Traditional
79-835: Karuppusamy , also known as Karuppu or Karuppannaswamy ( Tamil : கருப்பண்ணசுவாமி Malayalam : കറുപ്പണ്ണസാമി ),( lit. ' Black God ' or ' Black ' ) is a Hindu god in Tamil Nadu , popular among the social groups of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and also Sri Lanka . He is one of 21 guardian deities of Ayyanar , and is one of 21 guardian deities in Dravidian folk religion . Karuppu Samy temples are found in outside of villages. Whole villages contribute to maintenance of temples . These temples do not have gopurams and have large statues of deities with large eyes, holding weapons like bows and arrows , swords , sickles and other weapons . There are statues of eight Matrikas and
158-417: A aruval (Specifically Forms of Periyakaruppu,Muthukaruppu and Muppiliyaan). The normal problems addressed are family problems, financial troubles and local community and social issues for resolving within the community group with the agreement of local ancestral god through oracle. Whenever the wishes of the people are granted, they give their offerings to him based on what they vowed to offer. Karuppu Samy
237-564: A hound , a lion and a horse with a main statue of Karuppu Samy. Karuppu Samy worship is based on an ancient ancestral clan-based worship system in Hinduism . Here, most officiating priests are non - Brahmanas , and derive from local lineages that had initiated the cult generations ago. The worship pattern is non- Vedic or non- Agamic through folk tales, songs and arts of Villu Paattu , Karakattam , Koothu , etc. The local priests offer flowers and vibhuti (holy ash) to worshippers and plays
316-468: A lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes . Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person , number , mood , tense , etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination , which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or
395-551: A manifestation of another God while others were syncretized. Indo-Caribbean Shaktism emerged as a result of the migration of the Tamil Indians to the Caribbean during the 19th century. The British colonial policies led to the introduction of indentured servitude , bringing Indians from various regions to work on plantations in places like Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica, Martinique, Suriname, French Guiana and with that,
474-480: A , as with other Indic scripts . This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi , to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a ) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama , but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without
553-688: A 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu , Puducherry , (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , Maharashtra , Gujarat , Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and
632-511: A family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent . It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue ). The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam ; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of
711-532: A medium. A mixture of water, turmeric powder, and neem leaves are poured onto the medium, as it is believed that the God's energy heats up the body while the water and turmeric with the neem leaves cools the body down again. Puja services are often held once a week and the medium is known as a marlo pujari, who goes into a trance known as "Sami Aduthal". Practitioners use offerings of vegetarian (sadaa) and non-vegetarian (satwik) origin. Often, animals can be sacrificed to
790-591: A number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi . The earliest long text in Old Tamil
869-650: A number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur . Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin. Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi . These were sent to Beta Analytic in Miami , Florida , for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
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#1732895602091948-512: A number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions, and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic. Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with
1027-439: A role of a oracle . Various people within the clan system are identified to play to the role of oracle on an annual turn basis. They undertake a vrata and maintain chastity and purity during the period. During the festivals, oracles get into Trance state of Sami Adudhal and deliver counselling messages to the group assembled there without bias. In some temples before the oracles deliver counselling messages, oracles stand on top of
1106-541: A sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go" and consists of the following morphemes : போக pōka go முடி muṭi accomplish Caribbean Shaktism Caribbean Shaktism , also known as Kalimai Dharma or Madras Religion in Guyana, refers to the syncretic Shakti Kali / Mariamman worship that has evolved within
1185-620: A small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults. Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada , the United States , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , South Africa , and Australia . Tamil is the official language of
1264-493: A special following in some Caribbean Shakti communities, especially those in the French Caribbean , where he is seen as the embodiment of Ardhanarishvara in its fullest potent. His following stems from Tamil religion. Indo-Caribbean Shaktism, like most Hindu sects and regional variations, is described differently by different individuals, with some considering it pantheistic, polytheistic, or even monotheistic. Shaktas view
1343-595: A subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion . In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations, Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India , Abdul Kalam , who
1422-424: A trance-like state, known as Svami Adudhal. In this state, they channel the messages and advice Sangani Baba to the assembled devotees, addressing their personal and community concerns and solving them. Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by
1501-458: A variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil . These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese , Dutch , and English. In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on
1580-438: A vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives . Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology . In addition to
1659-503: Is "Maldevidan", a local regional name for Madurai Veeran who is syncretized with Jesus. Another deity, Mari-Eman (a local name for Mariamman ) is also of importance in the practice, being syncretized with the Virgin Mary . Deities like Kateri Amman (syncretized with St. Michael ), among others are also found in the cult. This is practice is common in the northern regions of the island with many shrines and gathering places throughout
