Mohamul heroine Yamuna’s house in Kumbakonam still a landmark

If a character in Tamil fiction could come close to portrayal of an ideal wife, it is probably Yamuna. She comes alive in the pages of Thi. Janakiraman’s legendary novel Mohamul.

Yamuna is attractive enough to set off men’s infatuation, but that is not all. The author also ensures she is a thinking independent woman who can care for a man like a mother. Apparently the character of Yamuna is based on a woman in flesh and blood, who continued to live many years in a Marathi-style house at Thukkamplayam street in Kumbakonam, described vividly by Jankiraman.

“She is eight years older than I. Well-read and a chiseled beauty. I have an opportunity to interact with her. She has a sharp intellect, deep tranquility and is not overawed by anything and I began to have a respectful adulation of her. Eventually it became love and when she realised it, she smiled at me and left me and married an electrical engineer,” writes Janakiraman in his essay Novel Pirantha Kathai (The birth of the novel Mohamul).

Almost all the characters including inanimate ones are based on real-life. The house where she is believed to have lived still stands on Thukkampalayam street, but a reader of the novel would be disappointed as it has undergone several changes and is now beyond recognition. Emptiness will engulf an admirer of Yamuna in a manner similar to the way in which it curled around Babu, the young protagonist who pines for her.

“There is no need to visit the street if Yamuna’s house is not there. Why did her father buy a house on the street,” writes Janakiraman in the novel, conveying the feeling of Babu.

“Babu looked around the house. How beautifully they are maintaining the house! It looks like a new house. It is actually an old house, bought six months ago,” reads the novel describing how it had achieved inexplicable beauty in the hands of Yamuna.

Writer Indira Parthasarathy, a student of Janakiraman in Town High School in Kumbakonam said he had asked Thija (Janakiraman) about the house and he had said a writer’s character though based on one person, may have several identities depending upon his imagination.

“Janakiraman himself might have heard about it and her story might have inspired him to write it in Swadesamitran,” he said.

Former IAS officer Gnanarajasekaran who made the novel into a film, said the woman who was the inspiration for the character Yamuna lived with her three daughters in the house when he was making the film.

“Writer Karichankunju, the friend of Janakiraman asked whether I was interested in meeting her, I declined because I do not want to disturb the image I had created by reading the novel. Yamuna is a concept,” said Gnana Rajasekaran, former IAS officer and director of the film Mohamul. The film was shot in a Rayar House in Kumbakonam bearing a close resemblance to the house of Yamuna.

In the novel Janakirman says Yamuna’s mother Parvathibhai was a striking beauty. “Even a child will say that Parvathi Bhai is more beautiful. Yamuna is not as beautiful as her mother. She has inherited features of her father in her face. Otherwise she resembles her mother in all aspects,” reads the novel.

Writer Ravi Subramaniam also recalled Karichankunju’s remarks about Yamuna and the house. Rani Thilak, who has compiled a collection of stories on Kumbakonam, also said it was the house where the character lived.

Writer Sukumaran said he had visited the house many years ago. “Swaminatha Athreyan, another friend of Janakiraman, drew a map on a piece of paper so that I could identify the house without any difficulty,” he said.

Kalyanaraman, Principal of the Presidency College and the author of Janakiramam, a collection of articles on Janakiraman and his works, said Janakirmanan’s writings would continue serve as as a historical documents on the socio-cultural aspects of the composite Thanjavur and Thukkampalayam street would be an attractive destination.

Published - December 18, 2024 12:13 am IST