The ‘Tamil Nation’ Vetoes the Tamil New Year
April 15th, 2008
by Dharman Dharmaratnam
The ‘Tamil Nation’ website was launched in 1998. The Editor, Satyendra Nadesan, an Attorney at Law based in the United Kingdom, represents one strand of the Tamil diaspora who had left Sri Lanka in the early 1980s. Many appear to have since lost touch with the ground reality in the island. The recent controversy surrounding Mr. M. Karunanidhi’s decision to shift the date of the Tamil New Year from April to January demonstrates the disconnect between sections of the Tamil diaspora and the Tamils who remain in the island.
[A Tamil devotee walks as drummers perform with traditional drums at a Hindu temple as they celebrate Tamil new year in Vavuniya-Photo Reuters Via Yahoo! News]
Mr. Karunanidhi rushed through legislation in Tamil Nadu on January 29 to discontinue the observance of the April new year. The unspoken undercurrent was to de-Hinduize the Tamil calendar and assert Tamil Nadu’s separateness from the rest of India. He proposed that Thai Pongal in mid-January be established as the Tamil New Year instead.
Little did he realize that Thai Pongal itself had a lot to do with Hindu civilization. It is hardly Tamil to begin with. This Hindu holiday in January is celebrated throughout India as Makara Sankranti. Makara Sankranti, in fact, is the biggest event in the Kumbh Mela which falls every 12 years. It is the harvest festival in Tamil Nadu, not the traditional New Year! It never marked the start of the Tamil calendar.
A ‘Tamil Nation’ Op-Ed dated February 10 gave wide publicity to Mr. Karunanidhi’s decision and urged that Tamils worldwide abide by the new diktat. A second editorial on April 12 defended the controversial move by M. Karunanidhi to shift the date of the Tamil New Year. It argued that the Tamil identity was reportedly secular, not religious. When even the pro-LTTE Tamil Net discreetly condemned Karunanidhi’s decision, the ‘Tamil Nation’ website chose to defend it! It is ironic that while second-generation Tamil immigrants in Canada and Europe have understandably assimilated into those cultures, a UK-based website set up to purportedly defend Tamil culture urges those back home to disown the traditional Tamil New Year. The April New Year had been celebrated in Tamil Nadu for over a millennium and can not be vetoed by such politicized legislation.
Fortunately, the ground reality back in Sri Lanka is very different. The Tamils in Colombo, Batticaloa, Jaffna and Vavuniya observed the traditional Tamil New Year on April 13 with hope and prayer despite the difficult situation. The All Ceylon Hindu Congress clarified that the traditional Tamil New Year was in April, not in January. This followed public consultations. Tamil public opinion in Sri Lanka vehemently opposed any change to the date of the New Year.
Karunanidhi’s efforts to bring forward the Tamil New Year to January had more to do with reconciling Tamil culture with the western calendar that starts on January 1. A so-called Tamil nationalism premised on the suppression of Hindu tradition can and should never succeed.
It was heartening to note that Jayalalitha Jayaram of the opposition AIADMK and Vaiko of the MDMK had condemned the move by Karunanidhi. This would likely be reversed in the next year. Sources in Tamil Nadu reveal that judicial litigation challenging the Karunanidhi decision is on the cards.
Regardless, the people of Batticaloa, Jaffna and Vavuniya can speak for themselves without the intervention of London-based websites.
Entry Filed under: transCurrents Commentary
27 Comments Add your own
1. Zona | April 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I am glad that Tamil people from Sri Lanka have celebrated the New Year in April. Karunanidhi has only one intention for changing the New year - he wants his name written in history as the person who did this and that. This is the most ridiculous thing that has happened in Tamil History.
2. raju | April 15th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Good luck karu. Kill all traditions of tamil people …!
3. Rasu | April 15th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
The problem with the existing calendar is not so much about the Sanskrit names or lineage, but it being a sign of domination over Tamils and Sanskrit (read brahmin, north Indian) hegemony and about the superstitions about the origins of the calendar.
Just because the Tamils have been using this calendar for long, it doesn’t mean that it is our heritage. If there is another calendar that makes more sense and that is not precieved as a sign of oppression of Tamils, we would be better off adopting it (it could even be the Gregorian calendar). “Pazhaiyana kazhithalum… vazhuvala kaala vakaiyinaanei”.
Moreover, the Tamil Nadu government and a majority of Tamil nationalists who welcomed the TN government’s move are not doing away with the existing calendar, but are only changing the starting point/date from Apr 14 to Jan 15, as a symbolic expression of Tamil identity. The Tamils elsewhere in the world have reason only to welcome it and no reason to get worked up about it.
