When Tamil writer and publisher A Vennila went to England in May this year, it was not on vacation. She wouldn’t even call it a literary journey. One of the high points of her 20-day trip to England was her visit to the churchyard of St Peter’s Church in Frimley, where engineer John Pennycuick had been laid to rest. “It was a surreal, emotional moment,” Vennila says. “I stood there for long, hugging the statue of Pennycuick and whispering into his ears about how the people of southern Tamil Nadu will forever remember him.”
“You will reign as a deity in the heart of every person living in southern Tamil Nadu, I told him. I also said that his name will be uttered by every soul whose thirst has been quenched by a handful of the Periyar river and that I come with the gratitude of Tamil people.”
As Vennila’s series Neerathikaram (The Water Power) on the construction of the Mullaiperiyar dam in Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan hits its 100th episode this week, there couldn’t be a better way to celebrate. “I didn’t imagine it would pull me in the way it has done. Honestly, I didn’t think of Mullaiperiyar dam or its British engineer Pennycuick as anything more than content for a series. But it has become an intimate part of my life in the last couple of years. It has taken me on a journey that wouldn’t have happened otherwise — be it to Frimley or Gudalur in the Theni district. It has also been a journey within, a discovery of another facet of mine.”
Vennila standing next to John Pennycuick's last resting place at St Peter’s Church in Frimley
Besides Frimley, Vennila spent a good part of her time in England at London’s British Library, sourcing original documents on the construction of the dam, and personal documents on Pennycuick. While her trip to England happened much later, Vennila went to the Tamil Nadu villages through which the dam waters flow after writing about eight episodes of the series. “I have walked across every region in the Western Ghats associated with Mullaiperiyar dam, in search of material and also meeting families whose ancestors were involved.” When she heard the stories of the dam passed through generations, Vennila decided to look for documents to authenticate her story. “Reading the documents helped me understand the landscape better, and now I had to travel back to those places with a fresh sense of understanding. In all, I would have visited those places about six to seven times.”
A historical fiction series, Neerathikaram is a fascinating account of what led to the construction of the Mullaiperiyar dam, the problems and challenges, in all its flesh and blood, bringing into focus the people who had put in their efforts — small and big. Shyam’s illustrations add a unique flavour to her gripping narration techniques. “About 40% of the characters in Neerathikaram are real; 60% are fictional. But if there is anything that I am watchful of, it is the distortion of history. I am certain not to distort history and I know the bearing it will have on any fiction writer, not just me. So, everything that I mention as history in the series is indeed history, and has happened. I have documentary evidence to prove it.”
A report on the diversion of Periyar river by John Pennycuick, published in 1882
So much so that Vennila is careful not to encourage myths surrounding Pennycuick. The British engineer is still a household name in southern Tamil Nadu, with tea shops named after him and his statues installed in offices of the Public Works Department. There is also a memorial for him and a bus terminus named after him in Theni. Children are named after Pennycuick and the villagers of Palarpatti in Theni make an offering of Pongal on his birth anniversary. But Vennila says he did not spend money from his pocket, sell his property or his wife’s thali (mangal sutra) to help with the construction of the dam — these are some popular myths about the man in the region. “His wife obviously wouldn’t have worn a thali; also, why would a government engineer spend from his pocket – where did the need arise from? There are no documents to prove this. But this doesn’t mean his contribution was any less.”
From 1887, Pennycuick spent nine years at the Western Ghats when the dam was constructed. “There were many challenges in the construction of the dam, technical and otherwise. For example, cofferdams have been constructed five times and all five times, it has been ravaged by a natural disaster. Pennycuick handled such challenges and stayed put till the project was accomplished.”
But Vennila disagrees with the idea that Pennycuick is the only hero of the Mullaiperiyar dam. “He is no doubt the biggest hero, but you cannot forget the role of the others. The first proposal for the dam was made by an engineer called Ryves and another engineer Smith further worked on it. Pennycuick himself acknowledges their contribution, though towards the end some minor changes had to be made for procedural reasons.”
In nine years of its construction, Mullaiperiyar dam also witnessed the deaths of about 5,000 labourers. “This again is on the British records. Some of them were cholera-related deaths. According to British records, about half of the population at the campsite died of cholera. There were 3,000 people at the campsite then. But besides the deaths of 1,500 people, the records also say that there were people who left the site fearing cholera and were found dead on the mountains, people who died after reaching their villages and so on.” While in the first two years of its construction, about 500 to 1,000 people were involved, Vennila says that after that at least 3,000 to 5,000 people worked as labourers for every season.
Mullaiperiyar dam, as an idea, was apparently originally conceived by Ramanathapuram king Muthuramalinga Sethupathi in 1789. “British records say that it was the idea of a Minister in his cabinet. But it didn’t materialise. In 1800, a British collector in Dindigul wrote to the sister of Sethupathi, Rani Mangaleswari Nachiyar, explaining how such a dam would benefit not just Vaigai but a drought hit Ramanathapuram too. The queen refused, citing financial stress as a reason. This communication is the first available document related to the dam. Almost a century later, and after a severe famine (also known as Thaathu varudathu panjam – the famine of the Thaathu year), the dam became an idea whose time has come.”
In the course of this almost two-year-long journey, Vennila has come across some stunning moments. “Pennycuick knew the Madurai irrigation system like the back of his hand. He writes that there are fifteen dams (check dams) between Gudalur and Melur. There are three in Vairavanaaru (Vairavan river) and 12 in Suruliyaaru (Suruli River). But today, Vairavanaaru has only two check dams. Suthanthira Amalraj, a retired engineer who has worked in the Periyar division, told me that he has never known Vairavanaaru to have three check dams in all his service years. We were both confused because there was no way Pennycuick would have committed such a mistake. But when I was skimming through other material that I have collected about this, I chanced upon Santhamaar Sindhu Kavithaigal, a collection of folk songs by Anthony Muthu Pillai on the inaugural ceremony of the dam. One of the songs is about how a tank is washed away in a flood in 1910 and along with the tank, a check dam has also been washed away. The people of Cumbum where the check dam was washed away approached the Collector seeking his intervention in reconstructing the dam. But it didn’t happen. After a point, the people decide to convert it into a canal and do it themselves without waiting for the government to intervene. The Palayam Paravu is still a channel and remains so. We heaved a sigh of relief, we knew Pennycuick can never be wrong after all.”
Another personally gratifying moment as a writer was when she went to Poonjar, now part of Kottayam in Kerala but formerly a princely region under Travancore during the construction of the dam. “The chieftains in Poonjar are said to be descendants of Pandiya kings, they continue to worship Meenakshi. The river Meenatchil, I guess, is a variant of Meenakshi. I had once written in the series that the waters of Periyar are a gift of Padmanabhan to his sister Meenakshi in Madurai. I went to Poonjar to witness their festival. In the festival celebrated on the next day of harvest, they sing songs from our [Tamil epic] Silappathikaaram with a slight variation. Madhavi jumps into the fire along with Kovalan after he is killed. But to hear classical Tamil literature as a folk song at a festival to me was a peak moment in my two-year journey. The Poonjar princely region and its chieftains had been very helpful in bringing the water to Tamil Nadu, I think the bond is still there.”
For Vennila herself, the bond with the story of the dam and the people around is much deeper than she had imagined.
Vennila at an event marking the 100th episode of her series Neerathikaram