It was All Souls’ Day on November 2. People made a beeline for the cemetery at Mayiladuthurai (once Mayuram) with candles, garlands, and flowers to pay homage to their loved ones resting in peace. Standing at the entrance of the cemetery is the statue of Mayuram Samuel Vedanayagam Pillai, the former district munsif, who was the first Tamil novelist, a composer of many ‘keerthanas’ set to Carnatic ragas, and a prose writer. Behind the statue lies his memorial, beside that of his mother Arokya Mariammal.
Vedanayagam Pillai (1826-1889) was a contemporary and friend of Tamil scholar U.V. Swaminatha Iyer. His ancestors had converted to Christianity. He was well-versed in Tamil literature. He also made remarkable achievements as a munsif through his knowledge of English. Like Swaminatha Iyer, he was a student of legendary Tamil scholar Thirisirapuram Meenakshisundaram Pillai.
Visit to Thiruvavaduthurai Mutt
In his memoir, En Charithiram (My History), Swaminatha Iyer recalls Vedanayagam Pillai’s visit to the Thiruvavaduthurai Mutt with poems composed in praise of Subramania Desikar, its head. “I used to read them in public. They would be so simple in style that everyone would understand them at once and appreciate them. Wasn’t it a rare thing for a Christian gentleman to sing the praises of the head of the Saiva monastery? And people were amazed all the more since the author of the panegyrics was a person who was by nature not a flatterer, and who occupied a post of high rank in government,” writes Swaminatha Iyer.
Swaminatha Iyer’s observation is confirmed by an obituary reference in The Hindu in 1889. It says that as a district munsif, Pillai was very popular and discharged his duties with great credit and ability at a time when munsifs of the present type were rare.
Vedanayagam Pillai was also a great connoisseur of Carnatic music and used to meet Gopalakrishna Bharathiyar, the author of Nandan Charithiram. His collection of songs, Sarva Samaya Samarasa Keerthanigal, are simple and drenched in devotion similar to the songs penned by the Hindu composers.
“Although Vedanayagam Pillai claimed that his songs would appeal to all faiths, a closer look at their style and contents reveals a clear Hindu and Christian bias, for he refers to the feet of the God and addresses Him in masculine term,” says Sascha Ebeling, Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, in his afterword to the Vedanayagam Pillai’s novel, Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram, which was translated into English by Meenakshi Tyagarajan.
In the song, Chittam Eppadiyo in raga Nadanamakriya, he wonders whether Karthar (Jesus) would uplift him or give up on him, while Oho Kaalame in Sahana extols the greatness of time and was popularised by M.M. Dhandapani Desikar.
‘Want of prose works’
But he is celebrated more for his prose writing as he is considered the pioneer of modern Tamil prose and novel. Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram was published in 1879 with an additional English title, The Life and Adventures in Tamil of Prathapa Mudaliar. Prose as a medium of the future was one of the primary motives behind the writing of this novel, though poetry was a celebrated medium during his time.
“My objective in writing this work of fiction is to supply the want of prose works in Tamils, a want which is admitted and lamented by all, and also to give a practical illustration of maxims and morality contained in my former works,” Vedanayagam Pillai says his preface to the work.
Though it was the time when Indians were learning English with feverish pace to land government jobs, Gnanambal, the heroine of the novel, was furious about the trend. “Under the British, other officials and other scholars are ignoring native languages. Like the saying about the visiting devil driving out the resident devil, foreign languages like English and French flourish, while the languages of the land languish,” complains Gnanambal, who symbolises the modern women in the 19th Century.
The feeling of the character explains that Vedanayagam Pillai’s religious faith had not diminished his love for his mother tongue. Swaminatha Iyer also makes a reference to a poem written in praise of the head of the Thiruvavaduthurai Mutt, in which he says, “At the time when the English language raises its head, you [Subramania Desikar] have come forward with a cord of the vow to protect Tamil and make it thrive.”
Purity of expression
According to The Hindu, the great merit of his works was the purity of expression and the moral precepts, of which they are full.
His second novel was Suguna Sundari Charithiram. But it remains a prose narrative that characterises ‘once upon a time, there was a king’ fabric as in a Purana or fable.
“Critics have evaluated the novel as a mere tale, a kathai, and reasoned that Pillai packed so much into the first novel that he had little left to say. However, this kathai’s claim of being ‘novel’ or new was authenticated to an extent by how it stylised the mythical stories and classics into believable, ‘realistic’ events,” explains Aadhavan Pazhani, a Ph.D candidate, with the thesis on the Emergence of Modern Prose and Novel in Tamil, at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London.
His two prose works Pen Kalvi and Pen Manam advocate education for women and show him as a social reformer. He explains how widow remarriage had become acceptable in European countries and comes down on dowry and child marriage among the Brahmins.
His religious works are Kochakappa, Mata Patikankal, Tayabarakanni, Deva Thothiramalai, Tiruvarul Malai, Deva Mata Antati, and Tiruvarul Antati. His musical works include Sarva Samaya Samarasa Kirtanai, Satya Veta Kirtanai, Periyanayaki Amma Patikam, and Pen Mati Malai.
“His ambition was to create a good Tamil literature, so as to suit the modern taste of his countrymen, in which he attained eminent success,” wrote The Hindu in its obituary reference to Vedanayagam Pillai.
