Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

22 March 2021

 

 

 

PONNIYIN SELVAN Vs PRESIDENT XI JINPING

 

Our Engineer friend Ramachandran recently quoted from Ponniyin Selvan historical literature. I am yet to read Ponniyin Selvan but my mother and her sisters were absorbed by it. This  narrative of history was written by Mr Krishnamurthy who was known as Kalki.  The position allocated to Ramachandran in my mind went up due to his natural reference to Ponniyin Selvan. It was our parallel of current Sri Lankan President taking his oaths at Ruwanwelisaya, Anuradhapura – the Buddhist structure that represents the Energy of Sri Lankan leaders into Buddhism. This morning, thinking about the current UNHRC vote on Sri Lanka, Ponniyin Selvan came to my mind. As per Wikipedia, Ponniyin Selvan is an account of the early days of Arulmozhivarman,  who later became the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I. Kalki is reported to have visited Sri Lanka three times to have the direct experience before writing the legend. They were actually pilgrimages and the narratives were based on belief and hence as sacred as making laws in Parliament. They are the invisible  parallels of the Queen of the UK. My parallel of Ponniyin Selvan is the Tamil book ‘Jaffna is my Heritage and Not Dowry’. Only a few Jaffna Tamils have shown interest in reading it. But once written, it would be there to be found by a genuine seeker. In the meantime, my appreciation of the ethnic conflict that resulted in the war and its associated experiences have deepened due to my appreciation of the philosophy underpinning the law of Thesawalamai applicable to those of us who have belief in our law abiding ancestors.

 

During that period I had to lose consciousness of Common Law applicable to Sri Lanka as well as Australia. It is like going into that era and having the experience. This helped me think like my father in law and his need to have his daughters married – as part of his parental duties. Thesawalamai law is presented as follows by Sri Lanka’s Judicial system:

 

[A REGULATION FOR GIVING FULL FORCE TO THE ” TESAWALAMAI” OR THE CUSTOMS OF THE MALABAR INHABITANTS OF THE PROVINCE OF JAFFNA, AS COLLECTED BY ORDER OF GOVERNOR SIMONS IN 1706.]

 

We were obviously recognized as Malabar inhabitants. To my mind, the Sea-Tigers – LTTE’s Naval wing - was a force to be reckoned with, due to the genes from Rajendra Cholan’s father  Rajaraja Cholan 1 (Ponniyin Selvan),  who conquered the northern half of Sri Lanka.  Rajendra is reported to have invaded Ceylon in 1017 CE and annexed the entire island. The Sinhala king Mahinda V was taken prisoner and transported to the Chola country. Mahinda V is presented as follows by Wikipedia:

 

[Mahinda V was King of Anuradhapura in the 11th century. He was the last of the Anuradhapura Kingdom . In 993, he fled to Ruhuna, the southern part of the country, when a Chola invasion led by Rajaraja Chola I captured Anuradhapura. He was later taken prisoner and taken to India, where he died as a prisoner in 1029. The Mahavamsa records that the rule of Mahinda V was weak and he was unable to even organize the collecting of taxes. The country was in a state of extreme poverty and his army refused to follow orders due to lack of wages]

 

Majority Tamils in Sri Lanka and of Sri Lankan origin do not have knowledge of the global laws through which justice is expected to be upheld in Democracy. Those who are active in politics tend to react to the Rajapaksa government. Instead, of they go into Sea-Tiger mode, and invoke Rajendra Cholan – they are likely to mentally imprison the current regime. The current economic woes of the government strongly indicate that this has been done by at least a part of the Tamil Community and the Malabar community of Southern India.

 

These are ancestral powers already available to us – Sri Lankan Tamils. When we believe they would lead us and serve us as per our true needs. UN members would be driven by their own needs which are not likely to be linked to the needy in Sri Lanka. It’s that ancestral link that has brought India back to oppose China’s Belt & Road Initiative through which Buddhism will be promoted above Hinduism. This has been indicated as follows:

Dawn.com

President urges Sri Lankans to visit Buddhist tourist spots in Pakistan

 

 

[ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday said that Pakistan was an attractive destination for the Buddhist tourists and invited people from Sri Lanka to visit the religious and scenic sites in the country.

The president, during a meeting with the visiting Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, General Shavendra Silva, who called on him at Aiwan-i-Sadr, said Pakistan highly valued its relations with Sri Lanka.

He said both countries had unanimity of opinion on regional and international issues and enjoyed excellent relations in all areas of mutual interests.

It about Army power in Buddhist clothing. Who is the Emperor ? – President Xi Jinping! Unlike the 'Crown' Ponniyin Selvan seems to be posing its own challenge:

There have been several attempts to create film adaptations of Ponniyin Selvan, beginning with an attempt in 1958, M. G. Ramachandran announced Ponniyin Selvan, a film adaptation of the novel. Ramachandran bought the film rights to the novel for ₹10,000 (equivalent to ₹770,000 or US$11,000 in 2019), and would produce, direct and star in the adaptation which would feature an ensemble cast including Gemini Ganesan, Vyjayanthimala Bali, Padmini, Savitri, B. Saroja Devi, M. N. Rajam, T. S. Balaiah, M. N. Nambiar, O. A. K. Thevar and Chittor V. Nagaiah. Before shooting could begin, Ramachandran met with an accident, and the wound took six months to heal, Ramachandran was unable to continue with the film despite renewing the rights four years later.

Unlike the 'Crown' Ponniyin Selvan seems to be posing its own challenge:

There have been several attempts to create film adaptations of Ponniyin Selvan, beginning with an attempt in 1958, M. G. Ramachandran announced Ponniyin Selvan, a film adaptation of the novel. Ramachandran bought the film rights to the novel for ₹10,000 (equivalent to ₹770,000 or US$11,000 in 2019), and would produce, direct and star in the adaptation which would feature an ensemble cast including Gemini Ganesan, Vyjayanthimala Bali, Padmini, Savitri, B. Saroja Devi, M. N. Rajam, T. S. Balaiah, M. N. Nambiar, O. A. K. Thevar and Chittor V. Nagaiah. Before shooting could begin, Ramachandran met with an accident, and the wound took six months to heal, Ramachandran was unable to continue with the film despite renewing the rights four years later.