Tamil Nadu is the graveyard of nationwide political events. It buried the Congress at its peak then in 1967. The BJP, additionally at its peak now, has been pregnant with prospects however has didn’t ship. By no means a severe participant within the state earlier than the daybreak of the Modi-era, the BJP has been humbled in each election since his arrival in 2014 (2019, 2021 and 2024).
Pundits and laypersons, Tamil Nadu confounds all people alike. What makes it the strongest citadel of regionalism in modern politics that’s now soaked in nationalism? Why is it a novel entity even amongst its culturally comparable southern states? All these states are additionally fiercely pleased with their cultural moorings, however none practices antagonism to nationwide events as a precept of state coverage, so to say. What makes it stand out and stand aside? Is it true {that a} monolithic nationwide narrative suppresses or seeks to suppress the state’s distinct Tamilakam (Tamil Nadu of yore) identification and historic glory? Or, do the state’s Dravidian events intentionally stoke the sense of cultivated alienation and grievance to perpetuate their careers? What has Dravidian politics delivered that the state doesn’t desire a style of another mannequin? What’s the collective angst of the Tamils? Is it justified? Why cannot the remainder of India fathom it? As one other grand electoral spectacle looms in 2026, these are a few of the myriad questions that have to be addressed. To not predict winners and losers, however simply to grasp why Tamil Nadu is the best way it’s.
On this new collection, that’s what Chennai-based senior journalist, TR Jawahar, will try and do. He’ll dig deep into historical past and heritage, arts and archaeology, language and literature, cinema and tradition, kingdoms and conquests, castes and communities, faith and race and, in fact, politics and pelf, to color an image of the state which may assist you perceive no matter occurs when it occurs.
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Aryāvart’s historic texts have all ushered us in the direction of the reaches of Dhakṣiṇapatha. They traced the routes that led to the sun-baked expanses of Dravida that prolonged over land, sea, and even the islands abutting its decrease flank. These texts noticed the South as a tantalising terminus, a zone of exploration and ‘discovery’, an uncharted wild periphery.
But, in the usual Sanskrit Sankalpa — that historic geography lesson repeated each day in numerous ritualistic websites — the omission is obtrusive, a monumental Northern blind spot. Its cosmography, wealthy with imagery of Jambudvīpa, Bharathavarsh, Bharathakanda and Meror Dakṣiṇe Pārśve, strikes confidently right down to Godavari and the forests of Daṇḍakāraṇya, the place Rama roamed, after which stops lifeless at Deccan. No Dravida. No Tamilakam. It’s a ritualistic clean house, on condition that the Epic’s heroes themselves treaded this territory.
How did the inhabitants of this vigorous, literate Southern realm react to being neglected of a key invocation that presupposed to map ‘their’ total sacred land?
The
Brahminical twist
True to their type — adaptive but fiercely assertive— Brahmins, the custodians of mantra and reminiscence, quietly prolonged the Sanskrit formulation, slipping within the lacking items. Cautious to not topple the prevailing edifice, they inserted what the North had ignored, performing a seamless linguistic graft for gratification right here. After Daṇḍakāraṇya, the Sankalpa was stretched to incorporate Draviḍa-deśa, and even to say particular Tamil cities similar to Madhura-kṣetra, Kumāri-kṣetra, Kāñchi-kṣetra, and others. This was an uncanny act of cultural enhancing and improvisation, by a gradual hand that knew the best way to outlive and thrive.
The Tamil Contact
The unique Sankalpa could have been Brahminical, however Tamilakam’s social material was heterogeneous, by no means monolithic or dependent. Tamil, historic and elemental, didn’t want Sanskrit scaffolding to name gods into service. This was no revolt or reclamation. This land already had its personal rites hummed in tongues thick with its salt, soil and sand. Villages and tribes right here had developed their very own strategies of invoking the divine. Native deities have been addressed in native dialects and accents. Each terrain, each god, each customized discovered a spot on this sprawling atlas, demonstrating a self-sufficient, refined spirituality.
