Sankalpam and its meaning

Sankalpam and its meaning

Sankalpam and its meaning

We are always curious to know the meaning of the Sankalpam that we take before the start of a pooja or a ritual. Firstly, we need to know the Hindu Cosmic cycle.

1 Mahayuga = Sum of 4 Yugas(Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali) = 4,320,000 years. 
1000 such mahayugas comprise a day-time of Brahma also known as a Kalpa. 
The kalpa is ruled by 14 manus in succession. 
The reigning period of a manu is onemanvantara which is 71.42 mahayugas.

There is an equivalent night-time of 4,320,000,000 years. The day-night of Brahma together constitutes one Brahma day (8.64 billion years). 360 Brahma days constitute a Brahma year while 360 years represent the lifetime of Brahma which is the life of the cosmos. Doing this simple calculation gives the age of the cosmos to be 311 trillion years. 

Carl Sagan, the noted scientist says in relation to this, ""The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer timescales still."
We are presently in the Sveta-Varaha kalpa in the reigning period of Vaivaswatha - the 7th manu. In this manvantara we are in the 28th mahayuga. As per our Cosmology, Brahma is supposed to have completed 50 Brahma years and is in his51st year. That is why he is called "Parardha-dvaya-jivin"(ie) he lives for two parardhas. A parardha is half.

Two halves make one. He is called so as he has completed one half of his tenure. These terminologies makes better sense in relation to the Sankalpa. 

The actual Sankalpa mantra and its meaning runs like this

".... Dviteeya parardhe - in the 2nd half of Brhama's life
Svetavaraha kalpe - in the kalpaof Sveta-Varaha
Vaivaswatha manvantare - in thereining period of the current manu Vaivaswatha
Ashta Vimsati tamey - in the 28thmahayuga of the current manavantara
Kaliyuge - in this kali yuga
Prathame Padhe - in the firstquarter of this yuga
Jamboodveepe - this denotes theplace where the ritual is performed. India

was known as Jambudveepa
Bharata Varshe, Bharata Kande -in the land of Bharat
Sakhabde Mero, Dakshine Parsve -to the South of the Meru mountain
Asmin Varthamane Vyavaharike -in the current period now reigning
Prabhavadi Shasti Samvatsaranam Madya - among the cycle of 60 years starting from 

Prabhava
.....Nama Samvatsare - the name ofthe year in the 60 year Hindu calendar

.... Ayane - Dakshinayane (Aadito Marghazi) or Uttarayane (Thai to Aani)

.... Ritou - denotes the 6seasons or Ritus - Vasantha, Greeshma, Varsha, Sharadh, Hemantha 

                 and Shishira

.... Maasey - one of the 12 tamil months

.... Pakshey - either ShuklaPaksham (day after Amavasya till and including Pournami) or 

                      Krishna Paksham(day after Pournami till and including Amavasya)

.... Subha Thithou - one of the15 days between Pournami and Amavasya

                     (Prathama, Dvithiya, Trithiya,Chaturthi, Panchami, Shasti, Saptami,

                      Ashtami, Navami, Dasami,Ekadasi, Dwadashi, Trayodasi, Chaturdasi,

                      Pournami or Amavasya

.... Vasara Yuktayam - one of thedays of the week (Bhanu, Soma, Bhowma, Soumya, Guru, 

                     Brugu and Sthira)

.... Nakshatra Yuktayam - the day's star or Nakshatram.

After saying the above the name of the ritual is said. The Paramacharya says the Sankalpam is 

a kind of record of what you performed with finer details going down to the dayand location 

of the ritual. It seems to me the fore runner for a kind ofbookkeeping or a system of 

maintaining minutes of a meeting. 

Sankalpam: Detailed explanation

Let us understand the meaning of the phrases that the Sankalpam is comprised of. 
To understand the phrases in the Sankalpam we need to understand the concept of the 
Cosmic Cycle and Cosmic time calculations

Cosmic Cycle

Time, as per Hindu practices, has evolved and revolves around the life cycle of Brahma, the Creator. This is known as the Hindu Cosmic cycle. Cosmic cycles are infinitely recurring periods of the universe, comprising its creation, preservation and dissolution.
Time Calculations

We start by using a calendaryear as the basis. Unless otherwise specified, year shall mean a Calendar Year. One year for humans represents one day for the divine beings. 360 such divine days make one divine year. 12,000 such divine years makes a Mahayuga comprising the 4 yugas of Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali yugas.

i.e. each Yuga comprises of thefollowing calendar years:

• Kali yuga     --        432,000 years

• Dwapara yuga  -   864.000 years

• Treta yuga     ---   1,296,000 years

• Krita yuga ----       1,728,000 years.
Kalpa

Total for one Mahayuga (Also called Chatur Yuga) = 4,320,000 years or 4.32 million years.

