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N. Jha�s and N. S. Rajaram�s The Deciphered Indus Script

 

 

Vedic Roots of Early Tamil Culture

 

 

Summarized versions of this paper were presented at the Naimisha Vedic Workshop,

“Looking beyond the Aryan Invasion,†organized by Naimisha Foundation at

Bangalore on March 12-13, 2001, and at the National Seminar on Origins of United

Vedic Culture organized by Pragna Bharati and sponsored by the Indian Council of

Historical Research at Hyderabad on March 17-18, 2001. [*]

 

 

 

 

 

In recent years attempts have been made to cast a new look at ancient India. For

too long the picture has been distorted by myopic colonial readings of India�s

prehistory and early history, and more recently by ill-suited Marxist models.

One such distortion was the Aryan invasion theory, now definitively on its way

out, although its watered-down avatars are still struggling to survive. It will

no doubt take some more time�and much more effort on the archaeological

front�for a new perspective of the earliest civilization in the North of the

subcontinent to take firm shape, but a beginning has been made.

 

We have a peculiar situation too as regards Southern India, and particularly

Tamil Nadu. Take any classic account of Indian history and you will see how

little space the South gets in comparison with the North. While rightly

complaining that �Hitherto most historians of ancient India have written as if

the south did not exist,�[ 1]Vincent Smith in his Oxford History of India

hardly devotes a few pages to civilization in the South, that too with the usual

stereotypes to which I will return shortly. R.�C. Majumdar�s Advanced

History of India,[2] or A.�L. Basham�s The Wonder That Was India[3] are

hardly better in that respect. The first serious History of South India,[4] that

of K.�A. Nilakanta Sastri, appeared only in 1947. Even recent surveys of

Indian archaeology generally give the South a rather cursory treatment.

 

The Context

It is a fact that archaeology in the South has so far unearthed little that can

compare to findings in the North in terms of ancientness, massiveness or

sophistication�: the emergence of urban civilization in Tamil Nadu is now

fixed at the second or third century BC, about two and a half millennia after

the appearance of Indus cities. Moreover, we do not have any fully or largely

excavated city or even medium-sized town�: Madurai, the ancient capital of the

Pandya kingdom, has hardly been explored at all�; Uraiyur, that of the early

Cholas, saw a dozen trenches�;[5] Kanchipuram, the Pallavas� capital, had

seventeen, and Karur, that of the Cheras, hardly more�; Kaveripattinam,[6]

part of the famous ancient city of Puhar (the first setting of the

Shilappadikaram epic), saw more widespread excavations, yet limited with regard

to the potential the site offers. The same may be said of Arikamedu (just south

of Pondicherry), despite excavations by

Jouveau-Dubreuil, Wheeler, and several other teams right up to the 1990s.[7]

 

All in all, the archaeological record scarcely measures up to what emerges from

the Indo-Gangetic plains�which is one reason why awareness of these

excavations has hardly reached the general public, even in Tamil Nadu�; it has

heard more about the still superficial exploration of submerged Poompuhar than

about the painstaking work done in recent decades at dozens of sites. (See a map

of Tamil Nadu�s important archaeological sites below.)

 

But there is a second reason for this poor awareness�: scholars and

politicians drawing inspiration from the Dravidian movement launched by E.�V.

Ramaswamy Naicker (�Periyar�) have very rigid ideas about the ancient

history of Tamil Nadu. First, despite all evidence to the contrary, they still

insist on the Aryan invasion theory in its most violent version, turning most

North Indians and upper-caste Indians into descendants of the invading Aryans

who overran the indigenous Dravidians, and Sanskrit into a deadly rival of

Tamil. Consequently, they assert that Tamil is more ancient than Sanskrit, and

civilization in the South older than in the North. Thus recently, Tamil Nadu�s

Education minister decried in the State Assembly those who go �to the extent

of saying that Dravidian civilization is part of Hinduism� and declared,

�The Dravidian civilization is older than the Aryan.�[8] It is not uncommon

to hear even good Tamil scholars utter

such claims.

 

Now, it so happens that archaeological findings in Tamil Nadu, though scanty,

are nevertheless decisive. Indeed, we now have a broad convergence between

literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence.[9] Thus names of cities, kings

and chieftains mentioned in Sangam literature have often been confirmed by

inscriptions and coins dating back to the second and third centuries BC.

Kautilya speaks in his Arthashastra (c. fourth century BC) of the �easily

travelled southern land route,� with diamonds, precious stones and pearls from

the Pandya country�;[10] two Ashokan rock edicts (II and XIII[11])

respectfully refer to Chola, Pandya and Chera kingdoms as �neighbours,�

therefore placing them firmly in the third century BC�; we also have

Kharavela�s cave inscription near Bhubaneswar in which the Kalinga king (c.

