UV Swaminatha Iyer

UV Swaminatha Iyer

UV Swaminatha Iyer ( Uthamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer, Tamil : .. உ வே சாமிநாதையர் . U. Ve Cāminātaiyar [ saːminaːd̪ai̯jər ]; born 19th February 1855 in Sooriyamoolai ., Died 28. April 1942 in Tirukalukundram ) was a Tamil scholar . Swaminatha Iyer went through a traditional scholarly training in his youth and then shifted to creating text editions of works of Tamil literature. From 1887 he edited a large number of classical works that had previously been handed down in the form of palm leaf manuscripts , including several works of Old Tamil Sangam literature and the epics Sivagasindamani , Silappadigaram and Manimegalai . Through his text editions, Swaminatha Iyer made these largely forgotten texts available to a wider public and thus contributed significantly to the strengthening of Tamil cultural awareness, which led to the so-called Tamil Renaissance . Although not solely responsible for the rediscovery of classical Tamil literature, Swaminatha Iyer was the best known and most prolific of the editors. For his life's work he was given the nickname Tamil Tatta ("Grandfather of Tamil").

Life

Origin and early years

UV Swaminatha Iyer was born on February 19, 1855 in the village of Sooriyamoolai in the Thanjavur district in what is now the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu into a family of Orthodox Tamil Brahmins from the Iyer caste . His mother Saraswathi's parents' house was in Sooriyamoolai, where she had retired for the birth. The family's hometown was the village of Uthamadhanapuram (near Papanasam in the Thanjavur district). Since the father Venkatasubbaiyer, who earned his meager living as a singer and Ramayana narrator, relied on the favor of changing patrons, Swaminatha Iyer spent most of his childhood in various places in the Ariyalur area . From the age of five Swaminatha Iyer received a traditional education. Initially he was taught in the village school, and later he received lessons from a number of local scholars. He showed a great interest in Tamil early on. He was also trained in carnatic music . For Sanskrit and Telugu he could not be inspired by its own account. Nevertheless, he seems to have acquired a very good knowledge of Sanskrit. In the conservative rural milieu in which Swaminatha Iyer grew up, the colonial education system, which at the same time led to the emergence of a western-educated Indian elite, had not yet arrived. Swaminatha Iyer did not learn English during his life. At the age of six, Swaminatha Iyer went through his brahmin initiation ( upanayana ). He was married to Madurambigai on June 16, 1868, at the age of 13 (a common age at the time).

UV Swaminatha Iyer's teacher Meenakshisundaram Pillai (1815–1876)

In 1871 UV Swaminatha Iyer left his parents' house at the age of 16 to continue his studies of Tamil with the famous scholar T. Meenakshisundaram Pillai in Mayuram (Mayiladuthurai). In 1872 Swaminatha Iyer followed his teacher to the Hindu monastery ( matha ) of Thiruvavaduthurai , from which he was promoted. As a result, a close teacher-student relationship developed between Meenakshiundaram Pillai and Swaminatha Iyer. Swaminatha Iyer showed boundless devotion to his master, and Meenakshisundaram Pillai also seems to have been very attached to his disciple. The class consisted of studying Tamil literature under the guidance of the teacher. Palm leaf manuscripts were primarily used as the medium ; printed books were not unknown, but still a rarity. The curriculum consisted primarily of text genres that played an important role in the 19th century but are hardly appreciated today, namely the poetic Prabandham genre and local legends ( Sthalapuranas ). In addition, Swaminatha Iyer also studied the moral didactic poems Tirukkural and Naladiyar as well as the epic Kambaramayanam . The Sangam literature or classical epics , contributed to the rediscovery Swaminatha Iyer later, however, played no role in his training.

The College of Kumbakonam, U.V. Swaminatha Iyer's place of work from 1880.

Meenakshisundaram Pillai died in 1876. Even after the death of his teacher, Swaminatha Iyer remained connected to the monastery of Thiruvavaduthurai. He continued his studies there under the guidance of the abbot of the monastery and began teaching less advanced students at the same time. In 1877 the abbot arranged for Swaminatha Iyer to receive regular financial support and a house. This enabled him to bring his parents and wife to Thiruvavaduthurai and begin a regular married life. In 1880 Swaminatha Iyer left the monastery after he had received a position as a Tamil lecturer at the college of Kumbakonam through the mediation of his retired predecessor C. Thyagaraja Chettiar . This was the first time he came into contact with the colonial education system, which in the 19th century offered more and more perspectives for local scholars, while the importance of traditional institutions of patronage - monasteries and royal courts - declined. Swaminatha Iyer's family followed him to Kumbakonam. In the same year his son Kalyanasundaram Iyer was born.

