Remembering Vedanayagam Sastriar, the prodigious poet of Thanjavur

This week guarantees to reprise the literary genius of Vedanayagam Sastriar, whose 250th beginning anniversary is being noticed on September 6 and seven at Thanjavur. Identified for his oeuvre of Tamil Christian evangelical songs and compositions, Sastriar’s works type the bedrock of early Protestant worship in southern India.

With H.A. Krishnapillai of Palyamkottai, and N. Samuel of Tranquebar, Sastriar types the good triumvirate of Tamil Christian worship.

“We don’t need his legacy to be forgotten. Many in newer generations of his progeny, solely know his title and nothing about his works. This most likely is the final probability for us to rectify this. Vedanayagam Sastriar was a person of nice studying and a social reformer too,” says Judah Vincent, a fifth era descendant by way of his youngest son Elia Devasigamony Sastriar.

Vincent, a retired engineer primarily based in Chennai, is coordinating the commemorative occasion, and says that extra could possibly be executed to protect and popularise the Sastriar canon.

“Out of over 130 books, just some went into print. I’ve digitised 4 of Vedanayagam’s vital works — Jebamalai , Gnana Pada Keerthanai , Perinba Kaathal and Kadaisi Nyayatheerpu . His magnum opus is Jebamalai (Garland of Prayer), in composition for greater than 40 years, within the 1800s. Gnana Pada Kirtanaigal, with over 400 songs, and the allegorical play Bethlehem Kuravanji , are a few of his enduring works,” says Vincent, who has additionally produced a two-part on-line documentary on his ancestor.

Sastriar’s well-known hymns embody ‘Amen Alleluyah, Mahathuva Thambarabara’ and ‘Esuvaiye Thudhi sei nee Maname.’

Early years

The official web site www.sastriar.org provides a wealth of details about the life and instances of the poet-lyricist. Born on September 7, 1774 to Devasahayam, a resident of Tirunelveli, Vedanayagam had a transparent imaginative and prescient of the Cross on the age of 10, an occasion which was to affect his total life. Lutheran missionary evangelist Rev. Christian Frederick Schwartz, who was tutor to Prince Serfoji, took the younger boy below his wing, and introduced him to Thanjavur.

Vedanayagam went on to check theology on the Lutheran Seminary in Tharangambadi, (Tranquebar) and labored within the villages round Thanjavur.

Nevertheless his profession as an evangelist was chequered — he was excommunicated by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Overseas Elements (S.P.G.) Mission in 1829.

Raja Serfoji, when apprised of his pal’s dire straits, appointed Sastriar because the courtroom poet in 1830, and in addition endowed him with a month-to-month wage of ₹35 and a residence in Thanjavur.

It’s stated that earlier than his passing in 1832, Serfoji had requested his courtroom that his mortal stays shouldn’t be eliminated till Sastriar had composed and sung a poem . Sastriar fulfilled his need by singing an elegy.

Regardless of his tumultuous life, Vedanayagam Sastriar continued to make an influence on the ‘mainline’ Protestant church communities, and was finally welcomed again into the fold by 1848. He handed away on January 24, 1864, on the age of 90, and was interred within the cemetery of St. Peter’s Church in Thanjavur.

Honour for erudition

Sastriar’s literary works could also be broadly divided into two classes: lyrical compositions and items composed in keeping with minor literary types in Tamil. Most of them are primarily based on the normal metres of the time. A powerful affect of Thevaram (hymns of Saivaite saints) and Tiruppugazh might be seen in his works.

‘Sastriar’ was a title in recognition of Vedanayagam’s erudition and prodigious poetic works, and is handed all the way down to ordained members of the family who observe in his footsteps.

“The church buildings of the day needed to honour the contribution of our ancestor to Tamil Christian music, and bestowed the title of Sastriar in recognition of his studying,” says Sastriar Sarah Martin, who’s the second girl within the lineage to be consecrated with the title after Sastriar D. Gnanadeepam (1811-1870).

Primarily based in Kotagiri, Sarah Martin and her partner P. Martin Deva Prasath are former lecturers who at the moment are ministers of the religion.

“When the missionaries launched Christianity to our area, the worship rites and non secular songs had been both from a Lutheran or Anglican background that individuals weren’t in a position to establish with. Vedanayagam began writing Tamil keertanai as a result of he needed the native congregation to grasp their religion of their native language,” she says.

Literary worth

The songs might be even be appreciated for his or her literary finesse, says Sarah.

“His detailed description of God’s creations within the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, is fantastically rendered in Tamil poetry. I’m stunned by Vedanayagam Sastriar’s vivid creativeness in describing the names of the bugs, birds, animals, herbs, vegetation and so forth, that went into the ark. He additionally wrote in quite a lot of genres, from operatic performs to folks dramas,” says Sarah.

Nevertheless, on account of their Carnatic tenor, Sastriar’s keerthanais are seen as tough to be taught and carry out right now.

“There’s a better tendency in direction of adopting Western music in Tamil worship, however we are attempting to re-introduce hiskeerthanaiwith a modified semi-Carnatic background,” says Sarah, who has revealed a ebook with explanatory notes on 150 compositions of the early Tamil Christian poets along with her brother (minister) Clement Vedanayagam Sastriar.

The themes of caste-based discrimination, and ladies’s rights discover a place in Vedanayagam Sastriar’s works, in line with the social issues of the day.