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Why Vairamuthu Gets It Wrong About Aandal

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Shame on Vairamuthu for demeaning Andal who is one of the most venerated Tamil poets...She and Avvaiyar are the 2 most female poets held in high esteem in Tamil society...Now the Christian evangelists, Marxists wanted to break this citadel...See the planned moves to denigrate Periya Puranam & Thiruppavai...Why did Dinamani editor agree to preside over the function..Shame on the paper too!!


Why Vairamuthu Gets It Wrong About Aandal

by Aravindan Neelakandan
- Jan 10, 2018



  • By undermining the spiritual grandeur of Aandal, Vairamuthu has only revealed his shallow understanding of Tamil social history.
    It is critical to understand why Aandal is being targeted this way by those posing as intellectuals.


One of the favourite strategies of the Dravidianist and Marxist ‘writers’ in Tamil Nadu, has been writing speculative fictions on the history of venerated Hindu seers. These speculative forays are invariably negative, deeply distortionary, seldom based on robust historic scholarship and rooted in Marxist or Dravidiainist Hinduphobia but passed off under the garb of artistic licence. A circuitous process of ‘mainstreaming’ then ensues.
These works of speculative fiction is lent credence by non-Tamil academics belonging to the entrenched establishment, as the 'source material' for 'alternative' reading of history. In the next step the academics get copiously quoted by home-bred Dravidianists and Marxists as 'proof' for the distorted depiction of Hindu saints.
Recently, a Kollywood screen-writer, without an iota of respect for well-established historical facts, made a brazen claim that the epic Periya Puranam the devotional poetic narrative on the histories of the 63 Nayanmars and quintessentially Hindu responses to movements of social stagnation, was influenced by Christian stories of saints. Not to be outdone, a noted Kollywood lyricist Vairamuthu went event a step further. Rumoured to be striving for a 'Gnanapeeth' award, the influential lyricist chose the Tamil month of Markazhi to distort and degrade Aandal - one of the greatest of the Tamil poetesses and definitely one of the greatest of the mystic poetesses of humanity.


In a copybook Dravidianist rhetorical style that places very little premium on scholarship, he claimed the period in which Aandal lived was the period when Tamil society was making a transition from dharma-based society to theistic society. This typical Dravidianist fantasy, of an earlier materialistic, proto-atheistic Tamil society prior to the Bhakthi movement, has been repeatedly falsified by countless poems in the Sangham literature.
For example Vairamuthu belabours a distinction between deivam and kadavul. He regards the latter as something spiritually lower in hierarchy than the former. Then he goes on to announce that Krishna was originally a deivam and later turned into a kadavul or godhead. He implies the 'Maal' (Thirumaal) worship in ancient Tamil literature was something similar to ancestral worship as against the worship of kadavul which he implies as the worship of the Unknown. However Sangham literature like Paripadal which were composed before the so-called Bhakthi movement of the seventh century clearly show a spiritual vision of Thirumaal - which is very Vedic. Paripadal sings of Vishnu-Thirumaal thus:


Your presence is in the banyan tree with its fiery flames of prop roots which germinate and also give shade and also in the Kadamba tree; it is in the centre of the islets one finds in the good rivers; in the hills where the wind is still and in many other places similar - in every such place (where one can feel the sacredness) You are. And You are with names many and paths whatever have You as their destiny. You are in the harmony that pervades the hands of Your devotees folded in worship. You are their servant and You protect the actualizing of their endeavors.​
Paripadal 4:66-73



Kadavul, which the lyric-writer of Kollywood passes for as 'unknowable' or something that could be known only by a chosen few, comes out in Sangham literature as a divine principle that manifests in the sacred spaces of day to day life.
According to various Sangham poets, the kadavul principle manifests itself in various places and varied objects including the junctions of roads, in the forests, in the base of the trees and in trees like neem, in the mountains, in the water bodies, in the royal drums etc.


