Before proceeding to the facts and figures of Tamils, I would like to emphasis on a phrase that comes up to my mind on Tamils and Hinduism 'I don't believe that devils are stronger than me because I am a Hindu, and I am not scared of death because I am a Tamizhan.' (நான் ஒரு இந்து மதம் தான் காரணம் பிசாசுகள் என்னை விட வலுவானது என்று நம்பவில்லை, நான் ஒரு தமிழர் என்பதால் நான் இறந்த பயப்படமாட்டேன்). How many of you here knows the sunken land mass a.k.a continent Kumari Kandam? This is known as the birthplace of Tamizhans and to depict the size of land mass, a figure below shows the size of it.
The figure above shows that the landmass was stretches from India on the north, Madagascar on the east and to Australia on southwest of India at the present time. The location of Sri Lanka on Kumari Kandam shows that Sri Lanka as a whole is home to Tamils and not to the Sinhalese. The earliest Sinhalese kingdom was Kingdom of Tambapanni which dates around 543-505 BC but Kumari Kandam states that the earliest evolution of Tamizhans are dated 200000 BC to 50000 BC cited by, R. Mathivanan, then Chief Editor of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project of the Government of Tamil Nadu, in 1991. Buddhism scripts too mentioned about three Buddhists coming to encounter with Yakkhas, Nagas and Devas, where this three tribes are said to be the indigenous people of Sri Lanka. Yakkhas, Nagas and Devas are said to symbolics for the Tamils who worships in different ways. The great Naga Nadu king at that time was Valai Vannan (which is of a Tamil name) had a liking towards Buddhism as he found it to be very similar to Hinduism, thus incorporating their teachings into his kingdom. This in return causes a mix of tradition between the Tamils and Buddhism causing another distinct tradition and people to bloom. The Sinhalese were said to have arrived in Sri Lanka at around 500 BC in the form of Prince Vijaya and his 700 followers after being banished from his place in India and within 5 years from that year, he claimed himself as the King of Sri Lanka and the reign of Sinhalese started. During this time, let it be reminded that the Indians were one of the most sophisticated community present and the rest were still in their dark days. Overall there were 11 tamil kingdoms who ruled Sri Lanka notably Cholan Kingdom, and the Pandyan rule.
The Cholan Kingdom invasion was started by Raja raja Cholan where Alexander the Great has scriptures on his invasions, and himself as a great emperor of the Cholan Kingdom. His reign was continued by Rajendra Cholan I, where his territories extended to the coastals of Burma, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Maldives, conquered the kings of Srivijaya (Sumatra, Java and Malay Peninsula in South East Asia) and Pegu islands with his fleet of ships. He defeated Mahipala, the Pala king of Bengal and Bihar, and to commemorate his victory he built a new capital called Gangaikonda Cholapuram. The Cholas became one of the most powerful dynasties in Asia during his reign. The Tamil Chola armies exacted tribute from Thailand and the Khmer kingdom of Cambodia.The picture below shows the Tamil Raja who used to rule a wide area in South-east Asia.
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| Rajendra Cholan I |
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| Raja-raja Cholan |
His ruling empire is shown below, where The blue colour represents the capital of Cholas kingdom and the pink colour shows the rest of the kingdoms which is under the Cholas rule. The blue line shows the trade route the Cholas take to exhange trades with other kingdoms. or to rule other kingdoms. This picture also shows that the areas where Cholans influence were there are the areas where Tamils are concentrated. If you are from any part of this vast place, then you are children of the Cholans and your country belongs to you and being a Tamil, you should be living in this countries as Kings and not as SLAVES! but are we living in a way that we are suppose to live?
The evidences of this picture is the various Tamil architecture that could be seen up to date at these areas. For example is the influence of Tamil scripts in the Khmer scripts (Scripts used in Cambodia), or Tamil language in the Malay language (A language spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia), or the Abudiga scripts used in Myanmar. The Borobudur Candi in Indonesia, or the candis in Lembah Bujang, Kedah are examples of the Hindu reign in these countries.
Tamil as a language is spoken by at least 70-80 million people across the globe. Yet, there are a few of us who are embarassed to speak in our own native tongue. An interesting fact about our language is that according to Tolkapiyyam, the earliest extand of Tamil literature states references on 'centamil nilam' (Land of refined Tamils) where Tamil was the language which was spoken from east to west. Moreover, Alex Colliers states that Tamil is the oldest language spoken till now, and that is the reason behind the phrase 'still surviving classical language'on the search of Tamil language in Wikipedia. Tamil scripts are also known to have existed before Sanskrit scripts, and the evidence to that is the beginning of Tamil language around 200000 BC to 100000 BC in Kumari Kandam, and Sanskrit being established at around 1500BC to 1200BC after the Aryan invasion in India, and that causes it to be called Indo-Aryan language. So there is nothing to be embarrassed in speaking Tamil language, this language has made a larger impact compared to English and I guess that is something that we, as Tamizhans have to be proud of.
