மீனாட்சி சுந்தரப் புலவர் 'அருளிய' ஸ்நோலின் வெண்பா மாலை

நீர்காக்க மண்காக்க நீபோன ஊர்வலத்தில்

ஊர்காக்க விட்டாய் உயிர்

தூரத்தில் நீநடந்தும் துப்பாக்கிப் பற்களுனைக்

கீறிக் கிழித்தகதை கேள்

'வேதாந்தா' விட்டெறிந்த வெள்ளிப் பணம்பொறுக்கச்

சாதா ரணமாமுன் சாவு !

ஆட்சிப் பணிக்கூலி ஆற்றுகின்ற சேவைக்குச்

சாட்சியமோ உன்றன் சவம்?

நித்திலப் பேரலையின் நீலக் கடலிற்குச்

செத்தேநீ தந்தாய் சிவப்பு

காவி சதிபின்ன, காக்கி குறிவைக்க

சாவில் பிளந்ததுவோ சங்கு ?

பின்மண்டை உட்சென்று முன்மண்டை பேர்த்தெடுக்கும்

குண்டுகளால் செய்தான் கொலை

இடைப்பாடி மைந்தனுடன் இந்தியாவை விற்றோன்

துடைத்தெறிந்த தூத்துக் குடி

'அரசார் கொலைகள் அறம்சார் கலைகள்'

துறைசார் கருத்தே துணை!

ஆணைய ஆய்வுனக்கே அள்ளிக் கொடுத்தாலும்

போனவுயிர் மீளுமோ போ !

A 'novel' idea to suppress a snake in the grass

B.Meenakshi Sundaram 

Ever since the day paper was discovered, it has hardly realized the politics played by man behind it. Although wall posters made of paper were once food for stray donkeys and goats in the crowded town, the responsibility of these animals seems to have been shifted to the unruly mob of men, who tear them in wrath, raise slogans against their opponents and stage a road roko in an evening. When the same posters were pasted on the same walls, the animals gazed in awe, as the posters were not ripped up this time. Perhaps it was due to the play of another dull, yellow sheet of paper, on which a case got registered against the ones that tore the posters. And when you look at the same persons smiling on those newly-pasted posters, you are sure to notice their giving a hint that the more their posters are torn the more their appearance would be.  

The evolution of paper arrived at another point when a statesman narrated the story which he found on a piece of paper. The narrator just informed that the sheet of paper showed the members of a particular section of society in poor light by terming them as 'sons of prostitutes' As his effigies were burnt across the state and an unconditional apology was demanded from him, the one who, long ago, termed the section as 'sons of prostitutes' kept mum and stood smiling at the tussle.   

Following the discovery of paper, the printing machine was invented to document valuable manuscripts. The first manuscripts that got printed were Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and The Bible. While Canterbury Tales parodied the corrupt clergymen of 14th-century England, the sheets of paper in The New Testament portrayed Mary Magdalene as a repented prostitute. The woman, who was a witness to Jesus' crucifixion and the one who first saw the newly-risen Christ, was, later, popularised as the mother of a child by Jesus in Dawn Brown's paper The Da Vinci Code. 

John Milton's Areopagitica, a pamphlet against the Licensing Order of 1643 which required authors to have a license approved by the government before their work could be published, emphasized that God endowed every person with reason, free will, and conscience to judge ideas for themselves. However, Karl Marx, when he was the Editor of Rheinische Zeitung, a German morning newspaper, had to submit his writings to the censor of the government, wait for their return and work on the paper tediously again in the wee hours. Marx penned various articles, particularly on the Divorce Bill and the dire economic straits of the Mosel vintners. Since his writings criticized the draconian Prussian Government, it decided to ban the newspaper.

At the same time, there was no censor to clear Kalki's historical novel  Ponniyin Selvan, which replaced a heinous crime in the history of Cholas with a romantic affair. The fictional pages of the novel have now taken a new structure of scenes on the silver screen. 

Centuries before such sheets of paper began to play hide and seek in history, events that deserved importance were all inscribed on slabs of stone. 

Stone inscriptions are not like sheets of paper which yield to the will of fiction writers. Like how you tear sheets of paper or edit or delete video recordings, you cannot do away with letters inscribed on stone.

