why did you not hide under the leaves? Why did you not hide behind people?
When the message of death arrived
Without making a noise?
Why did death, the treacherous
One, come by
without any sound why did death come along to you? On the golden body, uhy an unkind sickness? On the golden body, why a disease so improper?
The village doctor did not tell the true story, The town doctor did not tell a good story.
From the hills, the medicine, From the mountain, the honey. Along with ginger which was ground We fed vou uvith elati.
Before dissolving the pills You changed character, Before dissoluing the medicine Your consciousness changed.
The medicine that was ground The wretched stuff still lies on the grinding stone. The medicine that was dissolved has changed its form.

OPPARI 45
The metaphorical use of the moon and the Sun are handled very well:
At a time when the moon shone I sheltered you with my body Now that the moon has disappeared There is now the darkness over of the body.
The word moon is punned. It refers to the moon in the sky and to her son - now that both have gone, disappeared, there is darkness over the dead body without life. Light of life that has extinguished is now referred to as the "darkness of dead body.”
When the sun shone I protected you with my clothes. Now that you and sun have disappeared There is darkness for me to endure.
From a personal experience the Oppari then moves on to a communal aspect where it refers to the Sorrow of the son's friends and cousins:
Your friend who patted you on your shoulders, Your cousins who patted you on your chest, They are all searching for you. Your name is denied its existence.
Good words spoken by you are dimmed, Your body is shrunken, Your words with the weight of meaning Have lost their brightness.
The glowing godly face, when do I
see it in my dreams? Your golden godly face When do I see it in reality?

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You were in the prime of youth, You young in age.
When it is time for me
to fix an auspicious day for the tali
That has become your death day When fixing an auspicious day to get the kurai The time has become to take you to the firewood, to set you on fire.
The lamenting tone progresses to deep pathos
When it is time to draw kolam* in yellow and send you to the wedding altar, Drauwing kolam in black, Am I sending you to the funeral pyre?
Not gifted to see you getting married,
On the wedding Manavarai
Am I also facing death When seeing you in the funeral hall?
I fed you with the nectar of milk,
Kept you safely.
You have now ignited in my stomach a fire Which one gave you the milk of life.
She ends the long weeping with a pathetic request:
In the deep ditch in which you are buried, Call me my dear darling, take your pillou. In the trench in which you are buried, Call me dear, I will be your straw mat.
Call me dear in the cemetery, To be with you before it gets dark.
(From Folk Song of North Ceylon, Ramalingam, 1961)

OPPARI 47
Cremation and burial are both mentioned. Since both customs are followed, the oppori mentions both as experiences of the final disappearance of the body.
The mother's grief is expressed through various stages, though not in any strict Sequence. She is talking to her son. She expresses shock and relates the incident of the untimely death. Pretending innocence she inquires why he did not hide himself among the trees or among the people when death came without any warning, any noise or Sound. The setting moves on to the village doctor, the town doctor, and the medicine that was not administered to her Son. Death was too quick. She then marvels at her Son's beautiful stature. Similies and metaphors flow from her mouth, one following the other in quick Succession. The verses shift to sing of the adolescent years of the playmates, friends, and cousins. An auspicious wedding ceremony is enacted with all its paraphernalia of tali, kurai and manauarai and immediately contrasted with the paraphernalia of death rites: the funeral pantal, the cemetery and the pitch in which he is to be buried. The hightened pathos, however, gives a very strong message, and the verse that refers to his friends and cousins has deep philosophical meaning. The phrase "Your name, your being denied its existence" also refers to his identity in the world, which is usually signified by a name. By giving a . name to a person he/she is given an identity in this world. On death it disappears, is destroyed and erased and referred as the late Mr./Ms. In the Tamil language there is an interesting phrase to refer to the dead people "kalam senra", which means gone along with time. This sense of having disappeared along with time at particular time is conveyed by the phrase, Namam atakinato - Is your name being made ineffective? The person is now referred to as the body and not by the name. Soul and body, which were part of one whole entity, the entity of a person before death are being distinguished as separate now. In this worldly existence they were one to the ordinary eye of the people. The Saiva

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siddhanta philosophy treats both as different from one another. On the Son's death the mother too sees them as different and refers to the Soul as Separate and equates it to the namam which means the name and, which signifies this worldly identity.
Part of this mother's lament on the son's death borders sentimentally on the tallattu Songs in the eloquent manner in which motherhood finds expression. Maternal Sentiments at times of birth and at times of death overlap in the way her emotions are conveyed. It is in the expression of the vocation of motherhood, that one finds the feminisation of the language most prominent.
Though generally it is believed that these songs are repeated by women, there are in fact instances that the women have improvised many verses changing words and phrases to suit the occasion. They have altered and introduced new sense and meanings within the old versions. Scholars have identified Oppari Songs of different versions with slight modifications of words and phrases.
The evidence for women improvising in the lament Songs is provided in an interesting short story written by Muthulingam (1995), titled Vayanna Kana. This short story captures the interesting play and the manner of its enactment. He also mentions the role of the older woman who initiates other women into the rite and the manner of its operation. The women take a few minutes of rest and restart the lament when latecomers walk into the hall. The relationship of the caste/class status of the woman who arrives is an important factor that will determine the kind of reception she receives from the co-mourners. If she is an important person they will rush to receive her and restart the lament songs. They take this opportunity to also make Satirical Statements either to praise her, ridicule her, or to condemn her. This is done both subtly or overtly depending on how seriously they want the message conveyed.

