The Life- World of The Tamils Past and Present-II: (History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization) Volume VI, Part 6

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The volumes of the Project on the History of Science, Philosophy, and Culture in Indian Civilization aim at discovering the main aspects of India's heritage and between the areas of material civilization and those of ideational culture. Keeping in view the objectives of the Project, Professor D.P. Chattopadhyaya, the Director of the Project, planned to bring out, among others, some volumes which would highlight the salient features of language, literature, and arts in the context of Indian civilization. At his suggestion, I organized two regional seminars for the purpose of bringing out a volume on the "Contributions of the Tamils to Philosophy, Religion, Culture and Science" These seminars helped me to identify the areas to be covered and the topics to be discussed in the present volume.

When I was planning the structure and the areas of this volume, it occurred to me that the expression "the life-world" (Lebenswelt) used by Husserl and his followers would bring out the full significance of the entire dimension of philosophy, religion, culture, and civilization. Hence, I decided to name this volume "The Life-world of the Tamils: Past and present". This title signifies the material civilization as well as the spiritual culture of the Tamils, past and present. Since the period to be focused is vast beginning from 5th century n.c. down to the present day, I decided to split the volume into two parts, Part I up to 12th century A.D. and Part II, the remaining period. Part I of the volume was published in 2008, and the present volume which is Part II, covers the period from the thirteenth century down to the present day.

There are six sections in this Volume comprising nineteen articles. Section I deals with the commentarial tradition on Saivism and Vaisnavism, which are the two strong pillars of the Vedic tradition. It is only through the help of the commentary that we are able to understand the deeper philosophical and spiritual nuances of these two religious traditions.

India is usually regarded as a country, but if we bear in mind its ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural diversity, it may be recognized as a continent. Peoples from different parts of the world came to this place over millennia. About the origin of the Tamil people of southern India and speaking Tamil language, one of the main languages of the Dravidian family, social anthropologists and linguists are not unanimous. In different pockets or places of Northern India, the experts find traces of Old Tamil. It is conjectured that the city builders of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in South Punjab, Sind, and Baluchistan used to speak a language which is affine to the oldest form of Tamil, sen-tamil. The word Tamil itself (Tamil) used to be pronounced as damil in the early centuries of the Christian era and even earlier, in the first half of the first millennium B.C. It has been suggested by Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, among others, that in all likelihood, dramila was adopted into Sanskrit as Dramila, Dramila, and Dravida.

From linguistics it may perhaps be inferred that the oldest form of the word Tamil or Dravida is traceable to Dramila or Dramida. In some eastern Mediterranean areas emerged at group of tribes who described themselves Trmmili. The wandering descendants of those people seem to have reached Sind. The Lycians and Cretans of the Greek lineage who reached the areas around Sind and Baluchistan perhaps had been Dravidian-speakers. In the fourth century BC. it is found Telugus used the term "Aravalu" to the Tamilians suggesting that the language that the concerned people used to speak was a-rava (Sanskrit word)-speechless or voiceless. Perhaps, what they meant is the mutual and partial unintelligibility of the languages they spoke.

**Contents and Sample Pages**