As PM Modi lauds Rani Nachiyar, a look at ‘neglected’ Tamil history: Queen’s diary to Mangammal to Annadurai

While there are several examples of Modi’s sustained efforts to connect with Tamil heritage – incorporating Tamil Sangamam and Tirukkural verses, praising the Tamil language and icons, even at the UN, and showcasing Sengol in the new Parliament building – he is expected to intensify his Tamil outreach ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, it assumes additional significance this time as Nachiyar’s story was not as popular as narratives of many other Tamil icons.

Nachiyar’s victory over the British, achieved with support from Hyder Ali, the then ruler of Mysore, is notable not only because she was a woman but also for her adept military planning and strategic skills. Well versed in world history, she knew several languages – she communicated with Hyder Ali, for instance, in Urdu. She took nearly eight years to defeat the British, hiding near Dindigul, mobilising forces, and gathering resources and the support of regional rulers for her battle plan that finally proved successful. She went on to rule for 10 years until her death in 1790.

While Nachiyar was more of a strategist than an administrator, she contrasts with Rani Mangammal, another less celebrated Tamil queen, known for her administrative acumen and considered a great builder of public infrastructure. Rani Mangammal is credited with the planning and execution of the earliest iteration of the present-day Madurai-Kanyakumari highway (now extended to Ramanathapuram) before her death in 1705. She ruled on behalf of her grandson, who was very young when he emerged as the successor to the throne. But when her grandson came of age, she refused to give up power and was killed by the military chief loyal to her grandson.

Have icons like Nachiyar been overlooked in Tamil literature and history? Dr Gopalan Ravindran, who heads the media and communication department at Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN) in Thiruvarur, says history is everywhere, but we often only regard written history seriously. “Written history is subject to the biases of historians and the regimes under which they operate. In Nachiyar’s case, she was not given her due both by colonial historians and post-Independence historians, contributing to her relative obscurity in formal historical records. Despite this, Nachiyar is well-known among the people of Tamil Nadu through local songs and folk history,” he says.

Was that due to the focus on the political history surrounding the Dravidian movement in the last century? Ravindran said not just Nachiyar’s but the history of even the Dravidian movement’s leaders are not different.

While attempting to make a documentary about C N Annadurai, an icon of the Dravidian movement, founder of the DMK and former chief minister, Ravindran was surprised, a decade ago, to find minimal archival footage of Annadurai. “Since this state is known for Dravidian rule from the 1960s, I was sure some substantive film footage must be available with the government sources, but I was disappointed. The faultiness in our history didn’t spare either Nachiyar or Annadurai. Despite the poor handling of historical records, historical personalities like Nachiyar and Annadurai still live through our collective memories (of their achievements and struggles) made possible by oral traditions of folk and public communication,” he said.

In India, “good history” was recorded by travellers and unbiased observers, offering a broad view. Yet, during the British era, history was manipulated for administrative purposes, and mainstream academic history, crafted by universities and governments, neglected the rich tapestry of the people’s history.

The story doesn’t end with Nachiyar or Rani Mangammal or Annadurai. The history of ancient Tamil Nadu has been recorded minimally, and hardly taken into account in mainstream textbook history.

Ancient Tamil Nadu’s history is also characterised by a period marred by bloodshed, illustrating a time of intense and frequent conflict. One largely overlooked conflict was recorded in 14th-century Madurai by a Kannada queen, Ganga Devi, wife of Kampanna, who was the son of Buka Roya, the founder of the Vijayanagara kingdom. While accompanying her husband in the battle against the Madurai Sultans in 1378, she kept a diary. In her notes, she vividly described the gory visuals she witnessed – “bodies hanging on coconut trees” and “bloodied streets and sand” — during the trip from Karnataka to Madurai, and narrated the bloodshed by the Sultans, the then Muslim rulers of Madurai (between 1335-1378) before Kampanna liberated it. Her book of verses, which was a bundle of more than 60 palm leaves titled ‘Madura vijayam (conquest of Madurai)’, was unearthed from a private collection in Thiruvananthapuram in 1916 by Ramaswamy Sastri, a scholar.

Another story in Tamil history was the conflict between the Pandyas and the Cholas. In 1261, Pandya king Maravarman Sundara Pandian launched a devastating attack on the Chola capitals of Uraiyur and Thanjavur. His brutal campaign led to the destruction and poisoning of the entire delta region. Only temples survived his relentless onslaught.

Ravindran, who has extensively researched Tamil cultural history, said the post-Vijayanagara era (16th to 18th centuries) was marked by foreign influence and regional powers like the Marathas and Arcot Nawab. “This period saw a significant cultural shift too: Drawing Kolam before houses and temples, a significant Tamil cultural symbol, was not present before the Vijayanagara period. This period marked a deviation from the eclectic approach to religion that existed in the past, particularly in the Sangam period,” he said.

Tamil cultural historians note that during the Vijayanagara period, temple expansions and stricter social norms emerged, in contrast to the more secular, inclusive Bhakti movement era. The latter fostered communal harmony across caste lines, despite the presence of predominant Shaivite and Vaishnavite traditions.

Ancient Tamil Nadu, known for its diverse culture, lifestyle, ideology, and tastes, was also marked by the Aseevagam (Ajivika) tradition, flourishing alongside Buddhism and Jainism. The Aseevagam tradition, which focused on materialism and the nature of reality instead of God, was active until the 13th century. The Ayyanar temples in Tamil Nadu, often marked by horse and elephant sculptures, are remnants of this tradition.

Another historian and researcher, who was closely associated with major cultural history and excavation projects in the state, said historians need to maintain a balance in seeking knowledge – a balance lost in the last two centuries due to a “blind science-based knowledge seeking” approach. “If you are desperate to prove your history by relying solely on carbon dating tests and physical evidence, it cannot be considered ‘good history’ but only a convenient history. History is not only about carbon tests but also about oral and local folk history,” the historian said.

When biases start showing, when regimes write history for political gains, and bureaucrats dictate historians, history dies, he said.

“All Murugan temples in Tamil Nadu can be traced with at least three layers of history – Buddhist, Jain, besides the Shaiva, Vaishnava layers. But the erasure of history started after the 19th and 20th centuries,” he said.