OPPARI 49
The improvisation is called ittukattual (ittukattual literally means constructing new words or phrases instantly, in between). Some women are famous for this type of creativity. The short story mentions one such woman who is the most Senior who was present at a funeral. She is annoyed that the women from Tinnaveli had come late-after the body was removed to the cemetery. This is interpreted as being disrespectful towards the dead person and his family. This is also considered anti-Social. She immediately improvises:
Are you coming like paintings Combing your hair and dressing beautifully? Did you wait till the rivers dried up? Have you come to see the fall of the arecanut tree? Not knowing that in fact The tree which has fallen is teak?
The woman who arrived late does not meekly take up the insult. She is equally creative. She retorts equally pugnaciously:
We, who have relatives, shouldn't we get them Together before uve come? We, who have relatives shouldn't we look after then Before we leave home? We, uho have people, shouldn't ue cook for them before uve come? We, who have a lot of people million shouldn't we take time to bring them along?
Aà
She was giving a message with a sense of arrogance: We have a lot of relatives among us. Our family is big. We have to care for their needs. This is our priority. We are a united family. We can afford to get late. Being members of a great extended family is a Social privilege and has to be understood as confirming high status.

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This, in fact, is a response to the assertion that the dead man was not simply an arecanut tree (fragile, not so valuable, and not so useful), but a teak tree. Teak signifies high status and value in kind and in quality. She is replying that we are also equally high like a teak tree. To ask whether they waited for the rivers to dry up is satirical. Between Tinnaveli and Manipay where the funeral took place there are no rivers. Neither is the distance between them too great, it is a straight route. It appears that this type of counter - oppari, either to demean someone or to praise the mourners or the dead person, was common. While good deeds are praised openly, ridicule is handled subtly, mischievously, and in hidden forms through metaphors and similies. The metaphor of arecanut tree and teak are indeed very Connotative Suggesting stature, status and personality on the one hand and the lack of them on the other. The women who sing oppari, are said to be adept at this. They are sung spontaneously to suit occasions that may arise.
The short story "Professional Mourners” by Alagu Subramaniun also mentions the ittukattulal phenomenon. While singing the oppari the two professional mourners heard someone in the gathering say that the old grandmother who died waited in anticipation for the favourite grandson to arrive from Malaya, having seen him she died peacefully, her last wish being fulfilled. The author immediately gives us the picture of what happened:
This gave them a new slogan, they rose from the carpet, ruffled their hair, crossed their arms, beat their shoulders and cried.
Your grandson has come, wake up, my belovedYour grandson has come, wake up, my darling.
Both these authors, Alagu Subramaniam and Muthulingam, have in fact, recast the oppari, which were sung by women at the funeral in the areas where they lived and they were not invented by the authors.

OPPARI 51
A Widow's Lament
This particular wife from an upper class/caste status laments, first, by giving the signs of her status, through a few allusions to her husband's professional and personal life. The fourth verse talks about the incident of death. The fifth, sixth and seventh are about her present social decline. The seventh verse also requests the dead husband to let her join him wherever he is.
A face as bright as pearl, A face respected by mudalis A face likened to gold, A face respected by the lawyers.
Hands that did the accounts With dark eyes that helped, With fingers too you wrote, Your white eyes watching
At the entrance to the kachcheri There were thousands, who shook hands with you, Gave you the honour of the first chair And seated you in the front rou. On the golden bed we thought You are feigning sleep.
But feigning not sleep You have reached the golden other world
In the presence of five hundred Brahmins The mangaliyam I got in the presence of five, You removed it. You have gone, you caused its removal,
Throuving it away.
I lost the tali chain, I lost all that was golden,

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I lost the pearl chain, And the silks made from the flowers of the Murunka tree.
Tell me the name of the village, Search a house suitable for me. Tell me the name of the town, Select a good house for me.
Would I not come running? I do not know your lane where you will bel Would I not come jumping? I do not know the gate.
From Kiramakaui Kuyilkalin Opparikal (Oppari of the Village Cuckoos).
Ramalingam, 1960
After recounting the event of the death, she goes on to speak of her fate as a widow whose tali is ritually removed, an act signifying her widowhood. The next stage is the life of deprivation of jewels, gold and pearls. That widows have to look plain and not attract men is a social convention among the Hindus. The last two verses speak of her desire to join her husband and request for a decent home. The last line speaks of the urgency, with running and jumping actions to convey the speed with which she wants to join him. There is a sequence of action and feelings. There is logic in the sense of sequence and a culmination of pathos.
Another lament by a widow from Jaffna is reproduced here:
He who held my hand ritually has flown away along with the wind After tying the tali you have gone auvay alone. Even at the cost of money, you will not reach me, Even if I pay, the cool shade will not

OPрдні 53
come back to me. Around the compound you erected a fence and kept the sun as watcher. You fenced the compound at the junction and kept the moon as watcher. In the company of the good, hereafter, I will be like a dog. In the company of the great, hereafter, I will be like a ghost. Deprived of the tali I am grieved, Renoving the kurai, I am uvailing crying, Flowers have become my enemy, The turmeric which I smear, my foe, Pottu my enemy, jewels too have become the same. Even while going to beg, I have to be behind people, Even while going to work, my head has to be down Having lost all that is significant - I am in a corner, having lost all my wealth, wretched creature I have become.
This is a pathetic picture of widowhood spelt out in detail. The symbols of tali and kurai are removed from her due to the death of the husband. She imagines her fate thereafter. The protection provided is referred to metaphorically by fences erected and the moon and sun, formerly her. . protectors. Suddenly, social inferiority has descended on her. She will be looked down upon in the company of others, with her physical body now unadorned, deprived of pottu, turmeric, flowers, and jewels, symbols of auspicious wifehood. The wretchedness of having to wait in corners, behind people, with head bent down, due to the inauspiciousness with which she is now cast, are frames of Scenes that she is imagining of the widowhood that has been Suddenly imposed on her. She constructs in her mind, the demoralising future that awaits her. In the following verses she wails, thinking of her desolate future.