We scoured Aryāvart’s myth-laden mindscape to know the way the North imagined the South. It’s time now to gaze inward — to grasp this geography by means of Tamil’s personal literature, the place the map is drawn not with traces, however with lifeblood.
The Land Solid by Grammar
Earlier than Dravida, there was Tamilakam. Tamil students have lengthy identified that the Sanskritic coinage Dravida seems nowhere in early Tamil works or flickered solely faintly and in unrelated senses. Clearly, the Sanskritic label entered frequent discourse a lot later. Within the historic thoughts, Tamil and Tamilakam have been self-named.
The time period Tamilakam, a primal pulse, is a pristine expression of identification: a compound of Tamil (the language and the individuals) and Akam (inside, residence, place). Thus, Tamilakam means, actually, the place the place Tamil and Tamilians reside. It is a foundational geo-cultural assertion.
The cornerstone of such self-determination shouldn’t be a battle chronicle however a grammar tome. The Tholkāppiyam, the earliest extant Tamil work, defines Tamilakam by its boundaries, declaring that the linguistic area is the nationwide area. Yes, Nationwide!
Says Tholkāppiyam (Sūtra 50, Cirappuppāyiram) “vaṭavēṅkaṭam teṉkumari āyitai tamiḻkūṟu nallulakam” (The nice world that speaks Tamil is that which lies Between Northern Venkaṭam [Tirumala] and Southern Kumāri [Kanyakumari].)
This single couplet is the place a protracted linguistic lineage is certain decisively to panorama, like roots and to pink earth. Modern commentaries of those texts cemented this definition. Iḷaṅkōvaṭikaḷ’s Silappatikaram, a Jain epic, reiterates this, specifying Venkaṭam and Kumāri because the immutable bookends of the Tamil realm.
The Misplaced Continent: A Legacy of Submergence
Past established borders, Sangam references trace at one thing extra dramatic – a submerged landmass south of Kanyakumari dominated by the earliest Pandya kings. This misplaced continent, Kumārikaṇḍam, stated to have stretched throughout the Indian Ocean’s east-west unfold, continues to fireside the creativeness of cinema, politics, social media, and the lots even immediately, fancying to rebuild the wreck. The saga of this sunken civilization reveals how deeply land, language, and legendary disaster intertwine in Tamil reminiscence.
Take heed to Aganāṉūṟu (On the Sea): “pūvinai uṇṭa nāḷai nāvinai uṇṭa nāḷum pōlatum uṇnāḷai uṇṭavārē” (The day the ocean swallowed the land of flowers, is just like the day the ocean swallowed the tongue [of our ancestors], And but, those that are consumed devour others.). Fashionable geologists give this a nod, however our authorities … not. And so, that coast stays a ghost!
Thinai: Poetry Punctuated Place, Polity & Psychology
Inside Tamilakam, land and polity merged seamlessly. The Cheras, Cholas and Pandya have been sovereigns of separate domains. There have been additionally affiliated lesser kings and chieftains who all stitched the seams as vassals.
The Thiṇai system – the 5 landscapes – is the best testomony to the Tamil thoughts’s capability to combine goal geography with subjective human expertise. Sangam literature doesn’t merely describe the land; it breathes it, feels it, and assigns emotional dimensions. This is likely one of the most subtle integrations of geography, topography, ecology, anthropology and psychology unrivalled in world classical canons:
Kuṟiñgi: That is the panorama of Mountains and Wildflowers, the area of hunters and hill tribes underneath the safety of Murugan’s spear-sharp watch. Like with this good-looking Lord himself and his beloved Devayani, the emotional temper related to Kuṟiñgi is one in all secretive and passionate union.
Mullai: The Forests and Grazing lands, representing pastoral belts of verdant forests, groves and grazing cattle presided over by Māyōṉ, classic Vishnu, the unique shepherd. Its corresponding psychological template is persistence, ready, and quiet hope.
