Chozha Bhoopathi Saraboji

This has become a norm now, or has been for a few decades now, to complain about Carnatic musicians singing songs in unknown languages and how that is a reason for losing rasikas. When a friend took up this topic recently, I was trying to tell him how at some point many of us who were born in Tamil Nadu, and grew up there used to be multi-lingual. I come from a home that spoke  manipravala, Tamil so interspersed with Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit words.

Many musicians of that era were quite comfortable traversing this multi-lingual landscape and the issue of Telugu kritis or Kannada kritis may not have been an issue till we drew boundaries based on language. Thanjavur was an epicenter of arts, had the history of Nayaka kings and later Marathas embellishing art, architecture, music carrying on the great legacy of the Chola kings. 

What I thought of as multi-lingual culture was not a mere conjecture became, got an evidence when I heard Indira Peterson last week. To hear her speak on Serfoji II (or Saraboji as he is called in Tamil) made the audience fall in love with the Maratha king as much as Peterson who has done two decades of research and authoring a book on him did. I was stuck by the fact that Serfoji II was a pioneer of public schools even before the British rolled out their schools. More than that, the schools taught five languages, from Tamil to Marathi to Persian. He offered free public education converting the Chatrams or the charitable places of stay used by pilgrims as schools.

Serfoji II was left with limited resources and his kingdom was just his palace, the Thanjavur temple after rest of the kingdom fell into British hands. Since the Chatrams were charitable institutions and so British could not touch them, he was clever to use them for running the public schools. The Chatrams were on the main pilgrim route of Thanjavur to Rameshwaram, making it highly visible to his citizens. What more, the Orathanadu Chatram is named after his concubine Muktambal. It is unfortunate that a pioneer king’s multi-lingual legacy should be lost to language politics of 20^th century.

Serfoji II (1798-1832), the Maratha ruler of Tanjore, was a pioneer of Indian modernity. Drawing on a recently-completed biography, this talk illuminates the king’s extraordinary intellectual career and cultural innovations. Serfoji achieved a synthesis of Enlightenment and Indian knowledge systems, of tradition and modernity, and of European and Indian arts and cultural practices. His legacies include the Sarasvati Mahal Library, Bharata Natyam dance, modern schools, and the first Indian-owned printing press for Sanskrit and Marathi – synopsis of Indira Peterson’s recent talk at Jnanapravaha, Mumbai.

I got goosebumps listening to the greatness of Serfoji II, and couldn’t miss the picture of 108 Lingas he got consecrated at Thanjavur temple. He ascertained his position as the successor of Tulaja II, as an adopted son deprived of his kingdom. He toured the Shiva temples around Thanjuvar brought the Lingas from all over and got them installed at the great Brihadeshwara temple built by the great Raja Raja Chola several centuries ago.

A point that was not missed, was about how despite the education he received as a benevolence of Rev Christian Fredrich Schwartz, a Dutch missionary, he quietly refused to convert. He also drew the lines in terms of what he got translated and printed, sticking to Aesop’s Fables as moral tales for children and didn’t venture into the translation of The Bible. I am not quoting the points about his religiosity as a fanatic, but personally I feel touched by his moral strength to stay true to his beliefs sailing through tough times, and coming from a period when it must have been difficult for him to do so.

After consecrating the Brihadeshwara or the Peruvudayar Koil, Serfoji II didn’t let the British enter temple, not to use them as a garrison again, letting it continue as a grand living temple.

Outside world may know Serfoji II as a great bibliophile, if not his other achievements. Saraswati Mahal Library at the Thanjavur palace stands as a testimony to the rulers’ taste and efforts in collecting large number of rare manuscripts. Imagine a king going on a pilgrimage to Varanasi and come back with 5000 rare manuscripts, what a strange man he must have been to do that.

I had visited Thanjavur many times, but never looked at it from the point of view of Marathas. Now vow to go again to see Serfoji II’s Thanjavur, the Saraswati Mahal library, the place, and visit the Chatrams that are still standing. Also, can’t wait to see the publication of Indira Peterson’s book on Serfoji II. Will keep rest of the information to be shared as a review, when the book is published. That would have so much more on the musical side of Serfoji II, the kuravanjis and the dance compositions, the paintings he commissioned, the press he established and the books he got printed, his contribution to science, botany etc.,