A reader’s response

Reader Indukanth Ragade has placed me in a tight spot, asking me to clarify the phonetics of some of the oft-used Tamil words. My answer is: ‘I don’t know’. What I shared earlier was the Tamil grammar rules I learnt with Vidwans P.S. Shanmugam Pillai and Muruga Rethinavelan, senior Tamil teachers at M Ct. Muthiah Cettiar High School, Purasawalkam.

I am not a scholar to be able to explain every micro-detail that governs the Tamil language. What I am clear about is that vallinam consonants acquire a soft sound when preceded by a mellinam consonant (see ‘Nungam’ in Nungambakkam). In support, I draw from Tamizh Mozhiyin Varalaru by V.G. Suryanarayana Sastriar (VGS) (lines 13-15, page 36; 2003 (reprint of 1903 edition), International Institute of Tamil Studies, Taramani, Madras, 84 pages). In this chapter, VGS explains the Tamil language’s uniqueness extensively. Because I do not have Tamil fonts in my PC, I am unable to reproduce his text. VGS also explains that all mellinam consonants are feminine, whereas the vallinam consonants are masculine – similar to purusa and stree genders used for nouns in Sanskrit.

I will take one example from the list of nouns alluded to by reader Ragade: pamparam (the top). Because of Telugu and Urdu influence in spoken Tamil over time, this term has been badly corrupted as bambaram (paába). (Pa–ba interchange in spoken Tamil is a common; Nungampãkkam is referred as Nungambakkam; pãkkam is a residential area close to the sea; see Pattina-p-pãkkam.) Pampara means ‘spinning’, ‘rotating’ (recall the movie song pampara-k-kannãlé rendered by J.P. Chandra Babu). When read as pamparam, it accommodates the rule explained by VGS.

I cannot explain why these rules are not taught. Perhaps the present high school Tamil teachers have neither the knowledge nor the competence of either Shanmugam Pillai or Rethinavelan!

I agree that the Tamil land and the language have experienced invasions from other cultures (and, therefore, other languages). Right from the times of the Pallavas, Sanskrit has been a major factor. But what needs to be reckoned with is that word movements have occurred in both directions. For example, hãratti (Sanskrit) is a term moved from the Tamil word ãlatti (derived from the cultural ritual kannéru kazhital the red solution made today with turmeric powder, chunámbu (CaC03), and water). As used in this ritual, it was obtained by mixing the milky discharges from the snapped branches of atti (Ficus glomerata) and ál (Ficus religiosa); ál+atti = álatti). In spoken Tamil sounds la and ra are interchangable (e.g. nal + Tamizhánatramizh). Ãratti when absorbed into Sanskrit became háratti. Similar absorptions have occurred in Kannada and Telugu as well – the two other old southern Indian languages. For example, the term çeppu (to speak, to say) used in contemporary Telugu is a classical Tamil term; refer to Bharati using Çeppu mozhi patinet-udayãl.
R.P. Sethu Pillai’s several essays on Tamil words absorbed into other Dravidian languages offer great insights. Urdu words appear frequently in Arunagiri (c. 15th Century) and Kumara Guruparar’s (c. 17th Century-?) renditions, indicating inimitable Urdu influence in spoken, and even literary, Tamil. The manipravãla tradition evolved in the 15-16th Centuries.

Intrusion of words with endings such as ksa (e.g. pariksa) into Tamil was unavoidable. To accommodate the conflicts that arose because of the entry of Sanskrit words into Tamil land and language (c. 7th Century) Granta lipi evolved. The Pallavas are claimed to have used Granta, which is recognised as the Pallava script.

When I was in primary school, I was taught Tamil letters that accommodated the Sanskritic sounds ja, ha, sa, and ksa. I do not know why these are not being taught now.

A. Raman
araman@csu.edu.au

The GPO in all its past splendour

Higginbotham's, a bookworm's Shangri-La.

