1.
Sangam Period
–
Sangam period is the period in the history of ancient Tamil Nadu spanning from c. 4th century BC to c. It is named after the famous Sangam academies of poets and scholars centered in the city of Madurai, according to Tamil legends, there were three Sangam periods, namely Head Sangam, Middle Sangam and Last Sangam period. Historians use the term Sangam period to refer the last of these, so it is also called Last Sangam period, or Third Sangam period. The Sangam literature is thought to have produced in three Sangam academies of each period. The evidence on the history of the Tamil kingdoms consists of the epigraphs of the region, the Sangam literature. Approximately during the period between 400 BC to AD200, Tamilakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties of Pandya, Chola and Chera, and a few independent chieftains, the Velir. There is a wealth of sources detailing the history, socio-political environment and cultural practices of ancient Tamilakam, including volumes of literature, tamilakams history is split into three periods, prehistoric, classical and medieval. A vast array of literary, epigraphical and inscribed sources from around the world provide insight into the socio-political and cultural occurrences in the Tamil nation. The religion of the ancient Tamils closely follow roots of nature worship, in the ancient Sangam literature, Sivan was the supreme God, and Murugan was the one celebrated by the masses, both of them were sung as deified Tamil poets ascending the Koodal academy. The Tamil landscape was classified into five categories, thinais, based on the mood, the season, other ancient works refer to Maayon and Vaali. The most popular deity was Murugan, who has from an early date been identified with Karthikeya. Kannagi, the heroine of the Silappatikaram, was worshiped as Pathini by many Tamils, there were also many temples and devotees of Thirumaal, Siva, Ganapathi, and the other common Hindu deities. The year was made up of twelve months and every two months constituted a season, with the popularity of Mazhai vizhavu, traditionally commencement of Tamil year was clubbed on April 14, deviating from the astronomical date of vadavazhi vizhavu. Pongal, பொங்கல் the festival of harvest and spring, thanking Lord Indiran and Lord El and this day comes on April 14/15. Mazhai Vizhavu, aka Indhira Vizha, the festival for want of rain, celebrated for one month starting from the full moon in Ootrai சித்திரை. It is epitomised in the epic Cilapatikaram in detail, soornavai Vizha, the slaying of legendary Kadamba Asura king Surabadma, by Lord, comes on the sixth day after new moon in Itrai. It is sung about in Thirumurugatrupadai and Purananuru anthology, vaadai Vizha or Vadavazhi Vizha, the festival of welcoming the Lord Surya back to home, as He turns northward, celebrated on December 21/22. It is sung about in Akanauru anthology, aathi Irai min means the star of the God on the Bull
Sangam Period
–
South India in Sangam Period
Sangam Period
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Political map of South India, 210 B.C.E.
2.
Tamil people
–
Tamil people with a population of approximately 76 million living around the world are one of the largest and oldest of the existing ethno-linguistic cultural groups of people in the modern world. Tamils comprise 24. 87% of the population in Sri Lanka,5. 91% in India,10. 83% in Mauritius, 5% in Singapore, among languages spoken today, the Tamil language is the oldest written language. Between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century AD, Tamil people produced native literature that came to be called Sangam literature, Tamils were noted for their martial, religious and mercantile activities beyond their native borders. Pandyas and Cholas were historically active in Sri Lanka, the Chola dynasty successfully invaded parts of Southeast Asia like Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Indonesia. Medieval Tamil guilds and trading organizations like the Ayyavole and Manigramam played an important role in the Southeast Asia trade, Pallava traders and religious leaders travelled to Southeast Asia and played an important role in the cultural Indianisation of the region. Locally developed scripts such as Grantha and Pallava script induced the development of many scripts such as Khmer, Javanese Kawi script, Baybayin. Tamil visual art is dominated by stylised Temple architecture in major centres, Chola bronzes, especially the Nataraja sculpture of the Chola period, have become notable as a symbol of Hinduism. Tamil performing arts are divided into popular and classical, classical form is Bharatanatyam, whereas the popular forms are known as Koothu and performed in village temples and on street corners. Tamil cinema, known as Kollywood, is an important part of the Indian cinema industry, music too is divided into classical Carnatic form and many popular genres. Although most Tamils are Hindus, most practice what is considered to be folk Hinduism, a sizeable number are Christians and Muslims. A small Jain community survives from the period as well. Tamil cuisine is informed by varied vegetarian and non-vegetarian items usually spiced with locally available spices, the music, the temple architecture and the stylised sculptures favoured by the Tamil people as in their ancient nation are still being learnt and practised. It is unknown as to whether the term Thamizhar and its equivalents in Prakrit such as Damela, Dameda, the well-known Hathigumpha inscription of the Kalinga ruler Kharavela refers to a Tmira samghata dated to 150 BC. It also mentions that the league of Tamil kingdoms had been in existence 113 years before then, in Amaravati in present-day Andhra Pradesh there is an inscription referring to a Dhamila-vaniya datable to the 3rd century AD. Another inscription of about the time in Nagarjunakonda seems to refer to a Damila. A third inscription in Kanheri Caves refers to a Dhamila-gharini, in the Buddhist Jataka story known as Akiti Jataka there is a mention to Damila-rattha. There were trade relationship between the Roman Empire and Pandyan Empire, as recorded by Strabo, Emperor Augustus of Rome received at Antioch an ambassador from a king called Pandyan of Dramira. Hence, it is clear that by at least 300 BC, Thamizhar is etymologically related to Tamil, the language spoken by Tamil people
Tamil people
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Grey pottery with engravings,
Arikamedu, 1st century AD.
Tamil people
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Megalithic Sarcophagus burial from
Tamil Nadu.
Tamil people
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Virampatnam jewelry from funerary burial, 2nd century BC,
Tamil Nadu
3.
Tamil Nadu
–
Tamil Nadu is one of the 29 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai, Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The state shares a border with the nation of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the eleventh-largest state in India by area and the sixth-most populous, the state was ranked sixth among states in India according to the Human Development Index in 2011, with the second-largest state economy after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu is the second largest state economy in India with ₹13,842 billion in gross domestic product after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu was ranked as one of the top seven developed states in India based on a Multidimensional Development Index in a 2013 report published by the Reserve Bank of India and its official language is Tamil, which is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world. Tamil Nadu is home to natural resources. In addition, its people have developed and continue classical arts, classical music, historic buildings and religious sites include Hindu temples of Tamil architecture, hill stations, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula, the ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is very rudimentary Tamil Brahmi. Adichanallur has been announced as a site for further excavation. About 60 per cent of the epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu. A Neolithic stone celt with the Indus script on it was discovered at Sembian-Kandiyur near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, according to epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan, this was the first datable artefact bearing the Indus script to be found in Tamil Nadu. Mahadevan claimed that the find was evidence of the use of the Harappan language, the date of the celt was estimated at between 1500 BCE and 2000 BCE. The early history of the people and rulers of Tamil Nadu is a topic in Tamil literary sources known as Sangam literature, numismatic, archaeological and literary sources corroborate that the Sangam period lasted for about six centuries, from 300 BC to AD300. Three dynasties, namely the Chera, Chola and Pandya, ruled the area of present-day Tamil Nadu, the Chera ruled the whole of present-day Kerala and parts of western Tamil Nadu comprising Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Karur, Salem and Erode districts from the capital of Vanchi Muthur. The Chola dynasty ruled the northern and central parts of Tamil Nadu from their capital, Uraiyur, All three dynasties had extensive trade relationships with Rome, Greece, Egypt, Ceylon, Phoenicia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Trade flourished in commodities such as spices, ivory, pearls, beads, Chera traded extensively from Muziris on the west coast, Chola from Arikamedu and Puhar and Pandya through Korkai port. A Greco-Roman trade and travel document, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives a description of the Tamil country, besides these three dynasties, the Sangam era Tamilakam was also divided into various provinces named nadu, meaning country
Tamil Nadu
–
Location of Tamil Nadu (marked in red) in
India
Tamil Nadu
–
Sage
Agastya father of Tamil literature,
Sangam period
Tamil Nadu
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Megalithic Sarcophagus burial from Tamil Nadu.
4.
Kerala
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Kerala historically known as Keralam, is an Indian state in South India on the Malabar Coast. It was formed on 1 November 1956 following the States Reorganisation Act by combining Malayalam-speaking regions, spread over 38,863 km2, it is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, and the Lakshadweep Sea to the west. With 33,387,677 inhabitants as per the 2011 Census, Malayalam is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state. The region has been a prominent spice exporter since 3000 BCE, the Chera Dynasty was the first prominent kingdom based in Kerala, though it frequently struggled against attacks by the neighbouring Cholas and Pandyas. In the 15th century, the spice trade attracted Portuguese traders to Kerala, after independence, Travancore and Cochin joined the Republic of India and Travancore-Cochin was given the status of a state in 1949. In 1956, Kerala state was formed by merging Malabar district, Travancore-Cochin, Hinduism is practised by more than half of the population, followed by Islam and Christianity. The culture is a synthesis of Aryan and Dravidian cultures, developed over millennia, under influences from other parts of India, the production of pepper and natural rubber contributes significantly to the total national output. In the agricultural sector, coconut, tea, coffee, cashew, the states coastline extends for 595 kilometres, and around 1.1 million people in the state are dependent on the fishery industry which contributes 3% to the states income. The state has the highest media exposure in India with newspapers publishing in nine languages, mainly English, Kerala is one of the prominent tourist destinations of India, with backwaters, beaches, Ayurvedic tourism and tropical greenery as its major attractions. The name Kerala has an uncertain etymology, One popular theory derives Kerala from Kera and alam is land, thus land of coconuts, this also happens to be a nickname for the state due to abundance of coconut trees and its use by the locals. The word Kerala is first recorded in a 3rd-century BCE rock inscription left by the Maurya emperor Ashoka, the inscription refers to the local ruler as Keralaputra, or son of Chera. This contradicts the theory that Kera is from coconut tree, at that time, one of three states in the region was called Cheralam in Classical Tamil, Chera and Kera are variants of the same word. The word Cheral refers to the oldest known dynasty of Kerala kings and is derived from the Proto-Tamil-Malayalam word for lake, the earliest Sanskrit text to mention Kerala is the Aitareya Aranyaka of the Rigveda. It is also mentioned in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the two Hindu epics, the Skanda Purana mentions the ecclesiastical office of the Thachudaya Kaimal who is referred to as Manikkam Keralar, synonymous with the deity of the Koodalmanikyam temple. Keralam may stem from the Classical Tamil cherive-alam or chera alam, the Greco-Roman trade map Periplus Maris Erythraei refers to Keralaputra as Celobotra. According to Hindu mythology, the lands of Kerala were recovered from the sea by the warrior sage Parasurama. Parasurama threw his axe across the sea, and the water receded as far as it reached, according to legend, this new area of land extended from Gokarna to Kanyakumari. The land which rose from sea was filled with salt and unsuitable for habitation, so Parasurama invoked the Snake King Vasuki, out of respect, Vasuki and all snakes were appointed as protectors and guardians of the land
Kerala
–
A houseboat near
Alappuzha, Kerala
Kerala
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Parasurama, surrounded by settlers, commanding
Varuna (the
Hindu God of water) to part the seas and reveal Kerala.
Kerala
–
A
dolmen erected by Neolithic people in
Marayur
Kerala
–
Silk Road map. The spice trade was mainly along the water routes (blue).
5.
Puducherry
–
Puducherry, formerly known as Pondicherry, is a union territory of India. It was formed out of four exclaves of former French India, namely Pondichéry, Karikal, Mahé and it is named after the largest district, Puducherry. Historically known as Pondicherry, the changed its official name to Puducherry on 20 September 2006. Puducherry lies in the part of the Indian Peninsula. Puducherry is the 29th most populous and the third most densely populated territory in India. It has a GDP of ₹0.21 lakh crore and ranks 27th in India, the earliest recorded history of Puducherry can be traced to the 2nd century CE. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mentions a marketplace named Poduke, huntingford suggested this might be a site about 2 miles from the modern Puducherry, which was possibly the location of Arikamedu. Huntingford noted that Roman pottery was found at Arikamedu in 1937, in addition, archaeological excavations between 1944 and 1949 showed that it was a trading station to which goods of Roman manufacture were imported during the first half of the 1st century CE. In 1674, Pondicherry became a French colony of the French colonial empire, the union territory of Puducherry consists of four small unconnected districts, Puducherry district, Karaikal district and Yanam district on the Bay of Bengal and Mahé district on the Arabian Sea. Puducherry and Karaikal have the largest areas and population, and are both enclaves of Tamil Nadu, Yanam and Mahé are enclaves of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala respectively. Some of Puducherrys districts are themselves amalgamations of non-contiguous enclaves, often called pockets in India, the Puducherry district is made of 11 such pockets, some of which are very small and entirely surrounded by the territory of Tamil Nadu. Mahé district is made up of three pockets and this unusual geography is a legacy of the colonial period with Puducherry retaining the borders of former French India. All four districts of Puducherry are located in the coastal region, five rivers in Puducherry district, seven in Karaikal district, two in Mahé district and one in Yanam district drain into the sea, but none originates within the territory. Other religions include Christianity and Islam, Puducherry is a Union Territory of India rather than a state, which implies that governance and administration falls directly under federal authority. The Centre is represented by the Lieutenant Governor, who resides at the Raj Nivas at the Park, the central government is more directly involved in the territorys financial well-being unlike states, which have a central grant that they administer. Consequently, Puducherry has at times, enjoyed lower taxes. According to the Treaty of Cession of 1956, the four territories of former French India territorial administration are permitted to make laws with respect to specific matters, in many cases, such legislation may require ratification from the federal government or the assent of the President of India. Article II of the Treaty states, The Establishments will keep the benefit of the administrative status which was in force prior to 1 November 1954
Puducherry
–
Sri Potti Sri Ramulu Yanam Bridge
Puducherry
–
Seal of Puducherry
Puducherry
–
French architectural styles are common, a reminder of the years that the territory was part of
French India.
Puducherry
–
Consulate of France located at Goubert Avenue, White Town, Puducherry
6.
