Travel Diary
To: "Min Nuul"
From: "Kannan"
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 12:13:37 +0530
Subject: [e-suvadi] Travel diary 24.02.02 & 25.02.02
Reply-to: [email protected]
Friends:
Dr.Raju was proceeding for a two day conference organized by
Tavathiru Santhalinga Adigal College of Arts and Science, Perur
when I visited him. Perur madam is well known to me and I spent
several days there last year. The two days seminar was attended by
prominent scholars in the field such as Poongunran, Kalaikkovan,
Ce.Iraasu, Natarajan and others. TT Santhalinga Ramasamy Adigal
provided an ideal ambiance for exchange of information in a real
cordial way. I met Kalaikovan son of the well known tamil scholar
Rasamanickanar in Singapore. He is an optholomist with a keen interest
in temple architecture. He runs a half yearly journal called
'varalaaRu' (history). He chaired the first day session and inspired the students
a lot. It was a very pleasant surprise to see that students showed
much interest in Tamil history and asked several questions on
ancient mode of documentation. I don't see such response even in
professional conferences-at times! Mr.Natarajan the ex-director of
Dept. of Archeology, Tamilnadu told me that I could organize my next
trip consulting him in Chennai.
I was about to leave Perur when some faculty members asked
me about my 'digital harvest' in Tamilnadu. When I showed them my
scans of copper plates and terracotta they told me that they could
provide me with piles of terracotta writings of early Christian era. Naturally, that
made me to postpone my trip to Chennai by a day. On Feb. 25, I met Mr. PoongunRan
of Dept. of Archeology, Govt. of India. It is hard to see such nice
people with scholarship and humility. He shared with me several photos
of gold rings excavated from Karur region belonging to Sangam
period. Very, very beautiful work of art and craftsmanship.
I was given more than 50 pieces of terracotta writings, the type
Dr.Raju
showed me the previous day. I scanned as much as I could and
photographed several small terracotta figurines. Among the 7 or 8 pieces, three were
Thirumal and two sakti. There were 'periya thiruvadi' (garuda) as well.
The terracotta statues were pieces of art not immature attempts of
curiosity.
THF is enriched with these treasures now and is going to be a place
of great discovery and discussion in the near future.
anbudan
Kannan
To: [email protected]
From: "Narayan Swaminathan"
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 10:10:44 -0800
Subject: Re: [e-suvadi] Travel diary 24.02.02 & 25.02.02
Reply-to: [email protected]
Dear Kannan:
Your travel diary makes interesting reading and is worthy of publishing
as a separate book.
I was wondering that if it would be more productive if you announced
your visit in a Tamil newspaper or weekly (like our travelling doctors
like Dr. Kalimuthu) ahead of time. There may be many more people
out there with valuable manuscripts in their attics. This way you will
be able to meet many more people in a short time.
Your trip across Tamil nadu reminds us of the legendary attempts of U.Ve.Sa.
to locate ancient manuscripts. Since you are continuing the tradition
of 'Tamil Thattha' , the readers of this forum will agree with me in naming
you as "Tamil Peran". (:-)
To: [email protected]
From: "mani_m_manivannan" | Block Address | Add to Address Book
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 21:10:46 -0000
Subject: Re: [e-suvadi] Travel diary 24.02.02 & 25.02.02
Reply-to: [email protected]
Dear Dr. Swaminathan,
I agree with you that Dr. Kannan's travel diary may be worthy of worthy of
publishing. However, I hope your facetious comparison of Dr. Kannan to Dr.
u. vE. cA. is only to cheer up Dr. Kannan whenever he encounters
indifferent bureaucracy.
Dr. u. vE. cA. belonged to the great pantheon of scholarly publishers such
as yAzppANam ARumuga nAvalar and tAmOdaram piLLai. Running around
collecting the palm leaves and sometimes rescuing them is only part of
their service to Tamil. The meticulous comparison of the collected
materials, scholarly analysis of pAta pEtams as well as source material,
raising funds for publishing them and following through with publishing the
collections all required years of scholarship, building a reputation and
track records and establishing contacts with the great patrons and the
heads of mutts. Even with all that Dr. u. vE. cA. had to deal with
allegations and besmirching of his character when he was alive.
One needs to remember that Dr. u. vE. cA. never studied in any of the
educational systems set up by the British Indian government. Even that
doctorate is an honorary award in recognition of his accomplishment. While
Dr. u. vE. cA., always credited his great teacher, mahavidhwan
mInakshisundaram piLLai, the world tends to forget the rigorous learning
experience provided by the mahavidhwan. It is quite obvious that the
traditional schooling that Dr. u. vE. cA., went through is no less than any
that the "modern" system implemented by British India. I'd even venture to
say that the modern system cannot match the Tamil scholarship provided by
the traditional schools.
