MARATHI AND TAMIL
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Forwarded message from "Dr S K Balasubramanian" <sma...@sancharnet.in>
Marathi And Tamil
Sunday, August 5, 2007
S. K.Balasubramanian
B-8, Apsara apartments
259, Bund Garden Road
Pune 411001, IndiaPh: +91-20-2616-0627
Email: sma...@sancharnet.in
Marathi and Tamil
I have been informed that a recent article in Sakal says
that Marathi is a derivative language of Tamil. A friend,
Vishwanath Khaire, is a protagonist of this view. What
follows is not a commentary on the Sakal article or on the
latter's views. I have not read the former nor discussed
the matter in detail with the latter.
I can see the logic of the conclusion. Tamil is known to
have an antiquity of more than 2000 years. Marathi is much
younger. More importantly Maharashtra as a region is not
mentioned in the Puraan or in the epics. So what we
understand today as Maharashtra was to be regarded part of
greater Andhra or less likely of Dravida region.
But against such a conclusion are other facts. Marathi owes
a lot to Sanskrit. This might have come about after it was
made a State language by Shivaji but it is equally
reasonable to identify Sanskrit as a parent of Marathi. The
antiquity of Sanskrit is more than nine thousand years
since there is incontrovertible evidence that the river
Saraswati disappeared at that time. The entire accepted
archeological chronology is upset by this recent discovery.
What is lost in cacophony of claims is the relationship
between Sanskrit and Tamil. Tamils accept Agastya as the
father of their language. Agastya was a representative of
Sanskrit culture. There are several indicators that
Sanskrit was a major influence on Tamil. It is not
recognized that the current Tamil alphabet is close to
Sanskrit alphabet. Tamil letters can be derived by a set of
rules from Devanagari ones. In general Tamil letters tend
to enclose the open spaces of the Nagari script besides
breaking the 'headline' but retaining it in broken bits.
Since the Ramayan mentions sites like Nashik and Kishkinda,
a cave city like Ajanta or Karla, but no identifiable Tamil
sites we have to assume that the development of the
southern regions was a post-Ramayan affair. To that extent
Tamil could not have had a major influence on the language
of the Deccan.
S K Balasubramanian
End of forwarded message from "Dr S K Balasubramanian" <sma...@sancharnet.in>
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