தமிழ்த் தேசியம்

"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 

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Journey Down Memory Lane To Reach 'tamiz Izam'
R.Shanmugalingam

Chapter 49

Fairness in journalism about, "Fairest in Tax" is a column in the Boston Globe of February 8, 1996. The columnist writes, "If fairness means anything at all, it means that two people making the same salary should pay the same tax........ But that’s not how the tax code works. Instead of treating taxpayers equally, it enforces a cruel double standard."

It appears, according to this columnist, Americans earn the same salary and there is no difference from one American to the other in their earnings, and therefore, all are equal. He, has laid the foundation to justify serving his interest of the rich. These are the types of journalists who are sought after by the SLPR, who "always derided as extremism" ‘tamiz’ aspirations to live free and with dignity.

‘tamizar’ are not awake for lessons on enlightenment, and confuse them with popular Western way of thinking. There has been a disintegration of personality. Alvin Toffler in his book, "The third Wave" : "in fact it appears to be oppressive, dreary, ecologically precarious, war-prone and psychologically repressive." I said ‘tamizar’ are not awake, because, ‘Aryan’ hegemony, and the enormous damage done to ‘tamiz’ studies by Sanskritists, though past glory lives through ancient ‘tamiz’ works,we are not well informed of these magnificent materials of wisdom.

The late Thiru C. Rajasingam in his book, "The Cultural Contribution of the Tamils", commented, "when we think about dead civilizations like those of old Egypt and Mesopotamia, all the data are in the proper field of archaeology. But it is not so when the civilization is living and rests upon an old tradition, like in Tamilnad." ("Archaeology and Tamil Studies" by: Prof. Jean Filliozat)

This gives a strong support to what K. K. Pillai in his book "Landmarks in the History of Tamilnad" University of Madras, commented. "The persistent tradition about the earlier Sangam works are now lost, as well as the legends about the two deluges of the sea recorded in the Ceylonese Chronicles suggest that the existence of the two earlier Sangams is not a myth. For the attainment of high literary standards in the first century AD, there should have been a development of the literature for sometime prior to it. True, the fantastic periods of duration of the Sangams and the incredible legends associated with the Academies are mythical; but the fact of these academies having existed in the past does not deserve to be summarily dismissed as baseless."

Ancient ‘tamizar’ did not resort to hegemony or genocide to foster their language and culture. There is evidence that ‘tamiz’ Chola dynasty extended to the Himalayas and beyond. Father Xavier S. Thaninayagam in his book "Tamil Culture, its past, its present, its future with special reference to Ceylon" observed in 1955, "In the architecture of Champa and Cambodia, in the sculptures of the museum of Tourano, in the Saiva Sidhanta system of religion once followed in Indonesia and Indo-China, in the bronzes of Siam, may be seen traces of Tamil influence.

The Bharatha Natyam has affinities with the dances of Cambodian and Bali, the Tamil sacred verses are recited by the court Brahmins of Thailand and during the coronation of the Kings; certain tribes in Sumatra go under the Tamil names of Chera, Chola, Pandya, Pallava, and the temple of Dieng plateau of Po-Nagar, of Mison (Vietnam.)Thiru Rajasingam also quotes Ananda Coomaraswamy thus: "The Dravidians are peculiar to India, once universal India. They are the bearers of a cultural continuity extending from the Stone Age."

Professor A. Veluppillai in his Lecture delivered at the Theological Faculty, Uppsala, 6th February, 1995as it appeared in the "Uppsala Studies in the History of Religions 2 (1995) Editors: Jan Bergman, Anders Hultgard, Peter Schalk, said:

"The Saiva movement was relatively more involved in religious conflicts and controversies. Saint Appar, a convert from Jainism to Saivism, converted the ruler from Jainism to Saivism. His poetry seems to be a strange mixture of Jaina world-view Siva bhakti. Even though he expresses his regret for having wasted much of his life as a Jaina monk, his poetry seems to be a form of synchronism between Jainism and Saivism. The Jaina world-view and Jaina didactic works become acceptable to the Saivites. Saint Campanthar, a younger contemporary of Saint Appar, converted the Pantiya ruler from Jainism to Saivism. He defeated the Buddhists in another controversy. As a Brahmin, he was a champion of Vedic religion against the Jains and the Buddhists. There are plenty of polemical references about the Jains and the Buddhists in his bhakti poetry. Saint Manikkavacakar was also said to have defeated the Lankan Buddhists in a controversy, but there is no trace of polemics in his compositions.

For about a millennium, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism were the three important religions among the Tamils. The triangular contest for the loyalty of the Tamils led to the growth of polemical literature to which adherents of all religions contributed. The Buddhist contribution is seen in the Manimekalai, and the Kuntalakeci, the Jaina contribution in the Nilakeci and the Saiva contribution in the Civananacittyar. But overall, conflicts are rare, especially after Hinduism consolidated its position. The Saiva or Vaisnava rulers, were generally generous to all the Hindus, irrespective of their personal inclinations and also patronized the Jaina and Buddhist religious establishments of their subjects."

It is still an open question as to the religions of Thiruvalluvar, Ilanko Adikal, and other authors of the several ‘tamiz’ works. Thiru Rajasingam wrote, "Though languages generally apply to concrete things, in Tamil alone are the coordinates available for knowledge of the world as an epiphany. Tamil presents the ‘now of time’ which is the ‘now that stands still.’ Hence the IMAGE of Siva was CREATED as beyond the coordinates of time.

says the Tamil mystic making the ‘now or Siva’ ever-flowing and sempiternal. It is to be liberated from the pairs of opposites."

The tendency for us to advocate hatred and undermine legitimate claims is by resorting to the type of argument placed the columnist in the Globe. Delving into the past helps to erase the misgivings of ‘tamizar’ as portayed by some masquerading as ‘tamizar.’

In a democracy, where power comes from below with universal franchise, and this automatically keeps away genuine competence. In other words political leaders have to play for the gallery, if they wanted more votes. ‘tamiz’ kingly order created the needed elite for the proper development of social function. This called for disciplines for the enrichment of the common life. *A list of kingly duties, that would be minimal for a just and fair society as outlined in Abirami Cinthamani (Encyclopedia of Tamil Studies) :-

All the above embraced a pristine culture which lived only within the constraints imposed by a natural eco-system. It was not as today the end of living to usher the beginning of survivals. The king knew best how the species could be sustained at a high level of culture without damage to nature. It brought to focus the world of Francis Thompson:

*The Cultural Contribution of the Tamils - C. Rajasingam Appendix 1.

continued

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