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Widow's Lament from the Hill Country in Sri Lanka
Having pounded the turmeric, Having placed it in the marukalayam, Having covered it with a cloth. I, who was married to the man in Madurai, If I were to open my mouth. Madurai will tremor, Madurai will resound.
Even if I were to go on the street, clad in a saree, Those on the road will only Calculate the worth of my saree, Who will ultimately then measure, My defiled auspiciousness which uvas my wealth?
Even if I were to go on the streets, clad in silk, People will calculate the worth of the silk, Who can measure the depth of sorrow, That I experience.
(From Nattu Pataikal Folklore, 1981)
This oppari is a unique one, the contents ambivalent, the meanings hidden. There are some things implied and others expressed openly. She talks of her marriage to someone in Madurai, in Tamil Nadu, India, speaks of a custom of collecting powdered fragrance in a container and covering it with a cloth. She also talks about her voice being powerful enough to make the city tremble. These are nostalgic memories of married life. Auspiciousness of a woman is signified with words like turmeric and fragrance which are symbols of married life. This was her wealth of auspiciousness (sir).
Now that the wealth of auspiciousness wholly dependent on being married is defiled and desecrated, who can quantify, measure or calculate her inner turmoil, the state of a Sorrowful

OPPARI 55
existence? People only see the exterior, external things, like the Saree and silks with which she is clad. She nicely balances the material wealth she possessed at one time and the powers she enjoyed being a chaste, married woman with her destitute State now.
A Daughter's Lament
Unable to bear the grief, the daughter poses various questions for which she seeks answers. She concludes: mother leaving behind the daughter you gave birth to, your daughter is wailing here. This oppari is linked to the theory of karma. Unable to find why such a grief should fall on her, the daughter tries to pacify and appease her disturbed mind by asking various rhetorical questions. The daughter's oppari for the mother appears to be the longest.
The phrase ennai petta ammah - mother who gave birth to me - is repeated in all eleven verses in this particular oppari, conveying, the central message - the mother/ daughter relationship, the emphasis being: without you I would not have come into existence.
Ennai petta Ammah Did we chase auay the peacock from the garden? Did we destroy their nests? Are the tears shed by the peacocks Winding around our palace now P
Did we chase auay the cuckoos? Did we destroy their nests? Are the tears shed by the cuckoos surrounding our houses?
All our people are in the burial ground, The dear daughter to whom you gave birth,

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Are you going alone, leaving her? The daughter you gave birth to, is wailing here.
Even if there are mothers from ten villages, VVhouvill come to help me? Ennai petta parvati When will I see you again? Even if mothers from eight villages are there to help me,
Ennai petta Easuvari Will I ever I feel you coming towards me? The green parrots say to me Drink the milk, satisfy your hunger.
Ennai petta Ammah,
I did not drink the milk, I did not satisfy my hunger, If I were to see my mother who gave birth to me, My hunger will vanish.
The above wailing by the daughter evokes one major Sentiment, that of being deprived of something very special and unique, a possession she claims is connected to her by birth. It is an expression of an intensely passionate, personal feeling, at an intimate level of momentary dejection. She feels she cannot come to terms with and cope with the situation. She suffers also from a feeling of guilt that she had chased away the cuckoos who made nests to lay eggs and the peacocks who came to the garden and made nests. The image here is built on the concept of a domestic abode of birds which had their own feelings of motherhood: I have destroyed their homes, their little ones; Is it the operation of the law of karma? Am I paying back in the same coin to suffer within the same concept of mother/child relationship?

OPPARI 57
\
However, the same kind of intensity is lacking in the way the daughter wails at the death of her father. Firstly, these oppari are much shorter, and secondly they express Sorrow rather directly. Though the phrase "ennai petta appah" (father who gave me life does occur in some verses, the major point in the oppari is the shock of the death, the suddenness with which it has come.
Ennai petta Appah, we the children, Are grieved, we are suffering.
Before I could cook with milk, I do not know the path you have gone by.
Before I could cook with ghee. I do not know hou you passed away.
You went to bathe with vessels of gold to the pond, you came back home. You who did all kinds of good deeds, Where did you go?
(From Malai Naltu Pattalkal — C.V. Vellipilla)
Oppari has peculiar features depending upon whom they are sung for, such as the mother, father, or husband. The oppari for the mother is the most passionate one, telling of the irreparable loss. Those Sung for the father speak mostly of the impermanence of the life, the suddenness with which life is snatched away. Those for husband convey nostalgic memories of their life together and lament that all goodness and happiness have vanished. The oppari for the child tells of the loss of the child, unbearable tragedy with the pathos of motherhood.

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Other Lamenting Women /
That oppari is used by women on occasions other than funerals has already been mentioned. Some of the Socially oppressive institutions have also found expressions through oppari. This illustrates the fact that women have responded in one way or the other to oppression, that Silence and passivity have been broken, and they have sought Out agencies of expression through traditional and cultural practices. Widowhood is an oppressive social institution which has laid down rules of seclusion and exclusion for women, together with codes of behaviour, codes of dress, and religious sanctions. Withdrawal of the auspiciousness, which is conferred on women only by a living husband, and prohibition of remarriage though (legally it is allowed) are religiously and Socially instituted restrictions for widows. It is generally believed that Tamil widows in Sri Lanka were not subjected to oppressive Social treatment because of the egalitarian customary laws such as the Thesawalamai and Mukkuwa laws of the Jaffna and Batticaloa Tamils. However, the lament songs of the widows and unmarried old maids. (discussed later) bear witness to the difference between textual codes and social realities.
Though we constantly reiterate that the overtly oppressive structures of tonsure (shaving of the head) the forcible removal of jewels and the mandatory dress Code of wearing white are not socially instituted for Tamil widows in Sri Lanka, the covertly practised code of Seclusion and Social Ostracism have caused their share of experiential deprivations for widows and in fact affected them greatly. What we see here are feelings expressed from an experienced Social reality through the voices of women. One of the dimensions that should be stressed on in this phenomenon, however, is the interacting factors of the caste and class of the women within their lived experiences. A woman of high caste generally subscribes to more restrictive behavior patterns of Seclusion and a widow

