‘I felt like a messenger,’ says Nirmala Lakshman, author of The Tamils — A Portrait of a Community

Nirmala Lakshman
| Photo Credit: Thamodharan B.

In The Tamils: A Portrait of a Community, Nirmala Lakshman presents a meticulously researched yet highly accessible account of the Tamils and their history. In a conversation, she talks about the book, its themes, and if there is something like ‘the Tamil way’. Edited excerpts:

Can you tell us how this book came about?

Aleph has been publishing a series of community portraits across language groups in India. I am not trained as a historian, nor am I an academic. When David Davidar [from Aleph] asked me to do one on the Tamils, I was taken aback. I thought it was above my pay grade, so to speak. But when he suggested a straightforward chronological approach, I felt more comfortable.

Gangaikonda Cholapuram built by Rajendra Chola I around 11th Century AD.
| Photo Credit:
G. Moorthy

When it comes to Tamil history, we know all about the Cholas, Cheras, Pandyas. We know about the Dravidian movement, contemporary politics, and a little bit about the ancient kings. But we don’t know enough about the other things that went on in Tamilakam. I felt this would be a learning exercise, and I was happy to take it on. But I wanted to position the project properly — this was going to be a journalist’s view, and not that of, say, a Marxist historian or how a R. Champakalakshmi or a Romila Thapar would approach it. Davidar agreed, and he said it should interest someone who doesn’t know much about the Tamils, and be written in an easy style. I began at the beginning, and was surprised at the wealth of original as well as secondary information.

A dyeing vat in a vast brick structure excavated at Keezhadi near Madurai.
| Photo Credit:
G. Moorthy

Compressing 5,000 years of history into 400 pages must have been tough. How did you decide what to leave out?

I wanted to explore some of the historical questions that have always intrigued me. For instance, the Brahmadeya system under which Brahmins were gifted huge tracts of land, ruled administratively, and became powerful during the reigns of many of these kings. How and why did this happen? But while this sub-theme was interesting to me, it was beyond the scope of this book. I settled down to writing an account driven more by personal experience meshed with travel, and conversations with experts.

Many Tamil archaeologists and epigraphists had no visibility in the Anglo-Saxon world, and they have done amazing original work. I felt like their messenger more than anything. I also limited myself in terms of topics: political and cultural history, a little bit on art, architecture, the spirituality and religion of the times. With these broad themes in mind, I let the narrative flow.

One of the earliest Tamil Brahmi inscriptions found at Meenakshipuram near Madurai.
| Photo Credit:
G. Moorthy

How old really is Tamil civilisation? Sangam poetry claims an antiquity of more than 5,000-10,000 years, if not more. In 2023, Bharathidasan University’s department of remote sensing claimed to have found evidence in the Bay of Bengal that dated Poompuhar as 15,000 years old.

15,000 years is absolutely not true. Even in a very generous view, it doesn’t go beyond 7,000 years. There’s this thing called antiquity frenzy. A lot of historians in the south and also elsewhere have it. Having said that, there is also a continuity here with the early humans. The discovery of multi-purpose hand axes in places like Attirampakkam proves that early humans walked here a million to 350,000 years ago. It is amazing that the Tamil region is one of the few places where hunter-gatherer hominids evolved into a Middle Palaeolithic culture.

Sculptures of Tirumalai Nayak and his wives at Pudhu Mandapam on the Meenakshi Temple premises in Madurai.
| Photo Credit:
G. Moorthy

You say in the book that untouchability embedded itself in Tamilakam during the reign of the Pallavas. How did the caste system entrench itself in Tamil culture?

Some of it happened organically but more than anything it was firmly established by the rulers. The monarchs probably found it convenient to have this group of people known as ‘Brahmins’ who helped them in their administration. The hierarchy set in at once. The cultivators of land were the Vellalas, and there was a tussle over land ownership between the Vellalas and Brahmins. There is evidence that in non-Brahmin villages, Vellalas were made to forfeit their land to Brahmins. With this rivalry, and royal patronage, the caste system solidified. Also, in the early stages, caste was a matter of professions you practised. No one frowned on inter-marriage. The aspect of superiority and inferiority came in later. By the time Jainism arrived, the caste system was fairly solid, which is why a great many people broke away and became Jains or Buddhists.

Bas relief sculptures of Jain Tirthankaras at Kazhugumalai in Thoothukudi district.
| Photo Credit:
G. Moorthy

Is there a set of core attributes that might be said to constitute a ‘Tamil consciousness’ or ‘the Tamil way’?

Academics are typically wary of naming anything as a quintessential Tamil ‘gunam’. But yes, Tamil oratory is certainly a key aspect. Arjun Appadurai talks of how the poetry of the Sangam era finds an echo in contemporary Tamil usage. Arjun likens this persistence of Tamil literary culture to using Hellenic Greek in modern day Greece, and this is certainly unique. But he cautions against essentialising Tamil identity. I also don’t think there is something exceptionally Tamil. Tamil identity is just as human as any other community.

sampath.g@thehindu.co.in

Painting shows Portuguese traders arriving in a ship with their horses to be sold to Vijayanagara rulers at Tiruppudaimarudur.
| Photo Credit:
Nirmala Lakshman

Nirmala Lakshman’s session, ‘This Jasmine Country’ is on January 18 at The Hindu Lit for Life in Chennai.Click here to register.