Lakshadweep
–
Lakshadweep, formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Aminidivi Islands, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea,200 to 440 km off the south western coast of India. The archipelago is a Union Territory and is governed by the Union Government of India and they were also known as Laccadive Islands, although geographically this is only the name of the central subgroup of the group. Lakshadweep comes from Lakshadweepa, which one hundred thousand islands in Sanskrit. The islands form the smallest Union Territory of India, their surface area is just 32 km2. The lagoon area covers about 4,200 km2, the territorial waters area 20,000 km2, the region forms a single Indian district with 10 subdivisions. Kavaratti serves as the capital of the Union Territory and the region comes under the jurisdiction of Kerala High Court, the islands are the northernmost of the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands, which are the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge. As the islands do not have any aboriginal groups, different views have been postulated by the scholars about the history of habitation on these islands, archaeological evidence supports the existence of human settlement in the region around 1500 BC. The islands have long known to sailors, as indicated by an anonymous reference from the first century AD to the region in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The islands were referenced also in the Buddhist Jataka stories of the sixth century BC, the arrival of Muslim missionaries around the seventh century led to the advent of Islam in the region. During the medieval period, the region was ruled by the Chola dynasty, the Portuguese arrived around 1498 and were upstaged by 1545. The region was ruled by the Muslim house of Arakkal. On his death in 1799, most of the region passed on to the British and with their departure, Ten of the islands are inhabited. At the 2011 Indian census, the population of the Union Territory was 64,473, the majority of the indigenous population is Muslim and most of them belong to the Shafi school of the Sunni sect. The islanders are ethnically similar to the Malayali people of the nearest Indian state of Kerala, most of the population speaks Malayalam with Mahi being the most spoken language in Minicoy island. The islands are served by an airport on the Agatti island, the main occupation of the people is fishing and coconut cultivation, with tuna being the main item of export. A mention of the region in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, There are references to the control of the islands by the Cheras in the Sangam Patiṟṟuppattu. Local traditions and legends attribute the first settlement on these islands to the period of Cheraman Perumal, the oldest inhabited islands in the group are Amini, Kalpeni Andrott, Kavaratti, and Agatti. Archaeological evidence suggests that Buddhism prevailed in the region during the fifth and sixth centuries CE, according to popular tradition, Islam was brought to Lakshadweep by an Arab named Ubaidulla in 661 CE
Lakshadweep
–
A beach at Kavaratti
Lakshadweep
–
Seal
Lakshadweep
–
One of the uninhabited islands in
Bangaram Atoll, Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep
–
Satellite picture showing the atolls of the Lakshadweep except for
Minicoy
7.
Andhra Pradesh
–
Andhra Pradesh is one of the 29 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of the country. The state is the eighth largest state in India covering an area of 162,968 km2, as per 2011 Census of India, the state is tenth largest by population with 49,386,799 inhabitants. On 2 June 2014, the portion of the state was bifurcated to form a new state of Telangana. In accordance with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act,2014, Hyderabad will remain the de jure capital of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states for a period of not exceeding 10 years. The new riverfront proposed capital in Guntur district is Amaravati, which is under the jurisdiction of APCRDA, the Gross State Domestic Product of the state in the 2016–2017 financial year at current prices stood at ₹6,800.3 billion. The state has a coastline of 974 km with jurisdiction over nearly 15,000 km2 territorial waters, the second longest among all the states of India after Gujarat. It is bordered by Telangana in the north-west, Chhattisgarh in the north, Odisha in the north-east, Karnataka in the west, Tamil Nadu in the south and the water body of Bay of Bengal in the east. A small enclave of 30 km2 of Yanam, a district of Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh is composed of two regions, Coastal Andhra, located along the Bay of Bengal, and Rayalaseema, in the inland southwestern part of the state. These two regions comprise 13 districts, with 9 in Coastal Andhra and 4 in Rayalaseema, Andhra Pradesh hosted 121.8 million visitors in 2015, a 30% growth in tourist arrivals over the previous year. The Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati is one of the worlds most visited religious sites, a tribe named Andhra has been mentioned in the Sanskrit texts such as Aitareya Brahmana. According to Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda, the Andhras left north India, archaeological evidence from places such as Amaravati, Dharanikota and Vaddamanu suggests that the Andhra region was part of the Mauryan Empire. Amaravati might have been a centre for the Mauryan rule. After the death of emperor Ashoka, the Mauryan rule weakened around 200 BCE, the Satavahana dynasty dominated the Deccan region from the 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE. The Satavahanas have been mentioned by the names Andhra, Andhrara-jatiya and Andhra-bhrtya in the Puranic literature, Dharanikota along with Amaravathi was the capital of the later Satavahanas. Amaravathi became a trade and pilgrimage centre during the Satavahana rule. According to the Buddhist tradition, Nagarjuna lived here, possibly in second, Andhra Ikshvakus were one of the earliest recorded ruling dynasties of the Guntur-Krishna regions of Andhra Pradesh. They ruled the eastern Andhra country along the Krishna river during the half of the second century CE. Puranas called Andhra Ikshvakus Shri Parvatiya Andhras, archaeological evidence has suggested that the Andhra Ikshvakus immediately succeeded the Satavahanas in the Krishna river valley
Andhra Pradesh
–
Montage of Andhra Pradesh Clockwise from top left:
Vijayawada city view,
Araku Valley,
Visakhapatnam Port view,
Godavari Arch Bridge (
Rajahmundry), Tirumala temple (
Tirupati), Dolphin's Nose mountain and the
Bay of Bengal at Visakhapatnam.
Andhra Pradesh
–
Logo
Andhra Pradesh
–
తెలుగు తల్లి - Telugu Thalli
Andhra Pradesh
–
Early
Satakarni issue,
Maharashtra –
Vidarbha type.
8.
Karnataka
–
Karnataka is a state in south western region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, originally known as the State of Mysore, it was renamed Karnataka in 1973. The capital and largest city is Bangalore, the state covers an area of 191,976 square kilometres, or 5.83 percent of the total geographical area of India. It is the seventh largest Indian state by area, with 61,130,704 inhabitants at the 2011 census, Karnataka is the eighth largest state by population, comprising 30 districts. Kannada, one of the languages of India, is the most widely spoken. Most of these rivers flow out of Karnataka eastward into the Bay of Bengal, though several etymologies have been suggested for the name Karnataka, the generally accepted one is that Karnataka is derived from the Kannada words karu and nādu, meaning elevated land. Karu nadu may also be read as karu, meaning black, the British used the word Carnatic, sometimes Karnatak, to describe both sides of peninsular India, south of the Krishna. With an antiquity that dates to the paleolithic, Karnataka has been home to some of the most powerful empires of ancient, the philosophers and musical bards patronised by these empires launched socio-religious and literary movements which have endured to the present day. Karnataka has contributed significantly to both forms of Indian classical music, the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions, Karnatakas pre-history goes back to a paleolithic hand-axe culture evidenced by discoveries of, among other things, hand axes and cleavers in the region. Evidence of neolithic and megalithic cultures have also found in the state. Gold discovered in Harappa was found to be imported from mines in Karnataka, prior to the third century BCE, most of Karnataka formed part of the Nanda Empire before coming under the Mauryan empire of Emperor Ashoka. Four centuries of Satavahana rule followed, allowing them to large areas of Karnataka. The decline of Satavahana power led to the rise of the earliest native kingdoms, the Kadambas, the Kadamba Dynasty, founded by Mayurasharma, had its capital at Banavasi, the Western Ganga Dynasty was formed with Talakad as its capital. These were also the first kingdoms to use Kannada in administration, as evidenced by the Halmidi inscription, the Western Chalukyas patronised a unique style of architecture and Kannada literature which became a precursor to the Hoysala art of 12th century. Parts of modern-day Southern Karnataka were occupied by the Chola Empire at the turn of 11th century, the Cholas and the Hoysalas fought over the region in the early 12th century before it eventually came under Hoysala rule. At the turn of the first millennium, the Hoysalas gained power in the region, literature flourished during this time, which led to the emergence of distinctive Kannada literary metres, and the construction of temples and sculptures adhering to the Vesara style of architecture. The expansion of the Hoysala Empire brought minor parts of modern Andhra Pradesh, in the early 14th century, Harihara and Bukka Raya established the Vijayanagara empire with its capital, Hosapattana, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in the modern Bellary district. The empire rose as a bulwark against Muslim advances into South India, in 1565, Karnataka and the rest of South India experienced a major geopolitical shift when the Vijayanagara empire fell to a confederation of Islamic sultanates in the Battle of Talikota
Karnataka
–
Mallikarjuna temple and Kashi Vishwanatha temple at
Pattadakal, Karnataka, built successively by the kings of the
Chalukya Empire and
Rashtrakuta Empire is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Karnataka
–
Map of Karnataka
Karnataka
–
Hoysala Empire sculptural articulation in
Belur.
Karnataka
–
Shilabalika sculpture at the Chennakeshva Temple in Belur
9.
Tamil language
–
Tamil is a Dravidian language predominantly spoken by the Tamil people of India and Sri Lanka, and also by the Tamil diaspora, Sri Lankan Moors, Burghers, Douglas, and Chindians. Tamil is a language of two countries, Singapore and Sri Lanka. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and it is also used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia, along with English, Malay and Mandarin. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and it is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. Tamil is one of the classical languages in the world. Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions from 500 BC have been found on Adichanallur and 2 and it has been described as the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past. The variety and quality of classical Tamil literature has led to it being described as one of the classical traditions. A recorded Tamil literature has been documented for over 2000 years, the earliest period of Tamil literature, Sangam literature, is dated from ca.300 BC – AD300. It has the oldest extant literature among other Dravidian languages, the earliest epigraphic records found on rock edicts and hero stones date from around the 3rd century BC. More than 55% of the inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India are in the Tamil language. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka, the two earliest manuscripts from India, acknowledged and registered by the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997 and 2005, were written in Tamil. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiraan Vanakkam, the Tamil Lexicon, published by the University of Madras, was one of the earliest dictionaries published in the Indian languages. According to a 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages, a family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent. It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family, the closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam, the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. According to linguists like Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Tamil, as a Dravidian language, descends from Proto-Dravidian, linguistic reconstruction suggests that Proto-Dravidian was spoken around the third millennium BC, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of the associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India. The next phase in the reconstructed proto-history of Tamil is Proto-South Dravidian, the linguistic evidence suggests that Proto-South Dravidian was spoken around the middle of the second millennium BC, and that proto-Tamil emerged around the 3rd century BC. The earliest epigraphic attestations of Tamil are generally taken to have been shortly thereafter
Tamil language
–
Silver coin of king
Vashishtiputra Sātakarni (c. AD 160). Obv: Bust of king; Rev: Ujjain/Sātavāhana symbol, crescented six-arch chaitya hill and river with
Tamil Brahmi script
Tamil language
–
Tamil
Tamil language
–
Agastya, Chairman of first Tamil
Sangam,
Madurai,
Pandiya Kingdom
Tamil language
–
Mangulam Tamil Brahmi inscription
10.
Chera
–
The Cheras were the principal ruling dynasty of the present-day state of Kerala and to a lesser extent, parts of Tamil Nadu in South India. Along with the Ay kingdom and the Ezhimala kingdom, they formed the kingdoms of Kerala in the early years of the Common Era. The origins of the dynasty are unclear and it is understood that they were speakers of Proto-Tamil-Malayalam while some being practitioners of literary writing in Old Tamil. In fact, most of their history is reconstructed from the body of known as the Sangam literature written in Old Tamil around the 3rd century CE. While Pliny and Ptolemy refer to the Cheras as Calobotras, the Periplus refers to them as the Keprobotras, the earliest Sanskrit works which refer to the Cheras and Kerala is probably the Aitreya Aranyaka. It refers to the land as Chera-pada - and as one of the three peoples who did not follow some ancient injunctions, there are also brief references by Katyanana, Edicts of Ashoka, Patanjali and Kautilya though Panini does not mention of the land. However, it is the Tamil works collectively known as the Sangam literature that form the most important sources for a detailed history of the Cheras. These works roughly span the period 100 CE to 300 CE, among them, the most important sources for the Cheras are the Pattittupattu, the Agananuru, the Purananuru and the Silappatikaram. The exact antiquity of the Chera dynasty is difficult to establish, however, based on the travellers accounts and the Sangam literature, it can be confirmed that they were already existing around the 4th century BCE. The Sangam literature describes a line of Chera rulers. It records the names of the kings, the princes, the internal chronology of this literature is still far from settled and a connected account of the history of the period is an area of research. Uthiyan Cheralathan, Nedum Cheralathan and Senguttuvan Chera are some of the referred to in the Sangam poems. Senguttuvan Chera, the most celebrated Chera king, is famous for the legends surrounding Kannagi, the exact location of the Chera capital has been subject to some speculation. The Chera capital has been called, Vanchi and Karur in several works and this has led to several theories identifying the Chera capital in places called Karur in both Kerala and Tamil Nadu. However, it is clear that the capital was near the famous port known as Muziris. Pliny refers to Muziris as the Chera capital, while the author of the Periplus identifies the capital to be a couple of away from the mouth of the river at Muziris. Ptolemy who identifies the capital as Karoura gives a location that is very close to Muziris as well. The Cheras also seem to have battles with other neighbouring dynasties such as the Pallavas, the Rashtrakutas
Chera
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Extent of Chera kingdom
Chera
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Family tree of the kings of the Chera dynasty based on Sangam literature. The monarchs ruled in the first two centuries of the Common Era.
11.
Chola
–
The Chola dynasty was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of southern India. The earliest datable references to this Tamil dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE left by Ashoka, as one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until the 13th century CE. The whole country south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two centuries and more, the Chola fleet represented the zenith of ancient Indian sea power. During the period 1010–1200, the Chola territories stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. Rajaraja Chola conquered peninsular South India, annexed parts of which is now Sri Lanka, Rajendra Chola sent a victorious expedition to North India that touched the river Ganges and defeated the Pala ruler of Pataliputra, Mahipala. He also successfully invaded cities of Srivijaya of Malaysia and Indonesia, the Chola dynasty went into decline at the beginning of the 13th century with the rise of the Pandyan Dynasty, which ultimately caused their downfall. The Cholas left a lasting legacy and their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in the building of temples has resulted in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture. The Chola kings were avid builders and envisioned the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship and they pioneered a centralised form of government and established a disciplined bureaucracy. The Chola school of art spread to Southeast Asia and influenced the architecture, the Cholas are also known as the Choda. There is very little available in regarding their origin. Its antiquity is evident from the mentions in ancient Tamil literature, Later medieval Cholas also claimed a long and ancient lineage. Mentions in the early Sangam literature indicate that the earliest kings of the dynasty antedated 100 CE, Cholas were mentioned in Ashokan Edicts of 3rd Century BCE as one of the neighboring countries existing in the South. A commonly held view is that Chola is, like Chera and Pandya, the annotator Parimelazhagar said, The charity of people with ancient lineage are forever generous in spite of their reduced means. Other names in use for the Cholas are Killi, Valavan and Sembiyan. Killi perhaps comes from the Tamil kil meaning dig or cleave and this word often forms an integral part of early Chola names like Nedunkilli, Nalankilli and so on, but almost drops out of use in later times. Valavan is most probably connected with valam – fertility and means owner or ruler of a fertile country, in Tamil lexicon Chola means Soazhi or Saei denoting a newly formed kingdom, in the lines of Pandya or the old country. There is very little evidence available of the Cholas prior to the 7th century. Historic records exist thereafter, including inscriptions on temples, the main source for the available information of the early Cholas is the early Tamil literature of the Sangam Period
Chola
–
Map showing the extent of the Chola empire
Chola
–
South India in BC 300, showing the Chera, Pandya and Chola Kingdoms
Chola
–
Gopuram Corner View of Thanjavur Brihadeeswara Temple.
