Silapatikaram is a pre-eminent Tamil kavya that gives a detailed account of life in South India some 1,800 to 2,000 years before present (ybp). Many times have been written since the rediscovery of this then lost work by U Ve Swaminatha Aiyer.
It is highly important to note that it was him, again, who rediscovered the other two available Tamil kavyas, Manimekhalai and Jeevaka-chintamani. Another two of the five known Tamil kavyas are yet to be discovered.
Sadly, despite its relatively simple and unambiguous Tamil, many scholars of Dravidian movement have somewhat successfully tried to twist the interpretation of the work.
This is one of those rare works which is so heavy in content and import that each chapter needs to be reviewed separately. This book review is thus a grossly inadequate attempt to try to capture the gravity of the entire publication in such a short piece. Even the preface on its own is a scholarly piece shedding pearls of facts and wisdom. For example, the editor, Dr Gupt aptly points out how the South Indians “are fond of music and dance more than any other people in the country” as observed even by Bharata in his work Natyashastra.
Again, in the preface, Dr Nagaswamy points out various facts as follows:
- the author of the work Ilango-Adigal stating within the work that this is a dance drama, and
- that the work follows exactly the classifications and schemes enumerated in Bharata’s Natyashastra.
Beautifully interwoven are the presentation of various points even at the stage of the preface, such as the connection between this great kavya, architecture in Cambodia and Natyashastra, as described in the epigraphy found at Bantai Srei temple.
The Vedic wedding
We can see how the wedding of the lead characters of the story are conducted in accordance with the Vedic rites, followed even to this day by most Hindus. Importantly, neither of the parents – the bride’s or the bridegroom’s – appear to be Vedic by faith.
They belonged to the Jainas, Ajivika sect or Buddhists. Yet, their wedding rituals and religious festivals are of Vedic Hinduism. This reflects the secularism inherent in the Dharmic cultures, sects and philosophies of Hindustan.
Manimekhalai, the daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi, is named after the family deity (kula devata) of Kovalan.
The kavya explains how the Chera King who took upon a military expedition to the Himalayas prayed to Bhagawan Shiva, and got charms (garlands and such) from Bhagawan Vishnu’s temple before his expedition. The military expedition included artiste and musicians, which attests to the highly civilised nature of warfare in ancient Bharat.
The chief gods of Tamils, as per this great kavya, were Krishna, Murugan, Shiva, Durga, Indra, Balarama, Varuna, etc. It is not only the presence of these gods, but the stories and myths associated with them were the same as found in the Puranas and the Vedas. For example, the very common Devi worship (till date) also included the belief that she was the destroyer of Mahishasura. The kavyaitself concludes with the Chera king conducting a Rajasuya Yagna, an undisputed Vedic ritual prescribed for the kings.
Pre-Pallava temples
Temples are a salient feature of architectural and cultural description in this kavya. This refutes the common claim that temples are of Pallava origin and later. In fact, we find mentions of Chidambaram temple, Sri Rangam temple, Thirupathi temple and so on.
The Varna equality
Similarly, castes and varna are squarely refuted in the kavya which explains how all the four Varnas were placed equally in the viewing arena and how all their respective Varna Bhutas were worshipped at the start of a concert. In fact, the bamboo pillars holding up the stage for performance were labelled with the names of all four Varnas putting all people on an equal ranking and respect. This also symbolised the importance of all groups of people for a smooth functioning of the society.
Geographical spread of the Chera territory
The territory of Cheran Senguttuvan appears to include the present-day north-west India (land of the Yavanas) and the northern plains, up to the Himalayas. This is attested by his title Imayavaramban, the one who has the Himalayas as his borders. In fact, the military expedition to the Himalayas appears to have been also to ascertain his suzerainty over the territories. The rule of the Chera was in no way autocratic. He is advised by an expansive council of ministers representing different classes and communities, and in which the queen is an equal participant. Many of the leaders and leader-like characters of the kavya are women. Thus, ancient India, before the alien invasions, was an egalitarian society and culture with a high degree of women empowerment.
The exalted dancing classes
Interestingly, the dancing girls were considered of a class of divine origin and of one of the highest births. Silapatikaram and Natyashastra share the same respect and status of divinity for the dancing classes. In fact, all the different dances derive from the Gods themselves. In fact, Natyashastra is considered the fifth Veda.
Thus, the later degradation of the Devadasi system of dancing girls seems to be problematic. There is also evidence for entire Vedic Brahmin villages becoming dance/art classes (communities) and dedicating themselves to the arts of divine expression. Some such communities and villages are still in existence in Kerala. They follow Natyashastra to the last dot even in today’s performance.
Make in India by Sangam Tamils
The Chola king’s simhasana was made by various artists from all over Bharat: Tamil artists along with carpenters from Northwest India, blacksmiths from Avanti (western Madhya Pradesh), smiths from Maharashtra, stonecutters from Magadha (Bihar, Jarkhand, Bengal and Orrisa).
