http://aboutworldlanguages.com/dravidian-language-family
Dravidian Language Family
Introduction
The Dravidian language family is one of the largest language families
in the world. The vast majority of linguists believe that the Dravidian
language family is completely unrelated to any other language family.
The family includes 73 languages spoken by over 222 million people in
southern India, Sri Lanka, certain areas of Pakistan, and in Nepal.
Commerce and emigration have also spread Dravidian languages,
particularly Tamil,
to Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Fiji, Madagascar, Mauritius, Guyana,
Martinique and Trinidad. The only Dravidian language spoken entirely
outside of India is Brahui with over two million speakers mainly in Pakistan and 200,000 speakers in Afghanistan (Ethnologue).
The
Dravidian language family was first recognized as an independent family
in 1816. The term Dravidian was introduced by Robert A. Caldwell in
his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages (1856).
Dravidian languages are mostly spoken in the south of the Indian subcontinent, while Indo-Aryan languages
are concentrated in the north. It is thought that Dravidian languages
were native to the Indian subcontinent and were originally spread across
all of India. The Indo-Aryan languages
were introduced by Aryan invaders from the north. They pushed speakers
of the original Dravidian languages out of the northern portion into the
southern part of India.
Dravidian languages are usually broken up into the following groups,
largely based on their geographical distribution. The table below lists
only languages with 60,000 or more speakers.
|
Central
|
||
|---|---|---|
| Kolami (Northwestern & Southeastern) | 60,000 | India |
| Duruwa | 75,000 | India |
|
Northern
|
||
| Brahui | 2.2 million | Pakistan, Afghanistan |
| Kurux (Kurukh) | 2 million | India |
| Sauria Paharia (Malto) | 122,000 | India |
|
South Central
|
||
| Maria Dandami | 200,000 | India |
| Gondi Southern | 250,000 | India |
| Gondi Northern | 1.9 million | India |
| Maria | 134,000 | India |
| Pardhan | 117,000 | India |
| Koya | 330,000 to 10 million | India |
| Kui | 717,000 | India |
| Kuvi | 300,000 | India |
| Telugu | 70 million | India |
|
Southern
|
||
| Badaga | 245,000 | India |
| Kannada | 35 million | India |
| Kodagu | 122,000 | India |
| Kurumba | 180,000 | India |
| Malayalam | 35 million | India |
| Tamil | 66 million | India |
| Yerukula | 300,000 | India |
| Tulu | 1.9 million | India |
Status
Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada are four of the 22 official languages and
14 regional languages of India. They are used in administration,
education, business, and the media. All four possess a great wealth of
written texts. All four have accommodated social, political, technical,
and economic changes that occurred in 20th-century India.
Dialects
The dialects of Dravidian languages have evolved along several dimensions:
- geographic.e.g., Malayalam has 10 distinct regional varieties
- religious, e.g., there may be differencesn the speech of Christians, Hindus, and Muslims within a single geographic area
- caste-based, e.g., among the Hindus, the speech of
members of the highest caste differs from that of members of a
medium-high caste, and these, in turn, differ from the speech of members
of the low caste - diglossic, e.g., the speech of the educated elite
may be characterized by a greater degree of code-switching between the
indigenous language and English - formal vs. informal, e..g, the formal style is used
in most writing as well as in radio and TV programs, and in public
speaking, whereas the informal style is used for daily spoken
communication
Structure
Sound system
Despite some differences, the sound systems of Dravidian languages share some common features.
Vowels
Most Dravidian languages have five or more vowels that can be either
long or short. Vowel length makes a difference in the meaning of
otherwise identical words.
Consonants
The consonant systems of Dravidian languages generally share these features:
- contrast between aspirated vs. unaspirated stops and affricates,
e.g.,/ p—pʰ, t—tʰ, k—kʰ, b—bʰ, d—dʰ, g—gʰ/. Aspirated consonants are
produced with a strong puff of air that accompanies their release. . - contrast between and apical vs. retroflex consonants,
e.g.,/ t—ʈ, d—ɖ, n—ɳ, l—ɭ/. Apical consonants are produced with the tip
of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, whereas retroflex consonants are produced with the tongue curled, so that its underside comes in contact with the roof of the mouth. - variety of nasal consonants.
- restricted number of consonant clusters which occur mostly in initial and medial position
Stress
Stress in Dravidian languages usually falls on the first syllable.
Grammar
All Dravidian languages are agglutinative, i.e., i.e.,
grammatical relations are indicated by the addition of suffixes to
stems. These are strung together one after another, resulting on
occasion in very long words. Like all agglutinative languages, Dravidian
languages use postpositions rather than prepositions to mark
grammatical relations.
Nouns
- There are two numbers: singular and plural. Plural is marked by a suffixes.
- The number of cases varies from language to language.
- There are no articles.
- Some Dravidian languages have three genders: masculine, feminine and
neuter. In other languages, nouns belong to two classes: rational and
irrational; rational nouns include humans and deities (women may be
rational or irrational, depending on the language/dialect); irrational
nouns include animals, objects, and everthing else. These
classifications are not absolute. - Personal pronouns are marked for person, case and number. Gender is marked only in the third person singular.
- 1st person plural can be inclusive, i.e., include both speaker and addressee, or exclusive, i.e., exclude the addressee.
- 3rd person plural pronoun is used as a respectful form of address
- Demonstrative pronouns are differentiated by considerations of
proximity/remoteness as well as by levels of respect towards the
referent. - Adjectives are not inflected for number, gender, or case.
Verbs
Dravidian verbs are inflected for tense, mood, voice, causativity, and attitude. The basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb.
Verbs
Telugu verbs consist of a root followed by suffixes expressing tense, mood, negation, causativity,
person, number, and gender which follow each other in a prescribed
sequence. In most Dravidian languages, verbs agree with their subjects
in gender, number and person. Subject pronouns are normally dropped
since the information about the subject is carried by the verb itself.
Dravidian verbs have the following distinguishing features of verbs in
most Dravidian languages. Not all languages have all of these features:
- two numbers: singular and plural
- three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter
- three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
- two voices which are not equivalent to the active-passive or reflexive-nonreflexive division of voices in Indo-European languages
- three simple tenses (present, past, and future) marked by simple
suffixes, and a series of compound tenses marked by auxiliary verbs - a special verb paradigm in which a negative-tense marker is suffixed to the verb stem forming a negative tense
- four moods which indicate whether the action of the verb is unreal, possible, potential, or real
- transitivity and intransitivity
- attitude expressed by auxiliary verbs to show the speaker’s feelings
towards an event expressed by the verb, e.g., pejorative opinion,
antipathy, relief, etc.
Word order
The standard word order in Dravidian languages is Subject-Object-Verb.
However, other orders are possible because Inflectional endings take
care of keeping clear grammatical relations and roles in the sentence.
There are special markers for topic (what the sentence is about, or old
information) and focus (new information). Constituents with old
information precede constituents with new information, or those that
carry most emphasis. Modifiers usually precede the words they modify.
Vocabulary
The most important sources of early loanwords in Dravidian languages have been Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit. Different Dravidian languages borrowed words from neighboring Indo-Aryan languages spoken in India to differing degrees. For instance, Tamil has the lowest number of Indo-Aryan loanwords, while inMalayalam and Telugu the percentage of loanwords is substantially higher. In modern times, Dravidian language borrowed from Urdu, Portuguese, andEnglish. In Tamil, there is currently a movement to remove as many borrowings from Sanskrit as possible. All four major Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu,Kannada, Malayalam) have succeeded in developing new technical terms, using English, Sanskrit, and indigenous models. Modern Dravidian languages usecompounding and reduplication to form new words. In addition, there are numerous onomatopoeic words.
Below are numerals 1-10 in four major Dravidian languages in romanization.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kannada |
ondu
|
eraɖu
|
muuru
|
naa(lak)ku
|
aydu
|
aaru
|
eeɭu
|
eɳʈu
|
ombhattu
|
hattu
|
| Malayalam |
onnu
|
randu
|
munnu
|
nallu
|
anch
|
aaru
|
ezhu
|
ettu
|
empathu
|
pattu
|
| Tamil |
oṉṟu
|
iraṇṭu
|
mūṉṟu
|
nāṉku
|
ainthu
|
āṟu
|
ēḻu
|
eṭṭu
|
oṉpathu
|
paththu
|
| Telugu |
okați
|
rendhu
|
múdhu
|
nálugu
|
aidhu
|
áru
|
yédhu
|
yenimidi
|
tommidhi
|
padhi
|
Writing
Dravidian languages are written with syllabic alphabets in which all
consonants have an inherent vowel. Diacritics, above, below, before or
after consonants indicate change to a different vowel or suppression of
the inherent vowel. When they appear the the beginning of a syllable,
vowels are written as independent letters. When certain consonants occur
together, special conjunct symbols are used which combine the parts of
each letter.
Below are the names of four languages written in their native scripts.
| Tamil |  |
| Telugu |  |
| Kannada |  |
| Malayalam |  |
Difficulty
How difficult is it to learn Dravidian languages?Since these languages are not taught at the Foreign Service Institute, they are not categorized for difficulty..
32 Responses to Dravidian Language Family
C Iyothee Thass Pandit
PANNDITHAR .KA. AYOTHIDHASAR
Pandit Ayothidasar in the last decade of the 19th Century was a Writer, Journalist, Social reformer, Siddha Physician, Tamil and Buddhist Scholar. He edited and published THAMIZHAN a journal devoted to social reform for eight years. He opposed Brahminism Vedic rituals, untouchability. He championed communal representation, Women’s Rights, self-respect, Rationalism etc., unfortunately the world of Tamil scholar purposely ignored contribution to Tamil Life and Thought.
Only AD suffered this ignoring. Subramania Bharathiyar, V.O.Chimdambaram Pillai, Singaravelach Chettiar, Pandit U.V. Saminatha Iyer, Thiru.V.Kalyanasundara Madaliar, Pandithurai Thevar, Mahavidwan Raghava Iyengar who lived during the same period in the Madras Presidency were hounoured for theirs scholarship and patriotism. Ayothidasar’s many field contributions did not receive due recognition because he belonged to the Paraiyan caste.
The neglect Ayothidasar suffered was worse than physical violence. The higher-caste intellectuals in Tamil Nadu were adopt in practicing this variety of concealed violence.
We are presenting before you the history of Tamil Nadu 100 years ago which was ignored by this casteist intellectuals of Tamil Nadu.
European merchants came to India in the later half of the 17th century. They began as Traders but in course of time conquered and ruled large parts of the country including Madras State
During 1870’s Englishmen came to India in large numbers to construct roads and bridges. Railway lines were laid and new departments like post and telegraph, police, military etc were created.
They lived in colonies and with their families they required the services of interpreters, gardeners, servants, cooks and watchmen. They also required grooms for their horses. Because the post required physical labour people belonging to the dominant castes did not offer their services. Englishmen ate beef and that was an important reason why people from the dominant castes. Kept away from such services.
The depressed classes of TN the sons of the soil who were ignored by the caste ridden society were selected to do these jobs. The men who lived in the slums in and around Madras were selected to lay railway lines, run postal services and construct buildings. This resulted in the growth of big slums in Egmore, Chetput, Teynampet, Althottam etc.
The depressed classes who lived in these slums organized associations like Panchamar Maha Jana Sabhas to forge unity among themselves and improve their living conditions. They demanded facilities for education for their children and employment for themselves. They also requested the Govt. to allot lands to the Depressed classes for cultivation.
The British Govt. accepted their demands and either directly or through Christian Missionaries implemented them. On behalf of the DC’s many journals were published in the Madras Presidency.
When Sir Thomsa Munro was Governor of Madras Mr. george Harrington was led under him as the Heal of the state Construction Dept. Thiru. Kandappan served under him. He was a Tamil Scholar and also Siddha Physician. He possessed a plam-leaf copy of the great Tamil work, TIRUKKURAL. He understood its importance as a classic of world literature and so he carefully preserved the copy.
Kandappan’s son Kandasamy who lived in the Thousand Lights area in Madras was also a Siddha Physician. His wife gave birth to a male child on 20.05.1845 and the child was named Kathavarayan. He was also initiated into the hereditary profession Siddha Medicine. Later he joined Ayothidasar Pandit’s Village School. He developed great respect for his teacher and adopted his name.
English officials used to go to Nilgiris Hills during summer George Harrington took his Butler Kaudappan and his family members with him to Ooty Ayothidasar married Dhanalakshmi sister of Rettamalai, Srinivasan who was his relation.
Ayothidasar started Advaita Philosophy during his stay at Ooty and formed the Advaithanandha Sabha to propogate Advaita Philosophy Col. H.S. Olcott, President of the International Theosophical society had started 5 free schools for Panchama children in the centre of Madras. He also became acquainted with Rev. John Rathinam who started a school for the oppressed in Madras. He formed Dravidar Kazhagam in 1882 and started the journal ‘Dravida Pandian’ in 1885. Ayothidasar’s friendship with the two persons mentioned above introduced for reaching changes in his thinking.