12.
Pandyan
–
The Pandyan or Pandiyan or Pandian dynasty was an ancient Tamil dynasty, one of the three Tamil dynasties, the other two being the Chola and the Chera. The Pandya King, along with Chera King and Chola King, were referred to as the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty ruled parts of South India from around 600 BCE to first half of 17th century CE. They initially ruled their country Pandya Nadu from Korkai, a seaport on the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, fish being their flag, Pandyas were experts in water management, agriculture and fisheries and they were eminent sailors and sea traders too. Pandyan was well known since ancient times, with contacts, even diplomatic, the Pandyan empire was home to temples including Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, and Nellaiappar Temple built on the bank of the river Thamirabarani in Tirunelveli. The Pandya kings were called either Jatavarman or Maravarman Pandyan, from being Jains in their early ages, they became Shaivaites after some centuries of rule. Strabo states that an Indian king called Pandion sent Augustus Caesar presents and gifts of honour, the country of the Pandyas, Pandi Mandala, was described as Pandyan Mediterranea in the Periplus and Modura Regia Pandyan by Ptolemy. The early Pandyan Dynasty of the Sangam Literature faded into obscurity upon the invasion of the Kalabhras, the dynasty revived under Kadungon in the early 6th century, pushed the Kalabhras out of the Tamil country and ruled from Madurai. They again went into decline with the rise of the Cholas in the 9th century and were in constant conflict with them. The Pandyas allied themselves with the Sinhalese and the Cheras in harassing the Chola empire until they found an opportunity for reviving their fortunes during the late 13th century and they also had extensive trade links with the Southeast Asian maritime empires of Srivijaya and their successors. The Pandyas excelled in trade and literature. They controlled the fisheries along the South Indian coast, between Sri Lanka and India, which produced some of the finest pearls in the known ancient world. Traditionally, the legendary Sangams were held in Madurai under their patronage, during their history, the Pandyas were repeatedly in conflict with the Pallavas, Cholas, Hoysalas and finally the Muslim invaders from the Delhi Sultanate. The Islamic invasion led to the end of Pandyan supremacy in South India,1323, Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka declared its independence from the crumbling Pandyan Empire. The Pandyans lost their capital city Madurai to Madurai Sultanate in 1335, however they shifted their capital to Tenkasi and continued to rule the Tirulnelveli, Tuticorin, Ramanad, Sivagangai regions. Meanwhile, Madurai sultanate was replaced by Nayaka governors of Vijayanagara in 1378, in 1529 Nayaka governors declared independence and established Madurai Nayak dynasty. The word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandu meaning very old, another theory is that the word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandi meaning bull. Ancient Tamils, considered the bull as a sign of masculinity, the earliest Pandyans, probably used the bull as its emblem. Another theory suggests that in Sangam Tamil lexicon the word Pandya means old country in contrast with Chola meaning new country, Chera meaning hill country, the Chera, Chola and Pandya are the traditional Tamil siblings and together with the Pallavas are the major Kings that ruled ancient Tamilakam
Pandyan
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Extent of the Pandya Territories c. 1250 CE
Pandyan
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Four-armed
Vishnu, Pandya Dynasty, 8th–9th century CE.
Pandyan
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Temple between hill symbols and elephant coin of the Pandyas Sri Lanka 1st century CE.
13.
Pallava
–
The Pallava dynasty was a South Indian dynasty that existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a portion of what is today southern India. They gained prominence after the eclipse of the Satavahana dynasty, whom the Pallavas served as feudatories, Pallavas are most noted for their patronage of architecture, the finest example being the Shore Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mahabalipuram. The Pallavas, who left behind magnificent sculptures and temples, established the foundations of medieval South Indian architecture and they developed the Pallava script from which Grantha ultimately descended. The Pallava script gave rise to other southeast Asian scripts. Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited Kanchipuram during Pallava rule and extolled their benign rule, the Pallavas themselves claimed to descend from Brahma and Ashvatthama. Though Manimekalai posits Ilam Tiriyan as a Chola, not a Pallava, thence, came into existence the race of Pallavas. Vīrakūrcha, of celebrated name, who simultaneously with the daughter of the chief of serpents grasped also the insignia of royalty. The Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of South Indian History Congress also notes, The word Tondai means a creeper, historian K. R. Subramanian says the Pallavas were originally a Telugu power rather than a Tamil one. Telugu sources know of a Trilochana Pallava as the earliest Telugu king, the first Chalukya king is said to have been met, repulsed and killed by the same Trilochana near Mudivemu. A Buddhist story describes Kala the Nagaraja, resembling the Pallava Kalabhartar as a king of the region near Krishna district, the Pallava Bogga may be identified with the kingdom of Kala in Andhra which had close and early maritime and cultural relations with Ceylon. K. A. K. P. Jayaswal also proposed a North Indian origin, the Pallavas captured Kanchi from the Cholas as recorded in the Velurpalaiyam Plates, around the reign of the fifth king of the Pallava line Kumaravishnu I. Thereafter Kanchi figures in inscriptions as the capital of the Pallavas, the Cholas drove the Pallavas away from Kanchi in the mid-4th century, in the reign of Vishugopa, the tenth king of the Pallava line. The Pallavas re-captured Kanchi in the century, possibly in the reign of Simhavishnu, the fourteenth king of the Pallava line. Thereafter the Pallavas held on to Kanchi until the 9th century, until the reign of their last king, the Pallavas were in conflict with major kingdoms at various periods of time. A contest for political supremacy existed between the early Pallavas and the Kadambas, numerous Kadamba inscriptions provide details of Pallava-Kadamba hostlities. During the reign of Vishnugopavarman II, political convulsion engulfed the Pallavas due to the Kalabhra invasion of the Tamil country, towards the close of the 6th century, the Pallava Simhavishnu stuck a blow against the Kalabhras. Thereafter the Tamil country was divided between the Pallavas in the north with Kanchipuram as their capital, and Pandyas in the south with Madurai as their capital, the royal custom of using a series of descriptive honorific titles, Birudas, was particularly prevalent among the Pallavas. The birudas of Mahendravarman I are in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu, the Telugu birudas show Mahendravarmans involvement with the Andhra region continued to be strong at the time he was creating his cave-temples in the Tamil region
Pallava
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Kailasanathar Temple,
Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu,
India
Pallava
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Pallava territories during Narasimhavarman I c. 645. This includes the Chalukya territories occupied by the Pallavas.
Pallava
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Inner court or the circumambulatory passage with 58 subshrines.Kailasanathar Temple,
Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu,
India.
Pallava
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Typical design of pillar with multi-directional mythical lions.Kailasanathar Temple,
Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu,
India.
14.
Sangam period
–
Sangam period is the period in the history of ancient Tamil Nadu spanning from c. 4th century BC to c. It is named after the famous Sangam academies of poets and scholars centered in the city of Madurai, according to Tamil legends, there were three Sangam periods, namely Head Sangam, Middle Sangam and Last Sangam period. Historians use the term Sangam period to refer the last of these, so it is also called Last Sangam period, or Third Sangam period. The Sangam literature is thought to have produced in three Sangam academies of each period. The evidence on the history of the Tamil kingdoms consists of the epigraphs of the region, the Sangam literature. Approximately during the period between 400 BC to AD200, Tamilakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties of Pandya, Chola and Chera, and a few independent chieftains, the Velir. There is a wealth of sources detailing the history, socio-political environment and cultural practices of ancient Tamilakam, including volumes of literature, tamilakams history is split into three periods, prehistoric, classical and medieval. A vast array of literary, epigraphical and inscribed sources from around the world provide insight into the socio-political and cultural occurrences in the Tamil nation. The religion of the ancient Tamils closely follow roots of nature worship, in the ancient Sangam literature, Sivan was the supreme God, and Murugan was the one celebrated by the masses, both of them were sung as deified Tamil poets ascending the Koodal academy. The Tamil landscape was classified into five categories, thinais, based on the mood, the season, other ancient works refer to Maayon and Vaali. The most popular deity was Murugan, who has from an early date been identified with Karthikeya. Kannagi, the heroine of the Silappatikaram, was worshiped as Pathini by many Tamils, there were also many temples and devotees of Thirumaal, Siva, Ganapathi, and the other common Hindu deities. The year was made up of twelve months and every two months constituted a season, with the popularity of Mazhai vizhavu, traditionally commencement of Tamil year was clubbed on April 14, deviating from the astronomical date of vadavazhi vizhavu. Pongal, பொங்கல் the festival of harvest and spring, thanking Lord Indiran and Lord El and this day comes on April 14/15. Mazhai Vizhavu, aka Indhira Vizha, the festival for want of rain, celebrated for one month starting from the full moon in Ootrai சித்திரை. It is epitomised in the epic Cilapatikaram in detail, soornavai Vizha, the slaying of legendary Kadamba Asura king Surabadma, by Lord, comes on the sixth day after new moon in Itrai. It is sung about in Thirumurugatrupadai and Purananuru anthology, vaadai Vizha or Vadavazhi Vizha, the festival of welcoming the Lord Surya back to home, as He turns northward, celebrated on December 21/22. It is sung about in Akanauru anthology, aathi Irai min means the star of the God on the Bull
Sangam period
–
South India in Sangam Period
Sangam period
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Political map of South India, 210 B.C.E.
15.
Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia near south-east India. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest, Sri Lankas documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II. Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lankas recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. A diverse and multicultural country, Sri Lanka is home to many religions, ethnic groups, in addition to the majority Sinhalese, it is home to large groups of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka is a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the capital and largest city. Along with the Maldives, Sri Lanka is one of the two countries in South Asia that are rated among high human development on the Human Development Index. In antiquity, Sri Lanka was known to travellers by a variety of names, according to the Mahavamsa, the legendary Prince Vijaya named the land Tambapanni, because his followers hands were reddened by the red soil of the area. In Hindu mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the island was referred to as Lankā, in Tamil, the island is referred to as Eelam. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobanā or Taprobanē from the word Tambapanni, as a British crown colony, the island was known as Ceylon, it achieved independence as the Dominion of Ceylon in 1948. The country is known in Sinhalese as Śrī Laṃkā and in Tamil as Ilaṅkai, in 1972, its formal name was changed to Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka. Later in 1978 it was changed to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as the name Ceylon still appears in the names of a number of organisations, the Sri Lankan government announced in 2011 a plan to rename all those over which it has authority. The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years, the era spans the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and early Iron Ages. Among the Paleolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka, Pahiyangala and it is said that Kubera was overthrown by his demon stepbrother Ravana, the powerful emperor who built a mythical flying machine named Dandu Monara. The modern city of Wariyapola is described as Ravanas airport, early inhabitants of Sri Lanka were probably ancestors of the Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. According to the Mahāvamsa, a written in Pāḷi, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and Nagas. Ancient cemeteries that were used before 600BC and other signs of advanced civilization has also discovered in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
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Avukana Buddha statue, a 12 metres (39 ft) standing Buddha statue belongs to the reign of
Dhatusena of Anuradhapura, 5th century
Sri Lanka
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Flag
Sri Lanka
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Ptolemy's world map of Ceylon, first century CE, in a 1535 publication.
Sri Lanka
–
The
Sigiriya rock fortress
16.
Sri Lankan Tamils
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Sri Lankan Tamils or Ceylon Tamils, also known as Eelam Tamils in Tamil, are members of the Tamil ethnic group native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. According to anthropological and archaeological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have a long history in Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since at least around the 2nd century BCE. Most modern Sri Lankan Tamils claim descent from residents of Jaffna Kingdom and they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers 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, although Sri Lankan Tamils are culturally and linguistically distinct, genetic studies indicate that they are closely related to Sinhalese ethnic group in the island. The Sri Lankan Tamils are mostly Hindus with a significant Christian population, Sri Lankan Tamil literature on topics including religion and the sciences flourished during the medieval period in the court of the Jaffna Kingdom. Since the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War in the 1980s, Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are noted for their archaism and retention of words not in everyday use in the Tamil Nadu state in India. Since Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948, relations between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil communities have been strained. Rising ethnic and political tensions, along with ethnic riots in 1956,1958,1977,1981 and 1983, led to the formation, the ensuing civil war resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people and the forced disappearance of thousands of others. The civil war ended in 2009 but there are continuing allegations of atrocities being committed by the Sri Lankan Military, a United Nations panel found that as many as 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war. The end of the war has not improved conditions in Sri Lanka, with press freedom not being restored. One-third of Sri Lankan Tamils now live outside Sri Lanka, there is little scholarly consensus over the presence of the Sri Lankan Tamil people in Sri Lanka, also known as Eelam in Sangam literature. Theories about Tamil peoples presence in Sri Lanka feed into the cycle of ethnic conflict, another theory states that the Sri Lankan Tamils are descendant of the Nagas, who started to assimilate to Tamil culture and language around 3rd BCE. The indigenous Veddhas are physically related to people in South India and it is not possible to ascertain what languages that they originally spoke as Vedda language is considered diverged from its original source. Tamil Brahmi and Tamil-Prakrit scripts were used to write the Tamil language during this period on the island, bearing a remarkable resemblance to burials in the Early Pandyan Kingdom, these sites were established between the 5th century BCE and 2nd century CE. Excavated ceramic sequences similar to that of Arikamedu were found in Kandarodai on the north coast, cultural similarities in burial practices in South India and Sri Lanka were dated by archaeologists to 10th century BCE. However, Indian history and archaeology have pushed the back to 15th century BCE. In Sri Lanka, there is evidence from Anuradhapura that the non-Brahmi symbol-bearing black. The skeletal remains of an Early Iron Age chief were excavated in Anaikoddai, the name Ko Veta is engraved in Brahmi script on a seal buried with the skeleton and is assigned by the excavators to the 3rd century BCE
Sri Lankan Tamils
–
V. Manicavasagar
Sri Lankan Tamils
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Megalithic burial urns or jar found in Pomparippu, North Western, Sri Lanka dated to at least five to two centuries before Common Era. These are similar to Megalithic burial jars found in
South India and the
Deccan during the similar time frame.
Sri Lankan Tamils
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Siva Sivananthan
Sri Lankan Tamils
–
Balu Mahendra
17.
