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Book Review by kind permission of Chowkidar, the journal of the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia
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| The author has literally travelled far
and wide during his writing career. Beginning in the 1970s with stories
and broadcasts about the British Raj, Kipling and the Indian princes,
Allen became interested in Buddhism and wrote a biography of the
great Buddhist emperor, Ashoka. He then turned his attention to Brian
Hodgson, the British civil servant posted to Kathmandu who became
known as 'the father of Himalayan studies' in the 19th century.
Throughout his career Allen has moved easily between these seemingly
disparate subjects, tying them together with impeccable research, gentle
humour and an undeniable passion for his subjects. His latest book is
no different and it is refreshing to have his candid eye cast over south
India, often the poor relation of Indian studies. This is a discursive
book that embraces the physical geography of the area lying to the
south of the Narmada river, its languages, its monuments including
early cave paintings, its history and its peoples. The title of the book
was inspired by the Europeanised name for the south-eastern coast -
Cholamandalam, the land of the Chola rulers, which became
Coromandel and which was the name of the 1955 book by John
Masters, the popular ex-Indian army author. Like others who were
entranced by Masters' book as teenagers, it doesn't read so well for adults today - 'not half as good as I thought it was' says Allen in his
Introduction 'but the magic of that word Coromandel has always stayed
with me, as the very essence of South India in all its elusiveness and
allure'. Many of the people in Allen's book will be unfamiliar to
readers - their names seem too long, their languages too alien to those
brought up on Hindustani in the north. But is it worth persevering
because there are rich stories and ideas here. A giant statue, 113 feet
high of the Tamil sage, poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar faces the
bay at Kanyakumari, which the British called Cape Comorin. It was
funded entirely by the government of Tamil Nadu and took a decade to
construct which shows the importance accorded to him today.
Thiruvalluvar has been claimed by a number of groups including
weavers and semi-nomadic hunters as one of their own. He was
certainly a south Indian man but his dates range loosely between the 4th
century BC and the 7th century AD. Whether he was a real person is
not as important as what he stands for, which was against the increasing
Sanskritisation of the Tamil language. He is a Tamil symbol and his
long masterpiece Thirukkural, written in rhyming couplets, attracted
scholars like Francis Whyte Ellis, a Madras civil servant, to make the
first translation into English. For those who cannot travel to south
India, there is a statue of Thiruvalluvar on the lawn outside SOAS
(School of Oriental & African Studies) in Bloomsbury which was
commemorated last year by a seminar of Tamil and British scholars.
Allen is particularly good on identifying remnants of Buddhist culture
that have been almost forgotten as orthodox Hinduism moved south.
He postulates that the great Jagannath processions of huge wooden
chariots through India's streets may have their origin in the custom of
annually parading Buddhist relics - a ratha yatra, or chariot journey.
There is much of interest here. Sometimes the reader has to dig a little
deep and this is not a book than can be read quickly. But it opens up
new vistas for those jaded with conventional histories of India and is
warmly recommended.
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