|
Tamil Culture
- its past, its present and its future with special
reference to Ceylon
Xavier S. Thani Nayagam
in Tamil Culture, 1955
What is Culture?
Culture has been defined as a "way of life", as
sweetness and light", as "activity of thought and
receptiveness to beauty and humane feeling." These brief
definitions are sufficient to show the comprehensiveness
and the indispensability of culture, for one must have a
way of life, and that way of life should be combined with
sweetness and light, with activity of thought, and with
beauty and humane feeling. Tamil Culture is nothing else
but the Tamil way of life, a pattern gracious living that
has been formed during the centuries of Tamil of history.
It has been conditioned by the land, the climate, the
language, the literature, the religions, the customs, the
laws, the food, the games and toys of the Tamil people,
by the palmyra palm, the gingelly oil, and the vegetables
associated with them. Culture is a most elusive and at
the same time an all embracing term.
The Antiquity of Tamil Culture in Ceylon
Tamil Culture has existed in this Island from time
immemorial. All the weight of geological,
anthropological, historical, literacy and linguistic
evidence point to the existence in Ceylon of a people
with racial and cultural affinities with the inhabitants
of South India. (1)
The Mahavamsa itself recognizes the
existence of a civilized people living in cities at the
time of the landing of Vijaya. The Mahavamsa too supposes
a pre-Buddhist period in Ceylon when the religion of the
people was Hindu. The story of Elara's reign, the statement,
"When he had thus overpowered thirty-two damila
Kings, Dutthagamini ruled over lanka in single
sovereignty," the rule of Tamil kings, the accounts of
the Kautilyan doctrine, and
references to "damiladevi," "the Chola people", "the
further coast" and "the other coast", point to an
ancient time when Tamil Culture and Sinhalese Culture
existed side by side upon this Island.(2)
The relations of the Sinhalese Kings with Nagadipa,
with the Chera, Chola, Pandya Kings of South India their
dynastic alliances, their embassies, their treaties, and
even their wars and their intrigues, are evidence of a
fraternal rivalry that existed between these neighbouring
kingdoms. There is a tendency to exaggerate these wars
and to portray these cultures as if they were perpetually
in conflict. Such a portrayal is one of the dangers of
history. (3)
The truth is, that to one well read in Ceylon and South
Indian history, these conflicts seem like the internal
conflicts of kindred peoples. The wars of the Tamils
against the Sinhalese are not any more numerous or
hostile than the wars among the Tamil kingdoms
themselves. At the time the Portuguese landed on this
Island, there is ample evidence for the honoured place
Tamil had at the Court of Kotte and for the Tamil schools
that the Portuguese founded in the western and North
Western provinces.(4)
When printing was introduced into this Island for the
first time, the Dutch published books both in the Tamil
and Sinhalese tongues. A copy of a Tamil book published
in Colombo in 1754 by the Dutch pastor Bronsveld, refers
in its dedication to the Tamil language spoken within the
greater area of this Island. (Maxima cum hujus insulae
parte tamulice loquentem). (5) Robert Knox and the Dutch despatches
speak of the Tamil townships and the Tamil-speaking
people of the Kandyan Kingdom.
Twin Culture
The comparative study of the Tamil and Sinhalese
languages, of the literatures and grammar in the two
languages, of place-names, of the drama, the dance, the
architecture, the sculpture peculiar to the two cultures
of this Island reveal to what limits they influenced each
other. Anthropological surveys have shown the extent to
which the common racial characteristics are shared by the
populations that speak the two languages, and history
testifies to the shifting of populations from one kingdom
to another and to the sections of people that have
changed one language for the other. The laws, the caste
system, the patterns of social structure, reveal very
many common elements. For the existence and
inter-penetration of these cultures, there is no better
evidence than a religious shrine like Kathirgamam held
sacred by the Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, located in
the southernmost part of Ceylon, and the religious
shrines of the Buddhists located in Nainativu, a
northernmost outpost of the Island, held sacred also by
Hindus.
The existence of two different religions did not always
prevent the patronage that kings of one persuasion extend
to the religion that was not theirs; did not prevent the
patronage and employment of Saivaite Brahmins at the
Sinhalese Courts; did not prevent marriage alliances of
Sinhalese Kings with Tamil Saivaite Queens; did not
prevent the teaching of Tamil along with Sinhalese, Pali
and Sanskrit at the more famous pirivenas as testified by
the Gira sandesa (15th century).