Madras Musings recently wrote about the Madras GPO. In this connection I send herewith a rare photo of Madras GPO, the building seen from quite a different angle and in great detail. It might perhaps date to the late 19th or early 20th Century. This photo was given to me by a colleague in SBI (I am a retired employee of SBI Chennai Main Branch), Dexter White, whose grandfather worked as a senior officer in GPO, Madras in the 1920s.

M. Surveswaran
71/127, New Vellalar Street
Kodambakkam, Chennai 600024

Endangered church

The church in Madras has enjoyed huge support from all quarters over the past hundreds of years from all castes and creeds due to the tolerance and deep faith the people of this great city have in whichever god they believe in. But today the church stands divided on many issues, especially at the top.

The first victim has been valuable properties of great significance which are being bartered and negotiated with everybody from real estate sharks to politically influential. I bring to public notice St. Teresa’s Church of the Nungambakkam Parish on Nungambakkam High Road, which will celebrate its 100 years in 2011. This is a heritage building which has graced Central Madras for over three generations. It is to be demolished shortly in order to make way for a multipurpose building so as to make money from what was recently described at a Sunday Mass as a “goldmine in the heart of the city.”

While many parishioners are aghast at the thought, if the purpose of celebrating 100 years is to pull down the very building itself, then only God can help us.

Gerald Lobo
| 169, Graeme Lane
Chennai 600 006

Move them out

While totally endorsing the views of C.G. Prasad (MM, September 16th), here are some  additional suggestions to make Madras a better place to live in.

1. Classical Tamil HQ. Shift to Madurai. Everybody knows Madurai is the cradle of the Tamil Sangam and it is but appropriate to locate it there.

2. Siddha Reserach Centre. Transfer to Palayamkottai where already a strong Siddha medicine centre is functioning.

3. Agri-Horticulture. Locate at a place conducive to greenery - Dindigul or the Anamalai range.

4. Marine Academy. Tondi (earlier it was a port) is the ideal place, with its long seafront, for such an academy.

There could be a lot of other such institutions which would benefit from moving out of the city. It will make Madras less congested/polluted and, at the same time, there will be dispersal of opportunities for growth including in long-neglected areas.

N.P. Andavan
audconp@yahoo.co.uk

Added pollution

I am not sure as to whether the multi-million beautification project at Elliot’s Beach by the Chennai Corporation has been completed or is still under implementation.

In any case, there is no evidence of any real improvement. On the other hand, the conditions are deteriorating, with a fish market on one side, large number of two-wheelers and three-wheelers polluting the atmosphere, cinema shooting often causing chaos, and visitors throwing eatables and waste materials everywhere on the sand. And of course, stray dogs share the space with everyone.

In such conditions, a group of dedicated youth and activists clean the beach at frequent intervals, only to see the beach becoming dirty the next day. I only hope that they can maintain their enthusiasm for the laudable work they are doing.

To add to all these problems, a huge screen has recently been mounted on the sand to show films to the visitors in the evening. The film is accompanied by noisy music and talk, adding noise pollution as if other forms of existing polution at the Beach are not enough.

N.S. Venkataraman

M-60/1, 4th Cross Street

Besant Nagar, Chennai 600 090

Pondy connections

Reader V. Theerthappan’s premise that Pondy Bazaar got its name after Chokkalinga Mudaliar’s shopping complex sounds more than plausible. In the street next to mine I suspect another French connection.

It is called Rangapillai Garden Street. Forget the ‘garden’. There is not a blade of grass. But the ‘Rangapillai’ is almost certainly Ananda Rangapillai, the Pondicherry Dubash. A Madras historian has stated that the family of A.R. Pillai moved from Perambur to Kondithope and thence to Pondicherry. Coincidence?

Incidentally, getting back to Pondy Bazaar, before the Geetha cafe opened shop, those premises were leased to my father who ran an eatery there called ‘Nagar Cafe’. I am told by my mother (aged 89) that it wound up with a loss of Rs. 17,000 because scores of friends and relatives ate there, gave thanks but made no payment.

C.G. Prasad

9, C.S. Mudali Street
Kondithope, Chennai 600 079