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Uniform tune sought for ‘Thamizh Thaai Vaazhthu’

PUDUCHERRY: “Vaazhvinil semmaiyai seibaval neeye; maan pugazhal neeye enn thamizh thaaye…” There are 14 more lines to the ‘Thamizh Thaai Vaazhthu’ (a salutation to the Goddess of Tamil), written by poet Bharathidasan. It was written for the Ilakiya Mandram that he had established as a meeting point for poets, litterateurs and musicians. Today, it is the official ‘Tamizh Thaai Vaazhthu’, which is sung before the start of all Government functions.

A music teacher of Ariyankuppam M.A. Susairaj has submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister N. Rangasamy asking him to pass an order to make the song’s tune uniform.

The song is being sung in different tunes, as people please. It should not be so, Mr. Susairaj has said in his memorandum to the Chief Minister, N. Rangasamy.

Son of Bharathidasan and poet Mannarmannan recalls, “As children we used to hum popular film songs and our father used to write songs to those tunes and teach them to us. He has made about 10 to 12 songs like that. This song was tuned to an M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar song in raga ‘jhonpuri’ – ‘Bhoomi il maanida jenmam’ - from the Tamil film ‘Ashok Kumar’ in 1941.

It was called ‘Thamizh Thaai Vanakkam’ at that time, and the members had to sing it every evening. But, in 1971, during M.O.H. Farooq Maraickar’s tenure as Chief Minister the song was chosen as the ‘Thamizh Thaai Vaazhthu’ through a Government Order.”

In 1991, music director L. Krishnan set the song to a tune and most people sing in that tune.

This issue made us think as to what song replaces the ‘Thamizh Thaai Vazhthu’ in Yanam and Mahe.

In Yanam they sing the ‘Vande Mataram’ and in Mahe they sing ‘Saraswathi Sthuthi’. In a Union Territory where fifty-five different languages are said to be spoken by the people whether uniformity could be brought in the singing of the prayer song remains to be seen.

The Minister for Education, M.O.H.F. Shahjahan, who also holds the Art and Culture portfolio, said he would look into the matter.

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