There was a time when Buddhism counted many Tamils among
its followers, even in Ceylon, and Tamil Buddhist monks
contributed in no small measure to the enrichment of
Tamil literature and Pali literature. Viharas were
established in the Tamil-speaking areas of Ceylon and
South India, and Tamil monks came to teach as well as to
learn in the Sinhalese kingdoms. It will always remain a
source of pride to us that the greatest, if not the only
classical epic of Theravada Buddhism exists in the Tamil
language. The poetry of Manimekhalai (2nd cent. A.D.) has been
forgotten by scholars because of its didactic and
doctrinal appeal, but it remains one of the finest jewels
of Tamil poetry with an abundance of quotable lines,
like
Paaragamadankalum PasiPiniyaraha
MAthavar NonBum madaVaaR Katpum
KAavalan Kaval InRenil InRraam
The Virasoliyam, a compendious Tamil grammar, was
compiled in the 11th century by a Tamil Buddhist,
Buddhamitrar. The origin of Tamil is attributed in this
grammar to Avaloketiswara (Bhodisattva). This grammar
seems to have influenced the Sinhalese grammar
Sidatsangarawa. Among the more famous Tamil Buddhists
that visited Ceylon on religious and cultural missions
were sangamitta (4th c.), Buddhadatta mahathero (5th c.),
vajirabhodhi (7th-8th c.), Anurudha (12th c.).
Dharmakirti, author(?) of the Culawamsa (13th c.).
Dignaga, Dharmapala of Nalanda, Bhodhidharmar of China
were three other illustrious Tamil exponents of
Buddhism.(6 )
The Tamil Language
The Tamil language has been spoken in this Island, it
would seem, at least for the last three thousand years.
The punch marked coins of an early era point to
connections that Ceylon may have had with Mohenjodaro and
the Indus Valley civilisation. Tamil poetry composed in
Ceylon has been included in the earliest Tamil Anthologies and the Tamil
spoken in Ceylon represents a pre-Pallava period with its
ancient morphological and grammatical forms and its
repertoire of words considered obsolete for centuries on
the neighbouring continent.
A language is always a mirror of a people's
genius.(7) The Tamil
language has been spoken basically in its present form
for the last two thousand years, and it continues even
now to be the living language for thirty to forty million
people -about thirty million people in India, more than
two million people in Ceylon, nearly one million people
in Malaya, Vietnam and Indonesia, and many thousands scattered
over Fiji, Mauritius, Madagascar, Africa and
even Trinidad and the Martinique islands.
Tamil is as much a classical
language as Greek, Latin or Sanskrit, with this
difference that while her ancient contemporaries have
changed beyond recognition or been long regarded as
"dead", Tamil continues to be one of the most vigorous of
modern languages, and perhaps offers the only example in
history of an ancient classical tongue which has survived
to this day and yet remains young as it was two thousand
years ago.
The monumental
Tamil-English dictionary by Miron Winslow was
commenced in Jaffna by Joseph Knight, assisted by Gabriel
Tissera and Rev. Percival (two Ceylonese), and it is in
the introduction to this Dictionary that Dr. Winslow has
the oft-quoted passage:
"It is not perhaps extravagant to say that in its
poetic form the Tamil is more polished and exact than
the Greek, and, in both dialects with its borrowed
treasures, more copious than the Latin. In its fullness
and power, it more resembles English and German than
any other language."
Dr. Slater said, "The Tamil language is extraordinary
in its subtlety and sense of logic"; and W. Taylor
observed earlier, "It is one of the most copious, refined
and polished languages spoken by man."(8)
Tamil speech as obtaining in Ceylon, and Tamil phonetics
as obtaining especially in the Northern and Eastern
Provinces, show a fidelity to the earliest Tamil grammars
which the speech of South India does not-a clear
indication of the development of Tamil in Ceylon
unhampered by the extraneous influences to which South
India was subject.
Tamil Literature
Tamil Literature has made certain definite
contributions to world thought and letters. Its love
poetry and its inclusion of love poet y in its theory of
poetics are indications of the humanistic approach to
life that is characteristic of Tamil Culture. The love
poetry of the Tamils is the product of a people among
whom the finest ideals of courtship and wedlock had long
been cherished. The ethical poetry of the Tamils has been
the wonder of all foreigners who have studied it. The
maxims of Thiruvalluvar or the Thirukkural is a book of which Dr. Albert
Schweitzer has said:
"There hardly exists in the literature of the world
a collection of maxims in which we find so much lofty
wisdom."(9)
And Dr. Pope observed:
"I have felt sometimes as if there must be a
blessing in store for a people that delight so utterly
in compositions thus remarkably expressive of a hunger
and thirst after righteousness."(10)
If English be the language of commerce, French the
language of diplomacy, Italian the language of love, and
German the language of philosophy, then Tamil is the
language of devotion. The devotional poetry in Tamil is
so great in bulk, and in depth and intensity of emotional
fervour, that its continued study has given the language
a certain aptitude for the expression of themes
pertaining to mysticism and contemplation.
