A.A. Manavalan, former head of the department of Tamil, Madras University, who died on Saturday, was a scholar of comparative literature and the proponent of the theory of ‘counter-influence’ in literature. He was one of two winners of the Saraswati Samman from Tamil Nadu.
He studied both Tamil and English and obtained a doctorate in English Literature from the Madras University.
He was well-versed in Tamil, English, Telugu and Hindi and was an honorary professor in Indiana, Chicago, Columbia, Washington and New York universities. His comparative study of Ramayanam resulted in the book Ramakadhayam Ramayanamum , which is a comparative study of 48 Ramayanas from Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Tibetan, Tamil, Old Javanese, Telugu, Assamese, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi, Hindi, Odishi, Persian, Malay, Burmese Maranao, Thai, Laotian and Kashmiri.
It won him the Saraswati Samman, set up by the K.K. Birla Foundation.
“He proposed the theory of counter-influence and argued that Kambaramayana influenced Ramayana in other languages and later editions of Valmiki’s work,” said writer Perumal Murugan, who was a student of Manavanan, and studied in the department for eight years.
Counter-influence
“….one has no other option but to conclude that the texts of Valmiki Ramayana that were being reproduced in medieval Tamil Nadu came to be influenced by the Ramayana of Kamban. This is a case where the ‘giver’ becomes the ‘receiver’ in certain contexts, a process which can be called counter-influence,” wrote Manavalan in the essay ‘Counter-Influence – A Strange Literary Phenomenon’.
Former VCK MLA and writer Ravikumar quoted from the works of Manavalan to reiterate how the ideas in Kambaramayana had gained currency over the original after Vaishnava Acharyas freely used the works of Valmiki and Kamban.
“During such co-living, the deviations and alternations made by Kamban in keeping with Tamil tradition might have appealed more to Tamil sensibility and thus slowly gained currency over the original,” Manavalan had explained.
Citing from his article penned for the World Classical Tamil Conference in 2010, Mr. Ravikumar quoted Manavalan as saying that what was referred to as Vadamozhi or Vadasol (Sanskrit) in Tholkappiyam was actually Prakrit. He had specifically mentioned words to prove that there were interpolations in Tholkappiyam .
Perumal Murugan said it was not easy to work under Manavalan for doctoral thesis. “Students had to work hard. If the student is prepared for it, he will offer proper guidance. He always used to insist on a meticulous approach,” he said.
Manavalan’s other important works are Tamil Bakhti Ilakkiyam , Ilakkiya Oppaivu — Sanga Ilakkiyam and Ulaga Tamil Ilakkiya Varalaru . Sahitya Akademi published his book on Tagore in Tamil. He also translated Porulathikaram of Tholkappiyam into English and wrote written about interpolations in Tholkappiyam .