Such a stone inscription dating back to 998 A.D is found at the Anantheeswarar Temple at Udayarkudi in Kattumannarkoil of the Cuddalore district. The inscription bears testimony to the assassination of the Chola prince Adiththa Karikala in revenge for his decapitating the Pandya king Veerapandiya. 

Eminent historian K.A Nilakanta Sastri, in his article on the inscription to Epigraphia Indica, Volume 21, on page 167, writes thus: 

" ...Aditha II Karikala fell a victim to assassination at the hands of some persons who, to judge from their names and titles, must have been highly placed Brahman officials in the army" 

Sastri also adds more about the incident mentioned in the inscription: 

" ...It recounts that Soman......... and his younger brothers Ravidasa and Parameswara had been found guilty of treason (Drohihalana) for their murder of Karikala Chola 'who took the head of the Pandya' "   

Avvayar, the Tamil woman poet in her Moodhurai, a collection of venbas with ideas of morals to mankind, compares the help rendered to good people with letters inscribed on a slab of stone for all eternity. But the same given to the wicked would be just like writing on the water!

  

Then, how about being a snake in the grass and killing someone at an odd hour?  Such an act would also look like the clear letters inscribed on the  Udayargudi inscription!  

https://simplicity.in/coimbatore/english/article/1347/A-novel-idea-to-suppress-a-snake-in-the-grass

  

Meet here a Blessing Buddha !

In our apartments 

Birds do not perch on trees

On their tiny branches  

You see a kind of dull green small leaves 

I have hardly seen them wither and fall

With neither flowers nor fruit  

indifferent they stand  to the fondling of wind.

Of new green sprouts and yellow fall        

Spring or autumn 

Speaks no words

Over the compound walls of the  tall towers,

On fronds of the coconut trees     

A peacock screams 

Every dawn

In her brisk morning walk round the campus 

A lady, in her T-shirt and  three-fourth trousers,

Presents her slight smile

At the bird's quiver of covert feathers         

From the cool shades of neem trees

Somewhere away from the flats 

Comes floating on wind 

A sad song of the  cuckoo 

Carrying the vast blue on wings 

A pair of grey pigeons  

Alight on the balconies 

Then, with little hope of  making nest there   

Fly back in a cooing  of frustration 

Tired after travels on the blaring city roads  

Luxury cars parked around the towers 

Brood all the afternoon 

Amid the noise of waters 

From a fountain 

Drenching small patches of lawns, 

The little cricketers squeak 

At the batsman's destiny

Amid no wails and  cries 

The elderly die and disappear to the crematorium 

Tears inundate the residents' WhatsApp group 

 

