10-24-2007, 11:11 PM
Aryan invasion myth continues
Second Opinion: RN Chawla
This refers to Kanchan Gupta's article "Aiyya, berating Ram is passe" (Coffee Break, September 20). Ever since the eruption of the Ram Setu controversy, leaders of the DMK have been using derogatory language against Sri Ram. The Dravidian movement launched by Periyar is known for its Hindu-baiting based on the discredited Aryan invasion theory.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has once again invoked the same discredited theory to assault Hinduism. It will do Mr Karunanidhi a lot of good if he read page 63 of AL Basham's The Wonder That Was India. Basham's account of ancient Tamil is something like this: "In the earliest stratum of Tamil literature, which was probably composed in the early centuries AD, we find the three kingdoms (the reference is to Cola -- the Coromandel, Kerala or Cera -- Malabar and Pandya -- the southern tip of the Peninsula) in a state of continual warfare. Their kings and the many lesser chieftains who are also mentioned seem to have been more blood-thirsty than those of the North and the literature contains hints of massacres and other atrocities such as are rarely heard of in Sanskrit literature. One passage even suggests cannibal feasts after battle. The ancient Tamil by no means perfectly Aryanised, was a man of very different stamp from gentle and thoughtful descendent. Wild and ruthless, delighting in war and drink, worshipping fierce gods with bacchanalian dances, passionate in love, he compares strikingly with the grave and knightly warriors of Sanskrit epics, which were probably receiving final form at the time when the poems of the Tamil anthologies were being written. A few centuries were to alter the picture somewhat and the next stratum of Tamil literature shows a much deeper penetration of Aryan ideals and standards but a streak of ruthlessness and disregard for individual life is evident in Dravidian character down to the fall of Vijayanagara."
Instead of being carried away by the myth of Aryan invasion, the readers can now draw appropriate inference. Was it exploitation by an invader or humanisation of a pre-existing culture? Basham writes: "Very early the Tamils took to the sea... they twice invaded Ceylon. First soon after the death of the great king Devanampriya Tissa and the second a little later." This shows that ancient Tamils have themselves been invaders with their historicity established.
Second Opinion: RN Chawla
This refers to Kanchan Gupta's article "Aiyya, berating Ram is passe" (Coffee Break, September 20). Ever since the eruption of the Ram Setu controversy, leaders of the DMK have been using derogatory language against Sri Ram. The Dravidian movement launched by Periyar is known for its Hindu-baiting based on the discredited Aryan invasion theory.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has once again invoked the same discredited theory to assault Hinduism. It will do Mr Karunanidhi a lot of good if he read page 63 of AL Basham's The Wonder That Was India. Basham's account of ancient Tamil is something like this: "In the earliest stratum of Tamil literature, which was probably composed in the early centuries AD, we find the three kingdoms (the reference is to Cola -- the Coromandel, Kerala or Cera -- Malabar and Pandya -- the southern tip of the Peninsula) in a state of continual warfare. Their kings and the many lesser chieftains who are also mentioned seem to have been more blood-thirsty than those of the North and the literature contains hints of massacres and other atrocities such as are rarely heard of in Sanskrit literature. One passage even suggests cannibal feasts after battle. The ancient Tamil by no means perfectly Aryanised, was a man of very different stamp from gentle and thoughtful descendent. Wild and ruthless, delighting in war and drink, worshipping fierce gods with bacchanalian dances, passionate in love, he compares strikingly with the grave and knightly warriors of Sanskrit epics, which were probably receiving final form at the time when the poems of the Tamil anthologies were being written. A few centuries were to alter the picture somewhat and the next stratum of Tamil literature shows a much deeper penetration of Aryan ideals and standards but a streak of ruthlessness and disregard for individual life is evident in Dravidian character down to the fall of Vijayanagara."
Instead of being carried away by the myth of Aryan invasion, the readers can now draw appropriate inference. Was it exploitation by an invader or humanisation of a pre-existing culture? Basham writes: "Very early the Tamils took to the sea... they twice invaded Ceylon. First soon after the death of the great king Devanampriya Tissa and the second a little later." This shows that ancient Tamils have themselves been invaders with their historicity established.