150 BC) boasts of having broken up a �confederacy of the Dravida countries

which had lasted for 113 years.�[12] From all these, it

appears that the earliest Tamil kingdoms must have been established around the

fourth century BC�; again, archaeological findings date urban developments a

century or two later, but this small gap will likely be filled by more extensive

excavations. But there�s the rub�: beyond the fourth century BC and back to

700 or 1000 BC, all we find is a megalithic period, and going still further

back, a neolithic period starting from about the third millennium BC. While

those two prehistoric periods are as important as they are enigmatic, they show

little sign of a complex culture,[*] and no clear connection with the dawn of

urban civilization in the South.

 

Therefore the good minister�s assertion as to the greater ancientness of the

�Dravidian civilization� finds no support on the ground. In order to test

his second assertion that that civilization is outside Hinduism, or the common

claim that so-called �Dravidian culture� is wholly separate from so-called

�Aryan� culture, let us take an unbiased look at the cultural backdrop of

early Tamil society and try to make out some of its mainstays. That is what I

propose to do briefly, using not only literary evidence, but first, material

evidence from archaeological and numismatic sources as regards the dawn of the

Sangam age. I may add that I have left out the Buddhist and Jain elements,

already sufficiently well known, to concentrate on the Vedic and Puranic ones,

which are usually underemphasized. Also, I will not deal here with the origin of

South Indian people and languages, or with the nature of the process often

called �Aryanization of the

South� (I prefer the word �Indianization,� used in this context by an

archaeologist[13]). Those complex questions have been debated for decades, and

will only reach firm conclusions, I believe, with ampler archaeological

evidence.

 

 

 

 

Map of some settlements of archelogical importance in Tamil Nadu

 

 

 

Vedic & Puranic Culture�Material Evidence

Culturally, the megalithic people of the South shared many beliefs and practices

with megalithic builders elsewhere in the subcontinent and beyond. Yet certain

practices and artefacts were at least compatible with the Vedic world and may

well have prepared for a ready acceptance of Vedic concepts�a natural

assimilative process still observable in what has been called the

�Hinduization� of tribals. Thus several cists surrounded by stone-circles

have four vertical slabs arranged in the shape of a swastika.[14] The famous 3.5

metre-high figure of Mottur (in North Arcot district), carved out of a granite

slab, is �perhaps the first anthropomorphic representation of a god in stone

in Tamil Nadu.�[15] Some megalithic burials have yielded iron or bronze

objects such as mother goddess, horned masks, the trishul etc. As the

archaeologist I.�K. Sarma observes, such objects are

 

intimately connected with the worship of brahmanical Gods of the historical

period, such as Siva, Kartikeya and later Amba. The diadems of Adichanallur

burials are like the mouth-pieces used by the devotees of Murugan.[ 16]

 

The archaeologist K.�V. Raman also notes�:

 

Some form of Mother-Goddess worship was prevalent in the Megalithic period ...

as suggested by the discovery of a small copper image of a Goddess in the

urn-burials of Adichchanallur. More recently, in Megalithic burials the

headstone, shaped like the seated Mother, has been located at two places in

Tamil Nadu.[17]

 

Megalithic culture attached great importance to the cult of the dead and

ancestors, which parallels that in Vedic culture. It is also likely that certain

gods later absorbed into the Hindu pantheon, such as Aiyanar (or Sastha),

Murugan (the later Kartik), Korravai (Durga), Naga deities, etc., were

originally tribal gods of that period. Though probably of later date, certain

megalithic sites in the Nilgiris were actually dolmen shrines, some of them

holding Ganesh-like images, others lingams.[ 18] Megalithic practices evocative

of later Hinduism are thus summarized by the British archaeologists Bridget and

Raymond Allchin�:

 

The orientation of port-holes and entrances on the cist graves is frequently

towards the south. ... This demands comparison with later Indian tradition where

south is the quarter of Yama. Among the grave goods, iron is almost universal,

and the occasional iron spears and tridents (trisulas) suggest an association

with the god Siva. The discovery in one grave of a trident with a wrought-iron

buffalo fixed to the shaft is likewise suggestive, for the buffalo is also

associated with Yama, and the buffalo demon was slain by the goddess Durga,

consort of Siva, with a trident. ... The picture which we obtain from this

evidence, slight as it is, is suggestive of some form of worship of Siva.[ 19]

 

About the third century BC, cities and towns appear owing to yet little

understood factors�; exchanges with the Mauryan and Roman empires seem to have

played an important catalytic role, as also the advent of iron. From the very

beginning, Buddhist, Jain and Hindu[*] streaks are all clear.

 

Among the earliest evidences, a stratigraphic dig by I.�K. Sarma within the

garbagriha of the Parasuramesvara temple at Gudimallam,[*] brought to light the

foundation of a remarkable Shivalingam of the Mauryan period (possibly third

century BC)�: it was fixed within two circular pithas at the centre of a

square vastu-mandala. �The deity on the frontal face of the tall linga reveals

himself as a proto-puranic Agni-Rudra�[20] standing on a kneeling devayana. If

this early date, which Sarma established on stratigraphic grounds and from

pottery sherds, is correct, this fearsome image could well be the earliest such

representation in the South.

