The writer Pankayamanalan’s childhood, which was inseparable from his life, and his growth were intertwined with the Tamil identity. He had a deep attachment, devotion, and belief in the traditions, heritage, love, and moral values of the Tamil people. His involvement and research in Tamil language, arts, poetry, history, and literature began the moment he landed in London in 1974.
Specifically, his professional field as a construction engineer and the related fieldwork, training, and curriculum gave him difficult experiences. At the same time, these experiences profoundly and fiercely propelled his morals. Certain field experiences that shook the author’s identity led him into deep and extensive research, compelling him to seek documented evidence about the richness of his mother tongue, the classical Tamil language, and the historical heritage of his ancestors.
Parallel to the writer’s search for literary evidence of his ancestors’ great scholarly and worldly knowledge, his spiritual experiences in the field of civil engineering, involving his continued research and devotion to Geotechnical Engineering, Soil Investigation, Soil Composition, Geological Vibrations and Tremors, Seabed Seismology, Volcanic or Magmatic Rings, and the resulting analyses, supportive reports, research articles, and field trials, transformed into a spiritual experience for him.
More specifically, his research into the literary works of the Sangam period, the great knowledge of the ancient Tamil people in shipbuilding, construction, maritime trade, and leadership, as well as their seafaring skills, the Mukkadal (Three Oceans), the Kumari Kandam (Lost Continent), and their research into islands and countries by the sea, deepened through his engineering work.
More specifically, the poems of Sangam literature poets, the shipbuilding techniques of ancient Tamils, the science related to maritime trade management and leadership, and profound explorations concerning personalities, capabilities, and experience.
Whilst the so calledIntellectuals amongst the Tamil communities, ‘Puththaseevigal’, interpretedand presented the Sangam literature and the records of the poets who composed those poems, as fictions and false narratives, Pulavar Sivanathan continued his searches for an intellectual response to the arguments of those who distorted the history of the Tamils!
At a point when this research was gaining evidence and solidifying, the final poem in his collection, ‘Truth Shall Not Perish’, captured the essence of his ancestor’s research.
It is no exaggeration to say that this book was born from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which brought the world’s attention back to the topic of tsunamis and their severe destruction.
The Tamil scholar, poet, and writer Thanga Kamaraj, who is the director of Akara Muthalithitta, served as the publisher for this book. It was printed by the poet and literary journalist, Thanga Kamaraj of Chennai Chithira Pathippagam and published and the book was launched in Chennai at the Anna Arts Theatre of the Kannimara Library by and infront of a group of prominent Tamil Scholars and activists, under the leadership of Deivaththiru‘Silampoli’Sellappanar, a very well known and popular literary authority in Tamil Nadu.
Later, the book was launched a second time by Thamizhavai, London at the Winston Church Hall in London, with commentaries from Professor Dheeran and others.