72 Mahayugas constitutes one 'Manvantara' (i.e.) the life of a Manu, the law giver ( we are in the 28thMahayuga)

14 such Manvantaras make one dayor Kalpa of the Creator Brahma.

2 kalpas = 1 day and night of Brahma ( called Ahoratras )

360 ahoratras = 1 year of Brahma
Parardhe

Half the life span of Brahma, OR50 Brahma years. We are in the 51st Brahma Year, OR the second or Dwiteya Pararadhe

Two Parardhe : Life span of Brahma ie 100 years

After that, pralaya equal to the duration of 2 parardhas take place, and at its end, a new cycle starts. 

Jamboo dveepey

Then , the Sankalpa refers to the geographical position of the place where the ritual is performed. This could be the historical or mythological name of the place. Sri Bhagavatham deals with the geography of the world in a great detail. It divides the world into seven dweepas. India is in Jambu dweepa and America in Krauncha dweepa.
Bharata varshey, Bharata:khandey, Sakhabde, mero: dakshiney parsvey
In the geographical part to the south of the Meru Mountain in the land of Bharata. Meru is the mythological heavenly mountain, and our planet Earth is south of it. Technically , this also means that this particular term merO:

dakshiNE pArSvE would be applicable to all parts of the world. 

……nAma samvatsarE
Resuming the reference to time,the Sankalpa proceeds further as follows:

Samvatsaram is a Year. Hinducalendar has a 60 year cycle. Next year is Nandhana corresponding to the Year (2012 -2013)
……AyaNE (Ayanam)

As per calendars based on thesolar system the year is divided into two halves in accordance with the movement of the sun, Northwards and Southwards. The former is termed Uttaraayanam and the latter Dakshinaayanam.

Dakshinayanam (6 months) – Aadi to Margazhi

Uttarayanam (6 months) - Thai to AaNi 

……Ritou (Rithus)

The year is divided into 6 seasons or RITUS, which correspond to 2 months

each of the Lunar Calendar. These are as follows:

• Chithirai & Vaikasi =Vasantha Rithu (March-April, April-May)

• Aani & Aadi = Greeshama Rithu (May-June, June-July)

• Aavani & Puratasi = Varsha Rithu (July-Aug, Aug-Sep)

• Iypasi & Karthigai =Sharadh Rithu (Sep-Oct, Oct-Nov)

• Markazhi & Thai = Hemantha Rithu (Nov-Dec, Dec-Jan)

• Masi & Panguni = Shishira Rithou (February/March)
……Subha-tithau (Thithis)

These are days of the month calculated from the day after Pournami, till

Amavasya, or vice versa.

Pournami/Amavasya + 1: Prathama

+ 2. Dvithiya

+ 3. Trithiya

+ 4. Chaturthi

+ 5. Panchami

+ 6. Shashti

+ 7. Saptami

+ 8. Ashtami

+ 9. Navami

+ 10. Dasami

+ 11. Ekadasi

+ 12. Dvadashi

+ 13. Trayodasi

+ 14. Chaturdasi

+ 15. PourNami OR Amavasya

……mAsE (Months)

• Chitirai – Mesham April - May

• Vaikasi – Rishabam May – June

• Aani – Mithunam June - July

• Aadi – Kadakam July - August

• Aavani – Simham August - Sep

• Puratasi – Kannya Sep - Oct

• Iypasi – Tulam Oct - Nov

• Karthigai – Virchikam Nov -Dec

• Markazhi = Dhanur Dec - Jan

• Thai – Makaram Jan - Feb

• Masi – Kumbam Feb - March

• Panguni – Meenam March – April 

……pakshE (Paksham)

Shukla Pakshe: day after Amavasya till and including Pournami

Krishna Pakshe: day after Pournami till and including Amavasya
.

