Thursday, June 03, 2004

பேரூர் சுடுமண் ஓடு டுபாக்கூர் சமாச்சாரமா?

இந்த மாத காலச்சுவடில் (இதழ் 54, ஜூன் 2004) பல்லிளிக்கும் தொல்லியல் 'கண்டுபிடிப்புகள்', பேரூர் சுடுமண் ஓடுகள் என்ற தலைப்பில் சு.கி.ஜெயகரன் என்பவர் ஒரு கட்டுரை எழுதியுள்ளார்.

இந்தக் கட்டுரையில் ஆசிரியர் பேரூரில் கண்டெடுக்கப்பட்ட ஓடுகள் ஏமாற்று வேலையென்று எண்ணுவதற்கு பல சான்றுகள் உள்ளன என்றும் அறிவியல் முறையில் கால நிர்ணயம் செய்யாத வரையில், "பேரூர் மற்றொரு பில்ட்டௌன் (piltdown) என்றே நினைக்கத் தோன்றுகிறது." என்றும் சொல்கிறார். கூடிய விரைவில் - இந்த வாரத்திற்குள்ளாக - முழுக் கட்டுரையும் காலச்சுவடுக்கான வலைத்தளத்தில் ஏற்றப்படும் என்று வெங்கடேஷிடமிருந்து அறிகிறேன்.

முதுசொம் கண்ணன் இந்தக் கட்டுரையை ஏற்கனவே எதிர்பார்த்தோ என்னவோ, போன மாத திசைகள் இதழில் ஒரு கட்டுரை எழுதியுள்ளார். விரும்புபவர்கள் இரண்டையும் படித்து கருத்துச் சொல்லலாம்.

இத்துடன் சில நாட்களுக்கு முன்னர் ஆதிச்சநல்லூர் அகழ்வில் கிடைத்த எழுத்துகளையும், அது பற்றிய ஐராவதம் மகாதேவன் கருத்தையும் நினைவில் கொள்ளவேணும்.

2 comments:

  1. நானும் கண்ணனிடம் இதைத்தான் கேட்டுள்ளேன். அவர் இப்படிச் சொல்கிறார்: "இ-சுவடியில் அதுபற்றி எழுதி மும்பாயிலிருந்து (BARC) ஒருவர் உதவ எல்லா ஏற்பாடும் இருக்கிறது. ஆனால் நான் இங்கிருந்து அனுப்பக்கூடாதாம். ஏதாவதொரு இந்திய கல்வி நிறுவனம் கேட்டுக் கொண்டால், செய்வார்களாம்."

    கண்ணனிடம் தொடர்பு கொண்டு மேற்கொண்டு என்ன செய்யலாம் என்று கேட்கிறேன்.

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  2. Reminds me of the following passage/s in Charles Dickens' 'Pickwick Papers'

    Rgds,
    Murugan Ramasami

    http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/19/40/frameset.html


    It was at this moment that Mr. Pickwick made that immortal discovery, which has been the pride and boast of his friends, and the envy of every antiquarian in this or any other country. They had passed the door of their inn, and walked a little way down the village, before they recollected the precise spot in which it stood. As they turned back, Mr. Pickwick's eye fell upon a small broken stone, partially buried in the ground, in front of a cottage door. He paused.

    "This is very strange," said Mr. Pickwick.

    What is strange?" inquired Mr. Tupman, staring eagerly at every object near him, but the right one. "God bless me, what's the matter?"

    This last was an ejaculation of irrepressible astonishment, occasioned by seeing Mr. Pickwick, in his enthusiasm for discovery, fall on his knees before the little stone, and commence wiping the dust off it with his pocket-handkerchief.

    "There is an inscription here," said Mr. Pickwick.

    "Is it possible?" said Mr. Tupman.

    "I can discern," continued Mr. Pickwick, rubbing away with all his might, and gazing intently through his spectacles: "I can discern a cross, and a B, and then a T. This is important," continued Mr. Pickwick, starting up. "This is some very old inscription, existing perhaps long before the ancient alms-houses in this place. It must not be lost."

    He tapped at the cottage door. A labouring man opened it.

    "Do you know how this stone came here, my friend?" inquired the benevolent Mr. Pickwick.

    "No, I doan't, sir," replied the man civilly. "It was here long afore I war born, or any on us."

