Dravidian Stockists and other adulators of Karunanidhi often say that when Karunanidhi’s pen bent down to write, the heads of Tamil people raised high.
While we can’t be certain about their heads, there is a high chance that something else must have got raised for some people.
This is because much of his literature brimmed with lust, characterized by intense sensuality and explicit sexual content.
Moreover, Karunanidhi sometimes employed Hindu deities as characters in his stories, often distorting and misrepresenting them to fictionalize his sexual perversion.
Here are a few:
Slandering Hindu Gods
Love Life Of Ganga
Karunanidhi had penned a short story titled ‘Gangayin Kaadhal‘ meaning ‘Love life of Ganga’ in which he narrates how Goddess Ganga and Moon God Chandra residing on Lord Siva’s head had a secret love affair.
He narrates that Ganga had sexual urge and began courting Chandra in Siva’s matted-locked head.
Here is a dialogue between Ganga and Chandra as written by Karunanidhi.
“Ganga… Are you happy with the old man?” ask Chandran to which Ganga replies “If I am happy, why should I search for Chandran!”
He further describes Goddess Ganga as someone having extreme ‘sexual hunger’.
In the story, Ganga narrates how she was sexually excited when Rishi Bhagiratha called her from the skies but was disappointed when he sent her to Lord Siva. Throughout the story, Karunanidhi describes Goddess Ganga as if she was a woman with no morals.
This is how Kaunanidhi derogates Goddess Ganga with his perverted sexual imagination:
“Bagirathan called me from the skies. My body quivered at the sight of that handsome man. Why body? My heart too quivered. I can’t express in words the sexual hunger I had for him! You need poet Kamban to do it.”
Karunanidhi not only slanders Ganga but also characterizes Lord Shiva as someone ‘who has a schedule for fun in bed’
He writes as Ganga lamenting “My sexual feelings were out of control. I had contacts with a king. He was as powerful as an emperor. I had dreams of trapping him into my life and through him realize all the dreams of my life. But that good for nothing fellow pushed me into the hands of this old man of Kailash. This old fellow is not only old but worn out in the services of Rishis’ wives. That is not all, Chandra. He has Parvati by his side, and maintains a schedule for fun in bed. His women have to take turns. What shall I do? For that matter, what can any young woman like me do? What did Parvati herself do? If you are interested in that story, dear Chandra, you have to ask Brahma himself. Everyday you visit the earth… Will you please put a word of advice to the people of the Earth?”
“What is that Ganga?”
“Do not marry off your daughter to an old man. Never consent for a second marriage… Will you please tell this to them?… Please on my behalf… Tell them so that no woman is pushed to my level.”
“So let it be, darling… Come let us slip to the mane side of Shiva. It will be darker there.”
This is how Karunanidhi characterized Hindu gods and for his erotica literature.
Derogating Hindu Goddess Draupadi
In the short story titled Nalayani, Karunanidhi writes how Nalayani carries her leper husband on a basket to a harlot’s house for his sexual pleasure. To the outside world, she is hailed as a chaste woman who would go any extent to fulfil her husband’s desires.
This is how Karunanidhi describes the scene:
Carrying her leper husband on her head in a basket, Nalayini goes, her lovely face laden with sorrow. Wherefore is she bound? Does her husband want to take a holy dip and pray to the Lord? Is she carrying him to satisfy his love of piety? No. No. Then what for? Is he moving from one hermitage to another, using his wife as a vehicle? No. Then where are they bound? This journey is not meant to reach a temple or do obeisance to God! What then? Well! He is journeying to reach a harlot’s house. What for? It is not with the intention of advising her to give up her profession and to turn her mind toward the Lord. That leper’s purpose is not to convert the harlot’s house into a divine place or to preach her about the divinity of the Lord. The sage is going to sleep with the harlot. He doesn’t long to see the triple-eyed Lord. But he is there to allow the meeting of the four eyes and to hug the graceful body.
Later, Nalayani is shown having an affair with Idhaya to whom she exposes her agenda that she took her leper husband to the harlot not because of her devotion towards him but out of disgust.
“Don’t make fun of me, Idhaya! I don’t desire to have fun with a leper. But he calls me to his bed desiring me. My hands tremble even to hug him. This is why I sent him to the harlot’s house. Let him quench his thirst without harming my beauty. That was my plan. Can’t you understand my stratagem. Idhaya?”
“You say that I carried my husband on my head. Correct it. I carried only the basket on my head. He was in the basket. Am I out of my senses to touch a leper with my hands and carry him on my head? I was cautious enough to put him in a basket and then carry him.”
Nalayani laments about not being able to enjoy conjugal bliss and Idhaya is then shown granting to his love affair Nalayani a boon in the next birth that will let her have five husbands.
