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Subject: Re: Tamil Mindset Shifts (Was Re: Sila kELvikaL)
Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 19:20:24 +0530
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From: "Bala Pillai"
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Nanthan/Thamil Innaiya Nanbargale,
Super question that you have asked. Ganesan: thanks for your chronology
input -- it enables me to trace cause-effect.
For a new word to come into being, the notion must be recognised by someone
in that society prior to it.
And if the society is high on denial (as Tamil society has been for hundreds
of years now - we would be top 5 in the world), recognition is delayed.
Once the notion is recognised, everyday slang or thinkers coin a word to
describe the notion. And if language is rigid in delaying creation of a word
for the notion, the word is imported from other societies it is exposed
to -- this is the biggest root reason why there is so much English in
everyday Tamil usage today.
Put another way, the need for a word only arises when a difference, or a
more accurate representation is recognised and acted upon.
If indeed there were no words for culture in our cangam and kaapiya kaalam,
what this most probably means is that then, "culture" was internal to life,
i.e. life=culture. They did not differentiate culture from life.
Our ancestors did not go to the Music Academy for culture -- culture was
woven into their everyday lives.
Now to the need or no need for "thanks" with the passage of time:
If society was organic and the sense of symbiotic "rights &
responsibilities" inately self-evident, as it is with every creature on
Earth except Manithan today, there would be no need for the word "thanks".
For example in nature: the cow that
allows the bird to eat the fleas off its back does not nod "thanks" to the
bird for relieving its pain. Neither does the bird whistle "thanks" to the
cow for providing it lunch.
However, with the oncoming of several factors, centralised government that
is detached from villages, and the agency layers that comes from it, for
example, this "rights & responsibilities" sense is lost. Taking stones
piled in preparation by the government in New Delhi for a new road in a
village in Dindigul, is no more theft -- it slowly becomes the smart thing
to do. So theft is smartness and smartness is stealing.
Word to notion equivalents that were once clear, start blurring. A very good
example is the phrase "money politics" in Malaysia. From theft --->
corruption ---> money politics. Politicians who control the press, subvert
words to reduce the possible sting.
We were strong in rights and responsibilities (values) once -- it was common
sense to us, like it is with ants. We slowly lost it. We delay in
recognising it. In fact, we still struggle with the notion of "thanks". Many
who will say "oh..no need to say thanks..why do we need thanks between
friends" will be the same ones who will later in a dispute say "I did this
and that and he didn't do anything in return -- he didn't even say
'thanks'". YES! We need to seal the "thanks" notion firmly now.
Yes, we really need a Tamil dictionary like the English one at
http://m-w.com where we can find out when a word entered into the language
and from where.
anbudan../bala
bala@...
sydney, australia
----- Original Message -----
From: bala2pillai
To:
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 1:08 PM
Subject: [tamil] Re: Tamil Mindset Shifts (Was Re: Sila kELvikaL)
> --- In agathiyar@y..., "naga_ganesan"
> --- In agathiyar@y..., "nanthan"
>
> > I have a couple of questions.
> > 1. paNpaadu and kalaacaaRam
> > A student of mine asks why theese words are not in the Thamil
> akaraathi. When did these words come into usage in our language? How did
> we call culture in our cangam and kaapiya kaalam. Is panpaadu and
> kalaacaaram one and the same in meaning?
> > Is it possible to get the article of Prof Vaiyapuripillai on paNpaadu?
> >
>
> paNpADu is a word coined as equivalent of "culture"
> by Rasikamani TKC of Kurralam. Earlier, I'm told,
> Rabindranath Tagore coined kalAchAram for "culture".
>
> > 2. nanRi
> > The meaning in valluvam is different from what we have now. How do
> cangam and kaappiya kaalam refers to nanRi menaing thanking someone or
> being thankful to someone?
> >
> > enRum anpudan
> > nanthan
>
> Yes. Saying "Thank you" is pretty new to Indian culture in general.
> I read a good explanation by a Sanskrit professor once.
> We've mapped the old word "nanRi" to do the same.
>
> Regards,
> N. Ganesan
> --- End forwarded message ---
>
>
