Copper plates tell on charities of Jaffna and Vanni at Chithamparam

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 May 2013, 06:46 GMT]
A copper plate grant issued by the chieftains of Vanni in the Dutch times, refers to an earlier charity; a mutt built by the King of Jaffna, Pararaja Sekaran at Chithamparam in Tamil Nadu, and on the charities made by chieftains of different parts of Vanni to another mutt built by a Vanni chieftain, Kayilaaya Vanniyan, at Chithamparam. The present conditions of the royal mutt of the Kingdom of Jaffna, called Iraasaakka’l Thampiraan Madam and the Vanni Chieftain’s mutt called Kayilaaya Vanniyan Madam at Chithamparam are not known today. The copper plates in the custody of a family at Ka’l’liyang-kaadu in Nalloor, Jaffna, were deciphered and published earlier by Dr S. Gunasingham of Trincomalee and by Prof S. Pathmanathan. A mutt at Chithamparam, in the name of the Ka’l’liyang-kaadu village is in completely ruined conditions today.

Tamil Nadu Government should initiate a survey of the various charities of Eezham Tamils at Chithamparam, bring in a legislation in the State Assembly to protect them and declare the enclave as a heritage site of Eezham Tamils, in order to make them meaningful to the present context, is a request coming from Eezham Tamil circles connected to the charities living in the island and in the diaspora.

The mutts could be renovated or rebuilt in their traditional form of architecture, for various purposes such as a heritage museum of Eezham Tamils, archives and library of Eezham Tamil literary contributions, a publishing house to bring out standard reprints, and heritage tourism facilities for visitors coming from the island and from the diaspora, the sources connected to the charities told TamilNet, adding that such facilities would especially be useful to the next generation in the Eezham Tamil diaspora in knowing about its heritage.

Cultural institutions of the Eezham Tamil diaspora across the world should make the claim and negotiate with the Tamil Nadu Government for a collaborative programme, the sources further said, adding that credible forces in Tamil Nadu should come forward to help the Eezham Tamils in materialising the project.

The Ka'l'liyang-kaadu Copper Plates, issued by the chieftains of Vanni on a grant made by them to the Kayilai-vanniyanaar madam at Chithamparam. The copper plates also note the existence of an earlier mutt at Chithamparam built by a King of Jaffna, Pararaja Sekaran. [Image courtesy: Pathmanathan. S., Vanniyar, 1972]

Vanni chieftains of the principalities of Panang-kaamam, Karikkaddu-moolai, Thennamaravadi, Meal-pattu, Mu’l’liyava’lai, Mayilaaththai and Pachchilaip-pa’l’li, as well as the villagers of these chieftaincies had collectively made the charity mentioned in the copper plates.

• Exact decipherment of the copper plates (courtesy, Pathmanathan. S., Vanniyar, 1972)

The charity was made on the 22 day of the month Chiththirai in the Subhakritu year of the Salivahana Era 1644, which was a Thursday and a full-moon day, while the moon was transiting the constellation Swathi. It corresponds to April-May 1722 CE.

The charity was in the form of paddy-field lands and the grant uses the Eezham Tamil word Kamam to mean a unit of cultivable land. Stipulated part of the produce (3 Marakkaal measures of paddy per unit of Kamam) was given to the mutt of the Vanni chieftains at Chithamparam, which was called Kayilaip-pi’l’lai Vanniyanaar Madam.

• Text in readable Tamil of today (courtesy, Pathmanathan. S., Vanniyar, 1972)

The caretaker of the charity of Vanni chieftains was Chooriyamoorthi Thampiraan who was at that time the pontiff of a mutt built earlier by King Pararaja Sekaran.

Those who help the charity would get the merit of having the dharshan of the dancing Siva at the second quarter of the night (which is considered very auspicious) and those who harm it commit the sin of arson on the temple, the copper plates say, adding that more than those who make charities, the ones who urge for them and the ones who protect them get the merit ten-fold.

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CPI urges to initiate Eezham Tamil heritage centre

CPI urges TN government to initiate Eezham Tamil heritage centre at Chithamparam

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 April 2013, 15:33 GMT]
Speaking at the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on Friday on the budget allocations of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Communist Party of India’s Tha’li constituency member, Mr. T. Ramachandran urged the Tamil Nadu Government to initiate an Eezham Tamil Cultural Centre at Chithamparam by taking over and protecting the enclave of Eezham Tamil Mutts in Chithamparam. The Mutts date from the times of the Kingdom of Jaffna. King Pararaja Sekaran, who ruled in the 16th century, before the advent of the Portuguese, built the earliest known among them. Most of the Eezham Tamil Mutts at Chithamparam are located as an enclave around a large tank called Gnaanap-pirakaasam, excavated by the ascetic Gnaanap-pirakaasar who came from Jaffna in the 17th century.

