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Tamil culture
lOl more negative than it actually is. We must be grateful to the author for his labour, through which a problem, until now only impressionistically approached, has at last been the subject of a thorough investigation.
Amsterdam
C. L. EBELING
Tamil Culture, Vol. IV, no. I (January x955), A Quarterly Review dedicated to the study of Tamilians (Madras). This periodical is symptomatic of the need of the South-Indian subnations for a more balanced form of consciousness of their own character and cultural traditions. From this fourth volume onwards it bears the second sub-title "Journal of the Academy of Tamil Culture". This Academy has been founded at a meeting of scholars and lovers of Tamii held on Sept. 18, 1954. It may be anticipated that "Tamil Culture", as the organ of this newly-founded Society for the development and advancement of the Tamil language, literature, arts and sciences, will gain a still wider influence. It would not be surprising, if the immediate result of the modern process of unification of India and the growth of a modern nation should be that in its regional components (and especially in those which have not taken a leading part in the development of India during th:e last centuries) the consciousness of their own character is stimulated. The differen~ parts of India cannot be wielded together by totally ignoring their different cultural traditions. No real integration of the modern Indian nation will be attained, unless its componer~.ts will have learned to accept each other as separate individuals with a different character. This integration is a gigantic task set to the next generations. It is not surprising that for the present time there should be mucta tension and feelings of disappointment, and the political and socMogical aspects of the linguistic situation of present-day India deserve our full interest and attention. There are complaints about the position of the study of Tamil. The founder and chief editor writes "There are dark and disconcerting obstacles in the way of a dispassionate appraisal of the Tamil contribution to the culture of India and Ceylon. An American sent by the Rockefeller Foundation returned from India to America five years ago with the impression that the (;overnment of India was not interested in an3' studies that would
102 prove the non-Aryan origin of cultural trends and historical events in India", and he warns" "The function of the research scholar is not to act as a partisan but to be a witness to the truth. It is fatal to scholar. ship when it is blinded by prejudice or made to serve the interests of a party". Again and again we are reminded, in this periodical as well as in t h e s c h o l a r l y Annals of the Madras University, of the difficulties which our Indian colleagues experience in their attempts to keep a strict impartiality in matters which are apt to stir the national feelings. Nor can it be said, that the Editor was himself quite true to his standard when at a Tamil Festival in Singapore he "told the gathering that 75 per cent of the Indian culture and civilisation was based on Tamil" (thereby freely paraphrasing, and distorting, a casual remark of S. K. Chatterji's), after which, according to a local newspaper, "He said Tami! was the oldest language in India arid the world, older than Greek, but while the latter was already dead, Tamil was living and growing and its influence was found over Asia and even the Americas" (see p. 104). Fortunately, Tamil is too fine a language, and its literature too important, to need this sort of praise. The issue under review contains among the contributions that are of interest to the readers of this; journal a very competent article on "The Present State of Dravidian Philology" by the well-known Dravidianist of the University of Prague, Dr. Kamil Zvelebil, who sums up in five pages the characteristic trldts of the recent revival of Dravidian studies in Europe and abroad. There is an admirable and well-balanced account by Francis Moraes ,of the life and work of the great scholar Dr. U. V. Swaminatha Aiyar (C~,min~taiyar), to whose life-long activity we owe it that most of the long-forgotten works of the oldest Tamil literature have been brought to light and the memory of the brilliant Old Tamil civilisation has been restored. The article on "Transliteration of Tamil in Roman Characters & Vice Versa" by a "Senthamilan" (student of classical Tamil), though interesting in details, would seem open to criticisms. For students of "[amil the periodical contains much of interest.
University o/ Leiden
F . B . J . Kt~IVE~
Amsterdam
C. L. EBELING
Tamil Culture, Vol. IV, no. I (January x955), A Quarterly Review dedicated to the study of Tamilians (Madras). This periodical is symptomatic of the need of the South-Indian subnations for a more balanced form of consciousness of their own character and cultural traditions. From this fourth volume onwards it bears the second sub-title "Journal of the Academy of Tamil Culture". This Academy has been founded at a meeting of scholars and lovers of Tamii held on Sept. 18, 1954. It may be anticipated that "Tamil Culture", as the organ of this newly-founded Society for the development and advancement of the Tamil language, literature, arts and sciences, will gain a still wider influence. It would not be surprising, if the immediate result of the modern process of unification of India and the growth of a modern nation should be that in its regional components (and especially in those which have not taken a leading part in the development of India during th:e last centuries) the consciousness of their own character is stimulated. The differen~ parts of India cannot be wielded together by totally ignoring their different cultural traditions. No real integration of the modern Indian nation will be attained, unless its componer~.ts will have learned to accept each other as separate individuals with a different character. This integration is a gigantic task set to the next generations. It is not surprising that for the present time there should be mucta tension and feelings of disappointment, and the political and socMogical aspects of the linguistic situation of present-day India deserve our full interest and attention. There are complaints about the position of the study of Tamil. The founder and chief editor writes "There are dark and disconcerting obstacles in the way of a dispassionate appraisal of the Tamil contribution to the culture of India and Ceylon. An American sent by the Rockefeller Foundation returned from India to America five years ago with the impression that the (;overnment of India was not interested in an3' studies that would
102 prove the non-Aryan origin of cultural trends and historical events in India", and he warns" "The function of the research scholar is not to act as a partisan but to be a witness to the truth. It is fatal to scholar. ship when it is blinded by prejudice or made to serve the interests of a party". Again and again we are reminded, in this periodical as well as in t h e s c h o l a r l y Annals of the Madras University, of the difficulties which our Indian colleagues experience in their attempts to keep a strict impartiality in matters which are apt to stir the national feelings. Nor can it be said, that the Editor was himself quite true to his standard when at a Tamil Festival in Singapore he "told the gathering that 75 per cent of the Indian culture and civilisation was based on Tamil" (thereby freely paraphrasing, and distorting, a casual remark of S. K. Chatterji's), after which, according to a local newspaper, "He said Tami! was the oldest language in India arid the world, older than Greek, but while the latter was already dead, Tamil was living and growing and its influence was found over Asia and even the Americas" (see p. 104). Fortunately, Tamil is too fine a language, and its literature too important, to need this sort of praise. The issue under review contains among the contributions that are of interest to the readers of this; journal a very competent article on "The Present State of Dravidian Philology" by the well-known Dravidianist of the University of Prague, Dr. Kamil Zvelebil, who sums up in five pages the characteristic trldts of the recent revival of Dravidian studies in Europe and abroad. There is an admirable and well-balanced account by Francis Moraes ,of the life and work of the great scholar Dr. U. V. Swaminatha Aiyar (C~,min~taiyar), to whose life-long activity we owe it that most of the long-forgotten works of the oldest Tamil literature have been brought to light and the memory of the brilliant Old Tamil civilisation has been restored. The article on "Transliteration of Tamil in Roman Characters & Vice Versa" by a "Senthamilan" (student of classical Tamil), though interesting in details, would seem open to criticisms. For students of "[amil the periodical contains much of interest.
University o/ Leiden
F . B . J . Kt~IVE~