Dr. T. DHARMARAJAN
St. Xavier’s College, Palayamkottai
When the Mahajana Sabha (Madras) conducted its General Body Meeting. Ayothidasar moved a resolution containing some demands. The opposition to his demands opened his eyes.
Did he make revolutionary demands? No, he requested that Pariahs may be allowed entry into Siva and Vishnu Temples. He also sought facilities for educating pariah children. These were ordinary demands but a 100 years ago they met with stiff opposition. Entrenched casteism opposed his very ordinary demands.
“You may call yourself a HINDU. But Siva and Vishnu are not your deities. Karuppasamy and Sudalamadan are your deities. Be satisfied with worshipping them” said caste Hindus. It was a defining moment in his life.
The palm leaf manuscript Naradiya Sangs Thelivu” narrates the history of Buddhism and how it was destroyed in the land of its birth. When he studied of his outlook changed.
In 1890’s he accepted Buddhist teachings. In 1898 July he went to Colombo with company of Col.Olcott and became a Buddhist.
“Buddhism was the religion of my ansistors and I here returned to it”, wrote Ayothidasar.
He returned to Madras and founded the “south Indian Sakkiya Buddhist Sangh” at Royappettah (Madras). Its branches were started at Tiruppathur, Thangavayal, Marikuppam, Bangalore, Rangoon (Burma) etc.
Meetings were held every Sunday. Singaravelar, Prof. Lakshmi Narasu, A.P. Periyasamy Pulavar, Appaduraiar and Swapna Sundari spoke in these meetings. They exposed Vedic religion and Brahminism and supported rationalist ideas. He rewrote the history of the oppressed classes when Brahminism had subjugated in a stealthy manner.
Dr. RAJ GOWTHAMAN
PUDUCHERRY
Ayothidasar lived a life of struggle with Buddhism as parallel religion he countered Brahminism orthodoxy.
When he said that Brahmin are steeped in casteism and non-Brahmins are victims of casteism, he was not indulging in speculation – he was speaking the TRUTH. He said on the basis of strong evidence that the untouchables were once followers of Buddhism. Brahminism punished recalcitrant individuals and denounced them as casteless persons and people of low birth. Thevaram, the Tamil Saivite hymn described fighters against Brahminism as “people of low birth”.
When one fights Brahminism he is immediately branded as a person of low birth. When an army cannot do Brahminism can achieve easily and quickly. Just as a virus kills a person Brahminism. Annihislates whole society, the sons of the soil. Ayothidasar understood this and opposed it.
Mr. PA. EZHILARASAN
Editor, Resurgence, Chennai
Ayothidasar came to the conclusion that Hinduism is the source of casteism and its attendant evils. He searched for a counter culture and discovered Buddhism. He para pharased the teachings of Buddhism and wrote insightful commentaries. He not only pointed out the short comings of Hindhuism, but also explained how Buddhism was supers on Hinduism .
Prof. T. DHARMARAJAN:
Ayothidasar did not search for Buddhism in Buddhist Viharas and mutts. He searched for it among the people. He found out two sources of Buddhism in Tamil Nadu.
1) The oral traditions, customs and usage prevalent among the Tamils.
2) The songs and Tales of Buddhism were recorded in palm-leaf manuscripts and preserved palm-leaf by the lower mungs of the people. He studied the collections of Tamil ethical poems (THIRUKKURAL) and came to the conclusion that these represented ‘Tamil Buddhism’. Ancient Siddha texts proved to be sources of Buddhism.
RAVIKUMAR, M.L.A. VCK
Whenever Ayothidasar wrote about Buddhism he always referred to it as Tamil Buddhism because Buddhism in our State has a deep history behind it. Dr. Romila Thapar who has studied Buddhism in India has said that Tamil Buddhism is still an open field and it has to be thoroughly studied and researched.
Buddha’s spoke about Love, Tolerance, Equality, Rationalism etc which were concepts meant for the liberation of the oppressed people. He sowed the seeds of liberation theology; but it was not harvested by the suppressed people.
He founded a journal, oru paisa Tamilan and the first issued was published on 19.6.1907 from Royapettah. The journal was expected to provide a link with all the branches of Sakkya Buddhist Sangh and explain the principles and practices of Buddhism to its followers.
There are persons who cannot differentiate among the higher castes, the middle castes and the lower castes. Some philosophers, mathematicians, scientists and writers joined together to educate the people about the Right path, Honesty etc and they co-operated in the publication of oru paisa Tamilan Articles on Buddhist principles and practices along with news reports on events effecting the lives of the people were published in the journal. Current events were analysed and discussed. Articles on Women’s Education Prices of Essential Commodities and Book Reviews were published.
The journal worked tirelessly for the empowerment of the DC’s. It was popular with Tamilians living in the Madras Presidency and also outside the state.
It was during this period that ideas like Anti-Brahminism, Dravidian Ideology, Rationalism etc were discussed by all sections of the people in the Presidency. The Dravidian Movement gathered the stands and united them into a full fledged political ideology.
THOL. THIRUMAVALAVAN M.P.
Leader, VC, Chennai.
“The DC’s are the sons of the soil they are the original inhabitants of this hoary land” declared Pandit Ayothidasar when the British Govt included DC’s in the religious category of the HINDUS he objected strongly and declared that they are not Hindus. They are the original inhabitants and they should be designated as Adhi Tamilan.
Tamils today are known for their passionate adherence to Tamil (language), Tamil Nationality and Tamil Nationalism. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the foundation for the fierce nationalism of the Tamil people was laid by Pandit Ayothidasar.
V. GEETHA:
Research Worker,
Chennai
I felt deeply thrilled when I read Ayothidasar’s book Aathivedham. Though Ayothidasar studied and wrote continuously his book (Aathivedham) reveals his total personality. He wrote the life of Buddha in a special manner.
He included Buddha’s teachings and thoughts in his narrative of Buddha life he maisted the question Why Pariah’s were suppressed at many places in the book. Who are the true Brahmins and who are the false Brahmins? Who are the real Brahmins and who act as Brahmins? Ayothidasar asked these questions frequently and gave the answers he instructs us as to how to read the Indian History. He writes about the history and identity of the Parisahs. He explains how the word Pariah has become a term of abuse in the present day. He writes about Human Rights. His book AATHIVEDHAM is a stupendous achievements.
Buddhism belongs to Tamil soil, Tamil Nadu. You cannot write Tamil history without discussing the part played by Buddhism in the history of the Tamils. He says Buddha’s Life is Buddhism. Buddha wanted people to live a life of dignity and honour. For that they should enjoy human mights which is the same thing as SC/ST rights. He also thought about how to create the environment for the empowerment of the SC/STs.
How to live without caste pride or humiliating the so-called lower castes? How to create an inclusive society based on Equality, Tolerance and Humanism? He mentions some incidents from the life of Buddha and exhorts us to create a Humanistic Society.
Pandit Ayothidasar and Dr. Ambedkar studied the Life of Buddha written by Aswagosh. Both studied books written in the Pali language. Ayothidasar’s writings stand testimony to the fact that he did not base himself on Tamil writings alone.
Ayothidasar always emphasized labour. It was an integral part of his campaign to eradicate caste. The so-called higher castes do not work and do not respect those who do physical work. He has written in many places that labour created knowledge. In his book Aathivedham he emphasizes the importance of labour. He associate labour with values. He asks: Do you work honestly and efficiently? Dr. Ambedkar also emphasized the importance of labour.
PO VELSAMY:
Scholar and Writes, Erode
Before Ayothidasar started writing there were not history books. But he wrote extensively about Aryans and Dravaidians Researches in the Indus Valley Civilization started only afterwards. He pointed out that Aryans came from outside and so they are ‘foreigners’. Other scholars who wrote about Buddhism based themselves on books written in the English Language. But Ayothidasar who knew Pali and Prakrit languages studied original Buddhist sources and wrote his books.
DALIT EZHIL MALAI:
CHENNAI
(Ex-Minister, GOI)
“Ayothidasar’s writings contributed to revival of Buddhism in the Madras Presidency. Dr. Ambedkar understood this and began from where he left. There are many instances to prove the above statement. He visited Madras on three occasions and also visited the Madras Christian College where Ayothidasar student, Lakshmi Narash taught. Ayothidasar had proved that the DC’s were originally Buddhists. Dr. Ambedkar accepted it and decided to embrace Buddhism.
Dr K. THANGAVELU:
Chennai
Ayothidasar was an outstanding Rationalist Scholar and Writer. He wrote 37 books. He belonged to the SC and caste it forces in the state suppressed his books. His name was not mentioned. He quoted from books which were no longer available to modern scholars. In any case they could not fault his arguments.
. THOL. THIRUMAVALAVAN :
“Dalits are not HINDUS. They are Ancient Tamils. They have the ability to rule the country and they must rule” said Ayothidasar. “Immigrants have seized power and they should be driven out. Sons of the soil should rule the country” said Ayothidasar.
He recorded these thoughts before Periyar EVR, before the great revolutionary leader Dr. Ambedkar. He was a great pioneering leader”.
. RAVIKUMAR:
Ayothidasar’s importance lies in the realm of culture. He wrote accurately about the history of the so called SC’s. He wrote again and again that untouchability came to be practices only a few centuries ago in Tamilnadu. This has been proved.
Thiru. CHICKANNA :
President,
Adivasigal Seva Sangam, Ootty
These lands belonged to Ayothidasar. They destroyed his mutt. Two statues of Buddha were installed there. After Ayothidasar’s death there was nobody to look after the statues. We removed the statues and kept them in the Tulsimadam. Even now you can see them in the Tulsimadam.
J. BALAKRISHNAN, Poet, Ootty
Ayothidasar used the Tulsimadam as a place of meditation. Sometimes he conducted free Siddha Medical Camps there. Toda hill tribes used to meet him and get medical treatment.
R.ASOKAN, S/o. K. RAJARAM AYOTHIDASAR
Ayothidasar’s Tulasimadam has been captured by the followers of HINDUTVA and his name has been suppressed. A manimandapam should be constructed in his memory in NILGIRIS – OOTY. His statue should be installed and the Govt. college in Ooty should be named after him. We appeal to the Hon. Chief Minister of TN to do the needful.
“We shall revive Tamil Buddhism is the light of Ayothidasar’s Teachings and liberate the suppressed
people of TAMILNADU.
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:604435/fulltext01.pdf
for
Comments on the History of Research
on Buddhism among Tamils
Alvapillai Veluppillai
Pandit Iyothee Thass and the Revival of Tamil Buddhism
Written by Bala J
Published on 27 June 2014
•
Bala J
We may say that great minds think alike when two scholars who lived in two different times and places reach a similar conclusion on the same problem. The traditionally educated nineteenth century Tamil scholar, Pandit Iyothee Thass as well as the twentieth century western educated intellectual from Maharashtra, Babasaheb Ambedkar, embraced Buddhism to show that it was the only way to annihilate the caste system. Both of them identified that the caste system had originated with the fall of Buddhism; therefore, believed the revival of Buddhism could perhaps liberate the people from the evil system of caste.
Pandit Iyothee Thass (1845-1914)* was born in a Dalit family in Royapettah in Chennai. He was a Siddha practitioner and a well-versed Tamil scholar having scholarly expertise in the traditional knowledge on astrology and palm-leaf manuscript reading. In 1870, Iyothee Thass foundedAdhvaidhananda Sabha (considered to be the first institution-building activity in his life), in Uthagamandalam, where he was brought up. In 1891, he established an organization called the Dravida Mahajana Sabha, and on 1st December 1891, he organised the First Conference on behalf of the Sabha at Ooty in Nilgiris district. In that conference, ten resolutions were passed including the one on enacting a criminal law to punish those who humiliated untouchables by calling them Pariahs, creating separate schools and providing scholarships for matriculation education for untouchable children; providing employment for educated untouchables, and representation for untouchables in District Boards and Municipal Boards (Tamilan, 14 October 1908).
The resolutions were sent to the Indian National Congress and the Mohammedans’ Association on 21st December 1891. In 1896, Reverend John Ratnam and Iyothee Thass jointly started a journal called Dravida Pandian. Another interesting piece of information is that, in 1882, Reverend John Ratnam and Iyothee Thass established a movement under the name ofDravida Kazhagam, (G. Aloysius, Nationalism without a Nation in India, Oxford, 2000); but this fact has been concealed so that no one now remembers Iyothee Thass as the pioneer of the Dravidian movement or anti-Brahmin movement.
Returning to Buddhism
Pandit Iyothee Thass
Pandit Iyothee Thass exhorted Dalits to embrace Buddhism for annihilating the system of caste. With this objective he constructed an alternative history with the help of Tamil literature and folk traditions of Tamil. He demonstrated that the untouchables were the native Buddhists and untouchability was imposed upon them because they opposed the orthodox practices exemplified by the Hindu Brahmins. He asserted that Buddhism was the first anti-Brahmin movement in Indian history. So he called on the Dalits to return to their original religion, Buddhism.