What is even more damaging to the spurious speculation of Vairamuthu and the general thesis of the Dravidianists is the Sangham poet, when describing the boundaries of his cultural matrix, speaks of Himalayas as where kadavul is centred. Here the words ‘Himalayas where the Gods are centred’ seems to have a pan-Indic usage as centuries later Kalidasa (4th to 5th century CE) uses the same imagery for Himalayas ‘Devatatma Himalaya’.
After suggesting such baseless binaries in a fantasy laden ancient Tamil culture, Vairamuthu reduces the spiritual grandeur of Aandal to fallacious reading limited by his shallow understanding of Tamil social history. Imagining to climb the intellectual high pedestal, the Kollywood lyricist claims that the women of seventh and eighth century were considered as mere object in the household and were locked in the house.
Then he pictures Aandal as an exceptional voice of liberation of women. He blames the traditional Sri Vaishnava commentary as ‘not doing justice’ to Aandal. Then he claims that though Periyazhvar, a Brahmin by birth, was the foster father of Aandal her caste was unknown and hence she was not accepted in the society. Along with this ‘fact’ he asks his audience to listen to another 'fact’, that in those days the society and the state had sanctioned dedicating women to temples.
So the conclusion, Vairamuthu arrives is that her poetry should be seen as a kind of protest poetry against such social phenomena. Apparently as a clinching proof, the lyricist provides a sentence from 'Indian Movements: Some Aspects of Dissent Protest and Reform' (Ed. Subhash Chandra Malik) published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study in 1978. Interestingly, the lyricist mentions the book as having published by ‘Indiana University of America.’
A cursory search on Google reveals that the book itself was very much an Indian publication and was not published by any American university but by Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. The last time I checked, Shimla is very much in India, Himachal Pradesh and not in Indiana, United States.



thebook.jpg
Contrary to what Vairamuthu claimed, the book he quoted was published not by Indiana University but by India based ‘Indian Institute of Advanced Study’ Shimla.



It is critical to understand why Aandal is being targeted this way by anti-Hindu and Hindu-phobic rhetoricians posing as intellectuals.
Azhvars are an interesting, unique and very important socio-spiritual phenomenon in the history of India. Usually dated from around 5th to 9th or even 10th century CE, they created the spiritual and philosophical substratum over which Sri Ramanuja formulated his Sri Vaishnavism. Alzhvars contained in their high poetry all the possibilities for individual liberty and social emancipation. It is not an accident that the Sri Vaishnavism of Sri Ramanuja rooted in the sacred literature of azhvars later gave birth to various spiritual social movements in North India including Kabir Panth, a tradition that served as an ideological milieu which subsequently inspired personalities like Dr Ambedkar.
Out of 12 alzhvars, the only female is Aandal. Her poetry combines the poetry of nature, body and spirit. There is aesthetics of highest order combined with deepest expression of bridal mysticism almost unparalleled in the world literature. Naturally, anti-Hindu and Hindu-phobic colonial-evangelical-Marxist scholarship had for the past two centuries tried to demonise and deconstruct her in every way possible - from calling her poetry just eroticism to using the outdated frameworks of Freud and Marx.
Coming back to the specific claims, how much of this is true? The marriage of a girl to the deity as in the case of Aandal is, as can be very well seen by her own poetry, very much a mystical experience. During her times, the institution of so-called devadasi was not there. It was during the Chola time that the devadasi system got institutionalised. Historian Upinder Singh in her book on the history of ancient and medieval India, writes:
Leslie Orr’s study shows that the ‘temple women’ of the Chola period were very different from the devadasis of the 20th century. ... The modern devadasi phenomenon is marked by hereditary transmission, professional skill, and temple dedication. None of these were operative in the case of the temple women of the Chola period. These women were neither temple dancers nor prostitutes. They were not married to the God, nor is there any indication that their sexual activity was exploited or confined to the temple context. Their history in the Chola period cannot be seen as a story of degeneration or decline - in fact their position got strengthened and well established over time.​
A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century, 2008



In fact, the bridal mysticism itself can be traced to Vedic literature itself. And it also created gender fluidity, a phenomenon that is very important in later day understanding of gender minority rights and issues.


Prof Vijaya Ramaswamy Professor of ancient Indian history at JNU points this out this Vedic roots of Aandal’s bridal mysticism:


The use of the metaphor of a mystic marriage in describing the close bond between divine and human appears to be as old as the Rig Veda where one finds lines such as: “My thoughts touch you, powerful Indra, even as loving wives embrace their husbands. And again: ‘As wives embrace their own husbands, even so they embrace the faultless and generous Indra for support.’ In the Bhagavata movement of south India, besides Namma-zhwar, Manikkavachagar, the tenth-century Saivite saint, is the best example of a ‘male bride’ mystic.​
Walking Naked: Women, Society, Spirituality in South India,1997