The nature Poetry of the Tamils is again the result of
a people, except perhaps the people of the Pacific
Islands, have made so much use of flowers and plants in
daily life for various purposes as the Tamils have done.
The Tamils said it with flowers not only on love but also
in warfare. The ancient Tamil warriors went to battle,
their brows decked with garlands, and each strategic
movement had its own symbolic flower.
The influence and vitality of Tamil Culture in Ceylon has
been such that it has produced a Tamil literature of
worth, of which there is indisputable evidence, and many
a Ceylonese poet and scholar crossed the Straits and won
fame and recognition in other lands where Tamil is
spoken. The name of Arumuga Navalar is associated with
a great revivalist movement in Tamil and Saivaism;
C. W. Thamotherampillai was a pioneer
editor of the classics which spear-headed the Tamil
Renaissance; V. Kanagasabaipillai opened up a new horizon
to many a foreigner with his "The Tamils Eighteen Hundred
years ago;" N. Kathiravelpillai distinguished himself as
a lexicographer; Cumaraswamy Pulavar was recognised as a
scholar of outstanding merit; Swami Vipulananda occupied the Chair of
Tamil at the Annamalai University, and Swami Gnana
Prakasar established his reputation for comparative
philology and for the history of the Tamil-speaking
people. The records of some of the earlier Tamil writers
of Ceylon have been included in the "Tamil Plutarch" compiled by Simon
Casie-Chetty.(11)
Sinhalese sovereigns of various periods extended their
patronage to Tamil bard that set out from Jaffna with his
poem to the Court of Rajasingha at Kandy, to be told on
the way that the last Tamil-speaking King of Ceylon had
been taken captive.
Ideals of Life
Tamil Literature was the result of the Weltanschauung, the world outlook of the
Tamil-speaking peoples, and at the same time that
literature kept alive the outlook and those ideals which
shaped it. Imagination is a gift which has been
associated with great commercial peoples, and no people
in this part of the world were such skilful navigators or
traders as the Tamils.
The sea ports of the then Tamil county, which included
all the Malabar coast as well, were busy ports of call
into which ships from the West sailed with their gold,
lamps, wine and goblet, to return home laden with pepper
and silks and cotton and ivory, and with the pearls of
the Tamil seas. Teak from the Tamil county has been found
in the ruins of Ur of the Chaldees, and peacocks and apes
of the South were sold abroad as early as Solomon's time.
Yavanar, or men of the Graeco-Roman world, established
colonies and trading stations in the Tamil Kingdoms, and
were even employed as engineers, body-guards,
palace-guards, and city-guards in the service of Tamil
Kings.(12)
In this trade and overseas expansions the ports of North
Ceylon played a great part which is forgotten in the age
of the steamship and the aeroplane. Kalpitiya, Mantote,
Kayts, Elephant Pass, Trincomalee have a naval history
that has yet to be studied from local and foreign
records, including the Arab chronicles. The Tamil
Argonauts turned their eyes even more naturally towards
the East and with them they carried their art and
architecture, their religion, their language and their
laws. It is agreed by most .writers on Indian influences
on South East Asia that the Tamil Kingdoms were among the
earliest and the most active.
The author of the Periplus and Ptolemy speak of the ships
that used to sail from the Eastern coasts of South India
and Ceylon to the land of gold (Malaya and Java), and Fa
Hien refers to his voyage to Java, via Trincomalie.
Having travelled lately through south east Asia, I
have been able to follow the routes taken by the Tamil
Argonauts and see the many lands where the Tamil-speaking
people left behind the traces of their genius and
culture. In the architecture of Champa and Cambodia, in
the sculptures of the Museum of Tourane, in the Saiva
Siddantha system of religion once followed in Indonesia
and Indo-China, in the bronzes of Siam, may be seen the
traces of Tami1 influence. The Baratha Natyam has affinities with
the dances of Cambodia and Bali; the Tamil sacred verses
are recited by the Court Brahmins of Thailand at the
Tamil feasts of Thirupavay and Thiruvembavai and during
the coronation of their kings; certain tribes in Sumatra
go under the Tamil names of Chera, Chola, pandiya and
Pallava; and the temples of Dieng plateau, of Po-Nagar,
of Mi-son (Vietnam), of Anghor Thom, show the influence
of Tamil architecture.(13)
Islam was spread in the Malay Archipelago largely by
Tamil-speaking people.