In 1898, Iyothee Thass visited Sri Lanka along with Panchama School Head Master Krishnasamy and there he converted himself to Buddhism. The Theosophist, (a monthly journal of the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai) records it in the following words:
Pandit C. Iyothee Thass, he was one of the two gentlemen whom the Colonel [Olcott] took to Ceylon in 1898 as representative of the Panchama Community of Madras. Both of them were admitted into Buddhist fold by the High Priest Sumangala, and thus began a new era in the history of the unfortunate Panchamas [Dalits] of Southern India.
After embracing Buddhism, he soon founded ‘The Sakya Buddhist Society’ in 1898, at Royapettah, Madras. In 1907, he started his journal Oru Paisa Tamilan as an organ of this organisation. From 1907 all his social and religious activities were recorded in the journal until his death on 5 May, 1914. Iyothee Thass had close association with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (an American military officer, who founded the Theosophical Society) and the Theosophical Movement in Adyar. Col. Olcott writes:
The problem of the origin and religious heredity of the Pariahs of southern India was so important, that I was determined to bring the communities into relation with the High Priest Sumangala, so that in case they were proved to have been original Buddhists their communities might be brought into close connection and under surveillance of the Buddhists of Ceylon. (Theosophist Magazine, April-June 1914, p. 315)
The Sakya Buddhist Society’s branches were founded not only in Thiruppattur and Vellore in Madras presidency, but were established even overseas, such as in Natal in South Africa, Rangoon and Sri Lanka where Dalits had earlier migrated as labourers. Similarly, the branches of the Sakya Buddhist Society were established in Champion Reefs, Marikuppam, Kolar Gold Fields near Bangalore, then part of the princely state of Mysore, where Dalits had settled as mine workers. The oppressed people saw the colonial rule as an opportunity to come out from the caste oppression. They did not want mere reformation but worked for the annihilation of caste by uprooting the Hindu hegemony through returning to their original religion of Buddhism.
Sakya Buddhist Society started organising regular lectures on Buddhism called Buddha Dhamma Pirasangam (preaching of Buddhism doctrines) in the evenings. These lectures were held until midnight. The office bearers of every branch of the society regularly published reports about the activities of their society in Tamilan. Many intellectuals devoted themselves to spreading the principles of Buddhism under the leadership of Iyothee Thass. Large numbers of people participated in the Buddhist rituals, functions and celebrations. The cultural life of Dalits became Buddhist and Buddhist rituals were practiced in the life events of birth, marriage and funeral. The names of those who converted to Buddhism were also published inTamilan (24 Aug, 1912). To cite an example of how successful the efforts of the society were, Dalits there got themselves categorised as a separate category of ‘Buddhists’ in the 1911 Mysore decennial census report.
Casteless identity construction
In 1881, when the colonial Government planned to carry out the second census, registration officials classified Depressed Classes as a new category within the Hindu religion. At the time, Iyothee Thass gave a memorandum to the British India Government requesting that the people of Depressed Classes in Tamil speaking land should be considered as Adi-Tamilar and not as Hindus. In subsequent decades the census department was keen on categorizing people on the basis of established customs and religion which meant the Hindu varna system. So every caste started establishing their caste associations in order to aggrandize their caste status in the census enumeration. It is not an exaggeration but a historical fact that every non-Brahmin caste equated their caste position either with Kshatriya or with Vaishya. But Iyothee Thass called on the untouchables to record their religion as Buddhism, which denounced the varna system. He called Dalits as Casteless Dravidians (Sathi Pethamatra Dravidar) because they were outside the system of caste.
Iyothee Thass termed the native inhabitants who followed Buddhism as Yatharththa Brahmana (actual Brahmins). Before the invasion of the Aryans, these native Budhdhists were the priests themselves. But the invading Aryans copied some ritual practices (not all) of the native Budhdhists and started to cheat the people out of selfish motives. So they were called Vesha Brahmana (pseudo Brahmins) by Iyothee Thass. He was also very critical of ‘non-Brahmin’ as a political category. He wondered how, while practicing the tenets of caste-based Hindu rituals, they could claim that they are non-Brahmins.
Oru Paisa Tamilan and Tamilan
Oru Paisa Tamilan, 3 July 1907
A Tamil weekly was started on 19th June 1907 bearing the name Oru Paisa Tamilan (after a year the name was changed toTamilan). It was edited, published and owned by Pandit Iyothee Thass. The average circulation of the weekly was 500. TheTamilan is the most renowned journal in Dalit print history because of its rich content and ideology. The four-page weekly was published every Wednesday in tabloid size. He wrote a series of articles on social and religious issues. The journal carried letters to the editor, articles, memoranda, circulars, etc. His activities were focused on reviving and reconstructing Tamil Buddhism among the Tamils.
Iyothee Thass’s role in the history of Dalit emancipation is very important. He tried half a century before Ambedkar to interpret history, religion and literature of the Tamils from the point of view of Buddhism which was once popular and prevalent in the south (Aloysius, Nationalism without a Nation in India, p. 58.) Iyothee Thass used many sources for his interpretation like Tamil literature, translations from Pali texts, folk tales, proverbs, colonial data, etc.
Iyothee Thass dreamed of a casteless society. He came to the ideological conclusion that Tamil Buddhism was the right tradition to achieve this ideal. He wrote the history of India in the Inthirardesa Sarithiram, in which he argued that before the invasion of the Aryans, Indians were living peacefully without caste, following the doctrines of Buddhism. They had divisions like Brahmana, Vyshya, Kshatriya and Sudra but it was only a division based on labour and there was no graded status according to their profession. The uncivilized Aryans changed this mere division of labour into a caste division based on birth for their betterment. He reinterpreted many rituals, mythologies and traditions from the viewpoint of Buddhism.
The readers of the Tamilan were mostly new form of labourers working in mines and domestic jobs. During the second half of the 19th century, new occupations developed in India under the aegis of colonialism; for example, in mines, the army, tea estates and so on. The landless Depressed Classes started utilizing these new opportunities to free themselves from the caste-ridden agriculture system. So they willingly migrated wherever they got an opportunity. The modern work culture provided space for reading and induced them to think and work for their community. Tamilan had identified these new generation (non-agricultural labourers) as its readers. From the list of subscribers, we may surmise that the journal was circulated not only in the Tamil region but also in South Africa, Burma, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Tanzania, etc., where Tamil people, especially lower castes had earlier migrated and settled for jobs.
Remembering Iyothee Thass
During the crucial time of modernization of Indian society, Iyothee Thass, a Dalit intellectual was able to use one of the tools of modernity i.e., print medium, to express his views and opinions. So far in Indian historiography only two views – nationalistic and imperialistic – are given importance; but during the same period there existed an independent view – that of Dalits – which was neglected in all historiography. Using print for the mobilization of dalits is quite interesting because in popular understanding, Dalits are seen as illiterate and uneducated. Here it is important to list out a few opinions of Iyothee Thass which occupied a prominent place in the Tamilan. He questioned the claim of the Indian National Congress that it was the sole representative of Indians. He never believed that Home Rule would bring any change in Dalits life. He stressed social transformation rather than political transformation.
Tamilan, 2 September 1908
Iyothee Thass tried to construct a unique political identity for the untouchables – such as Adi-Tamilar, Tamilan, Buddhist and so on. It is clear from the writings of Iyothee Thass that he considered the divisive and oppressive character of the caste system as antithetical to the spirit of nationalism. Dalits with their seemingly graded lower position in the hierarchical social structure had to take the position wherein they had to support the British. This is not a unique phenomenon in Tamil Nadu alone; the same happened among Dalits in Maharashtra where they resisted the Swadeshis and also in Bengal where the Namashudras supported the British openly. Dalits were very clear that this was the right time for them to claim social and political rights and Iyothee Thass, as a modernist, concentrated on the spiritual realm to carry forward those struggles.
* May 05, 2014, was the centenary memorial day of Pandit Iyothee Thass.
81) Classical Tamil
81)பாரம்பரிய தமிழ் செம்மொழி
புத்தர் (கி.மு.563-கி.மு.483)
இளவரசர் சித்தார்த்தர் எனும் இயற்பெயருடைய கௌதம் புத்தர் பெரும் சமயங்களுள் ஒன்றான பௌத்த சமயத்தை நிறுவியவராவார். சித்தார்த்தர் வடகிழக்கு இந்தியாவில் நேப்பாள எல்லையின் அருகிலுள்ள கபில வஸ்து எனும் நகரை ஆண்டு வந்த மன்னரின் மைந்தர் (கௌதம குடும்பத்தையும் சாக்கிய குலத்தையும் சேர்ந்த) சித்தார்த்தர் இன்றைய நேப்பாள எல்லைக்குள்ளிருக்கும் லும்பினியில் கி.மு. 563 இல் பிறந்ததாகக் கூறப்படுகின்றது. அவர் தமது 16 ஆம் வயதில் ஒத்த வயதுள்ள உறவினளைத் திருமணம் செய்து கொண்டார். செல்வம் கொழிக்கும் அரண்மனையில் பிறந்த சித்தார்த்தர் இளவரசருக்கு இன்ப நலன்களுக்குக் குறைவில்லை. ஆயினும் அவர் ஆழ்ந்த அதிருப்தியடைந்திருந்தார். மனிதருள் பலர் ஏழையாக இருப்பதையும், தொடர்ந்து வறுமையில் துன்புறுவதையும், எல்லோரும் நோயுற்று இறுதியில் இறப்பதையும் கண்டார். மறைந்து போகும் இன்பங்களை விட மேலானாதொன்று வாழ்க்கையில் உண்டென்றும், அவற்றை எல்லாம் துன்பமும் இறப்பும் விரைவில் அழித்தொழிக்கும் என்றும் சித்தார்த்தர் கருதினார்.
கௌதமர் தமது 29 ஆம் வயதில் தம் மூத்த மகன் பிறந்ததும் தாம் வாழ்ந்து வந்த வாழ்கையை துறந்து உண்மையை நாடுவதில் முழு முயற்சியுடன் ஈடுபடத் தீர்மானித்தார். தம் மனைவி, மழலை மகன், உடமைகள் எல்லாம் துறந்து அரண்மனையை விட்டு வெளியேறி, கையில் காசின்றி அலைந்து திரிந்தார். சிறிது காலம் அவர் அக்காலத்தில் புகழ் பெற்றிருந்த அறவோரிடம் பயின்றார். அவர்களுடைய போதனைகளை நன்கு கற்ற பின், மனித வாழ்க்கைப் பிரச்சினைகளைத் தீர்ப்பதற்கு அவர்கள் காட்டிய வழி தமக்கு மன நிறைவளிக்கவில்லை யெனக் கண்டார். கடுமையான துறவே உண்மையான அறிவை அடையும் வழியென்று அப்போது பரவலாக நம்பப்பட்டு வந்தது. ஆகவே கௌதமரும் கடுந்துறவியாக முயன்று, பல ஆண்டுகளாக கடும் நோன்பையும், ஒறுத்தலையும் மேற் கொண்டார். ஆயினும் நாளடைவில் உடலை வருத்துவதால் உள்ளம் குழம்புவதையும் உண்மையான அறிவை அடைய இயலவில்லை என்பதையும் உணர்ந்தார். ஆகவே அவர் வழக்கம் போல் உண்டு, கடுந்துறவைக் கைவிட்டார்.
வாழ்க்கைப் பிரச்சினைக்களுக்குத் தீர்வு காண அவர் தனிமையில் கடுஞ் சிந்தனையில் ஆழ்ந்தார். இறுதியில் ஒரு நாள் மாலையில் அவர் ஒரு பெரிய அத்தி மரத்தடியில் அமர்ந்திருந்த போது, தம்மைக் குழப்பிய பிரச்சினைகளுக்கெல்லாம் தீர்வு கிடைப்பது போல் அவருக்கு தோன்றியது. சித்தார்த்தர் இரவு முழுவதும் ஆழ்ந்த சிந்தனையில் மூழ்கியிருந்தார். மறுநாள் காலையில் தாம் ” அறவொளி பெற்ற ” ஒரு புத்தர் என்றும் உறுதியாக உணர்ந்தார். அப்போது அவருக்கு 35 வயது. எஞ்சிய 45 ஆண்டுகளில் அவர் வட இந்தியா முழுவதும் சென்று கேட்க விரும்பிய அனைவருக்கும் தமது புதிய கோட்பாட்டைப் போதித்து வந்தார். கி.மு. 483 இல் அவர் இறப்பதற்குள் ஆயிரக்கணக்கான மக்களை மதம் மாற்றினார். அவர் கூறியவை எழுதப் பெறவில்லை யெனினும், அவருடைய சீடர்கள் அவர் போதனைகள் பலவற்றை மனப்பாடம் செய்திருந்தனர். அவை வாய்மொழி மூலமாகத் தலைமுறையாகப் பரவின.
