It is an evening on the third Sunday of the month in London. A group of Sri Lankan Tamils of Great Britain have gathered to discuss the intricate, satirical nuances in the Sangam literary poems of Kurunthogai . The group comprises men of various ages, scholars and novices, the binding force amongst them being their love for the Tamil literature and an ardent desire to keep the Tamil literary and cultural tradition alive in the country where they have settled down.
With the Tamil diaspora spread all over the word, there is an association in almost every big city of the world. But most of them are engaged in organising celebrations of Tamil festivals, entertainment programmes and meetings addressed by visiting film personalities. This group is a literary gathering, discussing only literature. The topic of the day is circulated in advance and the members come well prepared to listen discuss and interact.
The founder of this group, which has been in existence for the past five years, is 80-year old Sellathamby Sriskandarajah, a solicitor by profession, who is in love with Tamil and Tamil culture. He has named this group ‘Vithuvan Velanar Ilakkiya Vattam’ after his father-in-law, who was a great Tamil scholar. Sriskandarajah has written 17 books, both in English and Tamil, on Tamil literature. He is also a renowned poet.
Sriskandarajah studied science in Tiruchi and while working later in the Legal Department of the Government of Sri Lanka, he advocated that Tamil along with Sinhala should be the court language and translated several legal matters and laws into Tamil. He had to create new legal words and phrases in Tamil. He had the support and encouragement of the then Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Justice Sarvanandha, who was also a votary of the notion that Tamil and Sinhala should be the court language. Sriskandarajah moved to Nigeria on a six-year teaching assignment and because of the political atmosphere back home in Sri Lanka, he decided to move to London. He obtained a post-graduate degree in Law from the London School of Economics and settled down in London after he got a job as the Principal Legal Officer.
“Soon I realised that while it was law that kept my hearth burning, my heart and soul remained with Tamil and Tamil literature and I had an urge within myself to do something to promote Tamil among the young who had lost touch with the glorious language although it is their mother tongue,” says Mr. Sriskandarajah.
He published his first book Ethical Essence of Tamil , a translation of Tirukkural into English in 1993, which received rave reviews. He wrote a series of articles in English titled, Tamil Literary Scenes in a newspaper called Tamil Voice International published from London. It was a translation of selected verses from ancient Tamil classics. Unfortunately, the paper had to stop publication due to political pressures arising out of the ethnic civil war in Sri Lanka. He continued to write the series in other publications but they too became defunct.
“It was then that I decided to complete the Tamil Literary Scenes and publish it myself as a book, spending from my pocket. The book is an introduction to the early Sangam literature, throwing light on the great culture of the early Tamils, their valour, love-life and generosity as evidenced by Sangam poetry, and also explaining its beauty and aesthetics,” says Mr. Sriskandarajah.
Encouraged by the response to the book, he went on to write an abridged English version of the twin epics Silappadikaram and Manimekalai. “As suggested by my wife, it was also an attempt to introduce the two epics to the British as well’ says Mr. Sriskandarajah. The British had already had a glimpse of the Sangam poetry through the late A.K. Ramanujan, who was a professor in Chicago university. Translated as Tamil love poems by Ramanujan, they now adorn the underground trains in London. While Lakshmi Holmstrong and R. Parthasarathy have translated Silappadikaram into English, it is perhaps only Sriskandarajah who has worked on the other epic Manimekalai also.
Sriskandarajah is grateful to those who have made commendable efforts in bringing Tamil classics to the Western audience. But for the service rendered by missionaries such as Robert Caldwel, G.U. Pope and Veeramamunivar, people in the West would not have known the great heritage of the Tamil language,which is distinctly different from Sanskrit, he says. “Even these translations are not flawless. For example, A.K. Ramanujan has translated the Tamil term Sennaapulavar as “Red-tongued Poet.” The word actually would refer to a poet with fine language skills, or simply a great poet,” he adds.
Sriskandarajah presented a paper in the Semmozhi (Classical Tamil) Conference held in Coimbatore in 2010, highlighting his views on translating the Tamil classics. His translation of the Tamil poet Avvaiyar’s works has been hailed as great work by Prof. Maruthanayakam of Pondicherry University. Prof. Maruthanayakam says: “Eschewing word-for-word translation, Sriskandarajah rightly resorts to sense-for-sense translation and sees to it that the depth of meaning and the tremendous breadth of experience and the penetrating vision of the poet are clearly brought out.”
Code of conduct
Out of his concern that Tamil youths abroad should know and follow the good habits and discipline of their tradition, he has translated Aranerichaaram , which prescribes a code of conduct and dos and don’ts in every day life. .
Sriskandarajah has also written an introduction to the mystical Tirumandiram in Tamil and Periyapuranam in English for expatriate Tamils and a simple guide to Tamil grammar. He has published two books of his own poems in Tamil. His passion for Tamil literature is such that he ensured that the music concert in London which he organised for his daughter’s wedding reception featured only Tamil songs, notably the love poems from the Tamil classic Kalithogai.
His wife, Mathini, is an accomplished musician and has several albums to her credit — Manikkavasagar’s Sivapuranam for which Rajkumar Bharati, the great-grandson of the great Tamil poet, Subramania Bharathi, composed the music.
(The author himself is a scholar in Sangam literature and was the editor of BBC's ‘Tamil Osai’ radio broadcasts in London)