Incidentally, the book of Prof Ramaswamy was also published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study , right here in the state of Himachal Pradesh and not in Indiana, USA.
So why did Prof Subhash Chandra Malik make such an authoritative assertion of a historically wrong statement on Aandal being a devadasi. This lie is rooted in a 1960 short story penned by Daniel Selvaraj, a Marxist writer belonging to Communist Party of India. In this he had ‘re-read’ Aandal as being born in devadasi lineage.
The story described Aandal as a devadasi and she assuming spiritual 'penance' to escape the predatory attempts of then Pandya king Sri Vallabha. Periyazhvar too was depicted in the short story as a person who enjoyed the sexual favours of devadasis. The story also implied that Aandal could have been the child born out of such relations. Incidentally, in Sri Vaishnava tradition, Periyazhvar, Aandal and Sri Vallabha Pandya are all held in veneration for more than 1,000 years.
The short story was a deliberate propagandist account that intentionally falsified history. As stated earlier devadasis were not part of the temple institutions in Tamil provinces prior to 9th century. However, what is interesting is that this propagandist distortion of history had reached the ivory towers of academia and had gained a life of its own.
In 2012, the short story collection that included the story that falsified Aandal's history was sneaked into the Tamil curriculum for BA and BSc students of Manonmanian Sundranar University, Tirunelveli. “The book was published by New Century Book House, a leftist publishing house. This is another example of how the cabal of leftist authors - the left wing publishing houses and their own professors inside the curriculum committee in university function in hand in glove manner - using the government educational institutions for indoctrinating the students,” says advocate Visu who was then in Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and coordinated the protests against the inclusion of this story in the curriculum.
“We did not ask for the ban of the book or did not even question the right of the author to falsify history for his propaganda “, he pointed out, “But we questioned how a propagandist literature that falsifies history was included in the curriculum for students at an impressionable age.” With such clear-headed and timely protests the short story was removed from the collection and NCBH reprinted the short story collection without that story demeaning Aandal.


“It is a feeling of deja vu !” says Visu, an advocate in the district court of Nagercoil, when asked about what ongoing controversy over Vairamuthu’s speech on Aandal. "They would never cease their raids on our cultural and spiritual heritage.
These attempts, almost akin to Gaznavi - Malik Kafur raids on our cultural and literary monuments, should be protected by us with vigilance and intelligence. But tell me, why call a known Hindu baiting lyricist for a function on Aandal? That is the original sin,” he says.
One has to agree.

https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/aandal-attacked-again-and-again
 
Hi Vigane,

This is balanced and reasoned reply to Vairamuthu whose urge to prove his dravidian credentials overtook his need to be a man.

I reproduce below another fitting reply in Tamil received in whatsapp.


வைரமுத்து அவர்களுக்கு,

எனக்கும் உங்களுக்கும் ஒரு ஒற்றுமை.தமிழ் நிறைய பிடிக்கும். ஆனால் என் தமிழ் எனக்கு என் கடவுளை துதி செய்யவும் உதவும். உங்களுக்கு நிதி செய்ய மட்டுமே உதவும்.

சபை நாகரீகம் என்று ஒன்றுள்ளது அன்பரே. அது சபையில் உள்ளோரை மட்டும் மரியாதை செய்ய வேண்டும் என்ற வரையறை இன்றி இல்லாதவரையும் மதிக்க வேண்டும் என்பதாம். அதுவே ஒரு ஆழ்வார் என மதித்துப்போற்றப்படும் தமிழர்களின் பெருமையாம் ஆண்டாளைப்பற்றிப் பேசும்போது? இன்னும் கவனம்வேண்டாமா? இல்லை இது கவன ஈர்ப்பு முயற்சியா?

"பெருமாளுக்கென்றே முந்தி விரிக்கத்தலைப்பட்டவள்" என்று ஆண்டாளைக் குறிப்பிடும்போது உங்கள் ஆணாதிக்க அரிப்பை அப்பட்டமாக வெளிப்படுத்தி உங்கள் "உயர்வு" இவ்வளவு தான் என்பதை தெளிவாக்கியதற்கு நன்றி.

உங்கள் தாயாரை யாருக்காவது அறிமுகம் செய்யும் பொது இவள் என் தகப்பனுக்கு முந்தி விரித்தவள் என்பீரோ? உங்கள் தாய்க்கும் தகப்பனுக்கும் "அது" நடந்தது என்றாலும் உங்கள் தாயைப் பார்க்கும்போது "அது" ஒன்று தான் உங்கள் மனம் நினைக்குமா? எத்தனை இழிவான மன நிலை இது உங்களுக்கு?