If Thiruvalluvar era is fictitious, then what is Kaliyuga era? Was Saalivaahana era dated using radio-carbon dating! I do not understand what is wrong with creating a new tradition of Thiruvalluvar era, which could be accepted as secular by everyone!
I will be surprised if the Tamil scholars including Maraimalai Adigal who were involved in ‘creating’ the Thiruvalluvar era did not know if Thirukkural was post-changkam or middle-Changkam. It was as a consensus among international Tamil scholars that the Thiruvalluvar era was established many decades back. It is just that it has been given a legal sanction now in TN. It has become important to do this because the Tamil identity was being swallowed by the hindutva identity.
Another problem is that the existing calendar did not come to us by concensus, but was through probable enforcement (or even as a replacement to a now-exterminated Tamils’ own calendar) by non-secular hindu kings (such as Pallavas et al).
Finally, I hope that everyone appreciates the difference between ‘astrology’ that these panchangam’s are based on and astronomy - astrology is pure superstition and little science.
4. K.Thurairajah | April 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I have one short question to pose. Because Mr.Karunanidhi had said it, one must not deny or refuse it but better analyse.
We have only one Sun God in this Solar system Does it rotate differently to the Europeans, differently to the Asians particulalrly to the Hndus and differently to the Chinese. No.
So we will make the Sun God one and only one.
Hence people have to obtain different ideas from different people and then decide and follow it.
5. asa | April 15th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Chief Minister Karunanidhi should be the embodiment to strengthen the Tamil culture; but regretably his rationale is quite to the contrary.
If he has time left in his hands, Tamil people would urge him to take up the suffering of his brethren in the neighbouring land. It would probably be one of his finest act.
As everyone knows, the term ‘Hindu’ is simply derived from River Indus denoting the culture and way of life the people. How would it possible to de-hinduize a culture? One can only, if anything, de-religionize it at best thus restoring to its original meaning.
Tradition is the product of millennia of incremental carving of a nation’s consciousness, like a fine statue out of a granite block. Thai Pongal as a thanksgiving activity and the New Year as the birth and celebration of new seasons is gift from our ancestors, our past.
The rationale for the change is particularly poor even for a person who manages temple visits roughly with same frequency of Khumba Mela arrivals.
Tamil Nation’s website position notwithstanding, the writer hereto, is somewhat unnecessarily derisive in his comments about the website itself; which hardly befits. It is probably one of the finest website for Tamil people in its category.
Yet the rationale for depriving one of our a cultural milestone is sorely lacking. We would urge Tamil Nation to revisit the issue.
6. M.thiru | April 15th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
In my opinion Dharman Dharmaratnam did not follow the professional ethics in his analysis. He was attacking the website instead of soley focusing on the issue to throw more light so that the Tamils all over the world can be enlightened or enriched with more knowledge on Thai pongal, Chithirai Varusa Pirappu, and which was the traditional New year for how long. In my view it is a complex issue because there are non Hindus or non Saivites Tamils who are Christians, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists and so on, who are also traditionally Tamils and many of them were farmers too. Further Karunanidhi and his party are not nominated by the Central Government, they were elected by the majority of the Tamil Nadu voters. So he does have connection with the ground.
The issue of which is the Tamil New Year will go on for sometime until the majority follow one and the minority follow another. Christmas in the western world is like that. New year for different states within India is like that.
Among the Chinese you have Christians,Taoists, Muslims, Confucianists, Buddhists and so on, yet they have one common Chinese Lunar New Year and on the eve they reunion dinner.
Any society evolves through collective action through good leaders. Unfortunately Tamil society is divided through their own weakness which allows outsiders to manipulate such divides to their advantage.
7. Jezebel Chelliah | April 16th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Rasu
Tiruvalluvar probably lived in the 7th century as per the research of the reknowned Tamil scholar Vaiyapuri Pillai. He only synthesized Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit works. There was very little that was original. The DMK attempt to posit a mythic Tiruvalluvar era that starts on 31 BC is therefore flawed.
Second, the April New Year was not enforced on the Tamils. It is the Tamil New Year. In fact, Tamil influence on South East Asia led to those countries adopting it.
Pongal in January was never the New Year. It is very Sanskritic itself (Makara Sankranti). It was until recently confined to the farmer caste.
Karunanidhi did not forge a Tamil consensus before he introduced his change. He pushed through a hastily thought through stunt. There were no bonafide scholars who supported his decision. Maraimalar Adigal was hardly a scholar.
8. s. bala | April 16th, 2008 at 1:30 am
it seems the editor of the news item doesn’t know what karunanithi said and did. i’m not saying karu is doing this purely for tamil tradition. but he did something good that would eventually erase a scare put upon us. Maraimalai Adigal and some other prominent Tamil scholars came to a conclusion that thai pongal is our new year in years back. karu just legalised it. a lot of tamils have problem differentciating hindu from tamil. the word definitly came from the river kanga. but by all means it symbolise bramins and their tradition. i strongly suggest to all to read the book” volkavilirunthu kangai varai” (from volka to kanga).
9. Kulaveerasingham | April 16th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Very good article Dharman! The Tamil New Year has always been and will always be in April, not January. Karunanidhi’s antics are unwelcome and the ‘Tamil Nation’ does not speak for us.
I do not understand Rasu’s point that the Tamil calendar had been enforced. It is as local as it gets!!
The majority of Tamil nationalists did not support Karunanidhi’s stunt. According to Professor S. Pathmanathan in Peradeniya, the April New Year has been observed in the Tamil country for at least the last 1,000 years. This takes us back to the Chola imperial power - the golden age of Tamil history. If the April New Year was in existence at the peak of Tamil power, then how can it have been enforced on the Tamil people. Karunanidhi’s and Rasu’s bogey of Brahmin and North Indian influence needs to be dispelled.
As Tamil Net pointed out Pongal or Makara Sankranti in January can also be claimed as Sanskritic.
Karunanidhi and the Dravidian movement are a lie. There is nothing Tamil about the entire brood. Periyaar -E. V Ramaswami Naiker was of Andhra background. Karunanidhi himself is of Telugu antecedents. M.G.Ramachandran was of Malayali origin.
Vaiko had Andhra ancestors. Jayalalitha had a Mysore connection.
How can Karunanidhi and his brood claim to know what is really Tamil!!
10. Radha Rajan | April 16th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Remove Hinduism from tamil culture and what do you have? Anna, MGR, Periyar, karunanidhi and Bharatidasan. Not to say Satyaraj, Bharatiraja….You are welcome to your Tamil nation. On this punyabhoomi, my Tamil identity derives from my Hindu dharmic civilisational identity. RR
11. raj | April 16th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Karu is the biggest con artist of the century. He should worry about the beggers on the streets of TN first. Let him change their lives than the stupid calendar. You don’t elect demented old people to office. This is what you get if you do so.
12. tamil nation heart | April 16th, 2008 at 10:17 am
we love pro-ltte websites
13. Devinda Fernando | April 16th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Karunanidhi demonstrates that he cares nothing about Tamil Nationalism or Tradition or Culture,… he is only about creating divisions in order to further Ethnic Divides and thus separatism. He will destroy Tamil Culture to rule over the Tamil People, just like our very own Sun God Thalaivar who will kill any amount of Tamils to ensure his vision and rule of Tamils will remain in place…
LOL! These are the Morons who rule the Tamils today! No wonder you people are so far gone in your grasp of reality!
14. Thangavelu | April 16th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
A response to pseudo Hindus who oppose Thai first as Thamil New Year
V.Thangavelu, President Thamil Creative Writers Association
Opposition has been voiced by a small bunch of individuals who are Hindus against the change in the birth of Thamil New Year. They claim the change is against tradition and borders on blasphemy. Such people are superficial and naive in many ways.
The opposition can be seen as an ad hominies argument you cannot fault an argument, so you fault the person advancing it. In this instance Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi! He is reviled by Hindu bigots like Thuglak Chow, Ramagopalan, Ela Ganesan (BJP) Ms Jayalalithaa (ADMK MLAs voted for the bill) and few others as anti-Hindu.
Strangely, the editor of the TamilNet website in his myopic arrogance and ignorance also joined the anti-nationalist force to whip up frenzy against the change. Thus making a mockery of the decision of the de facto state of Thamil Eelam that endorsed Thai first as Thamil New Year!
The Thamil Nadu government gave legal status to the observation of Thai first (January 14th) as the beginning of Thamil New Year which will be called Thiruvalluvar Aandu. In an unprecedented act of solidarity, the bill was unanimously passed by the TN State legislature.
The accusation the TN government has arbitrarily and suddenly made the change in regard to the New Year is not supported by facts. Only half-baked illiterates do so. Thamils need a continuous year count like the Christians or Muslims. They need to discard foreign culture and beliefs imposed on them under the guise of religion. Way back in 1921 Thamil scholars like Maraimalai Adikal, Naavalar Somasundera Bharathiyaar, Prof. Parithimaakalaignar (Prof. Sooriya Narayana Shastri) K.Subramaniyapillai, Thiru V.Kalyanasundera Mudaliyar, Saivait scholar Sachchithanadapillai, Naavalar Na.Mu. Venkadasamy, K.R.P.Visvanatham and scores of others met at Pachchayappan College and resolved to make Thai first Thamil New year instead of Chiththirai. In order to have a continuous year count the birth day of Thiruvalluvar was taken as falling on Thai (Suravam) first. This was given effect by the TN government in 1971 in official calendars, from 1972 in gazettes and from 1981 in all departments. Later it was extended to non-governmental departments as well.