OPPARI 59
to even greater seclusion. Likewise, at a "low class level, when the breadwinner is removed from the scene, poverty combines with gender, to create still more depressing situations. Her sexuality in this instance becomes more vulnerable, being unprotected by a male member of the family.
M. Ramalingam (1956:48-64) has documented a few of the oppari, Sung by such women, recollecting the funerals of their husbands and illustrating the subsequent and current life situations of their widowhood. He titled this section "Inamil Ilampenn Olam" - the wailing of a young widow who has no relatives. The title clearly signifies of her lonely status and her youth. He mentioned among others, the name of Mrs. Sinnamma Ponnaiah from Moolai, who helped him to collect these oppari.
At a funeral, seated in a corner, when the main oppari has ceased, she wails, giving vent to her suppressed feelings. This can also be constructed as a message to the public requesting help in whatever ways possible.
I have become the wet wall, The sand that lies at the margins of the sea. I have also become the firewood at the fence, The arrow at the hands of the Ueddas.
I have no one for my old age, No one born before me older, sister or brothers, No one to talk to me. I have no name - to claim any heritage, No shade to stay under,
No one to support me.
No wings to fly, No branch to rest, No place to live, No place to stay and relax,

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You left me, went away Under whose protection will I be? Did you ponder? You threw me away arid vanished.
Even if I were to stay in the hot sun the whole day long,
Who will pay attention? Who will raise their eyes and look up at me?
The metaphors selectively convey her helplessness and deteriorating and diminishing status. The wet walls will crumble away, the beach sand is constantly being shifted by the waves. The wood at the fence, the pieces used to keep the fence stable, when decayed are used for firewood by all the passersby. No one questions that the ownership of the fence is violated; it becomes anybody's property.
The next verse speaks of the loneliness, with no people to call her own around her. Her destitution is couched in a multiple metaphor: no shade to stay under, no wings to fly; even after flying, no branch to perch on. Having explained her helplessness, which implies lack of both resources and people of her own, she asks the husband a question and gives a message to the people of the village: in whose protection do you think you have entrusted me?
The oppari gives the impression that the singer is a young widow. She also speaks of violence but the reasons for this violence can not be clearly discerned.
With the knife from Mannar They will cut my hair off they say. With the knife from the smith They will cut my intestines they say. They will take the rope to tie me up, They will take the black stick to beat me up.

OPPARI 61
To those who have taken us the stick, I have asked for forbearance. To those who have taken up stones, I have raised up my hands to begl
The pain I undergo, oh wretched me, Cannot be endured. The suffering I undergo, I, the inauspicious one, Cannot be explained in words.
She also makes reference to verbal attacks. Widows are generally considered unlucky to meet on the road, or upon setting out in the morning on any mission. She refers to this in the following verse:
I am not suffering due to lack of food (kanji), (But) I do suffer harsh words. I am not suffering due to lack of rice (But) I do suffer hot words that burn mel
Even the amanakku creeper on the fence Passes me, goes by without looking at me, Even the amanakku in the bush has differentiated me
This is a reference to caste hierarchy. She refers to the callous and carefree manner in which even the low caste men and women - those who were helpless and dependent on others like the amanakku creepers (which creeps on the fence) - are now disregarding her by being indifferent. The state of widowhood has lowered her social position to such an extent that even the lowly people have now cast her away. Class, caste and gender have collaboratively constructed a new status and have created a peculiar Subordination for her. Gender, however, is the intervening factor here.

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In making this proposition on gender it is also necessary to take note of the caste factor which plays a predominant role in Social relations, and how class and caste Overlap in creating conditions of subordination with or without bringing in gender relations.
The rubbish that was swept away low caste people) is now talking without any inhibition. The rubbish that was kept away is now talking without any obstruction forced impediment.
Those who stood in the backyard are now finding fault with my family, lineage, Those who stood at the gate
are now Cursing me. Those who guarded the sides of our houses are now saying they are the headmen,
Those uho guarded our roof are calling themselves Mudalali.
There is an interesting paradox here: Though she is of a high caste, the moment she became widow she is cast within an idiom of inauspiciousness; she has to be avoided. Her high-caste status does not save her from the inauspiciousness that has befallen her. She is inauspicious to all and Sundry, to those of high and low caste. The 'low' caste married woman also avoids her and refers to her derogatorily, as a vitavai, or arulati (widow, the one who has broken her tali). The curse she is referring to in the first verse is typical of this derogatory remark made her by others including lowCaste people.
That land disputes were a predominant factor in the Social relations among the people of Jaffna has been attested to by other sources. During feudalism, land was the primary Source of income and agriculture, the mainstay of the

OPPAR 63
economy. When husbands died, the undivided property became a point of dispute among the brothers-in-law and others. One such dispute is related in the following oppari by a widow, long after her husband's death.
Fighting they are with me, Taking the case to the courts, Drawing up boundary lines, they are putting up a fence, They are dividing the property. A fence of enmity is constructed, All round me fences have come up, Coming in a circle, a fence of thrones. Everywhere there is a fence, Where will I go?
Once upon a time, There was the sword in the scabbard, That I thought uvas strength. On the uvaist uvas the sauv. There uvas no fear I thought. Now the sword has gone from the scabbard I have been eaten up from inside. Since the saw went from the waist Fear has overtaken me. The pond is disturbed, Killer dog set on me. Am I strong enough to handle the killer dog or
the chain?
Strong I am not, neither can I win a battle with the strength of my speech, Rich I am not, to stand firm with my speech.

