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Pu˜ (po˜
‘to bore’)> pu˜al (‘hollow’)> pudal> pudalai,
‘that which is hollow’.
Though a section of the Sanskritists of
Tamil Nadu is descended from the original Vedic colonists, who migrated
to the South 3,000 years ago, none of the group has become an unquestionable
authority on the Tamil language so far. The reasons for this are the following:
| (1) |
The
Sanskritists do not identify themselves with the Tamilians, and are
still keeping up their Aryan spirit alive in every respect. |
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| (2)
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They
do not move closely with the Tamilian peasants, whose dialect is tolerably
pure and the richest in colloquial idioms: |
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| (3) |
They are not at all interested in learning Tamil words and idioms
and using them in their speech, but on the other hand, bent upon adulterating
Tamil by introducing unnecessary Sanskrit words into it.
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A
literature of a nation can be mastered by any foreigner, but not its language
whose idioms and usages emerge from the depth of the native mind. Several
generations of domiciliation after naturalization, and complete identifications
and close social contact with the native population, are indispensable
for a foreign people to master the language of the land to which they
have migrated.
Sanskrit was considered all-important and
Tamil was relegated to the background hitherto, but, now the scales are
changed.
The University Authorities are dominated
by Sanskritists who are by nature not Tamil-lovers.
The present Vice-Chancellor, though a Tamilian
by ancestry, is unfortunately an Andhra by mother-tongue, and hence unable
to know who is who in the Tamil field.
Popularity among the Sanskritists being
considered to be a fundamental qualification for employment in the University,
the relation between Sanskrit and Tamil being that between an aggressor
and a resistor, and the colossal illiteracy of the Tamil
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