Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

Dear all...

A tiny village with two shrines (one of them an open-air Mariamman Koil with
a single inscription on a stone behind it). Green fields surrounding the
area, with little cart-tracks meandering through them. A fairly big-sized
temple, with waving trees in the courtyard. A bunch of curious villagers,
intent on finding out the purpose of any visitor- much like an Intelligence
committee.

A trip to a place like that ought to be refreshing for a bunch of
accountants, computer-savvy techies, and transcriptionists.

Well, that's exactly what we thought too.

On June the 15th, a bright, hot Sunday, I, Kamalakkannan, Krupashankar,
Lavanya and Anuradha picked up Dr. Kalaikovan's book 'Varalaaru'- and
started on a journey to Maamandur- a tiny village 11kms from Chengleput
[There's another Maamandur, called 'Thoosi Maamandur (don't even ask me
about the reason for such a name)- that contains Pallava Inscriptions and
rock-cut temples- but we voted that for another day]. We took a train to
Thambaram, where a grinning Kamal joined us- and after that, it was another
train to Chengleput- where we arrived, huffing and puffing (the train, that
is)- at around 12 PM. (I remember thinking that it was a weird hour to visit
temples:-).The sun seemed to welcome us, for it shone down fiercely, making
the tar roads glow a rich, shiny black.

We walked out to the bus stand and waited expectantly. There were dozens of
buses churning up dust
towards Madurai and Trichy- but, as luck would have it, none towards
Maamandur. Fortunately, when we had almost given up (with Krupashankar
staring at the packets of butter-milk longingly)-this Matador came along and
opened its door obligingly for us, so we hopped in.

The Gods decided that since we had obliged them by starting on an
expedition, we might as well go the whole way- so the van dropped us off at
an intersection that seemed to lead to the dirt road. The dirt road, of
course wandered off into the wilderness. We trudged a good two 2 kilometres
(while Kamal regaled us with tales of his childhood:-) inside the trail to
get to the village proper. And what a village (read first para, please.).

Our first stop was the temple, which was locked for the afternoon- and no
amount of cajoling would make the priest let us in- so we pulled open the
'Varalaaru' book in hand and looked at what else was available. There was a
Maariamman temple at the next fork, which supposedly contained some
inscriptions, so we walked there- and behind this Pallava period 'Kotravai'
silai- there was a chipped off stone. Curious villagers of the 'Maamndur
Welcoming Committee' gathered around ("Etho kalvettaamilla?" "ennathu,
kalvettaa? appudiyellaam onnum kedaiyaathE?")

We had some fun then:-) trying to read 17th century inscriptions. It was all
we could do make out the weird characters. But 17th century Thamizh is
pretty close to modern-day Thamizh- so it was kinda allright. Lavanya and I
stood around the chipped-off stone, trying to decipher the characters, while
Kamal stood with the book in hand, telling us if what we read was right
("athu 'aa' illai, 'uuu'...."). Anuradha and Krupashankar looked on, trying
to read the words themselves. Here's what we read (and we read it very well
too):

1 naLa varusham
2 shriman kattiya ....[maa]
3 vaNdUr udaiy[a*]r picha nayi[naar thE]
4 vathaanam keezai vayalum...........
5 mpadil thirumadai vaLaagaththilum
6 ERina kaikO[La]rkku adaivOlai ku
7 duththa yithiruvaasalil yirukkuch chi
8 l a[n]thara[a*]yamum ecchORu muL
9 pada varushaththukku thaRikku mUnRu paNa
10 m koLLak kadavOm[m]maakavum
11 intha tha[n]mma[ththu*]kku akutham pa
12 NNInavan *kenggai karai
13 yil kaaraam pasuvaik konRa thOshath
14 thilE pOgag
15 kadavaargaL* (note these lines)
16 aagavum thaa
17 naththaar
18 ezuththu
19 ivai narasaiyar ezuththu
20 ivai U[ra]var soRpadikku
21 thiruvaruL thaazhvaar ezuththu

It may sound gibberish at places- but be sure to connect the last letter of
each line with the first word of the next line- and you're sure to get the
meaning after a few tries:-)))

Briefly, waht it means that the people connected with the upkeep of the
Maariyamman temple gave the kaikOlars of that village an AdaivOlai (sort of
an agreement). The kaikOlars were supposed to pay 'mUnRu paNam' every year
to the temple- and whosoever disobeyed the inscription would suffer the fate
of a man who had killed a sacred cow on the banks of the River Ganga (that's
where I've put the asterisk marks). Sounds impressive, huh? :-). We spent
hours on this line. Somehow, its one thing to read an inscription in a book-
its quite another when you see it etched in stone, by a sculptor, all those
centuries ago. You're touching a piece of history- and that's a feeling
like...well...like no other.

In the middle of it all, we took some time off for a few ice-creams
(whatever else they mightn't have, Maamandur is well-stocked with salesmen
on cycles), and the packets of butter-milk. Anyway- we spent two hours in
the scorching sun, reading it again and again, wiping it off with water
(borrowed, how else?), and reading it till we could decipher it without the
help of the book.

Finally, feeling very victorious, we packed our bags to the Manduganaathar
temple- which persisted in remaining locked up. We gazed over the village
scenery- and then Kamal hit upon the idea of spending the afternoon, under a
'veppamaram' he'd spotted. We trudged off towards it, and flopped down under
the huge, spreading branches.

It was heaven, you know. Fields and fields of paddy spread out from where we
were sitting, touching the horizon. A few trees dotted the landscape. Lush
greenery stretched out in all directions, and a cool wind breezed through at
intervals. A tiny shrine was opposite us. For all we knew, we might have
been transported to the 10th century- it was so peaceful. (If it hadn't been
for a telephone line, I might almost have believed it). As it was, it was
all we could do to keep from falling asleep.

Which we didn't. Two hours were spent lying at the base of the tree, in talk
and gossip, from the latest e-group to the dynasties that might have ruled
Maamandur. We'd brought no lunch (and in fact, lunch was very far from our
minds at that moment)- so we ended up gulping handfuls of Glucose (for
instant energy, you see:-)- and washing it down with water.

By 4 PM, the temple complex was open- and we trooped in. It was a nice
temple, really- wide verandas, a big courtyard with trees (which the
archagar's family made full use of)- but we got a shock when we began to
search for inscriptions.

They'd painted every darned pillar white!!!

No inscriptions, nothing. All we could see was huge, white chunks of stone.

In spite of all this, there was a sere