When I was young, I aspired to become a paṭela (village headman, chief of a town). Not because the position would provide a lot of money. But because a paṭela is a free man; he need not wait for someone else’s orders. The respect of people for a village headman is immense; all the villagers obey his command.
In addition to these two attractions, there was another. A headman did not have the burden of schooling; no plight of exams and results.
There is a sacred tīrtha called Kanakhala near Gaṅgādvāra. In the past, a divine elephant called Kāñcanapāta broke open a mountain and let the Gaṅgā flow into the plains from there. In the region to the south of this town, a brāhmaṇa lived with his wife and performed tapas. He had three sons. After his death, his sons went to a place called Rājagṛha and acquired a lot of knowledge there. Though they became well educated, they were in immense pain, considering themselves as orphans.
3. Kāvya
This has three stages too.
1. Manaḥ-prasāda – The nāndī-padyas in a kāvya, the description of city, country, mountains, forests, rivers, forts, palaces – these establish a context for the story; these are the embellishments and charming aspects.
2. Bhāvāveśa – The core flavour lies in the scenes of the story and in the human characters. Tyagaraja in one of his lyrical melodies narrates this story:
Indra, who cannot think beyond the obvious and who knows only material luxuries and pleasures of the flesh, jumps to the conclusion that it is only the embodied deity of love, Manmatha who can do the job of uniting Śiva and Pārvatī. He immediately decides to instruct commands to Manmatha and communicates to him through his mind, his thought accelerated by his eagerness to achieve his purpose. (मनसा कार्यसंसिद्धौ त्वराद्विगुणरंहसा 2.63).
Art—kalā—is an adroit phenomenon[1] that gives our mind the experience of some beauty or some grandeur or some profound thought through our eyes, ears, and other senses.
As the devatas had even lost their voice to give words to their trouble, Indra, their leader gets into action; and his action is merely to reverentially pass on the responsibility to his Guru Bṛhaspati. He does so only with a gentle and slow movement of all his hundred eyes towards the Guru. He does not have words to speak to Brahmā or to the Guru. Bṛhaspati, who is known to have mastered language can at least attempt to express their unified wish to Brahmā – the master of speech, speaking to the Creator of Speech!.
ततो मन्दानिलोद्धूतकमलाकरशोभिना ।
