The title is my original attempt at mimicking Black adder season 3 nomenclatures (Sense and sensibility, Bride and prejudice etc) Cool eh? eh? But seriously the last coupla months have taken me several hundreds of years into the past providing starkling info i scarcely knew. The cholas trace their lineage back to shibi chakravarthy (the king who offered himself for the pigeon) who is called shembiyan(tamil), Its astonishing to see that Shibi is referenced broadly in the Mahabharatha and even in some parts of the Ramayana[POS,Wiki] .The Mahabharatha even has lot of mentions of Pandyas and cheras who along with the cholas fought for the pandavas. A pandya king was killed by Ashvathama[Wiki-Pandya kingdom]. The cholas(ironically means new kingdom) and Pandyas (old kingdom)have a very very long bloodline from Mahabharata time(dated several thousand bcs [SOI]) going till 13th-15th centuries!!!
We have just under 1-2 pages devoted to them in our history books. They are unfairly compared with their later counterparts like Chalukyas, Rashtrakuthas,Hoysalas and Vijayanagar kingdoms who hardly have a few hundred years of co-existence. One can easily proclaim that the cholas and pandyas are the longest running dynasties in the history of india(maybe world) alas a pity they have little sources devoted to talk about their history than the other great(in size yet shorter spanning) empires like Mauryas and Mughals. Here's a map of the Ashoka kingdom around 300 BC.
Notice the only place left unconquered? Yes that’s right the unconquered zones by this Saamrat were the then ‘Tamizhakam’. he was on friendly terms with kingdoms in the South like Cholas, Pandya, Keralputra [Wiki] .The cholas were the first truly international conquerors from India it is in part thanks to their deed now Tamil is an official language in as far countries like Singapore,malaysia and the distinct south indian style seen in the world’s largest uninhabitated temple at Angkor wat is testament to that while Bali (Indonesia) is still miraculously a hindu state not to mention plenty of Hinduism seen in Thai,Myanmar culture as well (However it is to be noted that the cholas were not the pioneers of Hinduism in the southeast , its been there before Rajaraja I).
The romans knew about the pandyas and were trading with them from about 550BC [SOI, Wiki]. One is felt compelled to completely agree in the wake of all these evidences and more when Micheal Wood says Tamil is the last living classical language and Tamilnadu (Tamizhakam)the last surviving Classical Civilisation.
I got some ideas about the other debatable and often controversial topic of Aryans and Dravidians. The not so conclusive yet methodical,scientific and archeleogical uncovering at Turkmenistan shows of a possible Aryan invasion into India via Hindukush and the compelling evidences of the Ratha(chariots), vedic incantation sites buried and Soma drink (Available only in present day Afghanistan) from [SOI]presents a good theory .Woods goes on to show a DNA match in villages South of Madurai with the earliest African homosapiens which he believes is a sign of Nativity (Dravidians)[SOI I]. However though all this is somewhat in line with the DK, DMK’s ‘Dravidian’ existence, the evidence that lot of philosophies unique to Hinduism being found in several Thirukkurals and even in Puranaanooru’s sangam Literature is a contradiction [Thuglak,EB]. “யாதும் ஊரே, யாவரும் கேளிர்” is a classical case of misintepretation of the Hindu rebirth concept which led to the verse making its way into the 'World tamil classical song' penned by our very own CM. Right from Sangam literature to the time of Nayanmaars,Alwars and to Rajaraja chola's helm, Hinduism has been the integral driving force for tamil literature enriching the language and it will be utterly foolish to deny this obvious fact[Thuglak,EB].Now as opposed to the fanatical stance of the DMK against the influence of Sanskrit or “Vada mozhi” into the tamil proper vocabulary. The cholas and Pandya kings thought it was imperative to learn both the classical languages (Tamil and Sanskrit) and the “Grantha tamil script” enjoyed tremendous respect.However it really remains a great puzzle as to how “Classical” or pure tamil remains the only language without an iota of Sanskrit in it?!!!! The evolution of tamil needs to be better understood probably it will shed light on the Dravidian-Aryan theory.
I always thought “Aayiralthil oruvan” was a bad tribute to the timeless novel that [POS]is even as am writing this I have only read less than 50% of the epic but am convinced it has enough storyline to merit atleast a trilogy of the scale of LOTR to do some justice. I am just hopeful that Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ will be an effort to remember.
References/Glossary:
[SOI]- Story of India, BBC documentary by Micheal Woods.
[POS]-Ponniyin Selvan, Kalki Krishnamurthy
[EB]-Enge brahmanan, Jaya TV by Cho ramaswamy.
