SV: Classical languages of India

Fri Nov 3 15:07:35 UTC 2000

In a message dated 10/20/2000 5:59:17 AM Central Daylight Time,
lsrinivas at YAHOO.COM writes:

 >>...I wonder if you have read the paper
 >>  titled " zAtavAhana kings in ancient Tamilnadu" by A
 >> Kamatchinathan of Annamalai University. ...

SP>I was not aware of this paper when I posted my message. My
SP>posting resulted from my reading of kaLaviyal. However, after
SP>L. Srinivas' message, I have obtained the paper and read it.
SP>It does not alter my conclusions.

  The paper refered here is:
  A. Kamatchinathan, Sa:tava:hana kings in ancient Tamil Nadu,
  PILC journal of Dravidic studies, January 1997, p. 15-21.

 >>  The paper proposes a Munda origin for the Satavahanas
 >> and argues for Satavahana origin of certain Tamil
 >>  kings like the atiyamAn's of takaTUr.
...
 >>  Explanation for commissioning of works such as the
 >> "cAtavAkanam" and for issuing of Tamil bilingual coin
 >> etc is then developed as a natural corollary.

<<<
As I see it, the paper has several problems. For one thing,
the etymologies of names Satakarni and Satavahana are not
satisfactorily  explained to be of Munda origin. Even more
importantly, the name atiyamAn2 is simply not explained
etymologically at all. One has to have a leap (of faith) to a
nearby mountain, kutirai malai, to believe in this theory!

But the paper does say, "...Sa:tava:hanas also were found to have
favoured Tamil language and literature. For instance Sa:tava:han_am
was a Tamil work written under the patronage of some Sa:tava:hana
king.  This work disappeared long ago (Ir_aiyan_a:r kal.aviyalurai
1943:6).  More remarkably Sa:tava:hanas issued bilingual coins
containing both Prakrit and Tamil phrases (Panneerselvam 1969).
Scholars both Western  and Eastern, have recently traced
parallelisms between Ha:la's Sattasai, a collection of 700 erotic
poems in Prakrit and some love poems of Sangam Tamil Anthologies
(Hart 1976)."

I see no merit in Kamatchinathan's statement: "The Andhra
Sa:tava:hanas  would not have patronized Tamil and Tamil poets
unless they had close geneological connections with Tamilnadu."
Royal patronage and geneological  connections do not have to
go together.Regards S. Palaniappan
>>>

I also don't see what Kamatchinathan tries to prove. Having seen no
words of Munda origin in Tamil sangam texts (are there any?) or in
TN/Kerala topo- or hydronymy, it will a stretch too far out to
conclude that ancient Tamil kings were Munda in origin.

I don't buy Kamatchinathan's statement Satavahanas will not patronize
Tamil unless "they have close geneological connections with
Tamilnadu". They were kings of Telugu/Deccan country, and their
origins must be north of Tamil Nadu.

However, they had friendship and wars with Tamil kings near Kanchi and
Chennai. Satavahanas coins with Tamil legends, atleast three of them,
have been found. (Ref. I. Mahadevan's papers, Ramayya collection in
Hyderabad). Following Iravatham, it is likely that Satavahanas issued
bilingual coins featuring Tamil legends on one side because Tamil was
used as the administrative language for few centuries BC. Recently
2nd century BCE coins written in Tamil have been found in the
*South* of Sri Lanka, in traditional Sinhala areas. "kaTalan" -
seafaring man (kaTal=sea) occur in these coins. The seafaring ships
of "tiraiyar" and "kaTalar" occur in sangam texts.

Interesting that Satavahana coins were found portraying ships (sailing
to SE Asia) in sites near Madras. "Tiraiyar" means seafaring folks,
"toNTaimAn2 iLantiraiyan" a forefather of Pallavas. Kulke and
Rothermund point to "Pallava" being a sanskrit rendering of "toNTai"
flowers. On Satavahana coins depicting ships found in ToNTaimaNTalam,
near Madras:

        "This  is evident  from certain  pieces of Andhra or
        Satavahana coins, belonging to the reign of Pulumayi and
        bearing the figure  of a two-masted  sailing  ship.(2)  These
        'ship' coins probably  suggest that Pulumayi was accompanied
        in some of his compaigns by a fleet of war-boats, and
        they were issued to commemorate  a naval victory over
        the  people  who  inhabited  Tondamandala  region, in
        which  the coins were found.  This inference  will be
        considerably  strengthened  if we remember  the  fact
        that the coast-region  in question  was inhabited  in
        ancient  times  by a people  who were known  to Tamil
        literature as the Tiraiyar (lit. sea-people).

            In the succeeding centuries, the Coromandel coast
        appears  to have been converted  into a naval base by
        the Pallavas  of southern  India, That  the  Pallavas
        maintained  a naval  force  may be inferred, firstly,
        from   the  'ship'   type  coins,  which   have  been
        attributed, though doubtfully, to them, and secondly,
        from  the Kasakudi  Plates, which  tell us that  king
        Narasimhavaman  of this dynasty  conquered  Lanka  or
        Ceylon.  The conquest  of an island situated far into
        the sea could  only have been effected  with the help
        of a fleet of ships."

> From "Naval Warfare in ancient India",
Prithwis Chandra Chakravarti
The Indian Historical Quarterly
Vol.4, No.4 1930.12, pp.645-664

Regards,
N. Ganesan

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.