“Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.”– Gilbert K. Chesterton
For centuries the practice of creating Ninaivumalars, translated into English as “The Book of Memory” have been a significant part of the tradition of the Ceylon Tamil people across the globe. These Ninaivumalars are memorial books that are compiled and created by the family of a deceased person. Following the death of a family member; family, friends, and relatives write eulogies for the deceased. Along with these eulogies, religious hymns, Tamil cultural knowledge, personal and family biographies as well as genealogical charts are also included in the Ninaivumalar. Copies of the Ninaivumalar are then distributed to family members and friends at a gathering commemorating the death of the individual 31 days later, known as an Anthiatti. However, Ninaivumalars in the past have generally been kept within families and placed on shelves where they gather dust for many years and usually end up being thrown out years later. We must change that perspective and understand that there is a whole part of our Tamil cultural identity that is heavily ingrained in these Ninaivumalars and appreciate why it is necessary to preserve and archive all Ninaivumalars in a central database.
In earlier times, the Ninavulmalars were mainly written in Tamil and kept simple, by having usually a biography of the deceased written by a pandithar, or a village scholar. However, with the advent of the larger Tamil Diaspora moving out of Sri Lanka over the course of the last half of the 20th century to varying parts of the world, you get many Ninavumalars written in bilingual form. An example is the Tamil/English Ninavumalars that are created here in Canada. As a second generation Canadian Ceylon Tamilan, I was very much involved with the creation of my own father’s Ninavumalar, where many of the eulogies by his family members were written in English. The younger generation who may not be as fluent in Tamil wish to contribute in the language they feel most comfortable expressing themselves in.
The collection and archival of Ninavumalars is essential in preserving the rich social history of the people of Tamil Ceylon. This tradition of creating a memorial booklet is a unique one seen only among the Eela Tamilars, and not in any other culture. Many cultures have gravestones or keep urns with the ashes of their deceased as memorabilia, whereas we as Tamilars have our Ninavumalars as our memorabilia. Thus, this tradition must be preserved and continued among the Ceylon Tamil diaspora around the globe as it has been for centuries. Highlighting the importance of keeping alive the biographies and stories of our ancestors are key to preserving the social history of our people. In an ever globalizing world, it is important to make sure that we work in preserving the social history of the Ceylon Tamil people by putting a global archive together that consists of all the Ninavumalars of Tamilars from around the world.
Canada having the largest population of Ceylon Tamilars outside of Sri Lanka, we need to take immediate action in collecting and preserving the Ninavumalar tradition. Having taken up this project of putting together a global archive of all the Ninavumalars of the people of Tamil Ceylon, I urge the Tamil community to come together in helping make this a successful project for sake of preserving our tradition and culture.
This article was originally published in The Ceylon Times, 3 June 2019