Negotiations with the Past: Classical Tamil in Contemporary Tamil.

• Author: Selby, Martha Ann
• Position: Book review

Negotiations with the Past: Classical Tamil in Contemporary Tamil. Edited by KANNAN M. and CARLOS MENA. Pondicherry: INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY and DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, 2006. Pp. lxxiv + 478.

This interdisciplinary volume is the result of a one-day seminar, held in Pondicherry in June 2004, to "demonstrate and discuss the relationship between classical and contemporary Tamil and the continuities and discontinuities perceived in that relationship" (p. Ixv). Envisaging "negotiations with the past from very diverse angles" (p. xx), the editors have assembled a rich sampling of scholarship drawn from a very impressive array of fields, from archaeology to film and the contemporary performing arts.

The volume intriguingly opens with a cankam-period poem that has come to be known as the lament of Pari's daughters (Purananuru 112), which commemorates the death of the chieftain Pari, who was slain in battle as his hill was taken by a rival. It is set against a modern reimagining of the poem by Cu. Vilvarattinam, a Sri Lankan poet, whose new rendition has the back story of the quest for Tamil Eelam and the devastating consequences of civil war. These poems set the tone for the entire volume, and are presented side by side in Tamil, English, and French. Francois Gros' introductory essay, "Negotiating with the Past," is a very useful and lucid overview of issues confronting Tamil studies today, in which Gros describes the volume as one that "insists that the Tamil past be taken into modern, factual and scientific hands" (p. xxi). George Hart's introduction is a meditation on the relationship between Tamil and Sanskrit, imploring modern authors to pay more attention to--and draw inspiration from--older literary forms, vocabulary, and themes from cankam literature.

The foreword, written by editors Kannan M. and Carlos Mena, unfortunately dissolves into hysterics (pp. lxvi-lxviii), in which they State that, for the most part, Tamil studies are in a rather sorry state--the editors are correct, of course--but these remarks might have been made with more grace and good will. Complaints without suggestions for Solutions remain complaints, which could have been more artfully and reasonably presented as calls to action. The foreword also produces what I suspect is the unintended effect of mirroring the divisive politics of the Tamil studies scene in Pondicherry itself.

These three...