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I have not crossed the compound of my housel, Can I go to the open esplanade nou? I have not crossed the gates of my house, Can I go to the town now?
Bound within the home, the woman who has not crossed the gates of the house and compound is now compelled to handle land disputes, and go to the courts. Her moral strength, which was her husband, is no more. Anxiety, fear, ambivalence and anguish is the tone of these verses. Neither can she handle the killer dog that was set on her, nor can she handle the chain to control the dog. This oppari, it would seem, was Sung not immediately after her husband's death, but later in her life, when she was faced with problems and confrontations probably with her husband's brothers and others.
Women's inauspiciousness which falls on her with widowhood is in fact related to and couched in her sexuality, which is made inactive upon her husband's death. But women by themselves do not normally engage in any discussion of their Own Sexuality. They take cover under a guise of respectability. This is mostly a middle-class expectation. Whether women indulge in private conversations among themselves is a matter of speculation but these matters do not find expression in literature. Andal, a Vaishnavite poet of the tenth century from Tamil Nadu, who used a lot of Sexual imageries in her long poems, was an exception. A few of the Oppari Songs show Some resemblance to Andal's poems. Confined to the realm of the household, women have not been able to make so many contributions in creative fields. But those who did such as Andal, Acca Mahathevy and Arundthati Roy, have had no inhibitions in talking about sexuality. In the section titled "Amankali Vilakku" (avoid the inauspicious beings, the widows), one verse marginally attempts this:

OPPARI 65
You stopped breathing, The importance of my being is destroyed, You Stopped talking, the use of big breasts also has been ruined.
The "use of the breasts" signifies two processes: the first being the inactive sexual life that is Socially imposed on a widow by the prohibiting of remarriage or an affair with any man; the Second being, as a consequence of the prohibition, she Cannot give birth to a baby who can Suck at her breasts. However, both are related to her Sexuality on which are cast tabOOS. This verse is an expression of desire and longings for Sexual life. This longing is directly connected to her other widowhood deprivations which are listed below:
I had respect equal to that of a king, I had ministers and an army, NouU II have none. I was kept in the front seat auspiciousness, I am being kept in the last rou inauspiciousness, The forehead where I had the pottu is Smeared with dust now, The forehead with the red mark is Smeared with ashes now. Throun away at the junction, Wearing white I was driven to the street.
Interestingly, Ramalingam recalls that, unable to decipher the meaning of the phrase relating to the big breasts, he approached an old lady who, without any inhibitions gave him the two interpretations.
The Spinster and the Oppari
There is another category of women who have given voice to female Sexuality and desires related to their Sexuality. These

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verses still remain hidden from mainstream literature and lie in the margins. Tamil culture has constructed two dichotomous images for women: one, of the respectable woman of the family and the other, of the devadasi. The women with loose morals are given the right to talk about Sexuality, while the respectable woman has to maintain silence in an image projected as being virtuous, like Sita and Kannaki, the herọines of the Ramayana and Silapatikaram. While there is a lot written about married women, their decorum, duties and obligations and about widows, the Category of women known as "spinster" or old maids is a neglected phenomenon. No One has written about their feelings, their plight remained within the confines of silence. They were silenced by the culture to which they belonged, it was a tabooed subject for them and others to speak of their deprivation both of Sexual needs and of companionship. Referred to as mutirkanni (old virgin) in Tamil. These women have seldom evoked any sympathy. They are mostly the category of women rejected for various reasons: lack of good looks, in terms of complexion, height and features, malformation in physique, deafness, blindness, dumbness (the disabled). However, it is mostly due to lack of dowry that certain women are not sought after by men. If they are not financially independent, they become totally dependent on their parents, brothers and married sisters, and remain within their families, often humiliated and Ostracised. They are treated like menials in these households, serving.others. This happens after their parents death. These women and their experiences have generally not become an issue either in literature, in theatre, or in any Social discourse. Ramalingam has collected some of their experiences voiced in poems which are like oppari (1970: 4-7):
Like the samba rice... I who have big breasts and small waist, Like the arecanut tree which

OPPAR 67
has produced ripe arecanut, I am wailing - you are leaving me.
Big breasts and producing ripe arecanuts are symbols of being ready for sexual life. The "you" who is referred to in the above verse is someone who is leaving her. He could very well be the man who has rejected her either after seeing her or rejected the marriage proposal for whatever reasons. Similar oppari have taken different versions in the Mannar and Batticaloa regions. The following verses are more typical of the wailing tone:
Waists slender, breasts broad, Seven years I remained a virgin. Sellasamy, you who have gone away, Come and release me from this prison.
Having faith in you,
I remained a virgin.
To continue to be a virgin
I cannot be, oh,
Like the Avarampu' flower I waited in prison (the prison of virginity) for six years To continue in prison any longer
I cannot be.
Like the flowers picked and kept in a box I have been,
Like flouvers faded I am Guarding the entrance wailing at the entrance for the arrival of my mate. Will not justice triumph? Will not the gods inquire? Like the sun in the east, Will not I get someone for a husband)?

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With parboiled rice that has not dried and with the chaff, I am dying. Oh! the sun, you rose for me, Will not someone come for me?
The milk that has not formed into curd not fermented And with the mattu I am being pained by labour Oh the sun you rose for me, Will not someone come for me?
There have been women who broke the institutionalised taboos against Sexual expression. There are indeed instances in Tamil culture and literature where women's Sexual desire is described, but by male authors. Andal, the Vaishnawa poet was the only exception. More importantly, the cultural taboos are applied to women of high caste and class within an idiom of civilised restraint. To what class or caste did these women belong? We have no means of determining the class or caste of these women. The reason why they remain unmarried is also not clear. Often there are references to the burden of household chores. Being single and having no family responsibilities they are used by others in the family to do domestic chores. Boiling and drying rice, beating curd with the mattu to Separate the ghee, are perhaps tasks entrusted to then on a daily basis, hence the claim of suffering "maikiren" (dying). It speaks of the burden and the compulsion. The chores are thrust on them, they have no escape. There is a covert expression of a sense of alienation. The expression is short and abrupt but explains the long process of beating the curd - "Mattotu maikiren" - (I am dying with the rnattu).
Mattu is a long, Serrated wooden gadget which women roll with their hands in circles in the pot/vessel in which the Curd is kept. This process separates the ghee, which will either float on top or gather round the mattu, and is then collected. The silence is broken on two counts - on sexual desire, and