In the Indian civil calendar, the initial epoch is the Saka Era, a traditional era of Indian chronology that is said to have begun with King Salivahana’s accession to the throne and is also the reference for most astronomical works in Sanskrit literature written after 500 AD. In the Saka calendar, the year 2002 AD is 1925.
The other popular epoch is the Vikram era that is believed to have begun with the coronation of King Vikramaditya. The year 2002 AD corresponds to 2060 in this system.
The Calendar Reform Committee set up India’s present day national calendar in 1957. It is a lunisolar calendar, which has leap years coinciding with the leap years of the Gregorian calendar. The months in the calendar have been named after the conventional Indian months. This calendar came into effect with the Saka Era in Chaitra 1, 1879 (March 22, 1957).
Although we don’t have direct evidence of Thiruvalluvarr’s birth day, this day has been chosen with reference to available (indirect data) from Sangam and post-Sangam Thamil literature.
The opposition to the change in the Thamil New Year from Chiththirai to Thai mostly emanates due to a lack of proper understanding of astronomy. Added is the natural tendency to resist change.
The Earth has three types of motions: motion around its axis, motion around the Sun, and motion of its axis due to wobbling of Earth. The Earth rotates around its axis in 24 hours, which causes day and night. In the Northern Hemisphere we see that all but one of the stars and planets rise in the east and set in the west. The one star that does not rise or set is the polar star (Dhruv Nadchchathiram or Polaris), which is located directly above the Earth’s North Pole. The Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees on the plane of orbit around the Sun. This causes changes of seasons during the year. The seasonal changes have nothing to do with star or planets as widely believed by Astrologers and Almanac casters.
The second type of motion is the rotation of the Earth around the Sun in 365 days to complete one revolution in an elliptical orbit. Using modern instruments for exact observations of the universe, the Earth takes 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 9.50 seconds to complete one revolution with respect to the stars (sidereal year). With respect to the orbit, it takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45.50 seconds to complete one revolution (tropical year). The difference in time is 20 minutes and 24.00 seconds as follows:
Solar year,
365
d.
5
h.
48
m.
45.50
s.
Sidereal year,
365
6
9
9.50
Difference,
20
m.
24.00
s.
This difference is caused by the third type of motion of Earth, the wobbling of its axis, which astronomers call processional movement (precession of equinoxes) of the pole or axis of the Earth.
The ancient Thamils lived in close touch with nature. Astronomy and astrology very much influenced their lives. With regard to the year, the Thamils started it with the Vernal Equinox. Astronomers have determined the sun transiting Aries at 0 degree as the Vernal Equinox, that is the day when the sun rose exactly in the east, coincided. This was about the year 285AD. With the lapse of centuries, the New Year falls now, about three weeks after the Vernal Equinox. The Hindu solar year is sidereal, and since it is in excess of the tropical year by 20 minutes and 24.00 seconds, it does not keep step with the seasons. The seasons fall back one and half days for every hundred years or one day every 71.6 years.
It is not correct to say that Chiththirai has always been the beginning of Thamil New Year. Nachchinarkiniyar who wrote a commentary to Tholkaappiyam says Thamil New Year started in August (Aavani) and ended in July (Aadi). This demonstrates the fact that Aeries (Medam) is not the start of the reference point in the Zodiac during Tholkappiyar’s time.
The Thamils/Hindus divided the year into “Uttarayanam” the first six months after the winter solstice and “Dhadshanyam” the second six months after the summer solstice. The former was considered health-giving, bright period for man and animals for during that period the days became longer and longer. Thus “Uttarayanam” was celebrated by Thaipongal and Paddippongal (the cattle festival). Most of the temple festivals in the Thamil country were also fixed for this bright period. The beginning of the “Dhadshanayam” was marked by “Adipirapoo” (July 1- Hindu calendar). These six months were considered not a very bright period for men and animals because the days became shorter and shorter.
One of the major drawbacks in counting Chiththirai is that it is not a continuous year. Its cycle consists of 60 years. This cycle of years is useless to record historical events. And their (so are some of the months) names are not Thamil. They are in Sanskrit. The mythological story attached to the birth of the years is extremely vulgar and obscene. As usual with Hindu mythologies a perverted mind must have invented the story.
A close look at the six seasons given in Thamil literature reveals that they are out of sync with the actual seasons experienced at the equator.
