Tamils

“ The Northern portion of the island of Ceylon, where the Tamils are settled for the last eight centuries, may also be now regarded as a part of the Tamil-land. Even within these narrow limits, the Tamils were many a time in danger of being overwhelmed by other races, but a merciful Providence appears to have arrested every invading force before it could completely overrun the country. ”

“ It was not long however before the Tamils followed, also from India; and since then, and through a long series of conflicts, the latter have maintained their position, and now form the larger part of the population in the north of the island, while the Cinghalese are most numerous in the south. Great numbers of Tamil peasants—men, women, and children—still come over from the mainland every year, and go up-country to work in the tea-gardens, where there is a great demand for coolie labour. ”

“ The present article deals with Tamil in its restricted sense only.
The Tamils, taken as the type and representatives of the Dravidian race, do not now, owing to early intermixture with the Aryan immigrants, materially differ in physical character from the other curly-haired indigenous population of India. They were at one time, on the ground of the general structure of their language, classed with the Mongoloid (Turanian, Scythian) and even the Australian races, but that classification is rejected by all the leading ethnologists. ”

“ The Prince of Wales and his suite landed in Tuticorin on [Pg 147] the coast of India, again, on December 9th, and proceeded inland by train without any particular or formal reception. The Tamils were found to be a handsome, mild-natured, respectful people and the land cultivated and apparently prosperous. At Mainachy, a deputation of six thousand native Christians and one thousand boys and girls, headed by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell and the Rev. Dr. Sargent, presented an address and a handsomely-bound Bible and Prayer-book in the Tamil language, to His Royal Highness. ”

“ No ships of foreign nations call at their seaports for fine spun cloths, and other articles manufactured by Tamil workmen. Not only are the Tamils dead as a nation, but their industries and arts and even their old gods are dead For, Indra and Balarâma are no longer invoked by them ”

“ The pure conceptions of morality which the Tamils had formed were the real basis of their civilization. That the sentiments of morality and religion predominated in the minds of the Tamils is evident from their ancient literature. ”

“ Dr Pope, however, believed Tamil to be a corruption of tenmoli, southern speech, in contradistinction to vaḍugu, the northern, i.e., Telugu language. As in the case of the Kafir, Turkish, Tagala and other typical languages, the term Tamulic or Tamulian has occasionally been employed as the designation of the whole class of Dravidian peoples and languages, of which it is only the most prominent member. The present article deals with Tamil in its restricted sense only. The Tamils proper are smaller and of weaker build than Europeans, though graceful in shape. ”

“ In fact, they gloried in poverty and utter renunciation of the world, as the only means of suppressing desire and securing the salvation of their souls from the stormy ocean of re-births. Herein lay the seeds of national decay, which soon laid low the Tamils and all other Hindu races, and made them an easy prey to every invading power. ”

“ Of all the South-Indian tribes they are the least sedentary and the most enterprising. Wherever money is to be earned, there will Tamils be found, either as merchants or in the lower capacity of domestic servants and labourers. ”

“ They are devoted to friends, respectful to women charitable to the poor, fervent in piety and tireless in industry. “Wherever money is to be made, wherever a more apathetic or a more aristocratic people is willing to be pushed aside, thither” says a European Missionary who long resided among them, [2] “swarm the Tamils, the Greeks or Scotch of the east: the least superstitious and the most enterprising and persevering race of Hindus.” They are still the most literate people among the native races of India. ”

“ In the interior below the ghats, Venkadam or the modern Tirupaty was the northern limit of the Tamil land. It is most remarkable that after the lapse of eighteen centuries, during which many, a kingdom rose and fell, and the Tamils, Telugus, Mahrattas, Musalmans, French and English successively rose to political power, the language boundary has remained unaltered on the eastern coast. The same cannot be said of the boundary of the Tamil land on the western coast, for, it has advanced there from Badagara to Kasaragod, a distance of about sixty miles. ”

“ Accordingly we find that the Sanscrit literature of the first century of the Christian era is now a perfect blank. Curiously enough, a considerable portion of the Tamil literature of that very period has come down to us, almost intact, and reveals to us the condition of not only the Tamils, but also of other races who inhabited the rest of India in that remote age.
The vast field of ancient Tamil literature is like an unknown land into which no traveller hath yet set foot. Many of the ancient classical works in Tamil have but recently seen the light. ”

“ They hold themselves of a superior class to the Tamils, engaging only in what they consider a higher line of occupation. The Tamils form the humbler and laboring population of the country. They fully recognize the distinction between themselves and the Singhalese proper, and they are universally called coolies. Caste is never disregarded among them, its infinite ramifications extending through all degrees and classes of the [128] people, regulated by universally accepted ideas. This peculiar system was early introduced into the country from India, but was previously unknown here. ”

“ Though they delight to call themselves Saurāshtra Brāhmans, the Tamils consider them to be a low caste. Like the Brāhmans, they wear the sacred thread, and tack on to their names such titles as Iyengar, Iyer, Rao, Bhagavather, Sastrigal, and so forth, though the conservatives among them still cling to the time-honoured simple Chetti. Child marriage is the rule, and widow marriage is never practiced. ”

“ The Todas have a large number of expressions which they use in the presence of Badagas, Tamils and others when they wish to be understood only by themselves. Many of the Badagas and Tamils with whom the Todas associate no doubt pick up some knowledge of their language, and even if this were not the case, the Toda language is sufficiently like Tamil to enable a stranger to understand part of what is said. ”

“ The Tamils should now awake from their apathy of ages, if they wish to reap the full benefit of these changes. They should realise the fact that they are now at the parting of the ways. Mistakes now made will be irretrievable, and will have far reaching effects. If, for instance, they fail to see the utter folly of retaining the caste system any longer; if they avoid all social intercourse with Europeans, being afraid of losing caste, they would surely incur the distrust and dislike of the ruling race. ”

