Tamils - a Trans State Nation..

"To us all towns are one, all men our kin.
Life's good comes not from others' gift, nor ill
Man's pains and pains' relief are from within.
Thus have we seen in visions of the wise !."
- Tamil Poem in Purananuru, circa 500 B.C 

It is also important book for the Tamils of South India, who may have forgotten the true ancient heritage of their Tamil religion and culture.In Tamil Nadu there arose in the 60�s and may be before that too, the so called Dravidian movement to protect the Tamil heritage, culture and the Tamil people from the take over by the Hindi speaking North Indians. It is true that  there was indeed an attempt by the Hindi speaking central government to impose the Northern language upon the rest of India, just as the Sinhalese government of Sri Lanka tried to do just after Sri Lanka gained independence and continues to do so even now. Even though such a threat to the Tamil language existed in India in the 60�s, and that threat contributed to the rise of the Dravida movement, we cannot say that the Dravida movement was a true �Tamil� movement, which existed to protect the Tamil heritage.

Even though that movement used the word �Dravidian�, they used it on the basis of caste only. The Dravidian movement spoke of Aryan and Dravidian in a caste based divisive manner. They refused to accept the Tamil Brahmin as a Tamilian.

Our ancient Tamil scriptures (as mentioned in �We Tamils�) refer to the Andanars, who were the Brahmins of the Tamil land. The Dravidian movement was also an atheistic movement, which did not find acceptance among the Tamil people. The Tamil people, their culture and heritage is religion based. Under these circumstances, the existence of the Dravida movement in Tamil Nadu in modern times has not been helpful in educating the Tamil people about their true ancient heritage and culture.

The aim of the book is to establish, at least among the Tamils, a proper understanding of their heritage and history. This book is not an 'authenticated' book on history and the author acknowledges this fact. History in our modern times is almost completely based on what the West authenticates as history. Most of such �authentic� history is again written only by Western researchers and scholars. These Western researchers base their research on material evidence, just as they base all their scientific research on test tube science or laboratory testing. What do you do if such definite material evidence is not available? In such an event, as the author says, �the basic characteristics of any human society and the people�s conduct hold the key for understanding their pedigree, race, culture and civilization.�

The ancient Tamil civilization and even the ancient Indian civilization did not leave much material evidence to judge its antiquity. Our culture and philosophy were of the ego negating kind and not the ego affirming cultures like the Greeks or the modern Western civilization imposed on the whole world today. If we built anything big and fabulous, they were the temples. Even such temples, the most ancient of them, were destroyed when India faced many invasions and takeovers over 1,000�s of years. There were the outside nomadic tribes who entered North India, there were the  marauding Mongols, then Buddhism and Jainism, both vehemently opposed to the Hindu religion, the Muslim invasion and then the British take over. Through all these events many temples were completely destroyed and a large amount of literature lost for ever. Many of such destruction were systematically done, to eradicate evidence.

During the 200 years of British rule, the British and many European travelers came to India only to take away precious literature. During the periods when Buddhism and/or Jainism ruled supreme all over India, immense amount of systematic destruction was done to Hindu temples. So much so, that Swami Venekananda said after traveling all over India that most Buddhist temples were built on destroyed Sivan temples. Therefore we do lack material evidence to prove our case to the Western researchers and scholars.

Even if there were any records of the ancient Tamil history, they have been either completely lost to natural calamities or destroyed. There are legends of seaquakes, which consumed parts of the ancient Tamil kingdom. The author speaks of Kumarinadu, which is one such legend. Kumarinadu is supposed to have been consumed by the ocean and now lies beneath the Indian Ocean.

We have to also consider the cyclic event of Yugas spoken of in our religious scriptures. The author�s writings on this topic are immensely informative. Today modern scientists are also speculating whether the universe and its existence and devolution are a periodic cyclical event. If we take into account the Yugas, then the antiquity of India and its civilization, including of course the Tamil civilization gets pushed back into time by 10�s of thousands of years.