 

Then we find �terracotta figures like Mother Goddess, Naga-linga etc., from

Tirukkampuliyur�; a seated Ganesa from Alagarai�; Vriskshadevata and Mother

Goddess from Kaveripakkam and Kanchipuram, in almost certainly a pre-Pallava

sequence.�[21] Cult of a Mother goddess is also noticed in the early levels at

Uraiyur,[22] and at Kaveripattinam, Kanchipuram and Arikamedu.[ 23] Excavations

at Kaveripattinam have brought to light many Buddhist artefacts, but also,

though of later date, a few figurines of Yakshas, of Garuda and Ganesh.[24]

Evidence of the Yaksha cult also comes from pottery inscriptions at

Arikamedu.[25]

 

The same site also yielded one square copper coin of the early Cholas, depicting

on the obverse an elephant, a ritual umbrella, the Srivatsa symbol, and the

front portion of a horse.[ 26] This is in fact an important theme which recurs

on many coins of the Sangam age[27] recovered mostly from river beds near Karur,

Madurai etc. Besides the Srivatsa (also found among artefacts at

Kanchipuram[28]), many coins depict a swastika, a trishul, a conch, a

shadarachakra, a damaru, a crescent moon, and a sun with four, eight or twelve

rays. Quite a few coins clearly show a yagnakunda. That is mostly the case with

the Pandyas� coins, some of which also portray a yubastambha to which a horse

is tied as part of the ashvamedha sacrifice. As the numismatist

R.�Krishnamurthy puts it, �The importance of Pandya coins of Vedic sacrifice

series lies in the fact that these coins corroborate what we know from Sangam

literature about the performance of Vedic sacrifices

by a Pandya king of this age.�[29]

 

Finally, it is remarkable how a single coin often depicts symbols normally

associated with Lord Vishnu (the conch, the srivatsa, the chakra) together with

symbols normally associated with Lord Shiva (the trishul, the crescent moon, the

damaru).[30] Clearly, the two �sects��a very clumsy word�got along well

enough. Interestingly, other symbols depicted on these coins, such as the three-

or six-arched hill, the tree-in-railing, and the ritual stand in front of a

horse, are frequently found in Mauryan iconography.[31]

 

All in all, the material evidence, though still meagre, makes it clear that

Hindu concepts and cults were already integrated in the society of the early

historic period of Tamil Nadu side by side with Buddhist and Jain elements. More

excavations, for which there is great scope, are certain to confirm this,

especially if they concentrate on ancient places of worship, as at Gudimallam.

Let us now see the picture we get from Sangam literature.

 

Vedic & Puranic Culture�Literary Evidence

It is unfortunate that the most ancient Sangam compositions are probably lost

for ever�; we only know of them through brief quotations in later works. An

early text, the Tamil grammar Tolkappiyam, dated by most scholars to the first

or second century AD,[*] is �said to have been modelled on the Sanskrit

grammar of the Aindra school.�[32] Its content, says N. Raghunathan, shows

that �the great literature of Sanskrit and the work of its grammarians and

rhetoricians were well known and provided stimulus to creative writers in

Tamil.... The Tolkappiyam adopts the entire Rasa theory as worked out in the

Natya Sastra of Bharata.�[33] It also refers to rituals and customs coming

from the �Aryans,� a word which in Sangam literature simply means North

Indians of Vedic culture�; for instance, the Tolkappiyam �states definitely

that marriage as a sacrament attended with ritual was established in the Tamil

country by the Aryas,�[ 34] and it uses

the same eight forms of marriage found in the Dharmashastras. Moreover, it

mentions the caste system or �fourfold jathis� in the form of �Brahmins,

Kings, Vaishyas and Vellalas,�[35] and calls Vedic mantras �the exalted

expression of great sages.�[36]

 

The Tolkappiyam also formulates the captivating division of the Tamil land into

five regions (tinai�), each associated with one particular aspect of love, one

poetical expression, and also one deity�: thus the hills (kuri�ji�) with

union and with Cheyon (Murugan)�; the desert (palai�) with separation and

Korravai (Durga)�; the forests (mullai�) with awaiting and Mayon

(Vishnu-Krishna)�; the seashore (neytal�) with wailing and Varuna�; and

the cultivated lands (marutam) with quarrel and Ventan (Indra). Thus from the

beginning we have a fusion of non-Vedic deities (Murugan or Korravai), Vedic

gods (Indra, Varuna) and later Puranic deities such as Vishnu (Mal or Tirumal).

