A National Seminar held on “Understanding the Cultural Focus on Thiruvarur Region Heritage of Tamil Nadu – Focus on Thiruvarur region” on March 17th and 18th 2022 at the Central University of Tamil Nadu – CUTN, Thiruvarur (3)

A National Seminar held on “Understanding the Cultural Focus on Thiruvarur Region Heritage of Tamil Nadu – Focus on Thiruvarur region” on March 17^th and 18^th 2022 at the Central University of Tamil Nadu – CUTN, Thiruvarur (3)

17-03-2022 breakfast

The first technical session started after lunch chaired by Prof S. Sundaram, HOD, History department, University of Madras. There were seven paper presenters:

Sl. No	Name of the paper presenter	Title of the paper
1	K. V. Ramakrishna Rao	The Cholas shipbuilding and ship breaking activities, changing river basins and coastal lines 1000 years ago
2	R. Devi	Nageswaraswamy Temple  Kumbakonam
3	G. Aruldas and R. Dinakar	Cholas influence on Southeast Asia and its maritime trade
4	Murugan and Basha	Muslim women’s education in the Vellore district
5	Natarajan	Kalpana and Kalpita in Thavil play – Innovation made in Thiruvrur
6	Madhusudhana Rao and K. V. Ramakrishna Rao	The Architectural link between Thruvaiyaru and Hemavati
7	N. Anita	A Vital role of the Dravidian movement n the abolition of the Devadasi system

Dr Sundaram delved upon “culture,” its definition and detailed its importance quoting from the related literature. From cherished historic monuments and museums to living heritage practices and contemporary art forms, culture enriches our lives in countless ways and helps build inclusive, innovative and resilient communities. Protecting and safeguarding the world’s cultural and natural heritage and supporting creativity and dynamic cultural sectors are fundamental to addressing the challenges of our time, from climate change to poverty, inequality, the digital divide and ever more complex emergencies and conflicts. UNESCO is convinced that no development can be sustainable without a strong culture component. Indeed only a human-centred approach to development based on mutual respect and open dialogue among cultures can lead to lasting peace.

UNESCO’s commitment to culture: UNESCO’s interdisciplinary mandate which includes the natural and social sciences and culture make it uniquely able to explore the diverse values of nature. Biodiversity is central to many cultures and culture itself plays a crucial role in how biodiversity is perceived. UNESCO is the only UN agency with a mandate in the field of culture. UNESCO’s Culture Sector, through its culture conventions and programmes, plays a unique role in promoting human creativity and safeguarding culture and heritage worldwide. UNESCO’s mandate for the social sciences enables exploration of the ethical considerations of nature’s intrinsic value, while  UNESCO’s  work  on gender provides a  space to  examine  how  biodiversity  is  experienced  and  utilized differently by women and men. Finally, the work of UNESCO in culture and communication and information demonstrates that language is key to how we understand and perceive the world, and shows how the concepts of ‘biodiversity’ and ‘nature’ are expressed in many different ways in different languages.

K. V. Ramakrishna Rao presented his paper with PPT, “The Cholas shipbuilding and ship breaking activities, changing river basins and coastal lines 1000 years ago.” Showing the fundamentals of the shipbuilding, he explained that shipbreaking worked as “Reverse engineering,” during the Cholas period, as huge quantity of wood, timber and parts were recovered, salvaged and reclaimed and they were again used for shipbuilding. Shipbuilding was always and also associated with ship-breaking and no researcher has looked into, in the context of the Cholas. Had the Cholas shipbuilding yards been busy with shipbuilding, naturally, they were busy by engaging themselves in the ship-breaking. The ship-breaking gave abundant wooden-ready-made parts that were easily used for the shipbuilding.  However, recycling can be described as making use of an object (such as a vessel) in a different way from its original function. In contrast, discarding is when unwanted objects and materials are simply dumped at some place.

K.V. Ramakrishna Rao presenting his paper

Recycling aims at the resourceful reuse of various materials, therefore, such huge quantity of wood and timber coming out of ship breaking was not discarded, but, used in the rebuilding ships and the rest for the construction of palaces and forts. If a ship anchors at a port, a lot of activities took place. Hundreds of people, mostly, foreigners entered the port cities. As they acted and interacted with the locals, problems had arisen. Therefore, taxes were also imposed to restrict their movements and goods[1]. From Kanyakumari to Bengal, there had been many ports, port-cities, shipbuilding yards and ship-breaking centres on the coast. Nagapttinam, Caddalore, Pulicat, Naasapurpeta, Kaligapatna, Sitakund are to mention a few. The waste from the vessels, cargo, men and materials polluted the port cities and the coast[2]. Therefore, they were also anchored at a distance and only goods were allowed to enter the port through boats. Thus, in Indian ports, boats were very important in handling cargo, of course, catamaran also played an important role, as they had been cheap and easy way of transporting goods from their ships to the coast. Thus, the small islands, atolls, coral reefs and such other areas nearby coastal areas, ports served as transit-temporary staying places for the foreign / incoming vessels / ships.

