The evolution of Tamil Nadu's state anthem: From geographic hymn to Dravidian identity marker

As Tamil Nadu celebrates its 68th 'Reorganisation Day' this November, it's the perfect time to honour P Sundaram Pillai, the author of the state hymn. It's not just Tamils who celebrate him—South Indians as a whole have a reason to exalt Sundaram Pillai, or 'Sundaranar' as he is known. In the prologue to his play 'Manonmaniam', Sundaranar praised not only Tamil but also other Dravidian languages such as Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada, uniting them under the umbrella term 'Dravida land' and calling Tamil Nadu 'nal thirunadu' or 'best among the Dravidian lands'.

A part of the prologue, which talks about the Dravidian land and languages, was later carved out by former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi and announced as 'Tamil Thaai Vaazhthu' (invocation to Mother Tamil) on March 11, 1970. However, a formal order was passed only on November 23 of the same year. Since then, the song has been recited at the beginning of every state govt event. On December 17, 2021, after Vijayendra Saraswathi of the Kanchi Mutt allegedly showed disrespect by not standing during the invocation, the DMK govt declared it as the 'state song' and ordered that everyone must stand whenever it is sung or played.

The song has once again taken centre stage due to a recent controversy. During Doordarshan Tamil channel's golden jubilee event, the line 'Dravida nal thirunadum' was omitted while singing the song. Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi, who attended the event, claimed there was a 50-year effort in Tamil Nadu politics to distance the state from India. This sparked a war of words between Chief Minister M K Stalin and the Governor.

For the past three years, the DMK has been giving more impetus to the term 'Dravidam', drawing criticism from right-wing and Tamil nationalist fringe groups such as NTK. Whenever 'Dravidam' enters public discourse, many credit Dalit icon Iyothee Thass for coining the term. The legacy built around Thass is so strong that it often overshadows another figure of the 1880s who used the term just as frequently: Sundaram Pillai.

In 1877, Sundaranar was working as the headmaster of an English-Tamil bilingual school in Tirunelveli when he started writing the play Manonmaniam. "His introduction to the Saivite saint Kodaganallur Sundara Swamigal gave him deeper knowledge of Saiva Siddhanta, which influenced the play, where Indian nationalism is a subtle theme," says Motilal Nehru, grandson of Sundaram Pillai.

Published in 1891 and written in verse, Manonmaniam was in many ways a pioneering work in Tamil dramaturgy. Inspired by The Secret Way by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1889), it tells the story of a Pandya king who, due to the misguided advice of his cunning courtier, becomes a prisoner of circumstance and nearly loses his kingdom to a Chera king. The play is named after the central female character, Manonmani. It was adapted into an eponymous Tamil film in 1942, starring superstars P U Chinnappa and T R Rajakumari.

Though the play was adapted into a film, it was never staged. "Since the play was in verse, staging it wouldn't have appealed to the public. But it was the first modern Tamil play where characters directly addressed the audience, similar to Shakespearean plays. Before this, a narrator had to introduce every character before they entered a scene—Silappathikaram is an example, though it's considered an epic," says A Ramasamy, former professor at the School of Performing Arts, Pondicherry University.

Sundaranar also pioneered the tradition of envisioning the Tamil language as a mother or goddess figure. In her book 'Passions of the Tongue' (1997), historian Sumathi Ramaswamy says that "in writing his hymn on 'Tamilttáy', Sundaram Pillai took great care in locating it within a prior Saiva tradition of deifying Tamil".

But the writer did not intend the term Dravidam to imply racial pride as it is associated with today, says historian A K Perumal, who authored the book 'Manonmaniam Sundaranarin Innoru Pakkam' about Sundaranar. "While the DMK, an atheist party, has taken the idea of Dravidam from Sundaranar, the latter was pious and perceived the idea in a different way. The Aryan-Dravidian conflict existed even before the DMK was constituted. Sundaranar was a theist and a Saivite scholar. However, he was anti-Brahmin and fought against Sanskrit domination and the notion that it was the mother of all languages."

Just as Rabindranath Tagore wrote the poem 'Jana Gana Mana' without expecting the song to be later adapted as the national anthem, Sundaranar too wrote 'Tamil Thaai Vaazhthu' without expectations. Both the songs describe the geography of their respective lands.

"DMK too wanted a song that describes the geography of Tamil land. Before party leaders zeroed in on Sundaranar's song, they analysed the songs of Bharathiyar, Namakkal Kavignar, and Bharathidasan, but none had the geography portrayed in Sundaranar's song," says Perumal.

In addition to elevating Tamil to the status of mother and goddess, Sundaranar is also credited as the first to establish the chronology of Tamil literature. "He was the first to determine the age of Tiru Gnana Sambandar, among the most revered figures of non-Brahmanical Tamil Saivism. Sambandar's hymns, along with a few others, are considered the 'Tamil Vedas'. By identifying Sambandar's era as a reference point, Sundaranar mapped out the timeline of Tamil literature. Sadly, his contributions in the fields of philosophy, history, and archaeology remain unrecognised. He is still primarily remembered as a playwright," says Krishnan Nallaperumal, former dean of science at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Tirunelveli, who is working on translating Sundaranar's English works into Tamil.

Email your feedback with name and address to southpole.toi@timesofindia.com


Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.