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YELADUMBAN : AN ANCIENT IRULA BALLAD IN TRANSLATION

Translated by Sujatha
Vijayaraghavan
Dept. of English
Pondicherry University
Pondicherry 605014
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The Irulas, an ancient tribe, living in Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu among the many
places of their inhabitation, have several ballads of which five are extant. These ballads
are part of their oratures which include tales, riddles and songs to be sung on various
occasions such as birth, marriage and death. Usually the ballads of this tribe are referred
to by the name of the central character as indeed it happens in the case of all folk and
tribal ballads and songs. This is so because these oratures do not have a printed version
for reference and as such no particular title is given to the text. Oratures are fluid literary
texts that are archived in the collective socio-cultural life and memory of the people who
create them, about whom these texts are and who keep them alive through recall and
repetition. In fact it is when these ballads or short epics, as they often are, come into print
that they are given a title. Otherwise the singers may simply refer to them as the song of
Yeladumban or the song of Jogi Nandamma and so on. The ballad of Yeladumban is sung
by the women of the Karattiya Irula tribe when they work in the forests and fields.
Usually a good singer leads and is followed by the others. Oral ballads such as these are
really the epics of the tribe, for they enshrine the ways in which the tribe sees itself and
aspires to define itself. In fact the singing of every ballad is a communal activity. I have
used the word ‘ballad’ opting for a term that is descriptive of its poetic structure of choric
repetition and story telling. These ballads are detailed and repetitive in parts and rapid
and sketchy in others, leaving room for alternative readings as well as improvisation on
the part of the singer.
Yeldumban, a young man is persuaded to go to the mountains and bring back the
mythical pearl of the Yela mountain. He is reluctant to leave behind his simple-hearted
wife who is pregnant. He cautions his mother not to bid the girl difficult chores such as
fetching water from the river in heavy pots. It would take him one month to go up the
mountains and another to get back. He leaves hoping to return and welcome his son or
daughter. Soon after his departure, his mother gives small pots to her two daughters and a
large one to the daughter-in-law and sends them to the river. Then while the girls fetch
water to fill the containers at home, the mother-in-law catches a poisonous snake and
drops it into a pot, hiding it beneath leaves. The daughter-in-law is then made to grind the
millet and cook gruel and mashed lentils for their meal. Exhausted, while the girl rests,
the mother-in-law cooks the snake and serves it to her. When she succumbs to the poison,
the family buries her in the vegetable garden cultivated by the son. On his return
Yeladumaban asks for his wife and not getting a reply from his family searches for her. A
long strand of his dead wife’s beautiful hair near the brinjal patch helps him unravel the
mystery. He kills his murderous parents and sisters in his rage. Taking out the body of his
wife he hugs it and cries inconsolably. Then burying her he plants an arrow above the
spot signifying her heart and flinging himself upon it, kills himself. The following is my
translation of a version of the ballad. The listener and the singer of folk and tribal ballads
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already know the text. So many seeming gaps are really those points of the narrative that
are taken for granted. Links and sequences have to be imaginatively supplemented by the
listener and here the reader. For example, in the opening lines it is the voice of the young
wife calling out to Yeladumban’s mother for no apparent reason than to introduce her
first in the song and also indicate her helpless sorrow at the imminent departure of her
husband, followed by the son’s voice echoing concern for his wife. There are other
passages where transition takes place spontaneously. I have not altered these portions of
the ballad. Respecting the text’s cultural identity I have not coerced the oral text into print
final version at the expense of its fluidity.

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O aunt O aunt O Yeladumba

O aunt O aunt O Yeladumba
Mother O mother O Yeladumba
My wife then is O Yeladumba
Six months pregnant O Yeladumba
For the Yela mountain pearl O Yeladumba
To get the pearl must I go O Yeladumba
My wife then O Yeladumba
Don’t bid her any work to do O Yeladumba
Let her be with them O Yeladumba
The two sisters O Yeladumba
Let her rest O Yeladumba
You must bid her no work O Yeladumba
Don’t bid her fetch water O Yeladumba
Pregnant she is O Yeladumba
For the Yela mountain pearl O Yeladumba
A boy if born shall I want him O Yeladumba
A girl if born shall I want her O Yeladumba
Now do I then O Yeladumba
Do I go there O Yeladumba
To return here a month O Yeladumba
To reach there a month O Yeladumba
I shall go and return O Yeladumba
See if he has left that son of mine O Yeladumba
We want the pearl whether a boy would be born O Yeladumba
We want the pearl whether a girl would be born O Yeladumba
To the woods of Yela mountain O Yeladumba
My son has gone O Yeladumba
O daughter O daughter O Yeladumba
Bring the water pot O Yeladumba
The huge pot O Yeladumba
Must go to fetch water O Yeladumba
To your sister-in-law give the huge pot O Yeladumba
You take the water pot O Yeladumba
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I shall take a huge pot O Yeladumba