Maldives
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The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is a South Asian island country, located in the Indian Ocean, situated in the Arabian Sea. It lies southwest of India and Sri Lanka, the chain of twenty-six atolls stretches from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to the Addu City in the south. Malé is the capital and most populated city, traditionally called the Kings Island for its central location. With an average elevation of 1.5 metres above sea level, it is the worlds lowest country, with even its highest natural point being the lowest in the world. Due to the subsequent risks posed by rising sea-levels, the government pledged in 2009 to make the Maldives a carbon-neutral country by 2019, the Maldives have been historically and culturally linked to the Indian subcontinent since the fourth century BCE. The Maldivian archipelago was Islamised in the 12th century and consolidated as a sultanate, developing commercial and cultural ties with Asia. From the mid 16th-century, the region came under the influence of European colonial powers. Independence from the United Kingdom was achieved in 1965 and a republic was established in 1968 with an elected Peoples Majlis. The ensuing decades have been characterised by political instability, efforts at democratic reform, the Maldives is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. It is also a member of the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the World Bank classifies the Maldives as having an upper middle income economy. Fishing has historically been the dominant economic activity, and remains the largest sector by far, along with Sri Lanka, it is one of only two South Asian countries rated high on the Human Development Index, with its per capita income the highest among SAARC nations. The name Maldives may derive from the Malayalam words maala and dweepu or the Tamil maalai and theevu, the Maldivian people are called Dhivehin. The word theevu means island, and Dhives means islanders, the ancient Sri Lankan chronicle Mahawamsa refers to an island called Mahiladiva in Pali, which is probably a mistranslation of the same Sanskrit word meaning garland. Jan S Hogendorn, Grossman Professor of Economics, theorises that the name Maldives derives from the Sanskrit mālādvīpa, in Tamil, Garland of Islands can be translated as Malai Theevu. In Malayalam, Garland of Islands can be translated as Maladweepu, in Kannada, Garland of Islands can be translated as Maaledweepa. This is the name inscribed on the scroll in the Maldive state emblem. The classical Persian/Arabic name for Maldives is Dibajat, the Dutch referred to the islands as the Maldivische Eilanden, while the British anglicised the local name for the islands first to the Maldive Islands and later to Maldives. One such community are the Giraavaru people and they are mentioned in ancient legends and local folklore about the establishment of the capital and kingly rule in Malé
Maldives
–
The Buddhist Stupa (the best preserved, the largest and the last of the Buddhist temples that were destroyed) at Kuruhinna in
Gan Island (Haddhunmathi Atoll).
Maldives
–
Flag
Maldives
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Isdhoo Lōmāfānu is the oldest
copper-plate book to have been discovered in the Maldives to date. The book was written in AD 1194 (590 AH) in the Evēla form of the
Divehi akuru, during the reign of
Siri Fennaadheettha Mahaa Radun (Dhinei Kalaminja).
Maldives
–
A Plaque in Juma Mosque, Malé, Maldives, on which
Yusuf Tabrizi 's name is written. Yusuf Tabrizi was an Iranian who is said to have converted Maldives in 12th century AD to
Islam.
18.
Tamils
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Tamil people with a population of approximately 76 million living around the world are one of the largest and oldest of the existing ethno-linguistic cultural groups of people in the modern world. Tamils comprise 24. 87% of the population in Sri Lanka,5. 91% in India,10. 83% in Mauritius, 5% in Singapore, among languages spoken today, the Tamil language is the oldest written language. Between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century AD, Tamil people produced native literature that came to be called Sangam literature, Tamils were noted for their martial, religious and mercantile activities beyond their native borders. Pandyas and Cholas were historically active in Sri Lanka, the Chola dynasty successfully invaded parts of Southeast Asia like Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Indonesia. Medieval Tamil guilds and trading organizations like the Ayyavole and Manigramam played an important role in the Southeast Asia trade, Pallava traders and religious leaders travelled to Southeast Asia and played an important role in the cultural Indianisation of the region. Locally developed scripts such as Grantha and Pallava script induced the development of many scripts such as Khmer, Javanese Kawi script, Baybayin. Tamil visual art is dominated by stylised Temple architecture in major centres, Chola bronzes, especially the Nataraja sculpture of the Chola period, have become notable as a symbol of Hinduism. Tamil performing arts are divided into popular and classical, classical form is Bharatanatyam, whereas the popular forms are known as Koothu and performed in village temples and on street corners. Tamil cinema, known as Kollywood, is an important part of the Indian cinema industry, music too is divided into classical Carnatic form and many popular genres. Although most Tamils are Hindus, most practice what is considered to be folk Hinduism, a sizeable number are Christians and Muslims. A small Jain community survives from the period as well. Tamil cuisine is informed by varied vegetarian and non-vegetarian items usually spiced with locally available spices, the music, the temple architecture and the stylised sculptures favoured by the Tamil people as in their ancient nation are still being learnt and practised. It is unknown as to whether the term Thamizhar and its equivalents in Prakrit such as Damela, Dameda, the well-known Hathigumpha inscription of the Kalinga ruler Kharavela refers to a Tmira samghata dated to 150 BC. It also mentions that the league of Tamil kingdoms had been in existence 113 years before then, in Amaravati in present-day Andhra Pradesh there is an inscription referring to a Dhamila-vaniya datable to the 3rd century AD. Another inscription of about the time in Nagarjunakonda seems to refer to a Damila. A third inscription in Kanheri Caves refers to a Dhamila-gharini, in the Buddhist Jataka story known as Akiti Jataka there is a mention to Damila-rattha. There were trade relationship between the Roman Empire and Pandyan Empire, as recorded by Strabo, Emperor Augustus of Rome received at Antioch an ambassador from a king called Pandyan of Dramira. Hence, it is clear that by at least 300 BC, Thamizhar is etymologically related to Tamil, the language spoken by Tamil people
Tamils
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Grey pottery with engravings,
Arikamedu, 1st century AD.
Tamils
–
Megalithic Sarcophagus burial from
Tamil Nadu.
Tamils
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Virampatnam jewelry from funerary burial, 2nd century BC,
Tamil Nadu
Tamils
–
Souttoukeny jewelry, 2nd century B.C.
Tamil Nadu
19.
History of Tamil Nadu
–
The region of Tamil Nadu, in the southeast of modern India, shows evidence of having had continuous human habitation from 15,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE. Throughout its history, spanning the early Upper Paleolithic age to modern times, the Tamil region has remained independent of external occupation. The three ancient Tamil empires of Chera, Chola, and Pandya were of ancient origins, together they ruled over this land with a unique culture and language, contributing to the growth of some of the oldest extant literature in the world. They had extensive trade contacts with the Roman empire. These three dynasties were in constant struggle with each vying for hegemony over the land. Invasion by the Kalabhras is said to be during the 3rd century disturbed the traditional order of the land by displacing the three ruling kingdoms and these occupiers were overthrown by the resurgence of the Pandyas and the Pallavas, who restored the traditional kingdoms. The Cholas, who re-emerged from obscurity in the 9th century by defeating the Pallavas, at its height the Chola empire spanned almost 3,600,000 km² straddling the Bay of Bengal. The Chola navy held sway over the Sri Vijaya kingdom in Southeast Asia, the Madras Presidency, comprising most of southern India, was created in the 18th century and was ruled directly by the British. The prehistoric period during which Lower Paleolithic settlements existed in the Tamil Nadu region has estimated to span the period from about 1,510,000 BCE until around 3000 BCE. For most part of the lower Paleolithic stage, humans lived close to river valleys with sparse forest cover or in grassland environments, the population density was very low and so far only two localities of this lower Palaeolithic culture have been found in south India. Archaeological research has uncovered evidence of remains of animals and primitive stone implements around the northern Tamil Nadu that could be dated to belong to around 3,000,000 BCE. A discovery of a rare fossilized baby brain in Viluppuram district, by a team of archeologists was reported in April 2003, It is estimated to be about 187,000 years -200,000 years or older. The ancestor of humans who appeared around 50,000 years ago was more developed and could make thinner flake tools. From about 10,000 years ago, humans made still smaller tools called Microlithic tools, the material used by the early humans to make these tools were jasper, agate, flint, quartz, etc. In 1949, researchers found such microliths in Tirunelveli district, Archaeological evidence suggests that the microlithic period lasted between 6000–3000 BCE. In Tamil Nadu, the Neolithic period had its advent around 2500 BCE, humans of the Neolithic period made their stone tools in finer shapes by grinding and polishing. A Neolithic axe head with ancient writing on it has found in Tamil Nadu. The Neolithic humans lived mostly on small hills or on the foothills in small, more or less permanent settlements
History of Tamil Nadu
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A temple from the Chola period. The Cholas united most of the
south Indian peninsula under a single administration during the 10th and the 11th century CE.
History of Tamil Nadu
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Hathigumpha inscription of
Kharavela
History of Tamil Nadu
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Shore Temple in
Mamallapuram built by the
Pallavas. (c. eighth century CE)
20.
History of Sri Lanka
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The earliest human remains found on the island of Sri Lanka date to about 35,000 years ago. The proto-historical period begins roughly in the 3rd century, based on chronicles like the Mahavamsa, Dipavamsa, Silappatikaram, Manimekalai, the earliest documents of settlement in the Island are found in these chronicles. These chronicles cover the period since the establishment of the Kingdom of Tambapanni in the 6th century BCE, the first Sri Lankan ruler of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, Pandukabhaya, is recorded for the 4th century BCE. Buddhism was introduced in the 3rd century BCE by Arhath Mahinda, the first Tamil ruler of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, Elara, an invader, is recorded for the 2nd century BCE. The island was divided into numerous kingdoms over the following centuries, Sri Lanka was ruled by 181 monarchs from the Anuradhapura to Kandy periods. From the 16th century, some areas of the country were also controlled by the Portuguese, Dutch. Between 1597 and 1658, a part of the island was under Portuguese rule. The Portuguese lost their possessions in Ceylon due to Dutch intervention in the Eighty Years War, following the Kandyan Wars, the island was united under British rule in 1815. Armed uprisings against the British took place in the 1818 Uva Rebellion, independence was finally granted in 1948 but the country remained a Dominion of the British Empire until 1972. In 1972 Sri Lanka assumed the status of a Republic, a constitution was introduced in 1978 which made the Executive President the head of state. The Sri Lankan Civil War began in 1983, including an armed uprising in 1987–1989. Evidence of human colonization in Sri Lanka appears at the site of Balangoda, Balangoda Man arrived on the island about 34,000 years ago and have been identified as Mesolithic hunter gatherers who lived in caves. Several of these caves, including the well known Batadombalena and the Fa-Hien Rock cave, have yielded artifacts from these people who are currently the first known inhabitants of the island. Balangoda Man probably created Horton Plains, in the central hills, however, the discovery of oats and barley on the plains at about 15,000 BCE suggests that agriculture had already developed at this early date. Several minute granite tools, earthenware, remnants of charred timber, human remains dating to 6000 BCE have been discovered during recent excavations around a cave at Varana Raja Maha vihara and in the Kalatuwawa area. Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka and has found in Ancient Egypt as early as 1500 BCE. It is possible that Biblical Tarshish was located on the island, james Emerson Tennent identified Tarshish with Galle. The protohistoric Early Iron Age appears to have established itself in South India by at least as early as 1200 BCE, the earliest manifestation of this in Sri Lanka is radiocarbon-dated to c
History of Sri Lanka
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Pandyan Kingdom coin depicting a temple between hill symbols and elephant, Pandyas,
Sri Lanka, 1st century CE.
History of Sri Lanka
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Bronze imitation of a Roman coin,
Sri Lanka, 4–8th century CE.
History of Sri Lanka
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Sri Lankan imitations of 4th-century Roman coins, 4–8th century.
History of Sri Lanka
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A Portuguese (later Dutch) fort in
Batticaloa, Eastern Province built in the 16th century.
21.
Sources of ancient Tamil history
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There are literary, archaeological, epigraphic and numismatic sources of ancient Tamil history. The foremost among these sources is the Sangam literature, generally dated to the last centuries BCE to early centuries CE, techniques such as stratigraphy and paleography have helped establish the date of these items to the Sangam era. Inscriptions found on caves and pottery are another source for studying the history of Tamilakam, writings in Tamil-Brahmi script have been found in many locations in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka and also in Egypt and Thailand. Mostly recording grants made by the kings and chieftains, references are also made to other aspects of the Sangam society. Coins issued by the Tamil kings of this age have been recovered from river beds and it consists of 2,381 known poems, with a total of over 50,000 lines, written by 473 poets. Each poem belongs to one of two types, Akam and Puram, the akam poems deal with inner human emotions such as love and the puram poems deal with outer experiences such as society, culture and warfare. They contain descriptions of various aspects of life in the ancient Tamil country, the Maduraikkanci by Mankudi Maruthanaar contains a full-length description of Madurai and the Pandyan country under the rule of Nedunj Cheliyan III. The Netunalvatai by Nakkirar contains a description of the king’s palace, the Purananuru and Akanaṉūṟu collections contain poems sung in praise of various kings and also poems that were composed by the kings themselves. The Sangam age anthology Pathirruppaththu provides the genealogy of two lines for three or four generations of the Cheras, along with describing the Chera country, in general. The Pattinappaalai describes the Chola port city of Kaveripumpattinam in great detail and it mentions Eelattu-unavu – food from Eelam – arriving at the port. The historical value of the Sangam poems has been analysed by scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries. He feels that the Sangam literature is, for the most part, scholars like Dr. Venkata Subramanian, Dr. N. Subrahmanian, Dr. Sundararajan and J. K. Pillay concur with this view. Sastri dates the presently available Sangam corpus to the centuries of the Christian Era. Her reasoning is that they have been supported by archaeological and numismatic evidence, Dr. Tiekens methodology of dating Sangam works has been criticized by Hart, Ferro-Luzzi, and Monius. Kamil Zvelebil, a Czech indologist, considers this date quite impossible, according to Encyclopædia Britannica, the Sangam poems were created between the 1st century and 4th century and many of them are free from literary conceits. The Macropaedia mentions that the authenticity of sections of Sangam literature has been confirmed by archaeological evidence. Kautilya, in his Sanskrit work Arthashastra, mentions the “easy to travel trade route to the South and he refers to the city of Madurai and the river Tamaraparani in the Pandya kingdom. The Sinhalese chronicle Mahawamsa claims that King Vijaya married a daughter of the Pandyan king Kulasekaran, the famous Greek traveler Megasthenes mentions the “Pandae kingdom and refers to it as “that portion of India which lies to the southward and extends to the sea
Sources of ancient Tamil history
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Grey pottery with engravings,
Arikamedu, 1st century CE.
22.
