"You have eyes. So, you are able to sense that I was not seen for a long time. If you didn't have eyes, you wouldn't have sensed this" said the bard.
"I don't have the intelligence to decipher your cryptic reply. The fact remains that you didn't visit the King's court, since the present king took over, after his father passed away!"
The bard closed his eyes for a moment and said, "True, Minister. When I heard you refer to our late king, my eyes closed on their own for a while. Tears welled up from inside my eyes. What a noble soul was he! He was visually handicapped, but his eyes brimmed with so much compassion as to qualify him to be called the embodiment of compassion" said the bard.
"You are implying that in contrast, the present king, though blessed with the facility of vision, is bereft of the virtue of compassion so essential for a king, aren't you?" asked the Minister, smiling.
"You are putting words into my mouth, my friend! I never implied such an opinion. Do you want to make me a victim of the king's displeasure?" said the bard, also smiling, even while pretending to have been scared.
"Have no fears, my friend! Only we two are here. We, being friends, can converse freely, sharing our inner thoughts with each other. There is no one here to carry our views to the king's ears" said the Minister.
"What you say is true. Yet, the fact remains that you are the powerful Minister and I am a poor poet. I can't risk taking the liberty of speaking my mind."
"But a poet can convey a message in a subtle way through a well-crafted poem. Many poets have done this."
"How is it going to help? If a compose a poem with a subtle message that the king lacks compassion and recite it before the king, will he reform himself and embrace the quality of compassion? It is not uncommon for the son to not inherit the virtue of his father. Dhritarashtra had the quality of compassion. But his son Duryodhana didn't have even an iota of compassion" said the bard.
"I am unable to agree with your view that Dhritarashtra had compassion in him. Even after knowing that his son Duryodhana had planned to kill the Pandavas by making them stay in a house of wax and setting fire to it, he didn't do anything to stop the plot. On the other hand, he sent the Pandavas there. If he had mercy, would he have done so?"
"Oh! I will modify my statement and say that Dhritarashtra had more compassion than his son Duryodhana!"
"Okay. This is more acceptable, at least less unacceptable!" said the Minister.
"Our conversation about Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana has triggered in me an idea for a poem" said the Bard, feeling excited.
"That is wonderful. Since I have also played a role in triggering your idea, by talking to you on this topic, I expect you to share with me, the prize money the king will reward for this poem!" said the Minister, jokingly.
"I don't mind. But what if the king feels offended by my poem and rewards me with whiplashes?"
"In that case, you can have them all for yourself! I won't mind. By the way, can you share with me the theme of your poem?"
"I will give you an outline of the poem to you."
"I am all ears" said the Minister.
"When we were discussing Dhritarastra and Duryodhana, a thought struck me. Compassion is a natural attribute of the eye. When the eyes see someone suffering, they are filled with compassion. This is what should happen naturally. So, logically, if one has eyes, one will have compassion. If a man has no compassion, we will consider him a person lacking the ability to see. But, sometimes, the reality is different.
"Dhritarashtra, who was not blessed with the facility of vision, had more compassion than his son Duryodhana, who was born with the facility of vision. This is the Mahabharata story.
"In Ramayana, the other great epic of our country, there is a story of Shravana Kumara. who took great care of his parents, both of whom were visually handicapped, by carrying them on his shoulders and providing for their needs.
"Once, when he was filling water in a pot from a river, mistaking the sound of water being filled in the pot as the sound of an elephant drinking water, Dasaratha, the king of Ayodhya, who was hunting in the forest, sent an arrow in the direction of the sound, which hit Shravana Kumara.
"Dasaratha realized his mistake when he went near the spot and apologized to Shravana Kumara. Shravana Kumara, who was dying, forgave him, but requested him to take the water to his visually handicapped parents, who were thirsty.
When Dasaratha went to Shravana Kumara's parents and apologized to them, Shravana Kumara's father Santanu cursed Dasarata that he would suffer the pain of separation from his son, the same way Santanu and his wife did.
"If we consider the father-son pairs in the above two stories, Dhritarashtra, who didn't have eyesight, had more compassion than his son, blessed with eyesight. Sravana Kumara, blessed with eyesight, was more compassionate than his father, not blessed with eyesight.
"In our country, the deceased king, who had no eyesight had more compassion than the present king blessed with eyesight. However, it is said that compassion is an attribute, delivered through the eyes. This is the theme of my poem. How do you find the theme?"
"The theme of the poem is excellent. But how are you going to present the poem with this theme to the king?" asked the Minister, showing his concern.
"After all I am going to tell the truth. Why should I be afraid? Anyway, I am not belittling the king in any manner. I am only saying that the father of the present king had more compassion than the present king. So, the king won't feel offended" said the bard.
The minister didn't say anything, his silence reflecting his concern.
"I was worried that your poem might make the king feel offended. But you have written a poem with a distorted meaning and got rewarded by the king!" the Minister told the bard, his tone expressing his anger and disappointment.
"I didn't distort any fact" protested the bard.
"The theme of the poem you presented before the king was different from the theme you had outlined to me. The poem you read out before the king says that the present king has more compassion than his father had."
"That may be the apparent meaning of the poem, as understood by the king. But my poem carried the meaning that the king's father had more compassion than the king."
"How do you say that?" asked the Minister, perplexed.
"Did you wonder why I wrote the poem in Sanskrit, rather than in Tamil, the language spoken by you, me and the king?"
"Yes. I did wonder about it. But since it is well known that you are proficient in both the languages, I didn't attach much significance to your choosing to write the poem in Sanskrit."
"My friend! In Sanskrit, the word 'dhata' has two meanings. It can mean the son and also the father. In my poem, I used the word 'dhata' to refer to the father. But the Sanskrit scholars in the king's court, fearing that the king would be angered by the real meaning of the poem, chose the meaning 'son' to the word 'dhata' and interpreted the poem to give the meaning that the son had more compassion than the father, though they would have known that the structure of the poem would permit only the meaning 'father' to be chosen for the word 'dhata' used by me in the poem" said the Bard, laughing.
"You are not only a bilingual poet, but a master of double entendre as well" said the Minister, appreciatingly.
kannOttam inmaiyum il.
Verse 576
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