India was a land of rich culture. I have to put force on the past-tense of culture as today what we see is not even the shadow of the original culture. There was a time when in-spite of being in different "princely states", we were Indians.
But today we have reached a stage when we may be living under roof of India as a country. But internally we are divided with so many false notions. One of such false notion is about "Debate of Tamil Vs Sanskrit, which is oldest".
The day we were divided into states based on language, the seed of a new diversity was sown. It reached its highest state when anti-Hindi agitation movement took root in Tmail Nadu. The purpose of this article is to shed some points to the neutral "India" section. I am not biased with either Sanskrit or Tamil. Those who are pro-Tamil or pro-Sanskrit may choose to ignore this post. But read only if you are ready to get fresh perspective.
Due to the pro-Tamil thinking, people also started to discard whatever is "written" in Sanskrit. This shutting door policy will prove to be a heavy mistake for future generations. The Tamil poet Kambar for example was not only well versed in Tamil but also in Sanskrit. This shut-door policy would eventually mean that only if Kambar has written in Tamil, the text would be revered. How can one selectively neglect one's past.
It all started with British rule. Their well-planned division technique combined with Evangelical conversion projects made sure that Tamil was separated from Sanskrit. This was made in a step-by-step approach. Later some christian converts in Tamil Nadu even went ahead and created a 5th Veda meant as a tool to nail the coffin of Tamil Nadu. This is still evident today as Christians in south districts of Tamil Nadu refer to Bible as "Veda Puthakam". There are enough articles about this hence I need not replicate them here.
The point of debate should have been restricted to only the written form, not the language itself. The Vedas/Upanishads was also printed in Tamil Nadu, not in a script of Hindi but a script called "Grantha". Even today there are lot of books in this script. A casual search about this will reveal that it was use from early 6th Century in South of India to write Sanskrit Manthrams. This script also is directly descended from Brahmic script. Read about these scripts after googling.
The point here I want to make is the written form of Sanskrit now used is based on Hindi alphabets (or North-Indian origin). But the texts composed in Sanskrit was not restricted to North-India. As the texts composed in Sanskrit (The word Sanskrit is derived from word Samaskruta which loosely means "Composed together" or "Made together"). The British knew language as only written in form. In fact the history is considered to be started only after origin of written languages. They couldn't comprehend the original usage of a language, which is to communicate (which doesn't require it to be written).
The British used this oppurtunity to divide the North and South in the minds of people. Combined with the conversion project they have made sure that people in Tamil Nadu started to remove Sanskrit and any origin. Thus making sure they lost the thread of continuity of their own culture. Once the culture is lost in oblivion, its easy for implementing any new projects as they wish.
I would like to say to all Tamil loving people to not neglect Sanskrit and its influence, as it is also their own culture. The myth of Aryan invasion and Dravidian has to be put to rest. We were always living in the country, peacefully. We should continue to live so.
Radhe Krishna
But today we have reached a stage when we may be living under roof of India as a country. But internally we are divided with so many false notions. One of such false notion is about "Debate of Tamil Vs Sanskrit, which is oldest".
The day we were divided into states based on language, the seed of a new diversity was sown. It reached its highest state when anti-Hindi agitation movement took root in Tmail Nadu. The purpose of this article is to shed some points to the neutral "India" section. I am not biased with either Sanskrit or Tamil. Those who are pro-Tamil or pro-Sanskrit may choose to ignore this post. But read only if you are ready to get fresh perspective.
Due to the pro-Tamil thinking, people also started to discard whatever is "written" in Sanskrit. This shutting door policy will prove to be a heavy mistake for future generations. The Tamil poet Kambar for example was not only well versed in Tamil but also in Sanskrit. This shut-door policy would eventually mean that only if Kambar has written in Tamil, the text would be revered. How can one selectively neglect one's past.
It all started with British rule. Their well-planned division technique combined with Evangelical conversion projects made sure that Tamil was separated from Sanskrit. This was made in a step-by-step approach. Later some christian converts in Tamil Nadu even went ahead and created a 5th Veda meant as a tool to nail the coffin of Tamil Nadu. This is still evident today as Christians in south districts of Tamil Nadu refer to Bible as "Veda Puthakam". There are enough articles about this hence I need not replicate them here.
The point of debate should have been restricted to only the written form, not the language itself. The Vedas/Upanishads was also printed in Tamil Nadu, not in a script of Hindi but a script called "Grantha". Even today there are lot of books in this script. A casual search about this will reveal that it was use from early 6th Century in South of India to write Sanskrit Manthrams. This script also is directly descended from Brahmic script. Read about these scripts after googling.
The point here I want to make is the written form of Sanskrit now used is based on Hindi alphabets (or North-Indian origin). But the texts composed in Sanskrit was not restricted to North-India. As the texts composed in Sanskrit (The word Sanskrit is derived from word Samaskruta which loosely means "Composed together" or "Made together"). The British knew language as only written in form. In fact the history is considered to be started only after origin of written languages. They couldn't comprehend the original usage of a language, which is to communicate (which doesn't require it to be written).
The British used this oppurtunity to divide the North and South in the minds of people. Combined with the conversion project they have made sure that people in Tamil Nadu started to remove Sanskrit and any origin. Thus making sure they lost the thread of continuity of their own culture. Once the culture is lost in oblivion, its easy for implementing any new projects as they wish.
I would like to say to all Tamil loving people to not neglect Sanskrit and its influence, as it is also their own culture. The myth of Aryan invasion and Dravidian has to be put to rest. We were always living in the country, peacefully. We should continue to live so.
Radhe Krishna
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