Vedic Roots of Early Tamil Culture (from the web)

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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 & #65533;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 & #65533;and much more effort on the archaeological front & #65533;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 & #65533;Hitherto most historians of

ancient India have written as if the south did not exist, & #65533;[ 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. & #65533;C. Majumdar & #65533;s Advanced History of

India,[2] or A. & #65533;L. Basham & #65533;s The Wonder That Was India[3] are

hardly

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

that of K. & #65533;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 & #65533;: 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 & #65533;: Madurai, the ancient capital of the Pandya

kingdom, has hardly been explored at all & #65533;; Uraiyur, that of the early

Cholas, saw a dozen trenches & #65533;;[5] Kanchipuram, the Pallavas & #65533;

capital,

had seventeen, and Karur, that of the Cheras, hardly more & #65533;;

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 & #65533;which is one reason why

awareness of these excavations has hardly reached the general public,

even in Tamil Nadu & #65533;; 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 & #65533;s

important archaeological sites below.)

 

But there is a second reason for this poor awareness & #65533;: scholars and

politicians drawing inspiration from the Dravidian movement launched

by E. & #65533;V. Ramaswamy Naicker ( & #65533;Periyar & #65533;) 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 & #65533;s

Education minister decried in the State Assembly those who go & #65533;to the

extent of saying that Dravidian civilization is part of Hinduism & #65533; and

declared, & #65533;The Dravidian civilization is older than the Aryan. & #65533;[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 & #65533;easily travelled

southern land route, & #65533; with diamonds, precious stones and pearls from

the Pandya country & #65533;;[10] two Ashokan rock edicts (II and XIII[11])

respectfully refer to Chola, Pandya and Chera kingdoms as

& #65533;neighbours, & #65533; therefore placing them firmly in the third century

BC & #65533;;

we also have Kharavela & #65533;s cave inscription near Bhubaneswar in which

the Kalinga king (c. 150 BC) boasts of having broken up a & #65533;confederacy

of the Dravida countries which had lasted for 113 years. & #65533;[12] From all

these, it appears that the earliest Tamil kingdoms must have been

established around the fourth century BC & #65533;; 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 & #65533;s the rub & #65533;: 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 & #65533;s assertion as to the greater ancientness

of the & #65533;Dravidian civilization & #65533; 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 & #65533;Dravidian culture & #65533;

is

wholly separate from so-called & #65533;Aryan & #65533; 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

& #65533;Aryanization of the South & #65533; (I prefer the word

& #65533;Indianization, & #65533; 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 & #65533;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 & #65533;a natural assimilative process still observable in

what has been called the & #65533;Hinduization & #65533; 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 & #65533;perhaps

the first anthropomorphic representation of a god in stone in Tamil

Nadu. & #65533;[15] Some megalithic burials have yielded iron or bronze objects

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

archaeologist I. & #65533;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. & #65533;V. Raman also notes & #65533;:

 

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 & #65533;:

 

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 & #65533;; 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. & #65533;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) & #65533;: it was fixed within two

circular pithas at the centre of a square vastu-mandala. & #65533;The deity on

the frontal face of the tall linga reveals himself as a proto-puranic

Agni-Rudra & #65533;[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 & #65533;terracotta figures like Mother Goddess, Naga-linga etc.,

from Tirukkampuliyur & #65533;; a seated Ganesa from Alagarai & #65533;;

Vriskshadevata

and Mother Goddess from Kaveripakkam and Kanchipuram, in almost

certainly a pre-Pallava sequence. & #65533;[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 & #65533; coins, some of which also portray a yubastambha to which a

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

R. & #65533;Krishnamurthy puts it, & #65533;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. & #65533;[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

& #65533;sects & #65533; & #65533;a very clumsy word & #65533;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 & #65533;Literary Evidence

