Are Tamils, dravidians?? (World Tamil conference series -3)

My series in Tamil on this question can be read here:-

http://thamizhan-thiravidana.blogspot.com/

தமிழன், திராவிடனா?

The Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has said that the World Classical Tamil conference is being organised to highlight the greatness of art, culture, literature and civilisation of Dravidians. The logo is framed with the icons of the Indus Valley civilization. There are going to be displays of themes of Indus civilization. I don't know what the papers to be presented are going to talk about - about Indus culture showcased as Dravidian culture? I don't know why they named this conference as Tamil Conference when their love is for Dravidian identity. I don't know why no one from Tamilnadu raised any objection to bringing in the Dravidan tag.

Lots of research have happened in the Indus basin and in genetics that have established that there was no Aryan invasion and no Dravidan dislocation either. Any Tamil - if he has read something of the olden sangam texts would also know that Tamils were not known as Dravidians and that they did not hail from the Indus basin. I am really surprised to see the Chief minister relying on the Dravidian stuff of the Indus basin while simultaneously claiming himself to be knowledgeable in Tamil - in முத்தமிழ்!!!

The dravidian school harps on a group of languages supposed to be derived from or related to Tamil. That does not make Tamil a Dravidian language. Another facet of this Dravidian school is to club the people speaking these languages into one group. There is another view of terming Dravidian as a race. All these are now proved to be untenable. You talk about the so-called Dravidian languages, no kannadika would agree that his language is derived from Tamil. No Telugu also would say so. And the day is not far off for them to get their languages declared as Classical languuage! So all these are about politics. But I dont think any Kannadiga or Telugu would go to the extent of mortgaging their language to a notion to call it Dravidian. Only Tamilnadu politicians do that - blissfully oblivious of the latest outcomes of the researches.

The Dravidian concept itself is now found to be a colonial invention. But at the bottom of it remains a question how this term Dravida came into existence and why or in what context it was used. The answer for this can be found in the local traditions only and not by analysing the tradition from a foreign researcher's point of view.

The word Dravida is found in 5 places in Brihat Samhitha of Varahamihira. It does not denote a people or a race, but a geographic location. That location has nothing to do with the Indus basin or the Harappan sites. Its location is mentioned in clear cut terms while explaining the division of land in the name of Kurma Chakra.

The ancient Bharatha varsha before the times of Varaha mihira (whose time is said to be anywhere between 1st century BC to the 5 th century AD) was divided into 9 parts in the order of 27 stars of the zodiac. It is depicted in the form of Kurma or Tortoise with a madhya desa (central province) surrounded by countries on 8 directions. Starting from the central province, the description goes through east, south east, south, south west, west, north west, north and northeast. Stars starting from Krittikia are assigned to these regions, 3 each. Why I say all these details is that even today astrologers rely on this division of the land with respective directions and asterisms to predict mundane effects such as earthquakes, eclipse-effects and other calamities for a particular region.

As per this division, the present day regions of Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Saraswathy river (called as Harappan sites) and Yamuna basin formed the central region. From that the east, south east, south, south west are defined.

According to the details given by Varahamihira, the place called Dravida comes in the South west whereas Tamil lands of Chola, kerala, kaveri, Kanchi, Tamraparani, simhala (srilanka) etc come in the south. Andhra belongs to the South east.

Chapter 14, verses 11 to 16 make a mention of the names of countries in the South. All the names of the South are given here to understand how the south was defined and what countries and towns were there in the South. The south seas (Indian ocean), Cholas, Cheras, Kaveri, Tamiraparani, Kancheepuram etc are mentioned here. There is a mention of countries of Tamingilasana which sounds like thamilagam (தமிழகம்).

Take a look at the countries and towns of the South:-

Ceylon, Kalanjana, SaurIkIrna, TAlikata, mountains of Giri, Nagara, Dardura, Mahendra, MAlindya, coutries of Broach.

Kankata, Tunkana, VanavAsi, Shibika, Phanikara, Konkana, AbhIra, The river VenA (பெண்ணை ஆறு ?), the countries of Avanti, Dashapura, Gonarda, Kerala.

Carnata, the forest of Mahatavi, the mopuntains of ChithrakUta, the countries of Nasikya (Nasik?), kolla, Giri, Chola, Kraunchadweepa, JatAdhara, the river Kaveri, the mountain of Rishyamuka,

The islands of Vaidoorya dweepa (lakshdweep?) sankadweepa, Mukta dweepa, Trivichara dweepa, Dhurma pattana dweepa (all these are in the seas, perhaps in the southern seas or in the adjoining seas in the east and the west.)

The countries of Ganarajya, of Krishna, (?) Velluru (Velore ?), the Pesika, SUrpa, and Kusumanaga mountains.

The forests of Thumbavana, KArmaneyakas, the South Sea, the countries of TApasAsrama, Rsihas, KAnchI (Kancheepuram), MAruchIpattana, Cherya (Chera ?) Arya (?) Simhala (srilanka ?) Rishabha.

The town of Baladeva (?), the forest of Dandaka. the countries of Tamingilasana (countries / towns of Tamilnadu?), Bhadra, Cutch (kacchath theevu?), Kunjaradhari, TAmraparani (river).

The mention of Dravida comes in the South west which runs along with the western ghats in Karnataka, Maharshtra and Gujarat.


In verse 19 of this chapter we find a mention of Hema giri, Sindhukalaka, Raivataka, Saurashtra, BAdara, Dravida and Maharnava in the South west of the Kurma chakra.



This division is followed for all predictions of mundane issues.



The southern countries are ruled by Uttra phalguni, Hastham and Chithra. Indian ocean, Kanchi, Kaveri, Chola, Chera and Tamingilasana come under these stars.



The South western countries that include Dravida are ruled by Swathi, Vishaka and Anuradha.



So there is a clear demarcation between Dravida and Tamil lands.



The region of Dravida covers Karnataka. In numerous posts in this blog I have brought out who these Dravidas could be.

Who were the Dravidans?

No Aryan and no Dravidian either!

The people who were dislocated in the wake of submergence of Dwaraka were brought to the South by Sage Agsthya and they settled down throughout the regions of the the eastern parts of the western ghars. Kudremukh is a major region which is mentioned as Kuthirai malai in Pura nanuru. The Velirs who were regarded as the 3rd chain of Philanthropists (கடை ஏழு வள்ளல்கள்) ruled from Kuthirai malai (குதிரை மலை )


பறம்பு மலைப் பாரி, கொல்லி மலை வல்வில் ஓரி, மலையன் காரி, அதியமான், ஆய் (அண்டிரன்), பேகன், நள்ளி இவர்கள் அனைவருமே குதிரை மலையுடன் தொடர்பு கொண்டவர்கள். புறநானூறு 158 - இல் இந்த ஏழு வள்ளல்கள் பற்றிய குறிப்பு காணலாம். மேலும் அகம் 12 - இலும், சிறு பாணாற்றுப் படையிலும், குறுந்தொகை 80 - இலும் காணலாம். இவர்கள் அனைவருமே வேளிர் வம்சத்தினர். அகத்தியரால் துவாரகையிலிருந்து அழைத்து வரப்பட்டவர்கள் வேளிர்கள். அவர்களை தமிழக மூவேந்தர்கள் என்றுமே அங்கீகரித்ததில்லை.

புறநானூறு 168 - இல் சூசகமாக இதைக் காணலாம். அப்பாடல் 'ஊராக் குதிரைக் கிழவ' என்று குதிரை மலைத் தலைவனான பிட்டனைப் போற்றுவது. அவனது தயாள குணத்தால், பரிசில் பெரும் புலவர்கள் அவனை வாழ்த்திப் பாடுவர்.

எப்படிப் பாடுவர்?

'வையக வரைப்பில் தமிழகம் கேட்பப்
பொய்யாச் செந்நா நெளிய வேத்திப்
பாடுப வென்ப பரிசிலர் நாளும்..'

இதற்கு உரை ஆசிரியர் (டா உ.வே. சா. கண்டெடுத்த உரை) "உலகத்து எல்லையுள் தமிழ் நாடு கேட்க, பொய்யாத செவ்விய நா வருந்தும்படி வாழ்த்திப் பாடுவர் என்று சொல்லுவர் பரிசிலர், நாடொறும்" என்று எழுதி உள்ளார்.

அதாவது குதிரை மலை தமிழக நிலம் அல்ல. அங்கு ஆண்ட பிட்டன் உள்ளிட்ட வேளிர் தமிழர் அல்லர். ஆயினும் அவர்கள் தமிழில் பேசினர், அவர்தம் குடியினர் தமிழ் பேசுபவர். அவரைப் பாடிய புலவர்களும் தமிழ் அறிந்தோரே. அவரை வாழ்த்திப் பாடிய பாடல்கள், எல்லையில் உள்ள தமிழ் நாட்டில் கேட்க வேண்டும் என்று புலவர் பாடுவர் என்று பரிசு வாங்குவோர் சொல்வர் என்கிறார் புலவர் கருவூர் கந்தப் பிள்ளை சாத்தனார்.

What is established in these lines is that Tamilnadu was different from the regions ruled by Velirs. In this poem, the land of the Velir king was Kudremukh which is part of Karnataka now. The Tamil kings could not accpet the Velirs and were all the times at loggerheads with them. One popular example is that Paari, a Velir king. These kings and numerous other sects brought by Agasthya had embraced the Tamillands as theirs. They seemed to know Tamil even before hand. Otherwise they could not have patronized Tamil and Tamil poets and earned the disticntion as patrons. Poetess Ouvaiyaar and poet Kapilar were well known personalities who have sung in praise of Velir Kings. Unless Tamil had been a widely spoken language, such an easy adaptation could not have happened.

