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    The Dravidian Problem

    Uploaded by

    KedarShukla
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    © All Rights Reserved
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    10 THE DRAVIDIAN PROBLEM 1. Introduction: ‘The ethic iaterpretations and conno= tation of Caldvellsiagubtic Dravician’ has led to the radal hypotheses and theories of ‘Dravidins.. Though the concepts of race and language are two seperate enties, the “Dravii- fans ac ail held onl in the racial excem agains the so calle "Aryans, in all rligous, sodal and potticaieractions and processes, even today. Indeed, Caldvell himself has shown the ‘way for sich a rarsiion to take place from lingusm to racism? Tn the case of Arans, it was the study of Sanskrit literature, panicuinly the Vedas tt phyed crucial rote in thee inven ior, whereas, companstive inguiaie aud, bat not the sudy of ancient Tamil erature, popularly known as sangam litaratue’ which has resulted inthe production of ‘Dravigians” - when “Aryand cauld be found not only in the sanskrit Iitarature, but also in the ancient Tami tarature, Draviians’ are nox a all found inthe aacioat Tam tratre, but inthe Sanskrit tera- tore motly inthe geographical contest. 2, ‘Dravidiane. and Tamil literature: For the pur pose of this paper the forms of Dravid, viz, Dravic, Dravid, Dravidim, Danila, Drama, Dravida, Dravida and their derva- tives are considered, But, surprisingly, none of these words 48 found in ihe ‘Sangam literature’, generally represented by Panuppatts Euxtogai and Padincakishkkanatks. Even, in “Tevaram? , ony “Tamsshin’ was uted in the expression, "Seen “aiyan seen Tamizhan’. Only Tajurcanavar of 18h entry wes the woed “Drevidam’, that teo, to denote the Tami language? “Therefore, itis evident thatthe forms of ‘Dravid ard their usige by Tals end Tamil poets were notin vogue upto. 18th century. “Nama thipe nithandu$*,« Tamil lexicon asigned to 78 or Lith century mentions ‘Dravida, as one of the words used for Tomi *Séntham Divakaran", anche: Tamil lexicon ‘of th century mentions that Draviam’ as one ofthe eighteen languages spoken. A later wock “Kastatnu Upsdesa Kenda” -ntions that Lord Shivo rorealed t9 Agasiya te graeme of proud langvage ‘Dravidam’. The authers “Prayoos Vivégum" explain that the Sanskrit word “Tramilan’ had been changed to “Tamil, but the modern (Dravidian) schearsrefete this strongly and asirt that only the word ‘Tami ha been pronounced and teed as Dravid’ by the Sankt scholars. Swann Yogi also mentions thatthe Sanskrit scholars asd the word “Dravidan® symbolically to denote “Ten mozhi (the language of south), that is Tamil’ Therefore, it & very clear that Tams were rot ont un-femiliar withthe usage of the word “Dravid”, but, ‘also started to denote it for tele Iagusge only inthe modeen pesiod, particalarty after the advent ofthe European scholars in South Ina 3, ‘Tamil’ in Tamil literature: ‘There ¢ «well known, {interpretation that ‘Dravida’ is derived from ‘Tamil. The word “Tamil is of course found in the ‘Sangam’ literature at many places. There, it i used to denote 1. Temi language, 2. Tamil army and 3. Tamil country ©. The usage of ie word “Tamil is ‘on the increase with the passage of mein the Tami literature, K.V.RAMARRISHNA RAO™ sis observed from the frequency of iis oxcurrence a follows (Tabie-A). In Tokappiyam, it appears fv times and in'Sargam’ Iterature 21 times. In the literature of the period 200 500A.D, itis used 45 times, 500-900 A.D, 475 times, 900-1200: 381 times, and 1200-1900: 341 times? . Therefore, whon the Tamils know ‘very well about the name of their angiage and ite usge, they need not have derived it from Sanskrit Dravid’, and vsed such ‘a nox-Tamil word to name their ancient language. Moreover, they have been using the word ‘Tamil from ‘Sangam’ period t0 [Modern times, to denote their language as proper and abstract, ‘owns, but, in any