The desire to tell stories runs deep in V. Gopalakrishnan, former CEO of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and academic, whose book Saints and Kings from the Kaveri Belt of Tamilnadu was launched in English and Tamil recently in Tiruchi. Covering nearly a century of Tamil history, starting with the conquest of the Thanjavur throne by the Marathas in 1675 and ending with the murder in 1752 of Chanda Sahib, a subject of the Mughal empire, who claimed to be the Nawab of Arcot, the book focuses on spirituality and scholarship through the prism of colonial politics that would later reflect upon the developments in pre-Independence India.
“This period had regular wars, famine, poor agricultural production and heavy taxation by the kings. At the same time, there was a renaissance in spirituality, arts and music,” says the Tiruchi-based author, who is more popularly known as VGK.
But ‘saint’ is a very significant word. He agrees and says that since hagiography dominates the religious literature of the period, determining facts posed a problem. VGK mixes fact and fiction to recreate an era of southern Indian history that is often overlooked in the textbooks. Saints and Kings... begins with the meeting of three important personalities — Sadasiva Brahmendra, Gopala Krishna Sastri and Sridhara Venkatesa Ayyaval — and then spins out to include scholars and composers such as Ramabadhra Dikshitar, Oothukkadu Venkata Subba Iyer, Abhirami Bhattar (Subrahmanya Iyer), Arunachala Kavirayar and Thayumanavar. Set in an era when the French and British were jockeying for power by supporting opposing sides in the war of succession between Mohamed Ali and Chanda Sahib for the throne of Arcot, Saints and Kings… also weaves in the political moves of other prominent rulers such as Shahaji-II (Bhonsle dynasty), Rani Mangammal (Madurai Nayak), Kilavan Sethupathi (Ramanathapuram) and Vijaya Raghunatha Thondaiman (Pudukottai) into the narrative.
On a quest for details
As a descendant of Gopala Krishna Sastri, a grammarian who served as the ‘Raja guru’ or royal spiritual adviser of Vijaya Raghunatha Thondaiman, VGK says he had a personal interest in finding out more about these scholarly men who also created vast repositories of knowledge in the arts. A chapter explains how temple construction by the princely kingdoms spurred literary growth in Tamil, and also details some of the work done by Europeans, particularly Jesuit priests, in this regard. “I have focused on eight saints, based on stories that have been with me for the past two to three decades. Collecting authentic information was a problem, because most of the pamphlets available in temples are sanitised profiles that talk at length about ‘miracles’ but not chronology,” says VGK.
The book is interspersed with episodes that explain the author’s own quest for ancestral history in interludes that blend the modern with the ancient seamlessly. On whether spirituality drove the artistic renaissance of this period, VGK has a few questions of his own. “These saints, poets and artistes needed royal patronage. Did the public really support them, or did they take them as entertainers? I have left it for better historians to decipher. I feel what happened during the Arcot succession war was partly influenced by what the spiritual advisers told their kings, even though such interactions are not recorded anywhere,” he says.
V. Gopalakrishnan is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, with a doctorate in Thermal Sciences. Besides his long stint at BHEL (1969-2006), he has also put in several years as an academic in the region’s engineering colleges. As a man of science, he says that he kept an open mind when writing about the ‘miracles’ performed by the saints. “I have taken a very neutral stand, and described things that happened. My job is not to justify them, and wherever possible, I have tried to relate the alternative views on the same episodes as well,” he says.
Saints and Kings from the Kaveri Belt of Tamilnadu (price ₹301) by V. Gopalakrishnan may be ordered from the publishers. For details, call Vivekanandan on (mob) 9842483034 or email vivekbanu@gmail.com
