Aryan Dravidian Divide
As per Aryan Invasion Theory around 1500 BC, fare skinned nomadic Aryans people riding on horses came from the North-West and invaded India with superior weapons, defeated dark skinned and snub nosed original Dravidian inhabitants. The Aryans knew iron, horses and chariots, spoke a proto-Indo-Iranian language. During following centuries, the Aryans developed their Sanskrit language and developed their culture wrote Vedic literature. Thereafter Aryans imposed their Vedic culture and Sanskrit Language upon Dravidian people and forced them to migrate to the South of India. How this theory came into being is an interesting story.
The first reference of Aryan Race in linguistic research occurs in the lectures on the Science of Language, by Max Muller, delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1861. The term Aryan derived from ancient Sanskrit word Arya, which occurs multiple times in different verses of Rig Veda, the oldest Vedic manuscript. According to the translation in 1872 by Monier-Williams, Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, the word had diverse meanings but generally attached to a person, who is noble and follows Vedic traditions. Nowhere in Sanskrit literature the word Arya is referred as race, tribe or people. Rigveda describes various tribes with names as Bharata, Kuru, Panchal etc. but never Arya.
The word Arya also appears in the ancient Iranian texts, particularly in Avesta, the collection of sacred texts in Zoroastrianism. Unlike the Indian reference, the Iranian texts ascribed to Aryans in a clear ethnic context.
Word “Dravidian” is first coined by Robert Caldwell (1814 –1891); a missionary for London Missionary Society. He arrived in India at age 24, studied the local language to spread the word of Bible in a vernacular language, studies that led him to author a text on comparative grammar of the South Indian language; named “A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages”. He was to first to name the South-Indian family of languages as Dravidian
Nowhere in Tamil literature word “Dravid” or Dravidian appear. The Hathigumpha inscription of King Kharvela, near Bhubaneshwar, refers to confederacy of southern kings as Dramirh; it is dated between 2nd Century BC to 1st Century AD. Puranas refer India south of Vidhyas as Panchadravida. Both Aryan and Dravidian words have a similarity that outsiders called Sanskrit speaking people as Arya, the outsiders called Tamil speaking people Dravida.
The oldest surviving literature in Tamil is known as Sangam literature. The Pandya rulers invited an assembly of Sages and poets, called Sangam; who will evaluate poems and give it classical status. There were three Sangams, from first no literature has survived, from second only surviving text is Tolkappiyam (1st–1st century CE;), a treatise on grammar and poetics. Its existence presupposes a large body of literature that was probably available in the form of anthologies. Although the influence of early Sanskrit grammars (dating from the 5th century BCE) is obvious in certain grammatical concepts like Tamil kalam ‘tense, time’ (Sanskrit kala ), Tamil peyar ‘name’ for ‘noun’ (Sanskrit naman), and Tamil weṟṟumai ‘separation, division’ for ‘case’ (Sanskrit vibhakti- ‘case marker,’ literally ‘division’), there is much that is original in Tolkappiyam.
Several hundred poems have come down to this day from the 3rd Sangam; these poems have well defined themes and rhythms and grouped into books. These are poems of love, emotion, separation, heroism, war, conquest etc. There are ten books of ten historical poems, which describe the exploits of ten Chera Kings. These poems are sung by more than 200 poets including women, these includes some Vedic names Gautama, Valmiki, Shakta, Kapila, Balrama, Kannan, Rudra etc. The origin of Tamil itself ascribed to sage Agastya.
The Tamil language was confined to Kaveri Basin only, on both side of Kaveri, surrounding area other language were spoken; which were mix of Tamil and Sanskrit e.g Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and some minor languages. The Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas and later Pallavas ruled Tamil Nadu (meaning land of Tamil). All these kings trace their genealogy to well known hero of epic Ramayana or Mahabharat. Pandyas call them descendents of Arjuna, Cholas claim their lineage from Rama, Cheras claim to belong to the Yadava clan of Shri Krishna and Pallavas claim to be descendent of Dronacharya. As per their own records, they studied Dharma Shastras and ruled their kingdom as per the teaching of the Shastras. All kings performed Vedic Yagnas like Hiranyagarbha, Rajasurya, Ashwamedha and recorded it with pride in their records. They gifted large lands to Vedic Brahmans.
Although the people spoke different languages, their culture was not different form Vedic Culture. The Epics Ramayana and Mahabharata are as popular in Tamil land as in the north. The people worshipped Vedic gods Indra, Varuna, Muruga, Vishnu. The Varnasharma Dharma was followed as per profession of the individual, Brahmins helped in teaching, administration and financial matters; Vanigas looked after trade; Vallalas developed agriculture. All three studied Vedas, but except Brahmins, others studied functional part only.
Since early times the four fold desired action (Purushartha) prescribed in Dharma Shastra moral duty (Dharma -Aram in Tamil), earning livelihood (Artha-Parul in Tamil), desires (Kama Inbam in Tamil), release from cycle of death and birth (Moksha-Vidu in Tamil) was fallowed in Tamil Nadu. Eight different type of marriage prescribed in Dharma Shastra were recognized in Tamil Nadu and marriages among all castes are performed as per Vedic rites. For example, in great Tamil epic Silappadikaram (2nd Century AD); the marriage of main character Kovalam and Kannagi was performed by circumnutating sacrificial fire seven times accompanied by chanting of Vedic Mantras.
The Ancient Tamil grammar Tolkappiyam contains Chapters on Music and Dance based on Bharat Muni Natya Shastra. The ancient classical dance form is named after the sage as Bharat Natyam. Tirukkural by Thiruvalluvar; a 1st Century BCE classic is virtual abridgement of Dharma Shastra. It contains philosophy of Bhagawat Geeta.
There is unanimity among linguists and historians that Tamil does not belong same Indo- Iraninan group of language to which Sanskrit belongs. Tamil belongs to different family of languages, which developed side by side. There is no evidence that it was at any point of history was spoken outside Kavery basin. The assumption that Harrapan people spoke a Dravidian language is a conjecture, as Harrapan script is not yet deciphered. The oldest available literature in Tamil is of 2nd Century BCE, it ascribes origin of Tamil to Rishi Agastya. The Tamil culture and Vedic Culture was the same since ancient time. There is no evidence that the Nomadic Aryans pushed Dravidian to the south and imposed their language and culture on them. There is evidence to the contrary that Vedic people helped develop Tamil language simultaneously along with Sanskrit. The conflict between Aryans and Dravidian is a fiction, not based on any literary evidence; created by the British in furtherance of their policy of ‘divide and rule’. It continues post independence as it serves regional political interest.
