I’m listening to Alarsara Parithapam, this specific version from the film Swathi Thirunal and sung by Arundathi and Yesudas. It is structured as two sections, the first sung by Arundathi, then the next stanza sung by Yesudas, almost as if replying to the speaker of the first stanza (the female voice). Then Yesudas goes on to sing the first stanza, Alarsara parithapam cholvathin, at which point we realise that it is not a reply but yet another plea, this time from a man. The padam is written in a heavily sanskritised Malayalam which might be familiar to those who studied Malayalam in school and had to learn the synonyms of words, atleast two per word.
What caught my attention, apart from the obvious mastery Arundhati unfolds in front of the listener when she carefully bends her voice through the parithaaaapammmm, is that 1) this padam is sometimes referred to as jalaja bandhu which is the second line—not the first one, and then 2) the little, almost non-existent background music allowing Arundathi’s pitch bends to bend my body and finally 3) the juxtaposition of the female and male voice, implying by convention a dialogue, an expectation which the composition turns on its head.
I imagine this padam would be how a usually restrained ‘good person’ would express their pining. Where the ‘good’ part pulls them back towards stasis but desire trumps all resistance. The padam starts with a familiar term, alar-sara, referring to the flower-arrow, a common object that appears variously as kaama-baanam or poo-ampu in texts. The word used is alar, while it could have been malar which means the same thing. Maybe the padam looks better when it starts with the first letter of the script. Parithapam is defined as sadness and heat. Thaapam is heat. Thapikkuka is to grieve, usually in the sense of grieving after someone. Think about the line vasantholsavathilum, greeshmathapathilum, peythozhiyum varsha sangharshanathilum which is a mini-ritusamhara. Greeshma-aathapathilum is in the heat of the summer. Thapikkuka is also to undergo pain and suffering, one mode of which is to undergo suffering as a way of propitiating someone.
Her friend is called an aliveni which is a composite word referring to both ali (a word that will be repeated) and veni, where ali refers to a bee, especially the black coloured one. Veni referes to hair that is tied up, but could also refer to flow. Now we know that Changampuzha wrote in Manaswini that the eyebrows of his lover looks like lines made of black bees on her forehead. Well, the terms used are pretty, though considerable leeway is required if you visualise the metaphor.
Then comes the
പരിതാപം
ദുഃഖം, സങ്കടം
ചൂടു്
അളി
വണ്ടു്
മദ്യം
തേൾ
കൂട്ടം
വേണി(നി)
തലമുടി, കെട്ടിയ തലമുടി
ചിന്താവിശേഷത്തെ സൂചിപ്പിക്കുന്നതു എന്നർത്ഥം.
ഇരുപ്പിരിയൻ മുടി
ദേവതാളി
വെള്ളക്കൂട്ടം
ഒഴുക്കു
കൃഷ്ണവേണി, കൃഷ്ണാനദി
ഒരു വൃത്തത്തിന്റെ പേർ
പണി
വേല
പ്രവൃത്തി
ഉദ്യോഗം
കൗശലം
കാര്യം
ഉപായം
പ്രയാസം
ജീവനം
ദുഃഖം
പ്രയോജനം
അവസ്ഥ
നടപ്പു്
തരം
(ഒരു സംസ്കൃതപ്രത്യയം)
സാമാന്യത്തിൽ കുറച്ചു കൂടുതൽ എന്നർത്ഥം. ഉദാ:പ്രിയതരം. ഇതിലും കൂടുതലിനു് ‘പ്രിയതമം’ എന്നു പറയും.
ബത
ഇതിനെ ആമന്ത്രണത്തിലും
വേദത്തിലും
സന്തോഷത്തിലും
അനുക്രോശത്തിലും
വിസ്മയത്തിലും പ്രയോഗിക്കാം
വിവശ
വിശേഷണം:
പരവശതയുള്ള
സുഖക്കേടുള്ള
സ്വാധീനമില്ലാത്ത
ഹൃദ്യ
വിശേഷണം:
മനസ്സിൽ സന്തോഷമുണ്ടാക്കുന്ന, പ്രിയമുള്ള
നല്ല
ഹൃദയത്തിനെ സംബന്ധിച്ച
കളമൊഴി
മധുരമുള്ള വാക്കു്
മധുരവാക്കുള്ള സ്ത്രീ