Ilavenil Kaalam : mild sunny period : Chithirai, Vahasi - Thingal
(mid April to mid June)
Muthuvenil Kaalam : intense sunny period : Aani, Aadi - Thingal
(mid June to mid August)
Kaar Kaalam : cloudy rainy Period : Aavani, Purataasi - Thingal
(mid August to mid October)
Kuthir Kaalam - cold period : Iyppassi, Kaarthihai - Thingal
(mid October to mid December)
Munpani Kaalam - early misty period (evening dew): Maarkali, Thai Thingal
(mid December to mid February)
Pinpani Kaalam - late misty period (morning dew): Maasi, Panguni Thingal
(mid February to mid April)
Definitely Mid June to mid-August is not the rainy season in Northeast of Ceylon or Thamil Nadu. They are in fact hot and humid months. The rainy season is from October to November (Iyppasi to Kaarthikai) and not from mid August to mid October.
The coolest months are December - January (Maarkali - Thai). It is in January (Thai) the farmer harvest the first sheaves of a harvest. They are grinded and mixed with old rice and used for Pongal. The actual harvest season does not take place in January. It takes place in February and March. This is due to change in seasons due to precession.
January 14th too has astronomical significance, in that, the Sun (Earth) commences its Northerly transit.
In fact there are four (not three) transits of significance by the Sun in its journey from south to north and north to south. They are -
Winter Equinox-March 20/21
Summer Solstice-June 21
Autumn Equinox-December 22
Spring Equinox-March 20/21
This is true only in regard to the Northern hemisphere. It will be the exact opposite of those living in the Southern hemisphere. When it is summer in the Northern hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern hemisphere. So in regard to spring and autumn.
As already mentioned, the arrivals of the seasons have been changing at the rate of 1 degree per 71.6 years. Westerners found spring coming earlier (March 10) than the Julian calendar showed viz March 21. To adjust the extra days Pope Gregory ordered the deletion of 10 days i.e. October 5th was followed up with October 15th. The Gregorian calendar still has a few seconds difference. But the calendar can hold good fairly accurately for the next 1000 years!
Due to the precession of the equinox, the Sun will be at the 1st degree of Libra at the spring equinox in 11,232 years! Those who think that almanacs and calendars are cast in iron should mark their calendars! The zodiac of the two systems (Tropical and Sidereal) will be exactly opposite one another! Ayanamsha will be 180 degrees 0 minutes!! It would be interesting to those who oppose Thamil New Year shifted to Thai first to incarnate at that time just to join in the debate!
In Vedic or Sidereal astrology the calculation of the Sun passing through the 1st degree of Aries is marked by the Sun actually passing through the observable fixed stars making up the constellation Aries and has nothing to do with the seasons. Because of the precession of equinoxes at a rate of 50.26 seconds per year, .difference between the tropical zodiac and sidereal zodiac increases every 10 years by 8 minutes 22 arc seconds.
The Thamil/Hindu calendar has gone awry and no correction was made for precession of equinoxes. This is the reason why the real seasons are not synchronizing with months mentioned above. Poet Subramanian Bharathiyar has pointed out this discrepancy in one of his essays.
Those who claim that Chiththirai New Year ushers in Spring (Venil) has to re-think. It really falls on March 21st! A good 24 days earlier. So are all the Hindu auspices festival and ceremonial days.
The “wobble” and the precession of the equinoxes were known to the Ancient Egyptians, although the first official “discovery” of it was made by an Ancient Greek astronomer, Hipparchus, who was born sometime around 190 B.C. It was noted because the Sun was in a slightly earlier position at the time of the Spring Equinox each year (as measured against the fixed stars). Because the movement slips backwards (Westwards) through the zodiac, it is called precession (as opposed to a forward-movement which would be called progression).
Now 1 every 71.6 years doesn’t sound like too much, but it certainly adds up over 2,000 years or so, and this is where we get into the different Zodiac systems.
The determination of Thai first as Thamil New Year is now a fait accompali. One cannot unscramble a scrambled egg! History is heavily stacked against intellectually discreditable individuals for they live in the past!
The change of Thamil New Year has not altered or modified the Panchangam or Thamil Almanac as some foolishly think or argue. What has changed is the reference point (in a circle any point could be considered the reference point) in the Zodiac. Instead of Aeries 0 degree being considered the birth of Thamil New Year, the reference point has been shifted to Makaram 0 degree the birth of Thamil New Year!
There is reference in Thamil Sangam literature to the celebration of Thai Neeradal, but there is absolutely no reference to Chiththirai New Year in ancient literature!
The shifting of Thamil New Year from Chiththirai first to Thai first is a milestone in the history of Thamils.
15. Manian | April 16th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I share Dharman’s views on the Tamil Nation and his analysis.
I disagree with Thiru. The calendar of the Roman Catholic church starts on January 1. Pope Gregory set that date. The Islamic calendar starts on Muharram 1. The Tamil calendar starts on April 14 - Chitterai. You can not arbitrarily change such dates by government order just to promote secularism in Tamil Nadu.