Because of their international outlook, trade and
navigation the Tamils eschewed insularity and developed a
remarkable universality of outlook. Wendell Wilkie in One
World begins his book with the statement, "In future our
thinking must be worldwide." The Tamil poet anticipated
him by a two thousand years when he said:
Yathum Oore YAavarum KElIr or
"Every county is my county
Every man is my kinsman."
This sense of universality was instrumental in
fashioning Tamil society after a broad and tolerant
pattern. Albert Schweitzer in his Indian thought and its
Development shows exhaustively the optimistic, humanistic
sense of life and life affirmation, the joie de vivre,
that is characteristic of the Tamil attitude to life. He
has also shown that three of the greatest philosophers
canme from the South and were indebted to Tamil
thought.
The happy warrior delineated by the Tamil classics is one
who has a sense of honour and of chivalry, and who will
rather die than turn his back upon a foe or an adverse
circumstance. Honour, bravery and nobility (MAanam)
required one to bear the marks and scars of battle on the
bosom. The story is told of the Tamil matron that heard
of her son who had fallen in battle. She hurried to the
battlefield in distress test he should have fallen in
retreat, but was relieved and happy when she saw the
wounds on his chest, the infallible sign that he had
fallen facing the enemy.
The Tamil warrior was expected to cover himself with
glory in the arts of war and of peace. Men were
illustrious because they left a glorious name (PuHal)
"PuhaLodu ViLanki Pookka
NiN VEle" - (Puram 21;23)
"KAanamuyal Eitha Kambinil Yaanai
Pilaiththa VEl Eathal Inithu" - (Kural, 772)
The ideal of tolerance, the will to live and let live, is
well illustrated by the anthologies which include poems
of every shade of religious and philosophic belief. It is
further clear from the scenes in Manimekhalai of Tamil cities where
philosophers of rival schools expounded their own flags-a
two thousand-year old anticipation of Hyde Park
Corner.
The tradition of Bakthi and ideal of tolerance explain
the fact nearly every world religion can claim in Tamil a
voluminous literature. Tamil Culture has been enriched by
poetical works of Saivaites, of Vaishnavites, of Jains,
of Buddhists, of Muslims, of Catholics, of Protestants.
No other language in the world has been the vehicle of
the epic poetry of so many different religions, not
Latin, not Sanskrit.
As the ideal of the Philosopher-statesman was outlined by
the Greeks as the Orator was delineated by the Latins,
the Courtier and Governor by the English, the Tamils
conceived their educational ideal as the Complete Man,
the Perfect Man (SAanron) endowed with honour, greatness,
culture, benevolence and grace. Further, a life of
altruistic love was recommended to every Tamil. It has
been found that persons dedicated to service and love
live longer than others, and probably it is the altruism
of Tamil Culture,
Thamakkena VAalap PiRarkkuriyaalan
En PaNi SEithu KIDapathe"
that explains its long survival.
Present State
When one examines the present state of the
Tamil-speaking peoples and their fidelity to the ideals
that moulded their culture one wonders if they have not
lost a great ideal of the virility and resource that
characterized them of old. It is true they continue to
live, to be theistic, and to have a love of the language
and literature that nurtured them, but enterprise,
initiative, creative activity and philosophic thought are
necessary to them, if they are not to be noted for
inertia and apathy. Some of their ancient contemporaries
are no more; the Chams and the Khmers with whom they
traded and who under their inspiration erected colossal
monuments are themselves spent forces in the world of
today. Unless we are alive to the needs for the
conservation and transmission of this culture, it may
well be that a few centuries hence we shall have precious
little of this heritage left behind in the county of our
birth.
1. As the basis and source of this apathy and
inertia. I would point to the ignorance of the
language, of the literature, of the arts, of the
history, of the culture, that exists among our people
today, especially among those sections that combine
wealth and influence and a lop-sided Western education.
Cultures disappear by those very causes by which they
flourish, and the disappearance of the ideals that
nourished Tamil Culture will eventually lead to the
disappearance of Tamil Culture itself.
They say the Lion and the Lizard keep The Courts where
jamshyd gloried and drank deep.