Even the division of lands into 5 with Mullai lands of forest tracts seems to be introduced to accommodate the people of Dwaraka after their migration. Tholkaappiyar, originally known as Trunathumaagni, the foremost disciple of Agasthya spoke first about the lands allotted to migrated cowherds. 'காடழித்து நாடாக்கி' அந்த மக்களுக்கு வாழ இடம் செய்து தரப்பட்டது என்று நச்சினார்க்கினியர் தொல்காப்பியப் பாயிர உரையில் கூறுகிறார். They later came to be called as Dravidas - ' those who ran away' by their kin who chose to migrate towards North through the Saraswathy Basin (which is now excavated as Harappan regions). The traces of those people settled in those areas are known as Indus Civilization. No wonder they share commonality with the people of the South because of the fusion of those people in Tamil lands.

Moreover unless Tamil had been a well known language of those times throughout Bharatha varsha - similar to how Hindi is known over most areas of India today - the easy merger with locals could not have happened for the Velirs. Their area of concentration was the present day Karnataka. That is why Dravida land was located in that part - along with Saurashtra in the Kurma Chakra from Pre-Varahamihira times onwards.

Finally it is all about the same culture throughout Bharatha varsha and predominance of Tamil throughout India. Tamil in Tamilnadu had retained its pristine purity. But the migrants from Dwaraka who must have known Sanskrit fused the two languages in course of time that gave rise to Kannada. Today the Kannadigas also have asked for classical status for Kannada. They quote the similarity of their language with the classical language, sanskrit. But the mix of Tamil in their language can not be disputed. Kannada is a by-product of two languages, perhaps fit enough to be called as Dravidian language as their area was called as Dravida in olden days.

Tamil on the other hand is different and unique. It is idiotic to deny the uniqueness of Tamil and ape for some Indus connection. The tradition and culture revealed by Sangam texts is intact. Violation of it by these brainless politicians is something unpardonable. Some day Historians will understand the truth of Tamil identity as unconnected with Dravidian identity. Let the Tamil speaking population shake off themselves from the brain washing and understand the truth.

In this connection, it must be said that the State song of Tamil the தமிழ்த் தாய் வாழ்த்து looks absurd and redundant with its praise for dravida naadu in the place of Tamil nadu.

நீராருங் கடலுடுத்த நிலமடந்தைக் கெழிலொழுகும்
சீராரும் வதனமெனத் திகழ்பரத கண்டமிதில்
தக்கசிறு பிறைநுதலும் தரித்தநறுந் திலகமுமே
தெக்கணமும் அதிற்சிறந்த திராவிடநல் திருநாடும்
அத்திலக வாசனைபோல் அனைத்துலகும் இன்பமுற
எத்திசையும் புகழ் மணக்க இருந்தபெருந் தமிழணங்கே.

உன் சீரிளமைத் திறம்வியந்து செயல்மறந்து வாழ்த்துதுமே.

- மனோன்மணீயம் சுந்தரனார்

The best salutation to Tamizhth thaai would be to call her lands as Tamil lands and not as Dravida lands.

The best tribute to her would be to bring out and publicize the Culture shown in Sangam texts and not that hypothesized from the Indus basin.

The best research would be to establish that Tamil was spoken throughout the Bharatha varsha as common man's language. Tamil was not confined to Tamilnadu alone.

*********

The Tamils have existed in all glory at the time of Mahabharatha. Krishna and Mahabharatha are not myths as we have proof of underwater excavations off Dwaraka showing submerged civilization some 5000 years ago. We in India have been keeping the record of time since the beginning of Kaliyuga, which started when Krishna departed. The Indus civilization is post-Krishna period. Read this post:-

Krishna, a reality – archeological proof.

The following are the information on Tamil kings and Tamil lands in the South as given in Mahabharatha. Remember these kings lived in the present day Tamilnadu before the advent of Indus civilization. This is given here to show how absurd it is to relate Tamils to Indus civilization while they were well established in the South even before the onset of Indus civilization.


# Mbh.8.12.471
They consisted of Dhrishtadyumna and Shikhandi and the five sons of Draupadi and the Prabhadrakas, and Satyaki and Chekitana with the Dravida forces, and the Pandyas, the Cholas

# Mbh.7.23.1149
The mighty Sarangadhwaja, endued with wealth of energy, the king of the Pandyas, on steeds of the hue of the moon's rays and decked with armour set with stones of lapis lazuli, advanced upon Drona, stretching his excellent bow.

# Mbh.7.23.1151
Obtaining weapons then from Bhishma and Drona, Rama and Kripa, prince Sarangadhwaja became, in weapons, the equal of Rukmi and Karna and Arjuna and Achyuta.

# Mbh.7.23.1155
Steeds that were all of the hue of the Atrusa flower bore a hundred and forty thousand principle car-warriors that followed that Sarangadhwaja, the king of the Pandyas.

# Mbh.2.14.593
And, O king of kings, Bhishmaka, the mighty king of the Bhojas, the friend of Indra, the slayer of hostile heroes, who governs a fourth part of the world, who by his learning conquered the Pandyas and the Kratha-Kausikas, whose brother the brave Akriti was like Rama, the son of Jamdagni, hath become a servitor to the king of Magadha.

# Mbh.3.88.4821
And, O Yudhishthira, in the country of the Pandyas are the tirthas named Agastya and Varuna!

# Mbh.7.11.414
The Avantis, the Southerners, the Mountaineers, the Daserakas, the Kasmirakas, the Aurasikas, the Pisachas, the Samudgalas, the Kamvojas, the Vatadhanas, the Cholas, the Pandyas,


# MAHABHARATA - BY K.M.GANGULI, SABAPARVA, PAGE 86

".......Duryodhana said O sinless one listen to me as I describe that large mass of wealth consisting of various kinds of tribute presented unto Yudhishthira by the kings of the earth......the kings of Chola and Pandya though they brought numberless jars of gold filled with fragrant sandal juice from the hills of Malaya, and loads of sandal and the aloe wood from the Dardduras hills and many gems of great brilliancy and fine cloths inlaid with gold didnot obtain permission to enter, and the king of the Singhalas gave those best of sea-born gems called the lapis lazuli and heaps of pearls also and hundreds of coverlets for elephants. And numberless dark-coloured men with the ends of their eyes red as copper attired in cloths decked with gems waited at the gate with those presents......"

Undermining Tamil in the name of Dravidan politics. (World Tamil Conference series-2)

Sangam texts are no doubt the rich sources for deciphering the antiquity of Tamil. Nowhere in the sangam texts or in the texts that appeared in the early centuries of the Common era, do we come across a reference to Tamils as Dravidas. Any other research - archeologically or otherwise - must therefore be cross checked with the literary evidence available in Tamil.

The foremost information derived from Tamil texts is that Tamilnadu was part of Jamboo dweepa (நாவலம் தீவு) situated in the Dakshina pada. It was always known as (தமிழகம்)  or thamizh naadu (தமிழ்  நாடு) but never as Dravida naadu (திராவிட நாடு) 

புற நானூறு 51 -இல் 'தண்டமிழ் பொதுவென' என்று 'தமிழ் நாடு மூவேந்தர்களுக்கும் பொதுவென' என்று சொல்லபப்டுகிறது.

புற நானூறு 35 -இல் ' மண்டிணி கிடக்கைத் தண்டமிழ்க் கிழவர்" என்று கூறுமிடத்தே, கடலை எல்லையாகக் கொண்ட தமிழ் நிலம் என்றும், காவிரி பாயும் நிலம் என்றும் சிறப்பிக்கப்படுகின்றது.

"தமிழ்த் தலை" என்று புற நானூறு 19 - இலும், 'தமிழ்ச் சேரி' என்று பெரும் கதையிலும், 'வட வேங்கடம், தென் குமரி ஆயிடைத் தமிழ் கூறும் நல் உலகம் " என்று தொல்காப்பியத்திலும் கூறப்படும் தமிழ் நிலம் இருந்த பகுதி பாரத வர்ஷத்தின் தென்பகுதி ஆகும்.

தட்சிணப் பேரூர் என்று ஆங்காங்கே மணிமேகலையில் சொல்லப்படும் மதுரை, பாண்டியன் தலை நகரம். வட மதுரை என்று கிருஷ்ணன் பிறந்த இடத்தைச் சொன்ன அதே மூச்சில் தென் மதுரை என்று தமிழகத்தில் உள்ள மதுரையைச் சொல்லும் இடங்கள் உள்ளன.

வடக்கே இமயம் என்றால், தெற்கே பொதியம் அதற்கு இணையாகச் சொல்லப்பட்டது. வடக்கே கங்கை என்றால், தெற்கே காவேரி.
திருவாலங்காடு  செப்பேடுகளில், பாகீரதன் தவமிருந்து கங்கையைக் கொண்டு வந்ததைப் போல, 'கவேரகன்யகா' எனப்பட்ட கவேரனின் புத்திரியான காவேரியைக் கொண்டு வர, சித்ராதன்வன் என்னும் சோழ அரசன் விரும்பி, அவ்வாறே தானும் கொண்டு வந்தான் என்று எழுதப் பட்டுள்ளது.