Carrying the huge pot did they go O Yeladumba
With great difficulty fetching water O Yeladumba
The huge water pot brought she O Yeladumba
The female of the cobra taking O Yeladumba
Catching it dropped into the huge water pot O Yeladumba
With great difficulty fetching water O Yeladumba
Into four containers pouring O Yeladumba
Than into the small water pot O Yeladumba
Breaking branches and dropping into it O Yeladumba
The water is murky O Yeladumba
Everyone lifted the pots O Yeladumba
The water then O Yeladumba
The brother’s wife lifted O Yeladumba
Did they fetch water O Yeladumba
Fetching water in the small pot O Yeladumba
Returning put the water down O Yeladumba
Millet two measures roasting and grinding O Yeladumba
Roasting and pouring on the winnowing fan O Yeladumba
The one with two lives O Yeladumba
Did pound and grind O Yeladumba
Ground and got it ready O Yeladumba
Made thick gruel and mashed lentils O Yeladumba
Near the grinding stone O Yeladumba
The one with two lives O Yeladumba
Saying she felt faint O Yeladumba
Near the millet grinding-stone lay O Yeladumba
The eyes drew up O Yeladumba
The mashed lentils and thick gruel O Yeladumba
They ate it all up O Yeladumba
The snake inside the huge water pot O Yeladumba
Was roasted in the fire and chopped O Yeladumba
Spiced with chilly boiled O Yeladumba
The food that was cooked O Yeladumba
Others ate it all up O Yeladumba
A ladle of gruel serving O Yeladumba
Pouring the snake soup on it O Yeladumba
Pouring on it O Yeladumba
Eat my girl sitting in a corner O Yeladumba
The girl ate the gruel O Yeladumba
O aunt what soup is this O aunt O Yeladumba
The soup of meat your father-in-law brought O Yeladumba
That is nothing at all eat my girl O Yeladumba
One with two lives was she not O Yeladumba
Ate she and drank too O Yeladumba
The girl feels giddy O aunt O Yeladumba
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The bean sprout you planted O Yeladumba

My head spins O aunt O Yeladumba
The brinjal sprout you planted O Yeladumba
Lie down well and sleep girl O Yeladumba
The giddiness will go away O Yeladumba
The chilly sprout you planted O Yeladumba
Lie down well and sleep girl O Yeladumba
In no manner can I sleep O Yeladumba
At the roots at the brinjal patch O Yeladumba
With hair two yards long O Yeladumba
Shaking and spreading O Yeladumba
Her head reeling fell she O Yeladumba
The girl was gone in death O Yeladumba
Does he come my son O Yeladumba
To Yela mountain for the pearl who went O Yeladumba
Running does he come to see O Yeladumba
Where is she O mother O Yeladumba
Somewhere she must be then O Yeladumba
After that O Yeladumba
Weeping he is O Yeladumba
In some house must she be O Yeladumba
The water pot is there O Yeladumba
He looked around O Yeladumba
My wife alone is nowhere O Yeladumba
Mother and father there are O Yeladumba
The younger sisters there are O Yeladumba
Nowhere could my wife have gone O Yeladumba
Brinjal garden chilly garden O Yeladumba
When looking everywhere O Yeladumba
A hair twelve cubits long O Yeladumba
The one with two lives O Yeladumba
O mother lies my wife O Yeladumba
On the chest he beats himself O Yeladumba
Then coming running O Yeladumba
Then looked he about O Yeladumba
While looking for her O Yeladumba
They looked with the eyes of a thief O Yeladumba
Such was his anger O Yeladumba
Then each one of them O Yeladumba
Taking the arrow he aimed O Yeladumba
He split them into two O Yeladumba
In the four corners O Yeladumba
He hung green festoons O Yeladumba
Then he came running O Yeladumba
Brinjal patch chilly patch O Yeladumba
You are born of a swan O Yeladumba
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With a face of an infant O Yeladumba

Falling down O Yeladumba
Saying this he hugged her and cried O Yeladumba
He covered the pit with soil O Yeladumba
On the heart above the pit an arrow planted O Yeladumba
Above the pit an arrow planted O Yeladumba
What shall I do staying here O Yeladumba
He fell upon the arrow O Yeladumba
The story ends O Yeladumba

Ballad Concludes