ADDRESS BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, AT THE INAUGURATION OF VIII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF TAMIL STUDIES
THANJAVUR, SUNDAY,
JANUARY1, 1995
May I, first of all, convey to this impressive and distinguished assemblage gathered in the Eighth International Conference of Tamil Studies, greetings and good wishes from Dr. Shanker Dayal Sharma, the President of India. He was looking forward to inaugurating this Conference but unavoidable preoccupations have prevented him from leaving Delhi at this time. May I say, on behalf of my wife and myself, how happy and honoured I am to be here at this historic city of Thanjavur to inaugurate this important Conference on the kind invitation of the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, Dr. J. Jayalalitha. I am grateful for the warm welcome that has been extended to us.
Tamil, which is one of the great languages of India, is to-day an international language, and Tamil culture a lively current in the stream of international life. Nothing could be more demonstrative of this fact than the presence at this Conference of erudite scholars and eminent personalities from twenty-three countries of the world. The genius and the dynamism of the Tamil people had from the earliest times under the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Pandyas had overflown the boundaries of India and influenced and enriched life and culture in our neighbourhood as well as in far-flung regions. India can be proud of the attainments and contributions of people of Tamil origin in the world who have identified themselves with the countries they have adopted as their homes while retaining their linguistic and cultural affiliation with their original homeland.
The language and the culture of the Tamils have their origin and development in antiquity going back to over 2500 years in history. Scholars have traced Tamil words in the Rig Veda and have discovered evidence of Dravidian culture in different parts of northern India. Indeed distinct similarities between Tamil and some of the languages of Africa have been detected in recent times. One may recall that when the poet-President of Senegal visited India he was struck by the similarity between the language of his country and that of Tamil and caused to establish a research project for the study of this remarkable cultural phenomenon. It has been sometimes said that Sanskrit when it spread in India had overwhelmed Tamil and other Dravidian languages. While the dominant influence of Sanskrit over Dravidian languages is indisputable, the influence that Tamil exercised over Sanskrit has not been sufficiently recognized. Scholars have pointed out that some of the words in the Dravidian languages considered as of Sanskrit have often turned out to be Dravidian words adopted by Sanskrit. Students of comparative literature have noted that the story and the plot of Sudraka's Sanskrit drama "Mrichakatikam" is so similar to that of the Tamil classic "Silappatikaram" that it must have been influenced by the Tamil work which had come earlier in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. Indeed the interaction and cross fertilization between Sanskrit and Tamil and other Dravidian languages had been one of the creative processes in India's cultural history. We know that among the Dravidian group of languages Tamil is one of the oldest and had influenced all of them.
As a Malayalee I have hesitation in saying that it has been acknowledged that Malayalam is the foster child of Tamil. In modern times Tamil has also contributed many words and concepts to English and other European languages as well as to the languages of South East Asia. I think this is a subject that merits more serious research than the very useful clues contained in "Hobson Jobson". Allied to this linguistic influence has been the far-reaching influence of music and dance and architecture which originated in Southern India, particularly in the Tamilnadu. Thus in a real sense Tamil is a major Indian language and an international language with all its cultural implies. Even as compared to the great classical languages of the world Tamil has a certain uniqueness. As the Encyclopaedia Brittanica has stated: "Tamil is perhaps the only example of an ancient classical language which continues as a spoken language for more than 2500 years without undergoing change in its basic structure". I must add that Tamil has not only continued as a spoken language but is today a magnificent modern language. It has flowered into a rich contemporary literature and is to-day a vehicle not only of literary sentiments but modern scientific ideas and concepts.
Nobody has paid richer and sincerer tribute to Tamil than Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. In 1909 while engaged in his struggle in South Africa he wrote in his "Indian Opinion" : "No other Indians can equal the performance of the Tamils in the fight (the reference is to the Transval Satyagraha). It, therefore, occurred to me that I should read Tamil with close attention, if for no other reason than to tender sincere thanks to them at least mentally. Accordingly the last one month was devoted mostly to the study of Tamil. The more I learn it, the better I appreciate the beauties of this language. It is a very fine and sweet language, and I find the Tamils have produced, and still produce, a large number of intelligent, thoughtful and wise men. Moreover since India is going to be one country, some Indians outside Madras (i.e. the Madras Presidency) should also learn Tamil. Later in 1913 when a new school was started in South Africa at which Gujarati was taught during school hours not Tamil, Gandhiji protested to the Government and advised the people to agitate against it. Years later in 1933 Gandhiji sent a messsage to Tamil Lovers Conference in which he said: "The superficial knowledge that I have of Tamil has enabled me to appreciate the beauty and the richness of the language. To neglect it would appear criminal." I must congratulate the organizers of this Conference they have carried out the idea of Gandhiji and to-day what we are seeing at this Conference a celebration of Tamil not only as a regional and national language, but also as an international language and literature.
