Compiled by London Swaminathan
Post No. 1237; Dated:16th August 2014.
“On umbrella morals” was an English essay written by A G Gardiner. The contents and the style were very good. It was part of my graduate studies thirty years back. When I remembered it, I thought of writing (actually compiling) “On Sugarcane Morals” from Indian literature.
Sugarcane is used by Indian poets to teach several morals. Naaladiyar and Tirukkural are Tamil books of ethical teaching. In the Naladiyar we have 400 verses composed by various poets.
One poet used the sugarcane as a simile to stress the importance of virtues. He says, “having obtained a human body so difficult to attain, act so as to procure great merit by it; for in the next birth, charity will greatly help you just as the juice of sugarcane, while your body will decay like the refuse of that cane.”
Picture of sugar cane plantation
When another poet heard it, he immediately composed another verse using the same sugarcane analogy, “those who have pressed the sugarcane and extracted the jiggery (coarse brown sugar) from it in time will not repent when the refuse rises in burning flames; so will those, who have with much exertion secured the benefits of the body not grieve at the approach of death”.
Under the chapter on Education, another poet used sugarcane to illustrate the benefit of having educated friends: “ The friendship of the learned is like eating the sugarcane from the top (downwards) and the attachment of those who are devoid of any good qualities is like eating it from the root (upwards)”.
Picture of Sugar cane Juice Machine
Sugarcane is compared with the good people undergoing great difficulties. When one bites a sugar cane or otherwise extracts its juice by pressing or beating it so as to break its joints, it will be still sweet to the taste. In like manner though people should abuse harmfully, the high born will never speak anything that will affect the guilty person.
To illustrate perseverance is good, one of the poets of Naladiyar says, “the hair like flower of the sugarcane is devoid of any fragrance; even so, what will be the good of being born in a highly and lofty family, if there be not that perseverance which can carve out a name for its possessor.
In the chapter on Choice of Friendship
A poet says, “Friendship with the wise whose intelligence divines our thoughts, is like eating the sugarcane from the top; but connection with people devoid of good disposition is like eating it from the opposite end, the root.
A Chinese proverb says, “You can’t expect both ends of a sugarcane are as sweet”.
Jaggery (coarse sugar) shop
Tiruvalluvar’s use of sugarcane simile
Unlike the poets of Naladiyar, Valluvar used the sugarcane with a negative connotation. He says, “At a mere word the good will melt; but the mean, like the sugarcane, yield only under pressure (Kural 1078)
Iksu, the generic name for sugarcane, is first found in the Atharvaveda 1-34-5 and the later Samhitas. Ikshvaku occurs in the Rig Veda 10-60-4
Extracting sugar cane juice
((I have already written a research paper on Sugarcane Dynasty (Ikshvaku Vamsa) of ancient India. I have mentioned there that Indians invented the method of making sugar. Sugar was also found in Indus valley civilization. A Tamil poetess praised a Tamil king for introducing sugarcane. Probably he also belonged to the Ikshvaku vamsa or he introduced it to Tamils. Please read the full details in my article)).
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Jaggery blocks
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