TSunami and my thoughts

The Tsunami waves that plunged into the seashore of Tamilnadu have left an indelible fear in the mind of people. Like a professional killer who operates stealthily, the king of sea took away many lives. The shores of Tamilnadu have faced many cyclones and the intrusions of Sea but this time they were caught unawares.

 

In the history of Tamils, there were several occasions when the Sea ate their cities; the most prominent were the loss of ‘KumarikKandam’, Kapadapuram alias Alaivaay Nagaram and the destruction of the magnificent, Kaveripoompattinam alias Puhar. I wonder whether the Tamil word ‘Kadarkkoll’ refers to the Tsunami, because from the information we get from the Sangam and related literature, the ‘Kadarkkoll’ occurred a few times in the space of centuries. That truly marks a Tsunami hit.

 

When a thing occurs frequently at a place, the locals will get knowledge about that and will pass the information to the future generations. That way the people of that particular place will grow resistant to the particular thing or develop ways to overcome that thing. This is essence of evolution. Thus the knowledge pertaining to the area alone develops and become part of the Traditional knowledge systems of that area. Now, it seems this cannot be applied to the Tsunamis occurring at Indian shores. Because, every time the Tsunamis struck, they were spaced between many decades that are enough to prevent the information from being passed on. The Tamils, who are known sea-farers from time immemorial, are yet to develop any warning systems that can foretell the Tsunamis. That clearly explains, not the inability of the Tamils, but the frequency of the Tsunamis at this place.

 

Every time, I suppose, they were taken as the wrath of the gods, like the loss of Puhar which was due to the wrath of Indra, and forgotten as a sad chapter. Remember I am not saying these are foolish. The fury of Indra over the destruction of Puhar was attributed to the stoppage of ‘Indra Vizha’ (Festival for Indra) used to be celebrated at the sea shores on ‘Chitra Pournami’, the full moon day on Chithirai or Chaitra (Apr-May) month. We never know what relations these contain. Modern science has not yet understood the mind, the being and the nature and therefore we are ill-positioned to dismiss anything as false beliefs, customs.

 

God knows better.

 

regards,

Ramesh

 

"There is no use in learning, if we do not worship the good feet of the one who is in the form of pure knowledge."

- Thiruvalluvar