On Sanskrit Vs. Tamil

[Guest guest]

Dear Members,

 

First I would like to be clear on my own opinion on this subject. Having

grown up

in TamilNadu, I am more exposed to Tamil that I am to Sanskrit. I always

believed

that Sanskrit and Tamil were two independent languages. The question of

one

having supremacy over other was not frequently raised back home. In most

SV

community, it was assumed that Sanskrit and Tamil are equally important

and there

was no debate about that. when you visit any of the Vishnu temples in

TN, you will

never see any issue raised during the Veda Parayanam or the Divya

Prabhandha

Parayanam.

 

The first time i encountered this debate was during my first few years

in US and

mostly they were from Advaita followers. The Dvaita followers do

acknowledge the

Bengali scriptures.

 

The whole reason for me to post the two reproductions on the defense of

Tamil was

not to substantiate the supremacy of Tamil over Sanskrit, on the

contrary, they were

meant to present the "other side of the story" to those who are not

familiar with the

Tamil history or its culture. AlvArs were not the only ones to compose

hymns in

Tamil. The 63 Nayanmars (many of them from the fouth varna) praised Lord

Shiva

and most of their songs were in centamizh. There were other buddhist

and Jaina works. Fortunately, Sri Nathamuni, Sri Alavandar, Sri Ramanja

and other

acharyas recognized the beauty, essence and importance of 4000 and

incorporated

them into our sampradhaya. This did not happen to other works.

 

I will try to post the opinions of other acharays on this subject.

 

regards,

 

Venkatesh