Biography
Versatile pioneer
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Through this biography Sita Anantha Raman reclaims a humanist space for Madhaviah, says SELINE AUGUSTINE
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A. Madhaviah: A Biography, Sita Anantha Raman and Muthumeenakshi, with a novella translated from Tamil by Vasantha Surya, Oxford University Press, Rs. 295.
MADHAVIAH published his first major novel Padmavati Charitram in 1898, which is often described as the third Tamil novel, the first two being those by Vedanayakam Pillai and Rajam Iyer. He is best remembered as the intellectual who helped define the contours of modern Tamil literature. He was a pioneer Indian novelist who wrote fiction in both a regional language and in English. He was among the earliest to write of Indian concerns in English.
Prolific output
Sita Anantha Raman says, through this biography she meant to reclaim for the humanist a space that is rightfully his in Tamil Nadu. In the work on hand, the author, based in the U.S., has sought to maintain the integrity of the historical method which resurrects the past through the critical evaluation of valid sources. Madhaviah's views on humanism and rationalism found outlet in a prolific array of over 60 Tamil and English novels, poems, plays, essays, historical fiction and translated works. His skill in writing these novels, his bold choice of subjects and his innovative use of vernacular prose dialogue are noteworthy. He was profoundly influenced by Thiruvalluvar and Samuel Vedanayakam Pillai, author of the first Tamil novel, Pratapa Mudaliyar Charitram.
Born in Perunkulam in Tirunelveli district in 1872, Madhaviah was a man of phenomenal courage and his opposition to inequity, bigotry and superstitions fuelled his creative expression. As a graduate student and lecturer, Madhaviah became closely acquainted with Rev. William Miller, who was the Principal of the Madras Christian College for 30 years. Miller was the first to encourage Madhaviah's literary forays in both English and Tamil. His personal integrity and belief in Madhaviah's talents cemented a life-long friendship between them; they corresponded for 23 years even after Miller's failing health forced his retirement to Scotland.
Madhaviah was a daredevil, a man brave enough to flout unjust rules for the sake of principles and to challenge unjust conventions with his pen in the public arena. As a humanist, he challenged gender and caste inequalities in South India.
Madhaviah's only sister Muthulakshmi, older to him by about 10 years, was married at the age of 13 and died at 16 during her first childbirth, taking a stillborn infant with her. It appears the young Madhaviah of five was traumatised by this tragedy. It probably induced in him a deep aversion to the custom of early marriages which often proved detrimental to the health of teenage girls. He named his fourth daughter after her. He often vented his spleen against enforced ignorance of many girls whose lack of intellectual pursuits shocked him. He did not blame the women, but the male-dominated society.
This free-thinking writer-scholar was the father of five bright daughters and three sons and his home was free of the usual gender distinctions. He died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 53. He had just made a spirited speech to the Madras University Senate on making Tamil a compulsory subject for the B.A. degree.
He was intensely preoccupied with bringing modernity to India and Tamil society. Thillai Govindan: A Posthumous Autobiography, is his first English novel, in which he adopted the voice of his protagonist to relate the life story of a young man like himself.
Excellent translation
Muthumeenakshi, a novella in 10 chapters, is a short and strident criticism of upper caste sexual mores and Madhaviah makes a bold plea for the remarriage of widows. In a brilliant move, the biography comes along with this short work by Madhaviah, even if it is a translation to aid the reader in comprehending the man and his writings better. Vasantha Surya's excellent translation of the poignant tale of a child widow, this fictional work becomes historically relevant through this biography of the author-reformer. For having written this story, which is very depressing at times to read in the present day, Madhaviah was then ostracised by conservative Brahmins.
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