    Mr. Pickwick glanced triumphantly at his companion.

    "You--you--are not particularly attached to it, I daresay," said Mr. Pickwick, trembling with anxiety. "You wouldn't mind selling it, now?"

    "Ah! but who'd buy it?" inquired the man, with an expression of face which he probably meant to be very cunning.

    "I'll give you ten shillings for it, at once," said Mr. Pickwick, "if you would take it up for me."

    The astonishment of the village may be easily imagined, when (the little stone having been raised with one wrench of a spade), Mr. Pickwick, by dint of great personal exertion, bore it with his own hands to the inn, and after having carefully washed it, deposited it on the table.

    The exultation and joy of the Pickwickians knew no bounds, when their patience and assiduity, their washing and scraping, were crowned with success. The stone was uneven and broken, and the letters were straggling and irregular, but the following fragment of an inscription was clearly to be deciphered:

    +
    B I L S T
    U M
    P S H I
    S. M.
    A R K

    Mr. Pickwick's eyes sparkled with delight, as he sat and gloated over the treasure he had discovered. He had attained one of the greatest objects of his ambition. In a county known to abound in remains of the early ages; in a village in which there still existed some memorials of the olden time, he--he, the Chairman of the Pickwick Club--had discovered a strange and curious inscription of unquestionable antiquity, which had wholly escaped the observation of the many learned men who had preceded him. He could hardly trust the evidence of his senses.

    "This--this," said he, "determines me. We return to town, to-morrow."

    "To-morrow!" exclaimed his admiring followers.

    "To-morrow," said Mr. Pickwick. "This treasure must be at once deposited where it can be thoroughly investigated, and properly understood.

    - - - - -

    It appears from the Transactions of the Club, then, that Mr. Pickwick lectured upon the discovery at a General Club Meeting, convened on the night succeeding their return, and entered into a variety of ingenious and erudite speculations on the meaning of the inscription. It also appears that a skilful artist executed a faithful delineation of the curiosity, which was engraven on stone, and presented to the Royal Antiquarian Society, and other learned bodies--that heart-burnings and jealousies without number, were created by rival controversies which were penned upon the subject--and that Mr. Pickwick himself wrote a pamphlet, containing ninety-six pages of very small print, and twenty-seven different readings of the inscription. That three old gentlemen cut off their eldest sons with a shilling a-piece for presuming to doubt the antiquity of the fragment--and that one enthusiastic individual cut himself off prematurely, in despair at being unable to fathom its meaning. That Mr. Pickwick was elected an honorary member of seventeen native and foreign societies, for making the discovery; that none of the seventeen could make anything of it; but that all the seventeen agreed it was very extraordinary.

    Mr. Blotton, indeed--and the name will be doomed to the undying contempt of those who cultivate the mysterious and the sublime--Mr. Blotton, we say, with the doubt and cavilling peculiar to vulgar minds, presumed to state a view of the case, as degrading as ridiculous. Mr. Blotton, with a mean desire to tarnish the lustre of the immortal name of Pickwick, actually undertook a journey to Cobham in person, and on his return, sarcastically observed in an oration at the club, that he had seen the man from whom the stone was purchased; that the man presumed the stone to be ancient, but solemnly denied the antiquity of the inscription--inasmuch as he represented it to have been rudely carved by himself in an idle mood, and to display letters intended to bear neither more nor less than the simple construction of--"BILL STUMPS, HIS MARK"; and that Mr. Stumps, being little in the habit of original composition, and more accustomed to be guided by the sound of words than by the strict rules of orthography, had omitted the concluding "L" of his Christian name.

    The Pickwick Club (as might have been expected from so enlightened an Institution) received this statement with the contempt it deserved, expelled the presumptuous and ill-conditioned Blotton, and voted Mr. Pickwick a pair of gold spectacles, in token of their confidence and approbation; in return for which, Mr. Pickwick caused a portrait of himself to be painted, and hung up in the club room.

    Mr. Blotton though ejected was not conquered. He also wrote a pamphlet, addressed to the seventeen learned societies, native and foreign, containing a repetition of the statement he had already made, and rather more than half intimating his opinion that the seventeen learned societies were so many "humbugs." Hereupon the virtuous indignation of the seventeen learned societies, native and foreign, being roused, several fresh pamphlets appeared; the foreign learned societies corresponded with the native

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