|
On Tamil Militarism - a 11 Part
Essay
Part 11: The legend of Cheran Senguttuvan
Lanka Guardian,
[pp.15-16]
[prepared by
Sachi Sri Kantha, for electronic record]
15 November 1992
[together with
Post Script
by Sachi Sri Kantha on the Significance of
Sivaram�s study on the Maravar Caste and Tamil
Militarism, 6 May 2005]
 �The
lines of a song in today�s ceremony touched my heart. The lines
refer to the Tamil flag which fluttered on the Himalayas. Although
this may be a thing of the past, history can be re-established.
Today this country is at war because the youth of this area were
denied opportunities in education and culture�Our youth have not
only done well in education but have shown that they have the self
respect to achieve their aims through armed struggle. If nothing is
done towards finding a settlement to the crisis in the north-east,
the history related in the lines of that song will be reasserted.� -
Joseph Pararajasingham, MP for Batticaloa, speaking at a school
function on 26.9[Sept]�92 (reported in the Virakesari of
1.10[Oct].�92
The song referred to by the member of parliament is from an MGR
film. The lines of the song about which the MP speaks, are �I see
that era when Cheran�s flag fluttered on the Himalayas.�*[see
below the foot-note by Sachi Sri Kantha]. Joseph�s speech and
MGR�s song invoke one of the most powerful narratives of modern
Tamil nationalism � the conquest of north India by the kings of the
three Tamil dynasties, the Cheras, Cholas and the Pandyas, which was
accomplished by imprinting the Bow (Chera) or Tiger (Chola) or
Pandya Fish (Pandya) emblems on the Himalayas.
The legend of Cheran Senguttuvan is the dominant episode of this
narrative. Its political life in the Tamil nationalist project in
Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka has been more tenacious than the Dutugemunu
� Elara episode in the narrative of Sinhala Buddhism�s struggle
against the �South Indian Tamil threat�.
The legend of Cheran Senguttuvan, as we shall see later, was used by
the Dravidian movement for drawing a compelling characterization of
its anti-Hindi agitation. The legend forms the third part of the
epic
Silappathikaram, which was written by Ilango Atikal, Seran
Senguttuvan�s brother � a Jain ascetic.
It relates the story of Kannaki who became the goddess Pattini. The
epic is divided into three parts (kaandam), named after the capitals
of the Chera, Chola and Pandya kingdoms; Vanji, Puhar and Madurai.
Unlike the heroic Sangam poetry which preceded it, the
Silappathikaram speaks for the first time about a Tamil Nadu as
such, constituted by the three kingdoms, distinguished by a martial
tradition superior to that of north India. It portrays the three
dynasties conquering the north and imprinting their emblems on the
Himalayas, together and separately. The Pandyan king who mistakenly
causes the beheading of Kannaki�s husband, Kovalan, bears the title
�He who overran the Aryan army� (Aryappadai kadantha).
M.Raghava Aiyangar wrote a book based on the third part of the epic
� the Vanji kaandam � called, �Seran Senguttuvan�. It was dedicated
to Pandithurai Thevar. A recent work on Aiyangar�s contribution
says, �This was the first book to give the Vanji kaandam in prose.
It was after this that many scholars studied the Vanji kaandam and
wrote books�the book made everyone realise and appreciate the golden
era of the Tamils.� (Annals of Tamil Research: M.Raghava Aiyangar
Commemoration Volume, University of Madras, 1978, pp.18-19) The book
went through four editions in the first two decades of its
publication. �It can be said that after the appearance of this book,
research on the Sangam period expanded. Many times it was made a
text in the universities of Andhra, Mysore and Madras and in Ceylon,
and is widely read.� (Araichi Thohuthi, 1938, p.20).
We examined the life and politics of M.Raghava Aiyangar in the last
issue. As we pointed out there, Aiyangar�s idea of Tamilian
renaissance differed from contemporaneous Indian nationalists in one
important respect. Whereas the Indian nationalists who upheld the
cause of Tamil culture and history, especially saw them from a
pan-Indian perspective, Aiyangar�s writings emphasised a south
Indian, Tamilian uniqueness and martial superiority. His most famous
work �Seran Senguttuvan� and the essay he wrote later to supplement
and support it are clear attempts to establish and popularise that
idea. Three reasons can be identified for his attitude.
