From: rags@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Raghavan Jayaraman)
Subject: Re: Forgeries of Hindu Texts
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 19:38:11 GMT

At the outset I wonder why the original poster posted this subject in
soc.culture.pakistan and soc.culture.bangaladesh? Hmmm there should have
been enough interest!!!

Charges and counter charges have enough room under this topic. For brevity I
am picking  a part of original intellectual vomitting, to drive my point.

Quote begins:-

"The noble early poetry of tamil  characterised by simplicity and realism
never recovered its freshness after contact with sanskrit and tamil
literature was thereafter subjected to the artificialities of the northern
tongue"

Quote ends.
--------------
Do these whistle blowers have enough pristine tamil literature to smell the
pre-sankritisation tamil's freshness?  I guess not-reasons follow.

Do these secularists think that any language can survive on its own without
any influence from other languages? If the answer is yes, then these people
have no basic knowlege, in my opinion, to talk about any language.

They talk about artificialities in northern tongue. What originalities in
tamil are they comparing with?

Some History on Tamil:-
Though the inscriptions on proto-tamil era has been found to  have
influence of prakirt on its vocabulary, the basis of this literary language
is well learnt from earliest tamil grammar work "Tolkappiyam" by
Tolkappiyan. This is dated around 100 BC.  This along with other
literatures viz. Nattrinai, Kurundogai, Aingurunurru, Paditrupattu,
Paripadal, Kalithogai, Ahananuru, Purananuru and Pattupattu, constitutes
the sangam literature. These are the earliest known works in Tamil which
one has to refer to argue whether Tamil has been subdued by Sanskirit and
Brahmins. These nine works date upto approx. 200 AD.

Even  the earliest known "Tolkappiyam" refers to vedic terms. This has
three parts and the third part deals with life as it was  and as was
pictured by poets. It treats man's life  in two compartments:- Aham
[inner] and  Puram [outer]. Each has seven Thinais. Of the Puram thinais,
there is one vakai [a kind of flower] thinai in which parpana pakkam is a
sub division. [parpanan--brahmin. Pakkam-page]. This describes the six
duties of a brahmin with tamil words for Adhyayana, Adyapana, Yajana,
Yaajana, Dana and Pratigaraha. Tamil word for Yajana is velvi. As mentioned
in this, Indra was the god of cities [Marutham], Varuna was the god of
sea-coast[ Neythal], Subramanya was the god of the hills [Kurunji] and
Krishna was the god of the forest [Mullai].

The four castes brahmins, kshatriya, Vaisya and sudra have been referred to
in this as anthanar, arasar, Vanikar and velalar. In one of the poems, four
castes [kudi] are referred to  viz. tudiyan, panan, paraiyan and kadamban
which are entirely different from above. Needless to say that other above
mentioned poems have lot of these vedic ideas and these beautiful poems, 
written in Tamil by poets including brahmins.

For time being let me stop at this level.
---------------
Just sanskirit alone didn't influence tamil. Buddhism and Jainism did too
as can be seen from Manimekalai and Jivaka Cintamani. Later by 16 th
century Islam and christianity influenced that works like Seera Puranam and
Tempavani came into existence.

There are no proofs for forceful infusion of sanskirit and vedic ideas
during this civilization and atleast there are no pristine tamil literature
available to claim the otherway.  On the contrary, during sangam period and
later  a lot have been contributed to tamil literature by brahmin poets.

Such an evolution of a language is natural and using this to drive a point
under" Forgery of hindu scriptures" is utter stupidity, if I have to use 
strong words. 

Finally as a digressing note, I would like to recapitulate these words of
original poster which is in shaky grounds with reference to the excerpts he
posted. 
" Purusha-sukta case depends on lingusitic analysis and may be a little
more open to debate"

raghavan

P.S:-
If there is a need I will post more on these sangam literature and the
influence of sanskirit.