From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Pride on Tamil
Date: 6 Nov 1992 15:56:07 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

 krishnar@dufay.cs.unc.edu (Rajarama Krishnan) writes :

> And on an unrelated topic, I see lots of posting soaking with stupid pride
> about Tamil. Who the hell are you to feel proud about Tamil.

    I think that the netters are entitled to their opinions. I don't get
offended by any posting saying that they are proud about Tamil or Sanskrit
or Telugu or whatever. I think that this question `Who the hell are you
to feel proud about Tamil?' is uncalled for and the strong tone in this
question surprises me. 

>  It doesnt take much to learn Tamil.

    Tamil is a simple language to learn. It is very structured also and has
 a very rich literature. An ancient Tamil work, the celebrated Thirukkural,
 is marked with its simplicity. That it is easy to learn is only a merit 
 for Tamil.


> What have you contributed to Tamil? If Thiru Valluvar
> or someone like that took pride in Tamil it is meaningful but you and I
> have no reason to.

   Appreciation of a work in any language by anyone needs no qualifications.
 If one likes Tamil works, ancient or modern, and feels proud about Tamil
 I don't see any problems with him. I won't climb on a mountain and 
 deliver a monologoue on his like. 
 
>  Love it, enjoy it, try to show its beauty to others who
> havent yet seen it.

   I think that one can't see a beauty in anything from what he hears from
 others. If one likes to admire a beauty in anything, he has to take his own
 steps to see the beauty. The beauty in Tamil can't be brought out by 
 lectures or seminars. If one likes to see the beauty, he has to read and
 see it for himself and not by sitting in an auditorium. The best one could
 do to spread the beauty in Tamil works is to specify others his choice of
 good works in Tamil. I was glad to see Selvakumar doing that in one of his
 recent postings in S.C.I. I think he invited one SCI netter to read them
 and see. It was in a context other than beauty. But I say the same on
 good poetic works in Tamil. What I am saying is that no matter however much
 one can speak on beauty or tradition or culture in Tamil works, he is not
 going to achieve much, if people are not interested in Tamil or lack a 
 knowledge in basic Tamil. 
  Also, one doesn't have to share his favourite works with others. I won't
 demand anyone to share with me his favourite works in literature with me.

> But pride and claiming superiority over other languages
> is ridiculous.

   I don't know who are you referring to here. I just like to request you
 not to confuse linguistics with our Tamilnadu politics. The postings that
 I saw recently in this net on this topic were linguistic ones. Once I
 picked up a book by R.L.Turner on Indo-Aryan languages and all I could
 see was words in various languages and numbers for them. I could not make  
 a head or tail out of them. But Selvakumar's postings are readable but his
 views are debatable. One posting in the net, cross-posted in many nets,
 claimed that Sanskrit is the mother of all Indian languages and that it
 should be made as THE national language of India. From my understanding,
 it is a false claim and I believe that Tamil is pre-Sanskritic. This doesn't
 make me as a Tamil fanatic. If one goes into a study of the origin of Sanskrit
 and involves in an active study of which dates first, Tamil or Sanskrit, he
 is not a fanatic either. It is not a question of pride, it is just a matter
 of study. Sanskrit won't be superior to Tamil, if it dated before Tamil and
 vice versa. Many people accept without a question that Tamil has some
 influences by Sansrit, as there is a widespread opinion that Sanskrit is
 the mother of all Indian languages. The reverse role, the influence of Tamil
 on Sanskrit is also an interesting one and it needs more exposure.I request
 you not to call names on those who are trying to show influence of Tamil
 on Sanskrit as Tamil fanatics.

>Rajaraman

  SP