If river Ganga committed any sin... she would have no other option, but to take a dip in another river, which is none other than...
Coimbatore: For a person in India, taking a holy dip in a river symbolizes getting himself/herself absolved from all sins. Rivers in India are believed to be sacred and the most sacred of them is said to be the Ganga, which has become a victim of cultural pollution. Pilgrims take a holy dip in the Ganga in the belief of 'escaping' from the consequences of their sins. But imagine... if Ganga herself committed any sin... she would have no other option, but to take a dip in another river, which is none other than the Cauvery, according to an old piece of Tamil literature!
“Chozha Mandala Sathakam, a collection of 105 poems on the features of Chola country, was penned by Velur Aathmanatha Desikar, a Tamil poet, who lived in the 18th century. The literary piece describes the Chola kingdom as being fertile with the ever-flowing Cauvery” says Pulavar Se. Rasu, a veteran Kongu historian and Former Head of the Department of History and Archaeology, at Tamil University, Thanjavur.
Rasu, who published the book, is an author of over 100 books. He informs that Velur Aathmanatha Desikar was patronized by the Thanjavur Maratha king Shahuji and Arunachalam, a philanthropist and son of Nallaru Vaithiyalingam of the Chozhia Vellalar community.
Quoting from the book Political Geography of the Chozha Country by eminent archaeologist Y.Subbarayalu, Rasu informs that Velur Aathmanatha Desikar had lived between 1650 and 1728.
On tracing the history of the genre ‘Sathaka Ilakkiyam’, Rasu says:
“Sathakam is generally a collection of 100 songs. The genre, which is written on the features of a particular mandalam (region) such as Thondaimandala Sathakam, Pandimandala Sathakam, Kongumandala Sathagam, and so on, is normally composed in the Tamil verse form ‘Kattalai Kalithurai’. However, the Chozha Mandala Sathakam is innovative, for its songs have been written in ‘Aruseer Virutham’, a simple, reader-friendly conventional poem in traditional metre”
Rasu says that the first edition of Chozha Mandala Sathakam came out in 1916.
“ Sabapathi Pillai, a scholar who lived in the 19th century, took efforts to publish the Chozha Mandala Sathakam for the first time. He also got the advice of Thirisirapuram Maha Vidwan Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, an eminent Tamil scholar in this regard. Nevertheless, Sabapathi Pillai did not get it published for some reason. Finally, it was Somasundara Desikar, another Tamil scholar, who brought out the work" he adds.
On the republishing of the book, Rasu says:
“The palm leaf manuscript of Chozha Mandala Sathakam was with N. Kandasamy of Oomayampatti in Rasipuram, who was a poet, freedom fighter, and bibliophile. He was so glad to provide me the manuscript of the work "
Besides speaking about the Chola country and its kings, the book describes the fertile landscape of the Cholas. A few poems in the book narrate the beautiful flow of river Cauvery. The work also throws light on the glory of agriculture in the 18th century and admires the villages, temples, and so on. A verse informs how Sekkizhar, the bakthi poet, staged his work Periyapuranam in a grand procession, with an elephant carrying the literature on its back.
It may be noted that 'Sivakavimani' C.K. Subramania Mudaliar, a Tamil scholar, who lived in Coimbatore, wrote detailed commentaries on Periyapuranam and staged the work in the same fashion as Sekkizhar did. In the grand procession on the streets of Perur, Janaki, the elephant of the Patteeswarar Temple, carried on its back the work of C.K. Subramania Mudaliar on a day in the 1950s.