A WALK THROUGH MY CULTURE

Hello guys! How are you all? As recognised by the whole world, Indian culture and tradition is considered to be one among the oldest known civilization. Today i will share to you about the methodology and the protocols very strictly followed even today in my state Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu has its name originating from the blend of Tamil - A language spoken by people in this part of the country and Nadu represents a state. Tamil Nadu lies in the southern most part of the Indian peninsula with its geographical location between the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh by land and by gulf of Mannar, Arabian sea and Indian ocean by water.

The native language of Tamil has archaeological records are found which are inscripted in the year of 500 BC. The most interesting fact is that about 60% of the archaeological recoveries made in most part of India has Tamil language written on it which makes it a notable place in the history of India. Tamil language has recently been added to the list of oldest known language along with Greek, Latin etc and hence named as "SEMOZHIYANA TAMIL MOZHI" meaning the Classical Language.

The early history of Tamil Nadu remarkably had three great rulers The Cheras, The Cholas and The Pandyas who ruled Tamil Nadu for about 6 centuries (600 years). Ancient Tamil Nadu included the present Kerala and some parts of Andra Pradesh and Karnataka With Sri Lanka Partially included under Tamil Empire. This period was called as the Sangam Period. The cheras ruled over the whole of Kerala and western part of Tamil Nadu and they expressed their rule extent with a flag with Bow and Arrow in it. The next comes the Cholas, ruled Central And northern part of Tamil Nadu with a tiger flag and The Pandyas had control over the south of Tamil Nadu with a fish flag. All three empires had trade contact with Rome, Greece, Mesapotamians, Arabians, Egypt, Ceylon, Persia etc. where trade has been carried out for Spices, Ivory, Precious gems, Pearls, Silk etc. The emperors had their own ports with in their extent through which the trade was carried out. This period of rule was called early Chera Chola and Pandiya Rule. These emperors where overthrown of their power by the KALABHRAS who ae assumed to be Bhuddist or Jainists by origin and they ruled the country for about more than 3 centuries which is considered as a Dark Period of Tamil history. The rule of Kalabhras had lead to a wide spread of bhuddism in the country. This is the period when the Dictatic works of tamil literature sided towards bhuddhism were written. Then slowly there was a rise of Pallava's by King Mamallan with the help of Bodhi Dharman (An Indian who is the founder of martial arts and worshipped equal to god by the Chinese) which made the Kalabhras to flee and the southern part of India was ruled by them. Most importantly these emperors developed the cultural heritage by building many temples out of which some still stand complex in its structure and speak about the dravidian architectural skills. One such example is the SHORE TEMPLE build by Narasimhavarman in the town of Mammalpuram which is recogonised as UNESCO world heritage site. The pallavas had serious continuous conflicts with the Kannada Challukyas of Badami. The Badamis won repeated battles against the pallavas in the begining but Narasimhavarman somehow reversed the victory by temporarily attacking Badamis temporarily which made the Chalukya king Vikramaditya to take revenge by making repeated invasion of Thondaimandalam and capturing of Kancheepuram. Finally the rule of 9th century was captured by the Imperila Rashtakudhas who had their empire extent upto Maharashtra. They ruled the region of Thondaimandalam upto Kancheepuram in the North of Tamilnadu. The Pallavas where replaced by a powerful rising Chola Empire in the 10th century Who were replaced by Pandya's by 13th century. They had succesful rule which lead them to become the Richest Empire Of Tamilnadu in Existence. The best examples of pandya rule are Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai and Nellaiappar Temple in Tirunelveli. The Pandya's had control of the pearl fisheries along the coast of India and Sri Lanka which is said to produce the worlds most finest pearls of ancient times.

The Cholas were very active in the early sangam period went entirely traceless in the middle periods rivived again when the conflict started between Pandyas and Pallavas. This start over was headed by king Vijayalaya Chola who captured a major part of Central Tamilnadu with Thanjavur as their capital Meanwhile Pandyas completely defeated Pallavas and captured Northern part of Tamilnadu. The chola empire grew big and extended to what is now interior Andra Pradesh and extended even along the coast of Karnataka. Kings Raja Raja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola both drastically extended chola influence upto Myanamar(Burma), Vietnam, Sumatra, Sri Lanka, Malaya, Andaman and nicobar islands and even captured Bengal by defeating the king of Bengal. This continuous victory by chola lead to the formation of new chola capital called Gangai konda Cholapuram. The archaeological history shows that Cholas gave drastic importance to Building Religious and Socio-religious sites for the well being of people. They had build a lot of temples in the regions of Kanchipuram and kumbakonam and its also said that the cholas even renewed the temples built by the Pallavas. The Most remarkable architectures include Natarajar temple in Chidhambaram and Ranganathar temple in Trichy by Vijayalaya chola where the Brihadeshwarar temple of Gangai konda cholapuram, brihadeshwarar temple of Thanjavur, Airavateshwara temple of Tharasuram are now recently found near Kumbakonam and are named as Great living chola temple and recogonised as world heritage site. Apart from this the cholas are very famous for making bronze sculptures and the sculptures made had incarnation of lord shiva, lord vishnu, godess lakshmi etc. The chola rule fell in the late 1100's and replaced by Vijayanagar and Nayaks who are also famous for their constructions of bungalows called thirumalai nayakar mahals which will look so beautiful and they also recontructed the Meenakshi amman temple of the pandyas.

From 16th century to 18th century Tamilnadu was under the rule of the Nizam of Hydrebad and the Nawab of Carnatic and western part of it was under the control of Hyder ali along with some minimal French and English invasions later the whole India came under English rule. The Dutch were the first persons to settle in India in Pulicat followed by the English east India company. During english rule Tamilnadu was called as Madras Presidency. After a lot of struggle India regained its independence on august 15, 1947 and Tamilnadu restored itself back with Madras as its capital. Tamilnadu was liked by every invader because of its geographical location and its moderate climate.

Tamil culture has a long venerable culture of tradition, music, dance, literature etc even today. The literary works were mostly poetry based. The world famous Thirikkural was written in sangam period. Thirukkural is all apart from religion, language, region etc and shares thoughts needed for peaceful living. He is still believed to be a saint by people. The most important festival of tamilians is pongal. its often the first day of harvest. It falls on the first day Thai a tamil month. People says a proverb "Thai piranthal vazhi pirakkum" which explains that Thai harvest festival will provide new oppurtunities for living. The first day of pongal is Bhogi Pongal where people usually burn all the old things. The meaning of this festival is to clear the old things thereby making way for new things enter the home. The second day is called surya pongal which is the most important day where sun worship is made with preparation of sweet pongal. The third day is Mattu pongal which is for where cow is worshipped holy. The fourth day is kaanum pongal where people usually visit their relatives. Apart from it there is also Tamil newyear, Vinayakar chathurthi etc. The traditional songs are a kind of Carnatic music along with some unique musics like villuppaatu, naatupurapaatu etc which is popular even till now. The carnatic music had its origin in Tamilnadu. The Trinity of carnatic music were all from Tamilnadu. The typical form of dance of tamilnadu is Baharathanaatiyam, Ghummi, Bhommalattam, Karakaatam, Poikalkuthirai etc. And Traditional music instruments include Thavil and Nadhaswaram. Tamilnadu cusine include Rice in all form because rice is the staple food. Dishes include Rice, sambhar, koottu, poriyal, appalam, vathakkal, varuval and breakfast include Idly, Dosa, Upma, Pongal etc.

Thank You.. see you soon with another article.