vaTakalai and ten2kalai (3)

[Lakshmi Srinivas]

--- Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan  wrote:

There's nothing in this post or the one before this
that precludes an exclusive geographic connotation as
opposed, for example, to the linguistic one.

> . Philology,  establishes *beyond
> any doubt* the meanings of
> the terms as has been used from 8th through 16th
> centuries.

I'm not so sure. Also, the texts quoted do not seem to
use the word "kalai"  in the sense of a sect. I guess
one needs to look closer.

I do not want to discuss the rest of the post as IMHO,
it belongs more in the realm of speculation. I'll say
this however: while the Manipravala commentators
definitely knew a fair amount of Tamil, their use of
the term "tamizar", "tamizan oruvan" etc was in the
sense of an outsider, as one who did not belong to the
tradition. You may find this in the IDu where phrases
like cunaiyADal or toDuvuzi toDuvuzi nIGki (Kur. 399)
are refered to.

It is my belief that the answer to the etymology
question is ultimately  bound up also with certain
sects who were involved in temple worship vis a vis
those that were more vedic oriented. This appears to
have had a pronounced geographic bias.

Thanks and Warm Regards,

LS





_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com