Programme
Brenda Beck
President
Sophia Hilton Foundation of Canada
E/ softsci@eagle.ca
Born to Plough - Destined to Rule a Golden Land: A Community's Self Image Portrayed In Epic Legend
The Legend of Ponnivala is a huge and well-documented folk epic collected from the interior of Tamilnadu. It roughly portrays life there in the 16th century. This amazing legend describes how the kingdom, known as “Ponnivala Nadu,” (or “The Golden Land”) came to be and how it was ruled by one family over three generations. It also provides an “origin myth” about how these Ponnivala farmers came to be and how they (symbolically) wrested control from the merchants and artisans whose trading routes likely criss-crossed the region from an era preceding its extensive agricultural settlement. The story distinguishes these proud farmers from their hunter/gather and artisan rivals and details how (and under what pretexts), they provoked and challenged each other. Most importantly, perhaps, the story describes the tumultuous on-going relationship between the rulers of this little Poligar-type kingdom located in the dry hilly uplands and its HUGE Chola neighbor – a proper monarchy that controlled a wide costal area to the East. This is the “self history” of a powerful landed community whose members identify with Kshatriya style values and express pride in their independent status as local kings. The communal self image described by the story distills –in story form- a complex family value system. The twin heroes of the third generation capture its essence by defining a core set of tensions. The poles of this tension are illustrated by the two men’s differing personalities. Together these twin sons express a concept of balance: Wisdom should temper martial strength, gentleness soften aggressive defiance, and strategic submission alternate with a periodic insistence on independence. All-told, this grand epic presents a folk vision of local history and of local identity. It is a rich, cultural statement that vividly describes the ethos of the dominant Gounder community still resident in the area today. The full story is now being animated as a 2D, 26-episode story.
Please visit www.legendofponnivala for more details.
_____
Dr. Beck is currently affiliated with Trent University and the Sophia Hilton
Foundation. Her relevant publications include Annanmar Katai: Vols. I & II,
(a folk epic of Tamilnadu in Tamil and in English, on facing pages) collected,
translated and edited by B. Beck (1992); "Core Triangles in the Folk Epics of
India" in Oral Epics of India (1989);
The Three Twins: The Telling
of a South Indian Folk Epic (1982), and
Peasant Society in Konku: A
Study of Right and Left Subcastes in South India (1972).