Pongal is a Hindu event that is not the New Year. It is celebrated in the Punjab as Lohri and in Assam as Bihu and elsewhere as Makara Sankranti - all on January 14. It is a farmer festival.
Maraimalar Adigal is not a bona fide academic. Many are of the view that he was a British colonial agent propped up to weaken the increased hold of Indian nationalism in the Madras Presidency of the 1920s as epitomized by Subrahmaniyar Bharatiyar and Kappal Otiya Tamizhan. Maraimalar was no Tamil scholar.
Raj is correct. Such gimmicks are what you get when you elect demented people to the highest position in the land. They have nothing better to do. Fortunately, the Pongal new year is doomed. It would be rescinded if not by Karunananidhi’s sons, by his opponents.
I would like to remind Thiru that the Tamils in Ceylon are not in favor of the change in date.
Here are a few Tamil proverbs which I liked.
“Nothing is more precious than the rains in Chithirai”
And “Ploughing in Chithirai is as worthy as pure gold”.
“When Thai takes birth, the earth goes dry”
and
“Rains in Thai are not even good for chaff”
Thai in January is only meant for the harvest and weddings - nothing else.
16. miller | April 16th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
kal thoonri man thoonra kaalathin mooththa kudi tamil kudi endru solra tamil varalltrai thalai keelaga maatra pakkirar elloraalum ulaga tamilarkalukku ellam thalaivar enru azhkkapadum karunanithi avargal. thamilarkalinen puthu varusam aana cithiraiai, thai pongal tan tamilarkaleen puthandaga maathiyum, thruvalluvar aandu enru naal kattiyum uruvakki ottu motha tamileenathin udaiya varallatu paarampariyathai maartri amithu innum 200varudam pin varum santhathijkalukku thamillum, thamilarin varalarum thrivalluvar aandil irunthu todanga poghuthu. antha perumai ulaga thamilar thalaivar enru sollapadum pacchonthi karunanithikkey saerum. tamil varudangal samaskirutham perkalil irupathal thaney chithirai puthandey maitappatathu, eyen avargalal thuja tamil pergalai tamil varudangalukku kudukka mudiyavillai ivargalal. parrpana ethirppum periyar kollkaiyum serinthu tamilkalathu varalaittraiyea thalai keelaga maitapakkirathu.
17. Jezebel Chelliah | April 16th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Thangavelu
I think you are off the mark. And way way too long.
Let me give a response as a Tamil Christian! You can not accuse me of being a pseuo-Hindu. I support the April New Year and opposed the change of date to January! The proposed move has no support from the people and from serious scholarship.
I think Dharman is on target. The April New Year is set by tradition and we accept it for only that reason. This has nothing to do with modernity. It is handed down by the generations. And most of us who chose to remain in our country support the April New Year unlike you expats.
We rely on the international calendar for purposes of science and banking but for tradition - it is Chitterai.
You mention that Thuglak Chow, Ramagopalan, Ela Ganesan (BJP) and Ms Jayalalithaa voted for the bill. Let me correct you. Cho is not a MLA!! He in fact condemned it.
And the others you mention had later opposed the bill. This may be opportunism on their part but they realized that their constituents in Tamil Nadu did not support it. This tells me that Karunanidhi would not succeed in his effort.
The New Year would be shifted back to April - either due to opposition in Tamil Nadu taking power at a later date or successful litigation before that.
You attack Tamil Net as myopic. I am surprised at your statement coming from a self-proclaimed Tamil nationliast like you. We rely on Tamil Net for information. The Editors of that website realized that had they supported the change in the New Year, they would have been roundly criticized - just as Karunanidhi and ‘Tamil Nation’ are.
You then mention that “way back in 1921 Thamil scholars like Maraimalai Adikal, Naavalar Somasundera Bharathiyaar, Prof. Parithimaakalaignar (Prof. Sooriya Narayana Shastri) K.Subramaniyapillai, Thiru V.Kalyanasundera Mudaliyar, Saivait scholar Sachchithanadapillai, Naavalar Na.Mu. Venkadasamy, K.R.P.Visvanatham and scores of others met at Pachchayappan College and resolved to make Thai first Thamil New year instead of Chiththirai”.
You are wrong again my friend. Please check your facts before you shoot off!
Only 7 individuals met at that so-called conference and not all you include in the list were present there. Please verify before you write on a column such as this.
And just because 7 individuals called for a change, it does not mean that we all have to tow the line. There is something called public consultation, remember! And I doubt their scholarship to begin with.
I am not sure what the point of your mention of the Salivahana, Vikrama and Saka eras is. So I will not respond to that.