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#17328956020911738-559: Is also an unacceptable legend. Moreover, according to people skilled in yantra mantras and according to Malayalam culture, only 18 forms of these deities are accepted. It is also accepted that there are 4 other forms that do not belong to those 18 forms. In Caribbean Shaktism in Guyana , He is Sangani Baba. In the Indo-Caribbean community of Trinidad and Tobago , Guyana , Suriname , Guadeloupe , and Martinique , Sangani Baba
1817-457: Is based on the dialect of Jaffna . After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava . The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels , 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam . The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel
1896-401: Is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature. The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness". S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound". Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages ,
1975-563: Is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam . Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th-century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam , with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu , col , poruḷ , yāppu , aṇi . Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. Tamil words consist of
2054-501: Is found in Tholkappiyam , which is dated as early as late 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription , inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela , the Jain king of Kalinga , also refers to a Tamira Samghatta ( Tamil confederacy ) The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'. Southworth suggests that
2133-405: Is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme, the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic . In grammar, the most important change
2212-409: Is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ . Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example,
2291-410: Is in koṭuntamiḻ , and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' koṭuntamiḻ , rather than on any one dialect, but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai . In Sri Lanka, the standard
2370-771: Is not always consistently applied. ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script , and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English. Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well. Tamil also uses several historical fractional signs. /f/ , /z/ , /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic. Tamil has two diphthongs : /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ ,
2449-475: Is organized during spring for 2 days. The beginning of this festival will be with hoisting of a flag and tying a Kaappu. After this time, villagers cannot go out of the village but come in from a different village and after a festival ends, people can go out of the village and go to a different village. Trance is an important phenomenon that occurs in Karuppu Swami worship. This phenomenon essentially enables
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2528-577: Is predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu , India, and the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . It has significant speaking populations in Malaysia , Singapore , and among diaspora communities . Tamil has been recognized as a classical language by the Indian government and holds official status in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Singapore. The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate
2607-409: Is the Tolkāppiyam , an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE. Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature . These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE. The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil , which
2686-772: Is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English, Malay and Mandarin. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi , Pakistan , which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka. There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Many in Réunion , Guyana , Fiji , Suriname , and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but only
2765-695: Is worshipped as a powerful deity. Sangani Baba is often associated with the color black, which symbolizes his fierce and protective nature. He is considered a guardian deity, offering his devotees protection, prosperity, and guidance. His worship in Indo-Caribbean Shaktism has elements of Hinduism that have been passed down through generations. Devotees offer various items to Sangani Baba as part of their worship. These offerings can include Vedic items such as camphor , butter , cloves , and ghrita . However, non-Vedic offerings such as cigarettes and alcohol are also made to him in these regions, reflecting
2844-486: Is worshipped in Trinidad and Tobago , Guyana , Fiji , Mauritius , Réunion , Seychelles , Guadeloupe , Singapore , Malaysia and Martinique as Sangili Karuppan, Sangani Baba. The village committee would decide on when the annual festival be conducted. The time of the year when this would fall varies with villages and their local customs. Generally, the mass convention assembly of a large number of related family members
2923-596: The Caribbean such as Catholicism , Trinidad Orisha , Comfa and Obeah . It is considered to be a form of Folk Tamil Hinduism and many attend services of Vedic Origin, more Orthodox Tamil Origin, and Madrasi (Syncretic Shakti) origin. Similar traditions to this (which also have its origins in Tamil Mariamman Worship ) can be found in the Tamil populations of South Africa, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji and Vietnam. Indo-Caribbean Shaktism has emerged within
3002-464: The Indo-Caribbean Tamil community in countries such as Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Guadeloupe, Martinique , Jamaica and Suriname (among others). It can be found across the Caribbean and any South American country with an Indo-Caribbean community. It is a syncretic blend of Dravidian folk religion and Hinduism and has also been influenced by other cultural and religious traditions found in
3081-630: The Leeward Antilles ). Maldevidan Spiritism is a syncretic practice originating in the French Caribbean that has its origins in Caribbean Shaktism and Roman Catholicism . They worship Hindu Gods represented as Catholic saints . They refer to these gods as "les bons dieux coolies" in French meaning "The holy Coolie Gods", "Coolie" being a slang word to signify East Indian. The primary deity
3160-458: The Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams , which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name
