{"id":3025,"date":"2014-05-13T14:38:21","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T06:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rmohan.com\/?page_id=3025"},"modified":"2014-07-08T07:54:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T23:54:21","slug":"tamil-and-tamil-civilisation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mohan.sg\/?page_id=3025","title":{"rendered":"Tamil and Tamil civilisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tamil civilisation – is it the oldest\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (tamilan endru sollada thalai nimirnthu nillada\u00a0)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may be timely to pose the question of as from when did Tamil civilisation exist. The tsunami of December 26, 2004 vividly demonstrated the destructive force of tidal waves and what havoc the attendant deluges could cause. It was, however, not unknown to the ancient Tamils who occupied southern India from that time. Their traditions refer to extensive lands submerged in the remote past that had once existed in the Indian Ocean, south of Kanya Kumari or Cape Comorin. They had indeed a word for such happenings. They called it kadatkol – meaning the sea devouring the land.<\/p>\n

The name of the lost lands is Kumari Kandam. At the time of those inundations, they were home to a high Tamil civilisation that hosted the First and Second Tamil Sangams or Acadamies of Advanced Learning. The Tamil language and literature as well as the philosophy and culture were cultivated and fostered through such Sangams. The works of these two Sangams were lost when the cities in which they were created were submerged by such inundations. Though the tradition of these Tamil Sangams and the deluges which destroyed them lived on, there was no historical evidence forthcoming to back them until very recently.<\/p>\n

Recent Developments<\/p>\n

The current state of play as known to history, until the recently emerging evidence, is that the history of the Tamils is said to begin in the pre-historic or more acceptably in the proto-historic period of about 500 BC. Tamil \/ Dravidian culture associated with the megalithic sites in places such as Adichanallur (more correctly Adityanallur) in the Tinnevely District of Tamilnadu and across the Palk Straits in Pomparippu in north-western Ilankai\/ Sri Lanka are regarded by historians \/ archaeologists as belonging to the Dravidian peoples of whom the Tamils at that time were their first and foremost representatives.<\/p>\n

Those finds from Adichanallur though dated earlier to be around 300 BC have now been shown to date back to 1,700 BC, following the currently ongoing excavations with advanced dating techniques. The archaeologists, studying the inscriptions on stones and artefacts, reported recently on that basis that Tamil civilisation existed more than 4,000 years ago. They went on to say that Tamil \/ Dravidian civilisation which began in present day Tamilnadu spread to the other parts of the world from there, as they considered Adichanallur to be the cradle of Tamil civilisation. Linguistic data of Tamil and other existing Dravidian langages too support only a movement from south to north of the spread of those languages, as Tamil is shown to be their parent language.<\/p>\n

This present state of knowledge has however received a startling knock from another quarter with the recent underwater archaeological finds relating to the lost Tamil continent of Kumari Kandam. For what those discoveries reveal, though at the presnt moment only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, has been uncovered, is the existence of a lost continent and lost cities in an antediluvian era stretching back before the melt-down of the Last Ice Age and the inundations of those lands.<\/p>\n

The evidence thus far reveals the existence of man-made structures twenty-three metres beneath the sea, five kilometres off the Tarangambadi- Poompuhar coast near Nagapattinam in South India. Its existence at such a depth is calculated as having taken place over many thousand years ago. This ties in with the geological evidence of such happenings at that time as well as the Tamil traditions of the first two Tamil Sangams referred to earlier.<\/p>\n

The unfolding archaeological and geological evidence is proving to be the historical validation that Tamil civilisation which reached a high-point during those two Tamil Sangams had their beginnings 11,000 years ago or circa 9,000 BC. What is the evidence currently available, be it archaeological, geological or other which will substantiate the Kumari Kandam tradition?<\/p>\n

Literary Evidence<\/p>\n

According to th Kumari Kandam tradition, over a period of about just 11,000 years, the Pandyans, a historical dynasty of Tamil kings, formed three Tamil Sangams, in order to foster among their subjects the love of knowledge, literature and poetry. These Sangams were the fountain head of Tamil culture and their principal concern was the perfection of the Tamil language and literature. The first two Sangams were not located in what is now South India but in antediluvian Tamil land to the south which in ancient times bore the name of Kumari Kandam, literally the Land of the Virgin or Virgin Continent.<\/p>\n

The first Sangam was head-quartered in a city named Then-madurai (Southern Madurai). It was patronised by a succession of eighty-nine kings and survived for an unbroken period of 4,400 years during which time it approved an immense collection of poems and literature. At the end of that golden age, the First Sangam was destroyed when a deluge arose and Then-madurai itself was swallowed by the sea along with large parts of the land area of Kumari Kandam.<\/p>\n