Another ascetic, founder of a Saiva Siddhanta Mutt at Vara’ni in Jaffna, Thillai Naayakath Thampiraan, received endowments in the 17th century from a ruler of Thanjavur after curing his illness. Apart from managing the temple at Vedaranyam endowed to it, the Varani Mutt also built a Mutt at Chithamparam.

Later, many villages in Jaffna built their own mutts for pilgrims around the Gnaanap-pirakaasam tank.

The enclave at Chithamparam was the spiritual and intellectual centre for many of the Eezham Tamils, including Arumuga Navalar, who contributed to Tamil, Saivism, education and publication of Tamil classical texts in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The free educational institution started by Arumuga Navalar at Chithamparam in the 1860s, with a curriculum to teach Maths, Agriculture, Commerce, Geography, Politics, Astronomy and Native Medicine, besides Tamil and Saivism, predates the Annamalai University by several decades.

* * *

In the last half a century, charities related to the Mutts became largely unattended, Mutts dilapidated and many of the properties were either given to individuals in Tamil Nadu through Power of Attorney or were appropriated.

It became inevitable since crucial requisites of cultural contacts such as direct travel, monetary transaction and people to people contact across the Palk Bay were severed after the so-called independence, due to policies followed by Colombo-centric and New Delhi-centric Establishments.

Ever since the so-called independence, the Sinhala State in Colombo was strictly following the policy of sealing off Eezham Tamils from having contacts with Tamil Nadu. New Delhi’s policies abetting Colombo in this regard and the targeted restrictions it makes on Eezham Tamils, especially since 1990s, are well known.

In the latest example, a hereditary trustee in the village Maathakal in Jaffna, located at the nearest point to the coast of Tamil Nadu, had to give Power of Attorney of his village’s Mutt called Chevvaayk-kizhamai Mutt in Chithamparam to a priest of the Chithamparam temple, because of the ‘difficulties in coming and going.’

* * *

The Tamil Nadu government has to embark on a major move to give due status to the Eezham Tamil cultural enclave at Chithamparam on a par with the Sinhala-Buddhist Maha Bodhi Society functioning in India, is the request of circles connected to the charities living in the island and in the diaspora.

The enclave and the properties have to be protected by legislation and they could be made into a heritage site, having a museum of Eezham Tamil culture, archives and library displaying the first editions and publications by Eezham Tamils scholars, research and publication facilities to bring out standard new editions of the academic contributions of Eezham Tamils, and heritage tourism facilities for visitors from the island and from the diaspora, the sources connected to the charities told TamilNet.

The Tamil Nadu Government move has to incorporate Eezham Tamil institutions in the island connected to the charities and may have to explore ways of accommodating institutional representation from the diaspora, in making the charities meaningful to contemporary times, the sources said.

Temple consortiums, village associations and even alumni associations in the diaspora have to play a role in making a formal request to the Tamil Nadu Government in claiming the heritage site at Chithamparam, in coming out with ideas of making it meaningful, in contributing to its development and in participating in the management. It will culturally benefit to the posterity in the diaspora, the sources further said.

* * *

T. Ramakrishnan

CPI’s MLA Mr. Ramachandran has made a strong note on the issue in his speech on Friday, as a part of many other progressive proposals brought out by him on the Tourism and Culture Ministry budget debate. His proposal got into the records of the Assembly, news sources in Chennai said.

Even though the facts are not accurate, Ramachandran’s welcome proposal should create awareness in Tamil Nadu to first conduct a survey researching on facts and feasibility, and to evolve opinion through media efforts, in order to materialise the project for the mutual benefit of Tamil Nadu and Eezham Tamils, the sources connected to the charities commented.

• Article in Tamil by CPI's Janasakthi paper

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protect heritage site of Eezham Tamils in Chithamparam

3RD LEAD

TN government requested to protect heritage site of Eezham Tamils in Chithamparam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 April 2013, 00:05 GMT]
Eezham Tamil circles in the island and in the diaspora, connected to charities established in Chithamparam by their ancestors, request the Tamil Nadu government, especially the Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa, to make legislation to protect the charity enclave at Chithamparam and to promote it as a heritage site of Eezham Tamils, participated by Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora. They cited at the promotion Sri Lanka’s Maha Bodhi Society gets in India, but the dilapidated condition of the Tamil-Saiva heritage site of Eezham Tamils in Tamil Nadu. The Eezham Tamil charities at Chithamparam that record from the times of the Kingdom of Jaffna and that make an enclave around the Gnaanap-pirakaasar Tank are found in almost ruined conditions today.

