Progenitor of a New Calendar
Great men are known for greater quirks. So it is with Karunanidhi–I leave his greatness to both your imagination and evaluation. A brief background before this.
In the Hindu tradition, one of the ways greatness is measured is by suffixing pravartaka (literally, converter, precedent-setter etc). Sages were honoured with titles like Gotra Pravartaka (givers of the lineage name). A similar honour goes to the most famous Shatavahana Gautamiputra Shatakarani (Shalivahana). The traditional Hindu calendar used till date in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra is among others (and not many remember or know its historical significance) to mark his victory over Vikramaditya. In a way, the current use of this calendar immortalizes Shalivahana.
With this Act, Karunanidhi perhaps aspires to something similar.
A Bill declaring the first day of the Tamil month ‘Thai’ as the Tamil New Year day was unanimously passed in the State Assembly today. The Tamil Nadu Tamil New Year (Declaration Bill 2008) was introduced in the House by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on January 29 and it was passed unanimously today. Earlier, members of various political parties lauded the Chief Minister for introducing the Bill. According to the statement of objects and reasons of the Tamil Nadu Tamil New Year (Declaration) Act 2008, the Governor in his address to the House had announced that in view of the consensus amongst almost all Tamil scholars that the first day of the month of Thai is the first day of the Tamil year, the Government had decided to declare the first day of Thai as the Tamil New Year Day.
In a sentence: no more Holiday for Vishu/Ugadi because Karunanidhi has shifted the new year to January 14th by the force of a legislation. The title of the Bill is a piece of amazement: Tamil Nadu Tamil New Year Day Declaration Bill.
In view of the consensus amongst almost all Tamil scholars that the first day of the month of Thai, the opening month of the Thiruvalluvar year, is the first day of the Tamil year, this Government has declared 1st Thai as the Tamil New Year day and a legislation to this effect was enacted on 1.2.2008. Therefore, the people of Tamil Nadu who now celebrate Pongal as the festival of Tamils, can now celebrate it as the Tamil New Year day also with redoubled joy.
As far as the office-goer is concerned, he has one holiday less.
It is pretty miraculous that not a single debate was held, and no expression except that of consensus! The fact that a secular state has no business in legislating–imposing actually–on matters of traditional calendar apart, Karunanidhi’s government should have at the least, pretended to show some decorum in this matter by inviting scholarly opinion. It fails to name a single scholar who can show how he/she derived this date.
If this is another detested but time-tested dirty political trick, it falls flat. Shouting anti-upper caste slogans is understandable at one level–plus, it is open. If imposing an unscientific and fraudulent traditional calendar is Karunanidhi’s idea of “Dravidising” every single aspect of people’s daily lives, it is another proof of his own senility. In reality, the definition of “Dravidian” is itself a vessel without a bottom.
Ugadi, which falls in March-April is celebrated across most parts of India as the start of the New Year. The etymology of Ugadi means start of a new era (year). The word Vishu (Chittarai Vish if you will) is derived from the Sanskrit root, vish, meaning to enter. In this context, Ugadi marks the change of the Moon’s orbit. Pongal or Makara Sankranti across the country–while it marks the Sun’s movement northwards–is celebrated as a harvest festival. No tradition in any part of India ever marks it as the new year. Karunanidhi’s court scholars–assuming he really used their services–need to tell us how they pegged January 14 as the start of the Revised Tamil New Year.
Another fraud this “Dravidian” zealot has perpetuated is the “Tiruvalluvar year.” According to Vaiyapuri Pillai in History of Tamil Language and Literature, there’s no evidence to peg Tiruvalluvar’s time at 31 BC. He remarks that the Tirukkural shows significant influence of Sanskrit works such as the Manu Smriti, Artha Shastra, Kamandaka’s Nitishastra, Vatsayana’s Kama Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita and several Prakrit Jain and Pali Buddhist works. He puts Tiruvalluvar’s time around 600 AD. Assuming 600 AD is incorrect, there’s nothing to place him as far back as 31 BC.
If Karunanidhi’s intent was to further weaken whatever is left of Hinduism in Tamil Nadu, he has picked the wrong target. A mere legislation won’t stop people from celebrating Ugadi as they have been accustomed to. However, he has managed to reinforce the fact that he can trample over Hindu traditions at will.
What amazes me the most is that nobody in Tamil Nadu has raised as much as a whimper against this cultural atrocity.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader.
Dear Sandeep
Good post. Media reports indicate that the public in Tamil Nadu largely ignored Karunanidhi’s fiat. This is despite the DMK Government issuing a circular to television stations and temples to desist reference to the April (Chitterai) New Year. Further, the occasion was celebrated with gusto in Tamil Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore.
Pongal is a pan-India event. It is not Tamil. It is called Makara Sankranti outside Tamil Nadu. It is the harvest festival, not the New Year. Karunanidhi does not know the basics of Tamil culture that he claims to assert.
A case has been filed in the New Delhi High Court to roll back Karunanidhi’s diktat. Another case would be filed today (April 15) in the Chennai High Court to reverse his legislation. Both the AIADMK (Jayalalitha) and the MDMK (Vaiko) had instructed their party members to ignore the fiat.
The April New Year would remain the first of the Tamil calendar for centuries to come
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20080414092151&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0&
Jaffna Where art thou ? And where is CN ?
Sandeep,
>>”What amazes me the most is that nobody in Tamil Nadu has raised as much as a whimper against this cultural atrocity.”
That there was not as much as a whimper does say at least a little bit about the relevance of the Hindu tradition in Tamil Nadu (of today, obviously), doesn’t it?
>>”Pongal or Makara Sankranti across the country–while it marks the Sun’s movement northwards–is celebrated as a harvest festival. No tradition in any part of India ever marks it as the new year. Karunanidhi’s court scholars–assuming he really used their services–need to tell us how they pegged January 14 as the start of the Revised Tamil New Year.”
Thanks for enlightening me on this. I’ve always wondered why both Pongal and the Tamil New Year day closely follow (with an “error” of utmost one day) the Gregorian calendar, while most other Indian festivals (non-Tamil, should I say?
) vary widely with respect to the Gregorian calendar. That is of course because our traditional festivals are dated on the Hindu lunar calendar. Your point about Pongal marking the Sun’s movement northwards explains why Pongal falls on Jan 14 or 15.
But, care to explain why Tamil New Year day was always screwed up with respect to Hindu calendar? If it was indeed based on Vishu, why would the new year date not vary every year, instead of falling on either April 13th or 14th?
Apparently, Vishu is indeed based on a solar calendar. I’ve also heard before that the same day (Apr 13/14) is celebrated as the new year in some parts of north-east India.
Hi Sandeep,
Nice to see you back in action after a while. I think this will sound the death knell of DMK and DK in Tamil Nadu. They have certainly picked the wrong thing. I am really appalled at the way the media has behaved. Compare this with Vande Mataram controversy over India’s 60th independance. It is shame. Will this senile idiot have the guts to change the calendar of Muslims and Chrisitans in Tamil Nadu and ask them to celerate New Year on 17 January?
“It fails to name a single scholar who can show how he/she derived this date.” - In fact there was a conference held way back in 1921 to decide on this issue. It was their decision to celebrate Tamil new year on Jan 14th along with Pongal. The signatories were
Tamil Kadal, Maraimalai Adigal
Tamil Thendral, Thiru. Vi. Ka.
Tamil Kavalar, K. Subramaniam Pillai
Saiva Periyar, Sachchidhanandham Pillai
Navalar, N.M. Venkatasami Nattar
Navalar, Somasundara Bharathiyar
Muththamil Kavalar, K.A.P. Viswanatham
Many of the above were Saivite scholars and at odds with Dravidian political movement. What Karunanidhi has done is to legislate this.
There are a lot of issues to beat Karunanidhi with, but this is not one of them.
>>Nice to see you back in action after a while. I think this will sound the death knell of DMK and DK in Tamil Nadu. >>
Hmm. Not really. Not even close.
Only one thing can sound the death knell for them. Data about the social justice program in place for the past 85 years.
They have escaped unscathed this time around. The court also seems to be of the mood that there can be no logical scrutiny (strict scrutiny) of government action. So, you cant petition why TN must have 60-70% OBC but obviously backward Bengal has
Zero
The reason the Tamil calendar is in synch with the Gregorian is because both are solar calendars. The Tamil calendar followed the Hindu solar reckoning. And the New Year was always in April - like in Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Nepal, Punjab etc.
Pongal is also a Hindu event. Known as Makara Sankranti elsewhere in India, it is the harvest festival in Tamil Nadu. It does not mark the start of the New Year. Karunanidhi’s decision to declare it the New Year reveals his ignorance of the traditional calendar and the fact that Pongal is just as pan-Indic as April 14 - perhaps more so!
I think Hindu tradition is kicking strong in Tamil Nadu. That is why the opposition was quick to later distance themselves from Karunanidhi’s move although they had initially supported it in the legislature.
Chenthil
None of the people you refer to are of intellectual merit. None had a PhD/MA or traditional academic title. None were recognized interpretors of the Saivite Tamil canon.
Karunanidhi did not have solid intellectual backing. Professor S. Pathmanathan of the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka mentions that the New Year in April or Chitterai had been celebrated in the Tamil land since 1,000 years ago i.e. the time of the imperial Cholas!
The British sponsored Maraimalar Adigal, Periyar and the Justice Party to dent the increased hold of Indian nationalism in Tamil Nadu. The list of names you give follow into that category i.e. agents of colonial rule but not Saivite scholars.
Jaffna - initially there was not a single scholar. Now we say the scholars don’t have intellectual merit. Interesting shift.
