SRIRANGAM proper !

[Guest guest]

Friends,

 

The latest batch of Voter Identity Cards carry the

place-name of SRIRANGAM properly.

 

This is no great news except for those who are aware

that the previous Voter Cards displayed the

place-name of this Holy-of-Holies in a vulgar

alteration.

 

Thanks are due to

 

~ Sri Mrityunjay Shadangi, IAS,

Chief Electoral Officer,

Government of Tamil Nadu,

Fort St George, Chennai-600009,

 

~ Sri Manivasan, IAS,

District Collector,

Tiruchirappalli-620001,

 

for restoring this sacred name in the Voter Cards,

responding in positive manner to public opinion.

I would also record my thanks to two of my

press friends who pursued the matter with the

district collector.

 

Name-alterations are insidiously effected

through the deep-penetrating political chauvinism

of our society. The southern bank of river kAvEri

has the ancient settlement known as 'chintAmaNi',

and the bus conductor would tick you off if you

utter this name: the new ticketing stage is

'aNNA-Silai'.

 

The bus also halts at the divya-dESam (second in

serial order of our 108 divya-dESam) and

sannidhi of uRaiyUr kamalavalli-t-tAyAr.

You took a ticket for 'nAcchiyAr-kOyil'.

Now you need to apologise and explain to the

busman that you meant 'vekkALi-amman'.

 

Everyone knows that tiru-uRaiyUr (abode of tiru,

Sri) was the capital of the early Cholas, who styled

themselves 'kiLLi', hence the kiLLi maNDapam

(one of the oldest structures in the second enclosure

rAja-mahEndran tiru-c-chuRRu) of the Great Temple

of Srirangam.

 

I have a reasonable guess that the quasi-mythological

king dharma-varman (who has lent his name to the first

enclosure, tiru-viNNAzhi pradakshiNam, and) who is

said to have discovered the sand-covered Sriranga-vimAnam,

is simply a sanskritisation of the name of Chola king

nalam-kiLLi.

 

According to the Great Temple chronicle,

kOyil ozhugu (which despite the mythical strain

of the early chapter, is rich in astonishingly

authenticated historic data),

 

Lord Sriranga came to be fondly known as

the Bridegroom Beautiful (azhakia maNavALan,

ramya-jAmAtA) after he wedded kamalavalli,

daughter of the chOla king nanda of uRaiyUr.

[The stunningly beautiful mUla / dhruva-murti /

worship deity, of azhakia maNavALan, stands

with kamalavalli-t-tAyAr in uRaiyUr, while

the equally pretty utsava / festive deity of

maNavALan (who also got to be known as

nam-perumAL) is worshipped together with

the 'ubhaya-nAcchimAr' in front of the

reclining deity, periya perumAL, in the

Sriranga-vimAna sanctum. For the devotees,

it is sheer heaven to see kamalavalli-t-tAyAr

and namperumAL / azhakia maNavALan

seated together when the Lord visits

tiru-uRaiyUr during the panGuni brahmOtsavam.]

 

My reasonable guess extends to this

that the said nanda chOla could be the sanskritisation

of the historic king neDum-kiLLi of uRaiyur.

It is evident that Sri, synonymously Lakshmi,

with the attribute of being seated on lotus (kamalam),

was the dynastic deity of the early kiLLi-chOlas.

 

It is this fragrant name of kamalavalli-nAcchiyAr

which is tacitly getting replaced by the

bus-stage name of vekkALi amman !

 

Name-alterations bypass such beautiful and

historically authentic names like tiru-uRaiyUr.

(The name stands as the semi-literate British

official heard it from the semi-literate Indian

'subject' ~ Woriyur !)

 

The commercial business of religion thrives

in the Tamil Nadu atmosphere of illiteracy, daftness and

charlatanism. The money-making and criminalised

god-men cults abound. In Srirangam, you have

a wine-shop, and a separate chicken bar named after

Lord Sriranga. Some religion this !

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja-dAsan,

T.S. Sundara Rajan, in Srirangam.

 

 

<ramanuja>

<ramanuja>

Sunday, November 18, 2001 7:28 PM

[ramanuja] Digest Number 78

 

 

Message: 1

Sat, 17 Nov 2001 16:13:47 +0530

Tirumanjanam Sundara Rajan <surangam

Mis-naming of SRIRANGAM.

 

Friends,

 

The voter-identity cards issued last year in Srirangam

indicated most areas of Srirangam

as 'Palaya rangam', whatever it means.

 

I posted an e-mail to THE HINDU Chennai on November 5

protesting at this mischievous and daft mis-naming of Srirangam,

but the newspaper has not picked up the letter.

 

Is any Post Office in the country aware of

a city by name 'Palaya rangam' ?

Will a letter posted with this name inscribed reach ?

Or, is this an insidious way of erasing from popular memory

the sacred name of SRIRANGAM ?

