Yesterday (23 January 2024) the TV Channel naming itself as TRIBES aired an interview (watch below) with a Tamil Nadu based journalist and social media commentator , one Mr. Sumankavi.
The commentary given by Mr. Sumankavi has obviously been inspired by a subject that has always for very long time been a favourite of the Tamil Dravidian ideologues. It is the rancorous matter of age-old, historical sectarian friction amongst two groups of the Sri Vaishnava community in Tamil Nadu called Tenkalai and Vadakalai. This subject is a particularly favourite of Tamil politicians since it serves as an extremely handy anti-Brahmin propaganda tool in the hands of crusaders for the political causes of Dravidianism. It is a sideshow that now and then becomes newsworthy very briefly and takes spotlight on centre stage for wholly political purposes in the State.
A very minor but unfortunate incident of physical assault between a Tenkalai and a Vadakalai member happened on January 21 at a temple-hamlet near Kanchipuram called Pazhayaseevaram. The incident was videographed by someone present at the moment who posted it on social media which then went viral and eventually became hot news in more than one local TV news channel. It was no wonder when the videoclip very quickly came to provide the perfect, delicious fodder for gleeful social media anti-Brahmin commentaries such as the one of Mr Sumankavi gave and which can be watched below:
India is a free country and no one can be denied the fundamental right to hold , purvey and disseminate opinions on any matter of national, social or public significance even if such opinions are unfounded, misinformed or even mischievous in intent and content. However, when an opinion that is a blatantly scurrilous misrepresentation of a whole community and is patently part of a larger and systematic propaganda against a particular religious sect , then it certainly deserves to be called out in the global public square.
What is being misrepresented by Mr Sumankavi in the above video-clip can be understood in the following:
1. A minor but ill-tempered scuffle that seems to have momentarily broken out between two individuals of the Tenkalai and Vadakalai sect during the religious procession taken out on the day is being exaggerated out of all proportions as though it were some pitched battle of fisticuffs between the two Brahmin groups. An eye-witness account of the incident was related to me yesterday on the phone by a resident of Kanchipuram who was present at the site of the reported scuffle.
2. According to his account (name and identity withheld) “The incident has nothing to do with any Tenkalai vs Vadakalai squabble at all. During the crowded procession there was the usual jostling for space amongst the assembly of Sri Vaishnava laity. It so happened that a Tenkali member rudely shoved or shouldered another member who happened to be not only a Vadakalai but more importantly a respectable senior citizen of the community. The relatives and friends of the elderly Vadakalai gentleman were angered by the rude behaviour and retaliated in kind. The offending Tenkalai member was then shoved back equally rudely and a few other onlookers in the procession joined in the ugly fray that lasted for no more than a few minutes.”
3. Clearly thus, some elements — either within the Sri Vaishnava community in Kanchipuram or outside or both — with surely malicious motive to create mischief , foment trouble and exacerbate fissures within the larger Sri Vaishnava family in Tamil Nadu latched on to the video-graphed account of what by eye-witness account was a trifling incident and have blown it up as another example of long-standing feuding and anathema that does not behoove so-called Brahmin virtue and rectitude. . .
4. There is no doubt that the exaggerated reportage of such a minor incident and the subsequent commentaries on it in wider social media platforms — such as that of Sumankavi — provides Dravidianist propagandists and ideologues in Tamil Nadu yet another very convenient brush with which to paint their anti-Brahmin narratives and openly mocking tirades.
5. Another gross misrepresentation in Sumankavi’s TV derisive commentary on Sri Vaishnavas is the false propaganda that the Vadakalai sect is against the Tamil language and is, in fact, Sanskrit chauvinistic. Anyone who knows anything about the history of Sri Vaishnavism will know that nothing could ever be further from truth.
6. Sri Vaishnavism is rooted in the “ubhaya Vedanta” tradition — a “sampradaayam” which holds the Tamil language and the Divya Prabhandham (“Dravida veda”) to be the equal of the Sanskrit Veda, in equal esteem and veneration. The Vadakalai embraces the traditional Tamil scriptures no less tightly or avidly as the Tenkalai and to suggest otherwise is to exhibit utter ignorance of the culture of Sri Vaishnavism in Tamil Nadu.