During the last fifty years there has been a revival
of interest in Tamil, and this revival must be
attributed to the printing and popularising of the
Tamil calssics. But that revival in Ceylon will not be
complete unless it reaches every section of the
Tamil-speaking public, particularly those who establish
the norms of appreciation and the standards of
refinement.
2. The dearth of philosophic thought is, perhaps, the
greatest drawback in the popularising of true values in
Ceylon. In the spate of talk and oratory about our past
glories, we run very dry concerning the problems that
affect us in the domain of thought, concerning our
beliefs, our code of right and wrong, our political
creeds, our ideals of service, our national unity.
Philosophy is not the peculiar business of the angels;
it is human business, every body's business.
The want of creative activity in writing and the Fine
Arts that we remark today is mainly due to the lack of
an interest in philosophic studies and in pure thought.
The publishing houses are bringing out translations and
adaptations offoreign works and commentaries on the
ancient classics, but original works, works in Tamil
that deserve translation into foreign tongues, books on
the problems vital to man today are noticeably
scarce.
3. A lack of originality is seen in the Tamil radio,
the Tamil films, and the Tamil newspapers. It is also
visible (or audible) in the platform oratory that is
being developed in a manner so that the sense follows
the sound; it is audible in the alien Tamil accent that
is heard over Radio Ceylon; in the hybrid imitations
that pass for Tamil dance, and in the poor norms of
appreciation of Tamil music.14
4. The emphasis hitherto in the Tamil Renaissance has
been on the study of literature. An equal emphasis is
necessary today on the Fine Arts of the Tamils. We have
not produced recently any great sculptor or any great
painter. It is by a revival of these arts that we shall
teach our people the art of life and the art of
gracious living. A very famous English writer on the
Tamil dance wrote to me some time ago from Canada: "I
would give anything to have a glimpse of a Pallava
sculpture or a Chola bronze." It requires an aesthetic
mind to be so moved by art.
I have no intention of continuing these observations
because I see at the same time a few signs of an
awakening of effective interest in our cultural heritage.
But the question that agitates our minds today, the mind
of every Tamil-speaking citizen be he Muslim or Hindu,
Catholic or Protestant, or Buddhist, concerns the future
of Tamil Culture in this country.
Languages of Administration
The stagnation in Tamil Culture that has been noted
before is not little due to the want of State patronage
during the last three or four hundred years. With the
dawn of a new era in our national life, it is but
legitimate for us to expect the State to extend the same
measure of support to the development of the culture of
the two major nationalities that form the Ceylonese
nation.
Here are some contemporary cases of political nations
that include two or more nationalities. Belgium is almost
equally divided between Waloons speaking a French dialect
in their homes and Flemings speaking a variant of Dutch.
Switzerland is 72 per cent German speaking 21 per cent
French, 6 per cent Italian, 1 per cent Romansch. The
Union of South Africa has a white population that is part
English speaking and part Afrikaans or Dutch speaking
plus the racially distinct Bantu-Negro natives. India in
1947 set up house- keeping on its own, as two independent
political nations with dozens of nationalities and
languages).(15)
In the formation and preservation of nationalities,
language is by far the most objective factor. It is the
free inter-communication of common speech that provides
the consciousness of kinship. Language is the rational
and spiritual matrix in which a culture lives, moves and
has its being. Hence the Tamil poets have consistently
lost themselves in a mystical enthusiasm over the nature
of the language, calling it the sweetest possible
names:
SenThamizh, InRamizh, VanDamizh, ThaNDamizh,
AruNThamizh,
PasunThamizh, SelunThamizh, TheenThamizh, UyarThamizh,
KoThilThamizh, OnDamizh
The use of the Tamil language in the civil,
educational and social life of this county is an absolute
necessity if Tamil Culture is to survive. Today, Tamil is
spoken in every part of Ceylon by over two million people
; it is indigenous to this Island ; its speakers
constitute a major nationality ; its cultural influence
in the nation is very much greater than may be gauged
from the numerical strength of its speakers.
Words are the living memorials in which are enshrined
much of social and political history. The inner life of
every people is stereotyped in their language, and
retained there for the instruction of future generations.
I could give you hundreds of Tamil words and terms, the
disuse of which in administration would impoverish the
Tamils in Ceylon in more ways than one. It is but a
fundamental and human right that Tamil be one of the
languages of administration all over the county so that
the Tamil-speaking population may transact their business
with Government in their own language and consequently
that their business is attended to by members of the
Government service who have a minimum knowledge of the
Tamil language.