> Since you are continuing the tradition of 'Tamil Thattha' ,
> the readers of this forum will agree with me in naming
> you as "Tamil Peran". (:-)
:-). With no offense to Dr. Kannan, I think that even this facetious
comparison diminishes the respect that the great publishers u. vE. cA.,
yAzppANam ARumuga nAvalar, tAmOdaram piLLai and others deserve. Certainly
the Roja Muthiah collections were made at great personal cost and we are
greatful for that unsung hero. The Koeln collections, Dr. Kalyanasundram's
digitization efforts and Project Madurai all may draw inspiration from the
early pioneers.
It is sad that more than a century after the great publishers brought out
the wonderful collections, we still need to depend on inspired amateurs to
preserve our heritage. While at least some of the established institutions
(funded by the Central government to preserve indic language source
material), the institutions founded by the Tamil Nadu government seem to
lack the funding, technical know-how or vision.
In the long run, if the Tamils of Tamil Nadu (both the government and NGOs)
don't live up to the standards set by the great pioneers, the meager
efforts of the inspired NRIs and foreign universities will only end up
capturing an one-dimensional snapshot of a forgotten heritage.
I am reminded of the plight of Dr. u. vE. ca. trying to eke out a few
hundred rupees to publish maNimEkalai, while one of his patrons spent over
100,000 rupees for some long forgotten thiruvizha. When I read about the
travails of A. Singaravelu Mudaliar trying to publish the
invaluable "Abithana Chinthamani - The Encyclopaedia of Tamil Literature",
I am stunned. I despair that pAvANar did not get the backing that he
needed to publish his etymological dictionary when he was alive.
When we celebrate Dr. Kannan's little victories, it is good to remember the
humbling failures of the modern Tamil institutions. Ultimately if Tamil
heritage were to be preserved, it needs to happen in the hearts and minds
of the Tamil heartland.
Regards,
Mani M. Manivannan
Newark, CA, USA.
To: [email protected]
From: "K. Kalyanasundaram"
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 08:41:36 +0100
Subject: Re: [e-suvadi] Travel diary 24.02.02 & 25.02.02
Reply-to: [email protected]
Dear Mani and Dr. Swaminathan:
> I agree with you that Dr. Kannan's travel diary may be worthy of
worthy of
> publishing. However, I hope your facetious comparison of Dr. Kannan
to Dr.
> u. vE. cA. is only to cheer up Dr. Kannan whenever he encounters
> indifferent bureaucracy.
I could not resist jumping in here and give my 2 cents thoughts. In
complex ventures such as THF, success will depend as much on various
human elements as financial and technical resources made available.
Kannan is putting up a heroic effort (at great personal sacrifice,
currently giving secondary importance to his profession at prime time of his
career) trying to reach out to people who have the resources (Tamil manuscripts
and financial).
At this point of time, I am not even sure attempting to publish
travalogues of Kannan will have positive effects within Tamilnadu, where he badly
needs active support and cooperation. His success so far to gain access
to these precious materials has been mixed, more positive with
individuals who hold personal collections and lukeworm at best from governmental
institutions (libraries).
We all need "role models" such as U Ve Ca to look up, particularly at
times when current difficulties appear gigantic and you cannot clearly see
any light along the long dark tunnel. Of course, handling very old palm
leaves which are already falling apart requires special training/expertise, so
also deciphering of the text written in them. U Ve Ca clearly is an
exception with expertise in these, though he must have learnt much of these
during those four decades of pursuit after Tamil literary treasures.
I do not know how much of the technical skills Mani uses every day at
his work he acquired during the educational training days in IIT of
Chennai.
But most of what I use in my academic research in photochemistry I
learnt all along my professional career. We all learn every day. I am
sure that the percentage of successful people who have perfect training
of the required skills before they engaged in the effort must be very
very small ;-) Did UVeCa had the all the skills and training he needed when
he first embarked on his mission? A quick reading of his 'cuya caritai'
does not indicate this to be the case.
THF is very much is in exploratory stage. Kannan is expecting Dato
Seri Samy Vellu to officially inagurate THF website in coming weeks!
In all fairness, evaluation of projects or individuals or writing
history must wait elapse of sufficient period of time (at least one or two
decades).
As someone who has been in constant dialogue with Kannan, even if
his current efforts totally fail, I will not put blame on him for lack
of genuine committment to the cause or lack of adequate efforts put in
and rush to banalize his attempts as adventures of an amateur,
ill-trained NRI. Kannan sees himself more as an evangelist for the cause.
Let us stay focussed on our mission and try to muster as much support
and cooperation we can rope in from key quarters.
anbudan
Kalyan