Such a synthesis is quite typical of the Hindu temperament and cannot be the

result of an overnight or superficial influence�; it is also as remote as

possible from the separateness we are told is at the root of so-called

�Dravidian culture.�

 

Expectedly, this fusion grows by leaps and bounds in classical Sangam poetry

whose composers were Brahmins, princes, merchants, farmers, including a number

of women. The �Eight Anthologies� of poetry (or ettuttokai�) abound in

references to many gods�: Shiva, Uma, Murugan, Vishnu, Lakshmi (named Tiru,

which corresponds to Sri) and several other Saktis.[37] The Paripadal, one of

those anthologies, consists almost entirely of devotional poetry to Vishnu. One

poem[38] begins with a homage to him and Lakshmi, and goes on to praise Garuda,

Shiva on his �majestic bull,� the four-faced Brahma, the twelve Adityas, the

Ashwins, the Rudras, the Saptarishis, Indra with his �dreaded thunderbolt,�

the devas and asuras, etc., and makes glowing references to the Vedas and Vedic

scholars.[39] So does the Purananuru,[40] another of the eight anthologies,

which in addition sees Lord Shiva as the source of the four Vedas (166) and

describes Lord Vishnu as

�blue-hued� (174) and �Garuda-bannered� (56).[41] Similarly, a poem

(360) of a third anthology, the Akananuru, declares that Shiva and Vishnu are

the greatest of gods[42]

 

Not only deities or scriptures, landmarks sacred in the North, such as the

Himalayas or Ganga, also become objects of great veneration in Tamil poetry.

North Indian cities are referred to, such as Ujjain, or Mathura after which

Madurai was named. Court poets proudly claim that the Chera kings conquered

North Indian kingdoms and carved their emblem onto the Himalayas. They clearly

saw the subcontinent as one entity�; thus the Purananuru says they ruled over

�the whole land / With regions of hills, mountains, / Forests and inhabited

lands / Having the Southern Kumari / And the great Northern Mount / And the

Eastern and Western seas / As their borders....�[43]

 

The Kural (second to seventh century AD), authored by the celebrated

Tiruvalluvar, is often described as an �atheistic� text, a hasty

misconception. True, Valluvar�s 1,330 pithy aphorisms mostly deal with ethics

(aram), polity (porul) and love (inbam), following the traditional Sanskritic

pattern of the four objects of human life�: dharma, artha, kama, and

moksha�the last implied rather than explicit. Still, the very first decade is

an invocation to Bhagavan�: �The ocean of births can be crossed by those who

clasp God�s feet, and none else�[44] (10)�; the same idea recurs later,

for instance in this profound thought�: �Cling to the One who clings to

nothing�; and so clinging, cease to cling� (350). The Kural also refers to

Indra (25), to Vishnu�s avatar of Vamana (610), and to Lakshmi (e.g. 167),

asserting that she will shower her grace only on those who follow the path of

dharma (179, 920). There is nothing very atheistic

in all this, and in reality the values of the Kural are perfectly in tune with

those found in several shastras or in the Gita.[45]

 

Let us briefly turn to the famous Tamil epic Shilappadikaram (second to sixth

century ad), which relates the beautiful and tragic story of Kannagi and

Kovalan�; it opens with invocations to Chandra, Surya, and Indra, all of them

Vedic Gods, and frequently praises Agni, Varuna, Shiva, Subrahmanya,

Vishnu-Krishna, Uma, Kali, Yama and so forth. There are mentions of the four

Vedas and of �Vedic sacrifices being faultlessly performed.� �In more than

one place,� writes V. Ramachandra Dikshitar, the first translator of the epic

into English, �there are references to Vedic Brahmans, their fire rites, and

their chanting of the Vedic hymns. The Brahman received much respect from the

king and was often given gifts of wealth and cattle.�[46] When Kovalan and

Kannagi are married, they �walk around the holy fire,� a typically Vedic

rite still at the centre of the Hindu wedding. Welcomed by a tribe of fierce

hunters on their way to Madurai, they

witness a striking apparition of Durga, who is addressed equally as Lakshmi and

Sarasvati�the three Shaktis of the Hindu trinity. There are numerous

references to legends from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Puranas. After

worshipping at two temples, one of Vishnu and the other of Shiva, the Chera king

Shenguttuvan goes to the Himalayas in search of a stone for Kannagi�s idol,

and bathes it in the Ganges�in fact, the waters of Ganga and those of Cauvery

were said to be equally sacred. Similar examples could be given from the

Manimekhalai�: even though it is a predominantly Buddhist work, it also

mentions many Vedic and Puranic gods, and attributes the submergence of Puhar to

the neglect of a festival to Indra.

 

As the archaeologist and epigraphist R. Nagaswamy remarks, �The fact that the

literature of the Sangam age refers more to Vedic sacrifices than to temples is

a pointer to the popularity of the Vedic cults among the Sangam Tamils.�[47]

 

I should also make a mention of the tradition that regards Agastya, the great

Vedic Rishi, as the originator of the Tamil language. He is said to have written

a Tamil grammar, Agattiyam, to have presided over the first two Sangams, and is

even now honoured in many temples of Tamil Nadu and worshipped in many homes.