However, the survivors, saving some of the books, were able to relocate further north. They established a Second Sangam in a city called Kavatapuram which lasted 3,700 years. The same fate befell this city as well, when it too was swallowed by the sea and lost forever all its works with the sole exception of the Tolkappiyam, a work on Tamil grammar. Following the inundation of Kavatapuram, the survivors once again relocated northward in a city identified with modern Madurai in Tamilnadu, then known as Vada-madurai (Northern Madurai). The Third Sangam lasted for a period of 1850 years and most scholars agree that that Sangam terminated around 350 AD.<\/p>\n

Literary evidence of the lost continent of Kumari Kandam comes principally from the literature of the Third Tamil Sangam and the historical writings based on them. Many of them refer to the lost Tamil lands and to the deluges which ancient peoples believed had swallowed those lands. The Silappathikaram, a well known Tamil literary work, for instance mentions, \u201c the river Prahuli and the mountain Kumari surroundered by many hills being submerged by the raging sea\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Kalittogai, another literary work, specifically refers to a Pandyan king losing territories to the sea and compensating the loss by conquering new territories from the Chera and Chola rulers to the north. In his commentary on the Tolkappiyam, Nachinarkiniyar mentions that the sea submerged forty-nine nadus (districts), south of the Kumari river. Adiyarkkunelar, a medieval commentator, says that before the floods, those forested and populated lands between the Prahuli and Kumari rivers stretched 700 kavathams, ie for about 1,000 miles. As observed by Prof.(Dr) M. Sunderam, \u201cThe tradition of the loss of a vast continent by deluge of the sea is too strong in the ancient Tamil classics to be ignored by any serious type of inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"grantha\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"tamil-script-evolution\"<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ancientscripts.com\/grantha.html<\/a><\/div>\n

\"800px-Ancient_Tamil_Script\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Ancient_Tamil_Script.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

\"images\"<\/a> \"Tamil<\/a>Sumerian,Arabic,Mayan,Meso,Persian,Turkish etc are strongly believed as from Tamil.\u00a0<\/span>
\nSumerian are believed to have similarity in the language script and certain culture co relation between both language(enable to date Tamil as 40,000 BC language. )<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"2006071603952001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tamil script in pottery found in turkey\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Mayan are strongly believed to be from Ceylon Tamil community even inscription of Tamil culture found in the Mayan civilization.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"2006071603952001\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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Paches a Tamil Game in Mayan Civilization<\/span><\/div>\n
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Tamil are believed to be one lived even in Indus-Valley,Mohenjo Daro,Mergargh<\/span><\/div>\n

Tamil may be first ever language with written & spoken format and its first Language born on the Indian-Subcontinent.
\nTamil-Mother of all Dravidian Language.
\nTamil recognized as one of 7 Classical language of the world.
\nIts Second Largest Language Spoken in the world older than 40,000 years.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"new_zealand_tamil_bell\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Only Dravidian Language to be official language outside India(Sri Lanka,Singapore, Malaysia,\u00a0Mauritius\u00a0)<\/span>
Tamil Language & Culture believed to Never had Caste and Religion in its tradition.<\/span>
There is no equal word or term found for caste in Tamil.<\/span>
Even 2000 year old Thirukural is common without an discrimination.<\/span>
Tamil are believed to be living in group rather distinction based on the caste.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"800px-Vasishtiputra_Sri_Satakarni\"<\/a><\/div>\n
yaathum ureh yaavarum kelir <\/span>purananuru(400AD)@Every Where is my home & all are my Kindred.(which define no caste in Tamil culture)<\/span>
Tholkapium is the oldest book in the world which is about 3000 years old.<\/span>
Thirukural which stated to be 2500 years and translated in most of the world language<\/span>
Zen Buddhism from Tamil palava Kingdom.<\/span>
Oldest martial arts in the world-Kalari(father of all Asian martial arts)<\/span>
Tamil Brahmi script found in Egypt.<\/span>\"tamilbrahmi21nov07vk9\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bharatnatyam-World’s oldest dance form in the world extinct over 3000years (1500BC)<\/span>
Great Anicut(Kallani)oldest dam built & in service in the world built by karikala Cholan about 1800 years back.<\/span>
55% of epigraphical inscription(55,000)found in India are in Tamil language.<\/span>
Lama from Tamil civilization.<\/span>
Senegal Language as a link with Tamil language.<\/span>
Two Tamil manuscript is Recorded in UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 1997 and 2005.<\/span>
Tamil pottery are found in Thailand and Egypt.<\/span>
Tamil people \u00a0the first sailor through the sea.<\/span>
Pachesi Game were found in Me-so-American Civilization.<\/span>
Jalikatu a Tamil traditional game which as origin over 20,000 years back.<\/span>
Tamil Measurement are unique in range even value for it in SI is not found.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tamil units of\u00a0measurement<\/h1>\n
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Measurements in\u00a0ancient Tamil land<\/a>\u00a0were of seven kinds. They were number counts, balance weights, fluid volumes, grain volumes, length, time and the likeness.<\/p>\n

Units of time in ancient Tamil history<\/span><\/p>\n