History has been repeating rather cruelly in the case of the Munsif’s family of Vadakarai, a small village near Madurai.
If the ancestors of the family moved to Vadakarai from the Cauvery delta region between Mysuru and Thanjavur to escape the forced marriage of their sister with a local Muslim chieftain before letting her die, 600 years later the narrator and IAS officer M. Rajendran’s sister was murdered along with his mother in 1992, days before her marriage.
The central characters of Vadakarai, Oru Vamsathin Kathai , a fictionalised narrative of historical events, (published by Agani)are actually women who remained silent victims to the philandering ways of their dominant husbands with Sultan-like lifestyles.
Whether it is Sundara, an excellent cook, who is forced to beg for food after her husband’s death or Nonti Meenakshi who vacates her husband’s place with her pregnant sister, life is a constant struggle. But they never complain.
Even Mr. Rajendran’s father Mookaiah Thevar had relationship with 164 women, a fact he came to know from his father’s close associate who had carefully recorded their names.
“I know the pain of being the son of the second wife of a man. I wanted to be honest in my portrayal of my family. Life is just not accumulation of honours, but also full of bitterness, shameful episodes, embarrassing situations and agonising moments,” said Mr. Rajendran when asked about his father’s account in the novel.
Mr. Rajendran, now Director of the Agriculture Department, said tears welled up in his eyes every time he opened the pen to write the story of Kambankuzhi Karuppayee.
She was the sister for three brothers—Nallamookan, Cholamookan and Kizhimookan — who had migrated to Vadakarai as they did not want to give their sister in marriage to the local chieftain of Malik Kafur, even though their relatives converted to Islam.
She got the name Kambankuzhi Karuppayee as her brother let her drown in a storage structure for pearl millet. The three brothers lit a lamp and collect a handful of soil and set out for a safe place after killing a few local soldiers. They settled in Vadakarai and their descendents became the Munsifs of the village. The documents available since 1800 further substantiates the historical background of the story, while offering insights into village administration.
Much later, Mr. Rajendran was narrated this story by their grandfather. As a boy, he used to interrupt the story-teller whether his new-born sister had any resemblance to Karuppayee, who was revered as their family’s deity. “Don’t compare,” his grandfather cautioned.
But hardly he knew that his sister Kalaivani will also be killed just before marriage. The IAS officer in his book has not spared even senior police officers who probed his sister’s murder. Some of them are still in service.
“The book has unburdened me of my past,” he added.