OPPARI 69
household labour. In One Sense they speak of oppression, and On another level, it is a liberating experience to overcome and defeat Silence and passivity. 'Civilised' Society, which values restraint - both verbal and sexual - and silence for women, would treat Such a trend as 'deviant. Perhaps it is for this reason that they remained a hidden oral tradition for a long time. This can be considered part of a submerged history (Braudel 1966), excluded or prohibited from mainstream women's history. The deviant behaviour is constructed within the parameters of institutionally codified norms or rules. These constructions are much more Severe for women, who are severely censured for violations. The institutions that govern the mores of sexuality are marriage and the family. Within these institutions women are expected to uphold codes of restraint. These single women are, however, within the family but not within the institution of marriage. Within the institution of the family they condemn household chores as burdensome. By not being within the institution of marriage they have broken the code of restraint to express Sexual desire. The latter is a serious violation, whereas the former is not so.
Oppari as a Voice of Modern Political Conflict
In the recent politically charged situation of the ethnic war between the Sri Lanka state and Tamil militants there have been many cases of disappearances." Disappeared" is an euphemistic concept used politically to refer to those who have been killed illegally, or kept in prison without any charges being brought against them, or without being brought before the law. It is recent history, that in a burial ground at Chemmani in the Northern Sri Lanka, excavations carried Out after the Confessions made by a Soldier proved that many were indeed shot, beaten, killed and buried. Some of those who disappeared have been identified. Subsequent to the large-Scale disappearances Some members of civil Society

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formed the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of the Disappeared - to which many women whose husbands and Sons have disappeared, Sought membership.
Recently, some of the suspected soldiers were produced in the magistrate's court in Jaffna. There were hundreds of women waiting inside and outside the courts when the Suspects were brought out of the court premises. The women assembled broke into an oppari, collectively raising their hands and beating their chests:
Are you the ones who killed our sons?
Are you happy over this?
(These lines were repeated in a chorus.)
(Veerakesari 15/3/2000)
This was a brief performance as the soldiers were soon driven away in a van.
From reality to acting out a play,oppari has rendered itself very effectively. Use of oppari in traditional folk drama Velampattuta Viranganai in the Wanni region in the North of Sri Lanka has already been discussed (page 35). A similar use of the Oppari genre was witnessed recently in a drama in Batticaloa in the Eastern Province. It gave a political voice to the contemporary war situation that had raged in the country for nearly a decade. In the war between the Tamil militants and the Sri Lankan State many men have been killed. They die as combatants, or innocents caught in the crossfire, or as Suspected terrorists. Many men have also disappeared. This has left many women widowed. Having lost Sons and husbands, most of the Women have turned destitute, for they have lost the breadwinners. They are traumatised by the series of violent incidents that they have seen and experienced. This phenomenon of widows, with alarming statistics is unprecedented in the annals of the Sri Lankan history. A vvomen's group in Batticaloa called the Suriya Development Centre staged a play in which three long

OPPARI 71
opparis are used throughout the play. It evoked a lot of emotion in the audience. The play was titled Mattu Nagar Kannakaikal. It brings out effectively and eloquently the many facets of the tragedy. The tragedy of having become widows, of being alone and orphaned. The melody was deeply touching and together with the contents created intense pathos. Three women sang these oppari.
Kannakai is the legendary heroine of the Tamil epic Silapatikaram, She is popularly associated with the concept of chastity. In the epic she got into an uncontrollable rage and burnt the city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu as a way of avenging the unlawful killing of her husband by the king. She was transformed into a goddess, called Pattini Teivam. Kannai worship is very popular in eastern Sri Lanka in Batticaloa where she is worshipped as a female goddesses. The legend was continued into another long poem by an author from Batticaloa and was interestingly titled as Kannaki Valakurai (Kannaki conducting her case against the king, the state). This legend has it that the angry Kannaki came to the Eastern Province in Sri Lanka and had to be appeased and made calm So that she would not remain angry and cause further destruction. In a famous temple in the eastern province she is ritually requested to calm down, with Songs and prayers not to remain angry but to become cool". The ritual is called "kulirti' to become cool. Through the oppari the women are saying that they too are angry like Kannaki (whose husbands were killed unlawfully) Over the victimisation they suffered. But there is no one to appease their anger. These women are all referred to in the title of the play, as Mattu Nagar Kannakaikal the Kannakis of Batticaloa. Kannaki here is a symbol for widows whose husbands are killed by the state.
Wife's Lament
I lost the one who was the source of income,

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FEMININE SPEECH TRANSMHSSIONS
Without any income I am crying, I am wailing.
On the side of the lagoon We lived, throwing the nets as fisher folk. Over the one who throws the met Death has thrown its net.
Not having committed any crime, Your body uvas tortured, You went to prison,
Oh my dear
Through how many hands you went? Arrested and released. But you went auvay Without giving the answer.
In the country where they are appeasing The spirit of Kannaki, Orphaned as I am,
I am Struggling. Who will appease my soul?
Mother to the Son
Oh dear, dear,
When I conceived you, oh, My king went auay, Went away leaving me to struggle alone. You grew up with comforts and wealth, Like the beautiful jasmine flower. Having become destitute, I am wandering as the kannaki of the Mattu Nagar.

OPPARI . 73
Dialogue between Mother and Daughter
The tears have dried up, this mind is broken. Is it one year or tuvo years? Today eight years have passed.
Disturbed I am, my mother, my mother, Am I always dreaming, my mother? What the villagers say is (that he is dead now) piercing my heart, my mother
Heuvill come, he uvill come, Thinking so, I am raising this little boy. There is no astrologer I have not seen, There is no puja I have left undone In anticipation that he would come I adorned myself with pottu and walked along, Oh my mother, my ears are afflicted, As if burnt, with harsh and hot words.
Houw long can I uvait? Houw long can I uvait here? For my burning mind, Where is the appeasing ceremony?
Mother to Daughter
Being a good mother, I brought you up, Staying up at night. I protected you, making a living out of weaving, sewing. I brought you up - I got you married to a graduate, You lived well.

