Sri Lankan Tamils
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Sri Lankan Tamils, also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
A postcard image of a Sri Lankan Tamil woman, 1910.
Megalithic burial urns or jar found in Pomparippu, North Western, Sri Lanka dated to at least five to two centuries BCE. These are similar to Megalithic burial jars found in South India and the Deccan during the similar time frame.
South Indian type black and red ware pot sherds found in Sri Lanka and dated to 1st to 2nd century CE. Displayed at the National Museum of Colombo.
The Jaffna royal family, first from the right is Cankili I, who held off the Portuguese Empire.
Tamils
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The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar, Tamilians, or simply Tamils, are a dravidian ethnolinguistic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, to the union territory of Puducherry, and to Sri Lanka. The Tamil language is one of the world's longest-surviving classical languages, with over 2000 years of Tamil literature, including the Sangam poems, which were composed between 300 BCE and 300 CE. People who speak Tamil as their mother tongue and are born in Tamil clans are considered Tamils.
Tamil bride and groom performing the ritual of metti anidal
Grey pottery with engravings, Arikamedu, 1st century CE
Megalithic sarcophagus burial from Tamil Nadu
Virampatnam jewelry from funerary burial, 2nd century BCE, Tamil Nadu