7. To portray the Tenkalai — as Sumankavi has done in his TV interview — as a stout champion of Tamil language within the Sri Vaishnava fold and the Vadakalai as a rabid Sanskrit chauvinist is exactly the means through which the anti-Brahmin narratives have been woven in the State of Tamil Nadu; and how such narratives have for long been quite successful in driving a deep and bitter wedge between the two sects and how they have constantly exacerbated the tensions in relations between the two at Kanchipuram — for almost 250 years now.
8. The facts however clearly tell an entirely different story and the story can be well understood by posing oneself the following questions:
9. If the Vadakalai are “pro-Sanskritists” and “anti-Tamil” why is that their principal Acharya, Swami Vedanta Desikan, composed dozens of religious works and hymns in chaste Tamizh which all meet or even surpass the highest standards of classical literary excellence ? Why is the Tamil Desika Prabhandhams so dear to the hearts of all devout Vadakalai Ayyangars—- to some of whom, individually and subjectively, they are in fact even dearer than the Sankritic Upanishads?
10. If the Vadakalais are branded as “anti-Tamil” why are they then today in the Courts of Tamil Nadu clamouring so vigorously for their right to chant the Azhwars’ Tamil Divya Prabhandham along with the Tenkalais inside all Sri Vaishnava temple shrines ? A right that is being denied to them for several decades now thanks to Court injunctions secured by some mean-spirited Tenkakai litigants in Kanchipuram?
11. If the Tenkalai on the other hand is being projected and glorified —- as Mr. Sumankavi has done — as a doughty lover of Vainava Tamizh scriptures, and therefore by implication, he places the Sanskrit language in a far lower pedestal , then why is it that in all Tenkalai-run Sri Vaishnava temples, whenever they chant the litany of holy paeans to their Acharya lineage ( a sort of hallelujah) known as “vaazhi tirunamamam”— the chant is prefaced and preambled actually by a couplet in pure Sanskrit verse ? (श्रीशैलेश दयापात्रम् धीभक्त्यादि गुणार्णवम् यतीन्द्र प्रवणम् वन्दे रम्यजा मातरम मुनीम ||)
12. The plain truth of the matter that Mr Sumankavi has deliberately and purposefully ignored in his great enthusiasm to bad-mouth and mock Brahmins is however only this:
13. There is really no language chauvinism at all that can be said to be at the root of the Tenkalai-Vadakalai sectarian differences. There could perhaps be other more substantive reasons for the “Kalai” differences , but the Tamil-Sanskrit cleavage is certainly not one of them … definitely not by origin. It is only a latter-day deliberate ideological social construct that has unfortunately gained tremendous strength and even veracity through repeated and relentless anti-Brahmin Dravidian propaganda purveyed with Goebellsian effectiveness over several generations in the history of Tamil Nadu.
If Mr. Sunankavi were a student of history and if I were his professor, I would give him fail grades — a miserable F — for his understanding of Sri Vaishnava culture. I would then urge him to buy a copy of my published book and study it thoroughly :
A Tale of Two Cities: THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE “UBAYA-VEDANTINS” An outline of the History of Sri Vaishnavas of Tamil Nadu that was never written”
Sudarshan Madabushi
எல்லோரும் அறியவேண்டிய உண்மையை உரக்கச்சொன்னீர். நன்றி.
Great writeup
Appreciate your initiative to give a correct POV. But unfortunately you have only added to the lies being propagated by insensitive and ignorant people. Your article smacks honesty and is full of bias. That, the Thenkalai behave rudely and that too against a “respectable” senior citizen…
This clearly shows you are a Vadakalai and you are trying to exonerate the trouble mongers.
On the contrary, the so called respectable person is one of the main reasons for all the trouble in Varadarajaswamy temple. Would appreciate if you can take sometime, albeit if your conscience permits, to probe into his financial deals and how he funds the Anti-Thenkalai Campaign.
The Thenkalai who was involved in the scuffle, belongs indeed to the victim community. I am sure you will be selectively blind to all the above. Although, if you are not, I am sorry.
. In this temple there are specific rights enjoyed by tgenjskai with respect to recitation of pranhandh. This has been confirmed in several judgements. Vadagaai sect people want to change traditions contrary to judgement. This mischief is completely created by the vadagalai.. If past traditions remain undisturbed there will be no conflict
Hence you know who is responsible for the congflct and why this service is stopped. Check facts judgents before writing
A good write up and an unbiased one…it’s intolerable that a middle aged person man handled a respectable senior citizen…There are many people who witnessed the incident fully also witnessed the victim first pulled the 90 year old man…though video is not visible, God is the witness…
Thanks for giving us clarity on the incident…