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MDMK urges PM to give Tamil its due

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition at the Centre, has urged Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to declare Tamil as a classical language.

In a letter to the PM, he said the ancient Tamil was the primary classical language of the world.

"Its declaration as a classical language is only a matter of time and not a matter of fact. And I hope that such a time has come now," he said.

Like Max Mueller's works led to the conclusion that Sanskrit was a classical language, Vaiko said, the works of Dr Robert Cauldwell and others had established that Tamil is the most ancient and primary of all classical languages.

He said historians and anthropologists the world over had concluded that the submerged continent Lemuria, the cradle of human race, had now been identified as Kanyakumari. The people inhabiting this landscape spoke Tamil.

Existence of grammar for Tamil in 700 BC itself implies the prevalence of considerable amount of literature even before 1000 BC, he pointed out.

Vaiko said the Thirukural (sacred couplets) composed in the beginning of the Christian era by saint-poet Thiruvalluvar does not have any equivalent in world literature.

He recalled Dr Cauldwell saying, "Tamil can readily dispense with the greater part or whole of its Sanskrit, and raise to a purer and more refined style, whereas English cannot abandon Latin without abandoning perspicuity."

Tamil, endowed with its rich synonyms, generally made use of Sanskrit out of any real necessity, but from choice and the fashion of the age.

Earlier, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had written to the prime minister to declare Tamil as a classical language.

UNI

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