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Who is a Tamil?
C.Sivaratnam - (from 'The Tamils in
Early Ceylon', 1968)
[see also Tamil National Forum on "Who is a
Tamil?"]
To understand who a Tamil is, one has to
go back to immemorial times, and study the three
component parts of the Dravidian race:
I. Pre-Dravidians (a) Negroids from
Africa (b) Proto-Australoids probably from
Palestine
II. Proto-Dravidians came from the Eastern
Mediterranean region. The above three races migrated
into India about five thousand years ago in the above
time order, and their amalgam, formed the Dravidian
stock. The Proto-Dravidians form the core of this
amalgam, while the earlier arrivals became
accretions.
Proto Australoids: Although with
an aged civilisation, they possessed special high
qualities of their owns good enough to be admired.
Themselves agriculturists with a colithic culture
worshipped the 'digging fork' an agricultural implement
as 'Lingam' (phallic-cult), in other words their
worshipped this instrument whose constant use gave them
food and prosperity. The rice and the variety of
vegetable curries and condiments we use today in our
cuisine, are their introductions, also turmeric,
vermilion and 'tambula' an austric word for betel, used
in rituals and social life. As totem worshippers they
worshipped Ganesha (Elephant headed god), Naga, (serpent
spirits), monkey god, had vague notions of incarnation
etc. They practised magic, 'baran" for removal devil eye,
The world learnt first from them the enumeration of days,
'Tithis' by the phases of the moon. They voyaged through
the sea in outriggers revealing the superiority of their
culture over the Negroids who paddled in primitive
dugouts.
Proto-Dravidians. (civilised or Advanced
Mediterraneans and Armenoids) There are two theories of
their origin:
1. Aotochthoncs, India their original
home.
2. Immigration theory, with equal support from scholars
for both, They are considered an Eastern Mediterranean
or Aegean race with their original home in Crete, the
doorstep to Asia and Eutope, with whomm they continued
having trade relations
They gained the Asian mainland at Asia
Minor where they were called Lycians from where they
traversed through High Asia i.e. Anatolia, Armenia, Iran
and Baluchistan into India leaving behind in their trail,
traces of their blood and civilisation. In Crete they
were known by the name which the Greeks wrote as
Termilai, in Asia Minor as 'Trimmili' or Trimalai
(Sastri p60), and in India as Dramiza, Dravida,
Dramila and finally Tamil. Their deity was "Mother-Earth"
who gave them grain, vegetables and food. The 'Mother
Goddess' cult belonged exclusively to Crete where it was
known as Durgha (compare Trqqas mentioned in Lycian
inscriptions in Asia Minor) as Uma or Parvati. (Sastri
p61) They probably brought along with them to India
this Mediterranean or Aegean Saivaism, Mother Goddess
with her consort Siva. The blood, beliefs and culture of
the proto-Australoid and proto-Dravidian were
incorporated into the general Dravidian stock. The Nagas,
Yakkas, Rakshas were sub-Dravidian races with a greater
amount of Australoid taint.
[Sources (1) Vedic Age. (1951) and
(Vol. I 1965 (pages. 144, 145. 157, 161, 164, and 165).
(2) Nilakanta Sastri K. A. - A History of South India
1955-p60.]
The North Dravidians who came into
conflict with the Aryans, separated themselves very early
as Dasa-Dasyus people and were never Tamils.
The Portuguese and Dutch followed the example of Ceylon
chronicles in calling the Tamils of India and Jaffna
loosely as Malabars, Malabar proper is known as Kerala or
Malala. Of all the Dravidian languages it is Tamil that
has exerted the greatest influence on Sinhalese
(Concise History of Ceylon, 1961, 40). Sir
Grierson, an authority on Indian linguistics mentions
'that Tamil was the oldest, richest and most highly
organised of the Dravidian languages, plentiful in
vocabulary and cultivated form a remote period". Tamil
was the language of the Telugu, Canarese and Malayalee
people earlier, Telugu separating from Tamil into a
separate literature in 10 A. D. Cannarese in 850 A. D.
and Malayalam lastly in 14. A. D. It is held by some that
Tamil or some variant of it must have been the language
of the prehistoric inhabitants of Ceylon in the 2nd
century B. C. (Concise History of Ceylon, 1961,
42).