You allude to the Sangam era to explain how Tiruvalluvar’s birth year was arrived at. Well, let me tell you - the Sangam era by all accounts preceded Tiruvalluvar and can not be used to determine the Tiruvalluvar era!! Talk of fallacious argument…..
You then go off at a tangent on astronomy to arrive at how the Hindu solar calendar is off by several minutes and so forth. Ok - so what! This is used to mark tradition - not calculate the take off the space craft Challenger into outerspace!! It is not used in NASA but in the Nallur Kandaswamy Temple.
Mr. Thangavelu, please check your facts. You refer to Naccinarkiniyar as claiming that the Tamil New Year started in August and you date him to Tolkapiyam times. Excuse me, but Naccinarkiniyar lived in the 14th or 15th century as per internal evidence of his commentary which refers to the Vijayanagara period.
By contrast, there is reference to the April New Year in Chola inscriptions dated to the 10th century! The August significance perhaps related to the Chera kingdom where the Kollam era started in August.
So please return home to Jaffna and we could teach you a thing or two on Tamil tradition at the University here.
18. Deepu | April 17th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Karunanidhi is senile. You might want to read this:
As far as the office-goer is concerned, he has one holiday less.
It is pretty miraculous that not a single debate was held, and no expression except that of consensus! The fact that a secular state has no business in legislating–imposing actually–on matters of traditional calendar apart, Karunanidhi’s government should have at the least, pretended to show some decorum in this matter by inviting scholarly opinion. It fails to name a single scholar who can show how he/she derived this date.
If this is another detested but time-tested dirty political trick, it falls flat. Shouting anti-upper caste slogans is understandable at one level–plus, it is open. If imposing an unscientific and fraudulent traditional calendar is Karunanidhi’s idea of “Dravidising” every single aspect of people’s daily lives, it is another proof of his own senility. In reality, the definition of “Dravidian” is itself a vessel without a bottom.
More here: http://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/04/15/progenitor-of-a-new-calendar/
19. Murugan | April 17th, 2008 at 12:53 am
It is not the job of government to use its legislative powers to alter ancient traditions.
20. Ramu | April 17th, 2008 at 1:45 am
TransCurrents presents different points of view. Congratulations are in order. Tamil Net, ‘Tamil Nation’ and the ‘Thamil Creative Writers Association’ are all opinionated and do not accord space to alternate viewpoints. D.B.S Jeyaraj should be applauded for being democratic.
Dharman is spot-on. Thank you Dharman for taking on the Tamil diaspora.
Thangavelu needs what the Maoists calls a ‘re-education’! The six ‘Thamil’ seasons he refers to are derived lock, stock and barrel from Sanskrit literature. If Chitterai is off the mark due to the precession of the equinox, so is Thai for that very same reason. Pongal should be in December, not January.
The astronomy that Thangavelu refers to is Indic, not Tamil. It is derived from Aryabhatta, Varahamihira, Brahmagupta and Bhaskara. There is no Tamil astronomy. All works of astronomy are in Sanskrit.
As an Tamil of recent Indian origin in Sri Lanka, let me refute the Jaffna bias of Thangavelu. The Estate Tamils do not celebrate Thai Pongal. They work on that day. The same holds true of ‘Indian’ Tamils in Malaysia and Singapore. Only Deepavali counts for us as significant. We go to temple on the Tamil New Year in April but even that is overshadowed by Deepavali. Now Deepavali is as North Indian as it can be. It is also South Indian. Thangavelu, the ‘Tamil Nation’ and Karunanidhi can not decide for us what to celebrate, what to prioritize and what to change. That is our sole prerogative, not theirs.
Thangavelu refers to the Sankrit names of the 60 years and the dismissed what he calls the ‘perverted Hindu myth’ behind that. If that is not anti-Hindu, then I wonder what is.
I went through the ‘Tamil Nation’ website and found it extremely ideological. There is nothing called a Tamil nation! We are citizens of India, of Sri Lanka, of Malaysia and of Singapore. And these folks are citizens of England and Canada. A Tamil nation never was and never will be. Wake up and smell the coffee, Thangavelu.
21. anpu | April 17th, 2008 at 6:43 am
R # 14
V. Thangavelu — selected extracts from his own very detailed submission as to why we should NOT bother with changing the Tamil New Year (Holiday).
1. One of the major drawbacks in counting Chiththirai is that it is not a continuous year. Its cycle consists of 60 years. This cycle of years is useless to record historical events.’
—Several communities have different new year commencement date. The one that is universally accepted and useful calendar system for continuous counting is the current version of the Gregorian Calendar. Then everyone will then understand a time period that is referenced.
2. Thus making a mockery of the decision of the de facto state of Thamil Eelam that endorsed Thai first as Thamil New Year!‘
— Anyone can revisit an issue; TamilNet is right. It is better to correct an error at early period.
