Why anti-Sanskrit is harmful to the Tamil development?
I concur with the
observation:” While Sanskrit is commonly studied as a literary form, its
influence has extended to shape rituals, fables, images, performances, and
architectural forms that together inspired a shared world of culture linking
diverse regions of Asia across the centuries.” (https://iias.asia/the-newsletter/article/sanskrit-across-asia-beyond
)
Unfortunately, pro-Sanskrit
chauvinists tend to deny the due share of the diversity of its content to the
respective languages in the regions, and in turn, the respective pro-language
chauvinists tend to portray Sanskrit as the language of domination threatening
the individual identity of their languages.
In my observation, both kinds
of chauvinism were post-colonial development to serve the goal of divide and
rule.
Both kinds of chauvinism shall
be discouraged to facilitate both Sanskrit and the above-mentioned languages to
regain their glory, and to contribute to their growth to regain the ancient
wisdom for the world development and harmony.
In my view, during the
post-colonial period, anti-Sanskrit became a part of the social movement only
in Tamilnadu; leading to the public perception that ‘pro-Tamil meant
anti-Sanskrit and vice versa’. No wonder
the contribution of Tamil scholars to the content of Sanskrit, and vice versa,
were side lined, leading to the intellectual decay and the growth of sycophancy
in the intellectual field, after the Dravidian parties started ruling Tamilnadu
in 1967.
In the case of Sanskrit, I
find that scholarly interest in Sanskrit is growing all over the world,
side-lining the pro-Sanskrit chauvinists and debating the merits and demerits
of the published research works in Sanskrit. Few examples’ links below:
Unfortunately, the domination
of the anti-Sanskrit pro-Tamil chauvinists still continue, discouraging the scholarly
debates in Tamil and derailing the Tamil development.
For example, the discovery the
ancient pitch standard from the ancient Tamil text cilappathikAram and many such discoveries (http://drvee.in/?page_id=21
) continue to be ignored for more than
20 years, by ‘politically’ influential Tamil scholars and Tamil forums all over
the world. Without a basic knowledge of ‘Physics of Music’ and ‘Tamil Musicology’, Tamil scholars could not understand the above discoveries. ‘politically’ influential Tamil scholars, preferred to spend their time pleasing their political masters, instead of updating their knowledge. Neither I could waste my time like them, nor I could falsely claim the guidance and support of the political masters for the success of my discoveries, to please both the political masters and the ‘politically’ influential Tamil scholars.
But in the case of Sanskrit,
such discoveries from the ancient Sanskrit texts, draw the attention of the
Sanskrit scholars without delay, leading to the world recognition.
(https://sanskritdocuments.org/articles/ScienceTechSanskritAncientIndiaMGPrasad.pdf ) Thank God that Sanskrit was not enslaved like Tamil, by any political master.
(https://sanskritdocuments.org/articles/ScienceTechSanskritAncientIndiaMGPrasad.pdf ) Thank God that Sanskrit was not enslaved like Tamil, by any political master.
The pro-Tamil chauvinists did
not seem to be aware of the contribution of Tamil scholars to the content of
Sanskrit, and vice versa, in a mutually beneficial approach.
Probably a comparison of
similar trend in the case of English may sensitize them.
Ananda Kentish Muthu
Coomaraswamy’s ‘The Dance of Shiva’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananda_Coomaraswamy#Works_by_Coomaraswamy
), Tagore’s ‘The English Gitanjali or Song Offerings’ and many such books by
Indian writers had enriched the English Language. I had published my discovery
of ‘Musical Threads’ from the ancient Tamil texts, in English (‘Sangeet Natak’ -Vol XLII, Number 3,2008)
and not in Tamil.
The following reference
explained the contributions of the Tamil scholars to the content of the Sanskrit
language.
“Moreover, we must observe when Tamilians wrote in
Sanskrit they were not always nearly following a Northern tradition. Very often
they simply used Sanskrit as a language of general communication in order to
more widely propagate ideas from their own tradition. Rãmãnuja, for example,
gave a scholastical Sanskrit garment to the theology of Nammalvar who inspired
him and who before him had sung in his love for God:
- Jean Filliozat - Presidential Address - First International Tamil
Conference Seminar, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 18 - 23 April 1966
The following note with respect to my research on the ‘Kudumiyanmalai music inscription’ will
explain the complimentary role of Sanskrit to the development of Tamil
Musicology.
