Sandhya Mulchandani has sealed the book in English (some bad news for editors of A Poem at the Right Moment), but she (Muddupalini) never told me what to do with those thorns.
Wait! I can’t get La La La La La La out of my head. Was that a hex from the witches? Am I also going to fall into that Linguistic Pit like Kampan?
From Omar Khayyam’s Wine to Pit Corder’s (1918-1990) Applied Linguistics feels like an ill-advised move. I better remorsefully do some blind thinking before my train of thought derails. So, I call for a muse with a violin to guide me:
I need some wood from Vīramāmunivar’s Poi tree (from the third meaning of Poi) for a raft (please wait for Purananuru 192) to travel from Tamizh to Italian Bel Canto.
Methinks, an apt point to invite Umberto Eco:
Why reject the story of the Rosicrucians, when it satisfied an expectation of religious harmony? And why reject the story of the Protocols, if they could explain so many historic events by the myth of the conspiracy? Karl Popper has reminded us that the social theory of conspiracy is like the one we find in Homer. Homer conceived the power of the gods in such a way that everything taking place on the plain before Troy represented only a reflection of the countless conspiracies devised on Olympus. The social theory of conspiracy, Popper says, is a consequence of the end of God as a reference point and of the consequent question, Who is there in his place? This place is now occupied by various men and powerful, sinister groups that can be blamed for having organized the Great Depression and all the evils we suffer.
Umberto Eco (Translated by William Weaver), Serendipities: Language & Lunacy (1998), 1. THE FORCE OF FALSITY, Falsehood and Verisimilitude, pg. 17
So, back to historia:
Herodotus was the star pupil of this school. His motto: Plausible or not, record everything and inquire. Father of History or Father of Lies? Menstruating men, Herodotus will be there to record it. How did Herodotus end up being crowned the father of lies? My lie – an imp misreading a semicolon as a colon from the list by Father of King’s English (F.o.K.E.):
Apologies to Oliver Ormerod for crowning H.W. Fowler as the F.o.K.E.
Now, I invite Robert Caldwell (1814-1891):
For anyone interested in Father Costanzo Giuseppe Beschi for casual reading or theological studies, please read:
Introduction Catholic Literary Practices in Eighteenth-Century South India (Open Access on Brill)
Caldwell’s account revolves around Tirunelveli. My inquiry is limited to Caldwell’s “investigation” of Vīramāmunivar (Father Costanzo Giuseppe Beschi) and A. Muttusami Pillei (Father’s Biographer).
Robert Caldwell (raised as a Presbyterian, traveled to India in 1838 as a non-conformist minister with the London Missionary Society, transferred to the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and died as an Anglican Bishop) about Beschi (Virgin Mary devotee):
As a missionary Beschi belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. As a Tamil scholar and poet Protestants have always taken as much interest in his career as Roman Catholics, perhaps even more. Coustantius Beschi was born at Castiglione in Italy on the 8th November 1680. On the 21st October 1698, being eighteen years of age, he entered the Society of Jesus. His native biographer states that he arrived in India in 1700, but Fr. Pouget shows that this was impossible. He must have passed two years in novitiate and then engaged in theological studies for four years. No member of the Society of Jesus is ordained priest before he is twenty-five years of age. He cannot, therefore, have sailed for India before 1706. The voyage at that time occupied at least six months; and after he reached Goa it would be considered necessary, according to the custom of the time, that he should remain there one or two years learning Tamil, the language of the district to which he was to be appointed. It seems probable, therefore, it is said, that he did not commence his missionary career in Tinnevelly before 1710. For my own part, accepting the data that have been mentioned 1708 seems the latest date that can be assigned for his arrival in Tinnevelly. His Tamil biographer says that he spent five years in learning Tamil. It might be said, doubtless, with still greater truth of so devoted a scholar that he was learning Tamil as long as he lived. In whatever year his career as a missionary actually commenced, it cannot now be doubted that it commenced in Tinnevelly, and it is equally certain that it was to Tinnevelly that he came to breathe his last.
Robert Cladwell, A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevelly, in the Presidency of Madras, from the earliest period to its cession to the English Government in A. D. 1801 (1881)
Imps! Impossible to get rid of, interrupting with morsels.
Impossible Fr. Pouget? How about less likely? Imp possible! Now and then, imps are notorious for ignoring the order of things.
