Sanketi: Ondu Adhyayana, Vols.1-9
By Dr. Pranatartiharan, Samudaya Adhyayana Kendra , 2003-2010
Individuals and communities migrate from one place to another for various reasons — for greener pastures, for religious or political freedom, and, occasionally, for wanderlust. Such individuals and communities, once they come across a suitable place, settle down there and in course of time, forget their original homeland, language and culture – but not totally. Even, after a few centuries, traces of original language and culture stay with them and, now and then, they look back at their ‘roots' with mixed feelings of wonder and nostalgia. This is one of the major reasons why Ethnic Studies and Community Studies are very popular today — they provide broad contours of different communities coming together, their mutual influences and conflicts. In short, such studies serve as micro-level socio-cultural histories. One such impressive study is Dr. Pranatarthiharan's series, “Sanketi Studies”.
“Sanketi: A Study,” originally, was the thesis Haran submitted for his Ph.D. degree, in 1993. Later, in collaboration with other eminent scholars, he brought out nine volumes on the subjects related to the Sanketi community, their migrations, language, rituals and festivals, oral literature, agriculture, letters, and such. Here, I have focused only on the first volume.
The Sanketi community is a ' small sub-sect of Smartha Brahmins, about 25,000 people who migrated from southern Tamil Nadu, a few centuries ago. They are found mostly in old Mysore state (especially in the neighbourhood of Kaveri and Tunga rivers), and, traditionally, they are noted for agriculture, study of the Vedas, and classical music. This community, apart from Havyakas, appears to be the only Brahmin community (in Karnataka), whose main occupation is agriculture. They speak a dialect which has freely borrowed words and grammatical structures from Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu, besides retaining certain Tamil elements. They are first mentioned in the ‘Mysore Census Report, 1871 & 1893'; and the first major work on this topic was M. Keshavaiah's “Life of Nacharamma” in 1936. After Keshavaiah, many other scholars like C. S. Ramachandra, H. S. Ananthanarayana, and Kikkeri Narayana have done considerable work in this field. But Haran's work, carried on for more than a decade, appears to be exhaustive and authoritative.
A few of the major conclusions of Haran are: a) The Smartha Brahmins, living in the north, migrated to Tamilnadu during the 7-8{+t}{+h} centuries. Since they lived in a place called Shenkotai they were called ‘Sanketis'. b) They began to migrate in waves to Karnataka in 1087 A. D., first they settled in Nilagunda (Dist. Bellary), and later, around 1120 A. D., settled in Hassan district. c) The ‘real' reason for the migration was the tragic ‘Nacharamma episode'. d) In their long journey, they followed the Kaveri river valley, which was then a popular trade-cultural route. e) They do not owe allegiance to any one Matha or Guru. f) They have harmonised the study of the Vedas and manual work in arecanut gardens. g) Its orthodox beliefs and practices being questioned today, the community finds itself in a state of transition.
The second volume consists of 555 letters written by Sanketis, over a period of a century (1891-2003), collected and glossed by Haran; and they make a very interesting reading, providing rare glimpses to a bygone world: letters expressing fears about the Plague-endemic (1926, 1945, etc.); the unemployment problem faced by the first generation to get modern education (1931, 1932, 1934, etc. — one young man writes to his father: “who cares for B.A.s now?); letters about early marriages (1936); a mother-in-law scalding her daughter-in-law with a hot iron as punishment (1935); the value of rupee then (1921, a father sends one rupee to his son studying in a city for his expenses); and such.
Dr. H. S. Ananthanarayana, the famous linguist, has edited Volume-4, devoted to linguistic analysis of the Sanketi-dialect; there are 22 scholarly articles written by five linguists including the editor. All these articles demonstrate that Sanketi is a dialect of Tamil, it has its own grammar, it has absorbed some features of Malayalam, and that “it is as good as any other dialect or language and serves as well as any in the function of communication.”
Dr. Haran has done a remarkable job that demands scholarship, enormous labour, and perseverance. Of course, still, a few nagging questions remain regarding the ‘true' cause/s of migration, the path taken during migration, etc., but that is true of all such projects involving a reconstruction of the past. But for the occasional adulatory tone, Dr. Haran's work is a model for community studies.
