To the Authors of Manimekalai - Part One

Part One “Apart from its popular conception of transmigration, (which is) sometimes almost humouristic, Manimekhalai offers a documentary contribution of immense value, under an easily accessible form, on the philosophical speculations of Ancient India. The cosmology of Sankya, the scientism of Vaisheshika, the logic of Nyaya, the materialism of Lokayata, originally related to the Ajivika tradition, (all of) which re-appeared with force in the Dravidian world following the Saivite renewal a little before the beginning of the Christian era. The(se) concepts which had little by little, during the course of centuries, influenced the Vedic tradition manifested themselves with force from then on in an autonomous way and went on to give birth to the philosophy of Mediaeval India.” ( From Alain Danielou’s “Preface” in his and T. V. Gopala Iyer’s Manimékhalai ) To some the interest is in the reading hearing singing To others in the Buddhist faith that moved the begetter(s) To most the wondrous-unwonders of the story born in the Cilappatikaram To a few in the monstrous bending of the verse in nilamantilavaciriyappa To all time to parse in tongue-grinding heady rhymes initial rhymes end-rhymes alliterations antitheses rigourous unsyntactic ellipses double syllabic feet four to the line the exceptions in three all a mnemonic scaffolding of repetitive sound For yet others after Catanar's warehouses in Puhar were long empty the task of interpretation arose Some sought to impute his motives to caste-enhancing kingly favours Some as Aravana Atigal's hagiographer Some as a bodhisattva-feat acquirer Some as the anthologiser of myth and tradition Some as the poet-laureate of a people's ancient lore Some as a collective grass-roots inspirational catalyser Some as the hindu kings' proselytiser Some as a patron of a ghost-writer Some perhaps as the first ecstatic copyist Some who knows as an unrepenting plagiarist Who should care after all these years Who wrote what and why no image rests of him nor the jetties and godowns of the Cola entrepôt nor whether some Yavana read to him during the long monsoonal wait back for Rome the feisty encounters of a Ulysses or the airy goings and comings of the Olympian pantheon nor whether he cared to listen being full of a pride of his own (Continued in Part Two)