Marutham: That is the heartland of the civilization – the fertile fields and roaring rivers, in search of Indra’s thunderous benignity for copious rains and harvest. Right here reside the rulers and farmers, symbolizing fertility, trade, and governance, the place themes of human battle and home tensions typically play out. Should not spats and sulks the spice of settled lives?
Neithal: The Coastlines and Salt-laden winds represent this area, residence to fisherfolk, sailors, and merchants. Varuṇa governs this zone, the place the dominant themes are separation, longing, uncertainty and mariners’ everlasting vigil … a reality those that enterprise out on sea will vouch for even immediately.
Pālai: That is the panorama of Wasteland and Exile. Notably, Pālai shouldn’t be a pure geography however a metamorphosis – when Mullai or Marutham dries into desolation. The goddess Kotravai, Durga, reigns over this area, which hosts hardship, misery and despair. A survivor’s lair. This terrain is the place travellers move and so thieves abound.
This revolutionary framework binds land, life-style, livelihood, deity, temper, morality, metre and literary lustre right into a single, cohesive, self-contained system: Of how the outside land (Puṟam) immediately dictated the inside coronary heart (Akam).
The Inimitable Pleasure: Tamilakam Speaks of Itself
Tamil pleasure – a mix of innate sentiment and cultivated ideology -, genetic markers evident even immediately, emanates from the huge, evocative lore that sings of land and life. The imagery is gigantic: mountains draped in Kuṟiñgi blooms, swirling seas serenading the sands, fields rippling with paddy, forests buzzing with bees and birds. This grandeur is grounded in real poetic aesthetics.
The Sangam anthologies exult within the civilization they describe.
Puṟanāṉūṟu: (On the King’s Land): “uṇḍāl ammā ivvulakam indirar… taṉṉāḍu enappuṇṇā” (This world exists due to males who eat [live] not for themselves, however for others, not saying, “This land is my very own.”) This elevates the Tamil king’s position to a benevolent, selfless steward steering the residents, compassion eclipsing mere conquest.
Aganāṉūṟu: (On the Emperor): The textual content invokes “the emperor who dominated Tamil from time immemorial.”. That acquainted allusion to antiquity.
Pattinappālai: (On Commerce): This work publicizes: “Tamil is a metropolis overflowing with wealth,” showcasing mercantile would possibly alongside ethical energy.
Silappatikāram: (On the Realm): Iḷaṅkōvaṭikaḷ calls Tamilakam “the land the place prosperity reigns and the place the noble dwell,” confirming the moral foundation of its materials success.
Maṇimēkalai: (On Advantage): A canto predicts: “Tamil shall obtain eternal glory.”
After which comes the Thirukkuṟaḷ—the crown jewel. Its crisp couplets codified each side of Tamilakam: its guidelines for righteous conduct, its kingship, kinship, its individuals, its professions, its tradition and climates, love, lust and household duties, and its emotional registers, from lived loam, not divine decree. In an age when a lot of Bharat and past drew concepts, beliefs and instruction from cosmic revelations, Tamilakam constructed its philosophy from the furrows — honed and honoured over millennia, proper right here. The outcome: a civilisation that preserved its character whereas absorbing many influences, resisting others, and reworking all into its distinctive lexicon.
The Dravida Flip
Ultimately, the Sanskritic time period Dravida entered frequent speech. It didn’t erase Tamilakam; it layered over it — a linguistic sediment marking later cultural and mental interplay. This contact didn’t outline the geography of the land, nevertheless it supplied a brand new, supra-regional label for its individuals. That is the junction the place the traditional soil meets an evolving script, and our journey naturally forks into the paths of ‘ensuing’ historical past,
So, how did a self-mapped Tamilakam react to sharing house with a wierd bedfellow? Turbulence forward! So, keep anchored, the stream now runs deep, dense and misleading.
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Subsequent: Title Video games: The Dazzling Dance of Definitions
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