Srirangam municipal outfit was merged,

rather unwarrantedly, in the Trichy Municipal Corporation,

but the fiction cannot be extended further

as the Srirangam city does continue to exist !

And, 'Palaya Rangam' is an offensive name too !

 

The Hindu has come out with the details of the preparations for the

door-to-door voter enumeration which has commenced on November 5

and is scheduled to be held till December 4.

 

It is our sacred duty to resist the gross voter-card misnaming

of SRIRANGAM, and impress upon the authorities that

the name of this sacred city SRIRANGAM should be indicated

as such on all the voter-cards which would be issued

on the basis of the on-going voter-listing effort.

 

I believe a protest-mail campaign is warranted

addressing the Chief Minister, the Chief Electoral Officer

(Shri Mrutyunjay Sarangi) at Chennai, the District Collector of

Trichy (Thiru Manivasan), and The Hindu newspaper, of course.

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja-dAsan

T.S. Sundara Rajan

at Srirangam.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Voter roll. Mon, 05 Nov 2001 16:49:14 +0530

Tirumanjanam Sundara Rajan <surangam

Hindu <letters

 

The Editor,

The Hindu, Chennai.

 

Sir,

 

The Hindu has come out with the details of the preparations for the

door-to-door voter enumeration which has commenced to-day (November 5)

and is scheduled to be held till December 4.

 

May I, in this context, place before the Chief Electoral Officer, Shri

Mrutyunjay Sarangi, a request on behalf of the citizens of the Temple

city of Srirangam in Trichy district?

 

Srirangam authorities earned notriety of a kind when a heap of voter

identity cards (EPICs) was discovered on the dumps a few years back, but

the authorities secreted to themselves the wisdom on this palpable

outrage. The more outrageous incident, in my opinion, was the manner in

which the cards were programme-designed and issued over the last 12

months or so. A petulant Clerk of the government asked me, Do you know

that the initials to a name are not to be displayed in the voter roll?

Truly speaking, I didn't. I am less offended by the presumed behaviour

of the Clerk than confused since I was issued my card on March 11 1995

while in New Delhi, carrying my initials and name exactly as you read it

at the subscription to this letter. I do not know if the Election

Commission rules have since changed so as to omit the initials. I

think the initials are a necessary part of the 'given name' and will be

one of the confirmation elements of a voter's identity and should,

therefore, be retained both on the voter roll and on the identity card.

 

It is most objectionable that in the latest identity cards, the

residences in certain parts of Srirangam have been indicated as "palaiya

rangam, Tiruchirappalli", and the name of Srirangam is just missing !

It is quizzical why at all such a blasphemous city non-name was devised

for Srirangam, and it is evident the postal department would have a

problem with such a daft messing up with the name of an ancient and

sacred city like Srirangam. [srirangam municipal outfit was merged,

rather unwarrantedly, in the Trichy Municipal Corporation, but the

fiction cannot be extended further as the Srirangam city does continue

to exist !] Am I to read in such non-naming an insidious and

deliberate attempt to deface and then altogether efface the identity of

Srirangam?

 

I have checked a run of ICards and find that few of the persons involved

in the voter list and IC process have the ability simply to copy a name

written in Tamil. When my card was earlier issued in Delhi, the voter

was requested to satisfy himself with the spelling of his name, and

approve of his own photo, both on the computer's monitor itself.

Can this not be adopted in Tamil Nadu as well?

 

'Sri' being the equivalent of 'Mr' in the style of referring to a

person, the IC software has been so dumbly made out as to omit 'Sri'

wherever it occurs, and hence the cards show all Srinivasan-s as

'Nivasan-s'. What a bad joke !

 

May I request the Chief Electoral Officer please to issue immediate

instructions to restore the name of the city as SRIRANGAM both on the

new voter rolls and also on the identity cards which need to be issued

to those who missed it earlier? A proper streamlining of the

procedures and checks is to be ensured on the above lines so as to

establish the credibility of the whole exercise. I believe that, in a

democracy, an identity card should identify.

 

Yours sincerely,

T.S. SUNDARA RAJAN,

17-C \ 7, Rohini Apts.,

Raghavendra Puram,

Srirangam - 620006.

_____________

 

Sun, 18 Nov 2001 03:42:20 -0800 (PST)

krishnan srinivas <rengamani_2000

 

friend, i do agree that the name of the ancient and

the foremost among the sacred places on earth i.e

srirangam has been mis-spelt and this error on their

part is unpardonable. the autorities go to any extent

to appease the muslim brethrens and at the same time

offend the sentiments of hindus, in spite of being a

hindu country, it is extremely sad and depressing to

note that the authorities are running over the

sentiments of hindus in a rough and partisan manneer.

let's all unite and resist this blasphemous move on

the part of electoral authorities.