Beside the homes that never have seen death  

The Buddha meditates in his padmasana

Like the water from the fountain 

Down His pedestal 

His blessings shower on the blessed  

- B. Meenakshi Sundaram  

Sasanam – Documenting Histories for Eternity

B. Meenakshi Sundaram https://simplicity.in/coimbatore/english/article/1260/

The sphinx, a mythological creature with a lion’s body and a human head, an important image in Egyptian and Greek art and legend, is known for its riddles. It devoured a man each time whenever the riddle was answered incorrectly. On an occasion, the creature posed a question to Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother in Greek mythology. "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?” When the wise king gave the correct answer, the creature accepted its defeat and killed itself. The answer given by king Oedipus was ‘man’. Because as a child, man crawls using the hands too as legs, later walks upright with two legs and finally leans on a stick in old age! It is surprising to know that the sphinx was found in the ancient Tamil land too but as an image. As read from an article carried in Sasanam, a bilingual magazine edited by writer Sukavana Murugan, the KCHR (Kerala Council for Historical Research), at Pattanam in Ernakulam district, stumbled upon a seal-ring with the carving of the sphinx. The gem with the intaglio of the sphinx bears testimony to the maritime trade relations between the ancient Tamil land and Rome. “Musiri, an ancient harbour, which is mentioned in various pieces of classical Tamil literature, was once a busy trade centre between Rome and the ancient Tamil Nadu. Musiri, which is said to have been engulfed by the sea, could be the town Pattanam in the present-day Ernakulam district, with many archaeological discoveries throwing light on the trade ties between Rome and the ancient Tamil land” writes Senaani in the article titled “Rome Pattanathu Mothirakkal” in Sasanam. Substantiating the point, the writer cites the lines from the 149th song of Agananuru, a Sangam period work, which describes the arrival of the ships of the yavanas (A generic term for people coming from the west: Romila Thapar) loaded with gold at Musiri and returned with pepper. The song in Agananuru, as read from Vaidehi Herbert’s English translation, informs that the yavanas bought pepper from the ancient Tamils by paying them in gold! ….prosperous Musiri town of Cheran, where, causing the huge, beautiful Sulli river’s white foam to become muddied, the fine ships of the Yavanas come with gold and leave with pepper,…. The article in Sasanam traces the possibilities of how the gemstone, incised with the image of the sphinx came to Pattanam. The writer informs that the first Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar declared himself the son of the Greco-Roman god Apollo. With his love for Greek mythology, Augustus wore the ring with the intaglio of the sphinx and had the same image as his official imperial seal. “The merchants from Ancient Rome too loved wearing such rings and one of them must have come to Musiri, “says the article in Sasanam. Besides carrying several stories on archaeological interest, the magazine places an accent on the recent discovery of a rare stone inscription at Kinnimangalam near Chekanurani in the Madurai district. The inscription, discovered amid a heap of stones by a team of history enthusiasts T.K Gandhirajan, C. Raja Vel, and Ananthan Sannasi at the Ekanathar Anandavalli Amman Koyil in Kinnimangalam a few months ago, drops a hint on how the traditional ancestor worship, in course of time, gets converted into a worship of gods in the established religion. The article ‘Varalatril Kinimangalam’ (Kinnimangalam in history) penned by Su. Rajavelu, a professor of History at Alagappa University, proves with sufficient substantiations that the two-lined Thamizhi (Tamil-Brahmi) inscription ‘Ekan Aathan Kottam’ dates back to 2nd century B.C. “Of the different meanings of ‘Kottam’, the word also means a sepulcher cum temple constructed in memory of the dead. Manimekalai, which is one of the two great Tamil epics, describes the place Sakkaravalakottam as a ‘Kottam’ for constructing memorials for the dead. Hence, the meaning of the inscription ‘Ekan Aathan Kottam’ was a place where a sepulcher had been constructed in memory of one called Aathan, who was the son of Ekan” explains Su.Rajavelu. The writer proves his point from another stone inscription he stumbled upon in the same shrine. The inscription, which dates back between the 7th and 8th century A.D, is the first-ever one to mention the phrase ‘Pallipatai’, whose meaning is ‘sepulcher temple’. The text on the stone “Iraiyiliyaga Ekanatan Pallippatai Mandrali Eenthaar” throws light on a donation made to the ‘sepulcher temple’ at a later period. Searching further support for his views, the historian collected some of the palm leaf manuscripts preserved for ages in the shrine and was surprised to say they were the first-ever ones to be discovered as written in Tamil vattezhuthu (Rounded alphabet). He researched the songs written on the palm leaves and sought the opinion of the Coimbatore-based eminent epigraphist Prof Y.Subbarayalu, who, after researching, said that the songs on the palm leaf manuscripts could be the ones that had been sung in the prayers to the dead. Besides, the magazine contains a detailed report by K.Amarnath Ramakrishna on the Keezhadi Excavation. A noted archaeologist, Amarnath is with the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) and the one who led a team to excavate Keezhadi in the Sivaganga district. The editorial team of the archaeological magazine Sasanam includes R.Poongundran, S.Rajavelu, V.K.Shanmugam I.A.S, Veeraraghavan, B.Devendra Boopathy, S.Paranthaman, K.A. Manoharan and P.Kumar. The contributors to the current issue are Morthegai, J.Sounthirarajan, Mangai Ragavan, C.Veeraragavan, Sriraman, J.R. Sivaramakrishnan, S.Rajagopal, Kalsi Kumar, Ramesh, Paranthaman, Anbumani, Sai Sravan, Balaji Ravirajan, B.Sasisekaran, B.Ragunatha Rao, Aaragalur Pon. Venkatesan, Saami, Saravana Manian, Aravind. M (Translation from Asko Parpola), K.Sridaran, Kumaravel Ramasamy, Gopalakrishnan, Joseph Prabhakar, Mathivanan Balasundaram, Artist Manuvannan, and A.Prabhu.

Some books are not to be written

The essays of Francis Bacon, a 16th century English philosopher and statesman, usually begin with ‘Of’ as ‘Of Studies’, ‘Of Friendship’, ‘Of Vengeance’ and so on. With his compositions providing deep insights into the readers on the ideas of life, his famous quote “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested” deserves much importance today. If viewed from a contemporary context, a reader may think why Bacon had failed to say

“Some books are not to be written!”

Had the philosopher opined so, Romantic
English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley would not have written the popular pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism while he was a student, and faced termination from college. D.H Lawrence would not have brought out his Lady Chatterley’s Lover either.
Though Bacon said on books as “Some few are read to be wholly, and with diligence and attention’, books of serious importance are little important in the rat race of modern man.

But, books have played active roles in shaping the readers’ personality. The readers include even dictators of the bygone era. The Prince, a political treatise by the 16th-century Italian diplomat Machiavelli, was a bedtime reading for Adolf Hitler and a topic for Benito Mussolini’s thesis for honorary doctorate. The Prince, whose central idea is acquiring power, came to be called the ‘Mafia Bible’, turned to be one among the prohibited books by the Catholic Church and was banned in Elizabethan England.

But this is an age, where journalists and writers are deprived of their rights of freedom of speech and expression. A few years ago, the world of modern Tamil literature felt the pain of a famed Kongu novelist, when he was demanded an unconditional apology on charges of depicting women of the Kongu society in poor light in his novel.

In contrast, yesteryear writers and scholars enjoyed the freedom of speech and expression. The debate between two scholars on a particular topic was pleasant those days. It is surprising to read such healthy and hot debates between the Dravidian stalwart C N Annadurai, DMK founder and former Tamil Nadu Chief minister, and Tamil scholar R P Sethupillai on the topic whether Kambaramayanam and Periyapuranam denigrated the Dravidian race or not. The debate, which was presided over by Kovai Kizhar CM Ramachandran Chettiar, the then Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Endowment Board and the first historian of Coimbatore, took place at Madras Law College on February 2, 1943. Later, the second and final round of the debate was held at the Devanga Padasalai in Salem between C N Annadurai and Tamil scholar Navalar S Somasundara Bharathiyar on March 14, 1943. This time Prof. A. Ramasamy presided over it

Just a month after the debate, the arguments of Anna were published into a book on the title ‘Thee Paravattum’ (Let the fire spread). Bearing testimony to the dignity of the Dravidian movement in respecting the views of its opponents, the book included the complete speeches of R P Sethupillai and S Somasundara Bharathiyar in defense of Kambaramayanam and Periyapuranam.
At the same time, Anna never retreated in his the crusade to protect the esteem of Tamils. An ardent follower of rationalist leader Periyar E V Ramasamy, Anna, after he came to power, lifted the ban on Ravana Kaviyam, an antithesis to Kambaramayanam, written by Pulavar Kuzhanthai of the Kongu region.

When Kuzhandhai wrote the epic ‘Ravana Kaviyam’ in 1946, the then Congress government, which ruled the Madras state, imposed a ban on it for its pro-Dravidian views. When the DMK captured power in Tamil Nadu, the ban was lifted in 1971.

Born at Olavalasu near Erode in the then Coimbatore district in 1906, Kuzhandhai learned the Tamil alphabets by writing them on a heap of sand at a Thinai Pallikoodam (Pyol School). He had a passion for composing conventional Tamil poetry even while he was a 10-year-old
boy. He mastered the elements in Tamil prosody all by himself, as there were few Tamil scholars in his village.
Praising the book and commending Kuzhandhai’s creativity and knowledge in Tamil, Anna noted that Ravana Kaviyam, which consists of 3100 songs, was equal in all literary merits in comparison with Kambaramayanam. Anna underlined that Kuzhandai’s epic differed only in the central idea.
But today, the name ‘Anna’ sounds just to be the name of someone, printed or pronounced to name a power, which jails someone for something he does against it.

Link to my article in SimpliCity :  https://simplicity.in/articledetail.php?aid=1077

The People Behind the Bricks and Mortar of Coimbatore

On a sultry afternoon, Lord Siva and his consort Parvathi were walking upon the earth; they got very hot and thirsty. Siva felt the drops of perspiration all over his body and changed them by his divine power into a man carrying a pick-ax and crowbar. Similarly, Parvathi changed her drops of perspiration into a woman carrying a basket. The man and woman quickly sunk a well with their equipment. Now Siva and Parvathi refreshed themselves in the cool waters of the well and, in gratitude, they promised the labourers certain gifts. 

With neither of the labourers being satisfied with the gifts, they demanded more with a grumble. Lord Siva, who grew angry at their act, cursed them and vowed that they and their descendants shall live only by the sweat of their brow.

The above story, which is traced by the British ethnographer Edgar Thurston, speaks on the birth of the first members of the Boyar community. Another similar story on the birth of the community says that the same Siva and Parvathi ordered the members of the Boyar community to sink wells to quench the thirst of the Devatas (Celestial people). Having dug the well, they demanded payment. But Siva, instead of money, gave a pinch of sacred ash for each work they did. When the labourers reached home, they found to their surprise, that all the pinches of sacred ash were turned into money. Yet, the Boyars were not satisfied and clamoured for more. Siva grew angry at their act and cursed them thus: 

“What you obtain in the forests by digging shall be lost as soon as you reach the high ground” 

But Parvathi, who took pity on them, asked Siva to give them large sums of money. Then Siva hollowed out a measuring-rod (A staff used by Oddars for making measurements), filled it with varahans (gold coins), and gave it to the maistry or the head mason. The lord also filled a large pumpkin with money and buried it in a field, where the Oddars were working. The maistry, whom Siva presented the gold coin –filled measuring rod, pawned it for buying toddy. 

Though the Oddars did not find out what was inside the raised mound caused by the burying of the pumpkin, a buffalo, which was grazing in a field close by, exposed the pumpkin to them. However, without suspecting the contents in the pumpkin, the Oddars sold it to a member of the Komati caste, which is known for its profession of banking, money lending, and other business pursuits. 

Edgar Thurston has few answers for the above two tales on their depicting the Oddar community as a dissatisfied and unwise lot.

The Oddars or Boyars are identified with their traditional occupations as sinking wells, constructing tank bunds and buildings, quarrying stones and executing other kinds of earth work. As said above, legend has it that their first ancestors were a couple who sunk a well for the deities Siva and Parvathi. But, in reality, it was a man from the Boyar community, who provided drinking water from his well to his neighbours in Coimbatore decades before the arrival of sweet Siruvani water. 

A poem in Nerisayil Oorisai, a book of venbas on Kongu history, speaks on a street that runs north to Nawab Hakkim Road in the heart of the city as ‘Naangenathu Veethi’ which is a corruption of ‘Nagan Kinatru Veethi’ 

“The street’s name is after Naga Boyan, who owned a well and provided water to his neighbours “informs Kavianban Babu, a historian of Coimbatore, who authored the book Therintha Kovai Theriyatha Kadhai (Known Coimbatore; its unknown tales)

The Oddars, most of whom are construction workers today, had once been makers of brick, for they owned a large number of brick kilns in Coimbatore. 

Edgar Thurston, while writing a chapter on the Oddars on the title ‘Odde’ in his comprehensive work Castes and Tribes of Southern India, informs:   

“The The caste title of the Oddes is Nayakkan and Boyan. The similarity of the latter word to ‘Boer’ was fatal, for at the time of my visit to the Oddes in Coimbatore, the South African war (Boer war) was just over, and they were afraid that I was going to get them transported to replace the Boers who had been exterminated in the war. Being afraid of my evil eye, they refused to fire a new kiln of bricks for the new club chambers at Coimbatore until I had taken my departure”

However, the history of Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital informs that one by name Nanja Boyan from the Oddar community at Nanjundapuram in the city supplied bricks to the construction of the hospital at a rate of six annas per hundred in the early 20th century! 