புத்தரின் முக்கியப் போதனைகளைப் பௌத்தர்கள் ” நான்கு உயர் உண்மைகள்” எனச் சுருக்கமாகக் கூறுவர். முதலாவது, மனித வாழ்க்கை இயல்பாகவே துயருடையது. இரண்டாவது, இத்துயரின் காரணம் மனிதனின் தன்னலமும் ஆசையுமாகும். மூன்றாவது, தனி மனிதன் தன்னலத்தையும் ஆசையையும் அடக்கிவிடலாம். எல்லா ஆசைகளும் ஆவல்களும் ஒழிந்த இறுதி நிலை (” அணைதல் அல்லது அவிதல்” எனப் பொருள்படும்) ” நிர்வாணம்” எனப்படும். நான்காவது, தன்னலம், ஆசை ஆகியவற்றிலிருந்து தப்பிக்கும் ” எட்டு வகைப் பாதை” எனப்படும். அவை, நேர்மையான பேச்சு, நேர்மையான செயல், நேர்மையான வாழ்க்கை, நேர்மையான முயற்சி, நேர்மையான தியானம், பௌத்த சமயத்தில் இன வேறுபாடின்றி அனைவரும் சேரலாம். (இந்து சமயம் போலன்றி) இதில் சாதி வேறுபாடு இல்லை.
கௌதமர் இறந்த பின் கொஞ்ச காலம் இப்புதிய சமயம் மெதுவாகப் பரவியது. கி.மு. 3 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் பெரும் இந்தியப் பேரரசரான அசோகர் பௌத்த சமயத்தை தழுவினார். அவரது ஆதரவினால் பௌத்த சமயச் செல்வாக்கும் போதனைகளும் இந்தியாவில் விரைவாகப் பரவியதுடன், பௌத்த சமயம் அண்டை நாடுகளுக்கும் பரவியது. தெற்கில் இலங்கையிலும், கிழக்கே பர்மாவிலும் பௌத்த சமயம் பரவியது. அங்கிருந்து அது தென்கிழக்கு ஆசியா முழுவதும், மலேசியாவிலும், இன்றைய இந்தோனேசியாவிலும் பரவியது. பௌத்த சமயம் வடக்கே திபெத்திலும், வடமேற்கில் ஆப்கானிஸ்தானிலும், மத்திய ஆசியாவிலும் பரவியது. அது சீனாவிலும் பரவியது. அங்கு ஏராளமான மக்கள் அதைத் தழுவினர். அங்கிருந்து அது கொரியாவிற்கும், ஜப்பானுக்கும் பரவியது.
இந்தியாவினுள் இப்புதிய சமயம் கி.பி. 500 - க்குப் பிறகு நலிவுறத் தொடங்கி, கி.பி. 1200 - க்குப் பிறகு ஏறக்குறைய முழுவதும் மறைந்து விட்டது. ஆனால் சீனாவிலும், ஜப்பானிலும் அது முக்கிய சமயமாக இருந்தது. திபெத்திலும் தென்கிழக்கு ஆசியாவிலும் பல நூற்றாண்டுகளாக அது தலையாய சமயமாக இருந்து வந்துள்ளது. புத்தர் இறந்து பல நூற்றாண்டுகள் வரை அவருடைய போதனைகள் எழுதப் பெறவில்லை. ஆகவே இவரது இயக்கம் பல கிளைகளாகப் பிரிந்தது பௌத்த சமயத்தின் இரு முக்கிய கிளைகளுள் ஒன்று தேரவதா பிரிவு. இது தென்கிழக்கு ஆசியாவில் தழைத்தோங்கியது. இதுவே புத்தர் போதித்த போதனைகளுடன் நெருங்கிய தொடர்புடையதென மேல் நாட்டு அறிஞர் பலர் கருதுகின்றனர். மற்றொரு கிளை மகாயானம். இது பொதுவாக திபெத், சீனா, வட ஆசியாவில் செழித்தோங்கியது.
உலகப் பெரும் சமயங்களுள் ஒன்றை நிறுவியவரான புத்தர் இப்பட்டியலில் உயரிடம் பெற தகுதியுடையவர். 80 கோடி முஸ்லீம்களும், 100 கோடி கிறிஸ்தவர்களும் இருக்கும் இவ்வுலகில் 20 கோடி பௌத்தர்களே இருப்பதால், நபிகள் நாயகமும் கிறிஸ்து பெருமானும் கவர்ந்ததை விடக் குறைந்த எண்ணிக்கையுள்ள மக்களையே புத்தர் கவர்ந்தார் என்பது போல் தோன்றுகிறது. ஆயினும் எண்ணிக்கை வேறுபாட்டைக் கொண்டு நாம் தவறான முடிவுகளுக்கு வரலாகாது. பௌத்த சமயத்தின் கருத்துகளையும் கொள்கைகளையும இந்து சமயம் ஈர்த்துக் கொண்டது. பௌத்த சமயம் இந்தியாவில் மறைந்ததற்கு அது ஒரு காரணமாகும். சீனாவில் கூட தம்மை பௌத்தர்களெனக் கருதாதவர் பலரை பௌத்தக் கோட்பாடுகள் கவர்ந்துள்ளன.
கிறிஸ்துவ, இஸ்லாமிய சமயங்களை விட பௌத்த சமயம் பெரும் அமைதி இயல்புடையது. இன்னா செய்யாமைக் கொள்கை பௌத்த சமய நாடுகளில் அரசியல் வரலாற்றில் சிறப்பிடம் பெற்றுள்ளது. கிறிஸ்து பெருமான் திரும்பவும் உலகிற்கு வருவாரானால் தமது பெயரால் நடைபெறும் பலவற்றைக் கண்டு அதிர்ச்சியடைவரெனவும், அவரைப் பின்பற்றுவதாகக் கூறிக்கொள்ளும் வெவ்வேறு பிரிவினரிடையே நிகழும் கொடிய போராட்டங்களைப் பார்த்துத் திகிலடைவாரெனவும் பலமுறை சொல்லப் படுகின்றது. புத்தரும் பௌத்தக் கோட்பாடுகளெனக் கூறப்படும் பல கோட்பாடுகளைக் கண்டு வியப்படைவாரென்பதில் ஐயமில்லை. ஆனால் பௌத்த சமயத்தில் பல கிளைகள் இருப்பினும், இக்கிளைகளிடையே பெரும் வேறுபாடுகள் இருப்பினும், கிறிஸ்துவ ஐரோப்பாவில் நிகழ்ந்தவை போன்ற கொடிய சமயப் போர்கள் பௌத்த வரலாற்றில் நிகழ்ந்ததில்லை. இதைப் பொறுத்தவரையில், கிறிஸ்துவின் போதனைகள் அவரைப் பின்பற்றியவரிடையே மிகுதியான விளைவுகளை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளது போல் தோன்றுகிறது. புத்தரும் கன்ஃபூசியஸீம் உலகை ஏறக்குறைய ஒரேயளவில் கவர்ந்துள்ளனர். இருவரும் ஏறக்குறைய ஒரே காலத்தில் வாழ்ந்தனர். அவர்களைப் பின்பற்றியவர்களின் தொகையும் மிகுதியாக வேறுபடவில்லை. நான் புத்தரைக் கன்ஃபூசியஸீக்கு முன்னால் வைப்பதற்கு இரண்டு காரணங்கள் உள்ளன. முதலாவது, சீனாவில் பொதுவுடமைக் கொள்கை தோன்றியதிலிருந்து கன்ஃபூசியஸின் செல்வாக்கு மிகவும் குறைந்து விட்டது. வருங்காலத்தில் கன்ஃபூசியஸின் கருத்துகளை விட புத்தரின் கொள்கைகளே மிக முக்கியமாகக் கருதப்படுமெனத் தெரிகின்றது. இரண்டாவது, கன்ஃபூசியக் கோட்பாடு சீனாவிற்கு வெளியே பரவவில்லை என்பது முந்திய சீன மனப்பாங்கில் கன்ஃபூசியஸின் கருத்துகள் எவ்வளவு மெதுவாகப் பதிந்திருந்தன என்பதைக் காட்டுகிறது. ஆனால் புத்தரின் போதனைகளோ முந்திய இந்தியக் கோட்பாட்டைத் திரும்பக் கூறுவதாக அமையவில்லை. கௌதம புத்தரின் கருத்துகள் புதுமையாக இருந்தாலும், அவருடைய கோட்பாடு பலரைக் கவர்ந்ததாலும், பௌத்த சமயம் இந்திய எல்லையைக் கடந்து மிகத் தொலைவில் பரவியது.
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Gautam Buddha’s Animated Life Story in Tamil - 1/4- 6:30 mins
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Gautam Buddha’s Animated Life Story in Tamil - 2/4- 6:45 mins
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Gautam Buddha’s Animated Life Story in Tamil - 3/4 - 6:57 mins
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Gautam Buddha’s Animated Life Story in Tamil - 4/4- 7:33 mins
Published on Aug 22, 2012
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
1496 பாடம் 5515 செவ்வாய்க்கிழமை
இலவச ஆன்லைன் eNālandā ஆராய்ச்சி மற்றும் பயிற்சி பல்கலைக்கழகம்
http://sarvajan.ambedkar.org
http://www.orgsites.com/oh/awakenedone/
1. புத்தர்
பாரம்பரிய ஆங்கிலம், தமிழ்
கவுதம புத்தர்
ஸ்தாபக படம்
மேலும் சித்தார்த்த கவுதம, சாக்கியமுனி, அல்லது வெறுமனே புத்தர் என அழைக்கப்படும் கவுதம புத்தர், புத்த நிறுவப்பட்டது அதன் போதனைகளை ஒரு முனிவர் இருந்தது
பிறந்தது: கபிலவஸ்து, நேபால்
மறைவு: Kushinagar
முழுப்பெயர்: சித்தார்த்த கவுதம
கணவன், மனைவி ராணி யசோதரா
பெற்றோர்: ராணி மகா மாயா, Mahapajapati Gotami, கிங் Suddhodana
புத்த புத்தர் தொடங்கியது. என்ற அர்த்தத்தில் யதார்த்தத்திற்கு எழுந்திருக்க ‘- வார்த்தை’ புத்தர் ‘’ பகல் யார் ‘என்ற அர்த்தத்தில், ஒரு தலைப்பு இருக்கிறது.
புத்தர் சுமார் 2,500 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு லும்பினி நேபால் உள்ள சித்தார்த்தா கவுதம பிறந்தார். அவர் ஒரு கடவுள் அல்லது ஒரு தீர்க்கதரிசியாக இருக்க கூறவில்லை.
இயலுமாயின் ஆழ்ந்த வழியில் வாழ்க்கை புரிந்து, becameAwakened ஒரு மனிதர்.
சித்தார்த்த இந்திய-நேபாள எல்லையில் ஒரு சிறிய பேரரசின் அரச குடும்பத்தில் பிறந்தார். பாரம்பரிய கதை படி அவர்
சிறப்பாக வளர்க்கப்படவில்லை, ஆனால் வாழ்க்கை முதுமை, வியாதி, மரணம் கடுமையான உண்மைகளை இதில் அடங்கும் என்று உணர்கிறாய் தனது அடைக்கலம் வாழ்க்கை வெளியே நடுக்கம்.
இந்த வாழ்க்கையின் அர்த்தம் மீது புதிர் அவரைத் தூண்டியது. இறுதியில் அவர் தனது அரண்மனையை விட்டு வெளியேற மற்றும் பாரம்பரிய Jambudipan பாதையை பின்பற்ற வேண்டிய கட்டாயம் உணர்ந்தார்
புனித மனிதன், உண்மை பின்னர் ஒரு கோருவோர். அவர் பல்வேறு ஆசிரியர்களின் கீழ் தியானம் மிகவும் திறமையானவை ஆனார், பின்னர், தவப் பயிற்சிகளான எடுத்து.
இந்த ஒரு சதை மறுப்பதன் மூலம் ஆவி விடுவிக்க முடியும் என்ற நம்பிக்கையின் அடிப்படையில். அவர் மிகவும் தீர்மானமாக அவர் கிட்டத்தட்ட உயிரையும் என்று பல சிக்கன நடவடிக்கைகள் பயிற்சி.
புத்தரின் போதனைகளை நித்திய உள்ளன, ஆனால் பிறகு மீண்டும் புத்தர் விழாத இருக்க அவற்றை அறிவிக்க வில்லை. புத்தர் மதம் முறை ஏற்ப மாற்ற திறன், வேறு எந்த ஒரு மதமும் இல்லை என்று கூறுகின்றனர் முடியும், இது ஒரு தரம் உள்ளது …
இப்போது புத்த மதம் அடிப்படையில் என்ன? நீங்கள் கவனமாக ஆய்வு என்றால், நீங்கள் புத்த காரணத்தை அடிப்படையாகக் கொண்டுள்ளது என்று பார்ப்பீர்கள். மற்ற மதத்தை காணப்படவில்லை இது அது உள்ளார்ந்த நெகிழ்வு, ஒரு உறுப்பு உள்ளது. - பீம்ராவ் ராம்ஜி அம்பேத்கர்,
தனது எழுத்துகளை speeches.Please இந்த நாட்டை அரசியலமைப்பின் ஒரு பெரும் கல்வியாளர், தத்துவவாதி மற்றும் கட்டிடக்
Behan மாயாவதி புத்தர் பூர்ணிமா மீது புத்தர் அஞ்சலி செலுத்தினர்
பகுஜன் சமாஜ் கட்சியின் (BSP) தலைவர் மாயாவதி பங்குகளை ஞாயிறன்று புத்த பின்பற்றினான் யார் அம்பேத்கர் மீது தனது கூற்றை Buddh பூர்ணிமா தினத்தன்று தேர்வு.