……vAsara (days of a week)

• Sunday: Bhanu Vasara;

• Monday: Indu /Soma Vasara;

• Tuesday: Bhowma Vasara;

• Wednesday: Soumya Vasara;

• Thursday: Guru Vasara;

• Friday: Brugu Vasara;

• Saturday: Sthira Vasara
……nakshatra yuktAyAm (Nakshatram)

Aswani/ Aswinee ,

BharaNi/ apabharaNee ,

Kaarthikai/ Krutthikaa ,

ROhiNi/ ROhiNee ,

Mrugaseersham/ Mrugasiras ,

thiruvAdhirai/ AardhrA ,

Punarpoosam / PunarvasU ,

Poosam / Pushyam,

Aayilyam/. AaslEshA ,

Makam / MaghA ,

Pooram/ Poorvabhalgunee ,

Hastham/ HasthA ,

Chittirai/ ChithrA ,

SvAthi / SvAthee ,

VisAkam/ VisAkaa ,

anusham/ anurAdhA ,

KEttai/ JyEshtA ,

Moolam/ Moolaa ,

PoorAdam/ , PoorvAshADaa ,

UttharAdam/ UtthaAshAdaa ,

ThiruvONam/ SravaNam ,

Avittam/ Dhanishtaa ,

Sathayam/ Sathabhishak ,

PorrattAthi/ Poorvabhadhra ,

UttharattAdhi/UthrabhdhrA ,

Revathy/REvathee . 

