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46 views8 pagesThe Dravidian Problem
language
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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-
