Niccham Posatu: Halegannada Is Savi Siri

My eyes were moist before Abhayaruchi and Abhayamati even began telling the story of their past lives. I was listening to Dr. Hampa Nagarajaiah — Hampana — in Kathana Studio’s Niccham Posatu series.

They were two children facing sacrifice. What stayed with me was how they supported each other and held to non-violence even then. Their courage, their nishkalmasha buddhi — the purity of their minds — and even their names stayed with me.

This is a short retelling of what I remember from Hampana’s explanations, and what those explanations meant to me. There are different versions of these stories; I am not reproducing his exact words or giving a complete account of the texts.

Abhayaruchi and Abhayamati

In Janna’s Yashodhara Charite, Abhayaruchi (ಅಭಯರುಚಿ) and Abhayamati (ಅಭಯಮತಿ) are twin brother and sister, young Jain novices under Sudattacharya. Maridatta’s men bring them to be sacrificed to the goddess. Their composure makes the king pause and ask for their story. [3]

As I remember the explanation, the brother and sister know that this may be the end for them. Yet they help each other stay with what they believe. They hold to ahimsa while facing violence themselves. That is the moment that first made my eyes moist.

Then their story goes backwards. In a previous life, they were King Yashodhara and his mother, Chandramati.

A voice, a betrayal, and a cockerel made of dough

Yashodhara’s wife, Amrutamati, hears an elephant-keeper singing and becomes drawn to his voice. She sends her companion to find him. She insists on meeting him, and their affair begins.

What disturbed me was how desire takes over her decisions. She continues the relationship even when her lover treats her cruelly. Later, her own cruelty destroys lives.

In the scene I remember, Yashodhara discovers them together and raises his sword. Then he stops himself. He retreats. That restraint, at a moment of hurt and anger, mattered to me.

Unable to tell his mother what happened, he speaks of a bad dream. She proposes an animal sacrifice. He refuses to kill a living bird, so they settle on a cockerel made of dough — a hittina hunja. [2]

That compromise is what troubled me most. Although the bird is made of flour, the intention of sacrifice remains. In the story, Yashodhara and Chandramati bear the consequences through repeated animal births. Ahimsa reaches into what they intend to do, as well as what they physically do. [2] [3]

I remember the dough cockerel crying out during the sacrifice, and Yashodhara’s shock. I also remember the later episode in which they are birds and recognise the suffering of their earlier lives. My eyes were moist again. Something they had treated as a way around violence had followed them through life after life.

Yashodhara later prepares to renounce royal life. Amrutamati poisons him and Chandramati. Their deaths lead into the story’s repeated rebirths. [3]

Now they stand before Maridatta as Abhayaruchi and Abhayamati. After all that suffering, they still choose non-violence. Hearing their story changes the king; he gives up the sacrifice. By then I had completely surrendered to Hampana’s explanation.

Pampa’s Karna

The discussion of Karna in Pampa’s Vikramarjuna Vijaya, or Pampa Bharata, stayed with me too. Arjuna is the central hero, but Pampa gives Karna a place that asks us to feel his tragedy. [4]

Karna is abandoned at birth and humiliated for the social identity he grows up with. He has courage, generosity and ability, but those do not protect him from discrimination. Duryodhana gives him recognition and friendship when others deny it.

That is why his loyalty means something to me. Yet the same loyalty ties him to Duryodhana’s wrongdoing. His tragedy brings together the injustice done to him and the choices he makes himself. Understanding the first does not erase the second.

Nagachandra’s Ravana

Ravana in Nagachandra’s Ramachandra Charita Purana, known as Pampa Ramayana, has another kind of tragedy. He has learning, strength and the capacity for restraint. In the Uparambhe episode, he refuses her advances and urges her to remain faithful to her husband. [5]

Yet he abducts Sita. Later, seeing her devotion to Rama and the suffering he has caused, he recognises his wrong. He considers returning her, but fears the humiliation of doing so before proving himself in battle. Pride delays the correction. Lakshmana kills him before he can carry it out. [5]

That was the painful distinction for me. Karna’s story makes me think about discrimination and loyalty. Ravana’s makes me think about knowing that I am wrong and still being unable to let go of my pride. Seeing their tragedy does not require me to excuse what they do.

Why should this feel distant from us?

This is why I want such learning to reach more of us, whatever subject we studied. Why should Kannada literature feel like something only arts students or those who choose it as a special subject get to spend time with? Hampana’s explanations made me care about the people in these stories, and about the choices they faced.

Thank you, Kathana Studio, for bringing Niccham Posatu online. Thank you also to Prajavani, where I found it in a small section at the top right of a page. [1]

Halegannada really is savi siri. Now I can say what made it feel that way to me.

Worth every episode.

ಸಿರಿಗನ್ನಡಂ ಗೆಲ್ಗೆ, ಸಿರಿಗನ್ನಡಂ ಬಾಳ್ಗೆ!