THE DICHOTOMY IN THE PERSONAE OF Dr. V.C.

KULANDAISWAMY
& KULOTHUNGAN.

Professor Vridhachalem Pillay Subramaniam.,

Joint Director of Collegiate Education ( Retired),
Educational Consultant ( TANSCHE), Unesco Fellow( Pedagogy ).
drvsubramaniam@gmail.com Mobile : 91 9444042771.

1. Reminiscing the remarkable life of Dr. V.C. Kulandaiswamy in the two centuries poses
a dilemma akin to the six visually handicapped men of Hindostan who tried to
describe a male tusker. Some justified by a description of its trunk, some by its huge
ears, a few by its huge body, some by its legs, a few others by its tail and the rest by its
tusk. That analogy is quite similar to the dilemma faced by the present writer who
found himself swaying between the personae of Dr. V. C. Kulandaiswamy the
Scientist-Technocrat Educationist cum Educational Adminsitrator and the remarkable
variety exhibited by his poetic creativity under the penname of Kulothungan. This
article is an explication of the riddle.
2. First of all let me place the well recorded data before you: Hailing from a simple rural
village with a rural Board School educational background, the young Kulandaiswamy
steered clear his academic journey through the Madras Governments Engineering
College, completed his Masters Degree in the distant Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur, before completing his Doctoral Degree in the University of Illinois, Urbana.
In this academic journey he established himself as an expert in matters of Hydrology by
creating an eponymous Mathematical Model for the run-off relationship of rain water,
based on a general equation developed by him. This patented Model is well- known in
the literature of hydrology and it is considered a unique model and gets oft - quoted in
Engineering Technology Education. Having established his pedagogic competence as
a highly respected Lecturer in Hydrology, he was elevated to the position of the
Director of Technical Education of Tamil Nadu, on the basis of merit. Those were
times when the number of Engineering Colleges in the Province of Madras was limited
and administrative chores rather less cumbersome to a young dynamic administrator.
He found time to head a Committee of educationists who evolved a branching system
of Vocational Education at the Higher Secondary Level of School Education. This was
a scheme by which all and sundry need not necessarily rush to a College for grabbing a
degree which had no or very dubious transfer value in terms of employability. Instead
he drew up a Curriculum which would enable the Vocational - Student acquire
Vocational Skills both in theory and practice such as Electrical and Electronic
machinist, Carpentry, Nursing etc., etc. It was implemented with considerable gusto
and enthusiasm, but, unfortunately the societal values of true education did not share
the same ideal perception as those of the Designers and it gradually faded away.
However, this fiasco was never attributed to the Chair or members of the Vocational
Education Committee of Tamil Nadu. Soon after Dr. Kulandaiswamy was selected and
appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of Madurai (Kamaraj ) University. His expertise in
Hydrology empowered him with a Unesco Advisor appointment in Sri Lanka, where
he was perfectly at home with all the professionals and academics. On his return to
India, the Governor of Tamil Nadu invited him to administer the prestigious Anna
University as its Vice-Chancellor, which lasted for three terms of nine years. In the
history of University Education in Tamil Nadu State no one had that privilege for three
terms of Vice-Chancellorship, with the sole exception of Dr. A. Lakshmanaswamy
Mudaliar, the doyen Gynaecologist- cum - Educationist who administered University
of Madras for a period of twenty-seven years at a stretch.
3. During this tenure several new Schemes including load-shedding through bifurcation
of Semesters and greater transparency in matters of Internal evaluation and automation
in several spheres including Final Evaluation got introduced. Most significant among
them were Industry Academia Collaboration, UGC- AICTE sponsored Research
facilities and International Universities collaboration. In the next phase Dr.
Kulandaiswamy found himself drawn to the National Level to serve the most
prestigious IGNOU as its Vice-Chancellor and Chief executive. Today several
graduates and post-graduates owe it to his Vision for having acquired advanced
professional qualifications without leaving their homes and their tenured- jobs. His
work was spontaneously appreciated universally and he was made the President of The
Commonwealth Committee of Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors with specific
accreditation in Canada and London. This completes his contribution mainly through
the paid- appointments and Offices of good Governance. Any other person would have
gladly hung his boots and would have turned to a Golf Course or Bridge Table.
But that never happened with Dr. V. C. Kulandaiswamy.