அந்தக் காவேரி வந்த விதம் பற்றி மணிமேகலை விவரிக்கிறது.
பதிகத்தில்,  நாவலம் தீவு பற்றியும், இத்தீவின் காவல் தெய்வமான (தீவத் தெய்வம்), ஜம்பு மரத்தின் கீழ் அமர்ந்து தவம் இயற்றி, அதனால் "சம்பு என்பாள் சம்பா பதியினள்" என்று பெயர் பெற்று, இத்தீவின் தென் பகுதியில் உள்ளோர் அசுரர்களால் தீங்கு அடையா வண்ணம் அவர்களைக் காக்கும் பொருட்டு தென் திசை நோக்கி அவள் அமர்ந்த ஊர் சம்பாபதி என்று பெயர் பெற்றது என்றும் சொல்லப்படுகிறது . அவள் அங்கு அமர்ந்த வெகுகாலம் பின்னர்தான், சோழ மன்னன் அகத்தியரிடம் வேண்டி, காவேரியைக் கொணர்ந்தான என்று எழுதப்பட்டுள்ளது. 

சம்பாபதி நோக்கி வந்த காவேரியை , அந்த சம்புத் தெய்வமானவள் , அரவணைத்து , இத்தனை நாள் தன் பெயரால் , சம்பாபதி என்றழைக்கப்பட்ட அம்மூதூர் , இனி காவிரியின் பெயராலும் , காவிரிப் பூம் பட்டினம் என வழங்கப்படும் என்கிறாள் .

"என் பெயர் படுத்த இவ்விரும் மூதூர்
நின் பெயர் படுத்தேன் நீ வாழி "
எனக் காவேரியை வாழ்த்துகிறாள்.

நாவலம் தீவுத் தெய்வமான அவள், தெய்வங்களுக்கெல்லாம் முதன்மையான இந்திரனுக்குச் செய்து வந்த விழவே , இந்திரா விழவு என்று காலம் தொட்டு புகார் நகரத்தில் நிகழ்ந்து வந்தது .
இவ்வாறு நடந்தது எல்லாம் தமிழ் நாட்டினிலே.  புகாரும், காவிரி பாயும் நிலமும், அந்த சம்பாபதி தெய்வம் காத்த நாடும் தமிழ் நாடே. காவேரி வருவதற்கு முன்னமேயே தமிழ் நிலங்களும், தமிழ் பேசும் மக்களும் இப்பகுதியில் இருந்திருக்கின்றனர்  என்றும் தெரிகிறது. 

காவேரி என்று தோன்றியது  என்ற ஆராய்ச்சியை தமிழக முதல்வர் ஊக்கிவித்திருந்தால், தமிழின் தொன்மையை உலகிற்கே பறை சாற்றி இருக்கலாம்.

மூழ்கின குமரியைக் கண்டறிய ஆழ் கடல் ஆராய்ச்சியை ஊக்கிவித்திருந்தால் தம்ழின் முதுமையை ஐயம் திரிபற அறிவித்திருக்கலாம்.

அதை எல்லாம் விட்டு விட்டு திராவிடன், திராவிடன் என்று பேசிக்கொண்டிருக்கிறார். திராவிட ஆராய்ச்சியாளருக்கு விருதும்அறிவித்திருக்கிறார்.

இதை எல்லாம் ஏன் இங்கு சொல்கிறேன் என்றால், தமிழன் என்பவன், திராவிடன் என்று சிந்து சமவெளிப் பகுதியில் இருந்து பின் தெற்கு நோக்கி வந்தவன் என்றால், அவன் தன் அடையாளத்தை தென் பகுதியிலும், காவிரியிலும், குமரியிலும், தமிழன் என்றும் பதித்திருப்பானா?

I would like to draw the attention to arguments in demolishing the Aryan invasion theory. It is argued that if only the Aryans had entered from outside India, why is there no trace of their culture in those outside areas? Why did they talk in their works (vedas) only about the rivers and places where they were supposed to have migrated? This is a strong argument to prove that the so-called Aryans belonged to the Ganga and Saraswathy and not tothe places outside Bharatha varsha.

Similarly we find a strong and repeated allegiance to Kaveri, Kumari and the lands to the south of Venkatam in Tamil texts. If the Tamils  originally belonged to the Indus valley why is there no mention of that land or the sorrow for having lost that land? While they were able to remember the lost lands of Kumari, why didn't they make any mention of lost lands of Indus which is chronologically later to the loss of Kumari?

Today the researchers say that the Indus excavation bear some resemblance to Tamil culture. In the wake of non-tenability of Aryan invasion theory, they certainly can not claim that the Indus people were driven out to the present day Tamil lands. If that is true there must be some mention of it in the vast literature available in Tamil. On the contrary, the Tamil texts lament about the lost lands of Kumari in the South which suffered submergence thrice in the past.

If we find similarity between Indus culture and Tamil culture, the reason must be something else. The more plausible reason could be that Tamils and Indus people had shared a common way of life and culture. Their religion and beliefs and way of life must have been the same.

If Tamil seems to have a link to the Indus scripts and other scripts found in India, that is clear indication that Tamil had been wide spread as spoken language in Bharatha varsha where Sanskrit was the language of Vedas. Earlier posts on how Tamil could have been the spoken language of people all over Bharatha varsha can be read here.

Purananuru contains Vaalmiki's Tamil poem

The so-called Dravidian languages of the south were the by-products of the mix of Tamil and Sanskrit.

In this background, it looks strange that the Tamil nadu Chief minister continues to harp on Dravidan identity for Tamils and have even decided to honour Prof  Parpola with the Classical Tamil award. I don't question the credentials and achievements of the Professor. But how is it right to link Tamil to Indus language when Tamil is much older and independently developed and nourished in the South and not in the Indus valley? 

The Classical status of Tamil owes its origins to the Tamil lands of sunken Mudurai in Kumari and  to Kapatapuram of Kumari lands. By honoring the Professor and constantly harping on Dravidan identity of Tamils, Mr Karunanidhi is doing a disservice to Tamil.

********

From

http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article462079.ece

Parpola and the Indus script

(Professor Parpola and other Dravidian researchers consider Old Tamil to be a possible route to get at the language of the Indus inscriptions. )

Iravatham Mahadevan

Professor Parpola

The first recipient of the Classical Tamil Award instituted by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.
Photo: Shaju John

In the recent interview with Asko Parpola published in The Hindu (April 15, 2010), readers were made aware of the lasting contributions by Professor Parpola to Indological studies, especially in the field of the Indus Civilisation and its script. Having known him personally for four decades and having closely watched his great contribution to the study of the Indus script, I am in a position to amplify the information provided in the interview.

Professor Parpola's contributions to Harappan studies are truly monumental, and these are not confined merely to the study of the Indus script. He has published a long series of brilliant papers to establish the fact of Aryan immigration into South Asia after the decline of the Indus Civilisation. As a Vedic scholar-turned-Dravidianist, he has the best academic credentials to prove that the Indus Civilisation was pre-Aryan and that its writing encoded a Dravidian language. In addition to his linguistic skills and deep scholarship of Vedic Sanskrit and the Dravidian languages, he has harnessed the computer in one of the earliest scientific attempts to study the structure of the Indus texts through computational linguistic procedures. Professor Parpola has produced the first truly scientific concordance to the Indus inscriptions. His concordance is accurate and exhaustive and has become an indispensable tool for researchers in the field.

Equally impressive, and again truly monumental, are the publications inspired and co-authored by Professor Parpola, of two volumes of the Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions. These volumes reproduce in amazing clarity and detail all the Indus seals (and their newly-made impressions) and other inscriptions. I happen to know personally the enormous difficulties Professor Parpola faced in publishing these volumes, nudging and goading the slow-moving bureaucracy in India and Pakistan to make available the originals, most of which were photographed again by the expert whom Professor Parpola sent from Finland for the purpose.

He published his magnum opus in 1994, Deciphering the Indus Script. The book contains the best exposition of the Dravidian hypothesis relating to the Indus Civilisation and its writing. Even though the Indus script remains undeciphered, as Professor Parpola readily admits, his theoretical groundwork on the Dravidian character of the Indus Civilisation and the script, and the fact of Aryan immigration into India after the decline of the Indus Civilisation, have been accepted by most scholars in the world.

Most of the Early Dravidian speakers of North and Central India switched over to the dominant Indo-Aryan languages in Post-Harappan times. Speakers of Aryan languages have indistinguishably merged with speakers of Dravidian and Munda languages millennia ago, creating a composite Indian society containing elements inherited from every source. It is thus likely that the Indus art, religious motifs and craft editions survived and can be traced in Sanskrit literature from the days of the Rigveda, and also in Old Tamil traditions recorded in the Sangam poems. Professor Parpola is aware of the Harappan heritage of both Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, the former culturally and the latter linguistically. His profound scholarship in both families of languages enables him to mine the Indian cultural heritage holistically in his search for clues to solve the mysteries of the Indus script.

It may be asked: What has Tamil to do with the Indus script that Professor Parpola should be honoured with the inaugural Classical Tamil Award? Tamil happens to be the oldest and the best-documented Dravidian language. It is mainly for this reason that the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary of Burrow and Emeneau accords the head position to Tamil entries in the dictionary. That this distinction is well-deserved is also proved by the fact that Old Tamil contains the most archaic features of Dravidian phonology and morphology, like for example, the retention of the character aytam and the sound zh. Dravidian linguists have also established that most proto-Dravidian reconstructions are in close accord with words in Old Tamil. The earliest Tamil inscriptions date from the Mauryan Era. The earliest Tamil literature, the Sangam works, are from the early centuries of the Common Era, but record oral traditions from a much earlier time. It is for this reason that Professor Parpola and other Dravidian researchers consider Old Tamil to be a possible route to get at the language of the Indus inscriptions.