Documenting the physical appearance of the Oddars , when he visited Coimbatore in the early 20th century, Thurston says: 

“Coimbatore – “ Numerous, owing to the hard nature of the subsoil and the immense and increasing number of irrigation wells, which demand the labour of strong men accustomed to the use of the crowbar, pick-axe, and powder. They are black, strong, and of good physique, highly paid, and live on strong meat and drink."

Thurston says that the word ‘Odde’ is said to be the corruption of the Sanskrit ‘Odhra’, the name for the state called Orissa, which is Odisha today. Besides Telugu, the Oddes speak a peculiar dialect among themselves. Thurston says that if that dialect should be turned out to be Oriya, the question might be regarded as settled. 

Link to my article in SimpliCity :  https://simplicity.in/articledetail.php?aid=1084&fbclid=IwAR3SbCZ59-hvZ5bpep_mjCZGO50YZQmwIycxdoO2lSVN3pAFbhv4pHsRDpg

A Tribute to the Messiah of Eezhavas

Just because they were said to be born in lower caste in the Hindu religion, the Eezhva girls in Kerala were forced to pay tax, but for their breasts in the name Mulakaram. Called as Avarnas, the untouchable Eezhva community could not have liberated itself from the cruelties of discrimination, had the noted social reformer Sri Narayana Guru fought for their rights in the nineteenth century.
“It is painful to recall an oral tradition, which discloses that an Eezhava girl, unable to pay her Mulakaram, cut her breasts and gave them as tax. Therefore, the native village of the girl got its name as ‘Mulaichiparambu’ near Thiruvananthapuram” says Murugan, a Tamil poet, who has penned a poetic biography of Sri Narayana Guru in Tamil as ‘ Gurudevan Kavithanjali’
The author, who is a retired Assistant Commissioner (Accounts) of Coimbatore Corporation, points out:

“The gruesome act of the Eezhava girl reflects her wrath against the touch-me-not Brahmins, who were behind the princely state of Travancore. By doing so, the poor girl left a question to them as what other tax they would collect if she had no breasts at all”
At a time, when the present-day religious outfits seek a law banning religious conversions in the country, Murugan informs in his book that Narayana Guru welcomed religious conversions. Reminding the fact that most people in India embraced Christianity and Islam only after facing severe caste discrimination in Hinduism, Murugan points out:

“Narayana Guru opined that it was nothing wrong for people to switch over from one faith to another if it helps them progress in life, as the great philosopher’s goal was only the development of mankind and not religion”

At a time, when members from the Eezhava community faced untold atrocities from the caste Hindus in Kerala, Murugan’s book records how Narayana Guru, who was also born in the Eezhava community, consecrated the idol of Lord Shiva amidst the hue and cry of caste Hindus.

“The Brahmins objected Narayana Guru’s consecrating the idol of Shiva at Aruvipuram and warned him that only the priestly class was entitled to do so. Nonetheless, the Gurudev paid them back in the same coin saying that he consecrated only the ‘Eezhava Shiva’ and not the ‘Brahmin Shiva’” says the 61-year-old.

An ardent lover of Tamil, Murugan, who hails from Nagercoil, says that Eezhavas were the people from Eezham, a part of Sri Lanka and have their roots in the ancient Tamil race.

“Several centuries ago, a total of three Tamil Sangams existed in different periods in Kumarikandam, which is identified with the sea-engulfed Lemuria continent. And the great Tamil work Thirukural
was launched in the first Tamil Sangam. Interestingly, the book launch was presided over by Tamil scholar Athangottu Aasan, who was an Eezhava” says Murugan.
Note: I penned the above feature in Express as a curtain-raiser to Murugan's book in February 2015. However, I thought of re-posting it soon after I happened to watch this short film 'Mulakaram-The Breast Tax' by Yogesh Pagare.Please find the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg0h7XM_7zA&fbclid=IwAR3UOnEm8WMITLltW7BGmED5lB5l8rzXqZ3PwN4wE0th5zqRaTS-8Ei6sj0