Aryachakravartis were the chiefs who ruled a district in Rameswaram under
Pandyan Kings.
Some Codagangas settled down at Rameswaram and married among the
Sethupathy Brahmins.
Aryachakravartis were of mixed blood belonging to Telugus,Cholas and
Brahmins.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Raveen Satkurunathan" <cjep_sa@yahoo.com>
To: <varalaaRu@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 12:27 AM
Subject: [varalaaRu] Professor George Hart and Sri Lankan Tamils
Professor George Hart who is an expert on Cankam Tamil literature
writes in article titled `Tamil, Brahmins, & Sanskrit:.', "In fact,
the most pernicious example of the caste system was in the Tamil
areas of Sri Lanka, where there are virtually no Brahmins and never
have been".
I am sure that he has not read the history of Sri Lankan Tamils
properly when he wrote the above sentence. We should bring to his
attention that Jaffna Tamil society and its unique culture is the
product of the Jaffna Kingdom forged and maintained by a line of
kings who called themselves as the Arya Chakaravarthis. The first
Arya Chakaravarthi was a Brahmin minister in the service of the
Pandyan kings. The highly Sanskritized society that they forged
placed the Vellalars, a highly Sanskritized Tamil caste at the top
of the caste hierarchy. To say that somehow that a "most pernicious
example of the caste system" (more pernicious than Kerala's ?) was
created in a vacuum is not historically correct. I think his
misinformed sentence does a lot of disservice to the Sri Lankan Tamil
community.
Raveen
-------------------------------------------------
>From a posting by Professor George Hart in 1997 on Tamil, Brahmins, &
Sanskrit: " ....here are some facts:
1. Brahmins are only 2% of the population, yet they have contributed
much more to Tamil literature than their number would indicate.
2. The purest (i.e. least Sanskritized) Tamil was written by the
medieval Saiva Brahmin commentators on Tamil. For example,
Parimelazakar translates the yoga asanas into Tamil, and the only way
anyone can figure out what he is saying is to read the sub commentary
(by Gopalakrishnamachari), who gives the original Sanskrit terms. You
will find no Tamil any purer than that of Naccinarkkiniyar et al.
3. Brahmins have contributed to Tamil from Sangam times. Kapilar is
one of the greatest Tamil poets.
4. Yes, of course Brahmins have had their own political agenda to
push. They have been responsible for many things that I feel are
entirely unconscionable. But is this any different from the other
high castes? I have heard many many stories of high non-Brahmin
castes killing and abusing Dalits. You can't blame the Brahmins for
this. In fact, the most pernicious example of the caste system was in
the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka, where there are virtually no Brahmins
and never have been.
5. You cannot blame the Brahmins for Sanskritizing Tamil. Tenkalai
Aiyengars often use Tamil words where most non-Brahmins use Sanskrit
ones. The Sanskrtization of Tamil is a very old process and cannot be
understood except in an all-South-Asian context. The Bengali used in
Bangladesh is highly Sanskritized, and the Muslims are quite proud of
their language. The fact is, Sanskrit was the lingua franca of South
Asia for intellectual purposes, much as Latin was in Europe.
Buddhists used it, Jains used it, much as Spinoza, a Jew, wrote his
philosophical treatises in Latin. The Tamil of Ramalinga Swamigal, a
non-Brahmin, is highly Sanskritized.
6. Sanskrit and Tamil are part of the same intellectual and literary
tradition. The fact is, Sanskrit literature owes an enormous amount
to Dravidian -- much of its syntax, its literary conventions,
vocabulary. When we come to the great kavya of Sanskrit (e.g.
Kalidasa), it is definitely part of the same stream as Tamil
literature, just as French, English and German belong to a Western
European literary tradition. This is even true of Sangam literature --
it is clearly of the same cultural tradition as, say, the Sanskrit
Mahabharata.
7. Tamil is richer because it has many styles. It is the only Indian
language that has a pure, unsanskritized style (well, there is a pure
Telugu, called accu telugu, which was cultivated mainly by Brahmins).
This style is very rich, no doubt. But Tamil has innumerable other
styles -- many dialects, a highly Sanskritized style, a style with
many English words, etc. etc. All of these add to the richness and
expressiveness of the language -- why impoverish the language by
removing its resources?
8. ... a personal note from an outsider. Tamil culture has not
suffered because of one group. It has suffered because of the caste
system and because of its treatment of women... Let's promote inter
caste marriage, let's get rid of dowry and give women independence
and self-respect, and above all, let's avoid a victimization complex
which only plays into the hands of those who have a vested interest
in continuing the inequities that exist in Tamilnad. If every Brahmin
were to disappear from Tamilnad, the Dalits and others who are
exploited would benefited not one iota.
9. Please note that I am not pro- or anti-Brahmin. I am acutely aware
of the negative role Sanskrit has played in the development of the
Indian regional languages. Indeed, A. K. Ramanujan, a Brahmin, once
told me that the worst things that ever happened to South India were
Sanskrit and English. A slavish devotion to Sanskrit has had a
negative effect on Tamil and, even more so, on other South Indian
languages. But we cannot change the past. There is nothing inherently
good or bad in a word, whatever its origin, so long as it has been
adopted for general use in a language. What is bad -- and what I
deplore -- is the mindless assumption that Sanskrit is somehow
superior. It is not. Indeed, Sanskrit is a very limited language,
because it has no spoken substratum. But where Sanskrit words have
come into common usage in South India, they have acquired broad
connotative powers that enhance the spoken languages that have
borrowed them (much like Latin and French words in English). It is
insulting to Tamil to claim that the language cannot borrow words
without being corrupted. Tamil has a long, powerful tradition, and it
is a very rich language. Judicious borrowing can only enhance, not
spoil it..."
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