Professor Parpola speaks for himself in the following excerpt from his message of acceptance of the Classical Tamil Award. He says: "When the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu's award is given to me for a Dravidian solution of the Indus enigma, this award will inevitably be interpreted by many people as politically motivated. Nevertheless, I am ready to fight for the truth, and in my opinion, the Tamils are entitled to some pride for having preserved so well the linguistic heritage of the Indus Civilisation. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that though their language has shifted in the course of millennia, people of North India too are to a large extent descended from the Harappan people, and have also preserved cultural heritage of the same civilisation."

Professor Parpola's work on the Indus script will prove to be as important and as long-lasting as U.Ve. Swaminathaiyar's resurrection of the Tamil Classics from decaying palm leaves. He richly deserves the honour of being the first recipient of the Classical Tamil Award instituted by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

(Iravatham Mahadevan is a noted epigraphist and Tamil scholar.)

Tamils roots are in the South and not in the Indus. (World Tamil Conference series -1)

Starting from this post, a series of posts will be published on the World Tamil Conference. There are quite a few issues that I am contemplating to write for sometime. I will write them in the coming days.

To begin with I am giving here the objection by Dr S.Kalyanaraman, who is doing a pioneering research on Saraswathy Civilization (Indus / Harappan) - to linking the Saraswathy civilization with the Tamils. With the theory of Aryan Invasion now demolished, it is absurd to cling to the theory of Dravidian migration from Harappan areas and claim that they were the Tamils of Tamilnadu.


It is really perplexing how a person like Mr Karunanidhi claiming to have drunk Tamil scriptures can think that the Tamils had migrated form the north while the olden Tamil texts keep repeating that the Tamils had their lands spread to the South of Kumari (in the lost land of Kumari kandam). His passion for 'dravida' has veiled and vitiated the basic understanding about who a Tamil is and where he lived.


If similarities are seen between the Tamils and the people of Saraswathy region, we have to research into all possible causes and not rely on the now defunct theory of Aryan invasion. A cursory look at the major texts of Tamil will tell us how these similarities came to exist.


Most important among them is the assertion by Nachinaarkkiniyaar, the commentator of Tholkaapiyam who has said that the sage Agasthya brought various sects of people from Dwaraka after it was submerged. The Velir kings praised in Purananuru were the people brought by him. Vel Evvi was one such Velir king who was praised in Siru paanaatruppadai. He lived 2000 years ago. He hailed from the lineage of Ovi.


We find a similar mention of the lineage of Ovi in the copper plates of Thiruvaalankaadu inscribed during the reigns of King Rajendra Chola.(sometime in the 11th century AD). The inscribers of the plates have mentioned their names at the end of the inscription and said that they lived in Kancheepuram and belonged to Ovi lineage! The similarity in the lineage is something striking.It means that those brought by Agasthya had very much settled in many parts of Tamilnadu and merged with the locals.


Another similarity is that the kind of molds (for making images) unearthed in the saraswathy trenches are similar to what the sculptors of Swamimalai (in Tamilnadu) are making even today. The methodology of making these molds had been the same or had not changed over thousands of years. If Mr Karunanidhi encourages research on how such similarities exist, that would be a great service to Tamil's culture.


Such similarities can be explained on two counts. Either all the people of Bharatha varsha had followed a united culture for 1000s of years, or there had been exchange or migration of people within Bharath varsha - not necessarily because some one had chased out someone else, but because people found opportunities in such mobility. After all the Tamils were guided by the dictum - "thirai kadal odiyum diraviyam thedu."


It would have lent better sense if the Tamil Conference looks into the roots of Tamils in the South and comes out of the Dravida Maaya.


Mr Karunanidhi's article on the Conference published in the Hindu is reproduced below. He has continued to rely on the defunct ideas of Tamil's past promoted by Colonial elements. He seems to be more obsessed with getting Classical status for Tamil ( a status that other languages also are going to get) than about bringing out the antiquity of Tamil. He does not want to do that - may be because that would mean shunning the Dravidan tag.

Dr S. Kalyanaraman's objection to linking Tamils with Sarasawathy civilization is given here:-


Distorting Tamil Nadu history as command performance: Karunanidhi's justification for World Tamil conference.

by
Dr S. Kalyanaraman.


When the multi-disciplinary academic jury is still out about defining the language underlying the Indus script, Hon'ble CM of Tamil Nadu, Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, has already claimed that Sarasvati civilization was originated by Tamils in Tamil language, relying upon theories of Mahadevan and Asko Parpola.

For a contra view, see the links at http://sites.google.com/site/induswriting I totally disagree with the decipherment announcements of Mahadevan and Parpola. I believe that the writing system was the product of an Indian linguistic area and of artisans who produced the exquisite artefacts adorned with their writings. This legacy has to be cherished as a pan-Indian Hindu civilization heritage

While I respect the enormous, dedicated, scholarly contributions made by Mahadevan and Parpola to an understanding of the Indus script, I would assume that Mahadevan and Parpola will themselves deny that the script has been successfully decoded by them..

But does a CM have to await academic consensus on the issue of the lingua franca of the Hindu civilization when Vedic River Sarasvati was nourishing Sarasvati's children in northwest Hindusthan and present-day Pakistan-Afghanistan?

Who knows? It appears Hon'ble CM of Tamil Nadu knows. Anyway, the proposed conf. is a command performance to distort Hindu history. Who ever denies the glory, antiquity and legacy of Tamil language? Why make false pretences based on theories however academic?

I suppose this is politics of make-believe, abusing history, parading it as a statecraft of distorting history to make a temporarily expedient political point.

Anyway, the CM as an author is entitled to his views and I only hope that the CM will refer to Vedic River Sarasvati where Tamil was nurtured on the banks of this great mother, Himalayan river and also mention the essential unity of Hindu civilization from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

Dhanyavaadah.

********************

From

http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article444941.ece?homepage=true

World Classical Tamil Conference – a perspective

Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

The Hindu He wrote the theme song for which A.R. Rahman composed the music. Photo: A. Rajesh

Although Tamil and a few other languages such as Greek, Latin and Sanskrit enjoy the status of classical language in the academic world thanks to their antiquity and rich literary heritage, Tamil is the first living language to be given the official status of a classical language.

Our sagacious leader, Arignar Anna [C.N. Annadurai], conducted the Second World Tamil Conference in Chennai in 1968, during his tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, on a very grand scale with the participation of lakhs of Tamils from all over the country and abroad. The First World Tamil Conference, held in Kuala Lumpur in 1966, the Third in Paris (1970), the Fourth in Jaffna (1974), the Fifth at Madurai (1981), the Sixth again in Kuala Lumpur (1987), the Seventh in Mauritius (1989), and the Eighth in Thanjavur (1995) were, relatively speaking, on a moderate scale.

Following our success in getting the rightful status of Classical Language for Tamil declared and notified by the United Progressive Alliance government – a landmark achievement in the development of Tamil and in the restoration of its prestige and glory – succeeding in our efforts to establish the Central Institute of Classical Tamil in Chennai, and facilitating the award of the President's 'Kuralpeeda Award' and 'Tholkappiar Award' on nationally and internationally renowned Tamil scholars, we thought it fit to conduct the first World Classical Tamil Conference. We decided to hold it for five days from the 23rd to the 27th of June 2010 at Coimbatore in a grand manner.

Demand for classical status

For more than 150 years, Tamil scholars and those conscious of their Tamil heritage have been demanding that the classical character of Tamil be recognised. They claimed that Tamil has rich and hoary literary and grammatical traditions, its own script system, and an unbroken lengthy history. In addition, the language has continuously been a spoken language at least for more than 2,000 years in Tamil Nadu. It has essentially kept its age-old character intact, even though it is an effective modern language.

The demand for classical status arose in the context of the British Indian administration treating Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic as classical languages and making special provisions and support mechanisms for the learning and development of these languages. The demand arose also in the context of the strong Tamil tradition and tendency, even now easily discernible, to maintain its own distinct character through various linguistic, literary, religious, anthropological, sociological, cultural, and architectural means and contributions.

In recent years, George Hart, Professor of Tamil Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, reiterated with sound arguments the demand that Tamil should be declared or recognised as a classical language. He wrote in 2000: "First, Tamil is of considerable antiquity. Second, Tamil constitutes the only literary tradition indigenous to India that is not derived from Sanskrit. Third, the quality of classical Tamil literature is such that it is fit to stand beside the great literatures of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Chinese, Persian and Arabic."

Dr. Robert Caldwell (1814-1891) established beyond the pale of controversy the reality of the Dravidian family of languages and the high antiquity of Tamil. According to him, it is the most highly cultivated of all Dravidian idioms; it can dispense with its Sanskrit altogether, if need be, and not only stand alone but also flourish without its aid.

Caldwell's study provided the base for the formation of the Pure Tamil Movement, founded by the great Tamil savant, Parithimaal Kalaignar (V.G. Suryanarayana Sastri), a Professor of Tamil at the Madras Christian College. He first gave the clarion call to recognise Tamil as a classical language. His view was further nurtured by the renowned scholars, Maraimalai Adigal (1876-1950) and Devaneya Paavanar, who opined that Tamil was the primary classical language of the world.

In 1918, the Saiva Siddhanta Samajam passed a resolution demanding that the University of Madras grant classical language status to Tamil. This was done at the initiative of Maraimalai Adigal, Professor of Tamil at the Madras Christian College, and a proponent of the Pure Tamil Movement, whose original name was Vedachalam. Two years later, the Thanjavur-based Karanthai Tamil Sangam petitioned the university to raise the status issue with the provincial government. After that, not much was heard of the demand for a long time.