The Chera king’s hall was adorned with gifts such as the royal canopy from Vajra King, pattimandapa by the Magada king, torana by Avanti king. Cf. Perunkatai.
Clearly, Bharatiya society was integrated from the north, northwest, northeast to the tip of the southern coast. India may not be a political expression at that point of time, but it was certainly a cultural expression since time immemorial.
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The United Nations has shaped so much of global co-operation and regulation that we wouldn’t recognise our world today without the UN’s pervasive role in it. So many small details of our lives – such as postage and copyright laws – are subject to international co-operation nurtured by the UN.
In its 75th year, however, the UN is in a difficult moment as the world faces climate crisis, a global pandemic, great power competition, trade wars, economic depression and a wider breakdown in international co-operation.
Still, the UN has faced tough times before – over many decades during the Cold War, the Security Council was crippled by deep tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. The UN is not as sidelined or divided today as it was then. However, as the relationship between China and the US sours, the achievements of global co-operation are being eroded.
The way in which people speak about the UN often implies a level of coherence and bureaucratic independence that the UN rarely possesses. A failure of the UN is normally better understood as a failure of international co-operation.
We see this recently in the UN’s inability to deal with crises from the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, to civil conflict in Syria, and the failure of the Security Council to adopt a COVID-19 resolution calling for ceasefires in conflict zones and a co-operative international response to the pandemic.
The UN administration is not primarily to blame for these failures; rather, the problem is the great powers – in the case of COVID-19, China and the US – refusing to co-operate.
Where states fail to agree, the UN is powerless to act.
Marking the 75th anniversary of the official formation of the UN, when 50 founding nations signed the UN Charter on June 26, 1945, we look at some of its key triumphs and resounding failures.
Five successes
1. Peacekeeping
The United Nations was created with the goal of being a collective security organisation. The UN Charter establishes that the use of force is only lawful either in self-defence or if authorised by the UN Security Council. The Security Council’s five permanent members, being China, US, UK, Russia and France, can veto any such resolution.
The UN’s consistent role in seeking to manage conflict is one of its greatest successes.
A key component of this role is peacekeeping. The UN under its second secretary-general, the Swedish statesman Dag Hammarskjöld – who was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace prize after he died in a suspicious plane crash – created the concept of peacekeeping. Hammarskjöld was responding to the 1956 Suez Crisis, in which the US opposed the invasion of Egypt by its allies Israel, France and the UK.
UN peacekeeping missions involve the use of impartial and armed UN forces, drawn from member states, to stabilise fragile situations. “The essence of peacekeeping is the use of soldiers as a catalyst for peace rather than as the instruments of war,” said then UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, when the forces won the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize following missions in conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Central America and Europe.
However, peacekeeping also counts among the UN’s major failures.
2. Law of the Sea
Negotiated between 1973 and 1982, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) set up the current international law of the seas. It defines states’ rights and creates concepts such as exclusive economic zones, as well as procedures for the settling of disputes, new arrangements for governing deep sea bed mining, and importantly, new provisions for the protection of marine resources and ocean conservation.
Mostly, countries have abided by the convention. There are various disputes that China has over the East and South China Seas which present a conflict between power and law, in that although UNCLOS creates mechanisms for resolving disputes, a powerful state isn’t necessarily going to submit to those mechanisms.
Secondly, on the conservation front, although UNCLOS is a huge step forward, it has failed to adequately protect oceans that are outside any state’s control. Ocean ecosystems have been dramatically transformed through overfishing. This is an ecological catastrophe that UNCLOS has slowed, but failed to address comprehensively.
3. Decolonisation
The idea of racial equality and of a people’s right to self-determination was discussed in the wake of World War I and rejected. After World War II, however, those principles were endorsed within the UN system, and the Trusteeship Council, which monitored the process of decolonisation, was one of the initial bodies of the UN.
Although many national independence movements only won liberation through bloody conflicts, the UN has overseen a process of decolonisation that has transformed international politics. In 1945, around one third of the world’s population lived under colonial rule. Today, there are less than 2 million people living in colonies.
When it comes to the world’s First Nations, however, the UN generally has done little to address their concerns, aside from the non-binding UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007.
4. Human rights
The Human Rights Declaration of 1948 for the first time set out fundamental human rights to be universally protected, recognising that the “inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”.
Since 1948, 10 human rights treaties have been adopted – including conventions on the rights of children and migrant workers, and against torture and discrimination based on gender and race – each monitored by its own committee of independent experts.
The language of human rights has created a new framework for thinking about the relationship between the individual, the state and the international system. Although some people would prefer that political movements focus on ‘liberation’ rather than ‘rights’, the idea of human rights has made the individual person a focus of national and international attention.
5. Free trade
Depending on your politics, you might view the World Trade Organisation as a huge success, or a huge failure.