WHEN MODI NEARLY QUIT AS CM Inbox x REFERENCE 7 Apr 2014 ,India Today , ANDY MARINO Andy Marino is a freelance writer and editor in London, a documentary filmmaker and author of Modi’s biography, Narendra Modi: A Political Biography WHEN MODI NEARLY QUIT AS CM Trapped in the chief minister’s office by a party that refused to let him step down after the February 2002 riots, Narendra Modi opted for fresh polls. Gujarat kept its faith in him. MODI WAS CERTAIN HE HAD DONE EVERYTHING TO SAFEGUARD LIFE AND PROPERTY EVEN IF HE HAD BARELY GOT HIS FEET UNDER THE CM’S DESK AT THE TIME. In April 2002 Narendra Modi stood to address his BJP colleagues at the convocation of its National Executive in Panaji, Goa, two months after the riots in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, had been killed. None of his colleagues had any idea that he was about to offer his resignation as chief minister of Gujarat, where he had been in post for just six months. Plenty of them wanted Modi gone, seeing him as a catastrophe for the party, but the knowledge that new elections would be required, and that the BJP would be a national laughing stock, gave them pause. Photograph by SHAILESH RAWAL MODI ATARELIEF CAMP IN AHMEDABAD IN 2002 Modi’s resignation, against all apparent odds, was refused and he remained in office to win three successive victories in Gujarat and eventually in 2014 to challenge for the prime ministership itself. Modi’s career is surely one of the most extraordinary, roller-coaster rides in Indian politics. Last summer I spent many hours interviewing Modi, not knowing where to begin, what to expect and fearing his reputation as being unfriendly to journalists and biographers. What happened was that the interviews turned into lengthy and extended conversations in which, to my surprise, almost no subject was off the agenda. Modi was pleased to talk—he seemed really to want to open up after he realised that my intent was not a hostile one but rather the genuine interest of a foreign observer interested in India. In fact, Modi was great company and our sessions went on long after I offered to stop for the day. “If you enjoy doing what you do, then your work gives you more energy,” he told me. We all feel like that occasionally, but Modi seems to feel like that all the time. In October 2001, nursing no political ambitions at all, Modi had been working as BJP national general secretary (organisation) across Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP’s fortunes in the states under Modi’s care had begun to improve dramatically. Back in Gujarat, Keshubhai Patel’s BJP administration was falling to pieces. During one of Modi’s brief visits to Delhi A.B. Vajpayee had called and said he wanted him back in Gujarat, from where he had been exiled since falling out with Patel a few years earlier. Believing the Prime Minister meant party work, Modi replied that he could manage to devote a few days a month to the task. But that was not what Vajpayee had in mind: Modi was to replace Patel as chief minister. Modi declined despite Vajpayee’s repeated pleas, but later that night a phone call from Advani made it clear this was an offer he could not refuse: “Look, everybody has decided about you!” So it was that Modi, an expert administrator and organiser but without any experience of command, was parachuted into Gandhinagar to steer the ship of a state still reeling from the Kutch earthquake, and to rally the BJP troops after municipal elections in which they had experienced a near wipe-out. Four months later, Gujarat was in flames and dead bodies littered the streets of Ahmedabad. In the media Modi was being denounced as the Hindu Hitler for instigating a bloody pogrom against Muslims—a charge he has been living with for over a decade now. After the Goa convocation, Modi was still shocked and shaken by his experience of the riots. Now he was trapped in the CM’s office by a party that refused to let him step down. He began to consider his options. Modi was being cast as a villain despite being sabotaged and betrayed in his efforts to end the riots—on the one hand by the virulently communal structure he had inherited, itself the result of decades of violence and prejudice in Gujarat; and on the other by circumstances. The troops he had begged for were tied up in a border confrontation with Pakistan, and the help he had requested from neigh- bouring Congress-ruled states had been refused to him. Even so, Modi had organised the forces of law and order in record time and the state was already nearly back to normal, though one would never guess it from media reports. Modi’s new security adviser, the legendary KPS Gill, saw immediately the handiwork of Pakistani intelligence behind the instigating act of terror at Godhra. But all this didn’t matter. The question was what should he do now. Modi was certain he had done everything he could to safeguard life and property and that his efforts would stand comparison with any Indian leader who had been in a similar position. Professionally, the fact remained that he had been in charge and he was responsible, even if he had barely got his feet under the CM’s desk at the time. When Modi said “I feel sad about what happened but no guilt. And no court has come even close to establishing it,” this is what he meant: That he had done his utmost to halt the riots and return Gujarat to normality, but that he felt awful about what had happened on his watch. Modi decided he would dissolve the Assembly and call fresh elections. That Gujarat elected Modi as its leader in December 2002 and ever since has been proven a wise choice. He dedicated himself to the development of the state, believing that the solution to the carnage he had witnessed was not what Advani memorably called the “pseudo-secularism” of the Left but rather the radical idea of treating all Indians the same regardless of their background. As a result of Modi’s policies, and according to official Indian government statistics, Gujarat has been transformed—first of all by the withdrawal of free agricultural electricity in the cause of lighting up every single village in Gujarat; then the development of a wide manufacturing base and the attraction of investment; then a revolution of man-management in administration; then the relentless building of infrastructure to give all citizens a chance in life; and finally freeing people from the stranglehold of government to pursue their own ambitions. Modi is usually represented as a strong man but the remarkable fact is that his entire programme has been based on utilising the untapped resources of what he calls the neglected 50 per cent of India’s population—its women. His focus has been on hygiene, health, the education of girls and the emancipation of women in business life. Is he trying to make amends for the riots? Partly, because he remains haunted by the memory of the terrible suffering, and in a sense will always be on a penitential journey to make sure nothing like it ever happens again if he can help it: Gujarat has now had 12 curfew-and-riot-free years. In fact Muslims in Gujarat now have the lowest rate of poverty in India, and supply 50 per cent of the zakat nationally to their less fortunate brethren elsewhere. Will Modi be able to effect across India what he has achieved in Gujarat? No problem, he says: India is vast and varied and you must remember to adjust policies to local conditions and free people to make their own decisions— get government off their back. Then the enormous potential latent in the country will be released and India will become what it should be—a world-beater. There is an anecdote about a journalist confronting Modi and asking him what he had done for Muslims: “Nothing,” Modi answered. The journalist was scandalised: “So you admit it?” Modi said, “Ask me what I have done for Hindus.” “What have you done for Hindus?” “Nothing. Everything I’ve done has been for Gujaratis.” The forthcoming election will see the rest of India decide whether they want what the Gujaratis already have.

