In this episode, we listen to the heartfelt words of a man in love, as portrayed in Sangam Literary work, Aganaanooru 140, penned by Ammoovanaar. The verse is situated amidst the salt pans of the ‘Neythal’ or ‘Coastal Landscape’ and reveals fascinating aspects of commerce in the Sangam era.



பெருங் கடல் வேட்டத்துச் சிறுகுடிப் பரதவர்இருங் கழிச் செறுவின் உழாஅது செய்தவெண் கல் உப்பின் கொள்ளை சாற்றி,என்றூழ் விடர குன்றம் போகும்கதழ் கோல் உமணர் காதல் மடமகள்சில் கோல் எல் வளை தெளிர்ப்ப வீசி,‘நெல்லின் நேரே வெண் கல் உப்பு’ எனச்சேரி விலைமாறு கூறலின், மனையவிளி அறி ஞமலி குரைப்ப, வெரீஇயமதர் கயல் மலைப்பின் அன்ன கண் எமக்கு,இதை முயல் புனவன் புகைநிழல் கடுக்கும்மா மூதள்ளல் அழுந்திய சாகாட்டுஎவ்வம் தீர வாங்கும் தந்தைகை பூண் பகட்டின் வருந்தி,வெய்ய உயிர்க்கும் நோய் ஆகின்றே.
In this quick trip to the seas, we get to travel with traders, as we listen to the man say these words to his friend, in response to the friend’s rebuke about the man’s unbalanced behaviour:
“Fisherfolk of the small hamlet, who hunt in the huge seas, harvest white salt, without ploughing the fields of the dark marshland. Announcing the price of this produce, these salt merchants, wielding a goad to speed, traverse peaks, split apart by the sun’s heat. Their naive and loving daughter, shouts out, ‘White salt for paddy in the same measure’, even as her few, shining bangles tinkle, relaying the exchange price in that village. A dog residing in a home, hearing that strange voice starts barking aloud. Startled, as her beautiful eyes quiver, akin to two fighting fish, they attack me with an affliction, which makes me sigh endlessly, akin to that bullock, held in reins, by her father, as he goads it to pull out the wheel lodged in a ditch, filled with aged, black slush, in the hue of smoke rising, when a mountain farmer slashes and burns to render the land arable!”
Time to travel from the seas to the hills along with a caravan of salt merchants! The man starts by talking about a group of fishermen, who live by the sea, and their ways of not ploughing the land like the farmers in the fields, and yet being able to harvest something valuable, namely salt. Heaping these sacks of salt, they take on the long journey from the seas to hilly regions. The thing I most admire about these salt merchants is that they take their families along and include them in their trade. In this instance, it’s the salt merchant’s daughter, who is announcing the exchange rate of salt and paddy in a hamlet. In one of those houses, a dog on the watch out, hears this strange voice and starts barking. The young girl is startled by those furious barks and her eyes tremble with fear. The man recounts all this and concludes by informing his friend, when those eyes of the lady leaped about like fighting fish, it became a source of a painful affliction in him, something which makes the man sigh aloud, much like the bullock, which is goaded to pull out a wheel, stuck in the black mud, akin to the smoke raised by slash-and-burn mountain farmers, by that salt-selling girl’s father!
In essence, the man is telling his friend that his heart too is stuck like that wheel in the mud and indirectly requests his friend to quit scolding him and start helping him, just the way we have seen the lady’s confidante help the lady many a time. Apart from the relatable bitter-sweet feeling of falling in love that this man so vividly explains with a single scene, elements that excite those who study cultures also abound in this verse. In mentioning not only the salt merchants, their travel for trade, barter specifics, challenges faced but also the mountain farmers and their ancient techniques to tame the land, the verse transports us to the past and acquaints us with the work and life of two different professionals from two varied landscapes in the Sangam era!

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