The WTO creates a near-binding system of international trade law with a clear and efficient dispute resolution process.
The majority Australian consensus is that the WTO is a success because it has been good for Australian famers especially, through its winding back of subsidies and tariffs.
However, the WTO enabled an era of globalisation which is now politically controversial.
Recently, the US has sought to disrupt the system. In addition to the trade war with China, the Trump Administration has also refused to appoint tribunal members to the WTO’s Appellate Body, so it has crippled the dispute resolution process. Of course, the Trump Administration is not the first to take issue with China’s trade strategies, which include subsidises for ‘State Owned Enterprises’ and demands that foreign firms transfer intellectual property in exchange for market access.
The existence of the UN has created a forum where nations can discuss new problems, and climate change is one of them. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess climate science and provide policymakers with assessments and options. In 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change created a permanent forum for negotiations.
However, despite an international scientific body in the IPCC, and 165 signatory nations to the climate treaty, global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase.
Under the Paris Agreement, even if every country meets its greenhouse gas emission targets we are still on track for ‘dangerous warming’. Yet, no major country is even on track to meet its targets; while emissions will probably decline this year as a result of COVID-19, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will still increase.
This illustrates a core conundrum of the UN in that it opens the possibility of global cooperation, but is unable to constrain states from pursuing their narrowly conceived self-interests. Deep co-operation remains challenging.
Five failures of the UN
1. Peacekeeping
During the Bosnian War, Dutch peacekeeping forces stationed in the town of Srebrenica, declared a ‘safe area’ by the UN in 1993, failed in 1995 to stop the massacre of more than 8000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces. This is one of the most widely discussed examples of the failures of international peacekeeping operations.
On the massacre’s 10th anniversary, then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote that the UN had “made serious errors of judgement, rooted in a philosophy of impartiality”, contributing to a mass murder that would “haunt our history forever”.
If you look at some of the other infamous failures of peacekeeping missions – in places such as Rwanda, Somalia and Angola – it is the limited powers given to peacekeeping operations that have resulted in those failures.
2. The invasion of Iraq
The invasion of Iraq by the US in 2003, which was unlawful and without Security Council authorisation, reflects the fact that the UN is has very limited capacity to constrain the actions of great powers.
The Security Council designers created the veto power so that any of the five permanent members could reject a Council resolution, so in that way it is programmed to fail when a great power really wants to do something that the international community generally condemns.
In the case of the Iraq invasion, the US didn’t veto a resolution, but rather sought authorisation that it did not get. The UN, if you go by the idea of collective security, should have responded by defending Iraq against this unlawful use of force.
The invasion proved a humanitarian disaster with the loss of more than 400,000 lives, and many believe that it led to the emergence of the terrorist Islamic State.
3. Refugee crises
The UN brokered the 1951 Refugee Convention to address the plight of people displaced in Europe due to World War II; years later, the 1967 Protocol removed time and geographical restrictions so that the Convention can now apply universally (although many countries in Asia have refused to sign it, owing in part to its Eurocentric origins).
Despite these treaties, and the work of the UN High Commission for Refugees, there is somewhere between 30 and 40 million refugees, many of them, such as many Palestinians, living for decades outside their homelands. This is in addition to more than 40 million people displaced within their own countries.
While for a long time refugee numbers were reducing, in recent years, particularly driven by the Syrian conflict, there have been increases in the number of people being displaced.
During the COVID-19 crisis, boatloads of Rohingya refugees were turned away by port after port. This tragedy has echoes of pre-World War II when ships of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany were refused entry by multiple countries.
And as a catastrophe of a different kind looms, there is no international framework in place for responding to people who will be displaced by rising seas and other effects of climate change.
4. Conflicts without end
Across the world, there is a shopping list of unresolved civil conflicts and disputed territories.
Palestine and Kashmir are two of the longest-running failures of the UN to resolve disputed lands. More recent, ongoing conflicts include the civil wars in Syria and Yemen.
The common denominator of unresolved conflicts is either division among the great powers, or a lack of international interest due to the geopolitical stakes not being sufficiently high. For instance, the inaction during the Rwandan civil war in the 1990s was not due to a division among great powers, but rather a lack of political will to engage.
In Syria, by contrast, Russia and the US have opposing interests and back opposing sides: Russia backs the government of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whereas the US does not.
5. Acting like it’s 1945
The UN is increasingly out of step with the reality of geopolitics today.
The permanent members of the Security Council reflect the division of power internationally at the end of World War II. The continuing exclusion of Germany, Japan, and rising powers such as India and Indonesia, reflects the failure to reflect the changing balance of power.
Also, bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank, which are part of the UN system, continue to be dominated by the West. In response, China has created potential rival institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Western domination of UN institutions undermines their credibility. However, a more fundamental problem is that institutions designed in 1945 are a poor fit with the systemic global challenges – of which climate change is foremost – that we face today.