At the heart of the Koboi Performances at Singapore Biennale 2016, was the offering of a mango to Lords Murugan and Ganesha while reciting a prayer addressed metonymically to Lord Murugan’s Vel (spear) –
HEROIC VEL,
RADIANT VEL,
VALIANT VEL THAT SET FREE IMPRISONED CELESTIAL BEINGS,
VIRTUOUS VEL,
VEL OF THE SACRED HAND,
VEL THAT PLUNGED THE OCEANS DEEP,
REGAL VEL,
VEL THAT PIERCED SURAN’S BREAST AND HILL,
THE SOLE REFUGE.
veera vel
thaarai vel
vinnohr siraimeetta theera vel
sev vel
thirukkai vel
vaari kullittha vel
kottravel
soor marpum kunrum thullaittha vel
onreh thunai
வீர வேல்
தாரை வேல்
விண்ணோர் சிறைமீட்ட தீர வேல்
செவ் வேல்
திருக்கை வேல்
வாரி குளித்த வேல்
கொற்ரவேல்
சூர் மார்பும் குண்றும் துளைத்த வேல்
ஒன்றே துணை
The mango was then offered to the image of Thalaivar Rajinikanth and a small portion was served to one member of the audience.
Once upon a time, an eternity ago, in their heavenly abode on Mount Kailash, Lord Shiva, Mother Parvathy and their children Ganesha and Muruga were all together in a moment of family bliss. The Sage Naradha, who is notorious in Hindu mythology, for creating dissension among the Gods, paid them a visit. Holding a mango in his hand, Naradha addressed the boys, “Lord Ganesha, Lord Muruga, this is the mango of knowledge or enlightenment (nyanam) . It is sweeter than amirtham or the divine nectar, elixir of immortality. It must not, however, be shared or divided. It must be consumed whole, by one person of course!” Shiva and Parvathy were perturbed by this divisiveness, but nevertheless Lord Shiva set the boys a challenge, “This mango, this Nyana Pazaham (fruit of enlightenment), goes to the person who is the fastest in circumnavigating the world.”
The mango also appears in an episode in the Oriya poet Sarala’s rendition of the Mahabaratha where, the now mature and more worldly, Lord Krishna performs a miracle with the fruit. He materializes a ripe mango from a seed, while the fruit is out of season and then, turns it to ashes, thereby revealing both the illusory nature of reality (maya) and the complexities that underlie the idea of truth (satyam) itself.
In the myth of Krishna and the fruit seller, an old hawker woman selflessly satisfies the god child’s desire for her ripe and aromatic produce, even though he seems to offer her practically nothing in return. In folk representations of this allegory of desire (kama) and devotion (bakthi), such as the terracotta icon described above, the sublime mango often stands, metonymically, for the cornucopia of fruit in the old woman’s basket, which in turn represents the desires and delectations of the material life.
The Koboi Project 
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