The first, as we noted earlier, was his close relationship with the
Marava rulers of Ramnad � the Sethupathys. The second is that he was
a Vaishnavite Brahmin � the Indian National Congress was dominated
in the Presidency of Madras by Saivite Brahmins. Many Vaishnavites
have, as a result tended to sympathise with the Dravidian movement
(Sivathamby, 1989). In a lecture delivered to the 23rd annual
conference of the Madurai Tamil Sangam, Aiyangar said,
�The three Tamil kings, the Cheras, Cholas and the Pandyas
established their martial glory beyond Thamilaham (Tamil homeland)
which lay between the Vengadam hills to the north and Comorin to the
south; but their love for the Tamil speaking land was so great that
they were not desirous of attaching lands where foreign languages
are spoken, to Thamilaham�It will be appropriate to name the Madras
Presidency as the Dravidian Province.� (Araichi Thohuthi; 1938,
pp.318, 338)
The third reason is related to his stay in Kerala, as head of the
Tamil department in the University of Trivandrum. Kerala was the
ancient Chera kingdom. Aiyangar�s writings during his residence at
Trivandrum attempt to place Kerala history and culture within the
tradition of Thamilaham. The Maharaj of the Travancore state at that
time, Sithirai Thirunal had told Aiyangar, �Malayalam is the Tamil
language that bathed in the sea of Sanskrit� (R.Veerapathiran; 1978,
p.38).
Some aspects of Kerala and Tamil literature and �Chera Venthar
Seiyutt Kovai� Aiyangar�s �gothra�(section) name was Aiyanarithan, a
poet of the Chera dynasty, who wrote the Purapporul Venba Malai � a
treatise on Tamil martial culture. One of his most controversial
essays which resulted from his work at Trivandrum was on the kinship
system of the Chera dynasty. All this stems from his work on Seran
Senguttuvan. This book which has to be read in conjunction with his
essay, �The conquest of the Himalayas by the Tamil Kings� (Thamil
Ventharin Imaya Padai-eduppu) attempted to ground the story of
Senguttuvan in epigraphical literary evidence. The work seeks to
establish a story of Senguttuvan, related in the Silappathikaram�s
Vanji kaandam, as a historical truth. The book as a school and
university textbook has left a deep imprint on Tamilian
cultural-political vocabulary.
Annadurai, Karunanidhi, MGR and the speakers of the Federal Party
have invoked the example of Seran Senguttuvan to bestir Tamil youth.
The Silappathikaram portrays his expedition into north India as the
assertion of Tamil military might over Aryan kings who had in their
ignorance disparaged the martial prowess of southern Tamils.
Senguttuvan vows to defeat two Aryan kings, Kanakan and Vijayan
(�They who could not hold their tongue�, says the epic) who had cast
aspersions on what is called �Then Thamil Aatral� � south Tamil
might. [Would] make them carry a stone hewn from the Himalayan
mountain, back to Tamil Nadu for the deification of Kannaki as
goddess Pattini. Senguttuvan is told, �You faced the thousand Aryan
kings in combat on the day you bathed the goddess in the great flood
of the Ganges�if you have decided on the expedition (to bring the
stone), let the kings of the north fly the Bow, Tiger and Fish flags
in their lands.�
Senguttuvan, says the epic, was born to Nedun-cheralathan, who bears
the title, Imaya Varamban (He who has the Himalayas as his boundary)
and the daughter of a Chola king; and as such, he is seen as
representing a Tamilian unity. (The Silappathikaram says that
Gajabahu of Lanka invoked the goddess Pattini at Senkuttuvan�s
capital to come to his country and give her blessings on the day
Senkuttuvan�s father Imaya Varamban�s birth was commemorated there.)
The conquest of the north and the Himalayas is a leitmotif in the
Sangam anthologies which precede the Silappathikaram. (�The Aryans
screamed out loud in pain when you attacked them.�, says a poem in
the Sangam anthologies) The three parts of the epic emphasise the
theme to glorify each dynasty. The first part refers to an
expedition undertaken to the Himalayas by Thirumavalavan, who was
known as Karikalan (Prabhakaran�s nom de guerre) � the founder of
the Chola empire. He is shown as defeating the Maghadha, Avanti, and
Vajjra kingdoms. The second part speaks of the Pandyan who conquered
the �newly arisen Himalayas� when his ancient land of the Kumari
mountains and the Pahruli river were taken by the sea.