Okay, since we have seen Kumari kandam and the medieval Tamil reign such as Chera, Chola and Pandyan, now lets go later than all this and that is the Tamilakam (Tamizhagam). As the word says 'Tamil' and 'Akam' means 'homeland of the Tamils.' Tamilakam has been described by King Ashoka of the Maurya empire stating that Tamilakam was ruled by three empire (Chola, Chera, and Pandya) and a few Velirs (independent cheiftains). The Pandyan empire has the longest ruling years in India where Kumari Kandam was said to be ruled by this empire, and the rising of the ocean pushed the kingdom to Korkai and later in times to Madurai. The Pandyan dynasty are known for its diplomatic relations where this relations were up to the Roman Empire at that time. The Chera empire on the other hand, is an ancient Tamil empire where this empire has two capitals namely Karuvur (Karur) and Makkotai (Kodungallur), besides the capitals another famous city here in the Chera kingdom was Venadu (Quilon). This empire is known to be the founder of Malayalam as a language and thus giving birth to another society the Malayalis, and these are the reasons behind the similarities that you find between Malayalam and Tamil. The rumours saying Malayalam came before Tamil is false, as Tamil could be traced back to the evolution of Kumari Kandam and where as, Malayalam could only be traced back to the Cheras Kingdom. Two of the three cities above are in Kerala namely Kodungallur and Quilon where as, Karur is located around 400km from Chennai. The three dynasties above are evidences on how sophisticated were we as Tamils during the Sangam age itself, with much organisation among our communities. Here there were high number of Aryan Brahmins settling in these territories, showing that the majority Malayali communities now could be from Brahmin families then. The author of Sillapathikaram on how Kanagi burnt down the whole of Madurai comes from this empire by the name of Illango Adigal, below is a figure of him.
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| Illango Adigal |
(Personal thoughts on this are that Thevars (Mukkulathors) now could be the Vellalars back then
who ruled this Velirs)
- Kongu Nadu
- Puzhi Nadu
- Venadu
- Aruva Nadu
- Aruva Vadathalai
- Pongar Nadu
- Punal Nadu
- Oli Nadu
- Kuttanadu
- Kudanadu
- Karkanadu
- Seethanadu
- Nanjilnadu
- Ay Nadu
Now, ever wonder why the statues of gods are often black in colour, and the devils are depicted to be fairer than the gods from the old statues from these Kingdoms?
Listen to what Marco Polo said in the 13th century about colour and Pandyan Kingdom.
'The darkest man is here the most highly esteemed and considered better than the others who are not so dark. Let me add that in very truth these people portray and depict their gods and their idols black and their devils white as snow. For they say that God and all the saints are black and the devils are all white. That is why they portray them as I have described.'
So if you are dark, be proud of yourself. You are from an ancestry who was respected highly back in the days of Sangam period.
And around the Nusantera region, there was kingdoms such as Srivijaya, Majapahit, Langkasuka, and Kandaram were Tamil Kingdoms. There are off shot from the Tamilakam and soon after was defeated by the Chola empire. An example of this is that the Sultans of Malacca at that time (descendants from Srivijaya, Parameswara) was of a Tamil descendant who later converted to Islam. It was noted that he was still practicing Tamil as a culture and this practice continued till Sultan Mahmud Syah. Merong Mahawangsa (Maran Mahavamsam) is another great Tamil emperor of the ancient Langkasuka Kingdom who is often potrayed as a hero.
In conclusion, Thamizhans are among the first humans inhibit the earth and among the first teachers that the world has ever seen. We were practicing medicine and preaching yoga when the rest were still barbaric. We taught the rest of the world how to live like a human and fight like a warrior, when the rest were still out there with not a single strand of thread on them and these are all the reasons that you should be proud of yourself being born as a Thamizhan.
I shall update now and then on the post on Thamizhans to relish back the moments when we were at our peak but for now, please do watch the youtube video below by Hiphop Thamizha where there are infos that are not added here.
Click on the link below to watch the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1dpkMIlbF4
To the people who has viewed the video, there is an info about the first city in Sumeria (now somewhere in Arabia) namely 'Ur', please google 'King Vikramaditya and Arabia' and you will see the causal link between Arabia, Indians, and Sumerians. Here you will be enlightened about the Indian reign in Arabia.
If there is any inquiry, please leave a comment below and I shall take time in answering it.
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