MADURAI: Prof T Dharmaraj, head of the Folklore and Cultural Studies Department at the School of Performing Arts, Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), doesn’t stop praising Iyothee Thass.
He is more enthralled by Iyothee Thass’ contributions towards early folklore studies than his legacy as an anti-caste crusader. He spent decades trying to incorporate Iyothee Thass’ approach to folklore traditions into his pedagogy. It is a journey that began as a research student at JNU and continues to this day.
Dharmaraj recounts his formative years in Palayamkottai, tracing his roots as a fifth-generation educator. As a boy, he found in his school library works of English literary giants as well as those of luminaries like Pudumaipithan and Sandilyan. While pursuing his Bachelors in Chemistry, he published a journal titled ‘Nitharsana’, which featured cartoons by the renowned cartoonist ‘Mathi’. After graduating, Dharmaraj pursued MA Folklore in at St Xavier College in Palayamkottai and completed his PhD at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Alongside his pedagogical and research commitments, Dharmaraj dons the hats of a writer, critic, and associate member of the Folklore Fellows Network—an international consortium devoted to the study of folklore. He also has 11 books to his name, including titles like ‘Naan Poorva Budhan’, ‘Iyothee Thassar: Parpanar Mudal Paraiyar varai’, ‘Illayaraja Yenn Mudalvar Vetpalar Illai?’.
Of this, ‘Naan Poorva Budhan’ was awarded the best book by Tamil Nadu Kalai Illakiya Perumandram in 2003. He has also extensively researched the contribution of Iyothee Thass, an anti-caste activist, writer and practitioner of siddha medicine, whom he deems the progenitor of Tamil folklore studies.
“European scholarship has often been the bedrock of folklore studies, yet Iyothee Thass strayed from this trajectory, embracing indigenous conceptions,” he muses. During his tenure as an assistant professor at St Xavier College in Palayamkottai, Dharmaraj was instrumental in publishing three volumes on Iyothee Thass. These volumes, edited by his friend Gnana Aloysis with whom he pursued his PhD at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, marked the commencement of a deepened exploration into Iyothee Thass’ engagement with folklore.
“His approach to folklore diverged from the norm, and his political enunciation, ‘I am an ancient Buddhist,’ predates Ambedkar’s Navayana. My maiden critical opus, ‘Naan Poorva Budhan,’ is a reflection of this voyage, and it spurred scholarly interest in this facet of Iyothee Thass’ legacy.” Dharmaraj’s 2019 book, ‘Iyothee Thassar’ ran into controversy. “I mentioned in the book that Iyothee Thass was the great Dravidian thinker before Periyar, which raised eyebrows and created a lot of debate.
Many asked how anyone could place Iyothee Thass ahead of Periyar in the pantheon of Dravidian thought.” In his pursuit of folklore studies, Dharmaraj eschews the tried-and-true American and European paradigms. He expounds, “While those frameworks might find value in preserving and documenting folklore like fragile artifacts, this perspective is ill-suited to lands like India or Africa, where folklore pulses with vitality, ever-evolving. We, here, strive to weave a third-world perspective of folklore, one that breathes life into tradition. Our gaze is set beyond mere preservation; it rests upon propelling society into modernity.”
At Madurai Kamaraj University, he says, he and his team endeavour to digitally preserve folklore, transforming it into a virtual reality repository for anybody curious about Tamil history. Dharmaraj asserts that the purpose of folklore education is not to ensnare, but to emancipate. He asserts, “We teach folklore to transcend it, to propel society towards the Dravidian ideals of self-respect, democracy, and liberation from tradition’s shackles.”
(Edited by Nikhil Jayakrishnan)