There is a flagrant contradiction in the statements of
those thinkers who would have Tamil as a medium of
instruction in schools but not as a medium in
administration. If there is equality of opportunity in
this Island, it should be made compulsory for a
Government servant to have a minimum knowledge of both
languages so that he may serve in any part of the
Island.
"aims at raising the intellectual tone of society, at
cultivating the public mind, at purifying the national
taste, at supplying true principles to popular enthusiasm
and fixed aims to popular aspiration, at giving
enlargement and sobriety to the ideas of the age, at
facilitating the exercise of political power and refining
the intercourse of private life." - (Cardinal Newman,
Idea of a University.)
Are we to be denied these gifts of University life
merely because a bilingual University is supposed to be a
novel institution in our national experience? Bilingual
Universities are no uncommon feature of bilingual and
multilingual countries. They tend to set the tone and the
example in tolerance, good understanding and co-operation
for the rest of the county. And bilingualism at the
University and in administration function on the
under-standing that on the part of the language groups
there will be no linguistic or cultural imposition which
involves the sacrifice of the mother-tongue.
The existence of the age-long cultures side by side
should be looked upon as a source of fruitfulness and
mutual benefits. Hence our Universities, schools, and
adult educational agencies should provide opportunities
for the study of the two national languages. Citizens
should be encouraged to learn the other national language
so that they may break the linguistic barrier in the
interests of social harmony. In Ceylon, we possess
already a linguistic environment favourable to the study
of Sinhalese, Tamil and English, and as many citizens as
possible should avail themselves of this opportunity to
obtain a knowledge of the three languages, naturally, in
varying degrees of proficiency.
Responsibility of the State
Thus far I have spoken of State patronage and of
institutions for the promotion of Tamil Culture in
Ceylon. The state may not relinquish its obligations in
favour of private enterprise and initiative, nor may it
attempt at consoling us with the assurance that "Tamil
will be taken care of in South India." Our reply then
would be: "We are Ceylonese and the Tamil language
belongs here in its own right, and even if Tamil per
impossible ceased to be the living language in other
parts of the world, we shall endeavour to make it
continue to flourish in this Island reserve."
An assurance of Tamil prosperity in South India would
be similar to assuring the French-Swiss nationality that
French need not be an official language in Switzerland
because it is the official language across the border in
France, or that the University of Lausanne is superfluous
because there is a University in Paris, or to saying that
the mother-tongue may be neglected in Australia because
English is taught in the United States. The growth of
Tamil in Ceylon has been independent, though that growth
did always admit of influences from across the seas in
the same manner as other great language of this
Island.
Nor is it accurate to say that Tamils are so endowed with
intelligence that they will learn the Sinhalese language
and wield it with the facility of a mother -tongue even
better than the Sinhalese themselves. This is a very
unscientific conjecture entirely unsupported by facts.
The Tamils can never acquire the same command of
Sinhalese as those to whom Sinhalese is the
mother-tongue, unless they are prepared to change their
mother-tongue. There are very, very few people in the
world who are able to think, speak and write two
languages with the same equal facility.17 And what guarantee is there that even
if they sell their birthright, origins, religion, names
and antecedents will not prevent discrimination should
Government or society choose to discriminate against
them?
Some Ways and Means
There are ways and means by which individuals may
promote Tamil Culture, either singly or in a body. It
would not be wrong to say that the State and the
Universities receive their tone and their standards also
from the society which they represent, so that the higher
the standards of society, the higher is the standard of
cultural patronage by the State and of efficiency at the
University. Here are some ways and means by which the
objectives of a cultural revival may be achieved:
1. Active support should be given to associations
dedicated to the study and promotion of Tamiliana.
2. Tamil society should set the highest standards in this
revivalist and progressive movement. Awards (cash,
medals, books) should be offered for creative work and
for translations..
3. Libraries and Museums should be established as means
of adult education and films should be made of the Tamil
heritage. The project of the Jaffna Library merits the
support of the entire country.
4. A comprehensive Tamil-Sinhalese-English Dictionary and
a Tamil Encyclopaedia for Ceylon should be compiled.
5. Basic research should be undertaken by cultural
associations so that the significance and import of Tamil
customs and habits and way of life may be popularised
among the Tamil-speaking people.
6. Teachers of Tamil should be well-qualified and be
lovers of Tamil literature that enjoy Tamil poetry in
their leisure. A new orientation in the prescribing of
books of study and in their teaching is necessary if
Tamil children are to love their language and enjoy
poetry and the Tamil Arts as the expression of life and
experience, and wield their languages for intelligent and
effective citizenship. The writing of poetry should
receive especial attention, since poetry, more than nay
other Fine Arts, is a powerful vehicle for the
transmission of a people's ideals, history and
language.