cate, it has nover been uted in the racis! ‘annotation, 4. ‘Ariyar in the Tamil literature: “Arya? nave been rentoned several times inthe Tanil literature and described suffidenty to know about then® . Therefore, an important Guesion ares, “Wien thee were Arar, why not Dravidians ‘Walable at that ine?” The answer is tat he Tamils never fonsdered ‘Anjar’ at outsiders ad 'Dravidand! themselves Original, “Arya or ‘Aryans’ were created by Maxmule from the Vedi lteraure, but ‘Dravidians! were produced from the ‘comparative gremmar of the Dravidian languages. The an Inropologists succeded in comparing the descriptive prysicl features of Dass, Dass and Pani ike Varna, Anat, Mrd- Yavechah et wth their anthropometry. at, ‘Anjans were not compared withthe description given inthe Tamil iterate 10 serif the anthropometric parameters like Cranial index, Nas inde, Sature 'S. Anthropometry of ‘Dravidians’ : Huxley (187), Haeckel Turner (190), G. Opport, Risely (1918), E. ‘Thusstoa(1909), Seligman, Selater and others have given df= ferent and varying anthropometric data ard descriptions about ‘Dravidian race’ (Table-B). They have tried 10 compare them with the Medicterracnian, Negsito and Australoid races with the above recial parameters. Their stature/height varies ftom short 1 meaiem skin/ complesion from yellow browa /brown to lack, oad from messcophalic te doicocephalic, nove (rom broad 10 narrow and lat to narrow; eye colour from brown to black; hair {om straight of vany to curly but not wolly o frizz; lips ecm, thick to protruding and so on If this is the racial picture of ‘Drovidians, the picture given by Tami poets about the ancient Tamils is entirdy diferent 6Anihropometry” ofthe ancient Tamils: Te Tait pov hive too motcloudy dosrbed about heady, hr, ps, ears. ees, hands es and body strutaro of the ancient Tamils a many ples, but thy never paint them with back as fas been done bythe abore “acs? scholars. Indeed they have usd afeent terminology fr each naricterste eg eh, aan for head Kadi, mays andl, rd, flag, ha fora, sid vont ad Kal or fet, mere, sda, aga, sara, uns fer bods ey murava pal forte, rude, net for forehead ka adi, mora or jaw, kannidazh * KV, Rama Krishna Rao, is the Secetayy of BharateeyaTihasa Sarkalan Samii, Madras. 4 lai for eyelid, idazh, adaram, udac for lips. These words {are used with suitable adjectives to specify the physical charac- terstcs of men and women. Each word is used appropriately to describe a morpnotogica tat. Indeed, many poets, scholars and other personalities were named alters specific charactrsic possessed by them, eg, Asiriyar penagannan, the teccher with Dig eyes, Prungannanar-a man with bigger eres; Hangannanar 4 man with youthful eyes; Sengannarar-a mean with reddish eyes; Nettimaiyar-a man withlengthy eye brows; Narai madi Netayar- {man vith white hair and nigh stature; umpidatalayar back colour haired headed man ora maa with a strong headliké Tron; SinalaiSauanar-Satanar with puse headec; Perotaleiyarn man with bigger head, Pullaru eytranar, Kezhartkran eytranar-men with characersic teeth. The ancient Tamil leterature clealy ‘metions thatthe skin olosr of the ancient Tams was that of| te tender mango leaf. ‘The kings had the colous that of Sun ‘The heroines have boon described that they had bright colour body like the unsheathed sword with ceddish hands and fest Interesting, Kalaiitogssiesses that women should have big mors venris, shoulders and eyes and small forehead, waist and fect, as such parameters were considered as good characteris, le, morphology. Recent, a gois ring duted to 2 BC 1 AD. hat been discovered or the banks of Amravati formerly Ane pporunai), Karur in the Tiuchirappalii District of Taminads, Figures of man and woman have beea embossed on the front side of the ring, which clearly exhibit the physical features. The ‘man is fall, slim, eyes lengthy, lips medium, nose normal aed head dolicocepnalie. The woman Is also tall but shorter than the man with the same merphologicolsrsits, The gold mouth pieess recovered from Adichanallur are indiestors to show that the Tami ips are in perfect shape with medium size, bet not protruding. From these details, one ean bringout the merpho- logical characterstcs of the ancient Tamils, they were never ‘considered as belonging (0 4 particular race or dllerent races. 