image source, Siragan
As painters who mixed their imagination and creativity with reality began to grow into powerful works of art, the value of accurate paintings that drew as they were began to decline.
However, painter Ilayaraja stole the hearts by painting paintings that are full of aesthetic emotions with extreme precision. His paintings revealed that precision painting is a dynamic art form, just like the modern style paintings that emerged by absorbing different styles.
Like this, many painters who are famous for their precise paintings choose a unique field for themselves and emerge with individuality in it. Sivakumar, a painter from Thiruvannamalai, is painting precision paintings in an unusual field.
Having started his career as a commercial painter about 20 years ago as a banner painter, he became an ornithologist at some point inspired by birds and the environment. A painter’s eye for colors, shapes and lines helped him initially to observe and identify birds.
As time went on his knowledge of birds expanded and began to emerge, interspersed with his painting skills.
Kumar started making detailed paintings of birds on Cuddapah stones at the Tiruvannamalai Arunagiri Children’s Park and the adjoining plant farm. He began to use the cracks, pits and rough areas in the Cuddapah stones as parts of the painting. The Cuddapah rock paintings in the jungle environment sometimes gives the illusion that the birds are alive there.
Also, his knowledge of birds continued to widen and deepen. As a result, he contributed significantly to the creation of the English book Tiruvannamalai Birds, published by the Forest Way organization a few years ago. His paintings also decorated that book.
image source, Sivakumar
In this case, a few months ago, the same organization published a comprehensive brochure in Tamil titled ‘Birds of Tiruvannamalai District’. Although this manual is not the first field manual published in Tamil, it is significant for two reasons.
While ornithological field manuals usually carry only photographs of birds, this manual has been published with detailed drawings by Sivakumar and his detailed experiences of local birds. While this handbook is the product of the joint efforts of many environmentalists like Govinda Paule, V. Arun, Sivakumar, Vinod, Harish etc., the prefaces and prefaces given to this book reveal that Sivakumar’s creativity and field experience played a significant role in the creation of this book.
image source, Sivakumar
Until a couple of decades ago, bird watching was seen as a leisure activity for the upper class. On the other hand, people belonging to rural, tribal and laboring communities living close to nature had the knowledge to distinguish different birds. Tamil names for those birds were also in circulation among them.
As urbanization intensified and the middle class began to expand, the number of people with field knowledge about nature and birds began to decline. But a new youth started coming in with a passion for bird watching from the middle class which expanded to include different social strata.
Birdwatching became more than just a leisure activity, but also an outlet for a thirst for knowledge about nature.
The new generation that came to bird watching with a new thirst faced a challenge. Although the traditional knowledge of birds is rooted in the soil communities, Tamil and local names for birds are not in circulation in bird books or among bird watchers and enthusiasts. After this, writing about nature, animals and birds in Tamil, finding and saving Tamil names started to grow as a literary activity.
image source, Sivakumar
Writing about birds in tamil
K. Ratnam, Theodore Bhaskaran, S. Muhammad Ali, P. Jagannathan, Aasa, Coimbatore Sathasivam, many others started to promote environmental writing in Tamil. Especially Ratnam, Jaganathan, Shanmukanandam, Aasi, etc. started retrieving and using the Tamil names of birds.
Ratnam, the oldest among them, is a pioneer in ornithological writing in Tamil. His book ‘Birds of Tamil Nadu’ which was published about 20 years ago won an award from the Tamil Nadu Government.
When the number of ornithological writers in Tamil began to increase, bird names such as Kurugu, Kukkuruvan, Iruvacchi, Uzhavaran, Thakaivilan, Vairi, Ala were written and their circulation spread.
However, there were two elements that often hindered ornithological writing. One is to translate and write, and the other, in writing one’s own, is to accept what is generally accepted as the habits and life cycles of a bird.
But the Tiruvannamalai District Birds Book goes beyond these boundaries.
Local variations
When asked about this, he said, “There is a general definition that a bird will build a nest in June – July. But there is little change in that period when we see those birds locally.
It is commonly documented that a bird will nest with this type of plant vines. But when seen in Tiruvannamalai, the same birds are used to assemble some other types of objects available here. We have recorded such variations in the life of birds in Tiruvannamalai district in this book,” says Sivakumar.
Apart from this, this book has done something else. Bird writers have come across a variety of names while researching Tamil names for each bird. Beyond this, names for birds are somehow standardized in Tamil. As an alternative to such generally standardized names, some birds have interesting names at the local level. This book documents such local-level names and the towns they provide.
The book records that the red wattled lapwing bird is known as the Diditthang sparrow in the village of Kosalai.
Local names
Aggatti or Algatti is the generally accepted Tamil name for this bird as it flies high and makes a warning call if humans or hunters come into a forest. But it is interesting to note that this local name Tittithangaruvi resembles the bird’s warning sound system.
Similarly, the book also documents that a bird of the quill genus, commonly known as sempothu, is known as the Galli Kaka in the town of Akshayyur.
Apart from this, Sivakumar says that only the birds that have been registered as seen in Tiruvannamalai with geo-references on the bird documentation site E-Bird and verified by experts have been included in this manual.
What is the importance of paintings?
When asked how important it is for accurate paintings to be included in a local field guide to birds, he said, “For my accurate paintings, I paint the birds in exactly the same color and scale as they are in whatever color they are. Don’t change or color them to draw attention.
However, in some ways the paintings help in identifying some birds. We have also used photographs in this book because photographs are better in some ways. In this way, not only for the purpose of application, but the aesthetic form of painting helps to not get bored reading a book written in documentary language,” says Sivakumar.
He also says that this field manual has been prepared not only using data from old books and websites but also from locally available data.
“We have not only documented the birds, but also the topographical system where the birds live, the trees, plants, vines, mammals, reptiles, etc. that live on the local level, and we have confirmed and compiled them based on the field experience gained over 10-15 years.
For example, in this book we have documented the importance of wastelands, which are generally seen as waste, and how the wasteland system plays a role as a habitat for certain species of birds, such as jackals,” says Sivakumar.
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