4. Now the latent creative poet within him, who had been struggling to find time,
emerged as a full time controller of his energies. That was the phase of Kulothungan
Muse that activated his creative urge. His abiding love for Tamil Language and
Literature found full recognition as the Chairman of the Tamil Academy, Vice-
Chairman of the International Association of Tamil Research and Chairman of Tamil
Language Promotion Board in the Ministry of Human Resources Development, G O I,
New Delhi. He was appointed the Chairman of a Committee constituted by the
Government of Tamil Nadu for script reform in Tamil a pet Project of his early days
of association with E. V. Ramasamy Naicker also better known as Periyar. Like
Bernard Shaw in England whose interest in spelling reform was a life - long Project, the
script reform in Tamil especially towards evolving a suitable standard Font
identification easy for typing and corrections online had all his attention fully rivetted.
Today we owe it to his initiatives for our easy use of Unicode as a common platform
while composing any matter using the Tamil script.

5. Kulothungans writings in Tamil were marked by clarity of thought and diction. His
abiding faith in Tirukkural enabled him win the Sahitya Akademi Award in the year
1998. Prema Nandakumars critical study Kulothungan: A Poet of Today and
Tomorrow ( Viva Books, New Delhi, 2002), points out Chellappan ( NCBH: Chennai,
2014) makes a serious attempt to evaluate his work and relates it to the great tradition
of Indian poetry. It shows that there is a kind of rationalism and religion, science and
poetry, and the term Divinity is Kulothungans triumphant walk on the razors edge of
religion and nationalism. Here is an answer to all those critics who are obsessed with
Kulothungans apparent lack of explicit show of faith in religious rituals. His concept
of Divinity was based entirely on his implicit and unquestioned faith in Science and
Technology to solve the persisting problems of Mankind. We would emphasize that
Kulothungan socializes and humanizes religious vocabulary. (Chellappan: 2014. P.7)

6. It is obvious that Kulothungan implicitly followed the advice of Polonius to his son
Leartes :
Do not as some ungracious pastors do,
Show the thorny path to Heaven,
But reck not their own reed. ( Hamlet, Act. Sc. Li )
 Chellappan concludes his assessment of the contribution with a statement that
Kulothungans poetry is a hymn to humanity because as a scientific humanist he
celebrates the human capacity to grow and change and this concept of man is his
major contribution to Tamil poetry. (Chellappan:2014. P.7).

Several Awards by the Government of Tamil Nadu were conferred on

Dr. Kulandaiswamy for his ( Kulothungans) writings in Tamil.
Hence the two personae of the Scientist-technocrat and the other of Creative poet
with a genuine desire to address the real problems of Mankind seem to co-exist
within a singular physical frame of one and the same person rewarding each other
by their proximity to associated sensibilities.

7. Kulothungan the poet defined the role of his poetry thus:

Poetry may soar high, but,

It is not rootless
The world of the poets is not all dreams
Divorced from deeds;
A poet may be a Citizen of the world,
But not a vagabond on earth.

8. His images were conditioned and influenced by his science and technology
orientation and created thereby a new set of diction:

Wires carry messages;

Steel pieces turn magnets, and
Brass wire gets energized by the
Flowing current;
Words are charged with the flame and
Purity of emotions.
[ Earth is Paradise Enough, Pp. 49 50. ]*

9. Professor Chellappans assessment of Kulothungans poetic diction and

style is objective and sounds rational:
Kulothungan brings several new areas of experiences into poetic domain and also
adds to the poetic vocabulary His use of metres could be attributed to his
scientific temper and a sense of discipline and his poetry is effective not because of
the organic relationship between metre and diction in his poetry. If metre and syntax
provide a logical structure in his poetry, diction provides a rich texture, but that is
also not ornamental but organic to the whole poem. And again,

10. His greatest epic definitely intended as his magnum opus , Journey of Man
is a celebration of human efforts and values it asserts earth itself as a Paradise,
life as a boon, truth as scripture and the determination to find heaven on earth as
vitally different. There is no reference to after-life or the shadow of past-life of
Soul. This is the significant change he brings about in his concept of Mans
existence on earth: namely that the present form of human life itself is Divine
and the sublimity of that awareness itself is an attainment of consciousness of
Divinity on Earth the style is also in consonance with its epic grandeur but true
to its scientific spirit. Though it is rooted in Tamil Culture and poetic tradition,
 its focus is Universal Man and his journey towards perfection. With Kulothungan,
Tamil poetry has entered the Knowledge era and the Global Village. **

