Dr Pitchappan who identified a person belonging to Piramalai kallar,
as the direct descendant of the ancient African tribe
will be presenting his findings in a conference on
conducted by the UNESCO.
His research in genomics reveal that no caste is pure.
He says that the caste system practiced in
had been a misunderstood one today
and that the benefits of such a system
has been enormous in the past.
He also thinks that the first man originated in
The news report on this has been given below.
I wish to add some input to what he says.
Any study of man’s evolution and particularly habitation in a particular area
can not be complete without taking into account
other branches of study.
In this case, Indian literary wealth is so vast
dating back to pre-historic times,
that a corroborative approach with it should not be ruled out.
I wish to concentrate on 2 issues in his finding.
- The research on the first habitation of man and that it happened in South India.
- The evolution of caste system.
Taking the first issue,
there are 2 versions on first habitation deduced from Indian texts,
one that happened at the end of Ice age and
another that happened in the past even before the Himalayas were formed.
For a mind conditioned to western classification of time as
Stone age- iron age etc,
this will be difficult to accept.
But archeology is springing out shocks and surprises for them
by showing that man exited even before
the cave man’s time which they have enunciated.
The latest habitation is reported at the end of Ice age in India,
with the birth of Manu – the progenitor of Man.
The evolution started from
Brahma,
then Mariichi,
then Kaashyapa,
then Sun and from him,
Manu (Manu is the earliest Prajaapati -"manuH prajaapatiH puurvam"),
from human mankind flourished.
This is chronicled in Valmiki Ramayana and
the Cholan Copper plate inscriptions found at Thiruvalankadu .
There is an old temple of Manu at Manaali in Himachal Pradesh.
Infact, this place was originally known as “Manu Aalay”
(Manu’s temple / house)
which gradually got mutated as Manaali.
The first man is said to have originated in this place.
It will be interesting to note
that this place is associated with some important rishis of ancient times,
such as Vasishta whose ashram is said to be here in Manaali,
with a perennial hot spring nearby
and the ashram of Vyasa which is like a cave in the Rohtang pass
where the river Beas originates.
It must be mentioned that the locals call this as river Vyas,
and Beas seems to be the mutated name of Vyas.
Without ancient lore referring to these rishis and Manus,
these names (Manaali and Beas) could not have come into existence.
It is a bad comment on the state of ASI,
not to have brought this Manu temple under its purview.
It has accepted the Hadimba temple of Manaali
(the place where Hidumbi, wife of Bheema and mother of Ghatodhgaja
did penance after Bheema left her)
as a 5000 year old one.
But it is yet to look at Manu temple and do research on it.
This temple is the oldest and the most revered one to the locals of Manaali.
I suggest a genomic study of the local and original population of Manaali.
They are likely to belong to the oldest race
that emerged after the end of last Ice age,
That happened about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.
The present population must have emerged from this race of Manu only.
His direct descendants had populated the North India and South India as well.
The first Cholan king called Chola varman,
was a descendant of Sembian (Sibi)
who was of this lineage.
This is mentioned in the Thiruvalankaadu copper plates.
The habitation through this group happened in South India
before Kaveri flowed down to Tamil nadu.
The settlers in North India further spanned out to Middle east,
through Asita, some 20 generations before Rama.
So the first man of the current era in the post- ice age
must have originated in the Himalayas, in Manaali perhaps.
The other root of origination of man occurred many million years ago
in the south of present day India.
At that time this land of Aryavartha was surrounded by seas on all four sides.
That could have been the Lemuria.
The Daksha prajapathi lived in the southern hemisphere.
The dark skinned asuras lived in the southern hemisphere.
The mix-up of asuras and devas of fair-skin also happened.
(one example is that of Kaikasi of asura lineage begetting children from Visravas.Her children were the Ravana-adhi brothers)
But all these happened (except Kaikasi –
which I cited as an instance for the mix-up of white and dark skinned people)
when Himalayas were not yet formed!
The dark skinned Afro origin people
lived at that time in that part of the globe.
