preface
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preface.html
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Art and Culture of Tamilnadu
R. Nagaswamy
PREFACE
The collection of essays included in this volume will give a glimpse into the socio-cultural life of the Tamils and their achievements in certain fields of art in the medieval period. Like any other region of the country, the Tamil land had its distinct personality of its own, but from the beginning of the historical period, the pan-Indian character and cultural traits are reflected clearly in the regional literature and epigraphical records.
Often it has been said, in a loose manner, that the unity of India was ushered by the British administration. Nothing seems to be farther from truth. A study of the first chapter in this book would reveal, that though the country was ruled by different dynasties in different regions, mutually inimical to each other, the life of the people including that of the kings, in their religious and secular spheres, remained the same throughout the country. While in the North, the cultural current of the nation received a violent shake up from the 11th century onwards, due to foreign invasions, the extreme South retained the Indian cultural traits with comparitively less incursions till the middle 18th century A.D., and therefore, offers, valuable scope for studying Indian character in its ancient form. There were Hindu kingdoms ruling until A.D. 1730 in the South administering Indian code of law, administration and religious practices, a study of which is absolutely essential for an understanding of true India. It does not mean that the South remained in isolation, but has shown great ingenuity in assimilating the incoming ideas. That the agriculturists, the merchants, the Brahmins and the ruling class had a common base and at the sametime an individuality of their own will be seen from the first essay. Some aspects of their daily life is also sketched to give a proper appreciation of the society. The rights and previleges of the queen given in this chapter would facilitate the reader to compare them with the ones that prevailed in other parts of India and the Western World. The titles assumed by the Chieftains in the medieval period, after the well-known places of India like Magada, Ayodhya, Vatsa, Chedi, Kalinga, Virata, etc., would show the veneration and aspiration, the Tamils had for these places of eminence.
This unity is certainly not an entity that flowered in the historical age. The commonness of the languages spoken by people seperated by over two thousand kilometres from Maharashatra in the North (or even Gujarat) to Kanyakumari in the South, when viewed against the material culture revealed by archaeological excavations would become meaningful and show that they had their roots in prehistoric times. This is suggested in the second chapter.
All classical art, architecture, and philosophy arise from simple, intimate folk traditions and beliefs. Even the concepts of God and their magnificant abodes gradually evolve from the village life and environments. The essay on village gods, focusses the attention on this aspect. The great art movements could properly be understood only against the background of the society that created the same. After giving the social life and the village concepts of God, the book carries a number of essays on some Well-known and a few little known monuments and places of Tamil Nadu. A considerable number deal with bronzes for which the Tamil land has now attained fame. The article on astronomy shows how the Tamils made use of the same in their transactions.
The first chapter on Social and Cultural life of the Tamils' embodies basically two of the lectures, I delivered at Manipur, at the invitation of Atom Babu Research Institute in 1973. thank Mr. Sharma, the Trustee of the Institute for having given me this Opportunity. Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the doyan of Indian scholars, who invited me to give these two lectures, likened Atom Babu to Agastya, the Vedic sage, who made the people of the South imbibe the great Indian Culture, by enriching the regional language through his translations of Indian thought. Atom Babu's translation of Indian literature into Manipuri is stupendous. Like the sages of Ancient India, Suniti Babu narrated to me the great Work of Atom Babu and his contribution to the cultural integration of the country. I cannot adequately express the profound inspiration I derived from Suniti Babu's affectionate teachings, ever fresh in my mind. I respectfully dedicate this work to the memory of this savant.
Some of the other articles appearing in this book (in revised form) were contributed by me to various journals and weeklies like the Lalit Kala, the Hindu, Kalakshetra quarterly, etc. To the editors of these, I express my thanks. For permission to use photographs illustrated in this work I thank the Tamil Nadu State Archaeology Department and the French Institute of Indology Pandicherry. My thanks are also due to Mr. Swadesh Prasad of Sundeep Prakashan who has taken such a keen interest of this work and has published it in such a pleasant form.
To write numerically a great number of books is a temptation, but to write a sensible few, is a discipline. If this work comes closer to the latter, I would deem it a great honour.
R. Nagaswamy