The multicultural landscape of Tamil heritage

'The Sweet Salt of Tamil' unveils the rich literary and cultural past of Tamil Nadu, and how the region's history informs and colours its present

The Sweet Salt of Tamil: Things We Do Not Know About Tamil Country 

Author: Tho Paramasivan (Translated by V Ramnarayan) 

Publisher: Navayana 

Pages: 191 

Price: Rs 399

The title The Sweet Salt of Tamil is a riff on the poem “The right salt brings out love’s sweetness” from  Thirukural, that amazing Tamil mini-verse compendium written way before the age of 140 characters on Twitter. It’s a delightful and informative read illuminating the diverse culture and rich history of Tamil heritage.

Twenty-five years ago, when it was published in Tamil as  Ariyapadaatha Tamizhagam (Unknown Aspects of Tamil country), this work of non-fiction created a wave of encouraging responses. With its accessible tone it delineated anthropological, literary, sociological, culinary, historical, and mythological aspects of Tamil Nadu and its people. It made popular features unique and familiarised unknown facts about Tamil Nadu and its cultural mores and history.

Navayana, the pioneering Indian anti-caste publishers, have brought out this excellent translation by V Ramnarayan of Tamil literary and political activist Tho Paramasivan’s Ariyapadaatha Tamizhagam.

Tho Pa, as he was popularly called, was a university professor of Tamil language and literature in Tirunelveli, in southern Tamil Nadu with keen interests in anthropology, archaeology, folklore and history and Tamil society. He remained a public intellectual with an avid following among his students and fellow writers. Sometimes, his historical analyses and cultural deductions are open to probe and critique, and they certainly offer impetus for further research and start dialogues. His writing is often characterised by a powerful and evocative style, and he is known for his ability to convey the complexity and nuances of the issues he addresses.

In seven chapters, inferring from Sangam poems (6th century BC onwards), historical records and sociological documents, Tho Pa records the food, housing, clothing, kinship festivals (Deepavali is a festival that is a north Indian import and observed by Tamil Brahmins and now by other castes, seduced by retail charms and mostly unmarked in Tamil villages) and their etymology. The primacy given to water for Tamils, the importance of salt in poetry, food and rituals, kinship structure, geography come under deep dive analysis by Tho Pa.

He adds charming details about how indigenous Tamil food had healthy cooking techniques that included steamed, stir fried and sauteed foods, and fried or processed foods came later with outside influence. The use of oils (gingelly, called the good oil, and castor and neem oil) and millets and grains and etymology of words like curry (from  kaikari ,  khyma  (from kheema), black pepper and the change in cooking techniques and recipes  came with the Bhakti Movement (7-8th centuries) and the influence of the Vijayanagar Empire (15th century); fasting and offering food as alms from the influential Jain and Buddhist community of the ancient Tamils are all  detailed by Tho Pa with interesting historical turnpikes. His inferences may be simplistic, but they are worth consideration in most cases.

He moves on to housing and the etymology of kinship and symbols like  taali, that patriarchal wedding necklace worn around Tamil women as a symbol of chastity, which Tho Pa explains was rightly disowned by Dravidian and social justice leaders like Periyar and which were never part of ancient Tamil wedding rituals. Tho Pa records that the advent of Unani medicine and the easy assimilation of Islamic features in food and clothing through trade relations (Vishnu wears a lungi at the sacred Sri Rangam Temple as a mark of his affection for the historical figure Bibi Nachiar, sister of Sultan Alauddin  Khilji), ballads and contribution to Tamil culture across many fields.

Wedding and death rites, temple rituals, board games, birthing practices are defined in terms of their provenance and meaning to Tamil communities and caste groups. Tho Pa also spotlights how the Tamil region was a melting pot of Saiva, Vaishnava, and Shakti cults. It was led by an elite and erudite Buddhist and Jain population, which is credited with many practices in learning, literature (the two major Tamil epics, the  Silappadikaram  and Manimekalai were authored by a Jain ascetic) and how rulers like the Cholas, the Cheras and Pandyas contributed to the religious worship and ethnographic administration of the land.

Tho Pa reasons that the cultural landscape and racial profile of the Tamils underwent a change after the 14th century with the advent of the Vijayanagar Empire. According to him, the aspect of black pride and racial pride among the Tamils was affected and altered with the advent of Urdu-speaking Muslim clerics and scholars, North Indians and Brahmins from the 18th century onwards who calibrated power and control on the basis of colour.

To read this book is to enter the world of Tamils, their rich literary and cultural past and how their history informs and colours their present social and political life. I’d recommend it as an excellent source for the next quiz evening.