Vidyan Ravinthiran

Vidyan Ravinthiran teaches English at Harvard.

Poem: ‘The Annupoorunyamal’

Vidyan Ravinthiran, 3 June 2021

(or Florence C. Robinson)– a scaled-down copy of a‘full rigged New England clipper’;or, ‘a direct descendantof an early19th-century British naval brig’;that Valvai thoni

plied long-knownTamil sea routes; made portfrom Cochin to Vizhakapattinam, Aden to Rangoon;carried rice, spice, tiles and timber(sandalwood, teak),tobacco and dried fish;was purchased, for as much

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