DO I READ NOVELS?

Based on a recent madal written by NandaKumar- about the novel 'Puyalil oru thONi' - a new-comer to Agathiyar Group has written in a personal letter,
"Do you also read novels?"
:-)

To put it briefly, Yes. I do read novels. Both English and Tamil. Novels, short-stories, poems, non-fiction, etc.
I have a good collection of novels and short stories.
In Tamil.....?
More than 600 hundred. But a large portion of them belong to my wife and daughter.

If you look into Agathiyar archives, there would be threads on Kalki, Sandilyan, TJR, JeyaKanthan, LaaSaRaa, Paa Singaaram, and others.

Can safely say that it was I who first introduced PaaSingaaram in detail in the Web. May be others, if any, would have done passing mentions.

I have reproduced whole short-stories in Agathiyar. Noteably, 'Raajaa Vandhaar' by AlzagiriSamy and 'Paththu Chetty' by JanakiRaaman. Painstakingly typed and keyed-in by me.
With my comments, of course:-)

Apart from the Tamil novels, Agathiyar has threads on several English novels, classics, and authors.

Arthur C Clarke's, 'Nine Billion Names of God' has been Tamilified by me as part of the thread -
# Anaamika_
# Peyarili_
# 8000 KOdi Peyar_
# Nine_Billion_Names_Of_God_

You can find the story in VisvaComplex-

http://www.visvacomplex.com/Nine_Billion_Names_Of_God.html

Asimov is the author who has received much treatment by me. Several threads on him and his works can be found. Some of the novels which have been treated by me, are 'Hab Theory', 'Foundation' Series, etc.

And not to forget.......
:-)

My vimarsanam of the English movies - 'High Noon', 'The Good, Bad, and the Ugly', 'Spartacus', 'Becket', 'Indiana Jones', etc.
James Bond has been treated the most.
And Indiana Jones.

Even Thailand movies:-)

See the VisvaComplex for the Tamil articles about the following famous English movies in the VisvaComplex -

http://www.visvacomplex.com/uchchi_vELai.html

http://www.visvacomplex.com/Spartacus1.html

http://www.visvacomplex.com/Spartacus2.html

http://www.visvacomplex.com/Wll_No_Man_____-.html

http://www.visvacomplex.com/Let_It_Go_Indy!

http://www.visvacomplex.com/Let_It_Go_Indy!_Part2.html

See you later with more....

DEFICIENCIES OF TAMIL BOOKS

Almost all the reference books in English have pages of Index at the last. There will be glossaries which would guide a person to seek out details which have not even been mentioned in the book.  There will be indicators about words, sentences, or ideas. We can start an effective search from any angle. 

One of my Chinese friends told me that the Chinese have already followed this exhaustive cross-reference methods in their books.

I have often mentioned about a very famous author called Isaac Asimov. Although he is known as a writer of Science Fiction, he is actually a Master of Many Subjects. In fact, he is known as the 'Writing Machine'. He has written more than 600 books and thousands of articles.  He has written a few books like 'Annotated Shakespeare', 'Annotated Bible', etc. These are huge volumes. You can search for anything, anyhow within the confines of these books.

But in Tamil, very few books have even index pages. 

"Has a particular matter been mentioned in this book?", "What is the last line of the eighth verse of such-and-such ThEvaram hymn?" "What is the first line of a particuar ThEvaram verse?" "Which are the various authors who have emphasised upon such-and-such karuththu - idea?", "What is the crux of the ideology of Appar?" 

If you want to know such things, you have to pore over tens of books, thousands of pages, for hours and days on end.  Or you must seek out great scholars in that particular field and ask them explanations. 

There are many research books which do not possess sufficient coverage. ThiruManthiram is a book which covers vast fields. No other book in Tamil has touched upon the fields of Agama, Tantrik, Mantrik, Yantrik, Vedanta, Siddhanta philosophies, rituals and applications. 