திறனறிந்து சொல்லுக சொல்லை அறனும் பொருளும் அதனினூஉங்கு இல்" என்றான் வள்ளுவன். நீங்கள் இப்படி தரம் இழந்த சொல்லை சொல்லக்காரணம் என்னவோ?

அமெரிக்காவின் Indiana University இல் என்று பயமுறுத்தவேண்டாம். எல்லாவற்றுக்கும் அமெரிக்க ஆய்வு ஒரு முன்னோடி என்னும் slavery mind இன்னும் வைரமுத்துவுக்கு நீங்கவில்லை எனபதில் வியப்பொன்றும் இல்லை.நம் உயரம் என்னவென்று தெரிந்துகொள்ள ஒரு அமெரிக்க ஆராய்ச்சி தேவை இல்லை. இதை நான் ஒரு பக்தனாகவும் இந்தியனாகவும் சொல்கிறேன். மற்றப்படி நீங்கள் சொல்வது போல நீங்கள் ஒன்றும் "ஆணாதிக்க எதிர்ப்பாளர்" இல்லை. வெறும் திராவிடக்கூலியே.

உங்களைப்போன்ற திராவிடக்கூலிகளுக்கு ஒரு சராசரி தமிழனுக்குரிய அளவு வீரம் இல்லை என்பது ஊரறிந்த உண்மை. இங்கே அது மறுபடியும் நிருபணம் ஆயுள்ளது. முடிந்தால் இவ்வளவு பேசும் நீங்கள் ஒரே ஒரு முந்தி விரிப்பது பற்றிய பகுத்தறிவுக் கேள்வியை மட்டும் டிசம்பர் மாதம் கடைசி வாரம் உரத்த குரலில் உலகத்திடம் கேளுங்கள்.
நீங்கள் பீற்றிக்கொள்ளூம் "சமய சமூக மறுப்பாளர்" பட்டம் துவைத்து எடுக்கப்படும். உங்கள் பகுத்தறிவு வாதம் டப்பா டான்சு ஆடும்.

நா காக்க.

Reproduced shanmukanathan's post in whatsapp as received.
 
hi

the result of companionship with MUKA......the dravidians forgot the truth about tamil language patronised by alwars/nayanmars..

later brahmins like bharathiyar/U VE SWAMINATHA IYER....the tamil thatthaa...only brahmins developed tamil much more than anybody..

this is the truth...
 
This one from Tamil Scholar Nellai Kannan from his FB Post

வைரமுத்து கொஞ்சம் ஆசைப்படுபவர் ஆண்டாளை முற்றிலுமாகப் பேசுவதாகக் கருதிக் கொண்டு கட்டிக் கொண்டுள்ளார்

கவிப் பேரரசு பட்டமே அவராகவே போட்டுக் கொண்டது தானே
ஆண்டாளும் தானும் ஒன்ரு என்று போலவே உரையைத் துவக்கியின்றார்
சக மனுஷியைப் பற்றிப் பேச வந்திருக்கின்றேன்
இவரும் கவிஞராம் ஆண்டாள் நாச்சியாரும் கவிஞராம்
இங்கே தான் மாட்டிக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றார்
அமெரிக்க ஆய்வையெல்லாம் தான் காட்ட குற்படுவதைப் பெருமை என்று காட்டிக் கொள்ள முயன்று மாட்டிக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றார்
கண்ணதாசன் பாசுரங்களிலே தோய்ந்தவர்
அவர் சொன்னார்
கோதை ஆண்டாள் தமிழை ஆண்டாள் கோபாலன் இல்லாமல் கல்யாணம் வேண்டாள் என்று
 
One thing this has done is that it has united the Asthika Hindus!! There have been many protest meetings in various parts of TN against Vairamuthu...Many mutt heads have come in the open to protest his barbaric attack on a Hindu Goddess!!
 
This one is also widely circulated in WhatsApp...

But its authenticity.........................??


1


Source: WhatsApp..
 
So far only BJP & PMK have supported the astikas! Now DMDK Vijaykanth has spoken against Vairamuthu...Looks like Stalin also wants this issue to be settled amicably!! As H. Raja has said, let this be the last incident where Hinduism is denigrated!! Now we will not take lying down!!

ஆண்டாள் சர்ச்சை: துர்காவின் சமாதானத் திட்டம்!

https://minnambalam.com/k/2018/01/20/30
 
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