Re. Black and Bright and Beautiful

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

A small sample of assertions that are simply not correct;

"V.C.Vijayaraghavan" <vijay at VOSSNET.CO.UK> writes:
[Begin Quote]
 Can you tell me when do the words "Saivam"   and  "VaiNavam" occur in the
 Tamil literature. For example do they occur in the Prabhandam or Nayanmar
 works itself? or do they occur much later?

 As far as I can see these words are the Tamil translations of the English
 words Saivism and Vaishnavism. But the Tamil texts themselves were unaware
 of 'ism's. But still it would be interesting to know when do these two words
 in the sense of 'isms's appear in the Tamil texts
[End Quote]

    Saivam and VaiNavam are found in abundance in the period
    before Tamil/s came in contact with English people/language.

[Begin Quote]
Going through the U of Cologne KWIC Concordance of Classical Tamil Texts and
searching these two words , for Saivam there was no result and for Vainavam
there was only one - in Tiruvila.
[End Quote]


"RM. Krishnan" <poo at GIASMD01.VSNL.NET.IN> at Wed, 18 Oct 2000 20:47:53
 +0530 wrote
 >>   I can think of few customs which are common to Dravidians.>
 >> 1. Wide prevalence of cross-cousin marriages

[Begin Quote]
Since I have been influenced by the philosophy of Bertrand Russell, I am
analysing your proposition logically. [...]

1.Cross-cousin marriages. It is practiced not only in the South India , but
 also in Pakistan (Punjabi speakers) and Arabian countries also. Punjabi and
 Arabic are not Dravidian languages. Hence your proposal falls flat here.
[End Quote]

  Mr. Vijayaraghavan asserts the prevalence of cross cousin marriages
  amidst Punjabis and Arabs is this scholarly forum. Totally
  misleading.

[Begin Quote]
Yesterday, a literary quotation with an interpretation:
You cannot assume the colour consciousness during Kamban's days by reading
Kamban alone Even Bharathi wrote 'Kariyavanai kanada kan enna kanne', that
does not mean you can deny the social reality of anti-black discrimination
in the 20th century.
[End Quote]

Bharatiyar did not write this.

This is a totally incorrect statement. Bhaaratiyaar died too young, and
always hunted by the police forces of the colonial regime. He did not
have training or time to read the sangam classics which were just being
rediscovered. Like the Telegu nationalist poet Garimella who died
begging in the streets of Madras, he died poor and suffering.
Add to this, the ganja habit like Vivekananda. (Did Aurobindo Ghosh
who was Bharati's guru and Ramakrishna also smoke ganja?).

One must spend awful lot of time correcting many distortions,
misinformations and fictions. In this scholarly forum quoting
from original sources or from academic publications will avoid
all these incorrect statements . Please do not write something
which are glaringly wrong if you read Tamil or scholarly published
literature. Already the opportunity cost in studying Tamil or Sanskrit
is high. Based on ideology, representing Tamils leads to nowhere,
and based on no evidence.

Regards,
SM




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