It is a theme in the inscriptions of the Chola empire at a later
date. One Chola emperor takes on the title, the Conqueror of the
Ganges. Minor poetry which arose after the decline of the Cholas
praising military commanders and chieftains of the Tamil country
also utilise the theme (Karumanikkan Kovai, Kalingathu Parani, etc.)
The leitmotif of the Tamil emblem on the Himalayas finds the most
vivid expression in the story of Senguttuvan. Aiyangar takes it out
of its epic context to emphasise a perception � that the Tamils were
historically indomitable martial race. The story of Senguttuvan�s
expedition repeatedly lays stress on the what is referred to as
South Tamil martial might. Aiyangar�s later essay on the theme of
Tamil expeditions into the north tried to prove again that these
events were true on the basis of evidence, culled from the Imperial
Gazeteer of India and the Hand Gazeteer of India.
In this essay, he [Aiyangar] argues that Asoka did not think of
invading Tamil Nadu because he and other northern Aryan kings were
aware and scared of the martial prowess of the ancient Tamils who
before their times had invaded and defeated the north and imprinted
their emblems on the Himalaya mountains.
The first Tamil king to imprint his emblem on the mountain was
Karikalan; the names borne by parts of the Himalayas such as the
Chola Pass and the Chola Range prove the Chola king�s expedition is
a historical fact, argued Aiyankar (Araichi Thohuti; 1938, p.184).
He did the �academic� groundwork for the propagation of the
narrative of Tamil military expeditions into the north as an
expression of a unique and superior martial prowess and its symbol �
the Tamil flag on the Himalayas. Dravidian propagandists and the
politicians of the Federal Party transformed it into a nostalgic and
powerful story of a golden era woven into the rhetoric and national
liberation and youth mobilization.
Foot-Note by Sachi Sri Kantha
There is some confusion here, about which MGR
song was played in the said school function. The quote of Joseph
Pararajasingham, cited by Sivaram, states �The lines refer to
the Tamil flag which fluttered on the Himalayas� but the exact
Tamil words of the song were not quoted. But Sivaram has cited
the lines as �I see that era when Cheran�s flag fluttered on the
Himalayas�. I�m not sure whether Sivaram was a witness to that
particular event of September 26, 1992.
If Sivaram�s translated quote of the song is
taken literally, then these lines appear in an MGR song:
�Puthiya Vaanam � Puthiya Bhoomi enrum Puhal Mazhai
Pozhikirathu� (Anbe Vaa movie).
But, an earlier MGR song by poet Kannadasan
�Achcham Enpathu Madamaiyada�
அச்சம் என்பது மடமையடா (Mannathi
Mannan movie) provides a more fuller version of the Tamil
militarism spirit, including the flag fluttering on the
Himalayas. In my recent eulogy to Sivaram, I had presumed that
the Kannadasan song in the Mannathi Mannan movie was the one
which was referred to by Joseph Pararajasingham. Despite this
confusion, there is no doubt that MGR made use of the powerful
historical scenario of �Cheran Tamil flag fluttering on the
Himalayas�, more than once in the lyrics of his movies.
Postscript (to the 11-part series) by Sachi Sri Kantha, 6
May 2005
The Significance of Sivaram�s study on the
Maravar Caste and Tamil Militarism
Its unfortunate
that D.P.Sivaram�s notable study [at least the published version
in the Lanka Guardian journal] on the Maravar Caste and Tamil
Militarism didn�t have a proper closure in 1992. One is also not
sure, why Sivaram didn�t respond to two of his critics, namely
Charles Hoole and T.Vanniasingham. May be, he might have felt
that the expressed views of these two correspondents were
half-baked and not worth a response.
From my readings of the academic contributions of late
Charles R.A. Hoole (Principal, Baldaeus Theological College,
Trincomalee; died on Sept.28, 2003), I have inferred that he
subscribed to the tradition of the 19th century Chrisitian
evangelists, who came to the Tamil Nadu and Eelam to retrieve
the �savage natives from their sins and show the path to the
Saviour�. Evangelists belonging to this clan [which included
Charles Hoole�s namesake Rajan Hoole and Rajani Thiranagama,
among others] adhere to an obscurantist view that hardly any
respectable culture and civilization among the Tamils existed,
before the Christian missionary campaigns in the Indian
subcontinent which began in earnest since early 1500s.