Agriculture in ancient Tamil country
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During the Sangam age,200 BCE –200 CE, agriculture was the main vocation of the Tamils. It was considered a necessity for life, and hence was treated as the foremost among all occupations, the farmers or the Ulavar were placed right at the top of the social classification. As they were the producers of grains, they lived with self-respect. Agriculture during the stages of Sangam period was primitive, but it progressively got more efficient with improvements in irrigation, ploughing, manuring, storage. Among the five divisions of the Tamil country in Sangam literature. The prosperity of a farmer depended on getting the necessary sunlight, seasonal rains and they differentiated the lands on the basis of fertility and accordingly cultivated the crops that were best suited for the kind of soil. They were Vanpulam, Menpulam, Pinpulam and Kalarnilam or Uvarnilam, Vanpulam in Mullai and Kurinji regions did not yield rich produce, whereas in Menpulam the yield was very good. Dry crops were cultivated on Pinpulam, because of the irrigation facilities. The Kalarnilam was unfit for cultivation, some of the types of soil known to the people of this age were the alluvial soil, red soil, black soil, laterite soil and sandy soil and they knew what crops could be grown on each type of soil. The king owned a lot of land, but was not the landlord, as he had donated lands to poets, brahmins, schools, hospitals. The bulk of the agriculturists were cultivators of their own plots of land, among the Vellalars, the higher class people subsisted on the produce from the lands they owned whereas the lower-class people had to work on the lands to earn their livelihood. Apart from the landlords and cultivators, there were absentee landlords too. There are various instances in which the kings donated tax-free lands to poets, brahmins, educational institutions, lands given to brahmins was known Brahmateya. When lands were given to brahmins and poets, these donees quite often left the lands in the hands of tenants or farm laborers. The terms of tenancy in respect of such cultivation are not known, sometimes independent laborers were engaged for specific purposes and were known as Adiyor. Land, the property, and its produce were both taxable, as the king was owed a share for being the administrator of the land. Landlords and Peasants paid the tax - the land tax was known as Irai or Karai and it is believed that one-sixth of the produce was collected as tax. During times of floods and famines, cultivation was much affected, taxes were collected by revenue officials known as Variya and Kavidi and they were assisted by accountants called Ayakanakkar
Agriculture in ancient Tamil country
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Paddy fields in present-day
Tamil Nadu
Agriculture in ancient Tamil country
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Paddy fields in present-day
Kerala
Agriculture in ancient Tamil country
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Pearl millet
Agriculture in ancient Tamil country
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Kallanai, built around 1st century CE, is considered the oldest water-regulation structure in the world
23.
Economy of ancient Tamil country
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The economy of the ancient Tamil country describes the ancient economy of a region in southern India that mostly covers the present-day states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The main economic activities were agriculture, weaving, pearl fishery, manufacturing, paddy was the most important crop, it was the staple cereal and served as a medium of exchange for inland trade. Pepper, millets, grams and sugarcane were other commonly grown crops, Madurai and Urayur were important centers for the textile industry, Korkai was the center of the pearl trade. Inland trading was conducted primarily through barter in busy market places by merchant associations, merchants formed associations that operated autonomously, without interference from the state. Pepper, pearls, ivory, textiles and gold ornaments were exported from Tamilakam, foreign trade brought in a large amount of internationally convertible Roman currency. The state played an important role in building and maintaining infrastructure such as roads and ports—funded through taxation—to meet the needs of economic, wealth was unequally divided among the people, giving rise to distinct economic classes. Agriculture was the occupation of the ancient Tamils and the most respected. Farmers were aware of different soil types, the best crops to grow, in the five geographical divisions of the Tamil country in Sangam literature, the Marutam region was the most fit for cultivation, as it had the most fertile lands. Land was classified, according to its fertility, as Menpulam, Pinpulam, Vanpulam and Kalarnilam or Uvarnilam, Menpulam yielded rich produce on a variety of crops, but Pinpulam was cultivated only with dry crops due to limited irrigation facilities. The yield from Vanpulam was limited, while Kalarnilam was unfit for cultivation, some of the well known types of soil were alluvial soil, red soil, black soil, laterite soil and sandy soil. The Tamils cultivated paddy, sugarcane, millets, pepper, various pulses, coconuts, beans, cotton, plantain, tamarind, paddy was the main crop, with different varieties grown in the wetland of Marutam, such as Vennel, Sennel, Pudunel, Aivananel and Torai. The peasants lived in groves of trees close to the farmlands and each house had jack, coconut, palm, areca, peasants grew turmeric plants in front of their houses and laid flower gardens in between the houses. Farmers believed that ploughing, manuring, weeding, irrigation and the protection of crops must be according to a specific method in order to obtain a good yield. A wide range of tools needed for agriculture, from ploughing to harvesting, were manufactured, the basic tool was the plough also known as meli, nanchil and kalappai. Palliyadutal referred to the process of removing weeds using a toothed implement attached to a plank, lower-class peasants used stone sling devices to scare animals and birds away from the standing crops. Sickles were used for harvesting mature rice paddies, since the rivers of the region were not perennial, several irrigation techniques were developed to ensure an adequate and continuous supply of water. Farmers used a device called Kapilai for bailing out water from deep wells. Tanks, lakes and dams were used as storage systems
Economy of ancient Tamil country
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Roman gold coins excavated in Pudukottai of Tamil Nadu
Economy of ancient Tamil country
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Pearl millet
Economy of ancient Tamil country
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Kallanai is one of the oldest water-regulation structures in the world
Economy of ancient Tamil country
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Pearl fishing was an important industry in ancient Tamilakam
24.
Industry in ancient Tamil country
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During the Sangam age, industrial activity was considered ancillary to agriculture and was mostly domestic, not factory-based. Simple workshops where the blacksmith made the wheel or the carpenter his wooden wares could be called factories of a sort, weaving, pearl fishing, smithy and ship building were some of the prominent industries of the ancient Tamil country. Cotton and silk fabrics from Madurai and Urayur were in great demand, Korkai was the center of pearl trade and produced pearls that were sought after not only in Tamilakam, but in the kingdoms of north India and Rome. Smithy was an industry, because the blacksmith manufactured many of the tools. The flourishing overseas trade was supported by the industry that produced a variety of ocean. There were several industries such as carpentry, fishing, salt manufacture and construction that supported the trade. Weaving was the most important industry, spinning and weaving were widely practised crafts, next only to agriculture. In addition to being the occupation of many people, weaving was practised part-time by the farmers in rural areas. Women spent their spare time spinning cotton threads and continued to spin during the night, Madurai and Urayur were the important centers of the industry and were well known for their cotton textiles. The muslins carried very fine work of different colors and were compared to the slough of the cobra. Silk cloth was manufactured with its threads gathered in small knots at its ends, the art of embroidery was also known, with the nobles and aristocrats being the main customers for embroidered clothing. Dyeing was an ancillary industry to weaving. The blue dye for the cloth was a favorite color among the masses. In addition to silk and cotton fabrics, cloth made of wood fibre called Sirai Maravuri, silk, wool and other fabrics are referred to as cloths of natural origin. In the markets of Madurai, woollen goods were sold alongside the cotton, the cloth manufacturers wove long pieces of cloth at a time and delivered it to the dealers. The textile dealers then scissored off bits of required length, called aruvai or tuni, the dealers themselves were called aruvai vanigar and the localities where they lived aruvai vidi. Stitched garments were worn by the people and there were tailors called tunnagarar in Madurai, weaving was not associated with the hilly regions, as the descriptions of life in such regions do not indicate any use of cotton garments. Pearl fishing was another industry that flourished during the Sangam age, the Pandyan port city of Korkai was the center of pearl trade
Industry in ancient Tamil country
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Pearl fishing was an important industry in ancient Tamilakam
25.
Eelam
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Eelam is the native Tamil name for the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Eelam is also a name for the spurge, toddy and gold, the exact etymology and the original meaning of the word are not clearly known, and there are number of conflicting theories. The Retroflex approximant l in Eelam is a characteristic phoneme for Dravidian languages, retained in closely related Tamil, conventionally it has been represented in the Latin script with the digraph zh. The Tamil meaning of Eelam is homeland. The word ஈழம் has similarities with the Tamil word இல்லம், the earliest use of the word is found in a Tamil-Brahmi inscription as well as in the Sangam literature. The Tirupparankunram inscription found near Madurai in Tamil Nadu and dated on palaeographical grounds to the 1st century BCE, the inscription reads, erukatur eelakutumpikan polalaiyan Polalaiyan, Erukatur, the husbandman from Eelam. The Sangam literature Paṭṭiṉappālai, mentions Eelattu-unavu, one of the prominent Sangam Tamil poets is known as Eelattu Poothanthevanar meaning Poothan-thevan hailing from Eelam. The Tamil inscriptions from the Pallava & Chola period dating from 9th century CE link the word with toddy, toddy tappers quarters, tax on toddy tapping, Eelavar is a caste of toddy tappers found in the southern parts of Kerala. The Tamil lexicons Thivaakaram, Pingkalam and Choodaamani, dating from c. 8th century CE, equate the word with the Sinhala language, eela-kaasu and Eela-karung-kaasu are refers to coinages found in the medieval inscriptions of Tamil Nadu. Since the 1980s the words Eelam and Eelavar have been taken up by the Sri Lankan Tamil resistance movement, in this usage, Eelam refers to Tamil Eelam, an area covering what has been reconstructed by historians as the former Jaffna Kingdom. Eelavar now refers to the citizens of Tamil Eelam. Late 19th century linguists took the view that the name Eelam was derived from the Pali form Sihala for Sri Lanka, robert Caldwell, following Hermann Gundert, cites the word as an example of the omission of initial sibilants in the adoption of Indo-Aryan words into Dravidian languages. The University of Madras Tamil Lexicon, compiled between 1924 and 1936, follows this view and he concludes that Eelam is attested well before Sihala in India and Sri Lanka, in inscriptions and literature in the 1st century BCE. Whereas Sihala is attested for the first time in present day Andhra Pradesh to refer to a Buddhist temple meant for monks from Sri Lanka in the 3rd century CE. He further concludes that it is a word used exclusively for toddy beginning from the common era up until the medieval period. He suggests that the name Eelam came from the Dravidian word Eelam meaning toddy, referring to the trees in Sri Lanka. This, he says, is likely to have been the source for the Pali Sihala. The Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, which was edited by Thomas Burrow and Murray Emeneau. He also believes that the name of the island was applied to the coconut tree or vice versa in Tamil
Eelam
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Location of Eelam, the Tamil name for
Sri Lanka
26.
Tamil culture
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Tamil culture is the culture of the Tamil people. Tamil culture is rooted in the arts and ways of life of Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Tamils have strong attachment to the Tamil language, which is often venerated in literature as Tamil̲an̲n̲ai, the Tamil mother. It has historically been, and to large extent still is, like the other languages of South India, it is a Dravidian language, unrelated to the Indo-European languages of northern India. The Tamil language preserves many features of Proto-Dravidian, though modern-day spoken Tamil in Tamil Nadu freely uses loanwords from Sanskrit and English, Tamil literature is of considerable antiquity, and is recognised as a classical language by the government of India. Ancient Tamil grammatical works Tolkappiyam, the ten anthologies Pattuppāṭṭu, the eight anthologies Eṭṭuttokai sheds light on early religion of ancient Dravidian people. Seyyon was glorified as, the red god seated on the blue peacock, Sivan was also seen as the supreme God. Early iconography of Seyyon and Sivan and their association with native flora, the Sangam landscape was classified into five categories, thinais, based on the mood, the season and the land. Other gods mentioned were Mayyon and Vaali who were all assimilated into Hinduism over time, christians and Muslims account for 6% and 5. 5% respectively. The majority of Muslims in Tamil Nadu speak Tamil, with less than 15% of them reporting Urdu as their mother tongue, Tamil Jains number only a few thousand now. The most popular deity is Murugan, he is known as the god of the Tamils and is also called Tamil Kadavul. In Tamil tradition, Murugan is the youngest son and Ganesha/Pillayar is the eldest son of Shiva/Sivan, and it is different from the North Indian tradition, the goddess Parvati is often depicted as a goddess with green skin complexion in Tamil Hindu tradition. The worship of Amman, also called Mariamman, is thought to have derived from an ancient mother goddess, is also very common. Kan̲n̲agi, the heroine of the Cilappatikār̲am, is worshipped as Pattin̲i by many Tamils, there are also many followers of Ayyavazhi in Tamil Nadu, mainly in the southern districts. In addition, there are temples and devotees of Vishnu, Siva, Ganapathi. Muslims across Tamil Nadu follow Hanafi and Shafii schools, erwadi in Ramanathapuram district and Nagore in Nagapattinam district are the major pilgrimage centres for Muslims in Tamil Nadu. The most important Tamil festivals are Pongal, a harvest festival that occurs in mid-January, and Varudapirappu, the Tamil New Year, both are celebrated by almost all Tamils, regardless of religion. The Hindu festival Deepavali is celebrated with fanfare, other local Hindu festivals include Thaipusam, Panguni Uttiram, in rural Tamil Nadu, many local deities, called aiyyan̲ārs, are thought to be the spirits of local heroes who protect the village from harm. Their worship often centres around nadukkal, stones erected in memory of heroes who died in battle and this form of worship is mentioned frequently in classical literature and appears to be the surviving remnants of an ancient Tamil tradition
Tamil culture
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Saga Agastya, father of Tamil literature.
Tamil culture
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Typical layout of Tamil architecture which evolved from koyil as kings residence.
Tamil culture
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Ayyanar, guardian folk deity of Tamil Nadu.
Tamil culture
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Meenakshi Amman temple, dedicated to Goddess Meenakshi, tutelary deity of Madurai city
27.
Tamil literature
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Tamil literature refers to the literature in the Tamil language. Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years, the oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from Tamil people from South India, including the land now comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Sri Lankan Tamils from Sri Lanka, and from Tamil diaspora. The history of Tamil literature follows the history of Tamil Nadu, the early Sangam literature, starting from the period of 2nd century BCE, contain anthologies of various poets dealing with many aspects of life, including love, war, social values and religion. This was followed by the early epics and moral literature, authored by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist authors, from the 6th to 12th century CE, the Tamil devotional poems written by Nayanmars and Azhvars, heralded the great Bhakti movement which later engulfed the entire Indian subcontinent. The later medieval period saw many assorted minor literary works and also contributions by a few Muslim and European authors. A revival of Tamil literature took place from the late 19th century when works of religious, with growth of literacy, Tamil prose began to blossom and mature. Short stories and novels began to appear, modern Tamil Literary criticism also evolved. The popularity of Tamil cinema has also interacted with Tamil literature in some mutually enriching ways, Sangam literature comprises some of the oldest extant Tamil literature, and deals with love, war, governance, trade and bereavement. Unfortunately much of the Tamil literature belonging to the Sangam period has been lost, the literature currently available from this period is perhaps just a fraction of the wealth of material produced during this golden age of Tamil civilization. The available literature from this period has been divided in antiquity into three categories based roughly on chronology. These are, the Major Eighteen Anthology Series comprising the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Idylls, Tolkaappiyam, a commentary on grammar, phonetics, rhetoric and poetics is dated from this period. Tamil legends hold that these were composed in three successive poetic assemblies that were held in ancient times on a now vanished continent far to the south of India. A significant amount of literature could have preceded Tolkappiyam as grammar books are written after the existence of literature over long periods. Tamil tradition holds the earliest Sangam poetry to be over twelve millennia old, modern linguistic scholarship places the poems between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD. Sangam age is considered by the Tamil people as the era of Tamil language. This was the period when the Tamil country was ruled by the three crowned kings the Cheras, Pandyas and the Cholas, the land was at peace with no major external threats. Asokas conquests did not impact on the Tamil land and the people were able to indulge in literary pursuits, the poets had a much more casual relationship with their rulers than can be imagined in later times
Tamil literature
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Sage
Agastya,Chairman of first
Tamil Sangam, Thenmadurai,
Pandiya Kingdom
28.
