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Kerala: A center of cultural exchange (Chinese interaction)
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Sritharan
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5 Jun 2007 17:22:00 GMT Report for Abuse
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Sri Lankan Tamil and Kerala
Sri Lankan Tamils dialects of Jaffna, Negombo and Batticaloa are different from the major local dialects of Tamil Nadu.
But maintain archaic Tamil words that are used in Malayalam as well Tamil dialects used in southern Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.
The dialect used in Jaffna is the oldest and most archaic. It is close to the written form of Tamil with some regional variations.
Some argue that the Jaffna Tamil dialect has taken this form because of the influence by sinhala and malayalam dialects.
Many features of Sri Lanka Tamil culture, including village settlement patterns, inheritance and kinship customs, and domestic and village 'folk religion,' stand in sharp contrast to mainland Tamil customs.
Moreover, the immigrants who created the first Tamil settlements in Sri Lanka appear to have come not just from the Tamil region of south India, but from the Kerala coast as well.
According to Prof Kathigesu Sivathamby, in his article titled 'Sri Lankan Tamil Society and Plitics', None of the Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are close to any of the standard Tamil Nadu Tamil Dialects.
All Sri Lankan Tamil Dialects are variants of Tamil/Malayalam Dialects used in Southern Tamil Nadu and South coastal Kerala and have evolved independantly in a regional manner in Sri lanka.
Above summary of post is from various articles. They all suggest that Sri Lankan Tamil had a greater influence from Proto-Tamil-Malayalam speaking people.
They could have immigrated to Sri Lanka before Chola invasion. Kerala draviders were great mariners and they had traded commodities between Arabs and Chinese.
So, there was a greater chance in which there could have been a constant flow of people from Kerala.
Edited By - Sritharan - 5 Jun 2007 23:14:51 GMT |
KURAL
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6 Jun 2007 19:46:39 GMT Report for Abuse
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Sri thanks for the answer.
However there are few mistakes after me.
You can't get puttu in TamilNadu. It's totally wrong.
Coconut and Coconut Oil is an essential ingredient in most of the food items and is liberally used. TamilNadu food lacks in cocount usage, specially in the milk form.
I too think that this statement is false.
Proof:
Coconut, tamarind and asafoetida are a must for almost all vegetarian recipes. Garam masala is avoided in Tamil cuisine. In Tamil Nadu Coconut oil is normally used as the medium of cooking. Chutneys and mixed spice are served in the lunch and enhance the taste of the meal.
from http://www.indiasite.com/tamilnadu/cuisine.html
In Jaffna (as I am familiar with it), married man goes to his wife house and he lives with his in-laws. The land and house which have been inherited to my mother and her sister (my aunt) came from my grad-mother and it came from her mother and so on.
From which Jaffna are you ?? Maybe the land is considered as the dot in your case, but there is no such tradition among Jaffna people.
Sri Lankan Tamils dialects of Jaffna, Negombo and Batticaloa are different from the major local dialects of Tamil Nadu.
Dialects by definition are local, so the difference of dialects is normal. But it don't explain me in what Malayalam influenced Tamil in Sri lanka.
But maintain archaic Tamil words that are used in Malayalam
Yes Malayalam is derived from Tamil and is a 'Dravidian' family language.
The dialect used in Jaffna is the oldest and most archaic.
Tamil language born in Sri lanka ?
Maybe, there are chance if Kumari Kandam truely existed.
Some argue that the Jaffna Tamil dialect has taken this form because of the influence by sinhala and malayalam dialects.
Like who ???
Moreover, the immigrants who created the first Tamil settlements in Sri Lanka appear to have come not just from the Tamil region of south India, but from the Kerala coast as well.
Jaffna dialect is the oldest (of all Tamil dialect) , but Tamils in Sri Lanka are migrants ??
And these Tamils are in fact Immigrants from Kerala speaking Tamil ??
I'm agree with you that there were contacts between Kerala and Sri lanka, but i cannot agree with some of your statements.
I deeply believe that there was more contacts between Indian Tamils and Sri lankan Tamils, than between Kerala people and Sri lankan people.
Edited By - KURAL - 6 Jun 2007 20:36:44 GMT |
Sritharan
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6 Jun 2007 22:00:50 GMT Report for Abuse
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Kural,
The sole purpose of my reply to you is to introduce the well-established concept of history of Sri Lankan Tamil. I thought it would ignite the passion to do more research on the subject rather than dissect my post.
You mainly have misunderstood whole subject and/or partly could not comprehend the concept. There is no need to be alarmed when you hear the possible linguistic and cultural relationship between ancestors of ours and Kerala.
For example,
Tamil language born in Sri lanka?
NO!
My post did not suggest that.
In fact, what I have tried to say is ancestors of Sri Lankan Tamils could have came to Island before Aryanization of Tamil Language in TamilNadu. Simple is that!