The content of the Sanskrit language around 8th century in Tamilnadu, employed the Grantha script in the inscriptions, like the Kudumiyanmalai inscription. The following references revealed the contribution of Tamil and Malayalam speakers employing the Grantha alphabet.
The content of the Sanskrit language around 8th century in Tamilnadu, employed the Grantha script in the inscriptions, like the Kudumiyanmalai inscription. The following references revealed the contribution of Tamil and Malayalam speakers employing the Grantha alphabet.
‘The
Grantha alphabet is a descendent of the Brahmi alphabet and started to emerge
during the 5th century AD. Most of the alphabets of southern India evolved from
Grantha, and it also influenced the Sinhala and Thai alphabets. The Grantha
alphabet has traditional been used by Tamil speakers to write Sanskrit.’ (https://www.omniglot.com/writing/grantha.htm )
‘“The
Grantha script (Tamil: கிரந்த எழுத்து, translit. Kiranta eḻuttu; Malayalam: ഗ്രന്ഥലിപി; Sanskrit:ग्रन्थलिपिः, translit. grantha lipi)
is an Indian script that was widely used between the sixth century and the 20th
centuries by Tamil and Malayalam speakers in South India, particularly in Tamil
Nadu and Kerala, to write Sanskrit and the classical language Manipravalam, and
is still in restricted use in traditional Vedic schools (Sanskrit veda
pāṭhaśālā).[1] It is a Brahmic script, having evolved from the
Tamil-Brahmi.” (Singh, Upinder (2008-01-01). A History of Ancient and
Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education
India)
An
archaic and ornamental variety of Grantha is sometimes referred to as Pallava
Grantha. They were used by the Pallava in some inscriptions. Mamallapuram
Tiruchirapalli Rock Cut Cave Inscriptions, Kailasantha Inscription come under this
type.”
The
Sanskrit names and letters of the seven music notes are given in the following
table.
Name of Swara
|
Letter of Swara
|
shadja (षड्ज)
|
Sa - (सा)
|
rishabha (ऋषभ)
|
Ri - (री)
|
gandhara (गान्धार)
|
Ga - (ग)
|
madhyama (मध्यम)
|
Ma - (म)
|
panchama (पञ्चम)
|
Pa - (प)
|
dhaivata (धैवत)
|
Dha - (ध)
|
nishada (निषाद)
|
Ni - (नि)
|
(Randel,
Don Michael (2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music (fourth ed.). Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.)
In
the above table, the letters for Sa, is different from the first letter of the
corresponding Sanskrit name; The same was the case with ‘Ri’.
Thiruvaiyaru (Thanjavur dt, Tamilnadu,
India) Sanskrit College Prof.Narayana Sastri had pointed out that the letter of
Swaras in the above table could not be derived from the Sanskrit names of the
swara, in accordance with the Sanskrit grammar rules. (Page 527 Karunamirtha sagaram – Abraham
Pandithar- 1917)
The
earliest epigraph evidence for the seven music notes, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha
& Ne, is Kudumiyamalai musical
inscription, & the earliest textual evidence is in Tamil; Divakaram, probably in the contemporary period.
The later textual evidence also linked the 7 music notes to the seven long
vowels in Tamil.
‘thivAkaram’ (university of Madras-1993)
had defined the Tamil names for the seven music notes in Rule1884, and their
sounding of conch, bird quill, bird peacock, elephant, horse, swan bird, quail
bird, in Rule 1885, and then related the Tamil letters ‘ச – Sa’, ‘ரி – Re’, ‘க – Ga’, ‘ம – Ma’, ‘ப - Pa’,
‘த – Dha’, ‘நி – Ni’; also relating
them to the seven long vowels in Tamil.
It
must be noted that the phonetic sound of the Grantham letters in Sanskrit was
well defined.
In Tamil, the phonetic sound of the vowels was defined; but the consonants had one or more phonetic options.