Tamil script
–
Certain minority languages such as Saurashtra, Badaga, Irula, and Paniya language are also written in the Tamil script. The Tamil script has 12 vowels,18 consonants and one special character, however, it is listed at the end of the vowel set. The script is syllabic, not alphabetic and these combinant letters are formed by adding a vowel marker to the consonant. Some vowels require the basic shape of the consonant to be altered in a way that is specific to that vowel. Others are written by adding a suffix to the consonant, yet others a prefix. In every case the vowel marker is different from the character for the vowel. The Tamil script is written left to right. The Tamil script, like the other Brahmic scripts, is thought to have evolved from the original Brahmi script, the earliest inscriptions which are accepted examples of Tamil writing date to a time just after the Ashokan period. The script used by these inscriptions is known as the Tamil-Brahmi or Tamili script. For example, early Tamil-Brahmi, unlike Ashokan Brahmi, had a system to distinguish pure consonants and consonants with an inherent vowel. Inscriptions from the second century use a form of Tamil-Brahmi, which is substantially similar to the writing system described in the Tolkāppiyam. Most notably, they use the puḷḷi to suppress the inherent vowel, the Tamil letters thereafter evolved towards a more rounded form, and by the fifth or sixth century had reached a form called the early vaṭṭeḻuttu. The modern Tamil script does not, however, descend from this script, parallel to Pallava script a new script again emerged in Chola territory resembling the same glyph development like Pallava script, although it didnt evolve from that. By the 8th century, the new scripts supplanted Vaṭṭeḻuttu in the Chola resp, Pallava kingdoms which lay in the north portion of the Tamil-speaking region. With the fall of Pallava kingdom, the Chola dynasty pushed the Chola-Pallava script as the de facto script, over the next few centuries, the Chola-Pallava script evolved into the modern Tamil script. The Grantha and its parent script influenced the Tamil script notably, the use of palm leaves as the primary medium for writing led to changes in the script. The scribe had to be not to pierce the leaves with the stylus while writing, because a leaf with a hole was more likely to tear. As a result, the use of the puḷḷi to distinguish pure consonants became rare, the forms of some of the letters were simplified in the nineteenth century to make the script easier to typeset
Tamil script
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History of Tamil script
Tamil script
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Diverging evolution of
Tamil Brahmi script (center column) into the
Vatteluttu alphabet (leftmost column) and the Tamil script (rightmost column)
Tamil script
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A page from a Tamil
palm-leaf manuscript.
Tamil script
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Tampiran Vanakkam (Doctrina Christum) was the first book in Tamil, printed on 20 October 1578
29.
Tamil numerals
–
Traditionally Vattezhuttu characters were used, but now Arabic numerals have become commonplace. Old Tamil possesses a special character for zero and it is read as andru. But yet Modern Tamil renounces the use of its native character, Modern Tamil words for zero include சுழியம் or பூச்சியம். Tamil has a prefix for each number from 1 to 9. For instance, the word for fifty, ஐம்பது is a combination of ஐ, the prefix for nine changes with respect to the succeeding base 10. தொ+ the unvoiced consonant of the succeeding base 10 forms the prefix for nine, for instance,90 is தொ+ண், hence, தொண்ணூறு). These are typically void in the Tamil language except for some Hindu and Christian religious references, example அட்ட இலட்சுமிகள் in a Hindu context, unlike other Indian languages, Tamil has distinct digits for 10,100, and 1000. It also has characters for other number-based aspects of day-to-day life. − − − − − − − − − − − − There are two systems that can be used in the Tamil language, the Tamil system which is as follows. The following are the numbers of the Ancient Tamil Country. Sanskrit based multiples like lakhs are also followed just like other Indian languages and you can transcribe any fraction, by affixing -இல் after the denominator followed by the numerator. For instance, 1/41 can be said as நாற்பத்து ஒன்றில் ஒன்று, the suffixing of the -இல் requires you to change the last consonant of the number to its இ form. For example, மூன்று+இல் becomes மூன்றில், note the உ has been omitted, common fractions have names already allocated to them, hence, these names are often used rather than the above method. Other fractions are, Anu was considered as lowest fraction by ancient Tamils as size of smallest physical object, later, this term went to Sanskrit to refer directly atom. Decimal point is called புள்ளி in Tamil, for example,1.1 would be read as ஒன்று புள்ளி ஒன்று. Percentage is known as விழுக்காடு in Tamil or சதவீதம் and these words are simply added after a number to form percentages. For instance, four percent is நான்கு சதவீதம் or நான்கு விழுக்காடு, percentage symbol is also recognised and used. Ordinal numbers are formed by adding the suffix -ஆம் after the number, as always, when blending two words into one, an unvoiced form of the consonant as the one that the second starts with, is placed in between to blend
Tamil numerals
–
Numeral systems
Tamil numerals
–
A milestone which uses both Tamil and Indo-Arabic Numerals (Tanjore Palace Museum).
Tamil numerals
–
Tamil is written in a non-Latin script. Tamil text used in this article is transliterated into the Latin script according to the
ISO 15919 standard.
Tamil numerals
30.
Siddha medicine
–
Siddha Medicine is a system of traditional medicine originating in ancient Tamilakam in South India. Traditionally, it is taught that the laid the foundation for this system of medication. Siddhars were spiritual adepts who possessed the ashta siddhis, or the eight supernatural powers, agastya is considered the first siddha and the guru of all siddhars, the siddha system is believed to have been handed over to him by Murugan, son of Shiva and Parvati. The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy of the Government of India coordinates and promotes research in the fields of ayurveda and Siddha medicine. The Central Council of Indian Medicine, a body established in 1971 under AYUSH, monitors higher education in areas of Indian medicine. The Siddha science is a treatment system generated from Tamil culture. Palm leaf manuscripts say that the Siddha system was first described by Lord Shiva to his wife Parvati, Parvati explained all this knowledge to her son Lord Muruga. He taught all these knowledge to his disciple sage Agasthya, Agasthya taught 18 Siddhars and they spread this knowledge to human beings. Siddha focused to Ashtamahasiddhi, the eight supernatural power and those who attained or achieved the above said powers are known as Siddhars. There were 18 important Siddhars in olden days and they developed this system of medicine, hence, it is called Siddha medicine. The Siddhars wrote their knowledge in palm leaf manuscripts, fragments of which were found in parts of South India and it is believed that some families may possess more fragments but keep them solely for their own use. There is a collection of Siddha manuscripts kept by traditional Siddha families. According to the manikandan, there were 22 principal siddhars, of these 22, Agasthya is believed to be the father of siddha medicine. Siddhars were of the concept that a soul can only be developed through a healthy body. So they developed methods and medication that are believed to strengthen their physical body, men and women who dedicated their lives into developing the system were called Siddhars. Through this spiritually attained supreme knowledge, they wrote scriptures on all aspects of life, from arts to science, from the manuscripts, the siddha system of medicine developed into part of Indian medical science. Today there are recognized siddha medical colleges, run under the government universities, most of the practicing Siddha medical practitioners are traditionally trained, usually in families and by gurus. When the guru is an arts teacher, he is also known as an ashan
Siddha medicine
–
East Asian
31.
Music of Tamil Nadu
–
Music of Tamil Nadu has a long tradition and history going back thousands of years. Music is an important aspect of the culture of the Tamil people. The tradition of Tamil music goes back to the earliest period of Tamil history, many poems of the Sangam literature, the classical Tamil literature of the early common era, were set to music. There are various references to this ancient musical tradition found in the ancient Sangam books such as Ettuthokai, the early narrative poem Cilappatikaram, belonging to the post-Sangam period also mentions various forms of music practiced by the Tamil people. The musical poet Arunagirinathar further embellished the Tamil musical tradition through his compositions of Tamil hymns known as Thiruppugazh, pann, which is the classical music form of Southern India, has a long history in Tamil Nadu. Later the name was changed as Carnatic music. Even today Pannisai is sung in temple festivals, Tamil Nadu has produced a number of famous performers, as well as a closely related classical dance form Bharatha Natyam. Chennai hosts a cultural event, the annual Madras Music Season. There are 72 basic scales on the octave, and a variety of melodic motion. Both melodic and rhythmic structures are varied and compelling and this is one of the worlds oldest and richest musical traditions. Songs have been composed by artists and handed down through generations of disciples. The composers belonging to the Tamil Trinity of Muthu Thandavar, Arunachala Kavi and Marimutthu Pillai composed hundreds of songs in Tamil. Three saint composers of the 18th to 19th Century, Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri, have composed thousands of songs that remain favourites among musicians, today, Tamil Nadu has hundreds of notable carnatic singers who spread this music all over the world. M. S. Subbulakshmi, a carnatic singer, had the honour of singing a song in the UN Security Council. Folk singing remains popular, especially in areas, elements of the traditional styles are sometimes used in film music. There are contemporary enthusiasts, like Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan and Pushpavanam Kuppuswamy, the urumee mellam also remains as one of the more popular forms of folk music in rural Tamil Nadu and the ensemble is most often played with an urumee and the nadaswaram as the instrument of choice. The rural hill tribes of Tamil Nadu each have their own folk traditions, the Pulayar, for example, perform melodies called talams which are said to come from the cooing of birds. Each talam is named after a deity, including Kunhanada talam, Mangalanada talam, Tamil cinema is well known for its talented composers
Music of Tamil Nadu
–
"Tamil musical troop"
Music of Tamil Nadu
–
Ekkalam, A traditional wind instrument of Tamil Nadu
Music of Tamil Nadu
Music of Tamil Nadu
–
AR Rahman at his
Madras residence after winning two
Academy Awards for his work in
Slumdog Millionaire
32.
Tamil architecture
–
Tamil architecture is the style and techniques developed in the Tamil regions over thousands years. Although ancient Tamil architecture included houses, palaces and public buildings, two important collections of these ancient monuments have been recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. They are Mahabalipuram, and the Great Living Chola Temples, Tamil architecture’s distinctive identity is the pyramid shaped tower entrances of the temples. These towers are decorated with sculpture, art, and colour. Important Monuments Dravidian architecture Various component parts of a South Indian Chola temple explained
Tamil architecture
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Meenakshi Amman temple
Tamil architecture
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Mahabalipuram
Tamil architecture
–
Brihadeeswarar temple
Tamil architecture
–
Valluvar Kottam
33.
Tamil cuisine
–
Tamil Nadu is famous for its deep belief that serving food to others is a service to humanity, as it is common in many regions of India. The region has a rich cuisine involving both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Rice, legumes and lentils are used extensively and flavor is achieved by the blending of various spices, vegetables and dairy products are essential accompaniments and tamarind is used as the favored souring agent. On special occasions, traditional Tamil dishes are prepared in an elaborate and leisurely way and served in traditional style on a banana leaf. The traditional way of eating a meal involves being seated on the floor, having the food served on a banana leaf, after the meal, the fingers are washed, and the banana leaf becomes food for cows. Typically breakfast includes Idli or dosa and rice accompanied by lentil preparations Sambar, Rasam, a typical meal consists of rice with other typical Tamilan dishes served on a banana leaf. Banana leaf as it gives different flavor and taste to the food, a sweet, normally Paayasam is usually served as a dessert to finish the meal. Coffee and tea are the staple drinks, ‘Virundhu’ meaning ‘feast’, when guests are invited during happy ceremonial occasions to share food. After the completion of the feast, a banana and betel leaves (eaten with areca nuts, guests sit on a coir mat rolled out on the floor and a full course meal was served on a banana leaf. Nowadays, guests sit on a dinner table and have the same type of food. Traditionally the banana leaf is laid so that the tip is pointed left. Before the feast begins the leaf is sprinkled with water and cleaned by the diner even though the leaves are already clean. The top half of the leaf is reserved for accessories. The lower right portion of the leaf may have a scoop of warm sweet milky rice Payasam, Kesari, while the top left includes a pinch of salt, a dash of pickle and a thimbleful of salad, or a smidgen of chutney. In the middle of the leaf there may be an odd number of fried items like small circles of chips either banana, yam or potato, thin crisp papads or frilly wafers aruna Appalams and vadai. The top right corner is reserved for spicy foods including curry, hot, sweet, or sour. Rice is the staple food of most of the Tamil people. Normally lunch or dinner is a meal of steamed rice served with accompanying items, Idli, steamed rice-cakes, prepared from a fermented batter of rice and black gram, and side-dishes are usually different kinds of chutney, sambhar or vadacurry
Tamil cuisine
–
Veg Meals in Tamil Nadu
Tamil cuisine
–
Dosa with chutney and sambar traditionally served in banana leaf
Tamil cuisine
–
Veg Mini Meals in Tamil Nadu served with Sambar rice,Tamarind rice, Curd rice, Sweet Pongal,Chappathi with gravy and chips.
34.
Tamil calendar
–
The Tamil calendar is a sidereal Hindu calendar used in Tamil Nadu, India. It is also used in Puducherry, and by the Tamil population in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Tamil Nadu farmers greatly refer to this. It is used today for cultural, religious and agricultural events, the Tamil calendar is based on the classical Hindu lunisolar calendar also used in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Manipur, Nepal, Odisha, Rajasthan and Punjab. There are several festivals based on the Tamil Hindu calendar, the Tamil New Year follows the nirayanam vernal equinox and generally falls on 14 April of the Gregorian year. 14 April marks the first day of the traditional Tamil calendar, tropical vernal equinox fall around 22 March, and adding 23 degrees of trepidation or oscillation to it, we get the Hindu sidereal or Nirayana Mesha Sankranti. Hence, the Tamil calendar begins on the date in April which is observed by most traditional calendars of the rest of India - Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Manipur. This also coincides with the new year in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh Nepal. The traditional Tamil year starts on 14 April 2017, Kaliyuga 5119, vikrama and Shalivahana Saka eras are also used. There are several references in early Tamil literature to the April new year, nakkirar, the author of the Nedunalvaadai writes in the 3rd century that the Sun travels from Mesha/Chitterai through 11 successive Raasis or signs of the zodiac. Kūdalūr Kizhaar in the 3rd century refers to Mesha Raasi/Chitterai as the commencement of the year in the Puranaanooru, the Tolkaapiyam is the oldest surviving Tamil grammar that divides the year into six seasons where Chitterai marks the start of the Ilavenil season or summer. The 8th century Silappadikaaram mentions the 12 Raasis or zodiac signs starting with Mesha/Chitterai, the Manimekalai alludes to the Hindu solar calendar as we know it today. Adiyaarkunalaar, an early medieval commentator or Urai-asiriyar, mentions the 12 months of the Tamil Hindu calendar with particular reference to Chitterai. The days of the Tamil calendar relate to the bodies in the solar system, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. This list compiles the days of the week in the Tamil calendar, For Tamils, the number of days in a month varies between 29 and 32. The following list compiles the months of the Tamil Calendar and its earliest reference is to be found in Surya Siddhanta, which Varahamihirar believed to be the most accurate of the then current theories of astronomy. However, in the Surya Siddhantic list, the first year was Vijaya, there are some parallels in this sexagenary cycle with the Chinese calendar. The Surya Siddhanta and other Indian classical texts on astronomy had some influence on the Chinese calendar although it merits attention that the cycle in China is itself very old. After the completion of sixty years, the calendar starts a new with the first year and this corresponds to the Hindu century
Tamil calendar
–
Tamil Calendar 2013
35.