That is why Sri Lankan Tamil language is still in relatively pure form. We still use several 'Sangam' words. We still speak grammatically correct Tamil than mainland population. Because, in the mainland, the Tamil population had been bombarded with wave after wave of North Indian immigration. Due to that, spoken dialect of mainland Tamils' had changed. |
Sritharan
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6 Jun 2007 22:18:58 GMT Report for Abuse
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Kerala and Tamil Nadu once shared a common language, Tamil (Proto-Malayalam-Tamil). Compressed area of both lands was called Tamilakam. The ancient Chera empire whose court language was Tamil. Kerala became a linguistically separate region by the early 14th century.
The main reason for linguistic separation was the trade contact with North India. The Language Malayalam could have evolved between the 8th and 14th centuries.
Researchers argue that ancestors of Sri Lankan Tamil should have migrated time to time from mainland. A significant percent of population came before the aryanaization of Tamil and separation of Tamil/Malayalam.
That is why Jaffna dialect is the oldest of all Tamil dialect.
This does not mean that Tamil language had evolved in Island. |
Sritharan
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6 Jun 2007 22:43:10 GMT Report for Abuse
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Food
To do the research on a cultural subject, a researcher should select his or her subject that less contaminated by surrounding.
What I have meant by that is if you want to do the research on cuisine of TamilNadu people, you should go to a traditional Tamil village rather than select a community from metropolitan city like Chennai.
When I said Puttu is not traditional food of TamilNadu people, it means most of people never heard of Puttu or could not make it. Of course, you can find the Puttu in Chennai or any other major city, where there are plenty of Malayalee or Kerala descendants.
Sri Lankan Tamils and Keralites use plenty of coconut milk. Yes, traditional TamilNadu cuisines lack in coconut usage, still you can see plenty of coconut usage because of Malayalee cooks in restaurants.
Summary of my previous post are:
Point here I like to make, TamilNadu people use coconut in their food. But how much?
Only Sri Lankan Tamils and Keralites use plenty.
Indian Tamil use milk product in their food. For example, if they want to make 'Sweet Rice' (Sa'harai Pon'kal), they would use 'cow milk', we and Keralities use 'coconut milk'. |
Sritharan
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6 Jun 2007 22:56:31 GMT Report for Abuse
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From which Jaffna are you?
Sweet heart, what are you trying to do?
There is only one Jaffna. My point is when a parent gives dowry to his daughter, they transfer their assets to her.
For example,
Let say, a Tamil man marries to a Tamil woman. The bride could bring house and land as dowry and then when their daughter gets married they would transfer the assets to her, but not to son. |
Sritharan
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6 Jun 2007 23:01:37 GMT Report for Abuse
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Tracing the Sri Lanka-Kerala link
PK Balachandran, March 23, 2006
PK Balachandran is Special Correspondent of Hindustan Times in Sri Lanka
When one looks at Sri Lanka's historical links with India, the focus is almost exclusively on those with Tamil Nadu and places in Gangetic North India in which the Buddha lived and preached.
If Kerala comes into the picture at all, it is only when the subject is the landscape, dress or food, where the similarity is indeed striking.
But there is more to the Kerala-Sri Lanka link than this, says the renowned Sri Lankan social anthropologist, Dr Gananath Obeysekere, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at Princeton University.
Links between Kerala and Sri Lanka go back very far into history, and have been exceptionally strong, he says.
At least a part of what is thought to have come from Tamil Nadu, may have come from Kerala, because in ancient times, the Tamil country comprised what is now Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
According to historians, the Chera (or Kerala) and the Pandya kings were powerful influences in the Tamil country in South India from pre-Christian times to about the 3rd century AD.
There had been Tamil influence on Sri Lanka from the earliest times. This was partly because the distance between the Tamil country in South India and Sri Lanka was only 30 kms from the nearest points.
But the influence became pronounced from the 10th century AD onwards.
Vestiges of the relationship between the Tamil country in South India and Sri Lanka, can be seen to this day in Sri Lankan society and culture, be it Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, says Dr Obeysekere in his monograph entitled: The Matrilineal East Coast, Circa 1968: Nostalgia and Post-nostalgia in our troubled time (International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, 2004).
He looks at the Sri Lanka-Kerala link through the 'Pattini' cult and the matrilineal system, two institutions, which are, or were, widespread in Sri Lanka.
(Cont...) |
Sritharan
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6 Jun 2007 23:06:46 GMT Report for Abuse
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(cont...)
In the Pattini cult, the deity Kannagi is worshipped as the Mother Goddess, and in the matrilineal system, inheritance and residential patterns follow the female line.
Both institutions came from the Chera country, as Kerala was known in ancient times.
The Pattini cult is found throughout Sinhala society in South Sri Lanka and in the Tamil areas of Batticaloa and Amparai on the South-Eastern coast.
As for the matrilineal system, it is the norm in Tamil and Muslim societies in the East.
According to Dr Obeysekere, the matrilineal system existed in the Sinhala-speaking South also, but was supplanted by the patrilineal system.
Pattini cult
The story of Pattini or Kannagi is found in the 3rd century AD Tamil classic 'Silapadikaram' located in the Chera or Kerala country.