அவள் கவுதம் Buddh என்ற பெயரில் கட்டப்பட்டு நினைவிடங்கள் மற்றும் கல்வி நிறுவனங்கள் பெறுவதில் அவரது முந்தைய அரசு சாதனைகள் உயர்த்தி. மாயாவதி அரசாங்கம் நொய்டா, கிரேட்டர் நொய்டா, லக்னோ விஐபி சாலை நொய்டாவில் கவுதம் புத்தர் பல்கலைக்கழகம் மற்றும் புத்தர் சாந்தி Upvan போன்ற நினைவுச் கட்டுமான கொண்டுள்ளது என்று கவுதம் Buddh நகர் உருவாக்கம் உறுதி எப்படி நினைவு கூர்ந்தார். தன்னுடைய அரசாங்கம் கிழக்கு உ.பி., சுற்றுலா மற்றும் பக்தர்கள் புத்தர் சுற்று வளர்ச்சி உறுதி என்று கூறினார்.
முன்னதாக புத்தர் பூர்ணிமா பகுஜன் சமாஜ் கட்சியை (ஞாயிறு, மே 3, 2015) அன்று (பகுஜன் சமாஜ் கட்சி) தலைவர் Behan மாயாவதி புத்தர் அஞ்சலி செலுத்தினர் மற்றும் புத்தர் சாதியற்ற சமூகத்தை வேலை மற்றும் அவரது போதனைகள் இன்னும் செல்லுபடியாகும் கூறினார்.
Behan மாயாவதி புத்தர் பூர்ணிமா மீது புத்தர் அஞ்சலி செலுத்தினர்
அது Behan மாயாவதி புத்தர் நினைவு வருகிறது என்று முதல் உதாரணமாக இல்லை என்று இங்கே நினைவில் கொள்ள வேண்டும். அவள் புத்தரின் கருத்துக்களை மீது தொடர்ந்து வேலை மற்றும் கவுதம் புத்தர் நகர், நொய்டா நடைமுறையில் உள்ள ஒரு முக்கிய பங்கு வகித்தது. Behan மாயாவதி ஆட்சி காலத்தில், அவர் புத்தரின் பெயரை பல நினைவிடங்கள் மற்றும் கல்வி நிறுவனங்கள் செய்தார். கவுதம் புத்தர் பல்கலைக்கழகம் போன்ற பல.
புத்த பிக்குகளுடன் Behan மாயாவதி
தவிர எந்த ஒரு எஸ்.சி / எஸ்.டி-bahujans வரலாறு எ.கா. உருவாக்கம் Behan மாயாவதி பாத்திரத்தை மறக்க முடியாது. லக்னோவில் அம்பேத்கர் பூங்கா. நாங்கள் PRABUDDHA பாரத் செய்ய வேண்டும் என்றால், நாம் அதிகார பி.எஸ்.பி வேண்டும், அதனால் நான் பகுஜன் சமாஜ் கட்சி ஆதரவு அனைவருக்கும் கோரிக்கை மற்றும் அதை நடவடிக்கைகள் தான். நாங்கள் சக்தி வேண்டும் நாம் நம் சொந்த அரசாங்கம் வேண்டும் மட்டும் நாம் நம் சின்னங்கள் மற்றும் எங்கள் கொள்கைகளை என்னால் எதையும் செய்ய முடியாது.
awakenmediaprabandhak
(மோடி) deadmocerytic நிறுவனங்கள் கொலை bluffers இருக்கும் யார் திருட்டுத்தனமாக இந்துத்துவ வழிபாட்டு உள்ளது:
அவர் கூறுகிறார்:
யாராவது அவரது காது ஒரு ஆணி அடிக்க போது புத்தர் இறந்தார்!
இது
BuddhaHe பறிமுதல்
எந்த வரலாறு, புவியியல், தெரியாது, எந்த cicic உணர்வு உள்ளது
இந்த நாட்டில் சாதி முறையானது 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th விகிதம் athmas (ஆன்மா) மற்றும் எந்த ஆன்மா கொண்ட theUntouchables நடி மற்றும் கடுமையாக நடத்தப்பட முடியும் போது, புத்தர் எந்த ஆன்மா neverbelieved. அவர் சமமானவர்கள் கூறினார். எனவே டாக்டர் அம்பேத்கர் அதே விரும்பினார் அவர்களின் பிறப்பிடங்களில் Buddhism.Kanshiram திரும்பி வர இந்த Jambudipa உள்ள wantedall இப்போது மாயாவதி அமைதி, எல்லா சமூகங்களும் நலன் andhappiness, இந்த traditionfor Sarvajan Hitaye Sarvajan Sukhaye அதாவது தொடர்ந்து வருகிறது. உலக democraciesof 80 தொடர்ந்து என EVMs வருங்கால முட்டாள் ஆதாரம் வாக்குகள் பதிலாக வந்திருக்கலாம் இந்த அனைத்து மோசடி அடைய. போன்ற நேரம் வரை இந்த மோசடி EVMs selectedthrough அனைத்து மத்திய மாநில அரசுகள் கைவிடப்படலாம். முன்னாள் CJI சதாசிவம் theex தலைமை தேர்தல் சம்பத் கூறினார் என அவர்கள் ஏனெனில் முட்டாள் ஆதாரம் வாக்களிக்கும் முறை கொண்டு replacingthem ஆகும் செலவுகள் (Rs1600 கோடி) கட்டங்கள் உள்ள பதிலீடு செய்ய வேண்டும் உத்தரவிட்டதன் மூலம் தீர்ப்பு agrave தவறை போது உச்ச நீதிமன்றம் இந்த மோசடி EVMs பதிலாக hadordered . மீண்டும் உச்ச நீதிமன்றம் அனைத்து மோசடி EVMs பதிலாக orderfor வேண்டும். போன்ற நேரம் வரை உலக deadmocreytic நிறுவனங்கள் கொலைகாரர்களுக்கும் (மோடி), முதல் 1% பயங்கரவாத, errorist, போர்க்குணம் எந்த மோசடி நடவடிக்கை notrecognise ஆர்.எஸ்.எஸ் Bahuth Jiyadha Paapis (பா.ஜ.க.) மாஸ்டர் KEYthrough மோசடி EVMs பிடித்துக்கொண்டார் வன்முறை, திருட்டுத்தனமாக இந்துத்துவ cultchitpawan பிராமணர் deadmocreytic நிறுவனங்கள் (மோடி) கொலைகாரர்களுக்கும், இப்போது அவர்கள் புத்தமதம் மற்றும் புத்தர் விழிப்புணர்வு விழித்துக்கொண்டது ஒரு successfullyrevived டாக்டர் அம்பேத்கர் வாட்டி தொடங்கியது மாஸ்டர் கீ அடையும். அது ஒரு கோட்பாடு இல்லை என்பதால் இயங்காது விழிப்புணர்வு theAwakened ஒன்று விளையாடி, ஆனால் ஒரு தீண்டாமை பயிற்சி மற்றும் அதே நேரத்தில் வேலை எங்கும் நேரத்தில் பெளத்தம் கொண்ட கேக் practice.Eating.
பார்க்க தயவு செய்து:
http://www.pbs.org/thebuddha/
ஐந்து
புத்தர், டேவிட் Grubin- 1:51:47 மணிகள் ஒரு படம்
ரிச்சர்டு கிரே இந்த விருது பெற்ற திரைப்படத் தயாரிப்பாளர் டேவிட் Grubin மூலம் பிபிஎஸ் ஆவணப்படத்தில் மற்றும் விவரிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது புத்தரின் வாழ்க்கை கதையை, வன்முறை மாற்றம் மற்றும் ஆன்மீக குழப்பம் எங்கள் சொந்த குழப்பமூட்டுவதாய் முறை குறிப்பாக பொருத்தமான ஒரு பயணம். அது இரண்டு நூற்றாண்டுகளுக்கும் முழுவதும், அழகு மற்றும் சிக்கலான நிறைந்த கலை புத்தரின் வாழ்க்கை சித்தரிக்கப்பட்டது யார் உலகின் மிக பெரிய கலைஞர்கள் மற்றும் சிற்பிகள், சில வேலை கொண்டுள்ளது. புலிட்சர் பரிசு வென்ற கவிஞர் டபிள்யூ உட்பட சமகால புத்த பண்டைய விவரிப்பு நுண்ணறிவு கேளுங்கள் Merwin மற்றும் தலாய் லாமா. உரையாடல் சேர தியானம், புத்தமதம் வரலாற்றில், எப்படி தினசரி வாழ்வில் கருணை மற்றும் நெறிகள் புத்தரின் போதனைகள் இணைத்துக்கொள்ள பற்றி மேலும் அறிய.
சந்திரசேகரன் Jagatheesan
மேலும் அம்பேத்கர் புத்தரின் சிலைகள் நாடு ஒவ்வொரு தெருவில் நிறுவ வேண்டும். ஒவ்வொரு வீடும், சந்தோஷம், நலன் மற்றும் சமாதான விகாரைகள் மாற்றப்படுகிறது.
அயோத்திதாச பண்டாரம் எங்கள் ஆதிதிராவிடத்தின் சிங்காரம் .
Dr .Veeramani, Delhi.
சாக்கிய தருவுக்கு உரம் இட்ட தென்னகத்து ஒளி ..
தம்ம நாகரிக மொழி வரைந்த சங்கத்து ஓவியன் ….
பறையன் என்ற இனத்தின் வழியில்
பாதை அமைத்த விடுதலை விரும்பி
எங்கள் பவுத்த வழியை மீட்டு தந்த
காத்தவராயன், காதலன் தனத்துக்கு ….
எண்ணூத்தி நாபத்தைந்து பிறந்தான் ..
இந்த உலகையே தம்மம் கொண்டு அளந்தான் ..
கால் ஊனம் என ஊர்சொன்னாலும் ..
சமுக ஊனம் களைய ஓடி ஆடிய ஆதி வீரம் ..
வெள்ளைக்காரனுக்கும் ஆங்கில வாத்தியார்
ராயபேட்டை பதிப்பகத்து ரத்தினம் …
கோலார் தங்கவலில் தம்மம் விதைத்த ..
..மாரிகுப்பத்து சொந்தம் இவன் மனுஷி தந்த வைரம் ..
பன்மொழி புலமை படைத்து..
சாதி பாறை உடைத்தவன் ..
..எங்கள் மொழிகளில் பிரியாத இலக்கணம் இவன் …
ஒருபைசா தமிழன் என்றான் ..
..அதற்கும் உதவாத மனிதர் காண் ..
தமிழில் முதலில் மூத்தவன் ..
..இவனிடம் சூத்திரன் தோத்தவன் ….
பண்டிதன் தாசன் பேசும்போது ..
மொழிகள் தங்கள் திமிர் அடக்கி .
.வாத்தியார் வணக்கமிடும் ..
முகம் காட்டாது குலம் காத்த போதிசத்தவன்..
இவன் முன்னோர் வரலாற்றை மீட்டவன் ..
விளம்பரம் இல்லாது விடியல் தந்த வீர அரகன் …
..இவன் வெள்ளைக்காரனின் செல்லபிள்ளை ..
ஆல்காட் நண்பனை அழைத்து வந்து ..
..அனுராத நகரில் தீக்ஷை கொண்டவன் ..
பிலோவட்ச்கி சகோதரிக்கு ..
.. அண்ணன் அயோத்தி தாசன் ..
எங்களை பிரிந்து செல்லாத கொள்கை குருதி ..
..எழுத்துக்களில் எரிமலை வீசிய சமுக விக்ஞானி ..
பெரியவன் என சொல்லும் பேதை எல்லாம் ..
இவன் எழுத்தை திருடிய தாடி மீசைகள் …
..அதை எள்ளுக்கு குறைவாய் ..
..ஏலம் விட்டனரோ … அயயஹோ …
கௌதம பதிப்பகம் கண்ட களப்பிரன் ..
..இவன் சித்தார்த்த அச்சகம் தந்த சாக்கியன் ..
மலேசிய ரங்கூனுக்கு பயணி ..
..இவன் இல்லாத பொழுது எமக்கு மரணி ..
ரெட்டைமலயனின் மைத்துனன் ..
..இவன் கோழியாலத்தின் தனமகன் ..
மக்கி தோட்டத்தில் பிறந்தவன் ..
..நீலகிரியில் தொடர்ந்தவன் …
ரிப்பன் மாளிகையில் விபசன்னம் கொண்டு ..
..பறையனின் கோரிக்கை சொல்லி ..
.. பார் அரிய செயித்தவன்..