11. This is reflected in the citation given by the Jaffna University while conferring an
Honorary Doctorate on Dr. V C Kulandaiswamy:

Dr. Kulandaiswamy belongs to that rare blend of scientists who are able to
synthesize the scientific and literary cultures. Consequently, his scientific researches have permeated with
a deep sense of humanism and his literary pursuits are characterized by a highly sober and critical
judgement , based on rigorous scientific methods He has, what one might well describe an instinctive
affinity to the world of letters.

12.
Following this tribute, Sivathamby wrote admiringly an elaborate critical Introduction to the variorum
edition of Kulothungan Poems ( First edition: 2002) emphasizing these collected poems define beyond
any doubt the poets Poetic nature and creative genius which he terms in Tamil as pulamaiththuvam
or cereberation ( a cognitive process of application of mind to seek solutions) and relates it to the
objectivity that permeates Kulothungans poems. ***

With these subtle arguments on aesthetics of creativity, Sivathamby

concludes that, Kulothungan the poet is an obviously created outlet to Kuladaiswamy the Tamilian.
Viewing the synthesis of the intellectual and the emotional, Chellappan concludes that,
We would consider his poetry as a dialogue with his deeper self and there
is also a deeper Synthesis of the Intellectual and emotional in his poetry, the scientific structure and the
poetic concern for texture and this results in a poetry of unified sensibility as in the case of the
Metaphysical poets of the 17th Century English. Kulothungan seems to think with his heart and feel with
his head like them. ( Chellappan: 2014: p.7).

12. CONCLUSION: To sum up what we have been exploring together: The cognitive
achievements of Kulandaiswamy the scientist Technologist had considerably
influenced the creative Muse within Kulothungan in the affective domain to pursue
his aesthetic values of Scientific humanism on which he put all his Faith to seek,
to find and not to yield . In the words of Shakespeares Horatio who in his epitaph
for Hamlet, says :

The elements so combined in him to say here was a perfect man!

Wont we be justified to emulate the famous Bard of the first Elizabethan

era to extend a similar but more intensely rational epitaph accepting the fact that the epic work Mans
Journey written during the era of Elizabeth the second is certainly beyond all physical/ material
consciousness and it leads us to Kulothungans world of scientific humanism to resolve crises of
mankind.

Dr. V. C . Kulandaiswamy may not be here amidst us today in physical

form; but who can deny the eternal existence of Kulothungans consciousness for the well- being for all?
Come along let us march together in step with Kulothungans robust and eternal optimism.

May the Soul of the Scientist Technologist Reformer par excellence rest
in peace while the intellectual rhythm and metric force of the ever fresh Kulothungan live for ever to
inspire all of us.
 REFERENCES:

1. Kulothungan, Maanuda Yaathirai (in Tamil ) Parts 1, 2 and 3. Bharathi

Pathippakam,Chennai : 2007 2009.
2. Kulothangan , Kulothungan Kavithigal A variorum edition of all the seven Volumes of
Poetry, with a remarkably well written Preface by Professor Sivathamby. Bharathi
Pathippakam, First edition July 2002.
3. Chellappan, K., Kulothungan- A poet of the Knowledge Era Edited with a foreword by
P.K.Ponnuswamy, New Century Book House, Chennai 2014.s
4. Web sourceas : Dr. V. C. Kuladaiswamys portal; Wikipedia; Google.com and Yahoo.com
5. Newspaper records especially drawn from Http://www.thehindu.in

_________________________________________________________________
*These two illustrations are taken with kind permission of P.K.Ponnuswamys
Foreword to Chellappans book Kulothungan A Poet of the Knowledge
EraNCBH: Chennai. 2014. Pp.xiv xv.

** Ponnuswamy, P.K. in his Foreword quoting Chellappans assessment in his

book:
Kulothungan A poet of the knowledge era NCBH Chennai 2014 Pp. xvi -
xvii.
*** Ibid. Pp. 6 7.