R. Devi described the features of “Nageswaraswamy Temple  Kumbakonam.”

G. Aruldas and R. Dinakar with the very attractive title, “Cholas influence on Southeast Asia and its maritime trade,” delved much on the literary evidence from the Tamil Sangam literature about the topic. After spending 80% on such literary narrative, they turned to the Cholas, but giving nothing new. The paper presenter was repeating the well-known details again and again.

Murugan and Basha, a joint paper but presented by Basha on, “Muslim women education in the Vellore district,” and it was not at all fitting into any theme of the seminar. The sectional President also pointed out this fact.

Natarajan presented on “Kalpana and Kalpita in Thavil play – Innovation made in Thiruvrur,” With demonstration of notes. He pointed out as to how a new note was added to the traditional seven notes[3].

Madhusudhana Rao and K. V. Ramakrishna Rao, a joint paper presented by Prof Madhusudhana Rao on, “The Architectural link between Thruvaiyaru and Hemavati.” Historians while describing the Ganges campaign of Rajendra Chola (1012-1044 CE), discussed and debated about many “Victory Trophies” brought back from the Ganges to Thanjavur. In the case of Nolambas, the carrying back of Hemavati temple pillars, the authors studied them at the Hemavati and Thiruvaiyaru temples. The 50 carved pillars in the corridors of the Apparsvami shrine of the Chola temple at Thiruvaiyaru have been under discussion in this paper. At Tiruvaiyar seven miles from Thanjavur, is an ancient Chola temple adjunct of which is the Apparsvami shrine. This small temple is associated with the great Saiva – saint who converted the Pallava king Mahendravarman to Saivism and the sacred spot has a temple erected by Rajendra. An inscription on the plinth gives the prasasti of Rajendra Chola. Around the temple are corridors with rows of pillars. There are about fifty exquisitely carved pillars in greenish basalt with intricate carving in a style so different from all around that they stand out distinctive entirely variant from their surroundings, in other words, they were brought from Hemavati and fixed here.

N. Anita, in her paper, “A Vital role of Dravidian movement n the abolition of Devadasi system,” delved upon 95% and suddenly narrated about the women engaged as “Devadasis,” during the Chola period[4].

After tea break, the Technical session – II started and 15 papers were presented. As only five minutes were given, the paper presenters rushed through and most of them had been of compiled and repetitive nature. No new facts or interpretations are given. Evidently, the paper presenters have not taken seriously in going through the sources and bringing out how this area had been so important in promoting the Tamil Heritage in many aspects and standardized during the Chola period. Unfortunately, many of the papers listed were not presented as the authors did not turn up. The hurriedly filled up readers could not do any justice. Thus, the first-day seminar session was over.

© K. V. Ramakrishna Rao

19-03-2022

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[1]  The inscriptions like Mottupalli and Kaifeedus about Cholas Purvapattayams, Pulicat etc., detail the taxes imposed and collected on the goods imported and exported by the foreigners entering the Indian ports.

[2] This has been the most serious problem and even today and incidentally, the important ship-breaking centres have still been in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

[3] There are different types of swara sthayis or note pitches that leads to the total number of melakartha ragas. These different variations of swaras leads to more than one combination of musical scale. The different variations in swaras is mentioned below. Using this it is possible to mathematically ascertain the total number of melakartha ragas.

Sa (Shadja) – only one.

Ri (Rishabha) – Shuddha, Chathushruthi and Shatshruti Rishabha in increasing order of pitch.

Ga (Gandhara) – Shuddha, Sadharana, Antara Gandhara in increasing order of pitch.

Ma (Madhyama) – Shuddha, Prathi Madhyama in increasing order of pitch.

Pa(Panchama)- only one.

Dha (Daivata) –Shuddha, Chatushruti, Shatshruti Daivata in increasing order of pitch.

Ni (Nishada)- Shuddha, Kaishiki, Kakali Nishadham in increasing order of pitch.

[4] Of late, Rajaraja Chola is targeted very often for pro-Brahmin and started attacked by the Dravidologists. Recently also without knowing the difference between the script and language, some fringe groups were demonstrating against the arathi inscriptions found in the Big Temple and misinterpreting as if “Sanskrit” inscriptions were inserted and so on without any basis. Here, the accusation has been that Rajaraja was responsible for the increase of Temple prostitutes / Devadasis.