பஞ்சமற்கு நிலம் வேண்டி …
கௌடியிடம் சொன்னவன் …
த்றேமேன்ஹேரே சட்டம் தர ..
..திட்டம் தந்த வள்ளுவன் ….
எண்ணூத்தி தொன்னதொன்றில் ..
..மாநாடு தந்தவன் ..
..மதராஸ் நகரத்தை வளம் வந்து ..
..அரக்கோணம் ரயிலில் ஆள் திரட்டியவன் ,,
பௌத்தமே தன் வழி என திறம் கொண்டவன் ..
..சொந்த மாமனின் வழக்கையும் வென்றவன் …
சாம்பவன் சக்கிலி தோட்டி மள்ளன் ..
தங்கலான் பள்ளன் மாதாரி தலையாரி ..
…எல்லாம் பறையன் என்ற இனம் என ..
…ஆதிதிராவிட அலகு முறை சொன்னவன் ..
அசோகனின் ஆட்சி முறை போற்றி ..
..அரகதோ பகவதோ என வந்தனம் என்றவன் ..
லும்பினி வரலாற்றை தன்பணி என்பான் ..
இவன் மகத தினை சொன்ன ஆதி மொழி ….
வாசுகியின் கணவன் தந்த திரிக்குறள்..
…அது தம்ம பதத்தின் மறுவாசிப்பு …
பண்டிதன் படித்தால்….ஆஹா அது சிறப்பு …
தலைப்பாகை இட்டு தலை பகை வென்ற ..
தம்மபுரத்து ஆதி வாகை …
..இவனை தலைவன் என்றால் ஆஹா அது சிலிர்ப்பு ..
தமிழ் தென்றலுக்கும் மருத்தவம் செய்த ..
…பறை தேசத்து தத்துவம் ..
இவன் பறையாத நாளில் எல்லாமே செத்திடும் …
மேடை போடாது வேஷம் இடாது ..
சுவரொட்டி இல்லாது சுரணை இழக்காது …
..கொள்கை மருந்தை வீதி தோறும் ..
கொடையாய் அளித்த சமுக மருத்துவன் ..
…எங்கள் சாக்கிய தலைமகன் …
சிவராஜ் மீனாம்பாள்
ரெட்டைமலை சீனிவாசன்
பாபாசஹெப் எம் சி ராஜா ஜான் ரத்தினம்
பள்ளிகொண்டான் கிருஷ்ணசாமி
முனி சாமி பிள்ளை
மாரிகுப்பம் பெரியசாமி
கப்பலோட்டிய மதுரம் பிள்ளை
இளையபெருமாள் வீரன் கே பி எஸ் மணி
மலைச்சாமி எல் குருசாமி
இம்மானுவேல் சேகரன்
புரட்சி அண்ணன் மூர்த்தியார்
..நீளும் நீல வரிசை…
…..என எங்கள் குருதி
சாக்கியம் காக்க வீரம் கொண்டது …
…..இந்த சரித்திரத்தை சூத்திரர்
…வீழ்த்திட யார் வழி செய்தது …
துளிர்க்கும் அரக செடி
தூண்டிடும் வந்தனம் சொல்லி
பருக தம்மபதம்
பார் ஆள சித்தார்த்த வழி
உருகும் ஒரு சொல் மொழி
அது உலகறிந்த ஆதி
வரும் மேகலை துறவறம்
மகத ஒளி மனிதன் ஆள
கபிலவஸ்து கைகோர்க்கும்
கலிங்கம் தன் போர் மறக்கும்
சேரிகள் இந்து எதிர்த்த
சரித்திரம் மனம் நெருக
வேஷ பிராமண பிதற்றல் ஒழிக்க
சாணி தெளிக்கும் சாக்கிய பெண்கள்
பேணி காத்த பெரும் வரலாறு
பிள்ளையாய் பிறக்கும் பறை கருவில்
தம்மம் தம்மம் தம்மம்
என மழலை மொழி மாநிலம் வரும்
அரஹனே பவுத்தனே
எங்கள் ஆதி வீரமே …
….என சொல்லி சொல்லி
யாம் போதி நிலத்தில்
புகழோடு வாழ்வோம் …
….லங்காவும் ரங்கூனும்
விஹரும் குஷி நகரும்
எங்கள் உறவுகள் படரும் பறை படம்..
….சிங்க ஊரும் மலையவும் ..
..சீனமும் சப்பானியமும் ..
..பாமியணும் பம்பாயும்..
..எங்கள் பாசம் சென்ற பாய்மர படகு வழி ..
…
…..காத்தவராயா …
…..எங்களின் கண்ணீரை துடைத்தவன் நீயா ..
..உன் ஆதி தம்மத்தை உணரும் பொழுதில் ..
…மெய் சிலிர்க்க பொய் உதிரும்..
.. பொல்லாத உடலில் ..
..இந்து போதை தெளிவிக்க வந்த..
..புத்தன் அனுப்பிய அறப்போர் வாளே..
எந்த திசை போனாலும் உன் ..
..எழுத்து வரும் நிழலாய் …
..கதிரவன் கூட கூச செய்யாத …
எங்கள் அடிமை குருதியை ..
…காத்தவராயனே நீ கழுவி விட்டாய் ..
புரிந்தவன் போல நடிப்பவன்
..இன்னும் அடிமை அரசியலில் ..
..நடிக்காமல் புரிந்து கொண்டவன் ..
..இங்கே நடுத்தெரு வீதியில் …
சாம்பல் கிளறி எழும் உன் சரித்திரம் …
…பாலைவனத்து ஒட்டகம் போல ..
..பார்க்காது பருகும் நீர்போல
…அவ்வபோது உன் எழுத்து கிடைத்தாலும் ..
அப்பா ..அது நரம்புகளை எழுப்பிவிடும் நாகரிக துடிப்பு ..
…முடிக்க நினைத்தும்..
முடியாமல் தோத்தேன் உனை எழுதி
.படிக்க நினைத்து பாதியில் அயர்ந்தேன் …
…அயயஹோ …பண்டித மணியே ..
..பார் ஆண்ட சிந்தனை பணியே ..
….பண்டாரம் என அழைப்பர் உனை ..
…பறையன் குலம் என்பர் உன் குடியை ..
மொழிக்கு மூத்தவன் நீ
…தம்ம வழிக்கு வாசல் தந்த வள்ளல்
..நாங்கள் கண்ணீர் சிந்தி கதறி அழுவோம் ..
..உன் ஒட்றை புகை(புகா) படம் கண்டு ..
..முகம் மட்டும் காட்டி ..
முழு உடல் உடல் காட்டாது ..
..எம்மை அழ விட்டு சென்றாய் நீ
…அப்பா பண்டிதனே …
….உன் முகம் எங்கள் தலையில் ஏறிட
…முப்பது கோடிக்கும் மேல்
ஜம்புதீபத்தில் சாக்கிய பண்டிதன்கள்..
… எங்கள் அசைவில் நீ
மூச்சில் நீ
எழுத்தில் நீ
..இசையில் நீ
மொழியில் நீ ..
..இறக்காமல் மறைந்த ..
புரட்சி மணியே …
….நீ தம்மவரம்..
..சேரி மொழியின் தலைநகரம்
அயோத்திதாச பண்டாரம் எங்கள்
ஆதிதிராவிடத்தின் சிங்காரம் .
வீரமணி பேராசிரியர் புது தில்லி
St. Xavier’s College, Palayamkottai
PUDUCHERRY
Editor, Resurgence, Chennai
Leader, VC, Chennai.
Research Worker,
Chennai
Pandit Ayothidasar and Dr. Ambedkar studied the Life of Buddha written by Aswagosh. Both studied books written in the Pali language. Ayothidasar’s writings stand testimony to the fact that he did not base himself on Tamil writings alone.
Scholar and Writes, Erode
CHENNAI
(Ex-Minister, GOI)
Chennai
President,
Adivasigal Seva Sangam, Ootty
people of TAMILNADU.
for
Comments on the History of Research
on Buddhism among Tamils
Alvapillai Veluppillai
Published on 27 June 2014
•
Pandit Iyothee Thass (1845-1914)* was born in a Dalit family in Royapettah in Chennai. He was a Siddha practitioner and a well-versed Tamil scholar having scholarly expertise in the traditional knowledge on astrology and palm-leaf manuscript reading. In 1870, Iyothee Thass foundedAdhvaidhananda Sabha (considered to be the first institution-building activity in his life), in Uthagamandalam, where he was brought up. In 1891, he established an organization called the Dravida Mahajana Sabha, and on 1st December 1891, he organised the First Conference on behalf of the Sabha at Ooty in Nilgiris district. In that conference, ten resolutions were passed including the one on enacting a criminal law to punish those who humiliated untouchables by calling them Pariahs, creating separate schools and providing scholarships for matriculation education for untouchable children; providing employment for educated untouchables, and representation for untouchables in District Boards and Municipal Boards (Tamilan, 14 October 1908).
The resolutions were sent to the Indian National Congress and the Mohammedans’ Association on 21st December 1891. In 1896, Reverend John Ratnam and Iyothee Thass jointly started a journal called Dravida Pandian. Another interesting piece of information is that, in 1882, Reverend John Ratnam and Iyothee Thass established a movement under the name ofDravida Kazhagam, (G. Aloysius, Nationalism without a Nation in India, Oxford, 2000); but this fact has been concealed so that no one now remembers Iyothee Thass as the pioneer of the Dravidian movement or anti-Brahmin movement.
Returning to Buddhism
Pandit Iyothee Thass exhorted Dalits to embrace Buddhism for annihilating the system of caste. With this objective he constructed an alternative history with the help of Tamil literature and folk traditions of Tamil. He demonstrated that the untouchables were the native Buddhists and untouchability was imposed upon them because they opposed the orthodox practices exemplified by the Hindu Brahmins. He asserted that Buddhism was the first anti-Brahmin movement in Indian history. So he called on the Dalits to return to their original religion, Buddhism.
In 1898, Iyothee Thass visited Sri Lanka along with Panchama School Head Master Krishnasamy and there he converted himself to Buddhism. The Theosophist, (a monthly journal of the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai) records it in the following words:
Pandit C. Iyothee Thass, he was one of the two gentlemen whom the Colonel [Olcott] took to Ceylon in 1898 as representative of the Panchama Community of Madras. Both of them were admitted into Buddhist fold by the High Priest Sumangala, and thus began a new era in the history of the unfortunate Panchamas [Dalits] of Southern India.
After embracing Buddhism, he soon founded ‘The Sakya Buddhist Society’ in 1898, at Royapettah, Madras. In 1907, he started his journal Oru Paisa Tamilan as an organ of this organisation. From 1907 all his social and religious activities were recorded in the journal until his death on 5 May, 1914. Iyothee Thass had close association with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (an American military officer, who founded the Theosophical Society) and the Theosophical Movement in Adyar. Col. Olcott writes:
The problem of the origin and religious heredity of the Pariahs of southern India was so important, that I was determined to bring the communities into relation with the High Priest Sumangala, so that in case they were proved to have been original Buddhists their communities might be brought into close connection and under surveillance of the Buddhists of Ceylon. (Theosophist Magazine, April-June 1914, p. 315)
The Sakya Buddhist Society’s branches were founded not only in Thiruppattur and Vellore in Madras presidency, but were established even overseas, such as in Natal in South Africa, Rangoon and Sri Lanka where Dalits had earlier migrated as labourers. Similarly, the branches of the Sakya Buddhist Society were established in Champion Reefs, Marikuppam, Kolar Gold Fields near Bangalore, then part of the princely state of Mysore, where Dalits had settled as mine workers. The oppressed people saw the colonial rule as an opportunity to come out from the caste oppression. They did not want mere reformation but worked for the annihilation of caste by uprooting the Hindu hegemony through returning to their original religion of Buddhism.
Sakya Buddhist Society started organising regular lectures on Buddhism called Buddha Dhamma Pirasangam (preaching of Buddhism doctrines) in the evenings. These lectures were held until midnight. The office bearers of every branch of the society regularly published reports about the activities of their society in Tamilan. Many intellectuals devoted themselves to spreading the principles of Buddhism under the leadership of Iyothee Thass. Large numbers of people participated in the Buddhist rituals, functions and celebrations. The cultural life of Dalits became Buddhist and Buddhist rituals were practiced in the life events of birth, marriage and funeral. The names of those who converted to Buddhism were also published inTamilan (24 Aug, 1912). To cite an example of how successful the efforts of the society were, Dalits there got themselves categorised as a separate category of ‘Buddhists’ in the 1911 Mysore decennial census report.
Casteless identity construction
In 1881, when the colonial Government planned to carry out the second census, registration officials classified Depressed Classes as a new category within the Hindu religion. At the time, Iyothee Thass gave a memorandum to the British India Government requesting that the people of Depressed Classes in Tamil speaking land should be considered as Adi-Tamilar and not as Hindus. In subsequent decades the census department was keen on categorizing people on the basis of established customs and religion which meant the Hindu varna system. So every caste started establishing their caste associations in order to aggrandize their caste status in the census enumeration. It is not an exaggeration but a historical fact that every non-Brahmin caste equated their caste position either with Kshatriya or with Vaishya. But Iyothee Thass called on the untouchables to record their religion as Buddhism, which denounced the varna system. He called Dalits as Casteless Dravidians (Sathi Pethamatra Dravidar) because they were outside the system of caste.