7. Tamil monuments in Ceylon should be better studied and
preserved. If the State for some reason or other, has not
hitherto prepared specialists in Tamil archaeology or
Tamil history, it should be the duty of the Tamil
Cultural Association to request the State to do so. The
University, the Department of Archaeology, the Public
Museums should have scholars well versed in Tamiliana.
Scholarships may be offered to deserving students by the
Tamil -speaking public.
8. Tamil studies should be made to show the points of
contact and elements common with Sinhalese Culture so as
to promote understanding and national solidarity.
9. The Tamil classics should be translated into Sinhalese
and books on Tamil Culture be written in English and
Sinhalese for the promotion of inter-nationality
harmony.
10. The contribution in thought, in literature, in art
made by the Tamil speaking people should be made known
through translations in the principal languages of Europe
and Asia, because that contribution is part of the
world's heritage. In the past, for political and
religious reasons, Tamil studies had enthusiastic
students in Portugal, Holland, France and England. In the
future, it will be the duty of Tamils themselves to give
their treasures to their fellowmen, and a few Tamil
scholars at least should learn Hindi, Chinese, Japanese
and Indonesian for this purpose.
11. Culture is dependent for its origin and its
development on geography and on the land. Tamil Culture
has had always an intimate communion with the land as is
to be seen from the earliest Tamil poetry down to our own
day. The tendency of people to flock to the towns should
be arrested, for extreme urbanization and the consequent
change means death to a culture such as ours. One cannot
be opposed to change or to the absorbing of elements that
are conducive to cultural progress. But the process of
change should not involve the ceasing of a vital internal
development. The Tamil speaking people should co-operate
in re-settlement programmes and revive the agricultural
bias of their social structure.
12. Every Tamil-speaking citizen should make his own
contribution to this cultural movement, by study, by
doing promotional work, and by material assistance. Many
associations and authors fail to give of their best for
want of adequate finances.
Unto the Last
These, ladies and gentlemen, are some of the measures
that we may adopt in order that we may reacquire our
Culture for ourselves and our generation, and that we may
leave it to those who follow us, richer and nobler, if
possible, than we found it. There is no doubt that the
task of nation-building is not a tight one, and that
the.problems that beset us are many and varied. While
other bilingual states are parts of continents and have
large territories contiguous to them, Nature and history
and a common patrimony intend us to be one nation in our
Island home.
Because Tamil is the mother-tongue also in other
countries, no Tamil-speaking Ceylonese has ever ceased to
think of this Island but as his home, his country and his
motherland. For two thousand years and more, our two
major nationalities have lived together, and there is no
reason for not hoping that Sinhalese Culture will be a
source of inspiration and Strength to Tamil Culture and
that Tamil culture will be a source of inspiration and
strength to Sinhalese Culture.
The great Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam in a
speech that inaugurated the national movement in this
county saw the vision of a future Ceylon which because of
progress and leadership would serve as a beacon light to
the rest of Asia. Asia today throbs with the
consciousness of new hope and destiny, and within the
frame-work of new world, our county situated in the
centre between East and West has the new opportunity to
evolve a life of its own, her own democracy, by learning
from the experience of other nations on either side of
her but by solving her own problems in the manner best
suited to her own national genius.
If I have ventured to suggest to you a few measures for
the continued preservation and development of Tamil
Culture, I have done so in the spirit of a student. The
history that I have outlined, the language in which our
mothers sang to us when rocking our cradles, the words
that have become dear to us by traditional usage and the
phrases that have become consecrated in our prayers at
home or at common worship, the literature that has
formed, nurtured and elevated us and offered us the
ideals which we cherish, these are some of the factors
that contributed to the Tamil-speaking peoples existing
as a nationality upon this Island.
One is not less a Ceylonese for being loyal to Tamil
Culture or to Sinhalese Culture. While it is true that a
culture may not be created artificially, it is equally
true that it is in the power of men to contribute to the
causes and work at those conditions necessary for a
flowering of culture, and it is also in the power of men
to combat those intellectual errors and the emotional
prejudices which stand in the way of such conditions. The
survival and the continued growth of Tamil Culture is,
therefore, in our hands.
