CHENNAI: The land of Vellivala falls under a terrible drought and the nine farmer brothers who live there visit the Chola King in search of help. They’re granted the land of Ponnivala for all their hard work, but the artisans who live there don’t want to give it up. Can Lord Vishnu help the Chola King decide who should keep the land? — Excerpt from Brenda Beck’s The Legend of Ponnivala
Globalisation is not just about McDonald’s and KFC — it is about students in schools in Toronto eagerly devouring the story of Ponnar Shankar, a legendary story from the Kongu region of Tamil Nadu.
It is now 50 years since Canadian scholar Brenda Beck began her journey with Annanmar Kathai — she first heard the 44-hour oral folktale of Ponnar Shankar from a travelling bard in the village of Olapalayam. Now with a graphic novel, a 26-episode animated series and a teaching module in Canadian schools, Beck’s relationship with Ponnar Sankar is manifold.
The relationship began when Beck was 14, travelling around the world for a year with her father in a van adapted into a house through Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey. It is when the family camped at Dhanushkodi that she fell in love with Tamil Nadu. Ten years later, she came back to do her doctoral research in the State.
“It was on a full moon night when I was living at Olapalayam that I heard the sound of drums. The village had gathered to listen to a storyteller and I sat down with them. I heard the story over 18 nights — 44 hours. I could not follow Tamil completely, but I could see the expressions, the gestures, the rhythms, the accidental shadows on a white wall behind,” she recalled.
After recording the story on tapes, Beck’s journey began with translating it and getting the book published. Then came the illustrations, comics and video series. The story is now taught in many Canadian schools.
Ponnar Shankar is about many things — geographical conflict, fight for land between first settlers and newcomers, gender conflicts and the relationship between brothers. Like the epic Mahabharata, it is about the grey area between good and bad, heroes who are not heroes and villains who are not villains.
Beck is in Tamil Nadu to tell the story of Ponnivala through lectures. Her work can be explored at www.ponnivala.com.