The rediscovery of classical Tamil literature

Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar (1853-1892)

After moving to Kumbakonam, UV Swaminatha Iyer first came into contact with the oldest works of Tamil literature, which at that time were known only to a few people. The key experience for Swaminatha Iyer was an encounter with Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar , a lawyer interested in literature who had recently been transferred to Kumbakonam, in 1880. Ramaswami Mudaliar asked Swaminatha Iyer to study the ancient texts and handed him one Sivagasindamani manuscript . This is an epic from the late classical phase of Tamil literature, which was probably written by a Jain author in the 10th century . Swaminatha Iyer began to study the text and found that it was difficult for him to understand the ancient language. However, he found that members of the Jain religious community were still ceremonially reciting the Sivagasindamani , and received help from them with the interpretation of the text. The Sivagasindamani was handed down along with a comment by the author Nachinarkkiniyar (14th century). Upon studying the commentary, Swaminatha Iyer found that it contained numerous quotations from other ancient works that he could not identify. While searching for the source of the quotations, he discovered manuscripts from the Ettuttogai and Pattuppattu collections in the library of the monastery of Thiruvavaduthurai . Together these form the corpus of Sangam literature, the oldest layer of Tamil literature, which dates back to the 1st to 6th centuries. Swaminatha Iyer found the Sangam texts difficult to understand, but was extremely fascinated by the new world of classical Tamil literature that opened up before him.

In the course of his study of the Sivagasindamani , Swaminatha Iyer decided to publish an edition of the text. This reflects the change in Tamil literary culture in the 19th century: In the course of the increasing spread of book printing during the British colonial era, more and more Tamil texts were published in book form. Many scholars thereby became editors who published printed editions of texts. Swaminatha Iyer had his first experience of editing when he published a short collection of poems by contemporary poets (including eight from his own pen) in 1878. For his Sivagasindamani edition, Swaminatha Iyer collected further manuscript copies of the work, the readings of which he compared with one another. To finance the printing he resorted to a kind of subscription system in which wealthy individuals paid him money in advance and in return received a copy of the book as soon as it was printed. The edition of Sivagasindamani finally appeared in Madras (Chennai) in 1887 .

Page from a Purananuru manuscript from the UV Swaminatha Iyers collection (now in the UV Swaminatha Iyer Library )

In parallel to his work as a college lecturer, Swaminatha Iyer continued his research and editing activities. To this end, he made frequent trips to different regions of the Tamil language area in order to collect manuscripts of classic Tamil texts. He went from house to house to see poet scholars who he suspected were old manuscripts. He often found that they had already been lost or disintegrated, but still managed to collect a large number of manuscripts. On this basis, he published further text editions of the classical works that had not previously been available in print. In 1889 an edition of Pattuppattu appeared , the "ten chants" which, together with the "eight anthologies" ( Ettuttogai ), form the corpus of Sangam literature. Editions of two more classic epics, Silappadigaram (1892) and Manimegalai (1898), as well as the Sangam anthologies Purananuru (1894) and Aingurunuru (1903) followed in the next few years .

Further life

The Presidency College in Madras, Swaminatha Iyer's place of work from 1903 to 1919.

In 1903 UV Swaminatha Iyer received a position as a Tamil lecturer at the Presidency College in Madras (now Chennai ). The opportunity to move to Madras was convenient for him because it was there, in the center of Tamil publishing, that his books were published and that he was able to continue his editorial work more easily. As early as 1889 he had been offered a position at Presidency College, which he declined out of consideration for the health of his father, who was still alive at the time. In 1904 he rented a house in the Triplicane district , which he bought two years later. It was to remain his home until the end of his life. During his time at Presidency College, Swaminatha Iyer edited two other sangam texts: Paditruppattu (1904) and Paripadal (1918).

In 1919 Swaminatha Iyer retired. A year after his retirement he went back to the monastery of Thiruvavaduthurai, but returned to Madras in 1922. In 1924 he became rector of the newly founded Sri Meenakshi College (later Annamalai University ) in Chidambaram , but three years later he had to give up the post for health reasons and went back to Madras. Swaminatha Iyer continued to work as an editor in his later years. His last important text edition was the edition of the Sangam anthology Kurundogai published in 1937 .