My excuse for ignoring the order:
Mr. Babington possesses an extensive, and a profound knowledge of Sanscrit and Tamil… After having submitted to the College an English translation of the Shen Tamil Grammar, written originally in Latin by Father Beschi, he returned to England in possession of many of the works of that ingenious and distinguished writer. Some of these he has printed since his return to Europe, and he has transmitted them to Madras, that the memory of the venerable Father may be perpetuated and honoured in his adopted country. In executing the task, which under such auspices I willingly accepted, I availed myself of the manuscripts, which in 1798 had been prepared on the same subject by Viduven Saminada Pillei, an excellent Tamil poet, and the author of many Tamil works.
A.Muttusami Pillei, Brief sketch of the life and writings of Father C.J. Beschi or, Vira-mamuni, tr. from the original Tamil (1840)
From 1759 to 1814, there was the Suppression of the Jesuits. Given the circumstances, Poet Saminada Pillei deserves to be excused (if guilty) for fibbing. Now, A.Muttusami Pillei loves Beschi and the word heathen, so for his ghost, I shall leave the following poem (Purananuru 192 by Kaniyan Pungundranar):
யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்
தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர்தர வாரா
நோதலும் தணிதலும் அவற்றோ ரன்ன
சாதலும் புதுவது அன்றே வாழ்தல்
இனிதென மகிழ்ந்தன்றும் இலமே முனிவின்
இன்னா தென்றலும் இலமே மின்னொடு
வானம் தண்துளி தலைஇ யானாது
கல் பொருது மிரங்கு மல்லல் பேரியாற்று
நீர்வழிப் படூஉம் புணைபோல் ஆருயிர்
முறை வழிப் படூஉம் என்பது திறவோர்
காட்சியில் தெளிந்தனம் ஆகலின் மாட்சியின்
பெரியோரை வியத்தலும் இலமே
சிறியோரை இகழ்தல் அதனினும் இலமே
yātum ūrē yāvarum kēḷir
tītum naṉṟum piṟartara vārā
nōtalum taṇitalum avaṟṟō raṉṉa
cātalum putuvatu aṉṟē
vāḻtal iṉiteṉa makiḻntaṉṟum ilamē muṉiviṉ
iṉṉā teṉṟalum ilamē miṉṉoṭu
vāṉam taṇtuḷi talai'iyāṉāt
kal porutu miraṅku mallal pēriyāṟṟu
nīrvaḻip paṭū'um puṇaipōl āruyir
muṟai vaḻip paṭū'um eṉpatu tiṟavōr
kāṭciyil teḷintaṉam ākaliṉ māṭciyiṉ
periyōrai viyattalum ilamē
ciṟiyōrai ikaḻtal ataṉiṉum ilamē
With an English poetic translation from Prince Edward Island born George Uglow Pope (1820-1908):
To us all towns are one, all men our kin
Life's good comes not from others gift, nor ill
Man's pains and pains' relief are from within.
Death's no new thing; nor do our bosoms thrill
When joyous life seems like a luscious draught
When grieved, we patient suffer; for, we deem
This much - praised life of ours a fragile raft
Borne down the waters of some mountain stream
That o'er huge boulders roaring seeks the plain.
Tho storms with lightnings flash from darken'd skies
Descent, the raft goes on as fates ordain.
Thus have we seen in vision of the wise!
We marvel not at greatness of the great;
Still less despise we men of low estate .*
* Rev. G.U.Pope translated only a few poems from Purananuru. He was more interested in didactic works. I stole his Purananuru 192 translation from one of his comparative studies with The Kural couplet 397:
யாதானும் நாடாமால் ஊராமால் என்னொருவன்
சாந்துணையுங் கல்லாத வாறு
yātāṉum nāṭu āmāl; ūr āmāl; eṉ, oruvaṉ
cām tuṇaiyum kallātavāṟu
The learned make each land their own, in every city find a home;
Who, till they die; learn nought, along what weary ways they roam!
Here is another translation from Professor G. Subramania Pillai, focusing more on accuracy. The translation was part of his SAIVA SIDDHANTA lecture series (1946).
All places are ours, all our kith and kin;
Good and evil come, not caused by others;
Pain and relief are brought likewise, not by others;
Dying is not new; nor living gave us joy;
Misery we hated not. As in the flood,
Caused by clouds that poured in torrents
On a mountain top with lightning flash,
A raft goes in the direction of the stream,
So the swarm of lives move onward
In the way of destiny. This we have discerned
From the teachings of sages strong in wisdom.
So we admire not the great; nor scoff at the churl.
I shall end here for now. I have to find the bird from John Lydgate’s poem. My inquiry into Caldwell’s investigation shall continue. See you in Part C.
Art Tickles & Poignant Files 