request for reading literature.

[Narayan S. Raja]

On Mon, 11 Jan 1999, N. Ganesan wrote:

> On 28 Dec 1998, Ashish Chandra wrote:
> >> Could someone please suggest an old Tamilian/Dravidian scripture
> >> that talks of the flight from the North to the South
> >> after the "Aryan invasion". I
>
> N. S. Raja replied:
> *There isn't any such traditional literature
> *or belief.
>
>   Please check puRanAnURu, a Tamil sangam text. There is
>   a poem on tuvarApati vEL. (Dvarasamudhram in Karnataka?)
>   The poet praises him as a Vellala Chief who moved southward
>   from Dwaraka, about 40+ generations ago. The medieval
>   commentator says Vellalas moved from Dwaraka of Krishna
>   and the expedition was led by the Sage Agastya.

This doesn't sound like a "flight from
the North to the South" -- which is what
the original question asked about -- does it?

Since you apparently have access to the
above text, could you please post the poem?
Then we can judge better.

As I mentioned before, there isn't a
"traditional belief" among Tamilians
that they migrated from the north.

While, on the contrary, by the 3rd
or 4th grade, every Tamil kid has
heard of the legend of ancient Tamil
"sangams" and of "Southern Madurai"
which was swallowed up by the sea.

[Incidentally, according to legend,
Dwaraka was also swallowed up by the
sea.  And "Madurai" sounds like the
Tamil equivalent of "Mathura", which
is also associated with Krishna.
Hmmm... interesting...]

Of course, according to legend,
the sage Agastya is himself
supposed to have come from the
north (and never gone back).

Regards,


Raja.