According to Hindu mythology, Nalayani gets reborn as Draupadi, the wife of Pandavas.
Karunanidhi derogates Draupadi in another story titled “As is in the original”.
In this story, a compositor named Kandasamy works at Vedanthi Press. He is given the task of composing an advertisement for the Maha Kumbabhishakam (consecration ceremony) of the Draupadi Amman Temple. The manager, Velayudham Pillai, instructs Kandasamy to strictly follow the original text provided without making any changes.
However, when Kandasamy is appalled by the actions and character of the person sponsoring the event, Ramanathan Chettiyar. Chettiyar is depicted as an immoral and corrupt individual who has committed various wrongdoings, including rape and theft. This portrayal shocks Kandasamy, and he decides to compose the advertisement exactly as per the original text, exposing Chettiyar’s misdeeds.
When the leaflets are printed and distributed, they lead to chaos and public humiliation for Chettiyar during the consecration ceremony. Swami Yogananda, who was supposed to deliver a lecture at the event, is also embarrassed by the content of the leaflet.
Later, when the manager confronts Kandasamy about the controversial content, Kandasamy defends himself by stating that he merely followed the truth as presented in the original Mahabharata epic.
Here’s how Karunanidhi writes:
“I only followed the original, sir.” “Original! What original? Does the original talk of Panchali’s prostitution?”
“Yes! Of course! The real original is Mahabharata; and not this handwritten piece of paper. In the original Mahabharata, Panchali was wife to five men. She was also in love with Karnan. That is how the epic depicts her. And so as per the epic original instead of writing Panchali swayamvaram I felt it should be composed Panchali prostitution.
“Not only that…. This Chettiyar is ‘Kama’ to the core. That is his life’s original. That is why I composed Kamanadhan Chettiyar.
“The Swami supposed to deliver lecture is a Baktha only in the morning but at night he is a Bhoga cat. I didn’t want to change the original truth and that is why I composed ‘Swami Bogananda.” Am I at fault?” Kandasami laughed like a shower of granites falling on a tin roof.
Taking Sly Jibes At Brahma
Karunanidhi wrote a short story called “Vaazha Mudiyathavargal” which starts with a bunch of youngsters returning from a theatre and discussing about the film titled ‘Thilothama’.
In the Hindu puranas, Thilothama is an apsara who was created by the divine architect Vishwakarma at the behest of Lord Brahma, one of the divine trinity. Narada narrates the story of Thilothama to Pandavas and warns them that their wife Draupadi could become a reason for quarrel among them.
Karuananidhi in the short story uses this name for the film in order to peddle innuendo.
Here’s how Karunanidhi pens the scene in which the youngsters discuss the movie.
“How was Thilothoma da?” asked a twenty four year old.
“Are you asking about the movie or…” drawled a minor. (Karuanidhi writes indicating the sexual appeal of the fictional heroine)
“The film was okay. Direction is fine. I didn’t like the story”, a genius inserted his criticism.
“What sir, you didn’t like the story!” A cinema maniac interspersed.
“Brahma is doing ‘galatta’ sir. ” one sympathized.
“He has taken the mythological story as it is.”
“Brahma…is one of the divine trinity. He created Tilottama. If he loves her, his own daughter, father doing his daughter. Yuck! Absurd!”
“Wait, don’t vomit,” the joking man said and concluded. Like this the moving – scattering – ebbing and waning crowd reviewed Tilothama film reviews.
Other Perverted Stories
Father Having Sex With Daughter
In the same story “Vaazha Mudiyathavargal“, the sexual perversion stoops to a new low where in a poverty-stricken father has sex with his own minor daughter. What is up with these Dravidian Stockists’ fetish for father-daughter relationship?
Here’s how the rest of the story goes.
Chinnachami, a forty-year-old policeman, and his daughter Kanta navigate their way through the throng. They return to their modest home, a spartan police line house, where daily life is a struggle and the weight of Chinnachami’s responsibilities as a single parent is palpable.
Chinnachami is haunted by the memory of his late wife, Chandra, and the hardships that followed her death, including his struggle to remarry due to financial constraints and societal pressures. His daughter Kantha, now grown, faces her own societal pressures as a woman of marriageable age without prospects.
“Kantha is a modest beauty. She is black only. She is like a grapevine with a nice big face and prominent features.” Karunanidhi writes.
He further notes that nobody said they didn’t like Kantha but that it was Chinnachaami who was worried about the marriage expenses.
Karunanidhi writes that Kantha remained a virgin because of this which worried Chinnachaami.
“Chinnachami is a man couldn’t live. Kantha is a woman who couldn’t be kept living by him.“, Karunanidhi writes.
