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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00038 Nov 2003

 
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 WITNESS

Who is a witness? A person who has got first hand information about an 
happening or an event is a witness. A person who vouches for the identity or 
signature of a person is a witness. A person who stands testimony for an 
agreement or a contract or a fact or any other legal binding, is a witness. In 
case of any legal violation or accusation, the judiciary immediately looks for 
the statement of the witness. The fact that the witness has seen an event or 
heard a thing or is helpful in establishing a circumstantial evidence is also 
legally very helpful. These evidences provided by the witness, goes into the 
arguments by the arms of the justice through advocates, policemen and so on. 
and are largely responsible for establishing a true and fair trial of the case. 
Thus, when any dispute arises in the court of law, immediately the look out is 
for witness, the search for direct/indirect evidence from the witness and the 
sifting of these evidences in consonance of the rules of frameowrk of the law, 
justice and constitution of a particular nation leads in not only arriving at a 
reasonable administration of the law of the land but also natural justice.

This practice of legal system has been in vogue for centureis, why centuries 
even in earlier yugAs, in the royal dhurbArs, why dhurbArs, has been practice 
even as early as, in the times of great epics and silappadhigAram. The lack of 
proper analysis of evidence and non-consideration of an appropriate witness led 
to rank failure of justice and faiplay in the silappadhigAram. Such is the 
import and importance of witness. 

Have AzhwAr's relied upon any witness? Have they talked about witness? Yes, the 
list includes mArkaNdEya maharishi, beetle, arjunA, shivA and so on. What was 
the need for witness? Was there any dispute? Well! in case of mArkaNdEya 
maharishi, shivA and arjunA they were summoned to establish to the world the 
supremacy of Lord nArAyanA whereas the beetle had to establish the promise made 
by the Lord to AzhwAr.

First let us start with thirumangai AzhwAr - being parakAla nAyaki- longs for 
His arrival and calls for thirup pullAni Lord. It may be recalled that there 
was an allegation by AzhwAr that the Lord does not keep up His promise and He 
has imbibed this habit from his mate thiru anthaZhwAn. The question arises 
whether there was any witness for this promise?

"konguN vaNdE kariyAga vandhAn, kodiyEARku, mun
nangaL Esan namakkEA paNitha mozhi seidhilan,
mangainalvAi thozhudhum ezhu pOi avan mannum vUR,
pongu munnEr karaikkEa maNi vundhu pullANiyEA" 
periya thiru mozhi 8-3-4

kari = sAkshi= witness

parkAla nAyaki desires to visit thirup pullANi. Her thOzhi -friend- enquires 
what connexion she has got with the Lord of thirup pullANi, for which she 
explains that she and Lord had met there earlier. The thOzhi's suggestion is 
that they should go alongwith a person who is witness to that event. This 
pAsuram emerges. The beetle which drinks the honey is the only witness to this 
event. This beetle is from the garland of the Lord who is always submerged in 
this act of consuming honey, cannot comprehend the agony of AzhwAr and hence 
the question of the witness appearing in person is ruled out here. Hence, the 
words 'kodiyEARku' .Alas! the only witness is the beetle who will not come up 
as a witness is thiru mangai AzhwAr's which leads to my despair.

(to be continued)
vanamamalai padmanabhan









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