It is unfortunate that the most ancient Sangam compositions are

probably lost for ever & #65533;; 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 & #65533;said to have

been modelled on the Sanskrit grammar of the Aindra school. & #65533;[32] Its

content, says N. Raghunathan, shows that & #65533;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. & #65533;[33] It also refers to rituals and customs coming

from the & #65533;Aryans, & #65533; a word which in Sangam literature simply means

North Indians of Vedic culture & #65533;; for instance, the Tolkappiyam

& #65533;states

definitely that marriage as a sacrament attended with ritual was

established in the Tamil country by the Aryas, & #65533;[ 34] and it uses the

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

mentions the caste system or & #65533;fourfold jathis & #65533; in the form of

& #65533;Brahmins, Kings, Vaishyas and Vellalas, & #65533;[35] and calls Vedic

mantras

& #65533;the exalted expression of great sages. & #65533;[36]

 

The Tolkappiyam also formulates the captivating division of the Tamil

land into five regions (tinai & #65533;), each associated with one particular

aspect of love, one poetical expression, and also one deity & #65533;: thus the

hills (kuri & #65533;ji & #65533;) with union and with Cheyon (Murugan) & #65533;; the

desert

(palai & #65533;) with separation and Korravai (Durga) & #65533;; the forests

(mullai & #65533;)

with awaiting and Mayon (Vishnu-Krishna) & #65533;; the seashore (neytal & #65533;)

with

wailing and Varuna & #65533;; 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 & #65533;; it is also as remote

as possible from the separateness we are told is at the root of

so-called & #65533;Dravidian culture. & #65533;

 

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 & #65533;Eight Anthologies & #65533; of poetry (or

ettuttokai & #65533;) abound in references to many gods & #65533;: 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 & #65533;majestic bull, & #65533; the four-faced Brahma, the twelve Adityas,

the

Ashwins, the Rudras, the Saptarishis, Indra with his & #65533;dreaded

thunderbolt, & #65533; 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

& #65533;blue-hued & #65533; (174) and & #65533;Garuda-bannered & #65533; (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 & #65533;; thus the Purananuru says they ruled over & #65533;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.... & #65533;[43]

 

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

Tiruvalluvar, is often described as an & #65533;atheistic & #65533; text, a hasty

misconception. True, Valluvar & #65533;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 & #65533;:

dharma, artha, kama, and moksha & #65533;the last implied rather than explicit.

Still, the very first decade is an invocation to Bhagavan & #65533;: & #65533;The

ocean

of births can be crossed by those who clasp God & #65533;s feet, and none

else & #65533;[44] (10) & #65533;; the same idea recurs later, for instance in this

profound thought & #65533;: & #65533;Cling to the One who clings to

nothing & #65533;; and so

clinging, cease to cling & #65533; (350). The Kural also refers to Indra (25),

to Vishnu & #65533;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 & #65533;; 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 & #65533;Vedic sacrifices being

faultlessly performed. & #65533; & #65533;In more than one place, & #65533; writes V.

Ramachandra Dikshitar, the first translator of the epic into English,

& #65533;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. & #65533;[46] When

Kovalan and Kannagi are married, they & #65533;walk around the holy fire, & #65533;

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 & #65533;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 & #65533;s idol, and bathes it in the

Ganges & #65533;in fact, the waters of Ganga and those of Cauvery were said to

be equally sacred. Similar examples could be given from the

Manimekhalai & #65533;: 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, & #65533;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. & #65533;[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 & #65533;Tamil muni. & #65533; The Shilappadikaram refers to him as & #65533;the

great sage

of the Podiyil hill, & #65533; 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 & #65533;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. & #65533;[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 & #65533;; Chola and Pandya kings also voiced such claims & #65533;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 & #65533;in other words, an

& #65533;Aryan & #65533; 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. & #65533;V. Raman summarizes the

& #65533;religious inheritance of the Pandyas & #65533; in these words & #65533;:

 

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. & #65533;The sectarian

spirit was totally absent, & #65533;[52] writes Ramachandra Dikshitar.