The 1970s again saw a champion of the cause in Manavai Mustafa, then Editor of UNESCO Courier (Tamil). But he did not have much organisational backing. Since 1975 he has been writing consistently in newspapers and magazines pressing the demand. Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran asked him to send a petition detailing how Tamil qualified to claim the status.

Mustafa said it took him two years to collect the necessary data, which included the features a language should have to qualify for classical status. He presented a petition to the Chief Minister in 1982, but no action was taken. Years later, he said, he learnt that the petition was rejected by a top government official on the ground that if Tamil was given the status on a par with Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, which are no more spoken languages, Tamil would also be considered a `dead' language.

Movement gains momentum

The movement to classify Tamil as a classical language gained momentum about ten years ago when major political parties took up the issue. A few months before the 1996 general elections, the DMK adopted a resolution at its Tiruchi conference demanding that Tamil be made one of the official languages of the Union government. The demand was also included in the DMK's manifesto for the Assembly elections held along with the general elections.

In 1998, when the BJP captured power at the Centre, many academics felt that the BJP-led government, which declared 1999 as Sanskrit Year and caused a flow of funds to universities and Sanskrit organisations, was not keen on giving classical status to Tamil. The DMK, as a constituent in the government, pressed Tamil's case. It organised hunger strikes and demonstrations and thousands of people courted arrest.

The DMK conference at Villupuram also adopted a resolution to that effect. Its election manifesto for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections stated: "The DMK will continue to insist on the declaration of Tamil as a Classical Language as it would enable the allocation of funds for Tamil research by the Central government and would also facilitate Tamil research in various universities in India and abroad."

The DMK-led alliance swept the polls and the DMK became an important constituent of the UPA government formed at the Centre. We could get this demand included in the National Common Minimum Programme. In the very first joint session of Parliament in June 2004, the declaration of Tamil as a Classical Language by President APJ Abdul Kalam, a Tamil scholar himself, was not just symbolic. It was a victory for Indian democracy and the federal polity as well.

On September 17, 2004, Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy announced that the government's decision to accord classical language status was taken on the recommendation of an Expert Committee of the Sahitya Akademi that a category of "classical languages" be created. Since Tamil fulfilled the set of criteria the Committee had evolved, it won the honour of being the first to get into this prestigious category. Although Tamil and a few other languages such as Greek, Latin and Sanskrit enjoy the status of classical language in the academic world thanks to their antiquity and rich literary heritage, Tamil is the first living language to be given the official status of a classical language.

On October 12, 2004, the UPA government issued a notification declaring Tamil as a classical language. Thus Tamil won the distinction of being the first classical language declared by the independent Government of India.

I expressed my overwhelming feeling of joy at the DMK conference in Tiruchi on March 5, 2006, in the presence of Congress president Thirumathi Sonia Gandhi. I said the letter she wrote to me about the decision was not just a letter but an ageless copperplate. She had stated in her letter of November 8, 2005: "Dear Thiru Karunanidhiji, I have received your letter of 28th October. I am glad that all the formalities for declaring Tamil as a Classical Language have now been completed. This is an achievement for all the constituents of the UPA Government, but particular credit goes to you and your Party. With Regards, Yours sincerely, Sonia Gandhi."

The century-old dream of Tamils turned true and the first part of the history of classical language came to an end. I wrote a series of epistles to my party brethren under the heading 'Some pages in the history of Classical Language' in our party organ Murasoli, explaining the historical development of the demand for classical status for Tamil and the stalwarts and scholars who contributed to it.

Significance of conference logo

The image of Thiruvalluvar's statue in Kanyakumari, being lashed by waves caused by the tsunami and encircled by seven icons from the Indus Valley Civilisation, forms part of the logo of the World Classical Tamil Conference. The logo emphasises the ideal of humankind, that it should always be free of narrow walls of race, creed, and caste. The message is found in a palm leaf manuscript at the bottom of the statue. This concept ("pirapokkum ella uyirkkum" = All living humans are one in circumstances of birth) has been declared to be the motto of the meet. The Indus Valley Civilisation icons, found in the logo, symbolise the Dravidian civilisation, which is regarded as the most ancient civilisation of the world. The number of icons stresses the importance of 'seven' in the lives of Tamils.

Theme song

I wrote the theme song for the Conference, which has been set to tune by Oscar and Grammy Award winner A.R. Rahman. The DVD was made by leading film director Gautham Menon.

The World Classical Tamil Conference will be inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil in the forenoon of June 23, 2010. The Governor of Tamil Nadu, Thiru Surjit Singh Barnala, and scholars like Professor George Hart, Dr. V.C. Kulandaisamy, and Dr.K. Sivathamby will participate in the inaugural function, which I will preside over.

The "Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award" will be presented to the world renowned Indologist, Dr. Asko Parpola of Finland, for his magnum opus, Deciphering the Indus Script (1994), proposing Dravidian as the language of the Indus Script, close to old Tamil. This Award has been instituted by the Central Institute of Classical Tamil making use of the endowment created by me from my personal contribution of Rs.1 crore.

Academic sessions

The Conference will feature comprehensive academic sessions in which research papers in Tamil language, literature, culture, and so on will be presented by scholars and researchers. As many as 1,020 delegates from 49 countries have registered for participation at the conference. They will present their papers on various subjects under 55 titles.

General sessions for the public

The general sessions will have various literary programmes to benefit and attract the public. The public will get an opportunity to listen to presentations on classical Tamil in the form of various programmes like literary speeches, poetry sessions, and scholarly debates by renowned personalities. We expect thousands of people to attend these sessions. Further, dance operas, music performances, and so on will be organised in the evenings to showcase Tamil culture to the delegates and the general public.

Exhibition on Classical Tamil

A grand exhibition is being organised for the World Classical Tamil Conference. There will be exhibits depicting Tamil arts, culture, language, literature, and the history of Tamil. The exhibition will present objects of pottery, figurines, bricks, and seals, bathtubs etc., which were excavated from the Indus Valley apart from Chola bronzes, stone inscriptions, and statues from various ages.

Pageantry procession

A massive pageantry procession will be organised on June 23, the day of inauguration. It will cover 9 km. from VOC grounds in the heart of the city of Coimbatore to CODISSIA grounds, the venue of the Conference. The procession will have 40 floats displaying paintings and models of sculptures depicting the glory of Tamil culture. The floats will portray rare and resplendent scenes from the ancient Sangam classics and reflect the richness of the Tamil people and their culture. What is more, 40 cultural troupes consisting of 2,000 artistes will participate in the procession.

Tamil Internet Conference

Another unique aspect will be the Tamil Internet Conference 2010, which the Government of Tamil Nadu decided to hold alongside the first World Classical Tamil Conference. The objectives of the former are to showcase the development of Tamil Internet up to the present time and to identify the steps needed to increase the use of the Tamil language on the Internet; to establish a wide network between Tamil literary scholars and Tamil Internet developers; and to motivate the younger generation to use Tamil on the Internet.

We expect about 350 special invitees, speakers, delegates, and experts from 15 countries to participate in the Tamil Internet Conference. A "Tamil Computing Internet Exhibition" is being organised as an interactive module to expose and explain the latest developments and technology in Tamil Internet to common folk.

Much thought and consultation has gone into formulating the programmes of this specialised Conference. I am confident it will take Tamil to the 21st Century, based on its requirements and having in mind the rapid developments in science and technology, information technology, linguistics, anthropology, epigraphy, and other fields of knowledge.

Ravanan – a review

தலையாய வேலையாய் ராவணன் படம் பார்த்தாயிற்று.
தலையாய கடமையாய் அதைப்பற்றி ப்ளாக் எழுதி விடுகிறேன்.


ரிலீஸ் ஆன மூன்றாம் நாளான இன்று, ஞாயிற்றுக் கிழமை நான் சென்ற சென்னை தியேட்டர் ஹவுஸ் புல் ஆகவில்லை என்பதே படம் எப்படி என்று சொல்லிவிட்டது. இடை வேளையில் எங்கள் ரோவில் இருந்தவர்கள் காலி செய்து விட்டார்கள். நாங்கள் மட்டும் தான் எங்கள் ரோவில். என் பசங்களும் கிளம்பி விட்டார்கள். ஆனால் நான் பிடிவாதம் பிடிக்கவே அவர்கள் மீதிப் படத்தையும் பார்க்க வேண்டியதாயிற்று. ராவணனுக்கும் இந்தப் படத்துக்கும் என்ன சம்பந்தம் என்று கண்டு பிடித்திட வேண்டும் என்று நான் படம் முடியும் வரை பார்க்க விரும்பினேன். மணி ரத்தினம் படத்தை இதற்கு மேலே பார்ப்பதற்கு அவார்ட் கொடுப்பதாக இருந்தால் பார்க்கலாம் என்பது என் பசங்கள் அபிப்பிராயம்.


க்ளைமாக்ஸ் சீன் ஒன்றுக்காக இரண்டரை மணி நேரம் படம் பார்க்கத் தயாராக இருந்தால் இந்தப் படத்தைப் பார்க்கப் போகலாம். க்ளைமாக்ஸ் சீன் ஒன்றில்தான் படத்தோடு ஒன்றி ஏதோ படம் ஒன்று பார்க்கிறோம் என்ற பீலிங் வருகிறது. மற்றபடி முழு படமும், என்னவோ ஸ்டில் படங்களை ஒட்டி பயாஸ்கோப் பார்த்த மாதிரி இருக்கிறது. characterisation, character justification, யார், எதற்கு, என்ன, ஏன் செய்கிறார்கள் என்று ஒரு மண்ணும் புரியாது - ஏதாவது இருந்தால் தானே புரிவதற்கு? இதுதான் மணிரத்தினத்தின் முத்திரை என்று முன்னமே தெரிந்ததுதான். ஆனால் அது என்ன ராமாயண கனெக்ஷன் என்ற மண்டைக் குடைச்சலால் படம் பார்க்கப் போனேன். ராமாயணம் மணியின் காலை வாரி விட்டது.