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But Now
You are wandering alone, Burning my stomach. Whose bad karma is it? Who has cast an evil eye on you?
One month after the marriage, Oh woman, you conceived. He has not come to see the face of the son born of you.
Your husband who was arrested, Is he suffering pain after a beating? Did he finally die, After being beaten again and again?
You are waiting, waiting for him, You are looking at the pathway
On the side of the road. You are standing with pain in your legs.
Mother to Daughter
Dressed up beautifully you are going, You are going daily, the villagers are scorning, asking For whose benefit she is going.
You have forgotten hunger, You do not sleep, oh my good daughter You are running auay, here and there, You're suffering with nothing to hold on to, Suffering...
You are wandering, gone mad, I too have lost my head.

OPPARI 75,
Having lost your senses you are wandering, What can I, a woman, do?
The oppari was created specially for the play after the writer saw the conditions of the real widows in the Eastern Province. Intense suffering, trauma, destitution and prostitution are some of the results of this mass tragedy. The cases of disappearances have created situations of ambivalence for many women. Whether to live and act like a widow, whether to accept that the husband is dead are dilemmas for many of them. Unable to accept death, hoping against hope that one day he will walk into the house, many women are traumatised. They live in anticipation, with constantly renewed hopes. The Oppari of the three widows capture hopes, dilemmas, and the trauma that they undergo. This play and the oppari, are in fact political messages, a passionate plea to end the political violence inflicted on the non-combatant civilians of the Eastern Province.
Conclusion
The narrative of the songs of both the tallattu and oppari are indicators of communal relationships - whether they be within the same family, kin group, or the extended family and neighbourhood - some of which are imagined and others real. They do represent the women as social subjects - as subjects of history communicated through feminine voices. AS part of a particular and Specific heritage, they also represent collective action. This is more so in the oppari genre. But the communities, however, are not to be comprehended as part of a closed homogenous world, undifferentiated and tension-free.
In the analysis or in the reinterpretation of texts and oral texts, we have not included an analysis of the relations of production in the way they have influenced partially, or wholly, and determined the Cultural representations. This is

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simply due to the fact that oppari have spanned a few hundred years from pre-colonial to colonial and post-colonial eras until now they have almost disappeared from the scene. In capturing the historical moment, women's voices have brought out a complexity of subjectivities. Who speaks (or sings) from what location matters. Geographical, genderbased, political, ethnic, or caste and class locations have a bearing on what is said/sung. No claims, however, are made
that this represents the final reading.
A note on translation is necessary - I agree with Walter Benjamin (1969:75), who said: "All translation is only a Somewhat provisional way of coming to terms with the foreignness of languages." The translations given by us could not capture completely the cultural myths, Connotations, signs and symbols, which are interwoven with the texts.
In the way the tallattu and Oppari are analysed we have not privileged content over form or vice versa. The language is simple and, free-flowing, but loaded with metaphors and Similies, expressive and emotional, making both content and form equally significant in the analysis. What we have sought is organic unity (Croce 1992:16): - "the notion that the Overall effect of a work may be more than the value of its parts taken Separately."
Tallattu and Oppari are both conceived as part of experience, as part of intention, since the women have not constructed images of intellectual knowledge but have picked up a great deal from observations of nature, fauna and flora, and the caste rules as they and others have experienced them. Common-sense wisdom is in abundance. Feelings are interwoven with facets of Social reality - feelings of anxiety, happiness and Sorrow, anguish and ambivalence, fear and hope, along with hopelessness and a sense of pride have found their way into the songs as part of their experience. What we have missed out are the melodies, the rhythm and rhyme.

OPPAR 77
Both tallattu and Oppari gain an added value by the reason that many women have not taken pen or pencil to write down any literature, poetry or prose. Their creativity has been stunted, negated and nullified by Social forces for many years. Herein lies the significance of their choice of expression - motherhood and death, the entry and the final exit, the beginning and the end of life. What comes out primarily and prominently perhaps is the will of the women to act, action proceeded by the struggle of willing. They had the power of will. Both the subject of birth - beginning of life - and the subject of death - the end of the life - have prompted them, evoked them, have willed them into action, a consciously evoked self-will without external provocation, with internally evoked feelings of creativity.
In a Sense, these are a few instances acts of freedom they have made for themselves within a patriarchally closed System. The baby and the body provide the space, in view of their expressed joy and pathos. The expressive Outlets have incorporated myths, values, morals, beliefs, maxims and Common-Sense wisdom, appropriately and Contextually.
A feature worth emphasising in the manifestations of both the tallattu and the oppari is the collective Sentiments of women. Over a period of time women have reaffirmed their Sentiments acroSS regions, on a cross caste/class basis among themselves as those who give birth to new lives on earth. Peasant folklore and worker folklore have also expressed these collective sentiments through various vehicles, Such as ridicule, Satire and overt condemnation of oppressive labour relations. C.V. Velupillai and Saral Natan have identified such episodes among the women workers of the upcountry tea plantations (Velupillai 1983, Saral Natan 1993). This should form a separate study.
And finally, there are two more points towards understanding or comprehending the phenomenon of women's verbally expressed genres of tallattu and Oppari. Firstly, tallattu and oppori are different from each other

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78 FEMININE SPEECH TRANSMISSIONS
though there are commonalities. They are both expressions of inner thoughts and deep feelings, and are meaningful from the point of view of women's experiences. In analysing them this Study has valued subjectivity and regarded it as a significant category. They fall within certain features such as perception and intentionality, as part of a process of Social reality. The Subjective expressions thus released by the women are, in fact, the representative of the objective Social reality of their experiences becoming a special category of female Subjectivity Separate from general human Subjectivity (by belonging to a gendered Category). By valorising Subjectivity we have also in the process taken note of the Sociopsychological nature of the experiences of the women as a whole. Their beliefs, attitudes, perception and moods, in addition to feelings, have been brought into focus.
The second point - which will be left as a query - is not answered fully: are the tallattu and Oppari really a part of an ameliorative device?
Tylor (1986:134) argues that aesthetic integration is a form of therapy. It is connected with rites and rituals, that family of concepts closely connected with the idea of the restorative harmony of "therapy" in its original sense of "ritual Substitute." He further states that "a poet is a thereupon - the attendant of muse." This kind of explanation clearly connects the verbal art of tallattu and oppari with concepts such as therapy and ritual. This explanation can also be Connected with another query: why have So many women participated in these genres, and why have only a very few women excelled in the other literary genres Such as poetry, novels, short stories, and plays?
It has to be stated, however, that no attempt has been made to claim that women are a homogeneous group, though it is true that we have argued that repressed and Subordinated women are divided on lines of caste and class and particular and peculiar subcultural Systems and groups. They are both united and divided in how they construct their subjectivities.

