E

This lesson discusses the various aspects of Aringar Annadurai’s prose. A great statesman, matchless orator and accomplished writer, Annadurai, affectionately hailed as ‘anna’, exercised considerable impact on Tamil literature. Aringar Anna’s prose was largely shaped by his political outlook. A distinguished political figure, Anna used his writings as a means of spreading his ideologies. Through his passionate and eloquent prose he inspired among the Tamils a love for their language and culture.

A key figure in the Dravidian movement, Aringar Anna sought to bring about a renaissance among the Tamils through his writings. His prose is characterized by several unique features.

Foremost among these was his attempt at taking his writings to the masses. He revolutionized Tamil prose by combining literary Tamil i.e., (pandithar Tamil) with spoken Tamil i.e., (pechu Tamil). Thus the learned as well as the laymen were able to enjoy his writings and speeches.

Anna excelled at using language creatively. This is evident from his prose works that are noted for their inherent poetic beauty and strength.

Yet another striking feature of Anna’s prose is that it is intensely evocative and passionate. Anna was a gifted wordsmith who could use language to evoke a wide gamut of emotions among the readers.

Anna was a talented orator and the highly rhetorical and declamatory style of many of his prose works can be traced to his oratorical skills. Anna’s prose is also noted for its frequent use of ‘nedunthodargal’ or long sentences. Anna’s prose is powerful and passionate. He saw punctuation marks as a means of infusing life and vigour into his works. His prose is replete with exclamatory marks, question marks and hyphens. These were used to indicate subtle changes in emotions, intonation and the pauses to be observed while reading.

Anna drew inspiration for his works from the lives of ordinary men and women. He wrote about them and for them in their own language. He wrote in a realistic style often using the speech-registers of the common man. As a result, one often finds words borrowed from other languages (especially English and Sanskrit) in his works.

Anna used a number of literary and poetic devices such as alliteration, metaphor, simile, epithets and collocations in his works.

Anna is credited with introducing daringly original and inventive forms into Tamil prose. Unlike many Tamil scholars and writers of his time, he was not a puritan. He chose a direct conversational style that mirrored the language of the common man. The bulk of his prose works can be classified into 5 forms viz. ‘Madal Ilakkiyam’ i.e., (Letters), ‘Medai Tamizh’ i.e., (Rhetoric), ‘Nadaga Tamil’ i.e., (Drama), ‘Andhi Kalambagam’ and ‘Oorar Uraiyaadal’. Of these, ‘Andhi Kalambagam’ and ‘Oorar Uraiyaadal’ are witty conversations about politics and social issues among women and people in general.