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‘India, largely a country of immigrants’
A Supreme Court judgement was recently referred to in an article, ‘India, largely a country of immigrants’, that appeared in The Hindu. The judgement was an excellent rendering of the historical thesis that India is largely a country of old migrants and that pre-Dravidian aborigines, ancestors of the present-day Adivasis, rather than the Dravidians, were the original inhabitants of the country.
That the original Adivasis, like the Bhils, who are about 8 per cent of the current Indian population, and that the balance 92 per cent are immigrants who came into India over a period of time is debatable. However, it needs to be noted that “Much of the evolution of Man took place outside India (and that) creatures of the Homo genus seem to have entered the Indian subcontinent soon after they were evolved – stone artifacts that are over two million years old have been excavated in the northwestern Himalayan foothills, the oldest find of its kind in Asia.”*
The immigrants, the Anatomically Modern Man (AMM), originated in Africa; genetical evidence suggests they moved along the coast of India, the sea levels were minus 350/375 feet below the present levels some 80,000/90,000 years ago, and it took 4000 to 4500 generations to inch across, in geological time scale, to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia. On the way, they bred with the Adivasis of India, stayed in South India for thousands of years and quite a number continued with the culture that was crystallised in India when moving to Indonesia, PNG and Australia. Nearly 75,000 years ago, the world’s biggest volcanic eruption took place at Mount Toba, Sumatra, pumping 2000 to 2400 cubic kilometres of lava, debris, ash into the atmosphere (now there is a lake of 1160 sq km!). Ash as thick as 6 inch to one feet covered India, killing all human migrants, except those who were in the hills and caves and they may be the Adivasis of today. Fresh remigration took place again from Africa and remigration from S.E. Asia some 60,000 years ago.
The Supreme Court asks, “While the assumption that the Dravidians are aboriginal is no longer tenable, is there evidence to show whence they came into India?” It has to be pointed out that the Dravidians came in the several waves of migrations from Africa, intermingled with and bred with the earlier migrants, and stayed back in India, with a great many continuing their journey right up to Australia.
Considerable evidence is being acquired, though no peer review has been done, in studying the languages of aboriginal Australia and Papua New Guinea. When the aborigines of Australia speak, it sounds like Tamil; their grammar and Tamil grammar are also similar. Quite a number of cognate words in Tamil and PNG have been discovered. A list of 1300 surnames from the 2010 telephone directory of PNG has been submitted to the Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department; they all sound like Tamil. These people in PNG have preserved their very ancient language in their surnames, coined when their ancestors were in the Indian subcontinent some 80,000 year ago. Without a language, Man would not have dared to migrate. Already, archaeologists have discovered cognate words over 20,000 years old. Now, we are looking to discover these words 80,000 years old.
The Supreme Court needs to order the Archaeological Department to invest on research in this direction, as new evidence will overrule their present stand.
It is true that the present-day Adivasis were deprived of all rights, not allowing them even to have rights to the forests they live in. There are people like the Irulas, Todas, etc. who need to be brought into the mainstream of India. I am glad the Supreme Court recognises this important aspect.
– K.V.S. Krishna
* Quoted from Gem in the Lotus -Seeding of Indian Civilization by Abraham Eraly.
Singara Chennai?
The civic elections are over and we have heard a lot of noise all round the city. It is worth the while, in this context, to remember a few selfless souls who played positive roles in the Corporation in the State.
Many years ago, a ward leader got elected to the Kumbakonam Municipality. He had a one-line election promise: Eradication of mosquitoes. And he did it in less than a year through hard work and singleminded dedication. Incidentally, he was the father of the world-renowned agro scientist, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, now a Member of Parliament.
Satyamurthi, that powerful orator, was a model Mayor of Madras for whom the city came first.
Then there was Mayor Krishnamurthy who used to walk among the citizenry and listen to their needs and tried to fulfil them.
What will the new Corporation do for the Singara Chennai they promise?
S. Venugopalan
esvee45@yahoo.co.in
‘Mini Brazil’ footballers
Thank you for calling my native place Vyasarpady Mini Brazil (ref. Ramanan’s Quiz MM, August 1st). I remember only a few footballers like Seenu and Pandu after I moved out. Can someone name a few more and refresh my memory?
Dr. S.S. Kumar
vanmuhill@gmail.com
Street names study
Some time ago Madras Musings had made a comprehensive study of the names of roads named after the British. Recently there has been a discussion about Five Furlongs Road. It would be nice if someone made an attempt to study the names of the streets of Chennai, at least those that existed in the 1950s.
I am particularly interested in the following in Triplicane.
1. Office Venkatachala Mudali Street (OVM Street). What office and after whom?
2. Sydoji Street – Is it a Mahratti or Muslim name? Who was Sydoji? Actually there is Sydoji Lane running perpendicular which is broader than the street.
3. Ranganathan Street (less well known than only the T’Nagar street).
4. Veeraraghava Mudaliar Street (familarly known as Big Street).
5. C.N. Krishnaswamy Road (C.N.K. Road).
Someone wrote in Madras Musings about Viet Nam giving such details on the street name boards. That’s a thought for the new Chennai Corporation.
R.K. Natarajan
natarajanrk@gmail.com
Snake imagery
This has reference to reader Dharmeshwaran’s delightful quip about the snake being without legs (MM, October 1st). Evidence from several ancient West Asian texts (from some of which also emerge certain Old Testament allusions) suggests the imagery of snake being that of a winged creature or a sea dragon without legs. It is tantalising to compare this with the proto-cosmic figure of Adishesha. Prophet Isaiah (14:29) in Old Testament metaphorically highlights "the springing of venom from the darting snake.”
According to some cis-Iranian myths, a milky-white sea, protected by a sea-monster, or a snake, once existed where the present-day Black Sea is, and when copious poison from some chaos poured out, the milky-white water body turned black. If that were to be so, the ksheera aabdhi or the thirupaarkadal of later Hindu traditions had probably derived it from some old Aryan paleontological source. No wonder then that Lord Shiva, as the consumer of this primeval poison, came to provide the binary opposite factor in the evolution of the mytho-religious lore of Hinduism.
Rev. Philip Mulley
St. John’s Church
Coonoor, The Nilgiris
What’s it meaning?
There is a MTC Bus Stop near Guindy known as ASARKANA. Can any one throw light on the meaning and significance of the name?
N. Dharmeshwaran
(Camp) Plot 21
Kumaran Nagar
Guduvancherry 603 202
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