During the Second World War , Swaminatha Iyer, like many residents of Madras, left the city for fear of a Japanese bombing in 1942 and went to the small town of Tirukalukundram . There he died on April 28, 1942 at the age of 87 after a brief but serious illness.

plant

Text output

UV Swaminatha Iyer studying palm leaf manuscripts

During his long and productive life, UV Swaminatha Iyer published a considerable number of text editions based on the palm leaf manuscripts he had collected. Most important were his editions of the Sangam works, which form the oldest layer of Tamil literature, and the epics from the period immediately following the Sangam period. Swaminatha Iyer was by no means the only researcher working in the field. In addition to him, his older contemporary CW Damodaram Pillai (1832-1901) should be mentioned, with whom Swaminatha Iyer had a collegial, but sometimes rivalry relationship. Swaminatha Iyer was by far the most productive of the editors. Of the 18 works of Sangam literature, he published the ten longer individual poems of the Pattuppattu Collection as a complete edition (1889) as well as five of the eight anthologies of the Ettuttogai Collection: Purananuru (1894), Aingurunuru (1903), Paditruppattu (1904), Paripadal (1918 ) and Kurundogai (1937). Except for the Kurundogai, it was always the first edition . He was also the first to publish the three surviving epics of the post-Sangam period: Sivagasindamani (1887), Silappadigaram (1892) and Manimegalai (1898). In addition, Swaminatha Iyer produced editions of two further narrative poems - Perunkadai (1925) and Udayanakumara Kaviyam (1935) - as well as four grammar works : Purapporul Venbamalai (1895), Nannul with the commentaries of Mayilainadar (1918) and Namachivayar (1925) as well as Tamilneri Vilakkam (1937). There are also editions of 14 local legends ( Sthalapuranas ) and 44 works of the Prabandham genre, including many that were written by his teacher T. Meenakshisundaram Pillai .

A page from UV Swaminatha Iyer's edition of Kurundogai (1937)

Although Swaminatha Iyer was an autodidact in terms of editorial studies , his text editions are among the most important achievements in Tamil philology and are still considered standard works today. Although they do not meet the criteria of a critical edition , they are based on a careful comparison of the readings in the manuscripts and indicate text variants. Swaminatha Iyer provided his editions with extensive introductions, notes and indices. Where there was no old comment , he wrote one himself. Swaminatha Iyer's comments have contributed significantly to today's understanding of the classical Tamil works.

Own works

In the traditional Tamil system, scribes were always poets themselves. UV Swaminatha Iyer was also trained in poetry, but showed less ambition in this profession than as a researcher. He wrote a number of individual poems on special occasions. Some of these poems were published in collections of individual poems. An example is an elegy written by Swaminatha Iyer in 1888 on the death of Subramaniya Desigar, abbot of the monastery of Thiruvavaduthurai:

"கருணையெனுங் கடல்பெருகு மடையாய நினதுவிழிக் கடையும் சீதத்
தருணமதி யனையமுக மண்டலமுந் தெளியமுத தாரை போல
வருமினிய மொழிவாக்கும் வருவோர்க்கு வரையாது வழங்கு கையும்
கையும் பிரமணிய பிரமணிய குருமணியே சிறியேன் மன்னோ."

" Karuṇai eṉum kaṭal peruku maṭai āya niṉatu viḻikkaṭaiyum cīta
taruṇamati aṉai mukamaṇṭalamum teḷi amutatārai pōla
arum iṉiya moḻi vākkum varuvuvkkku varaiyātu
kūrauyum cōpatir. "

“Your eyes, open sluices of the Sea of ​​Mercy,
your face, like the cool new moon,
your mouth full of rare sweet words, like clear ambrosia,
your hands that give unlimited gifts to everyone who seeks you -
Subramaniya by divine grace, jewel below the teachers!
When should I, insignificant one, see her again? "

Swaminatha Iyer published a number of research papers and several biographical works in prose . His autobiography , entitled En Sarittiram ("My Life Story ") was published as a series in Ananda Vikadan magazine between 1940 and 1942 . Swaminatha Iyer's death left the autobiography unfinished; it covers the period up to 1899. It was published in book form in 1950. In addition, Swaminatha published a biography of his teacher Meenakshisundaram Pillai. These two very detailed biographies are among the most important sources for the cultural and social history of Tamil Nadu in the 19th century.

