Abhanga 4454
When a household stops honoring its elders, the disorder does not stay private, it spills into public view and turns into shame and mockery.
The verse
बाईंल चालिली माहेरा । संगें दिधला म्हातारा ॥१॥
सिधा सामग्री पोटाची । सवें स्वारी बइलाची ॥ध्रु.॥
जाता पाडिली ढोरानें । सिव्या देती अन्योविन्ये ॥२॥
न सावरी आपणातें । नग्न सावलें वरतें ॥३॥
फजित केलें जनलोकीं । मेला म्हणे पडे नरकीं ॥४॥
गोहाची हे गेली लाज । गांजितां कां तुम्ही मज ॥५॥
तुका म्हणे जनीं । छी थू केली विटंबणी ॥६॥
Literal translation
Bāila-went-to-māhēra — old-husband-given-along. Siddhā-sāmagrī-pōṭa — svārī-of-bullock-along. Going-knocked-down-by-cattle — curses-aspersions. Doesn't-control-self — naked-shadow-above. Fajita-in-public — dying-falls-in-naraka. Gōha-lāja-gone — why-do-you-torment-me. Tukā: in-jana — chī-thū-vitambaṇī.
What it means
A 6-verse dark-narrative — a comic-pathos vignette of a household scene gone-bad. The wife went to her mother's house — (her) old husband was given along as company. She carried the food-supplies — along came the riding-bullock. Going, (he) was knocked-down by the cattle — curses and meaningless-jeers. He cannot recover himself — naked, the shadow-fell from above. The public made a mockery — saying when-he-dies he falls in hell. The family's honor has gone — why do you torment me? Tukā says: in the world — they made spitting-mockery. The reading: this is among-Tukārām's-bitter anti-bad-wife / anti-disrespect-of-elder narratives — a hard-realist sketch of family-disorder. Contextualize: balance against respect-for-mother-and-sant-women elsewhere (2896 mother-father=Kāśī; 2810 includes Janī/Mīrā). Companion to 2966-2967 anti-bad-wife cluster.
For someone today
This is a hard, almost darkly comic story about a household coming apart. A wife heads off to her parents' home and takes her elderly husband along, loaded with supplies and set on a bullock like extra baggage rather than a person. On the way he is knocked down by cattle, cursed at, humiliated, and the public mocks him, saying he'll fall into hell when he dies. Tukārām doesn't soften the scene, he says plainly that the family's honor is gone and the world turned it into public spitting mockery. The warning is that when respect breaks down inside a household, especially toward an elder, it doesn't stay a private matter, it becomes shame that everyone can see.
मराठी: ही एक कठोर, जवळजवळ उपरोधिक अशी कथा आहे कुटुंब कसे विस्कळीत होते याची. एक बायको माहेरी निघते आणि आपल्या म्हाताऱ्या नवऱ्याला बरोबर घेते, त्याच्यावर सामानाचे ओझे लादते आणि त्याला बैलावर बसवते, जणू तो माणूस नसून सामानच आहे. वाटेत त्याला ढोरांनी पाडतो, त्याला शिव्या मिळतात, अपमान होतो, आणि लोक त्याची थट्टा करतात, म्हणतात मेल्यावर तो नरकातच जाईल. तुकाराम हे दृश्य मृदू करत नाहीत, ते स्पष्ट सांगतात की कुटुंबाची अब्रू गेली आणि जगाने त्याची भर रस्त्यात नाचक्की केली. यातून इशारा असा की घरातील आदर, विशेषतः वडीलधाऱ्यांप्रती, ढासळला की तो खाजगी राहत नाही, तो साऱ्या जगासमोरची लाज बनतो.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's dark-narrative of household-disorder + public-mockery canonical (contextualize)