Tamil culture and Paintings.


From ancient days there is a great believe over Tamil culture and Tradition. The culture was a rooted culture towards ancestors and followed through many ages. The deep in depth towards the Arts and Culture the arts played a major role over the Dravidian's.

The Definition of Culture

"Definitions of culture.... in the anthropological rather than the normative sense, are notoriously difficult and unsatisfactory. It is probably best to approach this problem by using this term without attempting too much in the way of formal definition, and looking at what culture does." (Professor Ernest Gellner, Cambridge University - Nations and Nationalism, Basil Blackwell, 1983)

"...culture consists in the way analogies are drawn between things; in the way certain thoughts are used to think others; in figure of speech, in which a term is transferred to something it does not literally apply to... Culture consists in the images that make imagination possible, in the media with which we mediate experience. All the artifacts we make and the relationships we enter into, have in that sense 'cultural' consequences, for they give form and shape to the way we think about other artifacts, other relationships..."

If culture is the distilled essence of the way of life of a people, then, in the case of the Tamil people, the distillation process has covered a time span of more than two thousand years. And, today, the Tamil people, living in many lands and across distant seas acquire strength from the richness of their own cultural heritage - not only because that that culture has something to do with their own roots and their way of life but also because they believe that that culture has a significant contribution to make to the world.

The following works of art and literature are among the most remarkable contributions of the Tamil creative genius to the world's cultural treasure and should be familiar to the whole world and admired and beloved by all in the same way as the poems of Homer, the dramas of Shakespeare, the pictures of Rembrandt, the cathedrals of France and the sculptures of Greece:

1. The ancient Tamil lyrical poetry compiled in ‘The Eight Anthologies’; this poetry is so unique and vigorous, full of such vivid realism and written so masterfully that it can be compared probably only with some of the pieces of ancient Greek lyrical poetry;

2. The Thirukural, one of the great books of the world, one of those singular emanations of the human heart and spirit which preach positive love and forgiveness and peace;

3. The epical poem Cilappathikaram, which by its "baroque splendour', and by the charm and magic of its lyrical parts belongs to the epic masterpieces of the world;

4. The school of Bhakti both Vaishnava and Saiva, which is one of those most sincere and passionate efforts of man to grasp the Absolute; and its supreme literary expression in the works ofManikkavasagar, Tirugnana Sambandar, Nammalwar and Andal.

5. The philosophical system of Saiva Sidhdhantha, a system, which may be ranked among the most perfect and cleverest systems of human thought;

6. The South Indian bronzes of the Chola period, those splendid and amazing sculptures belonging to the best creations of humanity,

7. The Dravidian temple architecture, of which the chief representatives are perhaps the temples ofTanjore, Chidambaram and Madurai.

Tamizhan Yendru Sollada

TAMIL - தமிழ் 

Tell you are Tamilan and stand heads up

தமிழன் என்று சொல்லடா தலை நிமிர்ந்து நில்லடா the words that gives Pride to the First Born Language of the World. Many proven records are there, and the other great researchers who later proved themselves as this the Language where the real Man kind that was born brought through.

Tamil language, member of the Dravidian language family, spoken primarily in India mainly towards south India were the true Tamil took his Birth and It is the official language of the Tamilnadu State and the Union Territory of Puducherry  (Pondicherry). It is also an official language in other Countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and has significant numbers of speakers in South Africa, Fiji, Malaysia and Mauritious. By the year of  2004 Tamil was declared a classical language of India, by Tamilnadu State Government which lead by Late. Mr Kalaigar Karunadhi at that year has he was the Chief Minister (Tamil Semmozhi, செம்மொழி) of meaning that it met three criteria: its regions are ancient; it has an independent tradition; and it possesses a considerable body of ancient literature. In the early 21st century more than 66 million people were Tamil speakers.

Brahmi. By the 5th century AD this script had become more rounded and developed into the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script. In the 6th century during the Pallava dynasty (275-897 AD), a new script for Tamil, known as the Chola-Pallava script, was devised. It also used some letters from Vaṭṭeḻuttu in Sanskrit loanwords. By the 8th century, the Chola-Pallava script was used instead of Vaṭṭeḻuttu in the northern part of the Tamil-speaking area, although Vaṭṭeḻuttu continued to be used in the south until the 11th century. During the next few centuries the modern Tamil script evolved from the Chola-Pallava script.

During the 19th century the Tamil script was simplified to make it easier to typeset. Further simplifications in the 20th century included the regularisation of vowel markers.

The Tamil alphabet is well suited to writing literary Tamil, centamiḻ (செந்தமிழ்). However it is ill-suited to writing colloquial Tamil, koṭuntamiḻ (கொடுந்தமிழ்). During the 19th century, attempts were made to create a written version of the colloquial spoken language. Nowadays the colloquial written language appears mainly in school books and in passages of dialogue in fiction.

Tamil is also written with a version of the Arabic script known as Arwi by Tamil-speaking muslims.

Tamil Scripts: (Pictures)

Brahmi is a modern name which is given to one of the oldest writings that had been used in the Indian subcontinent as well as in Asia at the time of the last centuries 500 BC and the early centuries.It represented some of the earliest post Indus corpus of texts together with some of the early historical inscriptions which were found in India and was the ancestor to many of the scripts which were found in South, Southeast and East Asia.


             Jayavarman's inscription of Java

These types of writings was at period of Jayavarman's 
who was a great Poet at that time. His inscriptions made
and scripted through many ages.

This script was also one of the Ancient Tamil scipt that was found on the temple walls of the Thanjavur Thanjavur Brihadeeshwarar temple. This is very different from the present Tamil script

The Transformation of Tamil word.

Tamil literature started to appear in 300 BC

          

          

                              Other symbols

 

                                                                                             v             Numerals

              Consonants (மெய்யெழுத்து)

    Non-standard consonant-vowel combinations

               Vowels (உயிரெழுத்து)