Telugu history

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

At 08:19 AM 5/2/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Mr. D. V. Sarma write:
>" This is the limit I think. Do you really believe that God prefers Tamil to
>Sanskrit..."
>
>Are you setting the limit?? Who gave you that power? God?
>

Mr.Ganesan,

I hope you have heard the saying that "your freedom ends where
my nose begins". That puts a limit on everything. As long as you talk about
the virtues of your language without deprecating others it is OK. Again
doing this day-in and day-out is not a good strategy. But we can put up
with it.

>Mr. D. V. Sarma wrote:
>"You quoted somebody to say that Sanskrit is a rough language".
>
>There is a 13th century zrIvaiSNava commentary, very revered among
>all Vaishnavaites. "muraTTu samskritam" occurs there.
>A. K. Ramanujan, a legend and whose about ten letters to me I treasure,
>translated "muraTTu" as "rough-sounding" in a *Princeton
>university* publication, 1981.
>

Your intention of quoting the passage is to deprecate
Sanskrit in comparision to Tamil. However revered the commentary may be
for you and others like you, you cannot expect the list members approve of
all those things. Suppose X sends a posting quoting Y who calls Z an ass.
Then X claims that he is only quoting therefore he is blameless. Will this
be acceptable. The motive of X is obvious and he has to take the blame.

>Mr. D. V. Sarma continues to write:
>"Do you know the name by which your language is known in Andhra?
>It is called "aravam", a voiceless language. The word is current
>in Andhra and it is in usage even before I was born"
>
>All the people start calling their neighbours by the name of
>adjascent county names. Telugu people must have called
>Tamils aruvas because the country around Tirupati is
>aruvaa naaDu. I have heard funny explanations/etymologies for aravam
>by some telugus. "rava" is sound in sanskrit.
>So, "arava" is voiceless and start telling very derogatory
>remarks on Tamil or Tamils. Please stop that.
>

This is exactly what I said above. I have just quoted what is
prevelent in Andhra. But still you are offended. You should know
that neither I nor anybody for that matter can stop people using that
word. It will require major campaign at the Government level.


>>From the day you appeared on indology, whenever I say something "tamil"
>surely a response will come. Not a pleasurable experience though.
>
>This is just an illustrative example. For my writings, most of your responses
>can be answered this way. I do not have so much time like people do
>in India.
>

You have made a wild accusation. Please, substantiate what you have said.
The number postings about Tamil you have made and the number of times
I responded and how many times it is about Tamil.


>Mr. D. V. Sarma writes (in the same posting, a little earlier)
>"Tamil arrogance is equally abhorring..."
>
>Whenever Tamil's antiquity is even hinted at, fury comes.
>We are repeatedly told that we are
>regional/parochial/political/short_sighted/chauvinistic/arrogant/
>narrow_minded/.... What are the political overtones and
>undercurrents?

Just look back. I would like to refresh your memory about the irrational
outburst of one of the tamil members of this list when Microsoft
announced introduction Devanagari fonts for Word. The shoe is on the other
foot.

regards,

sarma.
>
>I do not agree that these are true.
>I am glad that you are not.
>
>When the Sanskritization of Malayalam, a dialect of tamil until
>10th century AD can be studied, is it wrong to ask a preliminary
>question on sanskritization of Telugu?
>
>Regards,
>N. Ganesan
>
>