Food for Thought: The Man Who Came to Dinner

The Man Who Came to Dinner    John Swinton, the doyen of the New York press corps, upon his retirement, made the following speech:   “There is no such thing, at this stage of the world’s history inAmerica, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with.   Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my papers, before twenty four hours, my occupation would be gone.   The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting of an independent press? We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”   I do understand that you have to eat like all of us and therefore must keep your mouth shut. You are Jewish and so am I. (Sephardic).   For the sake of truth, I will give you here another side to the Libyan story. Just imagine a country where there is no electricity bill. Electricity is free to all its citizens. There is no interest on loans, banks were state owned and loans given at zero percent interest by law. Having a home was considered a human right. All newlyweds received US$ 50 000 from the govt to buy their first apartment and to help them start a family. Education and medical treatments were free. Before Qaddafi, 25 % of the population were literate. Today this figure is 83 percent.   Should Libyans want to take up farming, they would receive land, a farmhouse, equipments, seeds and livestock to kick start their operation, absolutely free of charge. If citizens could not find the education or medical facilities they needed, the govt would fund them to go abroad, free of charge, and would get some US$2,300 per month for accommodation and car allowance. Cars were government subsidized to the tune of 50%. Fuel prices were $0.14 per litter. The country had no external debt and its reserves amounted to some $170 billion, now frozen globally plus some 27 tons of gold, which the new regime found safely in the National Bank. Any graduate unable to find a job would get the average salary for the profession, as if he/she was employed, until employment found.   A portion of oil sales were credited once a year to every citizen bank account. A mother who gave birth, immediately got some $5000. Forty loaves of bread cost $0.15. 25% of citizens have a university degree. An immense project bringing water from aquifers in the south made it available all over the country, free of charge.   That is what that “tyrant” Qaddafi gave to his people. There are some 150 tribes in Libya and a strong hand was necessary if the country was to remain in one piece. Every citizen was in possession of a military weapon. Qaddafi was not frightened of his own people. The so called rebels who took over, so we are told, would not have lasted a few days without NATO air power, British and French commandos and thousands of mercenaries. Those are the winners.   Now another Karzai has been installed in Tripoli, and the country can be plundered at the victors’ whim and fancy. It takes $1 to extract a barrel of Libyan oil and today’s price is over $100. Total the French company has already grabbed some 30% of the Libyan state oil company. BP is starting exploration. And of course massive contracts for the reconstruction of Libya will be handed over to US and European companies. Of the sovereign fund, only some 1.2 billion have been released out of the $170 billion. With the state of the European economy, I doubt very much if Libya will see the rest any time soon.   Now Libyans are free as you say, but as Janice Joplin used to say…freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose, as Libyan queuing for funds at their bank’s door are finding out. Qaddafi is gone and so are the perks. What will be left is a terrible civil war. The price of democracy!   “It is the joyous jiggling dance Americans do –USA! USA!- when their government slaughters someone illegally. It is primitive, but it is positively Libyan”. Wrong. It is positively American! Just saw a movie on the training of the US Army before going to Iraq. Soldiers running and singing:" Kill the women! Kill the children! “Then we are shown the results when civilians are gunned down in the streets by those braves. All on film. When they come back home, realising what they have done, they just commit suicide! These are ordinary Sunday soldiers with families.   We can hide the truth with prison sentences, but the truth eventually come through, and unfortunately for us we cannot plug the dyke any longer.

Most misused word in India -secularism

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mohan Natarajan 
Date: 8 May 2014 12:58
Subject: SECULARISM
To: "hasan.suroor@gmail.com" <hasan.suroor@gmail.com>

The most misused word in India, is secularism.  In India, secularism means, anti-Hindu, anti-BJP and anti-India.  The press and the muslim brothers kept quiet when

1. Pandits were massacred and ethnic cleansed in Kashmir.  4 lac pandits are refugees in their own land.

2. 59 innocent hindu women and children were roasted alive  in Godhra

3. 259 hindus were killed in 2002 riots in Gujarat

4. Khurshid wrote in a b ook that he and fellow  muslims were   happy when 4000 sikhs were massacred in Delhi in 1984

5. Genocide of hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh.  Bangladesh human rights commission had admitted that 35 million hindus could not be accounted for.

i

Dr.Ambedkar told Gandhiji at the time of partition that there must be exchange of population.  All muslims must be sent back to Pakistan.  Ambedkar said that muslims can never co-exist with hindus.  Gandhi did not listen.  Rajendraprasad told Gandhi that in case muslims stayed back, they must be disenfranchised. No voting rights for them. Gandhi  did not listen.

Nobody bothers about the condition of hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh had admitted that more than 1000 hindu temples stand destroyed in their countries.

