Cultural Space of the Tamils

Cultural Space of the Tamils

T.S. Natarajan

New Century Book House (P) Ltd

(In Tamil)

Tamils  constitute a unique ethnic group of India  and the most distinguishing feature of their lives is their close affinity to their language, so much so that a separatist movement had grown in the southern state during the 60s against perceived imposition of Hindi.  Though, the movement had died and the political parties which spearheaded the movement have, over the years become part of the governing coalition(s) at the national level, Tamils as a people continue to feel that their culture requires separate identity.  Of all the ethnic groups in the country, Tamils are perhaps the most passionate about their language.

What are the elements which constitute the ‘composite-whole’ called the Tamil culture (Tamil Kalacharam).  Does it form a part – even if a unique – of a domineering Hindu culture? Or whether it has captured a distinct space despite the basic Hindu religious dimensions defining it?  What role did other cultures – both invading and non-invading – play in shaping the emergence of Tamil culture?

This book is not an ethnographic study of the origins of formation of Tamil culture.  It is basically a study based the Tamil literary works. One defining feature of Tamil culture pointed out by the author is the secular cultural life inherited by the Tamil people from the ‘sangam age’.   In the opinion of the author, secularisation in the cultural space had taken place during the sangam age, which was amply reflected in the poetry of this period.  For example, the much celebrated ‘man-woman courtship’ portrayed in the poetry of this age is a standing testimony to the non-religious life practices of the Tamil people.  In the opinion of the author, the critical period in the cultural transformation of Tamil social life was the three-century rule by a succession of Pallava kings between 6^th and 9^th Centry.  It was during the Pallava reign did both Shaivaite and Vaishnavaite religions were introduced into Tamil country.  The hold and rights of the working peasants slowly were snatched from them and repositioned as temple property through the institutions of Bramodhayam and Devasthanam.  Later on, temple land management became an economic activity on its own.

The author points out that the foundations of a land-oriented social arrangement were dislodged by the introduction of a divisive religious rule.  This gave raise to large scale religious violence, especially destruction of Buddhist Viharas and religious schools.  A new elite in the form of Brahmins were established and this elite was sustained by generous grants in the form of fertile lands.  Large scale migration of Brahmins from the north followed.

We have heard this trajectory on the development of Tamil culture and society in the past.  In fact, this comes close to the Dravidian ideological positions of anti-brahminism and  anti-north Indianism.  The argument about secular human foundations in Sangam literature, Thirukkural and Silapathikaram cannot be disputed.  In fact, notions of Tamil cultural supremacy over northern, sanskritic culture is founded upon this non-religious world-view which bounded ancient Tamil social life inextricably with nature in a secular way.  The Dravidian movement claimed to be the inheritor of this legacy of    non-religious world-view.    

This is essentially a historical   construction to suit modern political needs.  Granting for a moment the validity of this ideological position, the question which needs to be answered is: what accounts for the religious history of Tamil Nadu?  Great Saivaite and Vaishnavaite devotional compositions also occupy an important place in the Tamil Literary firmament.  This period cannot be explained as a deformity or aberration of an otherwise secular Tamil History.  The author does well to explain the humanistic-universality found in a vaishnavaite literary work such as “Kambaramayanam”, the Tamil version of Ramayan.  The author says, “Granted that Kambaramayanam was a vaishnavaite work.  But, beyond the macro level identification with a religious school, what the work upholds on an emotional plane is universal human advancement.  It does not neglect or sacrifice the epical virtues to the pull of  religious or sectarian propaganda.  The overwhelming role of Kambar was towards  solidification of Ramayanam as an epic and in an emerging hegemonic, all powerful State structure, leave behind an identity which could be claimed by the Tamils as their own.    Even though, Kambar depicted Rama as an ‘Avadhara Purushan’ (an epochal Human being ), he did not depict him as a divine standing in contrast to a fallible man.  Kambar merged both these entities to proclaim the victory of humanity.  It is  the merger of the divine and human elements which made the epic a successor to the long line of secular literature dotting Tamil literary history.”

Natarajan also reflects on the superior literary compositions of some of the saints belonging to the backward communities, such as, ‘Nammalvaar” (Vaishnavaite) and ‘Thirunaavukkarasar’ and ‘Manikavasagar’(Saivaite).  He also reflects on another aspect of religion and religious literature, that is, the transportation of its adherents to an ecstatic world.  Amongst religious literature, there are those which implore conjoining of individual identities (preserving individual ones) of various groups and others which have an unitary orientation, submerging separate identities.

Thus, the author gives to religion an important role in shaping the identity of Tamils.  In this respect, the cultural history of Tamils is not very different from other ethnic groups, though Tamil culture has some distinct characteristics which mark it out from the rest, the most distinguishing of them being a phase of history when cultural life was distinctly secular and non-religious.