The Gnaanappirakaasar ku'lam and the line of some of the Jaffna mutts on one side of its bank at Chithamparam [Photo: Seelan, UK]

For their maintenance, these charities have large tracts of land endowments in different parts of the Tamil country in the island, including in Batticaloa.

Due to policies followed by both the Establishments at Colombo and in New Delhi, the cultural interaction of Eezham Tamils was disrupted after the so-called independence.

The inability of the managements in the island to reach out the charities in Tamil Nadu, and lack of vigilance and control on the part of the society, paved way for the misuse of the endowments, dilapidation of the charities and transfer of power to individuals in India.

Most of the charities were established for the use of the Eezham Tamil pilgrims to Chithamparam. Various villages in the country of Eezham Tamils established Mutts in the names of their villages for the use of the pilgrims.

They were in fact three-courtyard massive buildings. Only the walls and foundations remain in some of them. Some have become slums and one, the most prestigious of them built in the Dutch times, has become a warehouse and bakery.

To the justification of the people and the individuals who founded the charities and to make them meaningful to today’s context of the nation of Eezham Tamils that inherit the heritage, the Tamil Nadu government should take initiative in declaring the enclave as a heritage site, renovate or rebuild the structures, and create a milieu for the Eezham Tamils in the island and in the diaspora to use it and to take pride of their heritage, requested circles connected to the charities.

People having hereditary connections to the charities, now living in the island or in the diaspora didn’t want to reveal their names fearing reprisals from Colombo or from those who now lead the charities to their dilapidation.

The diaspora that spends a lot of money on temple festivals in the island and on pilgrimages to India is either not aware of the existence of such a heritage to protect or doesn’t have an organisation to take the lead, the sources connected to the charities said.

By convening the original trustees in the island and in the diaspora, heritage Saiva institutions such as the Jaffna Saiva Paripalana Sabai that is already connected to some of the charities, and relevant Saiva Mutts in Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Nadu government may take action on the project, but basic protection has to come from a legislation declaring the heritage status of the properties and the enclave, the sources connected to the charities said.

They also requested senior Eezham Tamil citizens like Mr. Ma'ravanpulavu Sachithananthan, living in Tamil Nadu for a long time and knowing the background of the said charities very well, to come forward to draft a model that would preserve the heritage, benefit the current context of the nation of Eezham Tamils and help the TN government in materialising the programme.

Saiva Temples and relevant village associations in the diaspora across the world could make a joint forum to request the Tamil Nadu government and to participate in the heritage site programme, both as a religious venture and as heritage tourism promotion, the sources connected to the charities further said.

* * *

One of the Mutts could be converted into a museum of Eezham Tamil heritage in Tamil Nadu.

The contributions of Eezham Tamils in the 19th and early 20th centuries to modern Tamil culture and to the awareness of Tamil as a classical language are well known. Many of the Eezham Tamil scholars and activists of that time viewed Chithamparam as their spiritual and intellectual centre.

The Cheakkizhaar Hall on one end of the tank. The hall was built on the site, where the house of Madduvil K Vetpillai once stood [Photo: Seelan, UK]

Even the Dravidian movement pioneers like Thiru V. Kalyanasundara Mudaliyar and Tamil movement scholars like Thandapani Desikar were students of Eezham Tamil teachers like Puloali N. Kathiraivet Pillai and Madduvil Kathiraivet Pillai of the Arumuga Navalar school of scholarship. Swami Vipulananthar of Batticaloa was the first Professor of Tamil at Chithamparam Annamalai University. Madduvil K. Vetpillai was living in Chithamparam for a long time as head teacher of the Navalar School. His student Thandapani Desikar was in turn a preceptor of both Mr. Karunanidhi and Mr. MGR, the Eezham Tamil sources cited.

* * *

Recorded charity endowments of Eezham Tamils at Chithamparam begin from the time of Pararaja Sekaran, the King of Jaffna in the early 16th century. He built the Raasaakka’l-Thampiraan Mutt at Chithamparam and there is a copper plate document to evidence that.

Almost during the same century or in the early 17th century, a Saiva Siddhantha Mutt based at Vara’ni in Jaffna acquired the management rights of the extensive temple complex at Thiru-ma’raik-kaadu (Vedaranyam) near Point Calimere, around 10 associated temples and 3000 Veali (roughly 15,000 acres) land, from a ruler of Tanjavur. The pontiff of the Mutt got the rights after curing the illness of the king. Saint Thaayumaanavar, before taking up asceticism, was working as an accountant to the Vara’ni Mutt at Vedaranyam.