Hype கொடுப்பதற்கு ராமாயணம், ராவணன் என்று அலைந்திருக்க வேண்டாம்.
தான் என்ன காரக்டர்களை நினைத்திருந்தாரோ அவர்களை ஒழுங்காக ப்ரெசென்ட் செய்திருக்கலாம். கடமையில் கருத்தான போலீஸ் ஆபீசர். பழி வாங்க அவர் மனைவியை வில்லன் கடத்தி விடுகிறான். அவளிடம் சலனப்ப்டுகிறான். வில்லன் பக்கம் இருக்கும் நியாயங்களும் அந்த மனைவிக்குத் தெரிய வருகிறது. அவளிடம் வில்லனுக்கு உள்ள soft கார்னரால் ஆபிசரை பிழைத்துப் போக விடுகிறான். ஆனால் ஆபீசர் அவனை எப்படியாவது முடித்துவிட மனைவியைப் பகடையாக உபயோகப்படுத்துகிறான். இதுதான் கதை. இதை அமர்க்களமாக எடுத்திருக்கலாம்.
தேவையில்லாமல், ராமன், ராவணன், பக்ஷி (ஜடாயு?) கார்த்திக், தூது என்று - ராமாயணத்திலிருந்துதான் கதையைப் பின்னினேன் என்று சொல்லிக்கொண்டு, கதையை அதற்கு ஏற்றபடி build-up கொடுக்காமல் சொதப்பி இருக்கிறார்.



பொதுவாகவே ராமனிடம் நெருங்கக் கூடாது என்று சொல்லுவார்கள். நெருங்கினால் அவதிதான். ராமாயணத்திலிருந்து எடுக்கிறேன் என்று நினைத்துக் கொண்டு, லாஜிக்கும் இல்லாமல், எந்த காரக்டருக்கும் justification பண்ணாமல், எந்தக் காட்சியிலும் படத்துடன் ஒன்ற முடியாமல் அபத்தமாகப் படம் எடுத்திருக்கிறார். லோகாஷுன் ஒன்றுதான் சொல்லிகிறபடி இருக்கிறது.இசையைப் பொறுத்தவரை ரஹ்மானின் செம்மொழி பாடலே தேவலை என்று சொல்கிறபடி செய்திருக்கிறார்.


ராவணன் டைட்டிலையும், ராமாயணத்தையும் பப்ளிசிடிக்காக மணி ரத்தினம் பயன் படுத்தினார் போலத் தெரிகிறது. ராவணன் என்று டைட்டில் போட்டு விடவே, ராமாயணத்துடன் ஒற்றுமை உள்ளதாக காட்டிக்கொள்ள சம்பந்தம் இல்லாத டயலாக்குகள் ஏராளம். தன் ஊர் மக்களைக் காப்பாற்ற கொலை பாதகச் செயல் செய்ய வில்லன் தயங்காதவன். அதனால் அவனை ராவணன் என்று சொல்வார்களாம். இராமாயண ராவணன் அப்படிப்பட்ட செயல்களைச் செய்தா கொடியவன் என்று பெயர் எடுத்தான்? மணமானப் பெண்ணைக் கடத்தியது ஒன்றுதான் ராமாயணத்துடன் ஒத்துப் போவது. மற்றபடி, கஷ்டப்பட்டு ராமாயணத்தை ஆங்காங்கே இழுத்து, படத்தையும், வசனத்தையும் கேலிக்கூத்தாக ஆக்கி விட்டிருக்கிறார்கள். இயல்பாகவே, சொந்தக் கற்பனையுடனேயே திரைக் கதை, வசனம் அமைத்திருக்கலாம்.


தமிழ் நாட்டில் விகரமுக்காக இந்தப் படத்தைப் பார்க்க வருகிறார்கள் என்று நினைக்கிறேன். விக்ரம் வரும் ஓரிரு இடங்களில்தான் தியேட்டரில் கொஞ்சம் சலனம். ஆனால் விக்ரமை எப்படி உபயோகப் படுத்திக்கொள்ள வேண்டும் என்று மணி ரத்தினத்துக்கு தெரியவில்லை. அவர் ஐஸை மட்டுமே நம்பி உள்ளார் போலத் தெரிகிறது. மணியின் தமிழ் பட நாயகிகளின் track record -உம் இதை மெய்ப்பிக்கிறது. தொடுசுவாக, மகா பாரதம், ராமாயணம் என்று நம்புகிறார். தளபதியில் காட்சிகள் ஒற்றுமை ஓரளவாவது இருந்தது. ராவணனில் வசனத்தின் மூலம் ஒப்புமை காட்ட முயன்றுள்ளார். ஒப்புமை இல்லாததால், நாம் பார்ப்பது அபத்தக் களஞ்சியமாக உள்ளது. ராமாயணத்தையும் justify செய்யவில்லை. இந்தக் கதையையும் justify செய்யவில்லை.


படம் ரிலீஸ் ஆன முதல் நாளே 20 கோடி வசூல் என்று yahoo news வந்தது. படத்தின் பட்ஜெட்டே 50 கோடி என்றும் படித்தேன். எப்படியாவது பத்து நாட்கள் ஒட்டி, போட்ட பணம் எடுத்துவிட்டு, வெற்றி என்று சொல்லிவிடுவார்கள். அதற்கப்புறம் எந்த தியேட்டர் என்று தேட வேண்டாம். ஹாசினி பேசும் படத்தில் பார்த்துக் கொள்ளலாம் என்றும் சிகாசினி அம்மாவை நம்ப வேண்டாம் (அவங்க படமாச்சே). கவலைபடாதீர்கள். RAj TV படத்தை வாங்கியிருக்கிறார்களாம். சீக்கிரம் பார்த்துவிடலாம்.



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Updated on 23-06-20`10.

From

http://www.ibosnetwork.com/newsmanager/templates/template1.aspx?a=22132&z=4

Commentary: Can't question Mani Ratnam's genius? Yes we will.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Epic Fail

Let's try to sort some things out about Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and especially the heralded 'genius' Mani Ratnam who has been offering ambiguous answers to the public about his Ramayan reference of Raavan. If according to Mani Ratnam, even Ram is not above questioning, then here's a basic question: how come Mani Ratnam and this crew are above questioning?

You don't name a movie Raavan by accident Mr. Ratnam. Raavan is not a common name, nor one you created having thought of it one fine day randomly. And there is no such thing as 'Raavanan'. The name is Raavan and it is from the epic of The Ramayan codified thousands of years ago by the robber turned scholar Valmiki on the events of Ram, born in Suryavansh and the Prince of Ayodhya.

The question the Indian public needs to ask is why invert the Ramayan? These people (Mani Ratnam, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan) either believe Ram was God or they don't. If they believe he was, then they have been committing blasphemy questioning Ram and justifying Raavan. If they don't, then they are committing copyright violation...on Mr. Valmiki's work. Which is it?

Because Valmiki clearly codified that Ram is the embodiment of the 'Maryada Purushottam' (the alpha male: the best of man) of civilization. Ramayan is the text of ideal behavior of man within the context of civilization. It represents what the Indian civilzation was and can be at its best, from the profound simplicity of Gurukul to invasion across the Ocean breaching it, to the characteristic of sacrifice that is intrinsically Indian. Dashrath didn't force Ram to go into exile. He chose to. Nobody forced Sita to goto exile once it was Ram's exile. Sita chose to. The Ramayan is about choices and consequences and how Indian men and women at their best respond to them. It is to text what the edicts of Ashok Maurya are to the notion of Indian empire, an epic among epics describing a time of India at its zenith. Not some trivial piece of work that can be compressed in a 2 hour movie featuring wannabes.

And what Mani Ratnam's work tries to do is not just interpret the Ramayan but cast an inversion onto it, which is the central problem with the movie apart from the casting of Aishwarya Rai, not just any editing issues that Amitabh Bachchan keeps harboring on. Not that there weren't any editing issues or that Abhishek Bachchan's Hindi delivery isn't pathetic. It is. But that's not the central problem. We literally have an 'ulta ramayan' being advanced here. So Ratnam gets 'Ram' to be a liar, 'Lakshman' and crew to be 'rapists'. Aishwarya Rai pretending to be 'Sita' pretending to be going all googly-eyed for 'Raavan'. Uh huh. In some ways it's true that whatever Mani Ratnam's Raavan is, it sure as hell doesn't have anything to do with the real Ramayan. It may have to do with a number of things going on in Ratnam's head but we won't get into that right now.

But let's go back and stipulate the worst case scenario for the purpose of making the point against his hackjob attempt here in this 2 year epic disaster. Let's say that there is no God and Ram was not God. Then from the book on the acts of God, Ramayan turns much into a human epic like Odyssey or The Iliad are from the ancient Greece. Fine, but it is still an epic, an original epic by a genius.

But that genius was not Mani Ratnam nor Kambh in 12th century AD(whose Ramavataram is actually nowhere near as subvertive an attempt), but Valmiki centuries before 0BC, who actually and originally brought forth The Ramayan which has stayed for thousands of years. That's genius. Genius does original work which has staying power beyond a few weeks. Genius doesn't steal from others' works, inverts them and then tries to take credit for it; as these people seem eager to. Surprisingly nobody has questioned them on this. But then again, knowing the orientation of Indian media, it is not surprising.

