The World Was Only Darker Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon
The World Was Only Darker
They ordered,
Come along, Madame Hester,
Show your Scarlet Letter
In the market place.*
The world was only darker
For this woman's beauty,
The more lost for the infant
That she had borne.*
Has Hester sinned alone? *
She was just a sadhanam**
As if her name too was Tatrikkutty**.
The Smarthan** always is a man
Whether in Massachusetts or Thrissur.
The heroine of the novel, Hester Prynne is a real life character lived in the US towards the end of the Seventeenth Century, long before the novel was published. The court, under the existing English law, ordered her to wear for life, a badge with the letter "A" (A for adulterous)in scarlet colour, apart from a prison term, as punishment for her crime of adultery. In spite of the perpetual shame, she held her head high, lived by the sweat of her forehead and reared her daughter as a noble citizen. She effectively withstood all pressures to divulge the name of the father of her child.
The novelist provokes a new stream of thought by posing a very pertinent question before the society: Has Hester sinned alone?
**Here, the reference is to famous Malayalam novel "Bhrasht" by Maatambu Kunhikkuttan. The Malayalam word ‘bhrasht' means Excommunication. Here too the story is the reproduction of the real life incidents of Kuriyedath Tatri alias Tatrikkutty.
Tatrikkutty was also a real life character lived in Thrissur, Kerala, India during late 19th century/early 20th century.
In those days, in Namboodiri (Kerala Brahmin)families, only the eldest male sibling could marry from the community. His younger brothers (who were referred to as Apphans- അപ്ഫൻ)could not marry at all. They could have only ‘relationships' (sambandham)with women of ‘lower' communities. Needless to say, this led to a heavy shortage of men eligible for marriage in the community and marriage outside the community was taboo. So, eligible men ended up marrying many women and even very young girls were married to nonagenarian grooms. Many Namboodiri girls were widowed at the age of ten or twelve. Remarriages of widows were again, taboo.
Tatrikkutty, who had become very famous for her beauty at a very young age, fell in love with an Apphan. Although against the rules, the marriage was permitted. The elder brother of the groom had put some conditions for the marriage, which Tatrikkutty was not aware. On the first night, she was raped by the elder brother of her husband, may be with the consent of her consent. Now she decides to avenge the crime perpetrated on her. She lures many men of high repute, of her community and also of others, to her trap.
Later, when she was tried for adultery, she could produce evidence against as many as sixty five men of eminence, before the communal court. All of them were excommunicated along with her. Even the Samoothiri King of Kozhikode was under suspicion.
Glossary
The references here are to the Malayalam novel Bhrasht.
1. Saadhanam (Malayalam) = ‘thing', an object. Nothing more than an object. Not an individual. The woman being tried for adultery in the Namboodiri ‘Communal Courts' of 19th century Kerala, was referred to as ‘saadhanam'.
2. Tatrikkutty- The heroine of the novel Bhrasht. The name is the colloquial form of ‘Savitri Kutty'.
The name Savitri alludes to the heroine of a famous (or infamous)story narrated in Mahabharata. Savitri marries young prince Satyawan fully aware that he is to die within a year. By sheer penance and persuasion, she forces Yama the God of Death to give back life and the kingdom to Satyawan. A remarkable story to eulogise ‘pativratyam'-devotion of a woman to her husband. The contradiction here is that there was no principle of ‘patneevratyam'-devotion to one's wife. The much touted Rama of Ramayana does not hesitate to subject his wife to agnipareeksha-test by fire, and in spite of her coming out successful, she is discarded in the forest, later.
The contrast in the charactisation of Savitri of Mahabharata and Tatrikkutty of Bhrasht may be noted.
3. Smarthan= the ‘prosecutor' in the Namboodiri ‘Communal Courts' of the yore.
Has Hester sinned alone? A pertinent question.In every adulterous relationship, there is involvement of both a man and a woman.But the woman is always blamed and subjected to punishment and ostracisation
Hi Bharati, The question is quite pertinent. The systems have decayed to a state what you have stated. But the old days were different. In the case of Hester, the father of her child was spared only because she refused to divulge his identity. In the case of Tatri, sixty five men of eminence against whom adultery was proved, were excommunicated with her. This included Gopalamenon, father of Tamil film hero of the yore, MGR.
A very literate poem! ! ! I enjoyed tremendously. Do more PLEASE! ! ! ! ! !
The judge who indicts a woman for adultery is always man, both at Thrissur and Massachusetts. Every society is chauvinist.
Please read "Sarlet Letter" because I would love to think that humanity, human history can be divided into "Before Scarlet Letter" and After that
The novel "Bhrasht" has been translated into English and many other languages. So, May I exhort my readers to go for bothe novels. Please read.
It's little wonder a man aged 90-99 wouldn't survive long married to a preteen. Ok, so the 'rules' were NOT always followed in 'those days' either. : ) bri
I didn't care much for the poem, but I 'LOVED' all of your Poet's Notes. THANKS! I read The Scarlet Letter MANY YEARS AGO, thinking it had to do with the colors of the alpahbet; boy, was I fooled! ! ! : )
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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8/7/2025 4:07:58 AM # 1.0.0
Very powerfully written, heart felt! .. Throughout notes too! .. Thank you ever so much for sharing! .. Ever so many 10S! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +++++
Thank you Becca for the insightful comment. Though centuries apart, we find that women were meted out the same treatment by the society, by law, by the authorities. This is what provoked the poem.