The status of Tamil as an international language is rooted in its greatness as an Indian language. It articulates the age-old culture, traditions, myths, thoughts, dreams and aspirations of the people of India. As the great poet Subramania Bharathi sang in his immortal poem "Our Mother":-
" She has three hundred million faces,
But one sole life, majestic and strong,
Eighteen are her tongues for utterance,
And yet heart is one "
To-day Mother India has 900 million faces of which Tamil face is one of the most beautiful reflecting " the one sole life, majestic and strong " of India and the tongue of Tamil is one of the most mellifluous through which the heart-beat of India could be heard. No poet of India has expressed as beautifully and movingly the emotional unity of India as Bharathiyar when he sang that we would sport in rowing boats in moonlight on Indus waters "singing with girls from Kerala songs indulcet Telugu" We find the immortal yearnings of Tamilnadu and India in the following lines of Subramaniya Bharathi :-
"" Mantras we shall learn and tantras
For our service; we shall measure
The sky above and the fish in Ocean
We shall explore and thoroughly know
The moon's disc, and shall also marks
The science of the sweeping the
thoroughfares clean. "
We have gone quite someway in measuring the moon and the stars and sounding the depths of the ocean, but I am afraid we have yet to master the science and the art of sweeping our streets clean ! It is the distinction of Tamil poets and thinkers that they have attached as much importance to the philosophical soarings of the mind and high pursuits of science and technology as to the basic and mundane tasks of keeping our environment clean and addressing the problem of the sufferings of women, children and the poor in society. When I see the programmes that Tamilnadu has launched to give midday meals to school children, to look after the health, education and the rights of the children, to elevate the status, education and the rights of women and other social development schemes for the welfare of the masses on the one hand, and ambitious programmes for the industrialisation of the State, for foreign investment, for export promotion, for modern technology parks and far-reaching science and technology programme, my mind goes back to those thrilling lines of Poet Subramania Bharati. I am glad to say the delegates of the International Conference have to-day the opportunity not only to discusss the language, literature and the culture of Tamilnadu but also to see some of the current economic and technological developments that are taking place in this State. I understand that you will be discussing at this Conference such subjects as ancient and modern Tamil literature, the official language question, the status of women, society as seen by Tamils, science and technology and 2lst Century and the Arts.
In my remarks I have not so far touched upon the ancient literature and arts. I hesitate to do so before this scholarly audience. The richness, the exhuberance, the originality and the humanism of Tamil literature is well-known. So are the worldly wisdom and the guides to action contained in Thirukural which are of relevance to whole humanity. One commentator has said: "In a society ridden by caste it draws up a testament for a classless society. The whole book is a charter for human conduct having the same force to-day, eighteen centuries after it was written, it will continue to have the same force to the end of time." When one speaks of society and the social order one cannot ignore the position of women in Tamil society. It is well-known that women have contributed significantly to Tamil literature. They have also been in the forefront of social and political action in modern times. India has shown in critical periods of its history that women can lead the country. Women are not only adorable heroines in books of poetry, drama and novel, but in actual life in our country. Jawaharlal Nehru has often stated that the status of women in a society is the real measure of the advancement of that society. It is pleasing to note that Tamilnadu is in the forefront of India in the development and empowerment of women in our society.
In the history of Indian culture there are two themes that stand out - spiritual devotion and universal humanism. They are present in Tamil culture and literature from ancient to modern times. A Sangham poet wrote: "Every country is my native land and every man is my kinsman". There is no other saint in India who can rival Nandanar in his spiritual devotionalism that cuts across the divisions of caste and class. In both humanism and sheer spirituality Tamil culture takes us to the summits of human experience. And Tamil is a language that can express such sublime thoughts and experiences with beauty and lucidity. It is a part and parcel of the multi-lingual unity of India. It has been said that Indian literature is one though written in different languages and Tamil is one of the languages in which the literature of India and the thought of India has blossomed with a splendour of its own.
Thank you.
|
