Tharangampadi is a great holiday destination. There is a certain magic in the Dansborg Fort and the surrounding Danish town. The close proximity of the sea only adds to the splendour of the place.
In the last few months, the Governor’s Residence, an 18th century building in the neo-classical style, has been restored and opened to the public. Its best known resident was the Danish Governor Peter Anker, who not only presided over the fortunes of Tharangampadi for two decades and more but also made sketches of life in the region, all now carefully preserved in Denmark. What is less known is that once the Danes sold Tharangampadi to the British in 1845, this building served as the District Sessions Court till that office shifted to Nagapattinam in 1873. The Courts made a comeback to the same building in 1878 before making the shift to Nagapattinam once again in 1884.
Among the first Indians to be drafted into the lower judiciary was the composer Vedanayagam Pillai. He was according to the Tharangampadi guidebook “appointed as a Record Room Keeper in the District Court Trichy and then worked as Language translator within the court. In 1851 he was promoted as District Judge and posted to Tharangampadi at first.” Considering that he was born in 1826, Vedanayagam Pillai must have been only 25 when he was appointed District Judge, a post also referred to as Munsiff. This however appears to be erroneous for the Tamil translation of the same book referred to above gives the date of appointment as 1857, in which case he was still a youngish 31.
That makes for a Carnatic music connect with this most unlikely of places. But then Tharangampadi has one more link – it is the place from which Panchanada Iyer, a disciple of Subbaraya Sastry came. He is best known for his composition Birana Brova Ide Manchi Samayamu in Kalyani. As to where he lived in this town we have no idea.
Vedanayagam Pillai’s life is better documented. The son of Savarimuthu Pillai and Arockiam Ammal, he is credited with being the author of the first Tamil novel – Pratapa Mudaliar Charittiram. His friendship with Gopalakrishna Bharati has been written about by U Ve Swaminatha Iyer. A detailed account of his life and literary contributions by Lakshmi Devnath has appeared in The Hindu dated Nov 1, 2002. A story on the sad condition of his place of rest too was published on Feb 27, 2014.
Vedanayagam Pillai wrote and published his Neethi Nool in 1858, while he was in Tharangampadi. Of greater interest is the fact that he composed 14 songs on his experience in the judiciary. These, classified as Udyoga Sambanda Kirtanaigal, form part of his greater work – Sarva Samaya Samarasa Kirtanaigal. A perusal of the lyrics brings forth a man who was shocked at the corruption and lack of ethics in his profession. Some of them are worth quoting from. ‘Naane podu needi (Saveri/Adi) is clearly a song composed when he first took office for it thanks God for bestowing the honour on him and also prays that he should have the capability to dispense justice without fear or favour. The song lists the various obstacles that could come in his way – bribes, advice from elders, sweet words of the vakils and arrogance, which could make him rude to litigants.
‘Inda vazahakukkellaam (Saurashtram/Ata) lists the kind of cases a Munsiff can expect – polygamy, insolvency, property division, usurping of other’s lands and selling of spurious goods. The second charanam lists the false witnesses – a man posing to be a barren woman’s son, a blind man who saw a crime, a person who cannot speak being accused by a hearing impaired man of having indulged in hate speech. ‘Appa idenna adikaaram (Nadanamakriya/Adi) laments about Munsiffs having to sit listening to falsehoods throughout the day, thereby not having time for prayer. ‘Podum podum (Punnagavarali/Triputa) sings of the difficult position of a judge – subject to requests from all sides, hatred of those who lost cases and the risk of having all judgements reversed by the Appellate Court. There are songs criticising higher officials and their arrogant ways. One of these, ‘Ninaippadeppodu nenje (Nadanamakriya/Adi) has a significant line – when can we think of God if we work till death for these white rulers? This may qualify it as one of the earliest songs in Tamil that contain a call for freedom from foreign rule. It is however the songs on bribery -‘Cheechee neer lanjam vaangal (Saurashtram/Adi) and ‘Edukkovaangugirir lanjam (Shankarabharanam/Chapu) -that make for hilarious reading. Not much has changed since Vedanayagam Pillai’s times.
Not surprisingly, Pillai who was transferred to Mayuram in 1860, quit his job in disgust in1873. He spent his retirement in spiritual, literary and musical pursuits, passing away in 1889.
This article appeared in The Hindu dated April 14, 2017
” The song lists the various obstacles that could come in his way – bribes, advice from elders, sweet words of the vakils and arrogance, which could make him rude to litigants.”
From this it would seem that he was well-suited for his job: after all, the biggest obstacle doesn’t seem to bother him – the difficulty in finding out the truth of the case, the possibility that he may sentence an innocent or end up not doing justice to a victim simply because real life is too complex!
Lovely article. I have been to Tranquebar, but never knew about the British court and Vedanayagam Pillai’s association with it! Thanks for the nugget!
It appears that people were more eclectic those days — Strangely, both Vedanayagam Pillai and CW Thamotharam Pillai (who are mentioned in Uvesa’s En Saritram) were Christians who retained their caste names. On the other hand,they showed interest in Carnatic Music and supported literature studies relating to Saivism and Jainism. Apparently caste and religion were viewed in a different light those days, and did not restrict one’s cultural growth — who knows, they might not have been as rigid as we suspected and more liberal than us?
very informative and welcome article after long city tour articles on Madras– which were attractive in their genre. Unquestionably Tranquebar and its Dansborg fort attract any history lover.
Mine first encounter with the old Danish colonial remnants and the fort was some time in mid 1960s. The fort was in dilapidated condition but roaming around it– in those ” salad days” of 25or 26 – the Bard of Avon’s Hmalet and his friend Horacio woke up in my memory with all the glamours and dramatic events associated with the tragic composition . Coming back to Pondicherry where I was working at that time –I borrowed ” Hamlet ” from local library and went through it with avid interest. Since that I have visited the place many a times and also Denmark proper– specially Aarhus city. It is a good tourist attaction and a restaurant cum hotel run in that ancient edifice. Wont it be nice to serve Danish cousine and bakery products along with local Tamil savouries to titilate our palates at Tranquebar!
If Vedanayagam Pillai were to revisit the state and see for himself the current state of the state, what state it would leave him in, is a difficult statement to make. Maybe it would be nostalgia or it would be viewing the good old days, when corruption was lesser and not so widespread or rampant. Maybe then, people were not doing it without a qualm and without impunity, from top to bottom and sideways too. Some things do not change, they get even worse. So better in 2020 than in 2040 or maybe the next generation will take a pledge to not be as bad as the present having reached the bottom of the pits.