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Musical dance heritage from Arachallur in Tamil Nadu Dr Suvarna Nalapat

Arachallur in on the Erode Gangeyam road .The Naagamalai hill in this village has a ancient cave dwelling called Aandippara with a few stone beds and two late Tamil Brahmi scripts , belonging to the 4th century AD according to Sri Sridhar2 and 3rd century AD according to S.Sankaranarayanan1. The first of these is read as Eluthumunarthaan malaiyavanaakkan theva chathan by S.Sankaranarayanan who thinks the term Malaya belongs to the Malayalam country.The meaning is the one who has known the rules of sandhi and vigraha of varna of language , and the person belongs to Malayanadu and name is Devan Chathan and the profession is Vannakkan . Sridhar has given 4 versions of the reading in which Ezhuthumpunarthaan malaiyavannakkan thevan chathan approaches near to the reading of Sankaranarayanan .The second letter is read as zhu by him and lu by Sankaranarayanan and zha for ezhuthu in Malayalam script is seen here in its primitive form .The 6th letter which Sridhar reads as pu is absent in Sankaranarayanans version . Both have read the first letter alike .This is if we read it in late Tamil Brahmi .Suppose one reads it in early Asokan Brahmi the letter reads THA and in Sanskrit it stands also for Sidham , an auspicious sign which is read by T.V.Mahalingam2 as such . Second, sixth , eighth , 12th , 14th , 16th and 17th letters in first line and 2, 4, 5 and 6 letters in second line has some differences in Sridhars and Sankaranarayanans versions but since Sankaranarayanan has given the actual photograph of the script his has to be correct . If we adopt the

technique of reading the letters from right to left and left to right and also if we read the script in a Manipravaala style taking all the possibilities together apart from the version Ezhuthumunarthaan Malaiyavannakkan thevan chaathan ,we get these readings :

Fig 1 : Unpublished manuscript of Dr Suvarna Nalapat diary First line:

1.THA THEE ta thee Manaom thathai thaa Thathai Thaa Malaya Vannakkan thava thaachan njan

Fig 2

2 Thazhuthuthumayoruthaan malaiya Vannakkan thevanthee dhathan (chaathan)

Then it becomes a highly scholarly attempt of a multilinguistic poet giving a message of his profession in professional style.This secret message is justified by the second script which we will shortly analyse where tha,thaa,thai thathai etc are used in a special rhythmic way . The literary traditions of our land says Varno Gaanakriyaa mathaa(Varna means the function of song or gaana).Therefore the one who knows ezhuthu( language and literature writing) and one who says he is by profession a Vannakkan , must be knowing music, dance , poetic creation with multiple meanings in a single word. Malayamaanaadu ruled by Malayamaan was especially famous for the three Thourya (Thouryathrika) of dance, vocal and instrumental music. The creativity is with correct maathra and rhythm and in rhyme. Therefore he is demonstrating his gaanakriya here. Who is the Devantheedathan Chaathan in the 3rd century AD? Was there such a personage in our literary or historic traditions? In Manimekhala5 and Chilappathikaaram4 we find the poet and friend of Elanko Adikal , called Koolavaanikan (or Vannakan) Chaathanar who is the adopted son of Devanthi, friend of Kannagi .So the name and the archeological identification fits in together.This Chathan had given a divine vision to Devanthi on a hill near the present Sabarimalai . On the left side of this Gaanakriya script is a five-line script which in Sanskrit is called Pancthum , and in Tamil as Ainthu and in Malayalam as Anchu or anchuvadi (which is the ancient name for early education). On the right side also there is another script of the same five into five square type but the letters slightly different . This also differs slightly in Sridhars and Sankaranarayanans versions.Therefore I will give both and compare them which gives insight into scholarship of the author of this script. Figure 3 script on left side 3.1 sridhar and 3.2 sankaranarayanan .

Fig 3.1 and 3.2 (The same letters are given with identical colours to enable the readers to appreciate the patterns used ) Figure 4 The geometric shapes formed by the same letters in the two versions compared .

The expanded development of music, dance , mathematics and geometrical figures given above has happened right from Indus valley times as the figures of the period indicates. Moreover the sculpture of the Dancing girl of that period show that dance , and hence music too had already developed in India in 3500 BC and this had been a Dravidian contribution .The geometrical figures in Thovary6 and Edakkal caves also show the same figures as shown here in the patterns . The iconographic development of sculptures taught to the students by a teacher must be these scripts seen .The Sidham sign read as Tha in Asokan Brahmi is used here .Therefore the entire script is not of late

Tamil Brahmi type.May be we will have to reconsider the period of the

script from that point . Fig 5: The five lines can be read from left to right and from up and down in the same way is a peculiarity of the script .Such Manthra are present in the Saradathilakathanthra of the 11th century3 .On the left script there are 4 varna and 5 columns and on the right script there are only 3 varna and 5 columns In the figure 1 of Sankaranarayana if we join karnasoothra of the tha and thai we get a figure with 7 soothra and 16 koshta almost like the chathuranga (chess) board of antiquity and the central part having the ancient Brahmi KA form . In it all the 14 worlds are represented in shodasa (16) squares, with 7 Vyahrithi(swara/varna). This world of sound and colours is the Varnamaya form of the Goddess of learning Vidya .This has 12 angles or points .(Dwaadasaara raasichakra). Saradhaathilaka thanthra says: Atha varnathanum vakshye Viswabodhavidhaayaneem

Yasyaam anupalabhdaayaam sarvam ethad jagath jadam (Padala 6 sloka 1) (The body of Goddess Vidya is Varnamaya and she is the one who gives consciousness to the world. If that is not acquired, the entire world is nothing but a corpse . Therefore I will discuss that ). Saradathilaka is a text written in 11th century with a commentary in 14th century AD. In the commentary of the 5th chapter sloka 92 the commentator gives the shodasa(16) upachara done when the divine presence is initiated. Among them are geetha,vadya ,nrithya and sthuthi . When the upachara are divided the commentator says the welcome (swaagatha) and kusalaprasna ( the first few words of speech) has to be done with KE KE THE THAI (keke the thai krithascha). The two panchopachaara done by the writer here is that welcome which in dance is called Alaarippu in technical terms. That means the thanthric initiation of divinity and welcome through mudra (Kai) and Thai (vocal) and rhythms had existed long back in India probably right from the days of Indus valley civilization where we find a dancing girl sculpture . The Guru of Arachalloor is discussing that Varnathanu of Goddess of learning through his medium to us . This deeksha according to Thanthric texts is called Varnamayi deeksha , which is the beginning of language, literature, music and dance . And this is 400-500 years before the Kudumimalai scripts where the same mela and thaala are taught at a higher grade school. The geometrical figures given above are the Vattappaala , chathurappaala and the like mentioned in Chilappathikaara and discussed by Adiyarkkunallar in its commentary . References : 1. S.Sankaranarayanan .Some aspects of Indian history 2 volumes 2010

2. Sri Sridhar Tamil nadu Kalvettukal 2004 and 2006 3. Saradathilakathanthram Lakshmanendra Desika commentary Raghavabhatta . Agamanusandhanasamithi 1933 Calcutta 4. Chilappathikaaram Ilanko Adigal. Kerala Sahitya Academy 5. Manimekhalai Koolavaanikan Chaathan. Kerala Sahitya Academy 6. Thovary Edakkal scripts .Dr Suvarna Nalapat . Souvenir of Kottakkal Aryavaidyasala