Brahminical culture and Dravidians

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Tamils have been influenced by Brahminical culture since prehistorical times. Since the Sanskrit shruti texts of Hinduism are in Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hindu Dharma, the Tamil have become influenced by it.

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[edit] History

It is difficult to say when Hindu came to the Dravidian Lands. On the one hand we have legends, such as the journey of Agastya to the South. This is part of the local tradition and folklore. However there is no clear evidence of any particular period in which such an event occurred. According to this folklore Agastya actually founded the Tamil Language.It is difficult to prove such a statement but linguistic experts have clearly shown the Tamil is indeed a distinct language , originally uninfluenced by Sanskrit.The effect of brahminical culture in different parts of India, has been different.

Moreover it has still not been resolved if the Dravidian people were actually the descendants of Indus Valley civilization. There are historians such as Airavatham Mahadevan and Parapola, who are working hard on this front, but nothing clear has emerged to this day, as Indus script is yet to be decisively deciphered. And there are historians who suggest that during last stages of Indus Civilization, there is already signs of contact with Vedic culture.

However as Tamil has a long literary history, it has been studied extensively for brahminical influence. The other south Indian languages are much more recent in origin and by studing them we do not get a complete picture about the time when differences among various Indian tribes was more significant.

As mentioned in the reference article by Michel Danino, archaeological excavations have shown that there are many similarities of the tribal culture of Tamil land with popular hinduism. Furthermore according to him, ancient literary works such as Tolkappiam, depict a fusion between vedic gods and other tribal traditions.Works like Silapadikaram contain clear references to existence of brahmins and to them being an integral part of the Tamil countries.We have legends of the pandyan king worshipping Indra,in a yagna, in order to obtain Rain.

While all this may be true , many Tamil scholars,including periyar(as evidenced from his writings) have been sceptical of these influences and feel that there was some kind of forcible conquest involved.

By medieval times, much after the composition of works such as silapadikaram,manimekalai etc(periods when vedic religion, buddhism and jainism had become popular), the religion of Tamils had became sharply divided into different sects. The two main rival sects in this period were Saivism and Vaishnavism. Both these sects are significantly influenced by original vedic culture, though both brahmin and non brahmins were part of this. The hymns composed by the saints of these sects was in Tamil. With the increasing popularity of these sects, religions like jainism and buddhism were now confined to small groups.

Later Chola Rulers, invited more brahmins to the Tamil lands in order to perform the ellaborate yagnas. By this time ,with the advent of shankaracharya, brahminical culture had once again become a very popular influence throughout India. There is evidence of increased use of SAnskrit in colloqial Tamil and also in literary works and lead to the introduction of alphabets such as "Ha","Sha" etc in Tamil.

All this has lead to the formation of Modern Tamil Culture, as it is understood today.

Some features of this culture include

1. Strict caste system with taboos on intercaste marriage 2. Worship of Muruga as Karthikeya, the son of Lord Shiva 3 Worship of Pillaiyar, the elephant headed deity also considered as the son of Shiva 3. Saivaite ,Vaishnavaie sects .In later days gods from both the sects had become popular to most of the people. 4. Singing of Tamil and Sanskrit hymns, and devotion to the path shown by alwars and nayanmars. 5. Religion as established by the well known Siddhas of Tamil Land. 6. Some castes perform cremation and certain other castes undergo sacred thread cremony, similar to the Brahmins 7. Vegetarianism as practiced by some sects. 8. There are tribal gods and goddesses which remain popular to this date and regular animal sacrfices ae common to this day.

[edit] Hinduism in the Tamil Country

According to Michel Danino , the archaeological excavation, clearly show that the religion of Tamils cannot be claimed to very different from Modern hinduism. While the extent of vedic and brahminical influence has significantly increased in later times, the Tamils of the earlier days worshipped gods which continue to be a part of Tamil Hinduism.

Muruga and Amman remain popular deities as before. Worship of Shiva and Vishnu was popular for more than 1500 years.

However historians claim that this religion was later more influenced by brahminical religion and people soon incorporated puranic chronology and followed brahminical ways of worship.

[edit] Other religions among Tamils

Most Tamils are classified as Hindus, but Islam and Christianity have also long been present, if not as long as Hinduism. Jainism was at one time a major religious force in Tamil Nadu, but it declined substantially during the Pallava period, and there are now only a few thousand Tamil Jains.

[edit] Tamil anti-Brahminism

Many modern Tamil leaders claim that they are the true inheritors of Dravidian culture, and feel that Tamil people have preserved the purest form of Dravidian culture and have the least influence of other cultures. They take pride in the period before Dravidians were infleunced by Brahminical culture and this has usually manifested in what is today known as anti-Brahminism. They believe that Brahminical culture was forcibly imposed on Tamils. The brahmins of Tamil Nadu, even though contribute to Tamil and speak Tamil at home, are considered as inheritors of Sanskrit Indo-Aryan culture, because of their Sanskrit rituals. There is an intersection here between anti-brahminism based on antipathy towards brahmins for their privileged social position and a culturally-based antipathy.

To allege that Brahmins cannot be Dravidian is simply wrong. Rahul Dravid, a cricketer on the Indian team is a Brahmin.