3239-526: The Tamil people of South Asia . It is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India , along with Sanskrit , attested since c. 300 BCE. The language belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian language family and shares close ties with Malayalam and Kannada . Despite external influences, Tamil has retained a sense of linguistic purism, especially in formal and literary contexts. Tamil
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3318-584: The University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages. A strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil. It received some support from Dravidian parties . This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain. According to
3397-399: The "warrior" or "Madras" Gods, which are gods of Tamil origin, and often are black roosters, pigs, goats, and hens. Since Caribbean Shaktism encompasses a wide range of similar traditions from across the Caribbean and South America, there are some regional variations which may differ from one another. It may be due to more or less influence of Tamil culture, or other aspects. The regions where
3476-486: The 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai , a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech. For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak
3555-476: The Indian state of Haryana , purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab , though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi , in 2010. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction . The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by
3634-469: The Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India . It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore . Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala . It was once given nominal official status in
3713-658: The Indo-Caribbean community residing in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and others in the Caribbean region. Indo-Caribbean Shaktism is a syncretic tradition that has its origins in the Mariamman following in Tamil Nadu . Mariamman was syncretized with Kali while also keeping the individual identity of Mariamman as a manifestation of Kali who is perceived to be the embodiment of Shakti in this tradition. Along this, deities from both Dravidian folk religion and Hinduism were worshipped, some perceived as
3792-585: The Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows a relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking. According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil)
3871-498: The Tamil nature of the worship. Sacrifices of black chickens and black goats are made as part of rituals dedicated to Sangani Baba, showing the offering of life and the seeking of his blessings and favor. These practices reflect the deep connection and devotion of the Indo-Caribbean community Sangani Baba. In Indo-Caribbean Shaktism, Sangani Baba is revered as a deity who can provide counsel and guidance. During festivals and special occasions, individuals chosen as oracles enter into
3950-673: The Tamils who settled there 200 years ago. Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada . Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Recently, it has been rolled out as
4029-901: The United States. These communities experience a "double diaspora," connecting their traditions to both India and their respective Caribbean or South American countries. Indo-Caribbean Shaktism is primarily Kalikula , meaning that the primary deity worshipped is Kali . Indo-Caribbean Shaktism combines their Shakti beliefs of Tamil origin with cultural influences from the Caribbean context. Devotees engage in rituals and practices like puja, mantra recitation, and devotional singing to connect with Shakti. Other Hindu deities may appear in temples and iconography alongside Kali and Tamil Gods/Goddesses, including Durga , Ganesh , Hanuman , Krishna , Lakshmi , Radha , Murugan , Rama , Saraswati , Shiva , and Sita . These Gods of Vedic origin are worshipped alongside those of Tamil (Madras) origin. Murugan has
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#17328956020914108-442: The ancient language ( sankattamiḻ ), a modern literary and formal style ( centamiḻ ), and a modern colloquial form ( koṭuntamiḻ ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ , or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ . In modern times, centamiḻ
4187-670: The culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India, but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization . Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). About of the approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages. In 2004,
4266-402: The deity and vice versa, to provide solutions and advises for a multitude of topics. According to traditional folk opinion, The above is the 21 names given by the people according to a popular legend among the people. But the majority of people accepted that there are 108 forms of god. In this way, one hundred and eight names are attached to the names of the area where the people live, so it
4345-422: The deity to possess the body of a human, who then goes on to display physical traits of the deity. This is usually done at major festivals or prayers, and is considered to be a clear sign of the physical presence or blessing of the deity. Some practitioners willingly invoke the deity into their bodies, while for others it happens without their control. Trance is also used as a platform for devotees to communicate with
4424-936: The dialect of Madurai , and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear " akkaṭṭa " meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently. Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect , Kongu Tamil , Madras Bashai , Madurai Tamil , Nellai Tamil , Kumari Tamil in India ; Batticaloa Tamil dialect , Jaffna Tamil dialect , Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada . The dialect of
4503-399: The differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of the formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from
4582-634: The district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in
4661-632: The form of Shaktism practiced in Mainland India and Nepal. One such feature is that of syncretism, where you may often find Catholic or New-Age Spiritual figures in Shakti Mandirs. There are also practices, such as that of Maldevidan Spiritism in Martinique , or Caribbean Tamil Christianity in the English Caribbean and Dutch Caribbean that is syncretic. Other practices that are different include
4740-473: The fullest extent of keeping most or all traditions as long as aligning with those of Christianity, or may have kept them to a lesser extent, doing traditions of worshipping by a river or doing a three-day Karagam Puja, creating a sort of Caribbean-Shakti Christianity, or Caribbean Tamil Church, and also resulting in forms of Caribbean Shaktism more syncretic or less syncretic than others. There are many differences in Indo-Caribbean Shaktism that are different from
