Language, Literature, and Culture

The years between 1880 and 1920 saw a revolution in the contemporary scholarly understanding of the antiquity of Tamil literature. This was the period when ancient Tamil poetry of the Sangam age was brought to wider light through the untiring efforts of C W Damodaram Pillai and U V Swaminatha Aiyar. This pushed the history of Tamil literature well beyond the common era and opened up a vision of a people 'who were adventurous and heroic; who roamed the high seas in pursuit of gold and glory; who were "hospitable and tolerant in religion", "egalitarian" and "rationalist", fun-loving but contemplative and philosophical as well'.

Swaminatha Aiyar exemplifies the scholar totally devoted to language and literature; and Tamil was the sole object of his adoration. Sumathi Ramaswamy observes:

Frequently relying on word-of-mouth information about manuscript collections in remote villages, he would walk for miles down country roads, sometimes riding bullock carts which broke down, at other times taking trains. On these trips-the equivalent of other people's holy pilgrimages-he would sometimes encounter wonderful people who filled him with awe and joy because of their obvious reverence for Tamil, and because of the care with which they had maintained old Tamil manuscripts. …

With the acquisition of the desired manuscripts, the battle had only barely begun. … There were also the challenges of printing. … Above all, there were financial problems. Publication of these works demanded enormous outlays of money, far in excess of his modest income as a college teacher. … On more than one occasion, he had to borrow money to keep the printing process going.

One person who provided wholehearted support to Swaminatha Aiyar was Pandithurai Thevar, the founder-patron of the Madurai Tamil Sangam, which viewed itself as the fourth Sangam in line with the three ancient academies that had flourished under the Pandya kings of Madurai. Pandithurai, along with his cousin Bhaskara Setupati, the raja of Ramanathapuram-who was a disciple and a staunch supporter of Swami Vivekananda-extended liberal patronage to Tamil learning, research, and publications.

The eight Sangam anthologies-totalling over 2,300 poems-are not religious literature per se. They deal with 'the interior' (akam) and 'exterior' (puram) worlds. The former is woven into 'highly structured love poems' that highlight emotive associations of the Tamil landscape. The puram poetry, in contrast, deals with a world 'where warriors are acclaimed for their valour, kings are praised for their generosity, and poets instruct their patrons in right action and the nature of life … in bold, clear strokes'. The Sangam compositions-the rules of which were clearly laid out by the Tolkappiyam, one of the oldest texts on grammar and rhetoric-depend on 'a taxonomy of Tamil nature and culture, of culturally defined time, space, nature, and human nature'. Their highly structured and symbolic form sets these poems apart from other classical works: 'For some five or six generations, the Sangam poets spoke this common language of symbols, creating a body of lyrical poetry probably unequalled in passion, maturity, and delicacy by anything in any Indian literature.'

Though the Sangam poems are largely non-religious-the seventy religious poems of the Paripadal being a notable exception-they could lend themselves to a religious interpretation. The Tolkappiyam tells us that 'the gods who preside over the mountains, forest, seashore, riverine tract, and arid land are, respectively, Ceyon, "the Red One", Mayon, "the Dark One", Varunan, the god of the sea and wind, Ventan, "the King", and Korravai, goddess of war'.

Given the above associations, it is not surprising that the founding of the Madurai Tamil Sangam in 1901 was followed, within twenty years, by the establishment of the Shaiva Siddhanta Kazhagam, 'perhaps the largest publishing house devoted to printing ancient Tamil literary and religious books'. Beside publishing 'almost every major work in Tamil and Shaiva literature, as well as several minor and hitherto unknown ones', the Kazhagam has also been supporting various educational institutions and Tamil libraries and has convened 'numerous public conferences on various aspects of Shaiva and Tamil literature, on the creation of Tamil technical terms, on Tamil Nadu history, and the like'.

A more radical outcome of the modern revival of interest in Tamil was the development of an ethno-linguistic political awareness that culminated in the formation of Tamil Nadu and the emergence of political groups invoking Dravidian and Tamil nationalism. The linguistic organization of Indian states had been a cause of concern to many in the immediate aftermath of India's partition. Even Mahatma Gandhi, 'a consistent advocate of states based on language', was worried about divisive elements sabotaging the forces of national unification.

That these fears have remained largely unfounded till now highlights the cultural unity underlying the linguistic variety of India. Conflicts have arisen when the value and strength of this variety is not appreciated and encouraged. In 1965 the central government's decision to enforce the use of Hindi as the official national language of India, even in states where Hindi-speakers were in a small minority, evoked especially vehement protests from the people of Tamil Nadu. To Tamilians the move smacked of linguistic imperialism, especially when people in Hindi-speaking areas showed little inclination towards learning Dravidian languages. Acquiescence in the imposition of Hindi would also have placed many people who did not know Hindi at a disadvantage in the public sphere. The protests, however, had more to do with the cultural and linguistic consciousness of a people who boasted of a language with one of the oldest unbroken literary traditions. A similar pride in the Bengali language led to protests in West Bengal, despite the numerous affinities that exist between the Bengali and Hindi languages and cultures.

That overly zealous linguistic protectionism is not necessary for the preservation of one's cultural identity is evidenced by Kerala, which has high literacy rates in both Malayalam and Hindi as well as a distinct cultural identity. Swaminatha Aiyar had articulated his passionate love for Tamil: 'Contrary to everyone's desires, from the time I was a young man, my mind was immersed in the beauties of the goddess Tamil (tamilt-teyvam). More and more, it yearned for Tamilttay's [Mother Tamil's] auspicious grace (tiruvarul).' But there was also a negative side to this devotion: 'Sanskrit, Telugu, English-none of these held my interest. I even felt a deep aversion towards them.'

That a free mind, confident of its own strength, need not harbour any such antagonism is attested to by Krishnadeva Raya. Though largely a king of Kannada territory, he was devoted to the deities in Tamil land and to such Tamil saints as Andal; he also penned exquisite compositions in Sanskrit and Telugu. Mahatma Gandhi took great pains to study Tamil and Swami Vivekananda to master French when they were called upon to communicate in these languages. Swami Vivekananda had expressed appreciation of Pandit D Savariroyan's article on 'Admixture of the Aryan with Tamilian', published in The Light of Truth or Siddhanta Deepika, and his assertion of the Akkado-Sumerian identity of ancient Tamilians. 'This makes us proud,' Swamiji said, 'of the blood of the great civilization which flowered before all others-compared to whose antiquity the Aryans and the Semites are babies.' If we refuse to partake of and participate in this global linguistic and cultural diversity, we shall only be refusing our own heritage.