This blog is a vent-out and hatred on the bygone Tamil civilization of the ancient to medievial times to even till the start of the 20th century, not on the present day Tamilians. People with weak heart and vulnerability to shocking information please don't read the blog.
The Tamils usually take a great pride in their ancient history and literature, dating
back to a few thousand years. So many poets since ancient times have hailed the beauty of the language and its literary greatness. But what greatness is there about history and literature if the most unviolable rule is violated. This blog is from a Tamil man who like many other Tamils used to take pride in the ancient glory of the Tamils he read about while at school. But every now and then he came across bits and pieces of information that were truly grotesque in nature. He used to think of them an isolated incidents and not part of the "general culture". But recently a little careful insight into archaelogical findings and literature reveals broke his heart and made him feel ashamed of the inhuman way his forefathers had lived and inspired him to write this hate blog.
A boy or girl studying at school with Tamil as a subject is exposed to carefully selected literature that paint a glorious picture of the Tamil civilization, byhearts them and vomits them out at exams, and gets marks. I grew up imagining that the Tamils were the earliest among civilizations. Now after learning some things I swear that they were NOT a civilization at all. They were no better than tribals. It did not matter that they lived in cities, had some kings called Pandyas, Cholas and Cheras ruling them. Them along with their kings were as mean, uncivilized, barbaric as the Mayans or the Aztec.
What makes a society of people to be called a civilization? Is it just
Having a social order of hierarchy of power with kings at the top?
Tamil Literature?
Sculpture?
Agriculture?
Tamil Festivals like Pongal?
Tamil Food items, such as Adirasam, Vadai and Appam to their credit?
What is the use of having a glorious all of the above, but utterly failing in the most important thing.
The Tamils performed SELF-SACRIFICE of killing oneself for a mad belief in a demoness (they called it the opposite of it, I can't) (called Kali) or for the king, in staggeringly large numbers. I haven't heard from any sources about them performing sacrifice of others, but sacrifice of self, yes, the evidence is overwhelming if one cares to look into it. There is so many tales of self-sacrifices mentioned in several ancient literature works, and there have been so many arhaelogical findings of the statues erected in honour of the persons that killed themselves in self-sacrifice. Many years ago I had read an ariticle in the Hindu about one such discovered statue, and it didn't affect my psyche that much as I thought it was an isolated incident even though the article had said such acts were common in the past.
Shocking events don't settle down that easily in the mind, and we always try to bluff it away as unreal. But that article used to haunt me over the years at the back of my mind. I'm not unique in this regard. For example all Tamil boys and girls in their 9th or 10th standard at school read a few chapters from 'Silappathikaram' (and even illieterate people know this story from seeing the movie etc) where the king in defence of his sentencing to death of Kovalan famously said 'Kalvanai koral kadungol andu' meaning 'It is not tyranny to kill a thief'. But is it not? Of course it is. We all somehow get conditioined to see ignore the obvious truths and get caught in the the magical weave woven by the author of Silappathikaram that paint a picture that the king had committed a wrong only because Kovalan was actually innocent. Implying that all the other thieves who stole a little piece of something to feed their starving family rightly deserved to die.
This story from Silappathikaram alone, if given insight with child-like unconditioned mind, is enough to declare that ancient Tamil civilization as shameful and unworthy of praise. But somehow such shameful literature has survived some 2000 years and has been praised by poets all along, including Barathiyar of the past century, and continues to be taught to children at school.
A few years ago there was a movie 'Aayirathil Oruvan' which I sat down to watch with great expectations. I walked away after an old man in that movie killed himself in an act of self-sacrifice for his king before starting a voyeage. I had at that time thought the director was bluffing and that the Cherans were a civilized people and would not do such barbaric acts. But yesterday I hit upon several links on the internet, about Tamil literature such as Kalingathu Parani, Silappathikaram, etc, and archaelogical findings, confirming that self-sacrifice was a very common act. All the information is already available on the internet, many of them from 'The Hindu' narrating the practices in a cold unemotional manner with no subjective comments about them. Here in this blog I merely point out to the information and pour out my fire and hatred about it.