In Tamil, the phonetic sound of the vowels was defined; but the consonants had one or more phonetic options.
For
example, the Tamil letter ‘க‘
will phonetically sound in the word ‘சக்கரம்’ as ‘Ka ‘, and in the
word ‘சங்கம்’ as ‘Ga’, the
musical sounding of the music letter ‘Ga’.
The
seven music letters in Tamil were consonants. and the letters in Tamil
consonants have one or more phonetic options, depending on their employment in
the word. The seven long vowels in Tamil were musically well defined to match
the pitches of the seven music notes, as cited in the above reference ‘thivAkaram’. Even now, Tamil vocal
training involved the corresponding Sanskrit Phonetic sound for the seven music
letters in Tamil; ச, ரி, க, ம, ப, த, நி.
Also,
ancient Tamil grammar tholkAppiam had
well defined rules to import Sanskrit words into Tamil with the acoustic
distortion and excluded the imported words from the phonetic rules applicable
to the original Tamil words. Interestingly, tholkAppiam
had approved the employment of the imported words in the Tamil poems. ( http://musicresearchlibrary.net/omeka/items/show/2451 )
My
research on the Kudumiyanmalai Music
Inscription is in progress to probe and link the content in the Sanskrit texts
to Tamil Musicology. I had collected evidences in the ancient Tamil texts to
explain the musicology content in the Sanskrit texts.
Also, I need to
survey all researches linking the Kudumiyanmalai
inscription to the ancient Sanskrit texts, identify the short-comings, and
research if the above evidences in the ancient Tamil texts could succeed in
clarifying all the doubts related to the linking of the content in the Sanskrit
texts to the Tamil Musicology.
My
application of ‘Physics of Music’ to the ancient Tamil texts had proved that
the meanings of the music related words in the commentaries and lexicons,
needed objective review to discover the Tamil musicology from the ancient Tamil
texts.
I
am looking for similar efforts in the study of the ancient Sanskrit texts and
associate with those involved, to continue my research on the Kudumiyanmalai music inscription.
The
above inscription is one of the many evidences that led to my discovery of the
‘Musical Linguistics’ from the ancient Tamil Grammar tholkAppiam.
('Musical Phonetics in tholkAppiam' in The journal from the International Institute of Tamil Studies, Taramani, Chennai- 2013 December: http://www.ulakaththamizh.in/journal)
The
above discovery attracted the attention of the world-renowned scholars with the
following comments.
“Very
intriguing. I hope all of this can
become part of an emerging discipline of ‘musical linguistics’ " -
Prof.Noam Chomsky
”
Very interesting. And happy to know that you are working on it.''
-
Dr. Rajeev Sangal, Professor (Area:
Computer Sc & Engg), Language Technologies Research Center, IIIT Hyderabad
The
above discovery may lead to the world recognition of tholkAppiam as an important source for the emerging discipline of
‘musical linguistics’.
pANini’s Ashtadhyayi had already gained world
recognition for the well-established discipline of linguistics.
‘By
teaching phonetics and grammar to the West, Sanskrit gave rise to modern
linguistics’;
No doubt, world interest to study the ancient Texts in Sanskrit
for the development of Science, Technology, Philosophy, etc are growing in
modern times. (Spanish scholar Oscar Pujol Riembau;
But
in the case of Tamil, unfounded claims like Tamil Music as the source for
Hindustani Music, Angor Watt was built by a Tamil King, etc led to a low
estimation of Tamil scholars. This led to scholars like Sheldon Pollock to
discard the findings of the Tamil scholars with respect to the origin of the
Tamil literature in his book 'The Language of the Gods in the World of Men -
Sanskrit, Culture and Power in Premodern India'.
