Avvaiyar, a boy in a naaval tree, and the riddle of the roasted fruit.
FOLK AND ORAL TRADITION
Avvaiyar, in Tamil tradition the wisest of poets, was walking through the woods near Madurai, tired and thirsty. A cowherd boy was sitting in a naaval tree, the jamun, heavy with dark fruit.
He offered her some, and asked a question: would she like the fruit roasted, or unroasted?
She thought it a child's nonsense. No one roasts naaval fruit. She asked for it unroasted. The boy shook the branch, the fruit fell into the dust, and she picked it up and blew on it to clean it.
'Is it too hot?' the boy asked. And she saw what the question had meant all along, the dusty fruit she had blown on was the 'hot' one, and that a child had used her own language more cleverly than she had. When she looked up the branch was empty.
The place is remembered as the grove where the fruit fell, pazham, fruit; udir, to scatter; cholai, grove, Pazhamudircholai. It is a small story, and unusual among Murugan stories: nobody is defeated and nobody is married. A great poet is gently embarrassed, and learns something.
A REFLECTION IN OUR OWN WORDS
Even the wisest can be taught by a child with a good question.
WHERE THIS STORY COMES FROM
Folk and oral tradition
A widely told folk and temple story attached to Pazhamudircholai. The Avvaiyar of this story is the figure of tradition and should not be merged with the Sangam poet of the same name. No saying here is presented as her verified words.
Stories told widely, often attached to a place, with no single authoritative text behind them. The version here is one retelling among several.
Connected in this app
An original retelling in our own words. Devotional traditions keep different versions of many episodes.