No Aryan - Dravidian divide - it was one Aryavartha - (5)
The ancient Tamils had categorized the VallalgaL (philanthropists) into 3 groups
on the basis of the time period they belonged to
(mudhal, idai and kadai
meaning first /early , middle and last / later).
It is obvious that the categorization was not
on the basis of the place where they belonged to.
They were from different parts of
yet they found their way into Tamil’s categorization.
This shows that the Tamils considered them as one with themselves.
When will someone consider another as one with himself?
When the culture, the values and whatever of the other also was their’s too!
I am instantly reminded of Mei-p-poruL Nayanaar’s words,
“thattha, thamar” .
When his enemy managed to get close to him in the garb of an ascetic
of an order which was dear to him, (the king Mei-p-poruL Nayanaar)
and stabbed him,
the dying king stopped his guard, named Thatthan,
from killing the enemy who was in ascetic robe,
by saying ““thattha, thamar”
“thattha, he is ours”.
He was ‘ours’ because
though he was an enemy, though he was the murderer,
he was in the garb of a Shivite ascetic!
The king was one who was an ardent devotee of Shiva.
He treated the Shivite ascetics with great reverence and considered them as ‘his’ clan.
Even though he realized that the one in the ascetic garb was a cheat and his enemy,
he didn’t want any harm to be done to him
because he was in that garb that identified him as ‘ours’!
Such was the solidarity or the flocking mentality of the people of this land.
This must be borne in my mind before making any claim
that the Aryans were different from Tamils or vice versa.
It was in this mentality of ‘ours’ or ‘they are like us’,
that the philanthropists who ruled the lands other their own,
were regarded as ‘our kings’,
by the Tamils,
and perhaps by people of other lands of this Bharatha varsha also,
who were not directly ruled by them.
So where does this kinship lie?
Or how does this kinship develop?
As found in the instance of Mei-p-poruL Nayanaar,
Kinship is developed when people share a common ideology,
Common culture and value system.
This is where the identity of Aryan comes in.
We find people using this term to identify a race,
drawing their inputs,
that were based on the assumptions and interpretations of an invader class,
who were not ready to accept the superiority of the land and people of Bharatha varsha.
That invader class which depended on the divide and rule policy,
inserted this division of Aryan versus Darvidian too into the psyche of the people.
Atleast now we must wake up
And shake off ourselves from this colonial game plan.
Before knowing what was Dravidian, let us know what was Aryan.
I say this because, none of the olden texts in Tamil
speak about Dravida, nor do they identify the Tamils as Dravidian.
They only speak about a value system
that was common to all and followed in the entire land of Bharatha varsha
-a system that is termed by this colonial game-infested people
as that of Aryan!!
Aryan, according to the ancient Sanskrit dictionary, Amarakosha, means
Noble mindedness or a noble person.
A noble person can be anyone!
Even an animal or a bird can be an Aryan.
In Kikindha khandam of Valmiki Ramayana,
Tara, the wife of Vaali addressed Vaali as
“Arya puthra” – son of Arya / noble soul.
Even a Vanara can be an Aryan!
Elsewhere in Ramayana, Rama eulogizes a pigeon as a noble and superior soul.
This pigeon offered itself as food for a hunter, who killed its mate,
because he took shelter under tree in which it was living.
And it was its duty to satisfy his hunger by offering him food.
Since it had nothing to offer, it offered itself as food for him!
Such was the nature of an Aryan.
The Tamils were in no way lacking in Aryan mentality.
That is why they found kinship with all those who were Aryan in mind and life.
When Dasharatha did Ashwamedha yajna, he invited the kings from the South.
When the Pandyans conducted the Assembly of Sangam,
they invited Krishna to preside over it!
The kinship was there!
Meeting of minds was there!
In the Kurukashethra war, many rulers of the North sided with one of the sides.
But the Cheran king (mentioned earlier in this series)
did not take sides, and instead chose to feed both the sides!
He was definitely more Aryan,
-ChEramaan perum chOttru udhiyam chEralaadhan
was more Aryan
than any Aryan of that time!!
(to be continued)