You don't interpret Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, by giving it a mustache, and then go around thinking, or your supporters claiming you're a genius for it. If Mani Ratnam is a genius, as his supporters in media and industry want Indian public to believe, let him create an original work of his own that can stay for thousands of years like Mr. Valmiki's has. Good luck. But his odds of pulling that off are not looking very high.

Because to reinterpret The Ramayan Mani Ratnam, you have to understand it first.

Earthquake at Nicobar

We are moving towards a season of earthquakes. As told often in my blog on earthquake prediction, Sunday's earthquake at Nicobar fulfilled the basic parameters for earthquake. A detailed article on earthquake prediction posted as scribd document can be read at http://www.scribd.com/doc/31660527/Predicting-Earthquakes


Moon was in arudra at the time of earthquake. The star of the day and time of the strike makes it the 'varuna' accompanied with rains and potential for a tsunami. But varuna type earthquakes are localized and do not have impact over larger areas as happened in the deadly earthquake of 2004.  Usually earthquakes occurring in the first quarter of the day after sunrise in the stars of Aswini, Mrugaseesha, Punarvasu, Hastha, chithra, swati or U.Phalguni will rattle the earth for 1000s of kilometers.


The coming fortnights are vulnerable for severe earthquakes. From the afternoon of 23rd June until 26th midnight, the moon will be in a vulnerable location being aspected by Mars and Saturn. They simultaneously aspect  the Martian sign and 2 of the 3 watery signs of the zodiac. Tsunami threat will be imminent at those times. Southeast Asia and Northern latitudes in Russia and North America are vulnerable areas. For details on how to arrive at these conclusions, read this post:
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2010/03/earthquake-at-chile-astrological.html

Utility of ashtaka varga in matching horoscopes.

In the current times of easy going tendencies with reference to relationships and increasing prospects of divorces and re-marriages, traditional methods of matching horoscopes have to be redefined. Popular concepts such as Mars-dosha and kalathra dosha look irrelevant today, as termination of marriage is very common nowadays due to reasons other than the traditional notion of separation only by death. Earlier mars dosha was feared for its potency to cause death of the partner. But in today's context, the dosha seems to cover a spate of causes for separation leading to divorce or estrangement. In this context, we have to explore other areas of astrology to identify the potential for such separation. My recent article in these lines using Ashtakavarga indicators to assess the extent of marital stability can be read in the June issue of The astrological magazine. The details are available at
http://www.astrologicalmagazine.com/previous_edition.html
The magazine is available in print or can be read online by subscribing to the magazine.


For those not having any idea of ashtakavarga, the book "Ashtakavarga system of prediction" authored by Dr BV Raman is an excellent guide. My article on how to use ashtakavarga for matching horoscopes for marriage can be easily understood with basic knowledge of ashtakavarga.


Ashtakavarga is about the kind of influences exerted by the 7 planets (the nodes are not included except for certain reckoning) on each other by means of rays. Lagna (ascendant) also is included and that is how this system got the name 'ashtaka varga'. According to this system, each planet exerts some influence or null influence on certain distances from themselves. In my opinion this is about some unknown scientific fact on the mutual influences among planets and on each other. This is different from the aspects. I wish some astro- scientist takes up the ashtaka varga rays of the planets to find out whether any coupling or decoupling of planets happen as per ashtaka varga angles (positions).


It is difficult to rationalize how and why Parashara and others arrived at the 'fall of rays' at certain distances from the planets with reference to each one of them. But that it exists and that the cumulative effect does reflect the good and bad of specific issues of life make me think that serious sceintific research on this would certainly revolutionize our understanding of the way the constituents of the solar system hang in equilibrium. It might also reveal the reasons how earthquakes are so patterned thereby helping the scientist do the job of predicting earthquakes in advance.


In my article I have noted the importance of Bhinnashtaka varga (BAV) of Venus in assessing the mutual attraction between prospective partners. The bhinnashtaka varga of sun, mars and saturn reveal the hidden mishaps to matrimonial stability. If we see zero bindus in any house of the BAV of the malefic, care must be taken to assess what prospects get affected by them and how they are compensated in the BAV of the prospective partners. Zero bindus in 2,4,7,8 and 12th houses in in the BAV of Mars are indicators of trouble in married life.


Ashtaka varga has greater relevance in assessing the impact of planets in gochara. Even if a planet like saturn is in ashtama in gochara, if the sign where it is transiting has more than 28 points in sarvashtaka varga and more than 4 points in saturn's BAV, then the ashtama sani would not be malevolent. Moreover there are divisions of a sign into 8 parts which will determine the nature of effects in gochara. They can be read in the book written by Dr BV Raman. Due to these fine-tuning offered by ashtakavarga in assessing gochara results, the general predictions offered in many magazines and dot coms on gochara results are unreliable. The ashtaka varga of individual horoscopes determine these results.


BAV of Mars has wide-reaching relevance. For a successful personal life and financial health, Martian BAV must be ideally present. Realtors and share brokers must have a good BAV of mars.
One must not risk buying or selling land on the month where (indicated by the sign) Mars has less than 4 bindus in its BAV.
Likewise the 12th sign and the 12th bhava should not have high bindus in martian BAV. That would erase all the profits and make one indebted.

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Can there be life in Titan (saturn's moon) - from Hinduism point of view?

Recent articles in space.com and Astrobiology magazine speak about a probability of some non-water based micro organisms brewing in the Titan-chemistry. What has made this speculation possible is the disappearance of atmospheric hydrogen as it flows down and touches the surface of Titan. This may be due to some hitherto unknown chemical phenomena and as such may be a natural process of chemical modification. But Titan, the satellite of Saturn continues to stimulate the excitement of researchers of extra terrestrial life. Titan continues to be the center of focus for research in search of some life form springing from the hydro carbons present in abundance in that tiny companion of Saturn.


The current research may be going in the right direction as it may give some clues on how life could form from such chemicals, because  a similar chemistry is thought to have existed once on the earth before life originated. Thinking from the perspective of Hindu Thought, Saturn is  associated with giving life! As per Nakshathra sooktha of Yajur Veda, the lord of Saturn is Prajapathi who is the progenitor of life and lord of Life.


Among the planets Mercury and Saturn occupy a unique place as denoted by the swaras of Saptha swaras. The 7 planets are identified with the 7 notes of carnatic music. In fact they are the basic notes of Sama veda. A previous article on this can be read here:-

The connection between sapta swaras and colours.

Of the swaras, sa and pa are the basic ones. Mercury is identified with sa- swara and saturn is identified with pa-swara. Mercury is noted for buddhi, knowledge and saturn for carrying out karmic baggage. Man is identified with these two issues only. He is a thinker and is endowed with knowledge, that is why he is known as manushya or man. He takes birth only to pay out his karma. Therefore Mercury and Saturn as conceptual entities play a role in manifestation of man. According to Hindu thought currently the manifestation of man for working out his karmic baggage (Garba gathi) is centered on our planet earth.


There may have been many galaxies with habitable zones. But life is being created or gets manifest in a central zone which is personified as the centre of a lotus flower. This flower is connected with a life giving umbilical cord of the Creator Brahman, Lord Narayana. The Four faced Brahma sitting on top of this centre of the lotus signifies the stem of creation. There is life activity in the stretch of the entire cord that leads to the center of the lotus.

There are whorls of petals surrounding this center in the form of many galaxies in many rows with one whorl encircling and rotating around the other. The entire number of rows extend on all sides covering trillions of years. But life keeps happening only in the seat of Brahma which is located northward - towards the direction of Saptha Rishi Mandala or Ursa Major. The earth is in the middle of this stem. Above us there are 7 realms of existence peopled with jeevas who have attained better status due to good karma. Below us also there are 7 realms of life which are attained by jeevas of bad karma.

At any given time in the large Time scale of 100 years of Four faced Brahma, (equivalent to 8.64 billion solar years X 360 X100 = 77,760 trillion years) life will be seen for a duration of 4.32 billion years in the life stem of Brahma seated on the lotus. Currently 2.16 billion years are over since first life form appeared on earth. Another 2.16 billion will have to go before the total wipe out of life. This coincides with the close encounter with Andromeda galaxy - which is the closest time by which it can disturb our galaxy and our solar system.


After that for the next 4.32 billion years there will be no life seen anywhere. But the galaxies will keep moving. The stem of lotus of Brahma keeps moving. After that (i.e., after 6.48 billion years from now onwards) new life will spring in the then stem of lotus having Brahma giving life-sap. Our earth would be gone by then. New galactic alignments would be in place then. But by then, saturn's Titan may have progressed that far in space - safely and carrying the prebiotic condition for life - which by then would have sprung up the kind of life we know and where man can again be born to shed his ever continuing karmic baggage! The location of this place of life can be calculated by converting the 6.48 billion years in light year distances in the direction of Mrigasheersha (Orion). (Mrigasheesrsha is the direction towards which Brahma's seat is moving. This will be explained in another article)


Looking back since Big bang times, the time between 2.16 billion years and 6.48 billion years ago had been the time of no life. There had existed life for a period of 4. 32 billion years before that (that is some 6.48 billion years ago from now) But we have no trace of it. We can not find it also. If at all we can look back through our gadgets at that period backward in time, the imprints of life would have been gone and modified and had become non traceable.

As per Hindu thought, big bang signifies no-life period of Brahma -Kalpa after which life got manifest once. Our current times is the second manifestation of life since Big Bang. But then life has been created 18,000 times in the past. Big Bang is only a recent phenomenon.


