In 1925, the Theosophical Society, Mannargudi branch, held a meeting to decide how best it could serve the country. Rao Sahib S.V. Kanakasabhai Pillai felt that the best service was to provide education to villagers. He said that the Society should organise classes for those who had not had an opportunity to go to school. Boys between the ages of 14 and 18 and men up to the age of 28 could attend the classes. For the sake of convenience, classes would be held in the months of May and June. That was the time when there wouldn’t be much to do in the fields. It was also the time when schools closed for the summer vacation, and so teachers would be available.
A panchayat consisting of two landlords and a senior teacher would be set up in every village that wanted to be a part of the scheme. They would identify where the classes would take place — it may be the pyol of a house or a pandal or even the platform under a peepul tree. Before commencement of the classes, a thamukku was to be sounded in the village for six days, to inform the villagers about the classes.
The teacher-student ratio was to be 1: 50, and the strength of a class was not to exceed hundred. Teachers were men between the ages of 18 and 28. They were volunteers, who would not take any pay. But the villages, which opted for the programme, would provide them with accommodation and food. The teachers would answer questions of the students at any time of the day. The students were to be taught how to write letters in Tamil and essays on various topics including international affairs, how to fill up money order forms, how to register a letter and send insured parcels by post. They would memorise and recite verses, read short stories, study civics and history. Lessons would be from text books used in government schools. The students were to be taught about weights and measures, multiplication and division. They had to memorise multiplication tables. Classes would be held at convenient times of the day — from 7-9 a.m. and from 4-6 p.m.
It took two years for Pillai’s plans to materialise. Classes began in Mannargudi town in July 1927. The first batch had only 25 students and classes were held in the garden of a property belonging to the Theosophical Society. Gradually, other villages in the district caught on.
Kanakasabhai Pillai felt that without fostering reading habit, teaching people to read and write was not going to take them far. But remote villages did not have libraries. So Kanakasabhai Pillai came up with plans for a mobile library. Pillai, who was an assistant engineer with the PWD, designed a bullock cart, to carry books to the villages. Thus was born the mobile library which was inaugurated in Melavasal village, Mannargudi taluk, on October 21, 1931 by Dr. S.R. Ranganathan, father of library science in India.
Books in the mobile library’s collection gave the villagers tips on gardening, bee-keeping, cottage industries and on ways to augment their income. The Kaumara Mutt in Mannargudi supplied many books to the library, including didactic stories. The Theosophical Society had a library, which in 1929 had 947 books, valued at 2,000 rupees. Some of these too became a part of the mobile library, which toured 95 villages. Villagers could borrow books and return them when the cart came next to their village. A gramophone and 78 rpm records too were taken around in the cart to attract the villagers with music.
Kanakasabhai Pillai’s mobile library was a huge hit with the villagers, but it ground to a halt after many years of serving the rural areas of Mannargudi. The bullock cart is now housed in Tamil University, Thanjavur, and the books that were a part of the mobile library have been donated to the Tamil University.
While the mobile library took care of the needs of the villagers, the Kottur Rangaswami Mudaliar library in Mannargudi drew scholars, who came in search of rare books. It was established in 1907, by Rangaswami Mudaliar, a rich landlord, and stands opposite the famous Rajagopalaswamy temple. In the early years, books were lent to scholars, a practice that was later discontinued. But the library continued to be a good source of reference and it draws scholars even today.
Mudaliar, like Pillai, felt that the best way to serve the country was to facilitate education. He ran a hostel for school boys, who studied in Finlay School, Mannargudi. Deserving students were given scholarships by the Rangaswami Mudaliar Trust. “Former Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu, Nedunchezhian, and his brother Era Sezhian, former Minister Anbazhagan and his brother Arivazhagan were among those who studied on scholarships instituted by my great-great grandfather,” says Rajagopal, who shows me around the library.
There are 10,000 books in the library, including those dating to the 19th century, such as a book written by the Srirangam Araiyar (1878); Prabhulinga Leelai of Sivaprakasam Swamigal published in1885 by Central Press and a book on Nammazhwar by Krishnawamy Mudaliar (1880). I also find a copy of Sangita Satsampradaya Deepikai by Rangaswamy Iyengar, published in 1915 by Saraswati Press, Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar’s ‘Nadippu kalaiyil therchi peruvadu eppadi’ (1936), and a copy of A.P. Nagarajan’s script for Sampoorna Ramayanam, published by Modern Theatres! The library also has books in English and Sanskrit.
In an adjacent building, also part of the Rangaswami Mudaliar estate, is a reading room, well stocked with Tamil periodicals. Apart from those who have come to the reading room for the magazines, I find a few students too, who have come with their text books and notes, for in this bustling town, it is difficult to find a better place for some quiet study.