For example, unaware of the lexicon meaning of the Tamil word ‘cAthi’ (சாதி) and the import of the word ‘caste’ into Tamil, replacing the original meaning of ‘cAthi’, a semantic mischief.( However, it was the Portuguese who employed casta in the primary modern sense when they applied it to the thousands of in-marrying hereditary Indian social groups they encountered upon their arrival in India in 1498; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste );
For example, unaware of the lexicon meaning of the Tamil word ‘cAthi’ (சாதி) and the import of the word ‘caste’ into Tamil, replacing the original meaning of ‘cAthi’, a semantic mischief.( However, it was the Portuguese who employed casta in the primary modern sense when they applied it to the thousands of in-marrying hereditary Indian social groups they encountered upon their arrival in India in 1498; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste );
American scholar George Hart had observed; “it is clear that caste is indigenous
to South India and did not depend for its development on the varna system which
was later superimposed on it”. Also he had identified ‘paRaiyan’ and ‘pANan’,
referred in cankam texts as ‘the
lowest castes’ (‘Ancient Tamil Literature: Its Scholarly Past and
Future’). But cankam text puRanhAnURu (335: 7 - 8) referred to them as the ‘citizens of
the society’ (“துடியன், பாணன், பறையன், கடம்பன், என்று இந்நான்கு அல்லது குடியும் இல்லை”). I doubt if any Tamil
scholar in Tamil university, International Institute of Tamil Studies, the
Tamil departments in the universities in Tamilnadu, had refuted the above wrong
observations with the proper evidences.
The
above low estimation of the Tamil scholars will prove to be a great obstacle to
the world recognition of the discovery of the ‘musical linguistics’ in tholkAppiam. In my view, of all the
languages in the world, Tamil alone faces such hurdle in the intellectual
field. Fortunately, anti-Sanskrit is now confined to a decreasing number of
those above 50 years in age. Most of the college students and highly educated
youth are free from their influence, and open minded to welcome all good
things.
Musical Linguistics rules for poems discovered in the ancient Tamil grammar tholkAppiam, are non-semantic and music related rules for poems, and hence applicable to the musically rendered poems in world languages. The rules of the musical phonetics are objective, involving measurable acoustic parameters and hence would help to devise the related algorithm for developing applications in computational musical linguistics; like lyrical text to music & vice versa, musical grammar check, transformation of musical forms, etc.
The unique phonetic dimensions of the Sanskrit letters and the rules of joining the letters in pANini’s Ashtadhyayi, led to the development of the modern linguistics.
The unique phonetic dimensions of the Tamil letters and the rules of joining the letters for composing the poems in tholkAppiam, will lead to the development of the musical linguistics. The above rules of joining the letters for composing the poems are non-semantic and hence language-independent, but musical structure dependent.
I can very well foresee the convergence of the logic in Ashtadhyayi employed in the modern linguistics, and the logic in tholkAppiam to be employed in the musical linguistics, in the future research;
addressing
the criticisms of Chomsky’s universal grammar(UG)
Musical Linguistics rules for poems discovered in the ancient Tamil grammar tholkAppiam, are non-semantic and music related rules for poems, and hence applicable to the musically rendered poems in world languages. The rules of the musical phonetics are objective, involving measurable acoustic parameters and hence would help to devise the related algorithm for developing applications in computational musical linguistics; like lyrical text to music & vice versa, musical grammar check, transformation of musical forms, etc.
The unique phonetic dimensions of the Sanskrit letters and the rules of joining the letters in pANini’s Ashtadhyayi, led to the development of the modern linguistics.
The unique phonetic dimensions of the Tamil letters and the rules of joining the letters for composing the poems in tholkAppiam, will lead to the development of the musical linguistics. The above rules of joining the letters for composing the poems are non-semantic and hence language-independent, but musical structure dependent.
I can very well foresee the convergence of the logic in Ashtadhyayi employed in the modern linguistics, and the logic in tholkAppiam to be employed in the musical linguistics, in the future research;
(http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/outil_rouge06.html
& https://dlc.hypotheses.org/1269 ) and proving that “that
structure-dependence follows from principles of universal grammar that are
deeply rooted in the human language faculty”.
(https://chomsky.info/on-the-evolution-of-language-a-biolinguistic-perspective/)
Note: 'Musical Linguistics in Tholkappiam';
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba1rd0dRy8s&t=51s
'The Origins of Tamil Classical Music';
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lGtWcwS7Ww&t=1221s
Note: 'Musical Linguistics in Tholkappiam';
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba1rd0dRy8s&t=51s
'The Origins of Tamil Classical Music';
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lGtWcwS7Ww&t=1221s