& #65533;Either

the people did not look upon religious distinctions seriously, or

there were no fundamental differences between one sect and another. & #65533;[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 & #65533;;

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, & #65533;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, & #65533;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. & #65533;[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 & #65533;Aryan & #65533; culture was deposited. This view is only

milder

than that of the proponents of a & #65533;separate & #65533; and

& #65533;secular & #65533; Dravidian

culture, who insist on a physical and cultural Aryan-Dravidian clash

as a result of which the pure & #65533;Dravidian & #65533; 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

& #65533;imposition & #65533; but in a natural and peaceful manner, as everywhere

else

in the subcontinent and beyond.

 

As regards an imaginary Dravidian & #65533;secularism & #65533; (another quite

inept

word to use in the Indian context), it has been posited by many

scholars & #65533;: Marr,[56] Zvelebil[57] and others characterize Sangam

poetry as & #65533;secular & #65533; and & #65533;pre-Aryan & #65533;[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. & #65533;G. & #65533;S. Narayanan, who finds in

Sangam

literature & #65533;no trace of another, indigenous, culture other than what

may be designated as tribal and primitive. & #65533;[ 59] He concludes & #65533;:

 

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 & #65533;Hindu & #65533; culture.[

60]

 

However, it is not as if the Tamil land passively received this

culture & #65533;: 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 & #65533;; 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 & #65533;: for all the mentions of gods, more often than not

they just provide a backdrop & #65533;; 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. & #65533;Vivid pictures of

full-blooded life exhibiting itself in all its varied moods, & #65533; as

Raghunathan puts it. & #65533;One cannot but be impressed by the extraordinary

vitality, variety and richness of the poetic achievement of the old

Tamil. & #65533;[61] Ganapathy Subbiah adds, & #65533;The aesthetic quality of many

of

the poems is breathtakingly refined. & #65533;[62] It is true also that the

Tamil language developed its own literature along certain independent

lines & #65533;; 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 & #65533;the bhakti movement

began in the Tamil country and later spread to North India. & #65533;[63]

Subbiah, in a profound study, not only challenges the misconceived

& #65533;secular & #65533; portrayal of the Sangam texts, but also the attribution

of

the Tamil bhakti to a northern origin & #65533;; rather, he suggests, it was

distinctly a creation of Tamil culture, and Sangam literature & #65533;a

reflection of the religious culture of the Tamils. & #65533;[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 & #65533;s dramas, the

Arthashastra for instance) better than the North was able to do, and

even today some of India & #65533;s best Vedic scholars are found in Tamil Nadu

and Kerala.[*] As Swami Vivekananda put it, & #65533;The South had been the

repository of Vedic learning. & #65533;[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 & #65533;separate, & #65533;

& #65533;pre-Aryan & #65533; or & #65533;secular & #65533; 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 & #65533;Dravidian & #65533; except either in the old

geographical sense or in the modern linguistic sense & #65533;; 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. & #65533;V. Raman (also to Drs. Iravatham Mahadevan,

K. & #65533;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 & #65533;culture & #65533; 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 & #65533;Hindu & #65533; is as convenient as it is

unsatisfactory & #65533;; 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 & #65533;; 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 & #65533;: OUP, 1974-1998), p. & #65533;43.

[2] R. & #65533;C. Majumdar, H. & #65533;C. Raychaudhuri, Kalikinkar Data, An

Advanced

History of India (Madras & #65533;: Macmillan, 4th ed. 1978).

[3] A. & #65533;L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India (Calcutta & #65533;: Rupa, 3rd

ed.

1981).

[4] K. & #65533;A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India (New Delhi & #65533;:

OUP,

4th edition 1975).

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

(Madras & #65533;: University of Madras, 1988).

[6] K. & #65533;V. Soundara Rajan, Kaveripattinam Excavations 1963-73 (New

Delhi & #65533;: Archaeological Survey of India, 1994).