In Silapadikaram, the heroine, Kannagi, in a rage over the wrongful execution of her innocent husband, Kovalan, plucked out her breast and threw it into the city of Madurai which then burst into flames and was destroyed.
Kannagi's fidelity towards her husband and her fight for justice elevated her to the position of an 'Amman' or Goddess, and a powerful one at that.
Vanchi, which the Silapadikaram mentions as the ancient capital of the Cheras, was then a popular centre for trade with West Asia.
Its trade was in the hands of people who followed heterodox religions like Buddhism and Jainism.
Silapadikaram, a Jain classic, was written by a Jain ascetic, Ilango Adigal.
Dr Obeysekere says that it was the Tamil-speaking Kerala Buddhist traders and other immigrants from the Vanchi area, who brought the Pattini cult to Sri Lanka.
He points out that according to Sri Lankan mythology, the Pattini cult was founded by King Seraman (the King of Kerala).
(cont...) |
Sritharan
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6 Jun 2007 23:11:21 GMT Report for Abuse
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(cont...)
He also notes that in Sri Lanka, the cult was given high status when two trader families of Kerala origin, namely, the Mehenavara and the Alagakonara (the Alagakones of today are probably their descendents), began to dominate the Western and Central parts of the island from the middle of the 14th century onwards.
And as per an inscription dated 1344, the Alagakonaras had come from Vanchi around the year 1100.
The Pattini cult spread in Sri Lanka with the increase in the power of the Alagakonaras and the Mehenevaras who had started of as court officials.
The Mehenavaras were influential in Dadigama and Gampola (near Kandy), while the Alagakonaras established themselves in Raigama and controlled the ports of Beruwela, Devundara and Weligama, on the Southern and South Western coasts.
According to Ibn Batuta, in 1344, the Alagakonaras controlled the area now covered by the Western, Sabaragamuwa and Southern Provinces, with the White Elephant as the symbol of their power.
Because the two leading families from Kerala were Buddhists, they elevated Pattini to a Bodhisattva (a Buddha in the making).
It is noteworthy that Pattini is the only female Bodhisattva in the Sri Lankan Buddhist pantheon. She was also made a guardian deity of Sri Lanka.
Pattini was formally recognised as a Goddess in Sri Lanka during the reign of Parakramabahu VI, in the 15th century. Interestingly, the king was related to the Mehenavara family.
Dr Obeysekere says that the Sinhala songs related to the Pattini cult were originally in Tamil.
This is acknowledged in the songs used in the water-cutting ritual, which is part of the Pattini cult in Matale district.
One of the verses recited in that ritual says: 'Ilango, the Pundit, composed these verses in Tamil.'
The reference is to Ilango Adigal, the author of 'Silapadikaram'.
Spread of Pattini cult to Eastern coast
Although basically a Tamil cult, Pattini worship is not found in all parts of Tamil-speaking Sri Lanka.
It is a peculiarity of the Tamils of the Eastern seaboard from Batticaloa district downwards, Dr Obeysekere observes.
Among the Northern Tamils (of Wanni and Jaffna), Pullayar or Ganesa is the most popular God.
This is so among the present day Tamils of Tamil Nadu also. There is only one Kannagi temple in India and that is not on Tamil Nadu, but in Kerala.
The Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, which wanted to revive the Tamils' non-Sanskritic culture, did make Kannagi an icon. But Kannagi worship never took off in Tamil Nadu.
Edited By - Sritharan - 6 Jun 2007 23:12:32 GMT |
Sritharan
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6 Jun 2007 23:15:24 GMT Report for Abuse
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The Sri Lankan Eastern coast's peculiarity is attributed to its ancient links with Kerala.
A strong Kerala influence is evident even today among all the peoples of the Batticaloa and Amparai districts, whether they are Tamils or Muslims.
Their social formations and their Tamil speech betray a Kerala origin.
A comparison of social institutions between Kerala and South East Sri Lanka shows that the Tamils and Muslims of Batticaloa and Amparai districts had migrated from Northern Kerala, says Dr Obeysekere.
Matrilineal descent (tracing one's descent through the mother) and the matrilineal clan, are the dominant modes of social organisation among the Hindus and Muslims of North Kerala.
This is so among the Tamils and Muslims of Eastern Sri Lanka too, where the matrilineal clans are called the 'kudi'.
The matrilineal groups in South Eastern Sri Lanka do not have the corporate identity that they have among the matrilineal Nayars of Central Kerala, for example.
There is no equivalent of the Nayar corporate family called the 'Tharavad' here in Sri Lanka.
But matrilineal structures manifest themselves in various important contexts, both ritual and secular, Dr Obeysekere says.
He notes that Batticaloa Tamil and Muslim women get a two-thirds share of the familial estate as dowry on marriage, showing the pre-eminent place of woman in these societies.
The other institution that the matrilineal Keralites and the Eastern Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims share is 'uxorilocal' residence.
Under this system, the man lives in his wife's residence.
Edited By - Sritharan - 6 Jun 2007 23:17:31 GMT |
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