One of his traditional names is �Tamil muni.� The Shilappadikaram refers to

him as �the great sage of the Podiyil hill,� and a hill is still today named

after him at the southernmost tip of the Western Ghats.

 

It would be tempting to continue with this enumeration, which could easily fill

a whole anthology. As a matter of fact, P. S. Subrahmanya Sastri showed with a

wealth of examples how �a knowledge of Sanskrit literature from the Vedic

period to the Classical period is essential to understand and appreciate a large

number of passages scattered among the poems of Tamil literature.�[48] Others

have added to the long list of such examples.[ 49] In other words, Vedic and

Puranic themes are inextricably woven into Sangam literature and therefore into

the most ancient culture of the Tamil land known to us.

 

Historical Period

The historical period naturally takes us to the great Pallava, Chola and Pandya

temples and to an overflowing of devotional literature by the Alwars, the

Nayanmars and other seekers of the Divine who wandered over the length and

breadth of the Tamil land, filling it with bhakti. But here let us just take a

look at the rulers. An inscription records that a Pandya king led the elephant

force in the Mahabharata War on behalf of the Pandavas, and that early Pandyas

translated the epic into Tamil.[50] The first named Chera king, Udiyanjeral, is

said to have sumptuously fed the armies on both sides during the War at

Kurukshetra�; Chola and Pandya kings also voiced such claims�of course they

may be devoid of historical basis, but they show how those kings sought to

enhance their glory by connecting their lineage to heroes of the Mahabharata. So

too, Chola and Chera kings proudly claimed descent from Lord Rama or from kings

of the Lunar dynasty�in other

words, an �Aryan� descent.

 

As regards religious practices, the greatest Chola king, Karikala, was a patron

of both the Vedic religion and Tamil literature, while the Pandya king

Nedunjelyan performed many Vedic sacrifices, and the dynasty of the Pallavas

made their capital Kanchi into a great centre of Sanskrit learning and culture.

K.�V. Raman summarizes the �religious inheritance of the Pandyas� in these

words�:

 

The Pandyan kings were great champions of the Vedic religion from very early

times.... According to the Sinnamanur plates, one of the early Pandyan kings

performed a thousand velvi or yagas Vedic sacrifices.... Though the majority of

the Pandyan kings were Saivites, they extended equal patronage to the other

faiths ... and included invocatory verses to the Hindu Trinity uniformly in all

their copper-plate grants. The Pandyas patronised all the six systems or schools

of Hinduism.... Their religion was not one of narrow sectarian nature but

broad-based with Vedic roots. They were free from linguistic or regional bias

and took pride in saying that they considered Tamil and Sanskritic studies as

complementary and equally valuable.[51]

 

This pluralism can already be seen in the two epics Shilappadikaram and

Manimekhalai, which amply testify that what we call today Hinduism, Jainism and

Buddhism coexisted harmoniously. �The sectarian spirit was totally

absent,�[52] writes Ramachandra Dikshitar. �Either the people did not look

upon religious distinctions seriously, or there were no fundamental differences

between one sect and another.�[53]

 

That is also a reason why I have not stressed Buddhism and Jainism here. Those

two faiths were no doubt significant in the early stages of Tamil society, but

not as dominant as certain scholars insist upon in an attempt to eclipse the

Vedic and Puranic elements. Buddhism and Jainism did contribute greatly in terms

of religious thought, art and science, but faded centuries later under the flood

of Hindu bhakti�; their insistence on world-shunning monasticism also did not

agree very well with the Tamil temperament, its cult of heroism and its zest for

life.

 

In any case, this superficial glance at Sangam literature makes it clear at the

very least that, in the words of John R. Marr, �these poems show that the

synthesis between Tamil culture and what may loosely be termed Aryan culture was

already far advanced.[ 54] Nilakanta Sastri goes a step further and opines,

�There does not exist a single line of Tamil literature written before the

Tamils came into contact with, and let us add accepted with genuine

appreciation, the Indo-Aryan culture of North Indian origin.�[55]

 

The Myth of Dravidian Culture

And yet, such statements do not go deep enough, as they still imply a

North-South contrast and an unknown Dravidian substratum over which the layer of

�Aryan� culture was deposited. This view is only milder than that of the

proponents of a �separate� and �secular� Dravidian culture, who insist

on a physical and cultural Aryan-Dravidian clash as a result of which the pure

�Dravidian� culture got swamped. As we have seen, archaeology, literature

and Tamil tradition all fail to come up with the slightest hint of such a

conflict. Rather, as far as the eye can see into the past there is every sign of

a deep cultural interaction between North and South, which blossomed not through

any �imposition� but in a natural and peaceful manner, as everywhere else in

the subcontinent and beyond.

