How did tamil language enrich South indian literature
Answers
It was the common belief that the original inhabitants of India were the Dravidians and the primitive tribals who lived in hills and forest. It was also the general belief that the Aryans entered into India at a much later date.
The new comers first settled in the Punjab and gradually spread over the Indo-Gangetic Valley. The archeological excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro proved that the cultures of the Dravidians and the Aryans were different in many respect.
But the cosmopolitan Aryans adopted many aspects of the Dravidian religious beliefs and social systems.
A long process of cultural assimilation resulted in the amalgamation of the two great races of the Indian Subcontinent so much so that it became difficult to distinguish the difference between the two. In course of time there began the Aryan advent into the South. According to some eminent scholars, the epic Ramayana of Valmiki, which describes the entry of Rama into the South and his invasion of Sri Lanka to destroy demon king Ravana, was indicative of the Aryan entry into the Southern peninsula. Yet, some of the Tamil Kings thought of bringing the whole of India under one administrative umbrella.
It is also known from the Sangam classics that the Tamil people thought of India as their common mother land. The puranic account describe of the sage Agasthya’s crossing over the insurmountable Vindhyan mountain which separated the North from the South. These accounts again indicate the Aryan movement into the Dravidian landscape.
A unique example in the world history, which is seen at no other place on earth, was that the whole subcontinent of Bharatvarsha was conceived of as one motherland for all the . children of the land, irrespective of ethnic, racial, linguistic and social differences. Common beliefs, common God and Goddesses, common modes of worship and common faith in the sanctity of the land of birth, united all varieties of people in a bond of commonness and brotherhood. In such an environment, the Aryan accepted the Dravidian deities as there own and vice-versa.
When diverse faiths got united into one, other differences were allowed to continue under an atmosphere of tolerance. The numerous modes of life and existence in extensive territories of a vast landmass developed a cultural synthesis through ages. In this process of assimilation, the major or even the minor languages of the people, retained their individual identity. The Dravido-Aryan amalgam rather encouraged such distinctive separations and encouraged their growth. This phenomenon resulted in an interchange of ideas, philosophies, thought and creativity for the benefit of all the people.
Needless to say that Dravidian group of languages and literature were very old and extremely rich. The southern people were fond of their languages and proud of their mother-tongue. Yet, early in the first millennium before Christ, the Sanskrit language of the Aryans entered into the South and enriched the existing Southern literature. It is said that the disciples of sage Agastya composed the first Tamil Grammer known as the Tolkappiyam. The Northern literary influence on the South can be traced to another forceful religious factor.