[7] See The Ancient Port of Arikamedu & #65533;New Excavations and Researches

1989-1992, vol. 1, ed. Vimala Begley (Pondicherry & #65533;: & #65533;cole

Fran & #65533;aise

d & #65533;Extr & #65533;me-Orient, 1996).

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

April 2000. The occasion was a debate on & #65533;saffronization of the

education system, & #65533; and the full first part of the quotation is & #65533;:

& #65533;The

RSS has gone to the extent of saying that Dravidian civilization is

part of Hinduism.... & #65533;

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

India, see K. & #65533;V. Raman, & #65533;Material Culture of South India as

Revealed

in Archaeological Excavations, & #65533; in The Dawn of Indian Civilization (Up

To c. & #65533;600 & #65533;BC), ed. G. & #65533;C. Pande (Delhi & #65533;: Centre for

Studies in

Civilizations, 1999), p. 531-546.

[10] K. & #65533;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. & #65533;G. Krishnan (Mysore & #65533;:

Uttankita Vidya Aranya Trust, 1989), p. & #65533;16 ff, 42 ff.

[12] Ibid., p. 151 ff.

[13] R. Nagaswamy, Art and Culture of Tamil Nadu (New Delhi & #65533;: Sundeep

Prakashan, 1980), p. 23.

[14] B. Narasimhaiah, Neolithic and Megalithic Cultures in Tamil Nadu

(Delhi & #65533;: Sundeep Prakashan, 1980), p. & #65533;211 & #65533;; also in Bridget

and

Raymond Allchin, The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan (New

Delhi & #65533;: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 331.

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

p. 203.

[16] I. & #65533;K. Sarma, Religion in Art and Historical Archaeology of South

India (Madras & #65533;: University of Madras, 1987), p. & #65533;33.

[17] K. & #65533;V. Raman, Sakti Cult in Tamil Nadu & #65533;a Historical

Perspective

(paper presented at a seminar on Sakti Cult, 9th session of the Indian

Art History Congress at Hyderabad, in November 2000 & #65533;; in press).

[18] William A. Noble, & #65533;Nilgiris Prehistoric Remains & #65533; in Blue

Mountains, ed. Paul Hockings (Delhi & #65533;: OUP, 1989), p. & #65533;116.

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

Pakistan, p.339-340.

[20] I. & #65533;K. Sarma, Religion in Art and Historical Archaeology of South

India, p. 35.

[21] Ibid. , p. 34.

[22] K. & #65533;V. Raman, Excavations at Uraiyur, p. & #65533;84.

[23] K. & #65533;V. Raman, Sakti Cult in Tamil Nadu.

[24] K. & #65533;V. Soundara Rajan, Kaveripattinam Excavations 1963-73, p.

111-112.

[25] Iravatham Mahadevan, & #65533;Pottery Inscriptions in Brahmi and

Tamil-Brahmi & #65533; in The Ancient Port of Arikamedu, p. 295-296.

[26] K. V. Raman, & #65533;A Note on the Square Copper Coin from

Arikamedu & #65533; in

The Ancient Port of Arikamedu, p. 391-392.

[27] R. Krishnamurthy, Sangam Age Tamil Coins (Chennai & #65533;: Garnet

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

[28] K. V. Raman, & #65533;Archaeological Excavations in Kanchipuram & #65533;, in

Tamil Civilization, vol. 5, N & #65533;1 & 2, p. & #65533;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 & #65533;: Savita Sharma, Early

Indian Symbols (Delhi & #65533;: Agam Kala Prakashan, 1990) and H. Sarkar &

B. & #65533;M. Pande, Symbols and Graphic Representations in Indian

Inscriptions (New Delhi & #65533;: Aryan Books International, 1999).

[32] K. & #65533;A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, p. 130.

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

Chennai & #65533;: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1997), p. & #65533;2,

10.

[34] K. & #65533;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. & #65533;V. Sarma, & #65533;Spread of

Vedic Culture in Ancient South India & #65533; in The Adyar Library Bulletin,

1983, 43:1, p. & #65533;5.