Tamil cinema
–
Tamil cinema is a film industry that is a part of the cinema of India, dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Tamil cinema has been described as the industry of South Indian cinema. The first Tamil silent film, Keechaka Vadham, was made by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1918, the first talking motion picture, Kalidas, was a multilingual and was released on 31 October 1931, less than seven months after Indias first talking motion picture Alam Ara. By the end of the 1930s, the legislature of the State of Madras passed the Entertainment Tax Act of 1939, the industry also inspired independent filmmaking in Tamil diaspora populations in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Western Hemisphere. In 1897, R. Hariharan, cheyyar first screened a selection of silent short films at the Victoria Public Hall in Madras, the films all featured non-fictional subjects, they were mostly photographed records of day-to-day events. The film scholar Stephen Hughs points out that within a few there were regular ticketed shows in a hall in Pophams Broadway, started by one Mrs. Klug. Once it was demonstrated as a proposition, a Western entrepreneur, Warwick Major, built the first cinema theatre, the Electric Theatre. It was a haunt of the British community in Madras. The theatre was shut down after a few years and this building is now part of a post office complex on Anna Salai. The Lyric Theatre was also built in the Mount Road area and this venue boasted a variety of events, including plays in English, Western classical music concerts, and ballroom dances. Silent films were screened as an additional attraction. Swamikannu Vincent, a draftsman from Tiruchirapalli, became a travelling exhibitor in 1905. He showed short movies in a tent in Esplanade, near the present Parrys Corner and he bought the film projector and silent films from the Frenchman Du Pont and set up a business as film exhibitor. Soon, he tied up with Path, a well-known pioneering film-producing company and this helped new cinema houses to sprout across the presidency. In later years, he produced talkies and also built a cinema in Coimbatore, to celebrate the event of King George Vs visit in 1909, a grand exhibition was organized in Madras. Its major attraction was the screening of films accompanied by sound. However, there was no synched dialogue, Raghupathy Venkiah Naidu, a successful photographer, took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near the Madras High Court. With this equipment, he screened the short films Pearl Fish, when this proved successful, he screened the films in a tent set up in Esplanade
Tamil cinema
–
AVM Studios, the oldest surviving studio in India
Tamil cinema
–
Sivaji Ganesan (1928-2001)
36.
Malaysian Tamils
–
Tamil Malaysians, also known as Malaysian Tamils, are people of full or partial Tamil descent who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia. They make up over 90% of the Malaysian Indian populations in Malaysia, although the bulk of the migration happened during the British colonial period, there were established Tamil communities spanning a millennium. Relations between Tamils and Malaysia have existed for more than 2000 years, the ancient Tamil poetic work Paṭṭiṉappālai refers to the territory of modern Malaysia as Kaalagam. The Pallava dynasty of Tamil Nadu spread Indian culture and the Indian script to Malaysia, the Tamil emperor Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty invaded Malaysia in the 11th century. The Malay Peninsula had a strong South Indian culture in the 11th century, by that time, Tamils were among the important trading peoples of maritime Asia. During the British colonial era, Britain facilitated the migration of Indian workers to work in plantations, the overwhelming majority of migrants from India were ethnic Tamil and from the Madras Presidency of the British Empire. The Sri Lankan Tamils, also known locally as Ceylonese Tamils, were employed principally in the civil, Tamil Indian freedom fighters Maruthu Pandiyar relatives and 72 soldiers were deported to Penang in the year 1802 by the Madras Presidency Government. During the WWII Japanese army used more than 120,000 Tamils in the construction of 415 KM railway between Siam and Burma to transport them army supplies, during this project half of them perished. The recent research reveals that close to 150,000 Tamils perished during the project, the fell victim to snakes and insects, cholera, malaria and Beriberi. Some of them committed suicide, unable to bear the burden, Tamil is an educational language in Malaysia, with more than 500 Tamil medium schools. According to Harold Schiffman, an American researcher into Malaysian Tamils, compared to Singapore, however, he notes some Tamils are shifting to English and Malay. Although most Tamil students still go to publicly funded schools that teach primary subjects in Tamil language there are moves to shift to Malay language, Tamil groups have seriously objected to this policy. Malaysian Tamils have had an opportunity to integrate with the economy of Malaysia since 1970 under the New Economic Policy. They are also found in service, professional sector, media. One of Malaysias wealthiest men Ananda Krishnan is a Malaysian Tamil origin, overall it is one of the dynamic communities compared to other Indian diaspora groups such as in Fiji, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. The Malaysian political process is based on a political alliance of three major political parties, each representing an ethnic community. Malaysian Indian Congress represents the interests of the Malaysian Indian community at the federal level, due to overwhelming natural presence, Malaysian Tamils have come to dominate the MIC since its inception. In recent times the underclass of the Indian community have been galvanized by the Hindu Rights Action Force to fight for their rights, HINDRAF was classified as an illegal organization on 15 October 2008 and most of its top leaders have been detained under the Internal Security Act
Malaysian Tamils
–
Janaky Athi Nahappan
Malaysian Tamils
–
DATUK SERI
S. Subramaniam
Malaysian Tamils
–
Arul Suppiah
Malaysian Tamils
–
Dhilip Varman
37.
Singapore Tamils
–
Singapore Tamils refers to Tamil community living in Singapore, who came from South India and Sri Lanka. Singapore is home to about 500,000 Tamilians, Singapore has emerged as the most preferred destination among migrants from Tamil Nadu. A study has revealed that 410,000 of the 2.2 million Tamil Nadu diaspora were residing in Singapore in 2015, Tamil Language is one of the four official languages in Singapore. Tamil is taught as a language in all government schools from the primary to junior college levels. Tamil is a subject at all major nationwide exams. There is a daily Tamil newspaper printed in Singapore, the Tamil Murasu, there is a full-time radio station, Oli 96.8, and a full-fledged TV channel, Vasantham
Singapore Tamils
–
Devan Nair
Singapore Tamils
–
V. Sundramoorthy
Singapore Tamils
–
A fragment of the
Singapore Stone, inscribed with an
Indic script.
Singapore Tamils
–
Founded in 1827,
Sri Mariamman Temple is Singapore's oldest
Hindu temple.
38.
Tamil diaspora
–
The Tamil diaspora refers to descendants of the Tamil immigrants who emigrated from their native lands to other parts of the world. They found primarily in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Réunion, Mauritius, Europe, North America, many of Tamil emigrants who left shores of Tamil Nadu before 18th Century and mixed with countless other ethnicities. Some are descended from immigrants from land of Arabia, though it is not known which part of the Arab world they are from, in the 19th century, Madras Presidency faced brutal famines. Tamil Nadu was both politically and economically weak, britishers thus made use of hungry Tamil workers for their plantations all over the world - Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and also Sri Lanka. Some of the Tamil groups emigrated as commercial migrants and these groups then dominated the trade and finance in Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, South Africa and other places. The first Indian to own a merchant ship during the British times comes from this group and these Tamilians well integrated, assimilated with their adopted countries, and became part and parcel of local populations in Mauritius, South Africa, Guyana, and Fiji. Many also left to work in the possessions of the French Empire via its holdings in Pondichéry in Réunion, a small group was hired by the Dutch colonial government in Dutch East Indies to work in Sumatra. Roughly about 40,000 descendants of immigrants are still found in Medan. Many independent Tamil merchant guilds such as the Nagarathar also left for areas in an age old tradition of their ancestors who had traded in these areas for the last 2,000 years. Britain also hired many Sri Lankan Tamils as clerical and other white collar workers, especially in Malaysia, all these different streams have combined to create vibrant Tamil communities in these countries. Also many Tamils from India and Sri Lanka migrated to Crown colony of Singapore and British Malaya as labours, army clerks, during and after the devastating WW2 a large number of Tamils and other Indians from Burma fled to India- to Manipur, and Tamil Nadu. They established Burmese refugee colonies that still exist today and maintain an identity as Burmese returnees, many were repatriated to the Nilgiris regions tea estates. They too maintain an identity as Ceylon returnees in Tamil Nadu. There is also a movement of native Sri Lankan Tamils to India, some migrated to do white-collar jobs during the British days, although relatively recent in origin, this subgroup had well-established communities in these host countries prior to the 1983 pogroms. A more recent Sri Lankan Tamil community has developed rapidly in the United States, with reference to Mainland Africa, There is a significant amount of Tamils in Africa, Especially Kenya. Kenya holds at least 30% of the Tamilians in the Country followed by Uganda, most of these people are Migrants while some of them have been living there for generations. Tamil migration to South Africa started as from 1860, first as indentured labour, now there are more than 250,000 Tamils spread over in many cities, the concentration being in Natal and Durban. Mauritius has a Tamil population of 115,000, most arrived from Tamil Nadu after 1727 to serve as labourers on the sugar cane plantations
Tamil diaspora
–
Navanethem Pillay
Tamil diaspora
–
Sri Kandaswamy Kovil along Jalan Scott
Tamil diaspora
–
V Sundramoorthy
Tamil diaspora
–
A Malbar temple in Réunion.
39.
Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora
–
The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora refers to the global diaspora of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. It can be said to be a subset of the larger Sri Lankan, significant segments of the Tamil diaspora prefer to be labeled Eelam or Eezham Tamils, as a reference to an aspired separate Tamil state on the island of Sri Lanka. In foreign lands under British rule, the British needed obedient, trusted, hard-working and skillful people to take up government posts and this led to the first wave of migrations by the Tamils to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and the then Madras Presidency in India. Ceylonese Tamils made up a majority in the civil service of British Malaya. In Kuala Lumpur, the Ceylon Tamil population was concentrated in Brickfields and Sentul because of the proximity of the Administrative Centre of the Malayan Railway. The Government provided accommodation for the white and the blue collar workers in these areas and this gave birth to the Sri Kandaswamy Kovil, Brickfields, which has become a landmark and tourist attraction in the city, showcasing Sri Lankan Tamil and Hindu architecture at its finest. Many of the first Asian and non-white doctors and engineers in Malaya, the worlds first Asian surgeon was Dr S. S. Thiruchelvam, a Malayan of Ceylonese Tamil origin. Former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew once said, In terms of numbers, yet in terms of achievements and contributions to the growth and development of the modern Singapore and Malaysia they have done more than warranted by their numbers. In the early days of Malaysias and Singapores history the civil service, even today the Ceylonese community continues to play a prominent role in these and other fields of civil life. For example in Singapore, today, the Speaker of Parliament is a Ceylonese, so is our High Commissioner in Great Britain. In the Judiciary, in the service, in the university, in the medical Service. They are there not because they are members of a minority community, the point is that the Ceylonese are holding their own in open competition with communities far larger than them. They have asked for no special favour or consideration as a minority, what they have asked for – and quite rightly – is that they should be judged on their merits and that they be allowed to compete with all other citizens fairly and without discrimination. This, as far as the Singapore government is concerned, is what is best for all of us, I believe that the future belongs to that society which acknowledges and rewards ability, drive and high performance without regard to race, language or religion. The Ceylonese community established many schools, banks, cultural societies, cooperatives and temples in Malaysia, MCC has continuously supported the Barisan Nasional and the Government. It was formed to promote and preserve the Political, Educational, Social and Cultural aspects of the Malaysian Ceylonese Community, to date MCC has seen six Presidents, -1. Mr. M. W Navaratnam AMN, JP2, senator Tan Sri Dato Sri Dr. C. Sinnadurai PSM, PSD, PNBS, DPMP, SMK3. Tan Sri Dato Seri V. Jeyaratnam PSM, SPMP4, Dato Dr. N. Arumugasamy DSIJ, JSM5
Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora
–
Sri Kandaswamy Kovil along Jalan Scott
Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora
Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora
–
Expatriate Sri Lankan Tamil children in traditional clothes in Toronto
Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora
–
Sri Kamadchi Ampal temple in Hamm, Germany
40.
Tamil Australians
–
Tamil Australians refers to Australians with a Tamil background. It includes people who speak Tamil, those ancestors were Tamil or those who identify with Tamil culture. There are no figures for the number of Tamil Australians but according to the 2011 census there were 50,151 Australians,0. 23% of the population. Tamil speaking Australians are of Indian, Sri Lankan, Singaporean and Malaysian ancestry, as per 2011 census, over 39. 59% of Tamil speaking Australians were born in Sri Lanka,34. 89% in India and 13. 05% in Australia. They live concentrated in Wentworthville, Pendle Hill, Girraween, Toongabbie and Strathfield in Sydney and in Glen Waverley, more than 80% have completed high school education which is only 50% for the general Australian population. More than 59% own their houses while more than 67% of the population own their houses
Tamil Australians
–
Murugan Temple,
Sydney
Tamil Australians
–
Kamahl
Tamil Australians
–
Saivaite Temple,
Perth
41.
Tamils in France
–
Tamils in France refer to the citizens as well as expatriate residents of Tamil origin living in France. Over 100,000 Tamils from both India and Sri Lanka live in France and this is in addition to the Tamil community established in French overseas dominions of Réunion, Martinique, French Guiana etc. The earliest Tamil immigration into France can be traced back to since the 17th Century, a large number of them hailing from middle-class families who joined the French government on service. The later arrivals were mostly Tamils from Sri Lanka, who fled the country during the violence in 1983, today, there are about 50,000 Sri Lankan Tamils living in France, of which the greatest number live in Paris. There are Tamil newspapers, a station, and a website dedicated to Paris residents. Various social and political organisations supporting the Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism exist among the Tamil community in France, apart from speaking Tamil their native language, most of the Tamils are fluent speakers of English due to their British colonial past. Many of the migrants had struggled to find work and higher education due to their relatively lesser understanding of the French. As a result, many of them have taken up free, a critical demand is that the French government create special work-training programs designed to orient refugees from different fields. The Tamil community preserve their culture by creating schools for children. Today there are ten or eleven active branches in Paris and in the suburbs, in these weekend classes, children are taught Tamil, traditional music and dance, and religion. A majority of the Tamil French population are Hindus, and a significant number of them have faith in Christianity, majority of the residents fled Sri Lanka in the 1980s, which saw the beginning of the countrys civil war. It is commonly called by the average Parisian as Little Bombay. Little Jaffna is also famous for the chariot procession held during Ganesha Chathurthi. Both the area and event have become popular tourist attractions, Little Jaffna is a thriving village in its own right, offering a kind of cultural richness that seems curiously preserved from French influence. Tamils in Réunion Indians in Guadeloupe Indo-Martiniquais Tamil diaspora
Tamils in France
–
Religious Procession of
Tamils in
Paris
Tamils in France
–
A sit-in protest to stop the
Sri Lankan civil war and investigate the alleged genocide of the Tamils in Sri Lanka
Tamils in France
–
Tamil dancers take part in the May day rally in Paris, 2010
42.
