பக்கம் எண் :

Aryanization of Tamil315

 

18. ARYANIZATION OF TAMIL

     As the Vedic Aryans were believed to be innocent and
divine, the ancient Tamil kings allowed them a free hand, first
in the religious sphere, and then progressively in all departments
of secular life.

     The first thing done by the Vedic Aryans was to replace
Tamil by Sanskrit as the sole medium of temple worship and public
ceremonies. That was the beginning of the steady deterioration of
Tamil upto the present day.

     Tamil was wantonly adulterated with unnecessary Sanskrit
words, and the Tamils were made to despise their mother-tongue
and use Sanskrit words instead closely imitating the Sanskritists’
cant with pride.

     Aryan ideas were introduced into Tamil commentaries and
original texts along with Sanskrit words, and as a result of this
many Tamil words became obsolete and extinct. For instance,
eginam, dimam and kurugu, all denoting gander, became literary
and archaic after the introduction of the Sanskrit annam.

     Some words have even lost their signification, for instance,
uyirmey the equivalent of the Sanskrit prƒn·i.

     Caste system was introduced even into literature, and the
four species of poetic metre, viz., Ve-pƒ, ƒširiyappƒ, Kalippƒ and
Va?jippƒ, were appropriated to the four main castes respectively,
in the descending order.

     The number of stanzas or verses too, is fixed for certain
species of poems, according to the caste, community or status of
the hero. For instance, it is prescribed for the Kalambagham
species of poem, that it should be composed of 100, 95, 90, 70, 50
and 30 stanzas if the hero be a deity, a Brahmin, a king, a
minister,