“ I hope that, as the LTTE shows itself opposed not only to all those brave Tamils who have expressed different ideas, whether of TULF or TELO or EPDP or EPRLF or PLOTE or TMVP, but also to members of the LTTE who express different perspectives, you will realize that the cause of Tamils can be best served by subscribing to pluralistic democratic politics rather than fanatical totalitarianism. ”

“ The percentage of beggars in the Tamil districts to the total population is '97, or more than twice what it is in the Telugu country,while in Malabar it is as low as .09. The Telugus are certainly not richer as a class than the Tamils, and the explanation of these differences is perhaps to be found in the fact that the south is more religiously inclined than the north, and has more temples and their connected charities (religion and charity go hand in hand in India) , and so offers more temptation to follow begging as a profession. Āndis are Tamil beggars. ”

“ The Tamils still retain however many of their old characteristics. There are more temples and more rest houses still in their country than are to be found within the same area, in any other part of the world! temples reared with infinite patience and labour, and rest-houses built by private charity, where the poor and the rich may freely find shelter at all times and seasons. ”

“ The numerals of the ancient Tamils, who, like the mountaineers of Appalachian America, conserve the traditions of a more remote civilization, show us that the Hindu peoples originally had special symbols not only for the first nine units, but also for the nine tens, the nine hundreds and even the nine thousands. ”

“ The science and practice of the fine arts were highly developed amongst the ancient Tamils. The study of music was an essential part of a liberal education and the Tamils excelled in soft melodies which had a gentle and soothing effect. ”

“ It is a vast Grammar and Law book of the Tamil language and Social Life. Having three sections, the first two deal with language (linguistics) and the third about the subject matters referred to in Tamil literature, the behavior of the Tamils. ”

“ The Tamils, being light of body and used to laborious occupations, make the best jinrikisha men,—the small, man-propelled chaise,—trotting off in their almost naked condition with the speed of a horse, while drawing the vehicle and its occupants behind them. ”

“ Her education was so wholly neglected that, amongst the Tamils, no woman knew her alphabet, except such as rather gave the accomplishment a bad name—the dancing girls and prostitutes attached to the temples, who learned to read and write that they might copy songs and the legends of their gods. ”

“ In the arts of painting and sculpture also the Tamils had acquired a considerable degree of proficiency. Figures of gods, men and animals were painted with a variety of colors on the walls of private houses and public buildings, such as temples and palaces.2 The curtains used in bedrooms and theatres, and the cloth cased used for the lute and other musical instruments were beautifully painted in imitation of flowers and creepers. ”

“ Besides Sanskrit and Pali, I have been able to gather some very valuable evidences from old Tamil literature with the help of a book by the late Mr. Kanakasabhai Pillay, now unfortunately out of print, called The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago. I have had also to consider and use all the evidences bearing on my subject that are contained in classical literature, made accessible to Indian students by the translations of McCrindle. Old Bengali literature, too, has been laid under contribution in connection with the account of Bengali maritime activity. ”

“ As the Tamil immigrants came into Southern India at distant intervals of time and in separate tribes, and were fewer in number than the aboriginal Nagas and Dravidians, they had to adopt the ancient Dravidian language, and in course of time, they modified and refined it into the language now known as Tamil. ”

“ There were kings, priests, merchants, doctors, farmers, and artizans among their number. Amidst the gloom and uncertainty in which the ancient history of the country is shrouded, the works of so many authors of one age throw a flood of welcome light.
The information afforded by these poems, regarding the religious and social customs of the Tamil people, would alone guide us to fix the probable date of this literature in the earliest centuries of the Christian Era. For, we find from them that there were Buddhists in the Tamil country, but they had set up no images of Buddha and had no priests ”

“ But Tamil Pandits, who love the marvellous, assert with a show of wisdom, that Auvvaiyar lived to the extraordinary age of six or seven hundred years, and that in her youth she was a contemporary of Ugra-Pandya, and in her old age of Kulothunga-Chola, whose reign commenced seven centuries later! ”

“ Long mayst thou live for many hundred thousand year!" Châthan the master of sweet Tamil, who was in the king’s company, charmed by the royal presence, related the story of the hapless maid to the king and queen. She was, he said, the wife of a merchant of Kavirippaddinam, who having lost all his wealth to a beautiful actress of that town, came to Madura accompanied only by his faithful wife; a pair of valuable anklets was all the property left in the hands of his wife. ”

“ Thy perfumed breast on which the bow ever rests, throbs before none but beautiful women. Thou wouldst not be false to thy promise even if the earth should change its position. Swift and terrible as the thunderbolt which shakes hillocks to their base, thou hast with thy valiant Tamil soldiers, routed the armies of thy two rival kings, and won thy laurels as a warrior: and now thou hast added to thy triumphs by conquering my poverty. ”

“ The fighting men who belonged to the military caste among the Tamil were very loyal to their kings. “Thou Lord of the handsome chariot and troops of elephants,” says a bard to his chief, pointing to a young warrior, “share with this youth the toddy thou drinkest, for his father’s father gave up his life to save thy father’s father in a fierce fight: and this youth so full of valour, will throw himself between thee and thy foes, when they aim their lances against thee.” [77] Even the women of the fighting classes were animated by the same martial spirit which the soldiers possessed. ”

“ The works of not less than fifty authors of this period have come down to us. These poets were of various castes, various religious persuasions and belonged to different parts of the Tamil country. Some were Nigranthas, some Buddhists, and some of the Brahminic faiths. ”