[edit] Tamil Brahmins in this context

Many historians consider that Brahmins who are today called Iyers and Iyengars are the Indo Aryans who have come to live in the Dravidian land. While it is indeed true that many Iyer groups have come from North India only recently this by no means indicates that they are a separate race. After all, Parshurama made Brahmins out of the local fishermen of Kerala because there was no one to carry out priestly duties. Furthermore, the Sinhalese speak an Indo-Aryan language but racially are same as the Tamils.

The militant atheistic Tamils consider Indo-Aryans as a historically separate race from Dravidians, and believe that Iyers are at least partly Indo-Aryan in origin. The older version of this theory, supported by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Naicker, states that Indo-Aryans invaded South India and imposed their culture forcibly on Dravidians. This has been the staunch political ideology in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, adopted by the state's main local political parties, such as the DMK and the AIADMK.

In modern times, other reputed anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindu historians such as Romila Thapar and Michael Witzel have moved away from the term "invasion" to more moderate "migration", see Indo-Aryan migration.

Koenraad Elst and Sita Ram Goel have written in opposition to even "migration", advocating an "Out of India model" instead. They see the Indo-Aryan interaction with Tamils as a natural event occurring due to spreading of isolated tribes across the regions of India.

Brahmins were patronized by South Indian Hindu kings. These facts are indicated by inscriptions in temples and also based on memory of people of India.[citation needed]

Local politicians have continued to promote the Aryan Invasion Theory, however, overlooking the unlikelihood that any caste has a pure racial strain. A popular version is that Iyers started invading Tamil regions ever since the times of Agastya, a famous vedic teacher. However orthodox Iyers have opposed this theory, claiming that their religious literature does not subscribe to a racial division in India.

While there are no specific historical accounts or documents which describe them having come from distant lands, traditional folklore records that Agatsya was the founder of Tamil culture. Siva Puranam suggests that he learnt Tamil from the god Shiva and brought the language to the south along with Shiva-worship. This legend is found in the Tamil epic, Siva Puranam. While many historians see this folklore as suggestive of Indo-Aryan invasion from the North, many Iyers reject this theory, as they believe that there are no historical records or folklore that suggest an invasion in south. There are a number of other theories based on race, caste and invasion, which are yet to be proven or substantiated by any verifiable evidence.

Traditional accounts, such as Chola inscriptions in Tanjore temples, hint that a large number of Iyers may have migrated from other regions of India to the Dravidian land at the invitation of Tamil kings in order to perform Vedic rituals such as Yajna and that they received land and donation in return for their services. However, some ancient legends in works like the Ramayana and Mahabharata speak of many Brahmin rishis meditating in the South, which, if true, implies a Brahmin presence in South India before 1000BC. Some believe that even early sangam literature indicates the presense of Brahmins. However since sangam literature is written in a very old form of Tamil, the interpretation is subject to many disagreements.

[edit] Sanskrit and the Dravidian Family

It is proposed that the Sanskrit lanaguage is a part of the Indo-European family of languages. However all Dravidian languages have at least 50% of the exact vocabulary as Sanskrit. This includes root words such as 'land' (des), 'language' (basa), 'bread' (chapaati). Furthermore the members of the Dravidian family because they are Hindu name their children in Sanskrit. The word 'Dravid' likely originates from the Sanskrit word 'Dravinam' meaning divine prosperity. In the Atharva Veda xii.5.8-10, dharma is described as 'Dravinam.' [1] This word is used to describe the inhabitants of South India because they are very religious, wear religious icons (e.g. Vibhuti, Tilak) and even carry long religious family names (e.g. Baalakrishnan, Balasubramanian, Tribhouvandas.)

[edit] Tamil Script (Tamizh)

Tamil is written in a Brahmi script, same as all other Indian languages. All languages whose script derived from Brahmi are known to be a part of the 'Brahmi family.' Its writing script, which is Tamizh, is believed to have been established around 300BC.[2]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Aryan and Dravidian
  2. ^ Bhasha India

[edit] References

  • Agastya in the Tamil land by K Narayanan Sivaraja Pillai,New Delhi: Asian Educational Services (1985), OCLC: 13902695
  • COLLECTED WORKS OF PERIYAR E.V.R.: K. Veeramani — Compiler, The Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution, Periya Thidal, 50, E.V.K. Sampath Salai, Vepery, Chennai-600007. Donation Rs. 200.
  • Indigenous Indians (Agastya to Ambedkar) by Koenrad Elst, ISBN 81-85990-04-2, A Voice of India publication, New Delhi, India (1993)
  • K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, New Delhi: OUP, 4th edition (1975).
  • The Dravidian Languages by Bhadriraju Krishnamurti; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (South Asian edition), 2003- A book neatly explaining the history of Dravidian languages and why Tamil remains a language with the least influence of Sanskrit
  • VEDANGALAI ETRUP POTRUM TAMIZH ILAKKIYANGAL: K.C. Lakshminarayanan; LKM Publications, Old No. 15/4, New No. 33/4, Ramanathan Street, T. Nagar, Chennai-600017, a book explaining the influenc of vedas on Tamil
  • HISTORY AND SOCIETY IN SOUTH INDIA — The Cholas to Vijayanagar: Noboru Karashima; Oxford University Press, India, a book detailing the society and rulers of South India, and also ellaborating on the patronage provided to brahmins by the Cholas and others

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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