Opinion

Life Lesson Unlearnt

Thiruvalluvar, author of the late Sangam-era classic Thirukkural, as a cherubic Brahmin? The Tamil Nadu pre-poll cauldron gets a textbook Aryan-Dravidian controversy….

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Life Lesson Unlearnt
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It is probably the most quoted Tamil literary work by non-Tamil political leaders, PM Narendra Modi included. Called Thirukkural, it is a compendium of 1,330 couplets packed with wisdom and life lessons. Though it is one way for the BJP to Tamilise its north Indian credentials, there have also been other attempts to saffronise Thirukkural’s author Thiruvalluvar. The latest attempt, according to Dravidian leaders, is the pictorial depiction of Thiruvalluvar in a Class 8 CBSE Hindi textbook accompanying a lesson on the life of the Tamil savant. The illustration had depicted Thriuvalluvar sporting a saffron robe, single-knotted hair and wearing rudraksha beads around his neck and arms and holy ash smeared on his forehead—symbols usually associated with Hindu saints. His wife Vasuki is shown serving food.

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Dravidian leaders led by DMK president M.K. Stalin immediately accused the BJP-led Union government of giving Thiruvalluvar—a secular true-blue Tamilian—a religious Aryan makeover. Many recalled that a few months ago, Thiruvalluvar was portrayed wearing a saffron dhoti, with holy ash on his forehead and rudraksha beads around his neck and arms in a tweet by the BJP state unit.

The state BJP had then responded that Thiruvalluvar was indeed a pious Hindu, as many of his couplets indicated his belief in Hinduism and god—both of which are antithesis to the DMK and its Dravidian cohorts. They pointed out that it was the DMK government in the 1960s that had given an “official” version of how Thiruvalluvar looked and had draped him with a white dhoti to give him a secular appearance.

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“Even the so-called official portrait of Thiruvalluvar was born out of one man’s imagination since there were no historical references how Thiru­va­llu­var, who is believed to have lived sometime during the 7th century, had loo­­­­­­­ked like. No one knows if he actually had a beard or had long hair. So, deba­tes on his looks are actually superfluous,” said Tamil scholar Sami Thiagarajan.

As for the latest portrayal of Thiruvalluvar in the textbook, CBSE officials noted that it was not published by the central board but by Macmillan, based on the NCERT syllabus. “The illustrations are decided by the publishers of the books and not by CBSE or NCERT,” an official explained.

By G.C. Shekhar in Chennai

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