Kashmir assembly admitted that more than 100 hindu temples were destroyed in Kashmir.ou 

Have you seen any muslim migrating to Pakistan and Bangladesh?   No. Why? Hindus  are secular.  In fact, India is the only country in the world where muslims are enjoying  democracy for the last 66 years.

Unless the media and the politicians treat hindus and muslims as Indians, it will be difficult if not impossible to prevent another partition.

Nobody can deny the fact that in the name of secularism, politicians are polarising both hindus and muslims.

If possible, go through a book by Richard Benkins, on the genocide of hindus in Bangladesh.

Hindu side of the story is never published in the media - be it Kashmir,Godhra,

Pakistan or Bangladesh.

If you tell the true h istory, hindu-muslim divide will automatically vanish and India will progress economically.  

Celebrating Caldwell is an insult to Tamil and Tamil people

A missionary who inflicted massive damage on Tamil Hindus was Scot Robert Caldwell (1814-1891) who, along with his wife Elissa Mault, resided in Tirunelvelli and made huge conversions. While he focused on the male population, she converted the womenfolk.

 

He sowed the poisonous seed called Dravidian Racism. He fully utilised the Aryan-Dravidian theories concocted by German linguist Max Mueller and imposed them on Tamil Hindus as true history. He abused the word ‘Dravida’ to the hilt and projected Tamil Hindus as a separate Dravidian Race. His book, Dravida Mozhikalin Oppilakkanam (A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages, Harrison: London, 1856), which gave him the reputation of a great champion of Tamil, spewed venom on Brahmins and accused them of spreading lies. If the German missionary Ziegenbalg was the founder of anti-Brahmanism, Robert Caldwell was responsible for spreading it throughout the region, giving a stimulus to the radicalization of the Non-Brahmin movement. 

 

Ironically, ‘A comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian family of languages’ cannot be termed his own work as he allegedly took lots of passages from Francis Whyte Ellis, who wrote “Dravidian Language Hypotheses”. To understand why Caldwell resorted to ‘research’ South Indian languages, one should read Dr. K. Muthaia’s article, Caldwell Oppilakkanaththin Arasiyal Pinnani (The Politics Behind Caldwell’s Comparative Grammar), published in the April 1997 issue of the Tamil monthly magazine Kanaiyaazhi.

Muthaia states, “Many research conclusions found in Caldwell’s book on comparative grammar of Dravidian languages have political reasons and undertones. The motive behind his arrival was to convert the South Indians and Christianise the southern region. He was also considerably successful in his religious mission… A detailed and in-depth study of his work would make us understand that he had had Sanskrit hatred, anti-Brahminism and denigration of Hinduism as objectives, but not establishing the antiquity of Tamil and the individuality of Tamil people… Knowing pretty well that he would not be able to spread Christianity among Tamil people unless their mindset on Hindu culture and Sanskrit language was changed, he indulged in creating hatred for North Indians in the minds of the Tamil Hindus. As a first step in that direction, he created the concept of ‘Dravidian Language Family’ ” (Dravida Maayai, Subbu, op. cit., pp. 26-28).

 

Caldwell’s infamous book Tinnevelly Shanars proved to be his nemesis. Though his focus for conversion was mainly on Shanars (Nadars), the dominant community in Tirunelvelli, he literally denigrated them and their lifestyle in the said book. The outraged and agitated community allegedly decided to punish him which forced him to shift base from Tirunelvelli to Ootacamund, where he breathed his last.  

 

Robert Caldwell was instrumental in creating anti-Brahmin, anti-North, anti-Sanskrit and anti-Hindu feelings among the Tamil people and dividing them through Aryan-Dravidian racial theories. His activities laid the foundation for Tamil separatism, which badly affected the national integration. His Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages also played an ugly role in creating racial differences between Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka, for he argued in that book that “there was no direct affinity between the Sinhalese and Tamil languages”. There is not even an iota of truth in the propaganda that he was a lover of Tamil and helped the development of Tamil. That is a misinformation campaign floated by the Church and supported by Dravidian racist parties.  

 

Celebrating his bicentenary with State Honours is shameful and disgraceful and a huge insult to Tamil and Tamil people.   

 

Thanks & Regards

 

Thamizhchelvan