To have the split up,
A Brahma Kalpa has a day of 4.32 billion years of life activity and a night of 4.32 billion years of no life anywhere.
Currently 2.16 billion years of life has happened.
Before that for 4.32 billion years - no life (Brhama's night kalpa)
Before that for 4.32 billion years - Life activity was there (Brahma's day kalpa)
Before that for 4.32 billion years - no life (Night kalpa)
Adding up these we get 15.12 billion years which is the period since Big Bang.

Looking at future, the seed of life may be carried through Saturn (its satellite Titan).
The Pre-biotic chemistry that is happening in Titan may continue and Brahma's stem may carry this Titan along with (inspite of loss of life activity in earth).
By the time 6. 48 billion years are over, the Titan will become the Prajapathi of that era with new life getting manifest facilitating environment for man to be born. Thus goes the system of Brahma. The players are the same. The actors (we) are the same. But the venue (arangam) will be new and different.

- jayasree

Some related links:-
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24907596/Our-Galaxy-is-the-Centre-Center-of-the-Universe-by-Dr-Russell-Humphreys-Ph-D


From

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/titan-life-methane-speculation-100607.html


Strange Discovery on Titan Leads to Speculation of Alien Life

By Charles Q. Choi
SPACE.com Contributor

posted: 07 June 2010
09:44 am ET

New findings have roused a great deal of hoopla over the possibility of life on Saturn's moon Titan, which some news reports have further hyped up as hints of extraterrestrials.

However, scientists also caution that aliens might have nothing to do with these findings.

All this excitement is rooted in analyses of chemical data returned by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. One study suggested that hydrogen was flowing down through Titan's atmosphere and disappearing at the surface. Astrobiologist Chris McKay at NASA Ames Research Center speculated this could be a tantalizing hint that hydrogen is getting consumed by life. "It's the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth," McKay said.

Another study investigating hydrocarbons on Titan's surface found a lack of acetylene, a compound that could be consumed as food by life that relies on liquid methane instead of liquid water to live.

"If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth," McKay said.

However, NASA scientists caution that aliens might not be involved at all.

"Scientific conservatism suggests that a biological explanation should be the last choice after all non-biological explanations are addressed," said Mark Allen, principal investigator with the NASA Astrobiology Institute Titan team. "We have a lot of work to do to rule out possible non-biological explanations. It is more likely that a chemical process, without biology, can explain these results."

"Both results are still preliminary," McKay told SPACE.com.

To date, methane-based life forms are only speculative, with McKay proposing a set of conditions necessary for these kinds of organisms on Titan in 2005. Scientists have not yet detected this form of life anywhere, although there are liquid-water-based microbes on Earth that thrive on methane or produce it as a waste product.

On Titan, where temperatures are around minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 179 degrees Celsius), any organisms would have to use a substance that is liquid as its medium for living processes. Water itself cannot do, because it is frozen solid on Titan's surface. The list of liquid candidates is very short -- liquid methane and related molecules such as ethane. Previous studies have found Titan to have lakes of liquid methane.

Missing hydrogen?

The dearth of hydrogen Cassini detected is consistent with conditions that could produce methane-based life, but do not conclusively prove its existence, cautioned researcher Darrell Strobel, a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., who authored the paper on hydrogen appearing online in the journal Icarus.

Strobel looked at densities of hydrogen in different parts of the atmosphere and the surface. Previous models from scientists had predicted that hydrogen molecules, a byproduct of ultraviolet sunlight breaking apart acetylene and methane molecules in the upper atmosphere, should be distributed fairly evenly throughout the atmospheric layers.

Strobel's computer simulations suggest a hydrogen flow down to the surface at a rate of about 10,000 trillion trillion molecules per second.

"It's as if you have a hose and you're squirting hydrogen onto the ground, but it's disappearing," Strobel said. "I didn't expect this result, because molecular hydrogen is extremely chemically inert in the atmosphere, very light and buoyant. It should 'float' to the top of the atmosphere and escape."

Strobel said it is not likely that hydrogen is being stored in a cave or underground space on Titan. An unknown mineral could be acting as a catalyst on Titan's surface to help convert hydrogen molecules and acetylene back to methane.

Although Allen commended Strobel, he noted "a more sophisticated model might be needed to look into what the flow of hydrogen is."

Consumed acetylene?

Scientists had expected the sun's interactions with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce acetylene that falls down to coat the Titan surface. But Cassini mapped hydrocarbons on Titan's surface, it detected no acetylene on the surface, findings appearing online in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Instead of alien life on Titan, Allen said one possibility is that sunlight or cosmic rays are transforming the acetylene in icy aerosols in the atmosphere into more complex molecules that would fall to the ground with no acetylene signature.

In addition, Cassini detected an absence of water ice on the Titan surface, but loads of benzene and another as-yet-unidentified material, which appears to be an organic compound. The researchers that a film of organic compounds are covering the water ice that makes up Titan's bedrock. This layer of hydrocarbons is at least a few millimeters to centimeters thick, but possibly much deeper in some places.

"Titan's atmospheric chemistry is cranking out organic compounds that rain down on the surface so fast that even as streams of liquid methane and ethane at the surface wash the organics off, the ice gets quickly covered again," said Cassini team scientist Roger Clark based at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. "All that implies Titan is a dynamic place where organic chemistry is happening now."

Speculation 'Jumping the Gun'

All this speculation "is jumping the gun, in my opinion," Allen said.

"Typically in the search for the existence of life, one looks for the presence of evidence -- say, the methane seen in the atmosphere of Mars, which can't be made by normal photochemical processes," Allen added. "Here we're talking about absence of evidence rather than presence of evidence -- missing hydrogen and acetylene -- and often times there are many non-life processes that can explain why things are missing."

These findings are "still a long way from evidence of life," McKay said. "But it could be interesting."

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http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090625-am-titan-chemistry.html

Exotic Life Could Sprout From Titan Chemistry

By Clara Moskowitz
Astrobiology Magazine

posted: 25 June 2009
08:33 am ET

If life exists on Titan, it's anyone's guess what that life looks like.

Saturn's largest moon is not a good candidate for Earth-like life because it usually lacks liquid water on the surface. But one of Titan's most promising features is the presence of lakes filled with liquid hydrocarbons, or molecules made of hydrogen and carbon, such as methane and ethane. These lakes were recently spotted by the Cassini-Huygens mission, a NASA/European Space Agency/Italian Space Agency spacecraft currently in orbit around Saturn. Titan is now the only body in our solar system other than Earth known to have liquid on its surface.

A new study has found that, depending on their particular make-up and volume, the lakes on Titan could be good hosts for a certain type of prebiotic-like chemistry that could lead to life. High-energy cosmic rays blast down on the lakes and could spark reactions that create more complex molecules.

"I found that the result is very dependent on the chemical composition of the lakes," says Tetsuya Tokano, a planetary scientist at the University of Cologne in Germany and author of a paper in the March 2009 issue of the journal Astrobiology detailing the study results. "If certain chemicals are missing, then the lake could freeze or dry out. But if the lake is composed of a mixture of ethane, methane and nitrogen, the lake can exist for many years and provide a medium for prebiotic-like chemistry."

Though Cassini RADAR images photographed a number of hydrocarbon lakes in the polar region of Titan, the spacecraft was unable to determine how deep the lakes are or what they're made of.

Based on what is known, Tokano used computer numerical models to analyze many possible sets of lake conditions to find which are most promising for prebiotic-like chemistry and possible development of alien life.

He found that the ability of Titan's lakes to harbor biochemistry depends not just on their composition, but on their size. If a lake is too shallow it might evaporate before any significant developments can take place. However, if a lake is too deep, it might have a bottom layer that doesn't mix well with upper layers, and important chemicals could be sequestered away.

New Kinds of Alien Life

Much about Titan and the possibility of life there is still unknown. "If there is life on Titan it would be very different from that on Earth," Tokano says. "And we don't know if such life is possible at all. It's just speculation."

Titan may be a good candidate for silicon-based life, if it exists, because the moon has the low temperatures, lack of oxygen, and lack of liquid water thought to be necessary for this kind of life.

Silicon-based life would use the element silicon to build its cells, rather than carbon as life on Earth does. Because silicon is heavier than carbon and bonds differently with other elements, these types of cells would probably look and function differently than cells familiar to us. Instead of using water as a solvent, silicon-based life could use another substance. Some scientists have proposed that the hydrocarbon mixtures in Titan's lakes could act as a solvent for exotic forms of life.

Mysterious Moon

Many questions remain about Titan's lakes, including what they might look like up close. "Some are as big as [Michigan's] Great Lakes," Tokano says. "I don't know the exact color, but a deep lake would be darker than a shallow lake, and perhaps the color is not blue."

He and other scientists would love more data to help solve these riddles. They have been pushing for a dedicated spacecraft to visit Titan and send back data from the lakes. So far, no firm plans exist, although NASA and ESA are studying a possible mission concept. "I hope that there will be future probes, but this may take 20 or 30 years," Tokano says. "I would like to know the depth of the lakes, and the exact chemical composition. In principle, if we have a future mission to Titan, a probe which lands on the lake itself, it should be possible."

Studying the chemistry of Titan's lakes could be significant not just in the search for life beyond Earth, but also in the quest to learn about the origin life on our own planet, Tokano says. Learning whether certain conditions on other worlds are conducive to prebiotic chemistry could help narrow down the possibilities, or exclude conditions that clearly couldn't lead to the carbon-based life we have on Earth. "If you compare the conditions of Earth and Titan, we can maybe find the difference in the evolution of prebiotic chemistry, and discover which conditions are necessary," Tokano says