Thiru Vi Ka set up India’s first labor Union, sho how does he become an agent of colonial rule? Maraimalai adigal taught Tamil in Madras Christian College, founded Saiva Siddhanta Maha Samajam, wrote commentary on Thiruvasagam, translated Sakuntala from Sanskrit to Tamil - yet he isn’t a scholar.
>> “Many of the above were Saivite scholars and at odds with Dravidian political movement. ” >>
Just because they were theist scholars does not mean they were at odds with the Dravidian political movement. Arent you missing something here ?
The central point of this post is the government has no right in preventing temples from reading out the almanac as part of the new year (new month depending on your political persuasion). They are free to declare or revoke state government holidays. A little known secret of Tamilnadu is that 30%+ of the pop is of Telugu origin (stated by Stalin himself), so there are others besides the traditional but irrelevant enemies of the state who are prone to ignoring this change.
Having said that, people with god-like powers tend to do god-like things. Man tends to explore limits of his powers. Sorry to come back to this, but the ability to confer blessings or wrath to pre-defined groups of people is a great power. What makes a great power god-like is the fact that such magical abilities are not subject to rational examination.
And Jaffna, tell me this. You need a British promoted MA to judge someone’s scholarship in Tamil va?
“The central point of this post is the government has no right in preventing temples from reading out the almanac as part of the new year ”
On reading the post again, this does not seem to be the central point of the post. I think I read it on offstumped. Apologies.
It is however the central point of my comment.
Zero plus 1,
I do understand that Tamil calendar is a solar calendar, and that’s why it’s in sync with the Gregorian calendar. That’s why I didn’t quite get why it is coupled with Ugadi in this post, as it’s not based on the Hindu lunar calendar. And, yes, like I already mentioned, the New Year is celebrated around the same time in some other parts of India too.
Chenthil
Thank you for the information. But quick response.
Maraimalar may have translated Saivite works but he is not a recognized authority of Saivite Tamil tradition. I am sorry but no student of Tamil Saivism turns to him to understand the culture of the Tevaram, Karaikal Ammaiyar, the Tiruvasakam, the Periya Puranam, the Siddhas and Tayumanavar.
He was part of a British sponsored movement to prevent the Indian National Congress from consolidating its base in the Madras Presidency. The Justice Party owed itself in no small measure to the memory of Maraimalar. Despite colonial sponsorship, the Justice Party lost the elections in the Madras Presidency in 1937 - the very first one of its nature in India.
7 ’scholars’ (to use your word scholar - I still dispute their academic credentials) met in 1921. That is insufficient reason to change the new year in 2008. We need broader consensus which Karunanidhi failed to obtain. The April New Year would be back as a public holiday when the DMK is defeated - mark my word - and perhaps before.
Lets get back to the point. The Tamil New Year is in Chitterai and has been so at least since the Cholas in the 10th century. Tamil influence under the earlier Pallavas led to other countries in South East Asia adopting it. It is as Tamil as it gets - more so than Karunanidhi or the Justice Party.
And a quick addenda. All the ’scholars’ you refer to with one exception were of the Vellalar caste - the landed gentry in rural Tamil Nadu who had every reason to oppose the Brahmins since the two competed for the top positions in the Tamil land.
Speaking from the Sri Lankan experience, the Vellalars were the worst perpetrators of violence against the depressed classes until the LTTE arose and put a stop to their preeminence.
But this is besides the point - just included for information.
Err, Jaffna ?? Hi there.
Nilu,
Shut up
Gaurav,
You also shut up. And who is this Jaffna? Why is he ignoring me? This is most sad.
Evidently Chenthil hasn’t heard of the “secular” state of India or doesn’t know what secularism means in the true Indian ishtyle.
No secularism doesn’t mean equal respect to all religions (more like grovelling before “minorities” in the Indian context).
Secularism means ABSOLUTE separation of religion and state, the state should neither promote religion nor interfere in religious practices (as long as they don’t violate other peoples rights), so even if these supposed “scholars” decided for the rest of the people, Karunanidhi has NO right to pass laws telling Hindus when to celebrate what or how to conduct their marriages.
It is hilarious to see the supposed “rationalists” swear by secularism when they don’t even understand its most basic principles, if you are going to shout “secular” at the drop of a hat, then at least read what Paine, Jefferson, and other founding fathers of USA said regarding this issue, here is what the US constitution says:
“Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html ”
When Karunanidhi is passing laws telling the priests when to do prayers or what language to do prayers in, he is persecuting Hindus and violating secularism.
Oh and you might be wondering why the US constitution was quoted, well it was quoted because that is what secularism really means not the mumbo jumbo Indian version.
If Ram did not exist, why dicuss the new year ? I would sugest Tamilnadu to declare Karunanidhi’s birth day as new year, which can be changed to his daughter’s , when she assumes significance.