A Question Of Antiquity (Outlook magazine, 2004/07/12)

[naa.g...@gmail.com]

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040712&fname=Kannada+%28F%29&sid=1



A Question Of Antiquity

Tamil and Kannada linguists array themselves on opposite sides to lay
claim to a classical status. Is the battle pointless, given that both
languages are derived?

SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU When the UPA government released its Common
Minimum Programme, it included a line that appeared to be the only
apolitical insertion in a document loaded with politics. It was to
accord classical language status to Tamil. But the initial assumption
of the issue's apoliticalness is being proved totally incorrect as it
is gradually stirring passions in Karnataka.

Kannada intellectuals and language activists now want to know why
Kannada should be denied classical status when it has "all the
qualifications, and more". In the past few decades, the Cauvery water-
sharing issue has made of the two linguistic communities warring
Dravidian factions, the stridency of their respective linguistic
identities rooted in a violent, chauvinistic history.

The two key issues that determine whether a language is classical or
not are its antiquity and the body of literature that supports and
brings respectability to the age of that language. And this is
precisely why Kannada, along with Tamil and Sanskrit, "technically"
qualifies to be a classical language, according to renowned Kannada
playwright and former chairman of the National School of Drama,
Chandrashekara Kambar.

"From the point of view of the language's sheer ability and the
quality of its literature, Kannada should be accorded classical status
before Tamil. Like the way Sangam poetry brought about refinement in
Tamil culture, Sharana literature brought about a similar grand
experience in our culture," argues Kambar.

Jnanpith laureate U.R. Ananthamurthy does not grudge the classical
status to Tamil, but recognises the assertiveness of the Tamils in
getting it: "Kannada is a great ancient language and it should also be
accorded classical status after Tamil. Tamils and Bengalis always
foreground their language identities, their caste and other identities
only follow their linguistic identity, but it is not so in the case of
a Kannadiga," he rues.

Girish Karnad, playwright and another Jnanpith awardee, dismisses the
whole issue as sheer political gimmickry. "It does not in any way
alter the status of the language and its literature."

Eminent linguist and Kannada University vice-chancellor K.V. Narayana
deems the very idea of according classical status to a living language
as foolish. "The languages that we normally agree to be classical
tongues—Greek, Persian, Sanskrit or Latin—do not currently exist in
their spoken varieties," he says. "So, it is very strange that Tamil
seeks classical status. It is like attributing morbidity to a language
that is alive and kicking. Also, if Tamil is called classical, which
variety of Tamil would they designate so? The one spoken by Vanniyars
or Devars or Goundars or Mudaliars or Chettiars or Nadars?"

For a majority of Kannada scholars, the issue is not as simple.
Highlighting the complexities involved, they say a classical language
cannot be derived out of another language, it should be of independent
origin. On this count, both Tamil and Kannada disqualify as classical
languages, because both have a proto-Dravidian parent. "It is a well-
established theory in Dravidian linguistics that it is out of this
parent language that Tamil, Tulu, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and
several other variants were derived at different points of time, in
fact it can be argued that Tamil and Malayalam branched out at about
the same time," says cultural anthropologist Prof K.V. Rajagopal.

Prof M. Chidanandamurthy, linguist and one-time colleague of the
legendary A.K. Ramanujan, goes further to challenge Tamil's stake to
classicaldom: "Tamil scholars have always indulged in the
glorification of their language. They make it appear as if all the
world's languages have originated from Tamil. Once a Tamil linguist
had told me that he could trace the etymology of any word to
Tamil.This is sheer arrogance. We have to distinguish between pride
and historical reality".

Picking on the antiquity issue, he argues that Kannada and Tamil are
equally old. "Kannada's antiquity is proved by the 1st century AD
Ashoka edict found in Brahmagiri of Coorg, where the Kannada word
'Isila' is mentioned. Then there is the Halmidi edict of the 5th
century. By 9th century we have Kavirajamarga, a full-fledged treatise
on Kannada poetics, this matches the achievement of Tamil grammar work
of Tolkappiyam," he says.

Prof Rajagopal also points to the research of eminent Kannada writer,
botanist and native Tamil speaker B.G.L. Swamy: "Many Tamil scholars
take the Sangam poetry back to the BC era, but Swamy proved through
flora and fauna references in Sangam poetry that placed it not before
6th or 7th century AD. This brings Tamil antiquity on par with
Kannada's."

At an official level, B.M. Idinabba, chairman of the Kannada
Development Authority, in a letter to Union HRD minister Arjun Singh,
has argued that since Kannada has evolved more "scientifically", it
should be the first to be declared classical. By scientific, Idinabba
is pointing to the sophisticated grammars written for the language;
monumental lexicographic work that has taken place (thanks to German
missionary Ferdinand Kittel and legends like Shivram Karanth) and the
way the language has adapted itself to the IT age with word processing
software, a rational keyboard plan, database of a million words that
would aid an online thesaurus and dictionary. "Let alone Tamil, in
these aspects we're ahead of all Indian languages," says a member of
the authority.

Activists who have been reacting to the issue read this as one big
attempt to assert Tamil hegemony in South India. "It has nothing to do
with love for language, but is all about pride, prejudice and the big
funds that the human resources ministry doles out," says a Kannada
journalist, recalling how Veerappan, when negotiating actor Rajkumar's
release, had demanded that Tamil be declared second language in
Karnataka. Another faction of Kannada activists see the classical
status to Tamil as an attempt to recreate interest in the Tamil
language internationally and especially in American universities. They
suspect that the LTTE issue has harmed the language's prospects.

But linguist Prof S.N. Sridhar of the State University of New York,
Stony Brook, says this is not true. "Tamil Studies had peaked when
A.K. Ramanujan was at Chicago, but when federal funding for languages
declined there was an overall slump. I've never heard of Tamil being
targeted. In fact, now there is a new impetus to study Indian
languages because the Indian diaspora has come of age. The language is
being taught at Berkeley, Penn, Texas and even Yale," he says.

Probably, for the two languages with complementing cultures and
histories but with a difficult contemporary passage, we need more
cultural unifiers like Ramanujan who translated classical texts in
both Kannada (Speaking of Siva) and Tamil (The Interior Landscape and
Hymns for the Drowning) than divisive politicians.