Correspondent T.Vanniasingham�s thoughts [Lanka Guardian,
Oct.15, 1992] also partially reflected this Christian evangelist
position. His observation that �Poets and bards were hired-hands
in the service of chiefs and could be paid to praise and
exaggerate their struggles and victories� is somewhat na�ve. The
quatrain of 12th century epic poet
Kambar cursing the Chola king with disdain,
�Mannavanum Neeyo � Vala Naadum Unatho � Unnai
Arintho Thamizhai Othinen�
[Are you still a King? Is this wealthy land only yours? Did I
study Tamil only to serve you?]
disproves the fallacy of correspondent
Vanniasingham.
Maybe there indeed were poets and bards of
mediocre quality who praised and exaggerated the �glories� of
their Chiefs. But, ranking poets and bards who had pride in
their skills never stooped low for mundane benefits. Even in the
20th century, the ranking Tamil poets [Subramaniya
Bharati,
Bharathidasan,
Kannadasan and
Kasi Anandan comes to my mind] have shown us in their lives
that they�d suffer poverty, indignity, humiliation, harassment
and even prison terms; but they�d never lick the feet of power
holders for mundane comforts. Of the four Tamil poets I�ve noted
as examples, the last three were our contemporaries, and Kasi
Anandan is still living.
Unlike the two [or three, if one
includes R.B.Diulweva] critics of Sivaram, few non-Tamil
academics from USA who have made in-depth research on the Tamil
literature and culture have provided corroborating reports to
that of Sivaram. These have been compiled as �Essays
on South India� (Asian Studies at Hawaii, No.15, University
Press of Hawaii, 1975), edited by Burton Stein.
Thus, I provide excerpts below, from the
thoughts of Clarence Maloney, George L.Hart III and Burton
Stein, to supplement the research of Sivaram on Maravar caste.
This is vital since I believe that Sivaram may not have had
access to these reports, which preceded his 1992 study. The
research ventures of George Hart and Burton Stein (1926-1996) in
the 1960s and 1970s have questioned the credibility of the
pro-Brahmanical views expressed by Nilakanta Sastri, the doyen
of medieval Tamil studies in the first half of 20th century, and
the author of
The Cholas (Madras; University of Madras, 1935-1937) and
A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of
Vijayanagar (Oxford University Press, 1966, 3rd edition).
George L. Hart III [�Ancient Tamil Literature: Its Scholarly
Past and Future�, pp.41-63]
��A reading of any of
Nilakanta Sastri�s books discloses many facts concerning the
daily life and culture of the Brahmans of South India, who were
never more than a tiny (though important) minority, but it
reveals an almost total lack of information concerning other
segments of the South Indian population, even those high
non-Brahman castes in whose hands the power has almost always
been held. Ancient Tamil literature, on the other hand, was
written by high-class poets who followed the model of the oral
poetry of the Paanans and Paraiyans, men of the lowest castes,
and is devoid of both high-class and Brahmanical bias. For this
reason, it gives a more accurate picture of the social life and
customs of the area to which it belongs than does any other
classical literature of India.� (pp.41-42)
��It does not
seem too much to hope that some day anthropologists will
actually be able to trace the history of many Tamil castes.
Unfortunately, most work done by anthropologists on modern
Tamilnad has been devoted to the descendants of the uyarntor, or
�high ones�. Much more study needs to be devoted to the low
castes, who are, after all, just as important for a proper
understanding of the customs of the area as their higher
counterparts.� (p.58)
Burton Stein [�The State and the
Agrarian Order in Medieval South India: A Historiographical
Critique�, pp.64-91]
I quote below two relevant paragraphs from Burton Stein�s
essay, but refrain from citing the complete references he had
noted, only for reason of convenience. He also makes a passing
mention of Polonnaruva inscription of Sri Lanka during the
period of King Vijayabahu.
�The maintenance of Chola
armies and the requirements of warfare as central state
functions requiring a bureaucratic structure constitute the
ultimate defensive redoubt of the conventional view of the state
and the economy. Substantial chapters are devoted to territorial
security and the organization of royal armies. Where a military
unit is identified, it is assumed to be part of a central
military organization. Thus the many velaikkarar military units
of the period of Rajaraja are considered not only as the �king�s
own� but as soldiers who have vowed to sacrifice their lives, by
suicide, if necessary. The evidence upon which these conclusions
about Chola armies are based is highly doubtful, and it is
interesting to note that the early epigraphists Hultzsch,
Krishna Sastri, and Venkayya held the view that the warriors
called velaikkarar were probably made up of men from various
occupational groups temporarily engaged in military activities.