Iyothee Thass termed the native inhabitants who followed Buddhism as Yatharththa Brahmana (actual Brahmins). Before the invasion of the Aryans, these native Budhdhists were the priests themselves. But the invading Aryans copied some ritual practices (not all) of the native Budhdhists and started to cheat the people out of selfish motives. So they were called Vesha Brahmana (pseudo Brahmins) by Iyothee Thass. He was also very critical of ‘non-Brahmin’ as a political category. He wondered how, while practicing the tenets of caste-based Hindu rituals, they could claim that they are non-Brahmins.
Oru Paisa Tamilan and Tamilan
A Tamil weekly was started on 19th June 1907 bearing the name Oru Paisa Tamilan (after a year the name was changed toTamilan). It was edited, published and owned by Pandit Iyothee Thass. The average circulation of the weekly was 500. TheTamilan is the most renowned journal in Dalit print history because of its rich content and ideology. The four-page weekly was published every Wednesday in tabloid size. He wrote a series of articles on social and religious issues. The journal carried letters to the editor, articles, memoranda, circulars, etc. His activities were focused on reviving and reconstructing Tamil Buddhism among the Tamils.
Iyothee Thass’s role in the history of Dalit emancipation is very important. He tried half a century before Ambedkar to interpret history, religion and literature of the Tamils from the point of view of Buddhism which was once popular and prevalent in the south (Aloysius, Nationalism without a Nation in India, p. 58.) Iyothee Thass used many sources for his interpretation like Tamil literature, translations from Pali texts, folk tales, proverbs, colonial data, etc.
Iyothee Thass dreamed of a casteless society. He came to the ideological conclusion that Tamil Buddhism was the right tradition to achieve this ideal. He wrote the history of India in the Inthirardesa Sarithiram, in which he argued that before the invasion of the Aryans, Indians were living peacefully without caste, following the doctrines of Buddhism. They had divisions like Brahmana, Vyshya, Kshatriya and Sudra but it was only a division based on labour and there was no graded status according to their profession. The uncivilized Aryans changed this mere division of labour into a caste division based on birth for their betterment. He reinterpreted many rituals, mythologies and traditions from the viewpoint of Buddhism.
The readers of the Tamilan were mostly new form of labourers working in mines and domestic jobs. During the second half of the 19th century, new occupations developed in India under the aegis of colonialism; for example, in mines, the army, tea estates and so on. The landless Depressed Classes started utilizing these new opportunities to free themselves from the caste-ridden agriculture system. So they willingly migrated wherever they got an opportunity. The modern work culture provided space for reading and induced them to think and work for their community. Tamilan had identified these new generation (non-agricultural labourers) as its readers. From the list of subscribers, we may surmise that the journal was circulated not only in the Tamil region but also in South Africa, Burma, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Tanzania, etc., where Tamil people, especially lower castes had earlier migrated and settled for jobs.
Remembering Iyothee Thass
During the crucial time of modernization of Indian society, Iyothee Thass, a Dalit intellectual was able to use one of the tools of modernity i.e., print medium, to express his views and opinions. So far in Indian historiography only two views – nationalistic and imperialistic – are given importance; but during the same period there existed an independent view – that of Dalits – which was neglected in all historiography. Using print for the mobilization of dalits is quite interesting because in popular understanding, Dalits are seen as illiterate and uneducated. Here it is important to list out a few opinions of Iyothee Thass which occupied a prominent place in the Tamilan. He questioned the claim of the Indian National Congress that it was the sole representative of Indians. He never believed that Home Rule would bring any change in Dalits life. He stressed social transformation rather than political transformation.
Iyothee Thass tried to construct a unique political identity for the untouchables – such as Adi-Tamilar, Tamilan, Buddhist and so on. It is clear from the writings of Iyothee Thass that he considered the divisive and oppressive character of the caste system as antithetical to the spirit of nationalism. Dalits with their seemingly graded lower position in the hierarchical social structure had to take the position wherein they had to support the British. This is not a unique phenomenon in Tamil Nadu alone; the same happened among Dalits in Maharashtra where they resisted the Swadeshis and also in Bengal where the Namashudras supported the British openly. Dalits were very clear that this was the right time for them to claim social and political rights and Iyothee Thass, as a modernist, concentrated on the spiritual realm to carry forward those struggles.
* May 05, 2014, was the centenary memorial day of Pandit Iyothee Thass.
https://sites.google.com/site/budhhasangham/Home/mylaiseeni
For
For
Buddhism In Tamil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L5yh2nZiy
for
Gautam Buddha’s Animated Life Story in Tamil - 1/4- 6:30 mins
for
Gautam Buddha’s Animated Life Story in Tamil - 2/4- 6:45 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPN1D4oujMw
for
Gautam Buddha’s Animated Life Story in Tamil - 3/4 - 6:57 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjaHyHGM9uQ
for
Gautam Buddha’s Animated Life Story in Tamil - 4/4- 7:33 mins
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
1. புத்தர்
பாரம்பரிய ஆங்கிலம், தமிழ்
ஸ்தாபக படம்
மேலும் சித்தார்த்த கவுதம, சாக்கியமுனி, அல்லது வெறுமனே புத்தர் என அழைக்கப்படும் கவுதம புத்தர், புத்த நிறுவப்பட்டது அதன் போதனைகளை ஒரு முனிவர் இருந்தது
மறைவு: Kushinagar
முழுப்பெயர்: சித்தார்த்த கவுதம
கணவன், மனைவி ராணி யசோதரா
பெற்றோர்: ராணி மகா மாயா, Mahapajapati Gotami, கிங் Suddhodana
அவள் கவுதம் Buddh என்ற பெயரில் கட்டப்பட்டு நினைவிடங்கள் மற்றும் கல்வி நிறுவனங்கள் பெறுவதில் அவரது முந்தைய அரசு சாதனைகள் உயர்த்தி. மாயாவதி அரசாங்கம் நொய்டா, கிரேட்டர் நொய்டா, லக்னோ விஐபி சாலை நொய்டாவில் கவுதம் புத்தர் பல்கலைக்கழகம் மற்றும் புத்தர் சாந்தி Upvan போன்ற நினைவுச் கட்டுமான கொண்டுள்ளது என்று கவுதம் Buddh நகர் உருவாக்கம் உறுதி எப்படி நினைவு கூர்ந்தார். தன்னுடைய அரசாங்கம் கிழக்கு உ.பி., சுற்றுலா மற்றும் பக்தர்கள் புத்தர் சுற்று வளர்ச்சி உறுதி என்று கூறினார்.
(மோடி) deadmocerytic நிறுவனங்கள் கொலை bluffers இருக்கும் யார் திருட்டுத்தனமாக இந்துத்துவ வழிபாட்டு உள்ளது:
அவர் கூறுகிறார்:
யாராவது அவரது காது ஒரு ஆணி அடிக்க போது புத்தர் இறந்தார்!
BuddhaHe பறிமுதல்
எந்த வரலாறு, புவியியல், தெரியாது, எந்த cicic உணர்வு உள்ளது
http://www.pbs.org/thebuddha/
புத்தர், டேவிட் Grubin- 1:51:47 மணிகள் ஒரு படம்
சந்திரசேகரன் Jagatheesan
மேலும் அம்பேத்கர் புத்தரின் சிலைகள் நாடு ஒவ்வொரு தெருவில் நிறுவ வேண்டும். ஒவ்வொரு வீடும், சந்தோஷம், நலன் மற்றும் சமாதான விகாரைகள் மாற்றப்படுகிறது.
5th May in Dalit History – Death Anniversary of Iyothee Thass – Great Social reformer and Buddhist Scholar
This article was first posted at Round Table India and is written by Bala J.
We may say that great minds think alike
when two scholars who lived in two different times and places reach a
similar conclusion on the same problem. The traditionally educated
nineteenth century Tamil scholar, Pandit Iyothee Thass as well as the
twentieth century western educated intellectual from Maharashtra,
Babasaheb Ambedkar, embraced Buddhism to show that it was the only way
to annihilate the caste system. Both of them identified that the caste
system had originated with the fall of Buddhism; therefore, believed the
revival of Buddhism could perhaps liberate the people from the evil
system of caste.
Pandit Iyothee Thass (1845-1914)* was
born in a Dalit family in Royapettah in Chennai. He was a Siddha
practitioner and a well-versed Tamil scholar having scholarly expertise
in the traditional knowledge on astrology and palm-leaf manuscript
reading. In 1870, Iyothee Thass founded Adhvaidhananda Sabha (considered
to be the first institution-building activity in his life), in
Uthagamandalam, where he was brought up. In 1891, he established an
organization called the Dravida Mahajana Sabha, and on 1st December
1891, he organised the First Conference on behalf of the Sabha at Ooty
in Nilgiris district. In that conference, ten resolutions were passed
including the one on enacting a criminal law to punish those who
humiliated untouchables by calling them Pariahs, creating separate
schools and providing scholarships for matriculation education for
untouchable children; providing employment for educated untouchables,
and representation for untouchables in District Boards and Municipal
Boards (Tamilan, 14 October 1908).
The resolutions were sent to the Indian
National Congress and the Mohammedans’ Association on 21st December
1891. In 1896, Reverend John Ratnam and Iyothee Thass jointly started a
journal called Dravida Pandian. Another interesting piece of information
is that, in 1882, Reverend John Ratnam and Iyothee Thass established a
movement under the name of Dravida Kazhagam, (G. Aloysius, Nationalism
without a Nation in India, Oxford, 2000); but this fact has been
concealed so that no one now remembers Iyothee Thass as the pioneer of
the Dravidian movement or anti-Brahmin movement.
Returning to Buddhism
Pandit Iyothee Thass
Pandit Iyothee Thass exhorted Dalits to
embrace Buddhism for annihilating the system of caste. With this
objective he constructed an alternative history with the help of Tamil
literature and folk traditions of Tamil. He demonstrated that the
untouchables were the native Buddhists and untouchability was imposed
upon them because they opposed the orthodox practices exemplified by the
Hindu Brahmins. He asserted that Buddhism was the first anti-Brahmin
movement in Indian history. So he called on the Dalits to return to
their original religion, Buddhism.
In 1898, Iyothee Thass visited Sri Lanka
along with Panchama School Head Master Krishnasamy and there he
converted himself to Buddhism. The Theosophist, (a monthly journal of
the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai) records it in the
following words:
Pandit C. Iyothee Thass, he was one of
the two gentlemen whom the Colonel [Olcott] took to Ceylon in 1898 as
representative of the Panchama Community of Madras. Both of them were
admitted into Buddhist fold by the High Priest Sumangala, and thus began
a new era in the history of the unfortunate Panchamas [Dalits] of
Southern India.
After embracing Buddhism, he soon founded
‘The Sakya Buddhist Society’ in 1898, at Royapettah, Madras. In 1907,
he started his journal Oru Paisa Tamilan as an organ of this
organisation. From 1907 all his social and religious activities were
recorded in the journal until his death on 5 May, 1914. Iyothee Thass
had close association with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (an American
military officer, who founded the Theosophical Society) and the
Theosophical Movement in Adyar. Col. Olcott writes:
The problem of the origin and religious
heredity of the Pariahs of southern India was so important, that I was
determined to bring the communities into relation with the High Priest
Sumangala, so that in case they were proved to have been original
Buddhists their communities might be brought into close connection and
under surveillance of the Buddhists of Ceylon. (Theosophist Magazine,
April-June 1914, p. 315)
The Sakya Buddhist Society’s branches
were founded not only in Thiruppattur and Vellore in Madras presidency,
but were established even overseas, such as in Natal in South Africa,
Rangoon and Sri Lanka where Dalits had earlier migrated as labourers.
Similarly, the branches of the Sakya Buddhist Society were established
in Champion Reefs, Marikuppam, Kolar Gold Fields near Bangalore, then
part of the princely state of Mysore, where Dalits had settled as mine
workers. The oppressed people saw the colonial rule as an opportunity to
come out from the caste oppression. They did not want mere reformation
but worked for the annihilation of caste by uprooting the Hindu hegemony
through returning to their original religion of Buddhism.
Sakya Buddhist Society started organising
regular lectures on Buddhism called Buddha Dhamma Pirasangam (preaching
of Buddhism doctrines) in the evenings. These lectures were held until
midnight. The office bearers of every branch of the society regularly
published reports about the activities of their society in Tamilan. Many
intellectuals devoted themselves to spreading the principles of
Buddhism under the leadership of Iyothee Thass. Large numbers of people
participated in the Buddhist rituals, functions and celebrations. The
cultural life of Dalits became Buddhist and Buddhist rituals were
practiced in the life events of birth, marriage and funeral. The names
of those who converted to Buddhism were also published in Tamilan (24
Aug, 1912). To cite an example of how successful the efforts of the
society were, Dalits there got themselves categorised as a separate
category of ‘Buddhists’ in the 1911 Mysore decennial census report.