The Tamils usually take a great pride in their ancient history and literature, dating
back to a few thousand years. So many poets since ancient times have hailed the beauty of the language and its literary greatness. But what greatness is there about history and literature if the most unviolable rule is violated. This blog is from a Tamil man who like many other Tamils used to take pride in the ancient glory of the Tamils he read about while at school. But every now and then he came across bits and pieces of information that were truly grotesque in nature. He used to think of them an isolated incidents and not part of the "general culture". But recently a little careful insight into archaelogical findings and literature reveals broke his heart and made him feel ashamed of the inhuman way his forefathers had lived and inspired him to write this hate blog.
A boy or girl studying at school with Tamil as a subject is exposed to carefully selected literature that paint a glorious picture of the Tamil civilization, byhearts them and vomits them out at exams, and gets marks. I grew up imagining that the Tamils were the earliest among civilizations. Now after learning some things I swear that they were NOT a civilization at all. They were no better than tribals. It did not matter that they lived in cities, had some kings called Pandyas, Cholas and Cheras ruling them. Them along with their kings were as mean, uncivilized, barbaric as the Mayans or the Aztec.
What makes a society of people to be called a civilization? Is it just
Having a social order of hierarchy of power with kings at the top?
Tamil Literature?
Sculpture?
Agriculture?
Tamil Festivals like Pongal?
Tamil Food items, such as Adirasam, Vadai and Appam to their credit?
What is the use of having a glorious all of the above, but utterly failing in the most important thing.
The Tamils performed SELF-SACRIFICE of killing oneself for a mad belief in a demoness (they called it the opposite of it, I can't) (called Kali) or for the king, in staggeringly large numbers. I haven't heard from any sources about them performing sacrifice of others, but sacrifice of self, yes, the evidence is overwhelming if one cares to look into it. There is so many tales of self-sacrifices mentioned in several ancient literature works, and there have been so many arhaelogical findings of the statues erected in honour of the persons that killed themselves in self-sacrifice. Many years ago I had read an ariticle in the Hindu about one such discovered statue, and it didn't affect my psyche that much as I thought it was an isolated incident even though the article had said such acts were common in the past.
Shocking events don't settle down that easily in the mind, and we always try to bluff it away as unreal. But that article used to haunt me over the years at the back of my mind. I'm not unique in this regard. For example all Tamil boys and girls in their 9th or 10th standard at school read a few chapters from 'Silappathikaram' (and even illieterate people know this story from seeing the movie etc) where the king in defence of his sentencing to death of Kovalan famously said 'Kalvanai koral kadungol andu' meaning 'It is not tyranny to kill a thief'. But is it not? Of course it is. We all somehow get conditioined to see ignore the obvious truths and get caught in the the magical weave woven by the author of Silappathikaram that paint a picture that the king had committed a wrong only because Kovalan was actually innocent. Implying that all the other thieves who stole a little piece of something to feed their starving family rightly deserved to die.
This story from Silappathikaram alone, if given insight with child-like unconditioned mind, is enough to declare that ancient Tamil civilization as shameful and unworthy of praise. But somehow such shameful literature has survived some 2000 years and has been praised by poets all along, including Barathiyar of the past century, and continues to be taught to children at school.
A few years ago there was a movie 'Aayirathil Oruvan' which I sat down to watch with great expectations. I walked away after an old man in that movie killed himself in an act of self-sacrifice for his king before starting a voyeage. I had at that time thought the director was bluffing and that the Cherans were a civilized people and would not do such barbaric acts. But yesterday I hit upon several links on the internet, about Tamil literature such as Kalingathu Parani, Silappathikaram, etc, and archaelogical findings, confirming that self-sacrifice was a very common act. All the information is already available on the internet, many of them from 'The Hindu' narrating the practices in a cold unemotional manner with no subjective comments about them. Here in this blog I merely point out to the information and pour out my fire and hatred about it.
