Dravidian origins

[Raveen Satkurunathan]

On Fri, 29 Dec 2000 17:15:31 EST, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan
>
>But this type of "club" formation and "admission-seeking" was not a
European
>imposition on India. More than 1000 years before M. N. Srinivas discussed
>Sanskritization, tirumUlar has noted the phenomenon.

In an article titled "The anthropology of Tharus", Gisèle
Krauskopff says that "I am of the opinion that the process of
'kshatrisation' attached to this ethnonym could be a relatively recent
phenomena, linked to a general tendency of lower groups to
raise their status particularly marked in colonial British India."

So although this tendency towards Sanskritization, Kshatriyization and
Aryanization has been going on for over two millennia it seems that it
received a new impetus during the colonial period associated
with ‘modernization’.

Many South Indian derived Sinhalese costal castes in Sri Lanka namely
Karave, Durave and Salagama have taken this to the extreme, where
as “lowly” cinnamon peeling Salagama insist that they are Aryan
Namboothiris from Kerala and the “fisher” Karave claim that they are
descendants of Kurus of Epic Mahabharat fame, and went to the extend of
successfully requesting the recall of a local Dictionary which refused to
mix myth with history.

Raveen