206. Beware of love! One of the most entertaining aspects of reading the Kurunthokai is realizing how some ideas have travelled almost virtually unchanged over the centuries. 'இந்த பொண்ணுங்களே இப்படி தான், நம்பாதீங்க' is one of them. When the hero's friend chides him for his lovesickness, the hero blames the heroine: she is very sweet, so sweet that she causes him unbearable torment, drives him nuts, by just existing! He can't help it, he was unwise enough to get mixed up in this situation. If you are any wiser, he tells his friend, don't fall in love. Beware of the charms of women! While the poem's most poetic moment lies in that sweetest of women turning into a cold-blooded tormentor, I can't help but read more into it. This is not a route a traditional commentator would take, so pleasd excuse my indulgence. The idea of Woman as a temptress, a siren, who toys with men and 'distracts' them from their duties is a fairly dominant idea in our cultural history. Even the sweetest and gentlest women, in all their Madonna-glory, is still suspect. This is because love, desire, is magical; it can't be controlled. One needs to bow down to it. In Man's view, Woman becomes the symbol of his own love, his own desire. In this poem, the heroine is held responsible for the hero's pangs of love. The hero informs his friend that he was unwise to fall in love; wise people would be more careful. These are ideas that are repeated today, ideas that our modern society recognizes as being inherently misogynistic. Measuring this poem with today's gender-equality yardstick would of course be foolish. Secondly, this is an agam poem that probes the affairs of the heart. It is not like love's elephant-charge can be stopped by the feeble doors of ideas such as these. The 'wise' friend would go on to fall in love. Perhaps there lies the eternal wisdom of the agam poet. #ThinaiKurinji #AiyoorMudavanar #Thalaivankootru #Kurunthokai