The cowries

It happened on the fateful night

Of the first new moon after her marriage;

The moon didn’t again wax for her.

While returning after worship

From the Siva temple in the village

Through the narrow and dark lane,

A cobra kissed on his right foot.

Neeli’s husband had hardly walked

Eight steps further thence.

He fell flat on his face

For a last kiss to Mother Earth.

The corpse clothed in white

was placed over the pyre.

Amid chanting vedic hymns

Fire was lit with religious rites.

The pendant hung around her neck

That sanctified matrimony

Had to be thrown into the pyre (1)

Who would ask Neeli? None dared.

But her father couldn’t leave tit there.

Mustering courage and clearing his throat

The old man did the job at last.

The tender pair of coconut flowers

Where yet to grow as shapely nuts

On the naked breast (2) of Neeli.

Her husband could arouse her curiosity;

But his fingers were yet to touch

The hidden strings of desire in her.

She was on the threshold of thirteen;

Of love her ideas were nebulus.

But of widows it was very clear.

She intimately knew many such women.

No cosmetics except holy ash,

No ornaments except tulasi beads,

A life to waste on penance and fasts.

She snatched the pendant off her neck

And threw into her father’s open palm.

With tearful eyes she exclaimed in sobs,

“Dad, you learned to spread cowries (3) for this!”

The slender tuft tied on the crest (4)

Of the shaven head of old man trembled;

The three horizontal lines of holy ashes

On his high forehead drenched in sweats.

Varahamihira never did again

Spread cowries on his mental chart.

His small bag lay in a corner

Of his once crowded drawing room.

A handful of triangular sea-shells

with a clear groove in the middle

Signed in silence inside the bag.

* * *

(1) Symbolic of Sati

(2) Keralities, both men and women, rarely covered their upper body in olden days.

(3) Astrologers in Kerala use cowries for their calculations and to find out the ascendancy of a planet.

(4) Unlike other Hindus, Keralities grow their tufts (sikhi) on the top centre of their heads.