Personality Of The Week
Thirty years of collection, one year of writing, 3,700 pages in Tamil in nine volumes. He may not get back even the cost of the paper on which he has written and the work is yet to be printed. He is not bothered. “I did it for my soul satisfaction and nothing more,” explains 86-year-old K.V.Srinivasan. A Naladiyar explains the unseen thus: “Viragil theeyulan, palil padu neypol, maraya ninrulan, maamani jothiyan” (as fire in firewood and ghee in milk so is God latent). The endeavour of Mr. Srinivasan also focuses on the latent. The preamble to his compilation, which he has christened as Thathuva Ramayanam in Tamil, starts like this: The underlying truth\ concept (in Ramayana) is more important than the story. The flowers are more beautiful than the seed. Those reading epics ignoring the underlying concepts are akin to those eating the peel of the fruit instead of tasting it; as we extract the juice from an orange, the underlying truth in the epics should be understood and recognised and the stories should be discarded.
He completed his magnum opus on May 21 this year and everything lies in manuscript form but beautifully bound. In an interaction with G.Satyamurty, he admits: “There is nothing extraordinary about what I have done. Nothing of this could be called original. To steal from someone is plagiarism. If you were to steal from many, it is research,” he jokes. Quoting a British researcher, he adds: “Research is a mere excuse for idleness.
All that I have done is to compile what I have collected over the last 30 years from various sources including magazines, books, radio, TV, discourses and lectures. To put it succinctly, I have used the decoction of Valmiki Ramayana, the milk of Kamba Ramayana and the sugar of Thusli Ramayana to provide some sort of a coffee in Tamil.” Hailing from Gobichettiplayam, a graduate in botany from St. Jospeh’s college, Trichy, in the early 1940s, who ultimately became a bank employee , the loss of his spouse more than two decades ago goaded him on to do something connected with Ramayana. To him Rama is Paramathma, Seetha is Jeevathma and their union is through the Acharya-Anjaneya.
“This thought of writing germinated in me when I was taken to a Ramayana discourse by a Srivilliputhur scholar in 1950. For me, listening to Ramayana is punya (divine gift) and doing puja for Ramayana is punya. Then why should I not write about it I thought though I am by no stretch of imagination could be considered a scholar?” The major reason for the Ramayana to live in the memory of the people is its literary felicity and the story is also related to human beings. But, at the same time, he hastens to add that the epic enlightens us on all the primary requisites for our life.
“There is quite a lot of thathuvam (principles) embedded in the entire epic.” Quoting Thiruvalluvar, he points out that intelligence means identification of the truth in everything (“meiporul kanbathu arivu”). From Ramayana also, the readers should identify and understand the latent truth, so oft thought but never so well expressed. He is against a cursory or a superficial reading. “If one were to understand the underlying truth in every stanza, it gives you the real satisfaction.”
Mr. Srinivasan also points out an important feature of Kamba Ramayana. Though Kambar was said to be a Saivite, he wrote about an avatar of Vishnu thus emphasising that there is no conflict between Shiva and Vishnu concepts. Besides, he has an interesting explanation why he chose Ramayana. Though both Rama and Krishna are Vishnu’s incarnations, while Krishna preached how one should live, it is Rama who lived how one should. It is easier to preach than to demonstrate. “I chose the one who lived how one should.”
He also points out how Ramayana is a beacon light to the society because it explains how any deviation from the correct path will lead to problems. And that is the crux of all the scriptures. Alluding to four ways (aspects) of life, he says: “Rama is aram (dharma-purity); Lakshmana is porul (material wealth); Bharatha is inbam (Bakthi) and Shatrugana is Veedu (moksha). Thiruvalluvar might have written only about three – Arathupal, Porutpal and Kamathupal – because he firmly believed that who leads life following all these three scrupulously would definitely get “moksha.”
