The Aryan - Dravidian Conflict

South Indian traditions make no mention of any confrontation with supposed Aryans, followed by a migration from North to South.

Quite the contrary, ancient Tamil tradition traces its origins to a submerged island or continent, Kumari Kandam, situated to the south of India. The Tamil epics Shilappadikaram and Manimekhalai provide glorious descriptions of the legendary city and port of Puhar, which the second text says was swallowed by the sea. As in the case of Dwaraka, (please refer to chapter on Dwaraka), initial findings at and off Poompuhar, at the mouth of the Cauvery, show that there may well be a historical basis to this legend: apart from several structures excavated near the shore, such as brick walls, water reservoirs, even a wharf (all dated 200-300 B.C.), a few years ago a structure tantalizingly described as a "U-shaped stone structure" was found five kilometers offshore, at a depth of twenty-three meters; it is about forty meters long and twenty wide, and fishermen traditionally believed that a submerged temple existed at that exact spot. If the structure is confirmed to be man-made (and not a natural formation), its great depth would certainly push back the antiquity of Puhar. Only more systematic explorations along Tamil Nadu's coast, especially at Poompuhar, Mahabalipuram, and around Kanyakumari (where fishermen have long reported submerged structures too) can throw more light on the lost cities, and on the traditions of Kumari Kandam, which some have sought to identify with the mythical Lemuria.


Not only that, the descriptions of Puhar in the two Epics are replete with temples and gods. The Shilappadikaram, the older of two (c. first or second century BC), relates the beautiful and tragic story of Kannagi and Kovalan; it opens with invocations to Chandra, Surya, and Indra, all of them Vedic Gods, and frequently mentions Shiva, Subrahmanya, Vishnu and Krishna.

Then we have the tradition that regards Agastya, the great Vedic Rishi, as the originator of the Tamil language. He is said to have written a Tamil grammar, Agattiyam, to have presided over the first two Sangams, and is even now honored in many temples of Tamil Nadu and worshipped in many homes. One of his traditional names is "Tamil muni." The Shilappadikaram refers to him as "the great sage of the Pondiya hill," and a hill is still today named after him at the southernmost tip of the Western Ghats. The legend of the birth of Tamil is both delightful and rich in meaning. Aeons ago, people from the south flocked to the North, not in a Dravidian invasion, mercifully, but to attend the wedding of Lord Shiva and Uma on Mount Kailash; such was the multitude that there was fears the earth might tilt over. Appeals were made to Lord Shiva, who, ever compassionate, asked Rishi Agastya to go south: though he was of small stature, his spiritual power was such that his very presence would be enough to restore the earth's balance. Agastya agreed to go with his wife Lopamudra, but asked Lord Shiva to instruct him first in the mysteries of the language of the South. Shiva, placing Agastya to his left and Panini, another Rishi, to his right, seized a drum and started beating it with his two hands. From the sounds that flowed from the right, Panini gave shape to Sanskrit, while Agastya turned the sounds from the left to Tamil. We have a good example of how tradition could conceal ancient knowledge: is this legend not telling us that Tamil and Sanskrit flow from the same source?

The earliest extant Sangam text, the Tamil grammar Tolkappiyam, is " said to have been modeled on the Sanskrit grammar of the Aindra school," according to historian K. A. Nilakanta Shastri. Its text, says N. Raghunathan, shows that "the great literature of Sanskrit and the work of its grammarians and rhetoricians were well known and provided stimulus to creative writers in Tamil."

In historical accounts, we find Chola and Chera kings proudly claiming descent from Lord Rama or from Kings of the Lunar dynasty - in other words, an " Aryan" descent. We are told that the greatest Chola king, Karikala, was a patron of both the Vedic religion and Tamil literature, while Pandya king Nedunjelyun performed many Vedic sacrifices. The first named Chera king, Udiyanjeral, is said to have sumptuously fed the armies of both sides during the Bharata War at Kurukshetra. An inscription records that a Pandya king led the elephant force in the Great War on behalf of the Pandavas, and that early Pandyas translated the Mahabharata into Tamil.

Thus, we may certainly speak of a distinct Tamil culture, a distinct Malayalam culture, just as we can speak of a distinct Gujarati or Bengali culture. But distinctiveness is not separateness. Each rich regional cultures of India are just various branches of a single tree having its own individuality, yet without being "separate": they cannot live apart from the tree, and without them the tree would be seriously endangered.

(source: The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar).