Comments on: Tamil is Part of Indian Heritage

By: Paras Malviya

Paras Malviya — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:47:21 +0000

Good One from Hari and others
I have been in Madras(now called as Chennai) from 1991 to 1995 for my Aero Engineering.
I owe a lot to my Professors for what I am today, few on them have been teacher for their whole life..
I have got one query, may be some one can answer.
The names in Southern India are like seetha, geetha, neetha which we in north spell as seeta, geeta and neeta. Is it because we don’t have the letter “T” in dravidian language, and instead of that we have “TH”.
I still have known some tamil language, as I studied and lived in south for 7 years.
Now I know Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi besides knowing my mother tongue hindi.

One more query…
Have seen the places names like Karnataka, Andhra, Maharashtra have got added “a” in the end, but in local language we pronounced it as Karnatak, Maharashtr (I believe that in West we pronounced it with additional “a”, so south being influenced first by English, have adopted this or its due to some other reason..

I believe all indians should atleast understand prominent languages of india, as this would help him to know the culture better and to connect with every indian immediately.

By: Hari

Hari — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:12:29 +0000

Thank you for the compliments Aruna. Personally I have nothing against Sanskrit or Vedic Hinduism. But there are a lot of aspects of India’s culture that are being sidelined in favor of a “majority” opinion. I am just pointing some of them out.

By: Aruna

Aruna — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:45:12 +0000

Hari,
Your articles are enlightening, Yes many Indians at least the south Indians, forgotten much of their great early literature works in favour of some mythical stories that originated from Sanskrit which is atleast alien to early South Indians.

One more important Tamil word in the first Kural which I missed in my last post is “Bagawan”
The word is actually “Pakavan” is an ancient word to denote the enlightened one or God.
PakAvan=Paka+Avan

Paga means Light/Day/Radience/Heat in Tamil and denotes normally the Sun which enlighten people. (Pakalon, Pakalavan,Pakar,Pakal etc.)

We have “Avan” only in Tamil(Dravidian) meaning A “Person” like in “AandAvan,kanavan,mannavan etc.” .

So “Bagawan” is actually “Pagavan” One who is enlightened or God.

By: Aruna

Aruna — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 06:17:37 +0000

Why many people wants to portray any one language as the mother of all languages? Its not true that Sanskrit is the origin of all languages.
We have other dead languages like Prakrit, Pali which directly influenced the currently spoken languages of India including Tamil.
In-fact Prakrit was widely spoken and the common mans language used in India than Sanskrit. Majority of Ashoka’s edicts found are in Prakrit not in Sanskrit.
The scripts for Sanskrit came well after those of Prakrit.

Tamil(Dravidian) as a spoken language is much older than Sanskrit in India.
Tamil as a written language is much younger than the dead languages like Sankrit, Pali etc.

Tamil has given many words to other Indian languages including Sankrit.

In Tamil we have Similar objects has similar sounding names.
For ex. Paarvai(Visible), Parantha(Spread), Paravai(Flying Bird), Para(Fly), Paranthaman(God who is everywhere), Paar(World), Pari(horse running fast) etc…
In this way its easier to identify/seperate Tamil or Dravidian origin words from Sanskrit or any other languages.

For ex. the first word “AKara” in Thirukural (In Pali “akara” means what which remains after an object disappears) Here in Tamil Thirukkural it means “A Sound(letter) that which is hidden in every words”.
This is a Tamil word with Origin of words like
Kari,Kaar, Karuppu,Karai,karpu(Darkness,Black,Elephant,Black Clouds,Disappears,Melts away, The shore) mostly words which means the invisbility that starts before the visibility.

Another word “Ulaku” often said to be from Sanskrit which is not true.
It came from the word Ullathu (whatever), Akam (Inside) meaning the world what we see.
similar word is KadaUl(Who crossed what we see or who is above ALL)

As the Great Kavi Bhrathi said, Tamil is a sweet language and it retained in itself the majority of words still used by the early South Indians(Dravidians)

By: Hari

Hari — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:41:52 +0000

You have highlighted some very good points and I agree with you completely.

My intention was not necessarily compare the two but to highlight the strong position that Sanskrit has in Indian society and the marginalization of Tamil particularly in our education system.

I am often saddened by the fact that an average Indian today cannot name a single Tamil literary work.

By: Murali

Murali — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:25:46 +0000

It may be worth noting that the Bhakti movement involving Alwars & Nayanmars (Appar, Sundarar, Sambandar) contributed to many works exclusively in Tamil. It is not accurate to represent Shaivism and Vaishnavism as exclusively sankrit-driven.

Similarly many Siddhas and even reknowned poets who lived 1200 years ago created extraordinary works in Tamil.

I’m equally proud of the Sanskrit heritage and excellence achieved by the Tamil. Only those with agendas try to praise one of these at the expense of other.

By: Hari

Hari — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:53:50 +0000

I am happy to know of your connections to India. I am surprised to learn that Mexico has 62 languages.

I hope you visit my site often. Good luck with your project for the next school year.

By: Alma Rosa Lujan Gonzalez

Alma Rosa Lujan Gonzalez — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:46:13 +0000

I think that knowing more about languages and its origins is something special, at least because I am a teacher. I collect special articles that talk about origins and roots;let me tell you that I learnt about Belgium sharing flemish and french; about my own country Mexico and the 62 languages that are officially accepted. My father,Mexican translatorJorge Lujan, worked many years ago at the Embassy of India in Mexico City so he got some brochures from regions and historical links. I was a little child but in thatmoment I knew I loved India; I started reading about geography, religion,languages, history. Congratulations because know I have a friendly link. Thanks a lot,Alma Lujan