“If a wild part of life is spent in vain? At the age of doing sweet talks and being in joy, what if one is dumb and paralyzed? When you are supposed to play to the pleasures of the love song, what if you become lame? Which woman can bear that pain! There are two tattered mats. Two souls torn apart more than a mat! Father-daughter, a worm in the sand!“, Karuananidhi writes.
As they prepare for bed in their simple home, Chinnachami reflects on the injustices of life, questioning the divine reasoning behind the suffering of the poor.
“Oh damn God! What are they asking? Are they asking for a silk mattress, a coral bed, a paneer bath, almond milk, cow milk? How many young women are sacrificed to the hunger of the rich man’s heart! Human ‘Maha Vishnus’ who turn into Indra and live their lives by throwing away money. Human intellect has become so blunt as to call the images of poverty, with dried up stomach, chest and the senses, as the ‘work of God’., Karuananidhi writes.
Here’s how he describes the thoughts of Chinnachami:
“Chinnachami, little genius!… Don’t do it… you bastard!” A glorious voice came from inside his chest. A minute’s silence. Alas! How much boil in his blood in that one minute! All nerves were shaking. No water on the tongue. Lips are dry. He took his hand slowly. Sweaty palms. Wiping on the dhoti, he placed his hand gently on top of Kantha’s. She moved and lay down panting. “Hey you sinner! Parama Sandala! She is your daughter man! Your daughter. The daughter you gave birth to!,.. Do not do great harm, you fool! You maniac!” Karunanidhi slowly leads the audience to the climax.
The story culminates in a moment of intense emotional and physical connection between the father and daughter.
“Chinnachami’s chest heaved. He licked his dry lips once with his wet tongue and lay speechless. A bit of peace. That silence disappeared in a flash. His wet fingers, trembling with venom, again fell on Kanta’s face. It crawled on her like snails. Kantha’s trembling hand touched those fingers, and it light! It didn’t just light. It compressed slowly. As thunders thundered and lightnings flashed…suddenly a storm broke out and an earthquake occurred and the seas began to shake. Two blood-loving bodies. Chinnachami kicked the lamp by his leg. It pitched down and went off, rolling away, spilling oil onto the floor. The fate caused by that fictitious name of God—the doomed society—the law of that society—the two rascals who unknowingly broke that law—cannot live!”
Voyeurism
In another short story titled “Temptation”, a married couple Chandra and Kumaresh with their child board a train and a stranger lays his eyes on the woman. Karunanidhi writes as if the woman too is interested. He voyeuristically narrates the internal turmoils of the husband. As Chandra goes to sleep, the lustful stranger touches her face to which she immediately repulses. The other passengers attack the stranger and he leaves the train. Meanwhile, Kumaresh, overwhelmed by jealousy, throws Chandra’s child out of the train, believing that he has severed ties with her. However, it is revealed that Chandra was innocent, and her child is left miles away from the train station, leading to a tragic and regretful ending.
Rape
In another story, named The Great Escape, a wealthy mill owner named Ramadurai is murdered by one of his workers, Vittal. Vittal’s motive for the murder is that Ramadurai had raped his wife, Thangam.
Here’s how Karunanidhi pens the rape scene:
Unable to control himself Ramadurai pounced on Thangam. The doors got closed.
She howled for help. “Oh, my parrot green! O, my talking statue! Yield to my temptations, O, my golden dove.” He said in a voice laden with lust. She shivered. “Why should you shiver, my walking golden beetle!” Ramadurai hugged her tight. She released herself and blubbered. She fell at her boss’s feet and wailed, “Let me go chaste.” But he advised: “A dirge in the battlefront, a mourning song in the bed of love are coward’s act, my beauty.”
Thangam couldn’t escape from the clutches of that rhino of a man. Her soft lips, the lips that graced only the lips of her husband, now got pressed by the lustful lips of Ramadurai. She lost her senses. That human beast satiated his lust for her. Thangam sagged.
The clock struck six. The doors opened. Ramadurai pushed a hundred rupee note into her hand. Thangam tore it into pieces and ran away.
A Tamil Maupassant?
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a renowned French writer of the 19th century whose works frequently portrayed the lives of individuals, their fates, and the societal influences surrounding them in a manner characterized by disillusionment and often marked by a pessimistic outlook. Many of his stories revolve around themes of prostitution, adultery, or sexuality in general.
Many in the Tamil literary circle celebrate Karunanidhi as the Tamil Maupassant. Like Karunanidhi, Maupassant too was hostile to religion except that he did not use his pervy pen to write sexually explicit content involving religious themes and epics.
God forbid, should a pen-shaped monument ever be erected along the shores of Chennai in memory of Karunanidhi, one can only imagine the symbolism it would hold.
(With inputs from Project Madurai)
Vallavaraayan is a political writer.
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