 

As regards an imaginary Dravidian �secularism� (another quite inept word to

use in the Indian context), it has been posited by many scholars�: Marr,[56]

Zvelebil[57] and others characterize Sangam poetry as �secular� and

�pre-Aryan�[58] after severing its heroic or love themes from its strong

spiritual undercurrents, in a feat typical of Western scholarship whose scrutiny

always depends more on the magnifying glass than on the wide-angle lens. A far

more insightful view comes from the historian M.�G.�S. Narayanan, who finds

in Sangam literature �no trace of another, indigenous, culture other than what

may be designated as tribal and primitive.�[ 59] He concludes�:

 

The Aryan-Dravidian or Aryan-Tamil dichotomy envisaged by some scholars may have

to be given up since we are unable to come across anything which could be

designated as purely Aryan or purely Dravidian in the character of South India

of the Sangam Age. In view of this, the Sangam culture has to be looked upon as

expressing in a local idiom all the essential features of classical �Hindu�

culture.[ 60]

 

However, it is not as if the Tamil land passively received this culture�: in

exchange it generously gave elements from its own rich temperament and spirit.

In fact, all four Southern States massively added to every genre of Sanskrit

literature, not to speak of the signal contributions of a Shankara, a Ramanuja

or a Madhwa. Cultural kinship does not mean that there is nothing distinctive

about South Indian tradition�; the Tamil land can justly be proud of its

ancient language, culture and genius, which have a strong stamp and character of

their own, as anyone who browses through Sangam texts can immediately see�:

for all the mentions of gods, more often than not they just provide a

backdrop�; what occupies the mind of the poets is the human side, its heroism

or delicate emotions, its bouncy vitality, refined sensualism or its sweet love

of Nature. �Vivid pictures of full-blooded life exhibiting itself in all its

varied moods,� as Raghunathan

puts it. �One cannot but be impressed by the extraordinary vitality, variety

and richness of the poetic achievement of the old Tamil.�[61] Ganapathy

Subbiah adds, �The aesthetic quality of many of the poems is breathtakingly

refined.�[62] It is true also that the Tamil language developed its own

literature along certain independent lines�; conventions of poetry, for

instance, are strikingly original and more often than not different from those

of Sanskrit literature.

 

More importantly, many scholars suggest that �the bhakti movement began in the

Tamil country and later spread to North India.�[63] Subbiah, in a profound

study, not only challenges the misconceived �secular� portrayal of the

Sangam texts, but also the attribution of the Tamil bhakti to a northern

origin�; rather, he suggests, it was distinctly a creation of Tamil culture,

and Sangam literature �a reflection of the religious culture of the

Tamils.�[64]

 

As regards the fundamental contributions of the South to temple architecture,

music, dance and to the spread of Hindu culture to other South Asian countries,

they are too well known to be repeated here. Besides, the region played a

crucial role in preserving many important Sanskrit texts (a few Vedic

recensions, Bhasa�s dramas, the Arthashastra for instance) better than the

North was able to do, and even today some of India�s best Vedic scholars are

found in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.[*] As Swami Vivekananda put it, �The South had

been the repository of Vedic learning.�[65]

 

In other words, what is loosely called Hinduism would not be what it is without

the South. To use the proverbial but apt image, the outflow from the Tamil land

was a major tributary to the great river of Indian culture.

 

Conclusion

It should now be crystal clear that anyone claiming a �separate,�

�pre-Aryan� or �secular� Dravidian culture has no evidence to show for

it, except his own ignorance of archaeology, numismatics and ancient Tamil

literature. Not only was there never such a culture, there is in fact no meaning

in the word �Dravidian� except either in the old geographical sense or in

the modern linguistic sense�; racial and cultural meanings are as unscientific

as they are irrational, although some scholars in India remain obstinately

rooted in a colonial mindset.

 

The simple reality is that every region of India has developed according to its

own genius, creating in its own bent, but while remaining faithful to the

central Indian spirit. The Tamil land was certainly one of the most creative,

and we must hope to see more of its generosity once warped notions about its

ancient culture are out of the way.

 

References

* I am grateful to Dr. K.�V. Raman (also to Drs. Iravatham Mahadevan, K.�V.

Ramesh and S. Kalyanaraman) for kindly suggesting some of the sources I have

used, and for providing me with important clues ; of course I am solely

responsible for my treatment of them and the conclusions I suggest. May I add

that this admittedly incomplete overview is aimed mostly at the educated

non-specialist Indian public, and that I am myself a student of India, not a

scholar.

(In this Web version, I have removed here all diacritical marks to avoid

confusions; they will be restored in the published version.)

* I use the word �culture� in its ordinary meaning, not in the technical

sense used by archaeologists, i.e. the totality of material artefacts of a

particular category of settlement.

[*] The word �Hindu� is as convenient as it is unsatisfactory�; I use it

in a broad sense that encompasses Vedic, Epic, Puranic culture, but without

being exclusive of Buddhist or Jain faiths.

* In the district of Chittoor (A.P.) near the present Tamil Nadu border�; this

area was then regarded as part of Tamilaga (which extended as far north as

present-day Tirupati).