OPPAR 79
This then shifts the representations often made from the point of view of woman as a category, to specifications of difference. While agreeing with Adams and Cowie that the reinstatement of a suppressed history is not a Sufficient political practice (quoted in Paul Hamilton 1996:190), we want to place a conditionality. Reinstatement of a Suppressed history alone is not a political practice - the subtle and overt protests that are occasionally told and retold should become the crux of the political practice — the tabooed and forbidden, which as part of the content of both the tallattu and oppari, become political Content.
Another point of debate is the expressive Sentimentalism found in abundance in these Songs. This is not a Sufficient reason to devalue them, taking us back to the debates on rationalism and emotion, objectivity and Subjectivity. Though not totally in agreement with Showalter's forceful phraseology (1986:27) of the tumultuous and intriguing wilderness" of difference between men's and women's writing, we argue that the differences must be acknowledged and critically analysed but without judgemental undertones valorising one over the other, by labels of subjective/objective, rational/emotional. The texts are not uniformly undifferentiated and universal.
In critically analysing both the tallattu and oppari we have valued women's individual experiences. Woman is very often not placed in history - she is dehistoricised, not fixed in a particular time and Space in history. Although viewing tallattu and Oppari as continuing through centuries, this does not mean that their content in relation to their Socio-economic systems is not historically determined. When the content signified the tabooed and the forbidden, the signified were the female desires and longings couched in Sexual metaphors, and the household bondage and labour to which women were subjected. Both signified the alienation of women from their bodies and pleasure. In Oppari and tallattu the content has become gendered, differentiated, and the language feminised. The language typified Social phenomenon and has also become defacto Social content.

Page 48

Amankku ArampalAru petta palakaro
AtmaElati
Elu Kanniyar
Illuppai
acheri
tpaham
ulateivamalima
ruli
Kalai arangamKavady
Glossary
Castor plant.
A flower that grows in water. Who (aru petta) gave birth to this (pala karo) baby.
Soul An indigenous mixture of medicine using cardamom. Literally seven virgins. They are part of the goddess of the little traditions of the up country Tamils. It is the diety of their clan which is referred to as Kulateivam. South Indian Mahua. A local administrative unit at the provincial or regional level. The legendary tree which gives everything one wishes for. Diety of the clan or home gods. A kind of prayer (see notes). Women who have not attained age and therefore cannot conceive. A stage for performing art. The Hindu ritual of carrying sacramental things on the shoulders and going around the
temple as part of fulfilling a vow taken
MaladyMangalyam Tali
previously.
Barren woman. A golden ornament of marriage fixed to chain or string ritually tied around the neck of the bride.

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82
Marakalayam
Marutondi
Marutuvichi
MayavanMudali
MurugaMutt
Naga Kanni
Niraha ManathPeriya turai
PillaiyarPottu
Puja PunnaiOppariSaintatuSami
SenpakamSeetevi Nitrai sei Siva/Vishnu
TalaiTeivamai
GLOSSARY
A container into which different types of powdered fragrances are kept. A herbal plant the juice of which is used to paint hands and nails and used on the hair for colouring and cooling effect. A maternal nurse, midwife who helps delivers the baby using traditional and indigenous knowledge and know-how of delivering practices. She looks after the mother and the baby for forty days bathing cooking for the mother.
Lord Krishna. Is a title given by the colonial rulers to men of social standing to help them with the administration and translation: A Hindu god-son of Siva. A residential hall where holy men and renouncers reside. The virgin cobra treated as god in the little tradition.
Meaning obscure. Literally means the big lord, by which is meant the chief superintendent. God Ganesha. Red mark worn by women as a sign of marriage.
Ritual worship of God.
A wild tree. Wailing songs or lament songs (see notes). Lean (saintatu) and (atu) Swing. The corrupted forms of Swami in Sanskrit, meaning the lord, the leader. Name of a flower. Go to sleep the auspicious one. Two of the gods of the Hindu trinity. TalattuLullaby (see notes).
A wild tree. The first wife of god Muruga/Skanda in the Hindu mythology.

GLOSSARY
Temal
TinaiTulasi
Upatesampilai
tallatituVaishna Alvar
Vally
Velavar
83
The dark spots on the body treated as beauty spots in the female body. Kind of grain used for food like rice. A kind of leaves and beads connected with and used in used in Hindu rites. w Preaching the young child through the tallatitu. Hinduism has two major sections called saivism and Vaishavaism. The former gives primacy for Siva the later for Vishnu. The Vaishnava saint poets who composed poems in praise of Vishnu are called Alwars. Alwars etymologically means who delves deep (with devotion to Vishnu). The second wife who was from the Vedda community the same mythology. One who carries the weapon of Vel refers to Muruga.

Page 50

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is I sently the Executive Director of the Women's Education and Research Centre (WERC), Colombo. She is the Editor of Nivedini (English and Tamil editions), the journal on gender studies. Images, a collection of research papers of multilingual media monitoring project was edited by her. She edited Women, Narration and Nation: Collective Images and Multiple Identities. She is the author of books such as Ideology, Caste, Class and Gender, The Spectrum of Feminity, and the monograph, Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-colonial Sri Lanka. She has also authored books in Tamil — Varalartu Padiman kall Si lavattil Oru Pennilai Nokku and Penilaivatham um Kotpattu Muram Padukalam Oru Samukviyal Nokku.
Doctor Thiruchandran obtained her B.A. Degree from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and Masters Degree and Ph.D from the Netherlands. She pursued her doctoral studies at Vrije University of Amsterdam.
ISBN 81-259-1057-3

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