[37] K. & #65533;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. & #65533;V. Sarma in & #65533;Spread

of

Vedic Culture in Ancient South India, & #65533; p. 5 & 8.

[42] Quoted by K. & #65533;V. Sarma in & #65533;Spread of Vedic Culture in Ancient

South India, & #65533; p. 8.

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

vol. I, Ettuttokai & #65533;: the Eight Anthologies, ed. Shu Hikosaka and G.

John Samuel (Chennai & #65533;: Institute of Asian Studies, 1997), p. 311.

44] Tiruvalluvar, The Kural, translated by P. & #65533;S. Sundaram (New

Delhi & #65533;:

Penguin, 1990), p. & #65533;19.

[45] For more details on Tiruvalluvar & #65533;s indebtedness to Sanskrit

texts, see V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar & #65533;s study of the Kural, as quoted

by P. & #65533;T. Srinivasa Iyengar in History of the Tamils (Madras & #65533;:

reprinted Asian Educational Services, 1995), p. 589-595.

[46] V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, Cilappatikaram (Madras & #65533;: 1939,

reprinted Chennai & #65533;: International Institute of Tamil Studies, 1997),

p. & #65533;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 & #65533;: University of Travancore, 1946),

chapter 3.

[49] See for instance & #65533;: K. & #65533;A. Nilakanta Sastri, & #65533;Sanskrit

Elements in

Early Tamil Literature, & #65533; in Essays in Indian Art, Religion and

Society, ed. Krishna Mohan Shrimali (New Delhi & #65533;: Munshiram Manoharlal

Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1987) & #65533;; K. & #65533;V. Sarma, & #65533;Spread of Vedic

Culture in

Ancient South India & #65533; in The Adyar Library Bulletin, 1983, 43:1 & #65533;;

Rangarajan, & #65533;Aryan Dravidian Racial Dispute from the Point of View of

Sangam Literature, & #65533; in The Aryan Problem, eds. S. & #65533;B. Deo &

Suryanath

Kamath (Pune & #65533;: Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Samiti, 1993), p. 81-83.

[50] K. V. Raman, & #65533;Religious Inheritance of the Pandyas, & #65533; in Sree

Meenakshi Koil Souvenir (Madurai, n.d.), p. & #65533;168.

[51] Ibid., p. & #65533;168-170.

[52] V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, Cilappatikaram, p. & #65533;53.

[53] Ibid., p. & #65533;58.

[54] John Ralston Marr, The Eight Anthologies & #65533; A Study in Early Tamil

Literature (Madras & #65533;: Institute of Asian Studies, 1985), p. & #65533;vii.

[55] K. & #65533;A. Nilakanta Sastri, & #65533;Sanskrit Elements in Early Tamil

Literature, & #65533; p. 45 (emphasis mine).

[56] John R. Marr, & #65533;The Early Dravidians, & #65533; in A Cultural History

of

India, ed. A. & #65533;L. Basham (Delhi & #65533;: OUP, 1983), p. & #65533;34.

[57] Kamil Zvelebil, The Smile of Murugan & #65533;: On Tamil Literature of

South India (Leiden & #65533;: E. & #65533;J. Brill, 1973), p. & #65533;20, quoted in

Ganapathy

Subbiah, Roots of Tamil Religious Thought (Pondicherry & #65533;: Pondicherry

Institute of Linguistics and Culture, 1991), p.6.

[58] Ibid.

[59] M. & #65533;G. & #65533;S. Narayanan, & #65533;The Vedic-Puranic-Shastraic

Element in Tamil

Sangam Society and Culture, & #65533; 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 & #65533;Their History, Culture and

Civilization(Madras & #65533; Institute of Asian Studies, 1996), p. 118.

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

[65] Swami Vivekananda, & #65533;Reply to the Madras Address, & #65533; The

Complete

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