It is selfless and noble to dedicate one's time and
energies under God to one's Culture and one's County. The
Tamil sage implied that Tamil Culture is the dearest
possession of the Tamil people for the preservation of
which no sacrifice would be great enough, not even life
itself:
PaNpudaiyar Paddundu Ulagam
Aahthinrel Mampukku Maaiva Thooman
Notes:
1
see Articles by Swami Gnana Prakasar in Tamil Culture,
Vol I (1952) Nos. l-4.
2 W. GEIGER, The
mahavamsa, p.165; pp. 264f., Colombo 1950.
3. H. BUTTERFIELD,
History and 'human Relations, p. 158ff., London,
1951.
4. DE QDEYROZ, The
Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, p. 241,
Colombo, 1930; S. G. PERERA, The Jesuits in Ceylon,
passim, Madura, 1942; see G. SCHURHAMMER, Ceylon sur
zeit des konigs Bhuvaneka Bahu und Franz Xavers, 2
Vols. ; Leipzig, 1928; and Die Zeitgenossischen Quellen
zur geschichte Portugiesisch - Asiens und seiner
nachbarlander 15381552, leipzig, 1932; MA. HEDWIG
FITZLER, Os tombos de ceilao da seccao ultramarina da
biblioteca nacional, Lisbon, 1927; PIERIS-FITZLER,
Ceylon and Portugal, Leipzig, 1927, fails to mention or
translate the Tamil sentences in the letters from the
Court of the King of Kotte, though reproducing in a
frontispiece plate the Tamil writing which precedes the
signature of the Sinhalese king..
5 catechismus,
Colombo, 1754 (Copy seen in the Museum Library of
Djakarta).
6 On place names, see
B.J. PERERA, Some observations on the study of
Sinhalese place names in The Ceylon Historical
Journal, Vol.II (1953) pp. 241-250; page 244; 'Tamil
place names are found mostly along the sea-coast and in
the Anuradhapura, Chilaw and Puttalam districts. Though
there are no native 'Tamils living along the sea-coast
south of Colombo, the Tamil origin of most of the
present inhabitants there is seen from the fairly large
number of Tamil place names. The 'ge' names of these
people too attest to their Tamil origin. The word malai
meaning in Tamil 'a mountain or hill is found in even
the central parts of the island. They are come across
in literature produced many centuries before the
opening up of plantations and show that the Tamil
element in the composition of the Sinhalese is far
greater than is usually conceded. RanMalaya, Kotmale
and Gilimale are some of the examples." I am indebted
to my colleague, Mr. K. Nesiah for the above reference.
C.E. GODAKUMBURA, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental
and African Studies, The Dravidian Element in Siialese,
pp. 837-841, Vol XI; N.S. VENGADASAMY,Tamil and
Buddhism, (Tamil) Madras, 1950.
7. A.N. WHITEHEAD, Aims of Education,
New York. 1951: "Language is the incarnation of the
mentality of the race that fashioned it"
8. Quoted in Preface
to Winslow's Tamil -English Dictionary, Madras,
1862.
9. A. SCHWEITZER,
Indian Thought and its Development, pp 200-205, London,
1936.
10. see M. WINSLOW,
Preface to Tamil-English Dictionary; SRI KANTHA, Terra
tamulica, Colombo, 1910.
11. K.
KANAPATHIPILLAI, Ceylon's Contribution to Tamil
language and Literature in University of Ceylon Review,
Vol. VI, No.4 (1948); Articles by K.P RATNAM and K.K.
NADARAJAH in the Ceylon Tamil Festival Volume (Tarnil),
Jaffna, 1951.
12. See E.H.
WARMINGTON, The Commerce between the roman Empire and
india.
13. G.COEDES, Lees
etats Hindouises, Paris 1948.
14. BERYL DE ZOETE,
The Other Mind, p. 14, London 1953.
15 A J KROEBER
Anthropology. p2 2 6- 227 New York, 1948.
17 MARIO PEI, The
Story of Language, New York, 1949, p.104: " A trace of
foreign accent is present in about 99% of cases where a
person on one linguistic background tries to speak
another tongue." Page191: "It has been fully
established that a change in language on the part of an
individual is attended by corresponding changes in
gestures, facial expression, carriage, even humour and
taboos. This is readily observable in the case of
bilingual speakers when they pass from one language to
the other." Page254: "Linguistic intolerance is
manifested in the aversion to other languages than
one's own. As a student linguistic sociology puts it,
'To the naive monoglot, objects and ideas are identical
with and inseparable from the particualr words used to
describe them in the one language he knows; hence he is
inclined to consider speakers of other language as
something less than ashuman, or at least foreign and
hostile to the world of his own experience."
|
