Buddhists and others, wasRe: RAJARAM EPISODE

Periannan Chandrasekaran perichandra at YAHOO.COM
Wed Oct 11 19:50:52 UTC 2000


--- nanda chandran <vpcnk at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >I think, it is long shot to claim that the arrival of ShankarAchArya or
> >Ramanuja catalyzed the re-conversion back to Hinduism.
>
> >It is more due to NayanmAr (especially Sambanthar, Appar and
> >Manickavasagar) and AlwAr (especially three muthal Alwars).
> >This re-conversion was at the end of KaLappirar rule and the start of
> >Pallava rule. History is more clear on that.
>
> I wouldn't be too sure about that. For this assumes that the whole of
> India or say southern India was conversant with Tamil. Though I wouldn't
> contest this in case of TN and Kerala, but upwards North, I'm sceptical.
>
> Apart from this, four points why I think Shankara and RAmAnuja would have
> played a major role in this reconversion than the Sangam poets :
>
> 1. They were brahmins and brahmanical effort in those days of yore had
>    its own weight.
> 2. They wrote their main works on VedAnta in Sanskrit which has its
>    countrywide appeal.
> 3. Though the Sangam poets were indeed the catalysts, it is my opinion
>    that the bhakti movement gained momentum as a country wide movement
>    only after the emergence of RAmAnuja - the brahmanic endorsement to
>    the cult and also backed by a fully developed metaphysical structure
>    - VisishtAdvaita.

You persist in making wild claims that that neither care to cite any previously
published studies nor respect the bounds of discussions prescribed for this
group.
I have not seen a single reference in any of your postings over the last year
or so.
I wonder whether I am in the Indology group or some chat club.

...
To quote George Hart from "Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and their
Sanskrit Counterparts", page 118 when he describes how the concept of  chastity
spread from Tamil society.

"...before a group was assimilated, Brahmins would come into it and adopt those
values most admired by that group in order to gain respect. Thus the custom
would have gained a foothold in the Brahmanic religion and would be perpetuated
when descendants of the Brahmins wrote lawbooks or copied texts with the
appropriate insertions..."
So instead of the Brahmins granting recognition to Tamil elements it has been
them acting to save themselves from being swept aside by the Tamil movement.


..


...
>
> People who lived alongside the Tamils for milleneums and have contributed
> substantially to their beloved language, are suddenly viewed as "Aryans" and
> discriminated against.

So you would say that the optimal situation would be when the Tamil brahmins
are  neither viewed by non-brahmins as Aryans nor claimed/believed by
themselves to be Aryans?




__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/





More information about the INDOLOGY mailing list