Literacy `was widespread in early Tamil society'

[Kannan Natarajan]

Online edition of India's National Newspaper Thursday, Aug 24, 2006

Deepa H. Ramakrishnan

 

Conference on dialects in Tamil from early to modern times opens

SHEDDING LIGHT: Jean Pierre Muller, Director, French Institute of Pondicherry (second from left), at the inaugural session of the conference in Pondicherry on Wednesday. - Photo: T. Singaravelou  

PONDICHERRY: Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, especially those found on pottery, shed new light on the prevalence of widespread literacy in the Tamil country from about 2nd century BC.

 

Literacy was widespread in all regions, encompassing within its reach all strata of Tamil Society, said Tamil scholar Iravatham Mahadevan.

 

He was speaking at an international conference on "Dialects in Tamil from Early to Modern Times", which began in Pondicherry on Wednesday.

 

Reasons for literacy

 

Mr. Mahadevan said the reasons for such literacy among ancient Tamils were the political independence of the region; strong tradition of local self-government, spread of Jainism and Buddhism.

 

He said that when a historical grammar of Tamil is written, it would be based not only on literary texts but also on inscriptions from the earliest times in the Tamil country.

 

Aim of conference

 

At the inaugural session, the Director of the French Institute, Jean Pierre Muller, said the aim of the conference was to examine the place of dialects in history and contemporary Tamil culture in a comparative perspective with respect to other South Indian languages and the European experience.

 

It also aims to bring together perspectives that will enable scholars to explore and develop tools, to comprehend and situate diversity in the production and circulation of language, he added.

 

M. Kannan, researcher, Indology Department, French Institute, said, "every language has its variety. The different dialects of Tamil language have so many identities — social, religious, caste and regional. We have to define these identities.

 

"This conference is a multidisciplinary approach to the study of dialects through the historical, linguistic, anthropological and literary." R. Elangaiyan, Central Institute for Indian Languages, Mysore, said a study of Tamil dialects was needed.

 

He proposed a methodology for conducting a survey of modern Tamil dialects restricting its area of operation to Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

 

Role of variants

 

He said regional variants of social dialects and the variant and special vocabulary of traditional and modern professional groups should also play a role in determining the dialect areas for modern Tamil.

 

R. Perialwar, former Professor and Head, Tribal Research Centre, Tamil University, Thanjavur, in his paper, made a plea for the documentation of ancient Tamil dialects of Karnataka. There are three Tamil dialects — Melkote, Sanketi and Tigala in Karnataka. Because of extraneous social factors, these dialects appear to be endangered.

 

"Before they disappear from the linguistic scenario they must be documented for posterity for the study of these dialects from the comparative dialectology and historical linguistic perspectives."

 

Masons example

 

Senthil Babu, of the French Institute, in his paper on Dialects in Practice, cited the example of masons continuing to use traditional measures.

 

"When such rural workers migrate to the city as construction workers, their sense of proportion goes berserk. But this is only for a short period of time after which they learn to survive. Languages associated with practices tend to survive with work and not in isolation. When practices are compelled to contend with market centred mechanisms, they do negotiate their way around."

 

The conference, which will conclude on August 25, has been jointly organised by the Department of Indology, French Institute of Pondicherry and the Centre for Excellence in Classical Tamil, Central Institute for Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore.

 

Courtesy: http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/24/stories/2006082406460200.htm