6.1. Here, the imponant point should be noticed is that though the Indotogistshave conpared and correlated the plysical features deccribed in Vedas with thei ‘Dravidian’ they have ot applied the same methodology in comparing and eorrlatieg the morphological features of the ancient Tamils form ‘Sangam literature’ with the médem anthropometric indies. In any ‘ease, we do not come across ‘Dravidians’ with black skin, snud- nosed (ana), impaired speech (mrahavachch) ana otner "Vedic ‘roient Beahmaas of India, The Brahnans of north of Vindyas were called ‘Pancha Gauéas.-and they are 1. Saraivathas of Kashmir, 2. Kenyakubjas of Punjab, 3. Mukya Gaudas of Ben- gal, 4, Utkalas of Orisia and 5. Mathias (with Misr’ tle) of Nepal and Bihar. Markandeya, Garuda, Vishnu- Dnarmottara ‘Maha puranas and Brinat Samhita locate ‘Draveas along with ‘the Kambojas, Strimukhas and the Anartas in the Southavest of Bharat, Dasskumara Charita also mentions that there was «country named Dravida, and Kanchi a city was situated init ‘adambari ' cals as inhabitant or native of that country as ‘Dravid’. A sage is known 25 ‘Drasida-gaudaki’, and a Up- Anishad "Dravidoupanihad” Bharata refers to ‘Dravida in his Natyasesira and Bana mentions cbout a ‘Dramida margs’. In the rhapsodies of Bilhana ‘Vikramadivya’s digvijaya’, the Chola army has been refered to as ‘Dravida army’ and Chola king as Ine ‘Dravida Lord’. According to Muir ard Caldvell, as late as in 18S4, the learned Hinds philologit Babu Rajendra Lal Mi tra spoke of ‘Dravid 8 one of the recognised Prakrts equally with the Sauraieni 11, Dramilaand Dravida Jain accounts: Jsinwosks SamavangaSutta(¢ 300 BC.) andPannavanaSutta(c, 168 BC) ‘mention about the prevalence of eightcen varieties of scripts in the country in early times and “Dammit vas one of them. To propayste Jainism in Tamitnady, ne Digimara Jaina teacher Vajeanati established a‘ Dravida Senge’ in 470 A.D. at Madura Inthe Satrungaya Purana, Chap. VII (400w) assigneé to £21 or 605 A.D. itis mentioned "Dravids-vaikhla-chantratirthoddha vara", reersingo a Dravida he son of Vishohasvamin, a Jin 16. ‘Damile’ has been menioned in Hemachandras thaviravali CCharita, but according wo Feet, Dram was the Dravida country Df the Pallavas on the oast coast, and Kanchi was its capaal 12, Damila - Buddhist accounts : Pall chronicies give letcled accourns of Dams’. The Buddhist work Laltavistara, ‘work in Sanskrit (€. cent. A.D) refers to 64 scripts used at the time of Buddha and they included ‘Dravid Epi, A Vinaya comentary called Vimatvinodsni’ was written by Kessepa Thera, ‘whowas an inhabitant oF the kingdom ef Dama. 4 earful study of the Buddhist tens shows thatthe ‘Damilas’ were & fighting people always engaged in constant sifes with the Sinhalese in Lanka. It is interesting to nove that they are described as “Ananya The Ceyion chronides, Mahavamsa ard Dipavansa give moce details about ‘Damilas’ and theie aivtes in Ceylon. The Mahavamsa (459-477 A.D) speaks of ‘Damilas’ on several occassions. At the same time it doos not cleely say as to who were these Damilis or from which part of Indi, they came over to Ceylon, but it disinguishes between the Pandya and Chola divisions of the Tamil enuntry. In Dipsvamsa, ‘Dams! have been mentioned eight umes #7. The commentators of Budthagoss distinguish the ‘Danilas' from he Yavanas and Kiratas on the one hand and from the Andhrat on the other ‘The Chinese monk Yuan Chwang who visited the Tamil country in 637 AD meatioas in his report that Kenehi (Kan-

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