Epics, getting back to Indian versions! A study of Kamba Ramayanam by V V S Aiyar.

While it was tempting to go deeper into the Indonesian epic, Serat Centhini, I am also reminded of a few modern popular versions based on Mahabharata waiting to be read! Add to this Samhita Arni's book on Sita and the Missing Queen. I guess these will have to wait.

At present I am looking at Kamba Ramayanam. For a person who speaks hybrid Tamil and unfortunately cannot read, it will be a challenge. Luckily I located on line, a study which should prove interesting. The study by V.V.S. Ayiar,  published by the Delhi Tamil Sangham, has many dimensions. We get to know about the author in detail which is valuable.

V V S Aiyar, a revolutionary who lead an extraordinary life was born as Varaganeri Venkatesa Subramanya Aiyar in the year 1881 near Karur. A matriculate at the age of twelve, married at the same age and a lawyer by twenty, he moved to Rangoon seeking a better life and to London thereafter to become a barrister. When called to the bar, he refused to owe allegiance to the king and his life changed!

He together with Veer Savarkar  was active in a militant sturggle against the British. When a CID came to arrest this South Indian Brahmin revolutionary, he pretended to be a Sikh, Veer Vikram Singh and avoided being arrested. Escaped to Paris and then managed to land in Pondicherry by boat, pretending to be a devout Muslim.

The next ten years in Pondicherry were active with  writing proscribed literature and smuggling revolvers and ammunition to British India. His wife gave him full support. He stopped being a revolutionary when Gandhi, the Mahatma, met for the second time and converted him.

He moved to Madras after the general amnesty in 1920 as an editor of a tamil news paper. He was soon sent to jail on charges of sedition and he wrote his study of Kamba Ramyanam while in jail in Bellary.

A man who knew many languages, wrote biographies to inspire Tamils and started a Tamil Gurukulum with an ambition to create a race of Tamils similar to Sikhs. They were taught farming, skills and self-defence. He wrote the biography of Guru Govind Singh to instill ideals in the minds of the pupils of the Gurukulum.

It is said that he tragically lost his life attempting to save his daughters life, as she was being swept away at the Papanasanam water falls. He was just 44 when he died. I am sure he is worth a biography and I guess there would be one in Tamil. He is also known as the father of Tamil short stories.