* Sangam texts are notoriously hard to date and there is among scholars nearly

as much divergence of views as with Sanskrit texts. Thus some date the

Tolkappiyam as late as the fifth or sixth century AD.

* I dare say that many more ancient texts remain to be discovered among

palm-leaf manuscripts in Tamil Nadu or Kerala (many of which are being

mindlessly lost or destroyed for want of active interest). For instance, I was

once shown in Kerala, among many ancient texts, a thick palm-leaf manuscript of

a Ramayana by ... Vyasa. (Some traditions do mention it, but it has been

regarded as lost.) Post-Independence India has been prodigiously careless in

preserving its cultural heritage.

 

 

[1] The Oxford History of India, 4th ed. revised by Percival Spear (reprinted

Delhi�: OUP, 1974-1998), p.�43.

[2] R.�C. Majumdar, H.�C. Raychaudhuri, Kalikinkar Data, An Advanced History

of India (Madras�: Macmillan, 4th ed. 1978).

[3] A.�L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India (Calcutta�: Rupa, 3rd ed. 1981).

[4] K.�A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India (New Delhi�: OUP, 4th

edition 1975).

[5] K. V. Raman, Excavations at Uraiyur (Tiruchirapalli) 1965-69 (Madras�:

University of Madras, 1988).

[6] K.�V. Soundara Rajan, Kaveripattinam Excavations 1963-73 (New Delhi�:

Archaeological Survey of India, 1994).

[7] See The Ancient Port of Arikamedu�New Excavations and Researches

1989-1992, vol. 1, ed. Vimala Begley (Pondicherry�: �cole Fran�aise

d�Extr�me-Orient, 1996).

[8] As reported in The New Indian Express (Coimbatore edition), 12 April 2000.

The occasion was a debate on �saffronization of the education system,� and

the full first part of the quotation is�: �The RSS has gone to the extent of

saying that Dravidian civilization is part of Hinduism....�

[9] For a good overview of the archaeological picture of ancient South India,

see K.�V. Raman, �Material Culture of South India as Revealed in

Archaeological Excavations,� in The Dawn of Indian Civilization (Up To

c.�600�BC), ed. G.�C. Pande (Delhi�: Centre for Studies in

Civilizations, 1999), p. 531-546.

[10] K.�A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, p. 84.

[11] Uttankita Sanskrit Vidya Aranya Epigraphs vol. II, Prakrit and Sanskrit

Epigraphs 257 BC to 320 AD, ed. K.�G. Krishnan (Mysore�: Uttankita Vidya

Aranya Trust, 1989), p.�16 ff, 42 ff.

[12] Ibid., p. 151 ff.

[13] R. Nagaswamy, Art and Culture of Tamil Nadu (New Delhi�: Sundeep

Prakashan, 1980), p. 23.

[14] B. Narasimhaiah, Neolithic and Megalithic Cultures in Tamil Nadu (Delhi�:

Sundeep Prakashan, 1980), p.�211�; also in Bridget and Raymond Allchin, The

Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan (New Delhi�: Cambridge University

Press, 1996), p. 331.

[15] B. Narasimhaiah, Neolithic and Megalithic Cultures in Tamil Nadu, p. 203.

[16] I.�K. Sarma, Religion in Art and Historical Archaeology of South India

(Madras�: University of Madras, 1987), p.�33.

[17] K.�V. Raman, Sakti Cult in Tamil Nadu�a Historical Perspective (paper

presented at a seminar on Sakti Cult, 9th session of the Indian Art History

Congress at Hyderabad, in November 2000�; in press).

[18] William A. Noble, �Nilgiris Prehistoric Remains� in Blue Mountains, ed.

Paul Hockings (Delhi�: OUP, 1989), p.�116.

[19]Bridget and Raymond Allchin, The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan,

p.339-340.

[20] I.�K. Sarma, Religion in Art and Historical Archaeology of South India,

p. 35.

[21] Ibid. , p. 34.

[22] K.�V. Raman, Excavations at Uraiyur, p.�84.

[23] K.�V. Raman, Sakti Cult in Tamil Nadu.

[24] K.�V. Soundara Rajan, Kaveripattinam Excavations 1963-73, p. 111-112.

[25] Iravatham Mahadevan, �Pottery Inscriptions in Brahmi and Tamil-Brahmi�

in The Ancient Port of Arikamedu, p. 295-296.

[26] K. V. Raman, �A Note on the Square Copper Coin from Arikamedu� in The

Ancient Port of Arikamedu, p. 391-392.

[27] R. Krishnamurthy, Sangam Age Tamil Coins (Chennai�: Garnet Publications,

1997). The following examples are drawn from this book.

[28] K. V. Raman, �Archaeological Excavations in Kanchipuram�, in Tamil

Civilization, vol. 5, N�1 & 2, p.�70-71.

[29] R. Krishnamurthy, Sangam Age Tamil Coins, p. 26.

[30] Ibid., p. 46-47, etc.