Bhaskara II, in Siddhantha Shiromani says that
this earth had 4 races of people,
devas, asuras, manushyas and daityas.
He quotes this from much earlier texts
which had become extinct even by his times.
The origin of man as happened before 70 million years ago
was in a land mass that connected Australia, Africa and
what is now India.
This was the Aryavartha of those times
because the Tamils as they lived in this land
(kal thOndri maN thOndra kaalatthu,
mun thOndriya moottha kudi)
were Vediks only.
Their rivers Pahruli and Kumari were witness to
Vedik karmas only.
The kings such as Pal yaga shaalai mudu kudumi peruvazhuthi
was a king who conducted many yajnas.
Thus any further peep into past – before the end of Ice age
will take us to the south of the equator.
It was a place of warmth making habitation possible for people.
Those people continued in that land even as their land slowly moved towards north
and collided with the Eurasian continent –
a time signified by the beating of Damaru by Shiva
by whose grace Himalayas were lifted up (as per puranas)
Now coming to the 2nd issue of castes,
the people who inhabited this land lived in harmony,
each specializing in a chore.
That is what Varnashrama is about.
There was symbiotic relationship among groups
who will have a share in a common goal.
It must be noted that what we call as castes,
were noted as such for the kind of job they did.
This can be made out from Purananuru verses.
(see my blog)
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/04/peep-into-past-to-know-whether-castes.html
The word Jathi (caste) is of Sanskrit origin.
Jathi is derived from “jatha:”
Jatha: means one who is formed (janitthavan or vuruvaanavan)
There were 2 jathis only, the male and female.
All human beings are either born as male or female.
The jatha: is thus two only.
This is also ascertained from Ouvaiyaar’s verse,
“Jathi irandozhiya vErilai”
The words “vozhiya” and Veru illai” in the verse, reiterate the notion
that here existed only 2 jathis.
But then she chose to differ on who these 2 jathis are,
by saying her own version based on the character.
Those who are ready to give are “periyOr”
and those who do not give are “siriyOr”.
I bring in here Ouvaiyar’s verse to show
that only 2 jathis existed as such.
The further identification of people happened on the basis of the work they did.
For instance “vEllalar” are those who were engaged in farming.
The first ‘VeL’ were the migrants from Dwaraka
who brought with them the knowledge of Farming
(Balarama cult brought in by them)
Nachinaarkiniyar says this in his commentary on Thol kappiyam.
There is a saying that kallar, maravar and agamudaiyaar (mukkulatthor)
slowly became vellalar.
It means these people (who had a distinct symbiotic work system)
started adopting farming in course of time
(also read my blog on the symbiotic relationship between mukkulatthors)
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/04/migration-from-africa-or-inhabitants-of.html
This kind of changing and realigning to different works had been there.
People were known only by the work they were doing.
Even now the older generations in rural Karnataka and Andhra
will identify themselves as son of so and so, engaged in such and such a work.
This habit was there in Tamil nadu too,
but was vitiated with the rise of Dravidian parties.
We find the names of poets of Puranaanuru mentioned in this way only.
One poet identified himself as “madurai kanakkayanaar magan”
(son of accountant of Madurai)
One was a doctor, one an astrologer and so on.
This was the kind of identification done in those days.
There was no rule to make the off-springs stick to the father’s profession.
This is brought out by Dr Pitchappan in his study.
It was because, one’s nature and emotional and intelligent quotient
were (are) responsible for what one is capable of doing.
This is known as Swabhava.
The swabhava determines ‘swa-krma’ – the job that one is capable of doing.
The swa-karma decides “swa-dharma”
( all these are discussed in Bhgavad Gita too)
This is how one (jatha) is identified.
Unfortunately, the British could not understand this
and identified them as castes.
Today all groups have lost their swa-karma and identity.
As Dr Pitchappna says,
the good qualities and good life style
and respect associated with this system
have been stymied by the politicians
who have no grasp of history, geography
and superior culture of this ancient land.