To quote Sir P Arunachalam from page 80
of his admirable Census Report of 1901, Tamil is so old
that its words have passed into the Old Testament of the
Hebrews (refer 1 Kings X-P 22). The Hebrew words for
peacock, apes and ivory are Tamil. From a very early
period they have cultivated their language with such
earnestness and assiduity that in the opinion of Bishop
Caldwell (the grammarian of Dravidian languages) 'it is
impossible for any European who has acquired a competent
knowledge of Tamil to regard otherwise than with respect
the intellectual capacity of a people among whom so
wonderful an organ of thought has been developed. Its
literature in its best period is characterised by
enthusiasm for Tamilic purity and literary
independence'.
In the same census report, 'Mannar and Puttalam were
Tamil districts and that, there is a large admixture of
Tamil blood and speech in the Sinhalese districts of
Chilaw and Negombo."'
"Numerous Tamil place names which have displaced the
earlier Sinhalese names are met with in the present
Anuradhapura and Kurunegala districts. But most of these
with Tamil names are at present inhabited by Sinhalese
who had migrated about 300 years ago from the Vanni
Hatpattu, the Tamils who occupied them in 13 C. or so
having abandoned them. (Concise History of Ceylon, 1961
714). Many Tamil words occur in the Sinhalese
inscriptions from the ninth century onwards, particularly
words connected with administrative functions and land
tenure (Concise History of Ceylon, 1961 433).
There was a register of Tamil clerks in the reign of
Vijayabahu I which shows that in his reign certain amount
of official business was conducted in Tamil...
Vickramabahu I and Gajabahu II preferred Tamil in their
documents (Concise History of Ceylon, 1961 543).
Inscription No. 12 of the second century B. C. found in
Periya-Puliyankulam mentions a corporation of Tamil
merchants in Anuradhapura of which the captain of a ship
"navika" was the head. Tamil inscriptions have been found
in different parts of Ceylon, although only a few have
been published. Some Tamil inscriptions of the period
ranging from the eighth to the eleventh centuries have
been discovered at Anuradhapura and other places in the
North Central province. Lankatilaka vihara in the Kandyan
district has a Tamil inscription of the fourteenth
century side by side with Sinhalese inscriptions. This
shows that the later Sinhalese kings made use of Tamil
also in respect of these inscriptions in some places. The
majority of the records left by the Sinhalese rulers
between the death of Vijayabahu I and accession of
Parakramabahu I (1153) are in Tamil (Concise History
of Ceylon, 1961, 45).
'Tamil influence is most clearly discernible in Sinhalese
works on astrology and medicine.' Sarajotimalai, a Tamil
work on astrology written by a Brahmin, Posa-Raja was
placed before Parakramabahu IV of Kurunegala for approval
(1310).
A Tamil poet from Ceylon, Ilattu Putan Tevanar
contributed his poems to the Madura Sangam in the 1st
century B. C. Navaratnam (p 43) states that Putan
Tevanar was a Naga poet and comments that this was an
indication that the Nagas were ancient Tamils.
Titles such as 'Illangakkon", 'Tennakon" and "Perumal, as
well as official designations such as 'Mudaliyar' and
'Aracci' are pure Tamil words. (Concise History of
Ceylon, 1961 p 44.).
Tamil influence was strong in the courts of Polonnaruva,
Rayigama, Kotte and in the final stages in the court of
the last four kings of Kandy as shown in the sequel.
"We find that the study of Tamil formed a feature of
Pirivena education from the twelfth to the fifteenth
centuries. (Chief source- Concise History of Ceylon,
1961 p. 41-45).
The prevalence of the Tamil language was such in early
times as to dominate the language of the Sinhalese.
Mudaliar W. F. Gunawardhana (to quote from K.
Navaratnam Tamil element in Ceylon Culture, 1959 p52-
53) states '1t must be said that Sinhalese is
essentially a Dravidian language, its evolution too seems
to have been on a Tamil basis .....The structural
foundations of the Sinhalese language are Dravidian,
while its superstructure, i.e. the vocabulary is
Aryan'.
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