3. One of the major drawbacks in counting Chiththirai is that it is not a continuous year. Its cycle consists of 60 years. This cycle of years is useless to record historical events.
— Thiruvalluvar period can continue to be used for continuous year recording. If we look at our seminal periods in our lifetime itself we are using the Gregorian calendar, and it is the right way. For example, if one say that colonial era in Ceylon commenced with the arrival Portuguese in 1505, then everyone will understand pretty quickly.
Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister CN Annadurai once illustrated (on the imposition of Hindi in the South) that if we need to go from Madras (Chennai) to New Delhi, then we could use the same plane that travels all the way to London. No particular advantage in buying one for New Delhi and another one for London. Thus English language became the bridge between the North and the South shortly after India’s independence. This principle is applicable in many instances.
4. The change of Thamil New Year has not altered or modified the Panchangam or Thamil Almanac as some foolishly think or argue. What has changed is the reference point (in a circle any point could be considered the reference point) in the Zodiac.
— Absolutely. Any point can be a reference point. And in deference to our past in last millennium period, let us keep the harmless tradition as is, and it has a basis as well.
5. A close look at the six seasons given in Thamil literature reveals that they are out of sync with the actual seasons experienced at the equator. (a) Ilavenil Kaalam : mild sunny period : Chithirai, Vaihasi - Thingal (mid April to mid June) …
— This is why we should keep the mid April birth of the Tamil New Year (holiday)! Imagine celebrating Tamil New Year in Canada in January.
Thank God for our forefathers foresight.
22. Anonymous | April 17th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Comment # 20,
“A Tamil nation never was and never will be.” Why don’t you wake up, pull up a table and some Tamil literature and read it. Your remark that a Tamil Nation never was is only laughable and shows the lack of understanding of Tamil history that you have. Either you made this remark without any thought, or you have no clue of what you are talking about or you are a person who is outside of this topic (Sinhalese Extremist, anti-Tamil etc).
Currently there is no Tamil Nation. One part of it is under the acceptable governance of India and another is under the unacceptable, brutal and oppressive governance of Sri Lanka.
23. Devinda Fernando | April 17th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Jesus was not Born on December 25th… Still I don’t see whacko Christian sects trying to change it …its called Tradition and has been practiced for over a thousand years… Let it be…
Has Communalism dropped so low that this what we have to witness?
LOL!
24. David | April 18th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Excellent points Dharman, Jezebal and Ramu.
Anonymous: you lose your argument by choosing to be anonymous. There is no Tamil Nation. The LTTE is about to lose more territory and unlikely to ever regain its earlier clout.
25. Selva | April 18th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Dr. M. Karunani himself is a non-believer in god and then how come he believes in Astrology. He shouldn’t have done it against the will of the Tamilnadu people because the people are not non-believers. The legislation in the Tamilnadu Assembly is not going to affect Sri lankan or Malaysian Tamils. Even it will not affect the Pondicheri Tamils. So why waste time.
26. Rajan | April 19th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Well said Dharman. I support you.
The Editor of TransCurrents follows the established Tamil political practice in ‘running with the hare and hunting with the hound’. He publishes Dharman supporting the April New Year (which most of us do) and then gives prominent space to Thangavelu who attacks the April New Year on anti-Hindu grounds.
Talk of the duplicity in this journal.
Regardless, April 14 would always be our New Year despite the TransCurrent, Tamil Nation and Thangavelu positions. It is interesting that all these individuals reside overseas while the temples in Sri Lanka were packed with worshipers on April 14. The disconnect is obvious.
Happy New Year!
transCurrents Response:
publishing diverse points of view on an issue or topic is in the finest traditions of ‘ideal journalism.’ its not duplicitous this ‘wise fool’ charges, while the person writing under pseudonym dharman dharmaratnam says one thing,Yelupillai Thangavelu writing under his own name says another. trancurrents publishes both perspectives and leaves it to the reader to decide.
trancurrents is not stating its OWN opinion on this.
by publishing Dharman Dharmaratnam and/or Veluppillai Thangavelu , tranCurrents is not aligning itself with their respective positions. this would be blatantly obvious to anyone with a modicum of knowledgeable journalism or any avid regular reader of this website.
The pompous windbag writing under the name ‘Rajan’ needs a refresher course (perhaps funded by World Bank!) in basic journalism and elementary courtesy.
27. Rajan | April 21st, 2008 at 9:39 am
David Buell Jeyaraj
Editor
I do not know Dharman Dharmaratnam to decide whether he uses a psuedonym or not. But I have read him before to know that he writes well and quotes solid history.
Thangavelu on the other hand was harsh. He commented on Dharman’s piece and expressed a severe condemnation of Hinduism.
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