Thirumandiram in Malayalam

It all began with a love for Tamil language which gradually grew into a passion.
Five years after he came out with the Malayalam commentary of Tamil epic Thirukural, K G Chandrasekharan Nair has now completed the commentary and translation of yet another Tamil epic - Thirumantram.
The three-volume translation, to be published by DC Books, is all set to be released in August.
A visit to his house at Kundamankadavu turned a revealing journey as we are received by a father-daughter duo, both bound together by a common thread - a love for Tamil literature.
While Chandrasekharan Nair had brought out the commentary on Thirukural in 2002, daughter Shailaja Raveendran has translated the couplets in simple Malayalam, the pocket edition of which was brought out by DC Books last week.
At the house, we are greeted by books and more books. Among them are the three thickly-bound books, the translated volumes of Tamil epic Thirumantram. And even before we ask, Chandrasekheran Nair tells us what made him translate them. ‘‘It has in-depth meanings which Malayalis should not miss out. Many have translated it earlier but I wanted to earn an experience for myself, of having imbibed a great epic.’’
But Thirumantram, the devotional songs by Sidhar Thirumular, still remains largely ‘untouched’ in terms of translations.
‘‘This translation includes commentaries and references, and is called a bhashyam.’’ Chandrasekharan Nair seems a satisfied writer.
An employee with the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Department for 36 years, it was his settling down in the city after retirement and his acquaintance with the late poets Ayyappa Paniker and Guptan Nair that opened the doors of literature to him.
He is the brother-in-law of ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, a relation that he cherishes and carries with pride.
It was upon his insistence that Shailaja set out to translate Thirukural for the pocket edition. ‘‘If his translation is scholarly, mine is simple - for the common man,’’ she says.
Shailaja has translated the short stories of Tamil writer S Murugaiya (Chudar) and is now into yet another translation of a Tamil work - one of Kannadasan’s books on Hindu philosophy.
Shailaja marks out certain couplets from the translated Thirukural that are oft-repeated by President Kalam in his speeches. And they mean: ‘Those who have the courage to carry out their wishes as they dreamt will reach their goals as they wished.’ It is a similar dream that carries this father-daughter duo on a mission to make available to Malayalis some of the finest literary works in another language.
Courtesy: Newindpress