What Is Ponnivala?
What is The Legend of Ponnivala?
The Legend of Ponnivala is an ancient story from Kongunadu; a region in the South Indian territory of Tamilnadu. There, the people who tell the story know it as Annanmar Kathai, which means “The Elder Brothers’ Story.” The traditional title refers to the elder brothers, Ponnar and Shankar.
It really is the story of Ponnar and Shankar, their sister Tangal, and their parents and grandparents. It is a story that describes three generations of a farming family. It also tells part of the history of the Tamil people in the Kongu region. Because it is a story that is told rather than read, we refer to it as an “oral history.”
Dr. Beck first heard the story in 1965 while visiting a small village in Kongunadu. In remote villages, storytelling by singing bards is a popular form of entertainment, so she asked to hear a story. The bards chose to sing the Annanmar Kathai story, and she recorded it. Of course, it was a surprise to find out that it would take eighteen nights to hear the whole story!
From the recordings, and another telling, Dr. Beck was able to write the story down and then translate it from the original Tamil language into English. Because the story takes place near the Kaveri River, which is sometimes called “Ponni” by the locals, Dr. Beck felt it would be a good poetic idea to call the place where the legend takes place “Ponnivalanadu,” or “Ponnivala” for short. The whole tale thus became called The Legend of Ponnivala.
Dr. Beck later put a team of artists and animators together, and has created an animated series, a set of comic books, and even some children’s stories based on the story she recorded nearly fifty years ago.
What is the story?
The Legend of Ponnivala is a vast epic that covers nearly six hundred years of real history. But in the story itself, only three generations are needed to describe all of these ancient events. Those events took place from about one thousand to about five hundred years ago, so it’s a very old story (the story itself may be five hundred years old!). We have no way of knowing exactly how long the bards have been singing this story, because it was never written down in its ancient past…at least, not in a way that has survived.
It begins when the goddess Parvati creates nine farmers to cultivate the land. During a great drought, the eldest brother; Kolatta Gounder; goes to visit the Chola King to ask for work. His brothers follow soon after. But when he tries to protect his fields from animals, Kolatta accidentally kills some sacred cows. This angers the great god, Lord Shiva, who places a curse on the Ponnivala farmers that they will have no children for seven generations.
When they have grown old, Kolatta and his wife, Ariyanacci, pray for children. Lord Vishnu visits Shiva to ask him for a child. To keep his curse, Shiva instead places a magic baby under some stones in a field. Kolatta finds the boy, and they adopt him and name him Kunnutaiya (which means “found under a rock”). Kolatta and Ariyanacci die when Kunnutaiya is just five years old, and he is forced to find his way in the world.
Kunnutaiya grows up as a farm hand to some wealthy farmers in another area. He falls in love with their sister, Tamarai, but is unable to marry her. Vishnu arrives again and tells Kunnutaiya that he is actually a prince, and that they are able to be married after all. A strange wedding takes place in the forest, and the young couple return to Ponnivala to begin a new life. Unfortunately, Kunnutaiya’s uncles give him only a small piece of stony land to farm on. With some help from his neighbours, and a little magic, he is able to plant, and Kunnutaiya and Tamarai become wealthy and reclaim the throne of Ponnivala.
But Tamarai is sad, and wants to have children. Because of Lord Shiva’s curse, she is unable to do so. In fact, even the animals on their farm are without children. To solve this, she and Kunnutaiya travel to the gates of heaven to ask Shiva himself to remove the curse. After walking for twenty one years, and meditating for another twenty one years, she is finally granted the chance to make her request. Shiva honours her with the gift of three children, and provides some magic water with which to give this gift to all the people and creatures of Ponnivala.
When the children are born, the boys (Ponnar and Shankar) are taken into hiding by the goddess Celatta to protect them from Kunnutaiya’s uncles. Celatta raises them for five years, while Kunnutaiya and Tamarai are sent into exile once more for having no male heirs. When Celatta reveals the boys, however, they return to the palace. Ponnar and Shankar, along with their friend and bodyguard Shambuga, grow into strong leaders, while their sister Tangal becomes something like a guide for them, offering advice. When they become kings, however, things start to cause trouble. Shankar wants to get revenge on their clansmen for exiling their parents. He also makes a move that overthrows the powerful Chola King. Finally, they go on a hunt and capture a female parrot.
That parrot’s husband reports the capture of his wife to the forest princess Viratangal. There is a great battle between the farmers of Ponnivala and the hunters, who unleash their secret weapon: a giant boar named Komban! Although Komban kills all of the fighting dogs and soldiers of Ponnivala, the twin brothers press on until Komban himself is killed. Still they find they must face an army of hunters, only to discover that it is Lord Vishnu’s plan to bring all four of the magical children of Ponnivala home to Lord Shiva at just sixteen years of age.