Afterlife

UV Swaminatha Iyers statue in front of the Presidency College in Chennai

Through his text editions, UV Swaminatha Iyer made a significant contribution to making the works of Sangam literature and the late Classical epics, which had previously largely been forgotten, accessible to a wider audience. The rediscovery of Sangam literature triggered the so-called Tamil Renaissance , which had enormous social consequences. At a time when Tamil cultural awareness was growing, the newly discovered classical literature was seen as evidence of the old age and the independence of Tamil culture. To this day, the Sangam works are one of the most important cultural icons of the Tamils.

Although in addition to Swaminatha Iyer other researchers produced text editions of classical texts, it is above all his name that is associated with the rediscovery of Sangam literature. In addition to the fact that he was the most prolific of the editors, his widely acclaimed autobiography may also have contributed. Today Swaminatha Iyer is known by the nickname Tamil Tatta ("Grandfather of Tamil"). Even among radical supporters of the Dravidian Movement , who are otherwise anti-Rahman, he is respected for his services to Tamil, despite his Brahmanic origins. In his autobiography Swawminatha Iyer verbosely describes his love for the Tamil language, which he describes as "mother" and "goddess". In the language-political debates about Tamil, Swaminatha Iyer played a mediating role between the linguistically purist supporters of the “Pure Tamil Movement” ( Tanittamil iyakkam ) and circles who preferred Sanskrit over Tamil. He advocated retaining terms in Tamil that were borrowed from other languages, but demanded that borrowings should be adapted acoustically to Tamil.

The government of British India awarded Swaminatha Iyer in 1906 the honorary title of Mahamahopadhyaya ("greatest of the great teachers"). From the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram he received in 1925 the title Dakshinatya Kalanidhi ("Treasury of the learning of the south"). He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Madras in 1932 . In 1948 a statue of Swaminatha Iyer was erected in front of his former place of work, the Presidency College . His parents' house in his hometown Uthamadhanapuram was converted into a memorial in 2008. Swaminatha Iyer's house in the Chennaier district of Triplicane , where he lived for almost 40 years, was torn down in 2012.

The UV Swaminatha Iyer Library

After his death, the UV Swaminatha Iyer Library emerged from Swamninatha Iyer's manuscript and book collection . The library was founded in 1943 by Swaminatha Iyer's son Kalyanasundaram Iyer with the support of the theosophist Rukmini Devi Arundale . Since 1967 it has been located at its current location on the campus of the Kalakshetra Foundation in the Chennaier district of Besant Nagar . With around 2,200 palm leaf and 850 paper manuscripts, it is one of the most important collections of Tamil manuscripts.