But the meanings for many of the verses in that book are totally unknown. You can’t understand them. And there are no scholars who can give any satisfactory or correct commentary to those verses. There are many scholars who like to be wise alecs and downgrade the person who asked the doubts. They will create an image that the questioner is trying to be an 'adhiga pirasangi' - smart alec. Otherwise, they will adopt a hypocritical stance and advise that whatever we learn, is just as much as a palmful of soil. And send the poor querist empty-handed. 

What a wonder, this ThiruManthiram is!

It is very doubtful if there is another book like it. 

Unless some extraordinary super-human super-genius like the Egyptian Imhoteb could have written such a book in hieroglyphics in sheaves and sheaves of papyrus and left them in some yet-to-be-discovered chamber within some pyramid.

It may be that Imhoteb might be having close connections with Thirumoolar. May be with the Kodi-valzi lineage.  After all, the disciple of the disciple of ThiruMoolar was a Chinese, wasn't he?

What I mean to say, is that there are no analytical books with exhaustive index pages and references and glossaries and also books which are known as 'valzi nool', 'thuNai nool', 'urai nuul' as the Tamil grammarians put it.

The greatness of ThiruManthiram is never going to be realised unless the meanings of its verses are going to be understood.

DEFICIENCIES OF TAMIL BOOKS

Almost all the reference books in English have pages of Index at the last. There will be glossaries which would guide a person to seek out details which have not even been mentioned in the book.  There will be indicators about words, sentences, or ideas. We can start an effective search from any angle. 

One of my Chinese friends told me that the Chinese have already followed this exhaustive cross-reference methods in their books.

I have often mentioned about a very famous author called Isaac Asimov. Although he is known as a writer of Science Fiction, he is actually a Master of Many Subjects. In fact, he is known as the 'Writing Machine'. He has written more than 600 books and thousands of articles.  He has written a few books like 'Annotated Shakespeare', 'Annotated Bible', etc. These are huge volumes. You can search for anything, anyhow within the confines of these books.

But in Tamil, very few books have even index pages. 

"Has a particular matter been mentioned in this book?", "What is the last line of the eighth verse of such-and-such ThEvaram hymn?" "What is the first line of a particuar ThEvaram verse?" "Which are the various authors who have emphasised upon such-and-such karuththu - idea?", "What is the crux of the ideology of Appar?" 

If you want to know such things, you have to pore over tens of books, thousands of pages, for hours and days on end.  Or you must seek out great scholars in that particular field and ask them explanations. 

There are many research books which do not possess sufficient coverage. ThiruManthiram is a book which covers vast fields. No other book in Tamil has touched upon the fields of Agama, Tantrik, Mantrik, Yantrik, Vedanta, Siddhanta philosophies, rituals and applications. 

But the meanings for many of the verses in that book are totally unknown. You can’t understand them. And there are no scholars who can give any satisfactory or correct commentary to those verses. There are many scholars who like to be wise alecs and downgrade the person who asked the doubts. They will create an image that the questioner is trying to be an 'adhiga pirasangi' - smart alec. Otherwise, they will adopt a hypocritical stance and advise that whatever we learn, is just as much as a palmful of soil. And send the poor querist empty-handed. 

What a wonder, this ThiruManthiram is!

It is very doubtful if there is another book like it. 

Unless some extraordinary super-human super-genius like the Egyptian Imhoteb could have written such a book in hieroglyphics in sheaves and sheaves of papyrus and left them in some yet-to-be-discovered chamber within some pyramid.

It may be that Imhoteb might be having close connections with Thirumoolar. May be with the Kodi-valzi lineage.  After all, the disciple of the disciple of ThiruMoolar was a Chinese, wasn't he?

What I mean to say, is that there are no analytical books with exhaustive index pages and references and glossaries and also books which are known as 'valzi nool', 'thuNai nool', 'urai nuul' as the Tamil grammarians put it.

The greatness of ThiruManthiram is never going to be realised unless the meanings of its verses are going to be understood.