The fabric of Indian history has enchanted the fabulous with a finer blend of drama, mythology, fact and philosophy. The ancient Indian texts such as Panini's Astadhyayi, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and Bharata's Natyashastra and many more ancient Indian texts supply ample evidence to these interspersions. The interesting interpolation of myth into history is found in its definitive topographical distinction of our country, which was referred to as Jambudvipa in our scriptures. The two large geographical demarcations of the northern and southern parts of our country, which configure as "Aryavarta" and "Vindhyaachal," in the scriptures, were for the first time defied by Agasthya Muni, a celebrated sage from north India, who crossed the indignantly high Vindhyas to travel to south India, the Dakshinapath, to signify the larger terrain of the country as an indivisible whole. The myth connotes the unified psyche of the country to maintain its unique historical and cultural fabric, when a larger question hangs around to drop its doubtful veil on the country's divisibility in terms of region, language, ethnicity, culture and religion.
The Kashi-Tamil Sangamam is a masterly initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which tacitly carries this historical and mythological denominator to co-mingle the heart of the north and the throb of the south in re-scripting and re-writing history, this time minus myth, in his New Agastheeyam (story of the modern sage). The initiative is a timely effort to reassert the newly defined political stability of the country under a leadership shunning the claims of blue blood. It is a louder statement to hint at the country's irreversible march in the economic, political, cultural and social spheres, which coincides with the country's sovereign ascent to writ large its redoubtable arrival on the world stage in assuming the G-20 Presidency in early December.
This newly enhanced image gained a festive mood through the cultural confluence of the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam, which is a redoubtable assertion of the country's global ascendancy. The foreign policy has emerged from its former self of neutrality to stand out with a bold affirmation of national priorities, a self-assertion to stand out in the comity of nations. It is the time that the same sovereign conduct in the external affairs found its new complementarity and reflection in the country's internal matters, which needed an urgent intervention to uphold the time-defying sense of unity, which is deeply embedded in the historical and cultural interactions in the country's geography. This inbred dormant consciousness of the modern generations needs only a reminder and a right context to parade its memories encrypted in history that records the timeless cultural and social exchanges in happy co-existence.
The Kashi-Tamil Sangamam is the most notable initiative to revisit these common and entwined historical and cultural interactions in the annals of literature, art, history and culture of the nation. The name encapsulates in three words a history spanning thousands of centuries. The Sangam Age in Tamil Nadu was the golden age of literature where litterateurs and literature were celebrated and honoured with few parallels.
The Prime Minister has set personal examples by quoting from history and literature at the Sangamam. The success of the event can be seen in the fact that Tamil language has been highlighted, and teach-yourself-Tamil books have been flying off the shelf. There is a greater awareness of culture as there has been a new consciousness of the similarities and ties between the two parts of the country. There are innumerable places in the North and South named after cities in either regions. There is a Madurai in Tamil Nadu after Mathura in the North. Tenkashi is a Tamil town.
The Kashi-Tamil Sangamam captions a history of centuries, a civilization that has an unbroken existence to rise above the onslaughts of time, the wrath of nature and the vehemence of spiteful invasions. Indian spiritual texts and folklore stand as a live witness to Kashi's elevated and ornamental descriptions as a holy site of the divine, which is deeply rooted across the Indian geographies. The idea in its extreme sense has made Kashi, a chosen destination to undress this carnal existence to have an easy confluence with the divine soul. "On the Ganga Ghat" is a collection of short stories by Raja Rao, one among the 'big three" writers of Indian writings in English, hailing from Karnataka.
These stories encapsulate the idea to portray the physical longing of persons living on the Ganga ghat, who tirelessly seek to embrace death, which symbolizes the ecstasy to leave the prisoned body to seek the eternity in spirituality. The town of Kashi is surrounded by mysticism and wonder, which also inspires awe in the collective consciousness of the country. "Kashi Majili Kathalu" (The Stories on the Way to Kashi), written by Madhira Subbanna Deekshita Kavi from Andhra Pradesh were the bed-time luxuries to the children told by their grandparents. These stories were the narrations of the people, who go on foot to pay a holy visit to Kashi from the South.
The Bhakti Movement, a religious reform movement had its pervasive influence across the country. With its origin in Tamil Nadu in sixth century AD, the Bhakti movement preached to develop a deep devotion to a deity for a mystical union with the God, which occurred in various regional forms, but maintaining a commonality of spiritual seeking. This movement, further, enhanced the social and cultural transactions between the north and the south in a periodical assertion of their oneness.
Perhaps it is relevant to mention here that at least eight major temples from Kedarnath in the North to Rameswaram in the South are aligned in a straight line of 790 longitudes. This could not have been an accident, but this cosmic verticality is a happy reaffirmation of a line of unbroken affinity. It is to this ancient heritage that marks Indian civilisation that the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam evokes. A living tradition, loved and admired across the country is now focusing again on ancient connections that have common kinship. The timing is significant.
The historical and cultural currents that flow from one region to the other will get a further boost with this Kashi-Tamil Sangamam meet. This inspiring step by the Government will make every Indian proud and boost their sense of participation and stake in the country and its future. Needless to say that the Prime Minister has scripted a "New Agastheeyam," a saga retold to the young generations about the thickly interwoven cultural strands of the country, and reminded the elderly of a happy future, which is safe in the hands of their successors guarded by an ideal leadership.
What can be a better step towards this than the Sangamam that seamlessly brings together the past and the present, the rural and the urban? And what is more, an ancient city has played host to contemporary event. Our modernity is rooted in our ancient heritage, as always. The Sangamam is a remarkable step in this long journey, taking as it does from the past, and indicating a path to the future to come.
Professor E Suresh Kumar is Commission Member, University Grants Commission, New Delhi and also the Vice Chancellor, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Shillong, and Lucknow.