British Tamils
–
British Tamils are British people of Tamil origin. Migration of significant numbers of Tamils to the United Kingdom started with labour migrants in the 1940s and these were joined by students moving to the UK for education in the 1970s, and by refugees fleeing the Sri Lankan Civil War in the 1980s and 1990s. Tamil is not one of the predefined tick-box answers for the ethnicity question on the UK Census, the tick-box options under the Asian category include Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi, but respondents can also tick an Any other Asian box and write in their own answer. In the 2011 Census, the number of writing in Tamil was 24,930 in England,128 in Wales,99 in Scotland and 11 in Northern Ireland. The number of people in England and Wales that speak Tamil as their language was recorded as 100,689. In 2008, community estimates suggested that 150,000 Tamils lived in the UK, a 2009 article in the FT Magazine put the figure at up to 200,000
British Tamils
–
A. T. Moorthy
British Tamils
–
Romesh Ranganathan
43.
Tamil Indonesians
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Tamil Indonesians are persons of Tamil ancestry living in Indonesia. Majority of them live in Medan in North Sumatra while there are small community in parts of the country such as Jakarta, Aceh. It is estimated there are around 25,000 PIOs/NRIs living in Indonesia of which the Indian expatriate community registered with the Embassy. Tamils have a history in Indonesia. After Rajendra Chola Is attack on Srivijaya Empire in 1024–25, there was a increase in Tamil economic activity in Southeast Asia. One of direct consequence of Chola invasion was the emergence of Kota Cina, the inscription itself is written in Tamil, and Barus was called Varocu by them. The Tamils residing permanently or temporarily in Barus were mainly traders or craftsmen by profession, some of them were migrated to Karoland and Kota Cina, and assimilated with local Karo people. The clan Sembiring is believed to have a connection with the Tamils, many of its sub-mergas, like Colia, Berahmana, Pandia, Meliala, Depari, Muham, Pelawi and Tekan, are clearly of South Indian origin. Some scholars cited that some aspects of Karo tradition are believed to have been influenced from Tamil culture, such as disposing of the dead, another evidence of Tamil presence is the Suruaso Inscription, dating from the 14th century. The inscription was found in Tanah Datar Regency, and written in two languages, Old Malay and Tamil, the Tamils were also assimilated with Acehnese people, and many of them has physical resemblance to that of Tamils. However, they do not practice Tamil culture or speak Tamil language anymore, Tamils from India were brought to Indonesia by the Dutch in the early build-up of the plantation industry in the 1830s. Agents visited villages in South India and tempted poor uneducated Tamils to come to Tanah Deli and were promised easy work with good pay, after they arrived in Indonesia, they were used for hard labor and housed in simple huts. Most of them worked for the Dutch company, Deli Maatschappij under harsh conditions, a small number of Tamils returned to India after their contract expires. After World War II and the independence from the Dutch, many Tamils left the plantations. These vehicles became their tools for making a living, some even bought abandoned Japanese military vehicles, which they used to transport sand and building material for building projects. Other Tamils have specialized in spice trading at the markets and a few become contractors, many Tamil Indonesians have remained in North Sumatra except for a few hundred families in Jakarta and the Tamils who went to Sigli in Pidie Regency, Aceh in an early stage. Tamil Indonesians always had a relationship with other ethnic groups in North Sumatra, as the cultural. As for interracial marriages, not until the last two generations did Tamil Indonesians began to intermarry with other ethnic groups, in August 2011, more than 400 Tamil Indonesians gathered in Jakarta to form a new association, the Indonesia Tamil Sangam
Tamil Indonesians
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Tamil devotees in
Sri Mariamman Temple, Medan, Indonesia.
Tamil Indonesians
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A group of Tamil workers were brought from India by the Dutch for working on plantation sectors in Medan, 1920s.
44.
Tamil Canadians
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Tamil Canadians are Canadians of Tamil ethnic origins mostly from India and Sri Lanka. From a population of fewer than 150 Tamils in 1983, it has one of the largest visible minority population groups within the Greater Toronto Area. In the 1991 census, Tamils were the ethnic group in the city. Canadas Tamil population is thought to constitute the largest Sri Lankan diaspora in the world with Toronto being home to the largest Tamil community outside of Asia, with the outbreak of riots and eventual civil war in Sri Lanka in 1983, Tamil migration to Canada increased significantly. In 2000, Sri Lanka was the sixth largest source country of immigrants to Canada, between 1991 and 2001, Sri Lanka was the fifth largest source country of immigrants to Canada, after China, India, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Between 2001 and 2010 Sri Lankas rank dropped to 17 in the list of immigrant source countries to Canada, well behind the major source countries China, India and Philippines. In 2010 immigrants from Sri Lanka consisted of only 1. 4% of Canadas immigrant total of 280,681, most permanent residents from Sri Lanka came as either independent immigrants or family class sponsored immigrants. Refugee claimants are an independent category of Tamils from Sri Lanka who arrived in Canada and are claiming protection under the Immigration, after 2001 there have been no Government of Canada or private sponsored Tamil refugees to Canada. There are 141,074 UNHCR recognized Tamil refugees in non-signatory countries, there are a total of 589,639 refugees from Sri Lanka in 2011 who have registered with the UNHCR in non-signatory countries. Much of the Tamil language media in Canada is based in Toronto, a community magazine, Thamizhar Mathiyil, has been published since 1990 and has grown to several hundred pages in length. Ten alternative weekly Tamil language newspapers are distributed primarily in Toronto, the Monsoon Journal and the Tamil Mirror are English language newspapers created and targeted at Tamils. Four Tamil language radio stations broadcast out of Toronto and Montreal as well, three Tamil language television stations are based in Toronto. Various political, social and religious organizations exists among the Tamil Canadian community, the Canadian Tamil Congress is largest of these organizations with 11 chapters in the country. Tamil candidates have participated in the political process representing various parties at municipal, provincial and federal level, in 2011, Rathika Sitsabaiesan was elected as the first Tamil-Canadian Member of Parliament, as a New Democrat in Scarborough-Rouge River. Previously, Logan Kanapathi was the first Tamil Canadian candidate to win election to municipal government. He currently serves his term as Ward 7 councilor in the town of Markham. Many Hindu Temples have been built by the community to cater to its religious needs, there are also Christian churches that cater particularly to the Tamil community in Canada. Tamil Canadians have run multiple campaigns encouraging the donation of blood to the Canadian Blood Services organized by various Canadian Tamil organizations, the community also undertook a recent campaign to help SickKids Hospital, which treats 100,000 children every year
Tamil Canadians
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Tamil Canadian children in traditional garments in
Toronto.
Tamil Canadians
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A signboard in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil at the
Scarborough General Hospital in
Toronto
45.
Tamil Americans
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Tamil Americans are Americans who are of Tamil ethnic origins, mostly from India and Sri Lanka and other diasporic centers such as Canada and the United Kingdom. In the second half of the 20th century, Tamils from India migrated as skilled professionals to the United States, Canada, Europe, and Southeast Asia. The Tamil American population enumerates over 130,000 individuals, central New Jersey is home to the largest population concentration of Tamils. New Jersey houses its own Tamil Sangam, sizeable populations of Indian American Tamils have also settled in New York City and the Washington, D. C. Metropolitan Area, as well as on the West Coast in Silicon Valley, the Tamil community in the United States is largely bilingual. A few universities, such as the University of Chicago and the University of California Berkeley, have programs in the language. The Tamil community is connected to the Hindu community, along with other groups from South India. In most Hindu temples in the United States, the prayers are in Sanskrit, however, in North Brunswick, New Jersey, the Tamil Temple conducts all the prayers and Tamil. The Hindu Temple in Houston, Texas, is dedicated to Meenakshi, there is an active Christian minority as well. Protests occurred in the United States, concurrently with other protests in other parts of the world and they were organized by local Tamil American groups, with the help of Tamil Canadians. Major protests occurred on several occasions in Washington, D. C. near the White House, Tamil Brahmans, The Making of a Middle-Class Caste. Narayanan, Vasudha, Tamils in David Levinson and Melvin Ember, American immigrant cultures, builders of a nation. Negotiating Tamil Identity in India and the United States, phD thesis, University of California, Berkeley. Image and Identity, Tamil Migration to the United States
Tamil Americans
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Sendhil Ramamurthy
Tamil Americans
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Indra Nooyi
Tamil Americans
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The
New York City Metropolitan Area, including
Central New Jersey, as well as
Long Island and
Staten Island in
New York, is home to the largest Tamil American (தமிழ் அமெரிக்கர்) population.
46.
Tamil South Africans
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Tamil South Africans are South Africans of Tamil descent. Tamil people form the majority of Tamil Indian immigrants who came from Tamil Nadu India to Natal, South Africa, after the expiry of their indentures most of these Indians moved to the cities, becoming established as a thoroughly urban population. In 1833, the British Parliament passed the Act of Abolition, the consequence of this was that many African slaves in the Colony of Natal decided to desert their former masters. The former masters, lacking sufficient labour force, persuaded the skeptical British authorities in India to implement the system of indentured labour in Natal, on November 16,1860,342 men, women and children arrived aboard the S. S. Truro in Port Natal. Apartheid alienated all Indians as disenfranchised non-whites, and Hinduism in particular was perceived by many whites as antithetical to Christianity, the imposition of apartheid system also curtailed the opportunities for improvement and included the forced removals program, causing great disruption and social hardship. A recent resurgence of interest in indigenous Tamil festivals seems to reflect a variety of religious, Tamil was taught in some schools in the KwaZulu-Natal province for several years. Till 1991, the state run schools provided the curriculum, from the year 2014, Tamil can be chosen as a third language in state run schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Puratassi is the Tamil word for September, purtuassi, the mispronounciation of purattassi, is used widely in South Africa. The people dont eat anything on the first day, to celebrate the festival, temples in Durban hold grand Purtassi prayers. In Durban, a lot of preparation goes into this prayer as devotees fast on the prayer day, the Mariamman festival is held at local temples and households and is referred to as the porridge jol in local Durban slang by the Tamil community. Cavadee is another famous festival among the Tamil community in KwaZulu-Natal province, a Documentary History of Indian South Africans. Tamil Federation of KwaZulu-Natal Gandhi-Luthuli documentary center
Tamil South Africans
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Navanethem Pillay
47.
Tamil Mauritian
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Tamil Mauritians are the descendants of Tamil migrants to Mauritius. The original immigrants from Tamil were craftsmen and tradesmen, and arrived when Mauritians was ruled by France, the island nation has a Tamil population of 115,000. Most were brought by the British from Tamil Nadu after 1727 to serve as labourers on the cane plantations. Around 15 percent of Indo-Mauritians are Tamils, the community includes a Hindu majority, and the rest are Christians. They account to 55,000 of the Mauritian population, of this number, around 7000 people reported that they spoke Tamil. Most Tamils in Mauritius are Hindus, a large population of the Tamils in Mauritius live in Rose-Hill. Thaipusam, the Tamil Hindu festival, is a holiday in Mauritius and is notable in the temples. Most Tamil Mauritians can read, and write Tamil to some extent, most speak Mauritian Creole, which include many Tamil words. A Tamil magazine Pathirikai and a Tamil radio station Onex FM exist in Mauritius, most cultural aspects and rituals can be seen in full-fledged manner. Around a 100 schools teach Tamil as a mother tongue subject and it can also be read at university level. A Tamil conference was held here, murugan temples are common and some Tamil place names are found here
Tamil Mauritian
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Mauritius currency written in
Tamil numerals and
Tamil script
48.
Tamil Germans
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It is found that most Tamils, irrespective of their Indian and Sri Lankan origins all tended to practice Hinduism and especially Shaivism. There are two well organized Hindu temples in the country – Sidhivinayagar Kovil and the Kamatchi Amman Kovil – both in the city of Hamm since 1984. Additionally, since the late 1980s, Tamil Hindus founded numerous temples, the temples are situated in cellars and flats, some in former warehouses and industrial halls. Apart from their religious importance for the out of religious worship, life-cycle rituals and festivals. A few temples have started to celebrate the annual festival with a public procession, thus bringing the gods. Container King Tamil Diaspora Germans in India
Tamil Germans
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Tamil pilgrims gathered outside the
Kamadchi Amman Temple in
Hamm, for a temple festival in 2007.
49.
Tamil Seychellois
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Tamil-Seychellois are people of Tamil ethnic origins living in the island nation of Seychelles. Their population is estimated to 4000, making them one of the islands significant minorities. Tamil immigrants arrived in Seychelles as early as 1770, and the Tamils were among the first settlers to the sparsely inhabited island nation. In 1901, there were roughly 3500 were Tamil-speakers out of the population of 19,237. The Tamils constitutes the majority of the Indo-Seychellois who form 6% of the total population, overall it is believed that over 10% of the population of Seychelles has some Indian roots. Hinduism continues to thrive as an important religion among the Tamil-Seychellois, the Seychelles Hindu Kovil Sangam was founded in 1984. The annual Kavadi festival is an event which is a government holiday for all Hindus. Cultural troupes are invited from time to time to cultural values. The organization of the Seychelles Hindu Council, celebration of Deepavali festival on a national scale, there is also a Hindu Council of Seychelles established and maintained by the community. The Arulmigu Navasakti Vinayagar Temple in Victoria, the first and the only Hindu temple in Seychelles, has Lord Ganesha as the presiding deity. Apart from the deity, icons of Murugan, Nadarajah, Durga, Sreenivasa Perumal, Bairava. Prayers are performed for the different deities on special occasions, Tamil classes are conducted by the Tamil Cultural Development Centre with the assistance of the Indian High Commission and the Seychelles Tamil Manram which publishes the newsletter Tamil Murasu. Active participation in Tamil classes, debates, dramas and other events including Tamil publications has increased over the years
Tamil Seychellois
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A Tamil Hindu Temple in
Victoria the capital city of
Seychelles