Casteless identity construction
In 1881, when the colonial Government
planned to carry out the second census, registration officials
classified Depressed Classes as a new category within the Hindu
religion. At the time, Iyothee Thass gave a memorandum to the British
India Government requesting that the people of Depressed Classes in
Tamil speaking land should be considered as Adi-Tamilar and not as
Hindus. In subsequent decades the census department was keen on
categorizing people on the basis of established customs and religion
which meant the Hindu varna system. So every caste started establishing
their caste associations in order to aggrandize their caste status in
the census enumeration. It is not an exaggeration but a historical fact
that every non-Brahmin caste equated their caste position either with
Kshatriya or with Vaishya. But Iyothee Thass called on the untouchables
to record their religion as Buddhism, which denounced the varna system.
He called Dalits as Casteless Dravidians (Sathi Pethamatra Dravidar)
because they were outside the system of caste.
Iyothee Thass termed the native
inhabitants who followed Buddhism as Yatharththa Brahmana (actual
Brahmins). Before the invasion of the Aryans, these native Budhdhists
were the priests themselves. But the invading Aryans copied some ritual
practices (not all) of the native Budhdhists and started to cheat the
people out of selfish motives. So they were called Vesha Brahmana
(pseudo Brahmins) by Iyothee Thass. He was also very critical of
‘non-Brahmin’ as a political category. He wondered how, while practicing
the tenets of caste-based Hindu rituals, they could claim that they are
non-Brahmins.
Oru Paisa Tamilan and Tamilan
Oru Paisa Tamilan, 3 July 1907
A Tamil weekly was started on 19th June
1907 bearing the name Oru Paisa Tamilan (after a year the name was
changed to Tamilan). It was edited, published and owned by Pandit
Iyothee Thass. The average circulation of the weekly was 500. The
Tamilan is the most renowned journal in Dalit print history because of
its rich content and ideology. The four-page weekly was published every
Wednesday in tabloid size. He wrote a series of articles on social and
religious issues. The journal carried letters to the editor, articles,
memoranda, circulars, etc. His activities were focused on reviving and
reconstructing Tamil Buddhism among the Tamils.
Iyothee Thass’s role in the history of
Dalit emancipation is very important. He tried half a century before
Ambedkar to interpret history, religion and literature of the Tamils
from the point of view of Buddhism which was once popular and prevalent
in the south (Aloysius, Nationalism without a Nation in India, p. 58.)
Iyothee Thass used many sources for his interpretation like Tamil
literature, translations from Pali texts, folk tales, proverbs, colonial
data, etc.
Iyothee Thass dreamed of a casteless
society. He came to the ideological conclusion that Tamil Buddhism was
the right tradition to achieve this ideal. He wrote the history of India
in the Inthirardesa Sarithiram, in which he argued that before the
invasion of the Aryans, Indians were living peacefully without caste,
following the doctrines of Buddhism. They had divisions like Brahmana,
Vyshya, Kshatriya and Sudra but it was only a division based on labour
and there was no graded status according to their profession. The
uncivilized Aryans changed this mere division of labour into a caste
division based on birth for their betterment. He reinterpreted many
rituals, mythologies and traditions from the viewpoint of Buddhism.
The readers of the Tamilan were mostly
new form of labourers working in mines and domestic jobs. During the
second half of the 19th century, new occupations developed in India
under the aegis of colonialism; for example, in mines, the army, tea
estates and so on. The landless Depressed Classes started utilizing
these new opportunities to free themselves from the caste-ridden
agriculture system. So they willingly migrated wherever they got an
opportunity. The modern work culture provided space for reading and
induced them to think and work for their community. Tamilan had
identified these new generation (non-agricultural labourers) as its
readers. From the list of subscribers, we may surmise that the journal
was circulated not only in the Tamil region but also in South Africa,
Burma, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Tanzania, etc.,
where Tamil people, especially lower castes had earlier migrated and
settled for jobs.
Remembering Iyothee Thass
During the crucial time of modernization
of Indian society, Iyothee Thass, a Dalit intellectual was able to use
one of the tools of modernity i.e., print medium, to express his views
and opinions. So far in Indian historiography only two views –
nationalistic and imperialistic – are given importance; but during the
same period there existed an independent view – that of Dalits – which
was neglected in all historiography. Using print for the mobilization of
dalits is quite interesting because in popular understanding, Dalits
are seen as illiterate and uneducated. Here it is important to list out a
few opinions of Iyothee Thass which occupied a prominent place in the
Tamilan. He questioned the claim of the Indian National Congress that it
was the sole representative of Indians. He never believed that Home
Rule would bring any change in Dalits life. He stressed social
transformation rather than political transformation.
Tamilan, 2 September 1908
Iyothee Thass tried to construct a unique
political identity for the untouchables – such as Adi-Tamilar, Tamilan,
Buddhist and so on. It is clear from the writings of Iyothee Thass that
he considered the divisive and oppressive character of the caste system
as antithetical to the spirit of nationalism. Dalits with their
seemingly graded lower position in the hierarchical social structure had
to take the position wherein they had to support the British. This is
not a unique phenomenon in Tamil Nadu alone; the same happened among
Dalits in Maharashtra where they resisted the Swadeshis and also in
Bengal where the Namashudras supported the British openly. Dalits were
very clear that this was the right time for them to claim social and
political rights and Iyothee Thass, as a modernist, concentrated on the
spiritual realm to carry forward those struggles
July 22, 2013
Please note the Word “empathu” given
for the numeral 9 in Malayalam. Empathu means 80 and not 9. The word for
nine starts with “O” thus:Ompathu.
July 24, 2013
Thank you for the correction. We appreciate your help.
September 26, 2013
I saw that there is no prefixes in and
dravdian languages in your lecture ,but there are prefixes in tamil and
kanada in most complex and sensitive cases .
September 30, 2013
Could you be more specific? We would appreciate your input.
November 27, 2013
It is wrongly sited the words in tamil
for example it should have been ondru irandu moondru naangu aindhu aaru
ezhu ettu (enn) onbadhu and paththu(padhin) so there should not be any
doubt that Tamil language is great or not. It was spoiled by foreign
linguists ( of course unknowingly ) that it is derivation of Dravida in
fact Tamil word never starts with hard letter like B,D,G etc so the
assumption of dravida is totally wrong may be the sanskrit pronounced
it, as drava-veda means very ugly script ‘draave’
now also used as ‘draabe’ which means most untolerable.
November 27, 2013
Thank you for your correction. We
removed the reference regarding the origin of the word dravida since
there are several theories pertaining to it.
March 12, 2014
Valuable info
March 13, 2014
Thank you.
April 26, 2014
Can anyone tell me the differences and the similarities of the 4 main south-Indian
languages?
I heard Telugu and Tamil are more similar
and Malayalam and Kannada are similiar,
is it right?
Would a Telugu speaker understand a Tamil and so on…?
Which is the easiest of them to learn for an
European?
Thank you so much for your help!
April 29, 2014
We don’t know the answer to the first
question about mutual intelligibility. There is a discussion thread you
could follow to see if it can shed some light on the matter http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=304649.
As for the second question regarding which Dravidian language is
easiest to learn for a speaker of a Western European language, the
answer is probably that they are equally difficult.
June 14, 2014
Actually Kannada and Telugu share a lot of similar. So a telugu speaker would easily understand Kannada and vice versa.
Same is true for Tamil and Malayalam
May 7, 2014
I know 3 of the 4 major Dravidian
languages along with their scripts, while one of them, Telugu is my
mother tongue. Of these languages, spoken Tamil and spoken Malayalam are
mutually most intellegible. Similarly, spoken Tamil and spoken Kannada
are somewhat (some times)intelligible while their written literatures
are completely unintelligible even if read out aloud. But Telugu, both
its written and spoken forms are Greek and Latin to all the rest of
Dravidian people. Likewise, even the Telugus don’t and can’t understand
the rest of the Dravidian speeches without proper training.
No Dravidian language is easier for Europeans to learn.
June 1, 2014
Malayalam & Tamil being “mutually
most intelligible” as mentioned here is that of the difference between
French & Spanish (and not like Portuguese & Spanish)… There is
some intelligibility, and many a times unintelligible (as Malayalam
separated from Tamil more than a 1000 years ago)… And Malayalam has a
very distinct (rhythmic) accent which is very difficult for
non-malayalis to imitate…
June 2, 2014
Thank you for this comment. We will edit our text on the Malayalam/Tamil mutual intelligibility.
June 14, 2014
Broadly speaking, Telugu script has
been borrowed from Ancient Kannada script. I being a Kannada speaker,
can easily read Telugu words, though i would not comprehend them and a
lot of my Telugu friends have told me that they can read Kannada ,
though they don’t understand it.
May 8, 2014
Historical linguists surmise that this
total isolation of Telugu among Dravidian languages came about because
it was the first to separate from the Proto-Dravidian language some
2,000 years ago. True to this guess, Telugu still constitutes a very big
branch speakers of which occupy nearly 50% of the total landmass of the
Dravidian heartland. Tribal languages like Gondi come under this
sub-group which was previously called Andhra group of languages after
the name of the Indian State where they are spoken.
June 1, 2014
Is the south central language “Koya”
spoken by 330,000 to 10 million peoplE? Its either astonishing or there
is an error (i guess it should have been 1 million)…
June 2, 2014
362,000 (2001 census) according to Ethnologue http://www.ethnologue.com/language/kff).
June 14, 2014
I wasn’t concerned about the minor
difference in the minimum limit of speakers. But the range 330,000 to 10
million is what was shocking… Why 10 million koya speakers? impossible…
June 17, 2014
We will check it out.
June 1, 2014
Apart from being “official languages”
of the INDIAN UNION, the 4 major dravidian languages have acquired the
“classical language” status with the Indian Government (out of the 5
classical languages of India – the other being Sanskrit)
June 1, 2014
Though Dravidian Languages (apart from
Tamil) use different alphabets for aspirated & unaspirated
consonants, the aspiration occurs only in careful speech, while they are
not (well) aspirated colloquially. This is because aspiration is not a
Dravidian feature and the alphabets were created only to represent the
sanskrit loanwords correctly. That is why for Tamil, Pallava Dynasty of
Tamil Nadu invented the “grantha script” to write the sanskrit words
while retaining the original “vattezhuttu” alphabets to write dravidian
words, and thus a sentence may contain both scripts (like kanji and
hiragana of japanese).
I also believe that different alphabets for voiceless consonants and
its voiced-counterparts came about (in languages apart from Tamil) due
to the same reasons as that for aspirated consonants. Voicing is only
allophonic in Tamil. In Malayalam (as far as i know), voiced alphabets
are used to write only voiced consonants in sanskrit-origin words, while
the same voiceless consonant is used to represent voiced consonants in
dravidian words, as the difference in “voicing” is allophonic in
complementary distribution.
Eg: പടം “paʈam” (picture) is actually pronounced as “paɖam” as
plosives are voiced between vowels. While in a sanskrit origin word, the
“ɖ” would have been represented by “ഡ”.
July 19, 2014
Are there Dravidian equivalents to the English letters A, C, T, and G?
August 8, 2014
Under the serction ‘Vocabulary’, in the
numbers table there are a lot of difference shown between telugu and
kannada numbers, which is incorrect/incomplete understanding of the
author.
Ex:
*)
Wrong: Under telugu, The numbers 7 and 8 are shown to start with a consonent.
Correct: Remove the first char ‘y’ from ‘yédhu’ and ‘yenimidi’ for 7 and 8.
*)
Wrong : For number 2, author mentions ‘rendhu’ under telugu and ‘eraɖu’ for under kannada.
Correct : there is no difference in the sound of the last syllabe. The last syllabe sounds same in both telugu and kannada.
August 8, 2014
Thank you for the corrections.
August 8, 2014
Like most English Interrogative words
start with ‘wh’ shound, Most dravidian Interrogative words start with
the sound ‘e’ or ‘ye’
Telugu : emiti=What, enduku=why, evaru=who, eppudu=when, ekkada=where etc.
Kannada: enu=What, yeke=why, yaaru=who, yevaaga=when, elli=where etc.
Tamil: enna=What, edhukku=why, yaar=who, eppo=when, enge=where etc.
(I have limited knowledge on tamil. Please correct me if i am wrong.)
November 13, 2014
enna=what
ehn=why
yaar=who
eppe=when
enge=where
August 8, 2014
Thanks a lot for gathering the information of a lot of languages around the world and posting it here.
August 8, 2014
We are glad you find the information useful.
October 20, 2014
Tamil language is also spoken by people living in the Northern part of the Srilanka
April 3, 2015
Still discussion is going on, whether
Tamil originated from Sanskrit or Sanskrit originated from Tamil. So it
is not good to mention that tamil borrowed words from sanskrit or any
Indo aryan Language. There are sources stating Tamil is first language
in the world.
April 15, 2015
Could you give us the sources on which you base your statements?