[31] Two important studies in this respect are�: Savita Sharma, Early Indian

Symbols (Delhi�: Agam Kala Prakashan, 1990) and H. Sarkar & B.�M. Pande,

Symbols and Graphic Representations in Indian Inscriptions (New Delhi�: Aryan

Books International, 1999).

[32] K.�A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, p. 130.

[33] N. Raghunathan, Six Long Poems from Sanham Tamil (reprint Chennai�:

International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1997), p.�2, 10.

[34] K.�A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, p. 130.

[35] Tolkappiyam Marabus 71, 72, 77, 81, quoted by S. Vaiyapuri Pillai in Life

of Ancient Tamils.

[36] Tolkappiyam,Porul 166, 176, quoted by K.�V. Sarma, �Spread of Vedic

Culture in Ancient South India� in The Adyar Library Bulletin, 1983, 43:1,

p.�5.

[37] K.�V. Raman, Sakti Cult in Tamil Nadu.

[38] Paripadal, 8.

[39] Paripadal, 3, 9, etc..

[40] Purananuru, 2, 93, etc. See also invocatory verse.

[41]The last three references are quoted by K.�V. Sarma in �Spread of Vedic

Culture in Ancient South India,� p. 5 & 8.

[42] Quoted by K.�V. Sarma in �Spread of Vedic Culture in Ancient South

India,� p. 8.

[43] Purananuru, 17 as translated in Tamil Poetry Through the Ages, vol. I,

Ettuttokai�: the Eight Anthologies, ed. Shu Hikosaka and G. John Samuel

(Chennai�: Institute of Asian Studies, 1997), p. 311.

44] Tiruvalluvar, The Kural, translated by P.�S. Sundaram (New Delhi�:

Penguin, 1990), p.�19.

[45] For more details on Tiruvalluvar�s indebtedness to Sanskrit texts, see V.

R. Ramachandra Dikshitar�s study of the Kural, as quoted by P.�T. Srinivasa

Iyengar in History of the Tamils (Madras�: reprinted Asian Educational

Services, 1995), p. 589-595.

[46] V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, Cilappatikaram (Madras�: 1939, reprinted

Chennai�: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1997), p.�57,

[47] R. Nagaswamy, Art and Culture of Tamil Nadu, p. 7.

[48] P. S. Subrahmanya Sastri, An Enquiry into the Relationship of Sanskrit and

Tamil (Trivandrum�: University of Travancore, 1946), chapter 3.

[49] See for instance�: K.�A. Nilakanta Sastri, �Sanskrit Elements in

Early Tamil Literature,� in Essays in Indian Art, Religion and Society, ed.

Krishna Mohan Shrimali (New Delhi�: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,

1987)�; K.�V. Sarma, �Spread of Vedic Culture in Ancient South India� in

The Adyar Library Bulletin, 1983, 43:1�; Rangarajan, �Aryan Dravidian Racial

Dispute from the Point of View of Sangam Literature,� in The Aryan Problem,

eds. S.�B. Deo & Suryanath Kamath (Pune�: Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana

Samiti, 1993), p. 81-83.

[50] K. V. Raman, �Religious Inheritance of the Pandyas,� in Sree Meenakshi

Koil Souvenir (Madurai, n.d.), p.�168.

[51] Ibid., p.�168-170.

[52] V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, Cilappatikaram, p.�53.

[53] Ibid., p.�58.

[54] John Ralston Marr, The Eight Anthologies � A Study in Early Tamil

Literature (Madras�: Institute of Asian Studies, 1985), p.�vii.

[55] K.�A. Nilakanta Sastri, �Sanskrit Elements in Early Tamil

Literature,� p. 45 (emphasis mine).

[56] John R. Marr, �The Early Dravidians,� in A Cultural History of India,

ed. A.�L. Basham (Delhi�: OUP, 1983), p.�34.

[57] Kamil Zvelebil, The Smile of Murugan�: On Tamil Literature of South India

(Leiden�: E.�J. Brill, 1973), p.�20, quoted in Ganapathy Subbiah, Roots of

Tamil Religious Thought (Pondicherry�: Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics

and Culture, 1991), p.6.

[58] Ibid.

[59] M.�G.�S. Narayanan, �The Vedic-Puranic-Shastraic Element in Tamil

Sangam Society and Culture,� in Essays in Indian Art, Religion and Society, p.

128.

[60] Ibid., p. 139.

[61] N. Raghunathan, Six Long Poems from Sanham Tamil, p. 32.

[62]Ganapathy Subbiah, Roots of Tamil Religious Thought, p. 5.

[63] N. Subrahmanian, The Tamils�Their History, Culture and

Civilization(Madras� Institute of Asian Studies, 1996), p. 118.

[64] Ganapathy Subbiah, Roots of Tamil Religious Thought, p. 160.

[65] Swami Vivekananda, �Reply to the Madras Address,� The Complete Works of

Swami Vivekananda (Advaita Ashrama, 1948), p. 278.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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