4819-737: The goddess ( Kali / Mariamma ) as the supreme, ultimate, and eternal reality, embodying creation and its governing energy. Indo-Caribbean Shaktism encompasses various religious practices that have evolved among the Indo-Caribbean community, influenced by Hindu traditions, and Dravidian folk religion . Due to adaptations to the Caribbean region, some practices differ from those found in the Indian Subcontinent (most of all in Tamil Nadu ). Common practices include animal sacrifice (now contentious and abandoned by some groups), physical manifestation of deities , libations , firewalking , rites , drumming, and singing devotional songs ( bhajans ) to invoke
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#17328956020914898-699: The hill country . Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bengaluru . There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia , Singapore , Philippines , Mauritius , South Africa , Indonesia, Thailand, Burma , and Vietnam . Tamil
4977-625: The indentured servants carried their religious traditions with them, including their beliefs in the Tamil Goddess Mariamman. The migration of Indians as indentured servants introduced new religious and social dynamics to the British colonies in the Caribbean and South America. These migrants came from oppressed castes and lower socioeconomic backgrounds, creating a distinct class of people who were neither Black nor White. Indo-Caribbean communities have also established temples in countries like
5056-432: The introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam , thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. The Tamil Lexicon , published by
5135-692: The largest amount of Shakti practices can be found is in East Berbice-Corentyne , Guyana and Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo , Trinidad and Tobago with smaller communities of Madras Hindus in bordering areas of Suriname with Guyana, parts of French Guiana , Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Cayman Islands , Guadeloupe, Martinique , and in some parts of Venezuela and Central America where Tamil Antillean settlers brought their religion. (Most notably in Colon , Maracaibo , El Callao , The northern Caribbean coast of Nicaragua , and some parts of Caribbean Costa Rica and some parts of
5214-456: The latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class , number , and case , verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages . Much of Tamil grammar
5293-675: The most common Christian practices in the Caribbean. The traditions of spirit possession (Sami Aduthal) may have been syncretized with those of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit of the Evangelical Church and the traditions of appealing to different saints in the Catholic Church may have syncretized those of appealing to the different Hindu and Dravidian gods. Other less orthodox traditions may have also been kept to some extent, whether going to
5372-423: The name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech". Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ , with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and " -iḻ " having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < * tav-iḻ < * tak-iḻ , meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)". However, this
5451-531: The old aspect and time markers. The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil. Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically. Modern spoken Tamil also shows
5530-409: The presence of God. Hindu practices like deity meditation, pujas , and religious ceremonies are also observed, along with unique elements from Dravidian Folk Religion such as physical manifestations during rituals. Ceremonies called Pujas often include the drumming of three to five tappu to invoke the deity to the space. Then, the head pujari receives the God or Goddess into their body, acting as
5609-598: The region. Rituals include playing drums, dancing on sharpened machetes, and sacrificing animals such as roosters and sheep. There is a historic Hindu temple in Basse-Pointe in Martinique built in the 19th century, which is still in use. Some syncretists in the Dutch and English Caribbean may even be as syncretic where they do Caribbean Shakti practices while outwardly practicing Evangelicalism or Roman Catholicism , two of
5688-465: The standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script , which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit , and other languages. The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology, remains, but
5767-783: The tradition of the physical manifestation of the deity. Although there are some practices in Indian Shaktism that do include possession or trance, the tradition of trance possession by Hindu gods is most certainly from Dravidian Folk Religion. Another practice that is different is that of the deities worshipped. While Vedic Hindu deities are worshipped, deities referred to as "Madrasi" Gods (meaning Dravidian or Tamil Gods) come from Dravidian Folk Religion. Such Gods are Sangani Baba , Mariamman , Kateri Maa , Muniswaran , among others. Different names may also be used for Vedic deities and some practices may be of regional origin rather than general origin. Some deities may even be new deities created by
5846-517: The word for "here"— iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore , inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad , and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka . Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli , Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in
5925-526: Was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004. The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia : there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status , a high register and a low one. Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example,
6004-586: Was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are
6083-528: Was created by Lord Shiva . Murugan , revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya , brought it to the people. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language , which was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of
6162-504: Was the lingua franca for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Egypt . The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature , consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later, the vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations. Tamil
6241-451: Was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil ( கில் ), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ ( ன் ). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa ( கின்ற ) – which combined
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