Remarks

1. ↑ The name of the family's hometown, Uthamadhanapuram , and the name of the father, Venkatasubbaiyer , are abbreviated as is common in South India. Swaminatha (n) is the first name, while the part of the name Iyer indicates the caste affiliation. In Tamil, the name is usually contracted to one word ( சாமிநாதையர் Cāmināt'-aiyar ), but in Latin script the separate spelling Swaminatha Iyer has become established.
2. ^ UV Swaminatha Iyer: The Story of My Life, translated by Kamil V. Zvelebil, Volume 1, Madras: Institute of Asian Studies, 1990, pp. 29-31.
3. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1990, pp. 48-50.
4. ↑ Anne E. Monius: “U. Vē. Cāminātaiyar and the Construction of Tamil Literary 'Tradition' ”, in: Journal of Indian Philosophy 39 (2011), pp. 589–597, here pp. 595–596.
5. ^ Norman Cutler: "Three Moments in the Genealogy of Tamil Literary Culture", in: Sheldon Pollock (ed.): Literary Cultures in History. Reconstructions from South Asia, University of California Press: Berkley, Los Angeles, London, 2003, pp. 271–322, here p. 275.
6. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1990, pp. 85-90.
7. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1990, pp. 105-115.
8. ↑ Cutler 2003, pp. 276-281.
9. ^ UV Swaminatha Iyer: The Story of My Life, translated by Kamil V. Zvelebil, Volume 2, Madras: Institute of Asian Studies, 1994, pp. 275-282.
10. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1994, pp. 299-300.
11. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1994, pp. 334-338.
12. ^ Sascha Ebeling: Colonizing the Realm of Words. The Transformation of Tamil Literary Culture in Nineteenth-Century South India, Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010, pp. 159-160.
13. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1994, pp. 366-367.
14. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1994, pp. 367-371.
15. ↑ Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1974, pp. 136-138.
16. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1994, pp. 371-377.
17. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1994, pp. 385-386.
18. ↑ Ebeling 2010, pp. 160-164.
19. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1994, pp. 312-315.
20. ^ V. Rajesh: Manuscripts, Memory and History. Classical Tamil Literature in Colonial India, New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India, 2014, pp. 119–121.
21. ^ KV Jagannathan: UV Swaminatha Iyer. Translated by Prema Nandakumar. New Delhi: Sahitya Academy, 1987, p. 39.
22. ↑ Swaminatha Iyer 1994, pp. 458-459.
23. ↑ Jagannathan 1987, pp. 45-56.
24. ↑ Jagannathan 1987, pp. 50-52.
25. ↑ Jagannathan 1987, p. 61.
26. ↑ Kamil Zvelebil: Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature, Leiden, New York, Kobenhavn, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1992, p. 199.
27. ^ Eva Wilden: Literary Techniques in Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry. The Kuṟuntokai, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006, p. 5.
28. ↑ Zvelebil 1992, pp. 197-198.
29. ↑ Quoted in Swaminatha Iyer 1994, p. 435.
30. ↑ U. Vē. Cāminātaiyar: Eṉ Carittiram, Ceṉṉai: Kapīr Accukkūṭam, 1950. English translation: UV Swaminatha Iyer: The Story of my Life, translated by Kamil V. Zvelebil, 2 volumes, Madras: Institute of Asian Studies, 1990/1994.
31. ↑ U. Vē. Cāminātaiyar: Tiruvāvaṭutuṟaiyātīṉattu Makāvittuvāṉ Tiricirapuram Śrī Mīṉāṭcicuntaram Piḷḷaiyaravkaḷ carittiram, 2 volumes, Ceṉṉai: Kēcari Accukkūṭam, 1933/1940. Abbreviated English translation: K. Sridharam Gurupadaswamy: A Poets' Poet. Mahavidwan Sri Meenakshisundaram Pillai of Tiruchirappalli, Madras: UV Swaminatha Iyer Library, 1976.
32. ↑ Ebeling 2010, p. 35.
33. ↑ K. Nambi Arooran: Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism. 1905-1944, Madurai 1980, p. 12.
34. ^ Eva Wilden: Manuscript, Print and Memory. Relics of the Caṅkam in Tamilnadu, Berlin, Munich, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014, p. 33.
35. ↑ Sumathi Ramaswamy: Passions of the Tongue. Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891-1970, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1997, pp. 199 and 208-212.
36. ↑ Monius 2011, pp. 593-594.
37. ↑ AR Venkatachalapathy: “Coining Words. Language and Politics in Late Colonial Tamilnadu ”, in: In Those Days There Was No Coffee. Writings on Cultural History, New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2006, pp. 143–162, here pp. 146–147.
38. ↑ Jagannathan 1987, p. 43.
39. ↑ Jagannathan 1987, p. 52.
40. ↑ Jagannathan 1987, p. 55.
41. ↑ Zvelebil 1992, p. 199.
42. ↑ The Hindu, April 28, 2008: “U.Ve Swaminatha Iyer memorial inaugurated”.
43. ^ The Hindu, September 16, 2012: Ax falls on Tamil Thaatha's house.
44. ↑ The Hindu, July 5, 2013: "Abode of legacy".
45. ↑ Wilden 2014, p. 35.

literature

• U. Vē. Cāminātaiyar: Eṉ Carittiram. Ceṉṉai: Kapīr Accukkūṭam, 1950. (Autobiography UV Swaminatha Iyers in Tamil. English translation: UV Swaminatha Iyer: The Story of my Life. Translated by Kamil V. Zvelebil. 2 volumes. Madras: Institute of Asian Studies, 1990/1994. )
• Ki. Vā. Jakannātaṉ: Tamiḻt tāttā. Ṭākṭar U. Vē. Cāmināta Aiyararkaḷ vāḻvum ilakkiyap paṇiyum. Putu Tilli: Cākittiya Akkātemi, 1983. (Biography UV Swaminatha Iyers in Tamil. English translation: KV Jagannathan: UV Swaminatha Iyer. Translated by Prema Nandakumar. New Delhi: Sahitya Academy, 1987.)
• Norman Cutler, "Three Moments in the Genealogy of Tamil Literary Culture". In: S. Pollock (Ed.): Literary Cultures in History. Reconstructions from South Asia . University of California Press: Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 2003, pp. 271-322.
• Anne E. Monius: U. Vē. Cāminātaiyar and the Construction of Tamil Literary 'Tradition' . In: Journal of Indian Philosophy 39 (2011). Pp. 589-597.

Web links

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This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 11, 2016 .