The Vara’ni Mutt later built a Mutt at Chithamparam, the walls of which are only remaining today.

Only this inscription remains to mark the Vara'ni mutt at Chithamparam [Photo: Seelan, UK]

The idol of Thirunelveali Gnaanappirakaasar in a shrine in the Cheakkizhar Temple in Chithamparam, on the banks of the tank built by Gnaanappirakaasar [Photo: Seelan, UK, 2009]

In the 17th century, a village headman of Thirunelveli in Jaffna, defying the Dutch order of supplying cattle for their food, escaped and went to Chithamparam where he became an ascetic by the name Gnaanap-pirakaasar. Besides writing commentaries to Saiva Siddhantha texts, he built a tank and a Mutt at Chithamparam. The tank known by his name and the surroundings became the nucleus for the Eezham Tamil Mutts and settlements at Chithamparam.

Part of the property of the Mutt was already taken over by the government hospital at Chithamparam. The Mutt of three courtyards that still show impressive architecture of the times including wooden features, has become a warehouse and bakery in the recent years. A Kaarainakar family is connected to the trusteeship. Both the Thiruneveli and Kaarainakar people are enthusiastic in spending money on temples but they lack the necessary outlook in organising or carrying out serious heritage missions, diaspora circles commented.

The front part of the Thirunelveali Gnaanappirakaasar Madam, leading to the first courtyard called Chaaththirak-kaddu. This main part of the 17th century complex is now converted into a warehouse. The second courtyard called Poosaik-kaddu that has the temple of the mutt and the third courtyard called Chamaiyal-kaddu are rented out to tenants. A part of the adjacent lands belonging to the mutt has been given to the government hospital and tenants have claimed another part. [Photo: Seelan, UK, 2009]

Arumuga Navalar, who was a descendant of Gnaanappirakaasa Munivar carried out a number of charities at Chithamparam.

The backside entrance of Gnaanappirakaasar Madam [Photo: Seelan, UK, 2009]

When he started a school there in the 1860s, modelled after the one he built at Jaffna in the 1840s, he wanted both the institutions to give free education and to function as advanced native institutions, teaching Maths, Agriculture, Commerce, Political Science, Geography, Astronomy, Siddha Medicine etc., besides teaching Tamil and Saivism.

He left the charities to be managed by the line of his students.

A court case in British India in the 1930s ended with the decision that the charity at Chithamparam has to be managed by whoever manages the charity at Jaffna. But the institution in Jaffna becoming an orphan and a junior school under Colombo's take over, made the Madras High Court in the 1950s to form a 5-member Board of Management for the Chithamparam institution with two representatives from Jaffna (Saiva Paripalana Sabai and Hindu Board of Education).

Now, Kunrakkudi Mutt in Tamil Nadu has been given with power of attorney over the Navalar charities, including the house he lived at Chithamparam.

The Jaffna Saiva Paripalana Sabai still manages a charity, Pu’n’niya Naachchi Mutt at Chithamparam, which is perhaps the best-managed among the surviving Jaffna Mutts.

But, even this Mutt had to convert part of its site into a petrol shed and had to convert its traditional architecture of the three courtyard-building into a modern ‘Marriage Hall’ for its maintenance.

The Mutts in the names of the villages Ka’l’liyangkaadu and Vara’ni are in total ruin. Kokkuvil and Changkaanai Mutts are dilapidated.

The Maathakal Mutt, which is also in dilapidated conditions, has recently been brought under the management of a Chithamparam priest through a power of attorney given to him by the trustee in Maathakal. The trustee has stated in the power of attorney that it had become difficult for him to travel to and fro. Ironically, Maathakal is the nearest point in Jaffna to the Tamil Nadu coast, separated barely by 30 km of sea.

• POA showing the current status of a Jaffna mutt in Chithamparam

The attached PDF of Power of Attorney documents would show the current status of the Maathakal Mutt at Chithamparam for the perusal of the Eezham Tamil diaspora.

Meanwhile, various landed properties in the island given for the maintenance of these charities are not even identifiable today. They were left for appropriation, as the charities became not relevant to the use and context of the descendants of the society that created the charities.

In contrast, the Maha Bodhi Society started in 1891, simultaneously in Colombo and Calcutta, functions as a thriving institution culturally and politically. It has been given with the management rights of important Buddhist sites in India such as Budh Gaya and Sanchi as early as in the British times.

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