Book Review: ‘The Sweet Salt of Tamil’ by Tho Paramasivan (translated by V. Ramnarayan) is an intellectual feast

Published : May 04, 2023 11:00 IST - 10 MINS READ Several years ago, I had an agitated Italian guest, a Tamil teacher in an American university, lamenting about the natives not knowing their own great language. This English translation of ThoPa’s iconic work brings the intuitive and informed interpretation of the literary historian, anthropologist and humanist to an audience that may not have had access to his scholarship in Tamil. “Among the many admirable qualities of ThoPa’s scholarship, his celebration of Islamic and Christian traditions within the larger evocation of Tamil stands out.” There are interesting discussions on housing and clothing, indigenous religious traditions versus external beliefs and practices, board games like pallankuli and atu-puli, their reflection on the institution of state and issues of social inequality that bring together snippets from fieldwork and literary analysis. Celebrating the secular Among the many admirable qualities of ThoPa’s scholarship, his celebration of Islamic and Christian traditions within the larger evocation of Tamil stands out. “ThoPa’s unequivocal condemnation of caste inequalities and privileges can be seen in his discussions on meat-eating, burial customs, worship of village deities, and the proscriptions on lower castes with regard to their residential areas and clothing.” Caste came in with the north Indian brahmanical rituals and gods, and communities like the paraiya, who made the parai, or leather drums, that were an important cultural marker in Sangam poems, gradually came to be ostracised.