Gopinatha Rao, Nilakanta Sastri, and Mahalingam
have, in recent years, transformed these soldiers into a
centrally recruited and controlled force completely devoted to
the ruler. The implication of the revised view is that the Chola
state had a monopoly of coercive power which at once required an
effective mobilization and centralization of resources through a
bureaucracy and, simultaneously, provided the �central�
government with a powerful instrument of coercion for that
purpose � a large, royal, standing army. This proposition is
indefensible and contrary to a considerable body of evidence
that military power was distributed among many groups quite
independent of the �centralized monarchy�.
We have substantial evidence that mercantile
groups maintained a formidable military capability which was
required by the extensive, itinerant trade network of the age.
Ayyavole inscriptions bear this out, as does the famous
Polonnaruva inscription of Sri Lanka in the time of Vijayabahu
(ca.1120) in which the Tamil idangai velaikkarar are referred to
in association with the trade organization of the valanjiyar.
References to kaikkolar velaikkarar have suggested that artisans
too were capable of maintaining armed units, though Nilakanta
Sastri has questioned this.
However, the major loci of
military power were from those prosperous and populous tracts of
agriculture throughout the Coromandel plain and parts of the
interior uplands. The logic of resources � human and non-human �
would make the dominant peasant population the major source of
armed power. Local military authorities, local �chiefs�, were
conspicuous in the early Chola period, before Rajaraja I, and
once again attained high visibility in the thirteenth century
when the Chola overlordship weakened. During he period of the
great Cholas, from Rajaraja I through the time of Kulottunga I,
these local chiefs almost disappear from view as that view is
provided by inscriptions. This may, of course, mean that as a
class of local leaders these warriors were eliminated much as
the �poligars� were reduced later by Tipu Sultan and the
British. In a few cases there is evidence of this. However, it
is much more likely that this level of leadership continued
intact, but submerged beneath the surface of a society only
partially revealed to us in the inscriptions of the age.�
(pp.75-76)
Clarence Maloney [�Archeology in South India:
Accomplishments and Prospects�, pp.1-40]
��The various
Sangam literary works mention diverse occupations: kings,
chieftains, scholars, sacrificial priests, purohita, poets,
warriors, customs agents, shippers, foreign merchants, horse
importers, blacksmiths, carpenters, potters, salt makers, pearl
divers, caravan drivers, guards, tailors, fishers, dancers,
drummers, plow farmers, shepherds, hunters, weavers, leather
workers, and robbers. So far archeology has not produced
evidence of well-developed handicrafts such as this list
suggests. But for such a variety of occupations to be patronized
there must have been an elite element leading an essentially
urban way of life.
Named peoples may be considered as
tribes, geographical or occupational castes, or ruling lineages:
Kadambar, Velir, Oliyar, Aruvaalar, Maravar, Aayar, Kocar,
Oviyar, Paratavar, Palaiyar, Velalar, Naagar and others. These
functioned essentially as castes; both Palaiyar and Paratavar
were living in Korkai under the Pandiyas. But caste as a
structural system was not as rigidly hierarchical as it was to
become in later medieval centuries.� (p.17)
Coda
By means of his 1992 study on the Marava caste,
D.P.Sivaram has joined the elite circle of North American
academics who preceded him in focusing their attention on other
non-Brahmin Tamil castes. These academics include, Robert
Hardgrave (Nadar caste), Brenda Beck (Kongu region�s Kavundar
caste), Clarence Maloney (Paratavar caste), Bryan Pfaffenberger
(Jaffna Vellalar caste) and Stephen Barnett (Thondai-mandala
Kontaikatti Velalar Mudaliyar caste).
Sivaram�s study describing the paalayam and paalaya kaarar
(�Poligars� of British) of Tinnevely district in Tamil Nadu
aroused my interest when it appeared in the Lanka Guardian,
since one formative influence in my life - for a whole decade of
1960s - was from this region. The native address of my music
teacher and flute guru, T.P.Jesudas [the Radio Ceylon flute
artiste of 1950s and 1960s], which I remember very well is:
Paalayam Kottai, Samathanapuram, Tirunelvely district.
Last but not the least, though Sivaram did not
have a Bachelor�s degree from a university, it is my view that
for his published academic contribution on Marava caste, Sivaram
truly deserves a posthumous honorary post-graduate degree
[Master�s Degree at least] from a Sri Lankan university. And I�m
sure that quite a number of Sri Lankans as well as non-Sri
Lankans would concur with my suggestion.
|
