A Journey To Jerusalem by Parumala Thirumeni

A Journey to Jerusalem by Parumala Thirumeni

SYRIAC LANGUAGE
Parumala thirumeni was a good scholar in Syriac language. In those days Syriac was the language used in worship and spiritual renderings. It was worship, which influenced even the spoken language of Parumala thirumeni. The Malayalam prose of Parumala Thirumeni was different from the Malayalam language of his day which was largely influenced by Tamil and sanskrit. His Malayalam was one related to Suyriac. However when he writes Oorslem Yathra Vivaranam, its prose doesn’t evince the shade of Syriac influence. Even the syriac words used in this book were only those which were commonly adopted in malayalam. The prose of Oorslem Yathra Vivaranam is free from the influence of English and Syriac. Parumala thirumeni developed the language used for communication by common people, the language used to communicate to the common man’s heart. Such pure, unadulterated prose style is rare even in the other literary works of the times.

The literary work is distinguished by singular characteristics. which are unknown to the prose of other day. It seems Parumala Thirumeni was familiar with the unique techniques of literary works, like arrangement of ideas, minute presentation of facts, division of material into paragraphs, use of familiar diction and small sentences etc.

TOWER OF LIGHT
He was very careful to use words with clarity of meaning. He described the ‘lighthouse’ as ‘Velichamalika’. Such a beautiful expression cannot be seen even in the twentieth century which witnessed development of Malayalam prose.

In the same way, the usage “Puthen Thee” (New Fire) is also Parumala Thirumeni’s own contribution to language. The fire appears near the Holy Sepulchre. Candles are lit from this fire and given to the faithful. Parumala thirumeni describes it, it seems as though the light comes down from heaven. This is actually the light of other word. There are beautiful descriptions like, “tides like mountains”. this book totally reveals the personalty of ;the author and this lis la unique characteristic of a travelogue.

Parumala thirumeni reached Jerusalem during the Holy Week in 1895.He had the money for meeting his travel expenses and also offering for the Holy place, collected directly from certain churches in Kerala.