My favourite postprandial reading is not DH Lawrence, Dostoevsky, Antonio Gransci or a piece of elegant Victorian Erotica called Pearl. (Read Pearl.. you will learn more verbal titillation that a million playboy stories cannot teach you). It is not the time to read the legal thrillers passing off the assembly line of John Grisham, with quality declining with every new product.
I read a thick bound volume in Malayalam called Kerala in the 19th century by P. Bhaskaranunni. A writer, the brief introduction reveals, who lived a most unspectacular life. He dropped out of college, worked as a clerk, as a schoolteacher, married rather late in life, and died in 1994. This work is a very painstaking effort to re create life, as it existed in the 19th century in Kerala. It is a study of customs, practices and history of Kerala, written in elegant prose, without losing the essence of language as it was in use in the 19th century. Normally not available in bookshops, one might order it from Kerala Sahitya Academy in Thrissur. One critic has argued that this writer ought to be given multiple Phds for each chapter in this book.
Nothing can match the pleasure of a couple of drinks and an easy posture in bed to curl up with this bulky book on a winter evening in Delhi. One gets transported to a magical world. You could see a procession of Kings with their armies, riding on caparisoned elephants. You could see Noblemen, with hairy, bare chests, wearing white Mundus, earring (much before it became the cool thing) and hair tied up in double knots on either side of the head. You could also see Princesses in dazzling gold jewellery, shapely women heavy around the deriere in everyday clothes, flaunting breasts, Mohiniyattam dancers in off white sari with gold borders, with eyelashes painted long and black. It was a world, where women had no compunction to show skin (but with a rider….only before equals and upper castes). Visions of noisy armies with horse hoofs pounding the ground, war cries filling the air, marching to subjugate distant kingdoms, greedy merchants, with loads of spices & silks sailing to unknown lands pass before your eyes in a procession. The evenings bring entertainment, before lighted lamps, accompaniment of percussion beats and dancers with painted faces contorted in complex kathakali mudras. The audience shaking their heads in deep appreciation, their jaws steadily chewing beetle leaves. There is the obsequiousness of the rulers of Princely states to the Europeans. There are extravagant displays of wealth, grinding poverty. There is black magic, the transportation of imaginary souls and prayers to please a variety of gods and goddesses. You could also see deceit, victory, grief, joy and unconsummated passion in these pages. You can’t miss the cry of anguish of the slave, artisan and sharecropper silently filling the melancholy air of the period- the untold story of every society. You would also be convinced that the original liberated society existed right here before Soho in New York became famous for the bohemian life. You would also be convinced that Kerala could also lay claim to the most iniquitous social order.
My practice is to read from in between. Not in any particular order. This book has given me a better insight into class relations than any Marxist treatise. It gave me a better understanding of caste, aristocracy and the sheer injustice of it all than any other book. It gives a view of Kerala society from the tinted glasses of conquerors from alien lands. Swami Vivekananda’s damning indictment of caste practices in Malabar is described in great detail. Tippu Sultan’s Kuttippuram declaration was made in February 1788, 12 years before the 19th century. He arrived at Kuttippuram with 30000 soldiers from Thamarassery. The proclamation carries the arrogance of the victorious towards the vanquished, with the looming threat of conversion to Islam, if restraint is not shown in the 18th century Malayali women’s penchant for multiple sexual partners. (What about the guys, heh? heh?). I must have read it at least ten times. Roughly translated like this-
“ For the last twenty four years, from the time of our conquest of the land of Malayalam, you are seen as disobedient and stubborn. During the skirmishes in monsoon, many of our soldiers have been made to drink the nectar of death. Let bygones be bygones. Changes are required to your way of life. Live in peace and pay your taxes regularly. It is seen that women among you, have conjugal relations with 10 men. Many among you allow your mothers and sisters to lead such a life without any restraints. Hence you are all born bastards, and in the realm of male- female relations, you are more shameless than cattle that graze the fields. I command you to discontinue such sinful practices and live like ordinary human beings. If this command is not obeyed, you will all be made to join the Holy religion of Islam and the noblemen among you will be dispatched to death…”. . I learnt that the country roads in my village were basically “tank Roads’ made by Tipu for access to the countryside, an instrument of domination. He was a compassionate king. He could tolerate multiple wives to a single male that was consistent with the moral and social code of a 6th century desert kingdom- but not the female-dominant version. Tippu had inter alia put an end to an ongoing sexual revolution and taken Kerala to Puritanism and the nuclear family code.
