THUS SPAKE PERIYAR
We can easily get books on these vital subjects written by experts. There are many cheap editions also written by research scholars. Ignoring this fact what is the use of searching for rice in the Sahara desert, when you have varieties of rice abundant in the grocer’s shop? There are plenty of story books in the market. Our people do not read them. Why? It is because of those stories are not religious. They are not stories of divinity. They are not preaching religious sanctity. They do not disgrace the Tamil community. Those books do not subjugate us as slaves. They are not religious. They are not barbarous. That is the reason why we do worry about anything else except the religious book. The religion and god and the book concerned about them should be destroyed completely. We must efface them out of existence. We should not allow them to exist in any form. Only then we can live with self-respect. It is with this noble objective that we are for destroying all the books which are religious.
We are of the firm conviction that Tamils have no salvation with these books. That is why we are for destroying them. we have not decided to do so blindly. We are aware of the price we have to pay for it. Yet we are resolute to sacrifice our utmost to destroy these books.
We are determined to face any serious consequence. We are ready to lose our precious life. We are ready to undergo any difficulty for this. We are not like others, who are foolish enough to be content with the blind support for carrying on religious propaganda. We know that we can lead a carefree life and attain fame easily. We have not succumbed to such an evil. We are self-respectors. During the last 18 years, our speeches and actions are almost the same. Those who have keenly observed us and followed our activities would not find anything new. We are always wedded to one policy. Perhaps a few may misconstrue our ideals. They may feel perturbed and get angry.
Any person who involves himself in public activities is bound to do something which he sincerely feels as right and good. Atleast he must show the right way for our ladies. Otherwise he must lose his life in either of the ways. So far as we are concerned, we are aware of the fate of true reformists. We know of the difficulties faced by the wisemen. We do know of what the people then valued about their genuine services.
I do not want to mingle politics in our social matters. I am speaking here as a reformist and not as a politician. I am not very much enamoured of Swaraj(Freedom)? I do not attach much importence to it. My objective is whether we want Swaraj or self-respect raj. Those who are really worried about the present status of affair of the Tamillians, would definitely feel that these books are retrogative to our interest. True Tamils would deem these books as poisonous. Now you people see what Mr. MARAIMALAI ADIGALs aid. He is peerless amongst Tamil scholars. His views on Kamba Ramayana cannot be ignored. We have of course many differences of opinion with him. Adigalar is praised today and held in high esteem by the Tamil Scholars and pundits. See what he has written:
“Some of the Tamil poets were very much enamoured of the propaganda by the Aryans. So they created Bharatham and Ramayanam with all sorts of unbelievable things. They made their writings familiar amongst the people whowere adoring the Aryans”
. “Perum Devanar recreated Bharatham into Tamil and it has become obsolete”
“Bharatham is a bundle of unbelievable things. The ancient authors in Tamil could not translate Ramayana written in the Aryan language as it was fully dumped with absurdities”.
The Ramayana written by the poet Kambar is an adoption of the Ramayana written in the Aryan language Sanskrit. As there were many unbelievable things in the writings of Kamabar, the Tamil scolars of the later ages were not able to reconcile with Kambar.
Because Kambar wrote a false story and as Kambar was accustomed to the alien language and its culture, he has dared to adopt and strictly follow the aliens and utter lies in his work. (To be continued).
Collected Works of Periyar , (pp.170to 172) (4th edn. 2007), The Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution, Periyar Thidal, 50-EVK Sampath Rd., Vepery, Madras - 600 007
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