Such a claim towards our ancient heritage will only be met by ridicule and disbelief by the Western scholars and even by our own rationalistic, Western educated public. According to the Western scholars the oldest civilizations were in existence only around 3,000 B.C. or so. Some liberal scholars are willing to push it back to about 5,000 B.C. However certain archeologists have concluded after studying the Egyptian pyramids and other structures that the Egyptian structures, the most ancient of them, were in existence in 10,000 B. C or before.

However these can only be speculations, whether we are talking about 3,000, 5,000 or 10,000 B.C. As the author says, such attempts to accurately judge the very ancient past of the human race will be nothing but futile exercises. We can only speculate about such things and can never come to any definite conclusion. In speculating about our Tamil history, we have to take into consideration the Puranas and the cyclical Yugas mentioned in our religious scriptures.

As the author says, we cannot write off the Puranas completely as being a bunch of lies, we have to analyze them carefully for the truths regarding our ancient history. The Western scholars did not do this; they considered the Puranas as nothing but fiction.

The Western scholars also did not dare to consider the Yugas, lest they be called superstitious or believers in the metaphysics. Therefore we Tamils, as the author very correctly observes, have to speculate about our ancient heritage and history, based on our religious scriptures, the Puranas, the Hindu Yugas and also based on the knowledge we have of our Tamil civilization�s characteristics and the people�s conduct in those distant times. In regard to the last, the literature we have from the very ancient times is our guide and also what is written in the ancient literature of other nations about our civilization. The author has quoted from many such ancient literatures to guide us in this quest.

The author of �We Tamils� says that the Tamil civilization was a happy one, peaceful, prosperous, rich, strong and full of culture in all its aspects. Our ancient literature and the thoughts and moral codes expressed therein reflect the nature of our ancient civilization. The author speaks of the legendry land of Lemuria, which is called by some Western researchers as being the cradle of civilization. Today the existence of Lemuria is more or less mainstream science but the question is where was Lemuria situated?

The author claims that Lemuria was part of the kingdom of the ancient Tamils. I believe him, judging by our philosophy, religious ritualism, religious theology, our music, literature and temple architecture and sculpture; we have no parallel among any of the ancient civilization that existed in 5,000 B. C or before. Further, all the other ancient civilizations are today dead and gone, except for Judaism, which too is very ancient. However, Judaism in its ancient form did not have the level of music, art, sculpture, literature, religious ritualism that we possessed.

The purpose of reading this book is not to seek superiority but to understand the fact that in Tamil Nadu there had evolved a civilization and culture that had religion, morals, philosophy, beauty, music, art and at the same time, it was materially rich and prosperous and militarily strong. Our people were seafaring and they traveled to Africa, Egypt and other distant lands, not for military purposes but to trade. Such an evolution of a civilization and culture cannot come suddenly � it has to evolve over 10�s of thousands of years.

In �We Tamils�, the author argues for this great antiquity of the Tamil civilization and culture. If you are an open minded person and if you have imagination and intuition, then by reading this book you will be taken on a wonderful journey, into the past literature and religious philosophy and Puranic legends and myths of the Tamil people, all of it wonderfully arranged and presented by the author. After reading it with true interest, you should sit down and ponder about the theories that the author is trying to present to himself and to all the readers of his book. We Tamils have no material historical evidence to prove our antiquity and because of this we have been completely ignored by the Western researchers and by those non-Westerners who swear by the West in regard to any scientific endeavor.

The reading of this book is only a personal quest for each Tamil, to understand the race he comes from. As I said earlier, by believing or even pondering about the theories and claims made by the author in this book, we are not claiming any kind of superiority. The author�s intention is also not that. We Tamils must seek our root, which is our ancient parenthood, without knowing which we are nothing but orphans. We have no help from the Western science and Western historians in regard to this search. We have only our religion, our Puranas and our literature to guide us on this journey. However, how many of us have the time, energy and mainly the skill to go through all our ancient Tamil literature regarding these subjects? Mr. Sangarapillai has given us in a nutshell, all the information that we need to begin our quest. Now that this book has been translated into English, it makes it even easier for us to take up this quest, because many of us will find it hard to understand the Tamil version of most of the literature quoted by the author. In English they become very clear to us. I wish every reader of this book will be inspired to continue the journey and try to understand the true heritage of the Tamil race.