I read a thick bound volume in Malayalam called Kerala in the 19th century by P. Bhaskaranunni. A writer, the brief introduction reveals, who lived a most unspectacular life. He dropped out of college, worked as a clerk, as a schoolteacher, married rather late in life, and died in 1994. This work is a very painstaking effort to re create life, as it existed in the 19th century in Kerala. It is a study of customs, practices and history of Kerala, written in elegant prose, without losing the essence of language as it was in use in the 19th century. Normally not available in bookshops, one might order it from Kerala Sahitya Academy in Thrissur. One critic has argued that this writer ought to be given multiple Phds for each chapter in this book.
Nothing can match the pleasure of a couple of drinks and an easy posture in bed to curl up with this bulky book on a winter evening in Delhi. One gets transported to a magical world. You could see a procession of Kings with their armies, riding on caparisoned elephants. You could see Noblemen, with hairy, bare chests, wearing white Mundus, earring (much before it became the cool thing) and hair tied up in double knots on either side of the head. You could also see Princesses in dazzling gold jewellery, shapely women heavy around the deriere in everyday clothes, flaunting breasts, Mohiniyattam dancers in off white sari with gold borders, with eyelashes painted long and black. It was a world, where women had no compunction to show skin (but with a rider….only before equals and upper castes). Visions of noisy armies with horse hoofs pounding the ground, war cries filling the air, marching to subjugate distant kingdoms, greedy merchants, with loads of spices & silks sailing to unknown lands pass before your eyes in a procession. The evenings bring entertainment, before lighted lamps, accompaniment of percussion beats and dancers with painted faces contorted in complex kathakali mudras. The audience shaking their heads in deep appreciation, their jaws steadily chewing beetle leaves. There is the obsequiousness of the rulers of Princely states to the Europeans. There are extravagant displays of wealth, grinding poverty. There is black magic, the transportation of imaginary souls and prayers to please a variety of gods and goddesses. You could also see deceit, victory, grief, joy and unconsummated passion in these pages. You can’t miss the cry of anguish of the slave, artisan and sharecropper silently filling the melancholy air of the period- the untold story of every society. You would also be convinced that the original liberated society existed right here before Soho in New York became famous for the bohemian life. You would also be convinced that Kerala could also lay claim to the most iniquitous social order.
My practice is to read from in between. Not in any particular order. This book has given me a better insight into class relations than any Marxist treatise. It gave me a better understanding of caste, aristocracy and the sheer injustice of it all than any other book. It gives a view of Kerala society from the tinted glasses of conquerors from alien lands. Swami Vivekananda’s damning indictment of caste practices in Malabar is described in great detail. Tippu Sultan’s Kuttippuram declaration was made in February 1788, 12 years before the 19th century. He arrived at Kuttippuram with 30000 soldiers from Thamarassery. The proclamation carries the arrogance of the victorious towards the vanquished, with the looming threat of conversion to Islam, if restraint is not shown in the 18th century Malayali women’s penchant for multiple sexual partners. (What about the guys, heh? heh?). I must have read it at least ten times. Roughly translated like this-
“ For the last twenty four years, from the time of our conquest of the land of Malayalam, you are seen as disobedient and stubborn. During the skirmishes in monsoon, many of our soldiers have been made to drink the nectar of death. Let bygones be bygones. Changes are required to your way of life. Live in peace and pay your taxes regularly. It is seen that women among you, have conjugal relations with 10 men. Many among you allow your mothers and sisters to lead such a life without any restraints. Hence you are all born bastards, and in the realm of male- female relations, you are more shameless than cattle that graze the fields. I command you to discontinue such sinful practices and live like ordinary human beings. If this command is not obeyed, you will all be made to join the Holy religion of Islam and the noblemen among you will be dispatched to death…”. . I learnt that the country roads in my village were basically “tank Roads’ made by Tipu for access to the countryside, an instrument of domination. He was a compassionate king. He could tolerate multiple wives to a single male that was consistent with the moral and social code of a 6th century desert kingdom- but not the female-dominant version. Tippu had inter alia put an end to an ongoing sexual revolution and taken Kerala to Puritanism and the nuclear family code.
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