Does anyone explain what is Dravidam in Tamil Nadu?

Question

There has been a lot of political wrestiling of late going on in tamil nadu about 'Dravidam' and who is the pioneer of the movement. All I know is Dravidam is just opposite the 'Aryam'. Obviously my next question on this category is what is Aryam?

Answer 1

i think it is nonbelievers of god

Answer 2

Dravidam is an idea(not an ideology) that can be used to instigate the simple Tamilians with ulterior motives. If I'm not mistaken, Annadurai can be considered to be the pioneer of the idea.It isn't just only in Tamil Nadu we find the Dravidians, but also in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

How can one ism be against another especially in India? Is it not our great tradition that invited and fed the foreign re legions and allowed them to flourish? But our politicians can make it. History has it that the Aryans chased the Dravidians from the Gangetic Plains towards the peninsula. It is the forgotten history and no Dravidian considers him/her the legitimate heir of the Plains. Rather, The Dravidians in the south are far advanced and blessed with the resources than their brethren in the north.

Answer 3

You can see that the South Indian culture and language is entirely different from the Hindi belt. South Indians are Dravidan race. Their cuture and way of life is called Dravidam.

Aryans are from central asia and Hitler also was an Aryan using the swastik symbol. It is better to leave at this stage.

Answer 4

The son of the soil of India before some 5000 years were Dravidians and the Aryans came from centraal Asia in search food and work with their herds of cattles. Dravidians were so simple that they accomodated them with love and Aryans started ruling them. In due course of time all the weakeness of the Dravidians were studied and acted cleverly by the Aryans. The lost Dravidians were treated as the menials and  were used by to Aryans as their faithful servants. The worst is still some of these people are carrying the "Adi Dravida" title for their community. Still they are in great danger of existance due to castism based on the works one does.

The subject of equality was first brought out with great trouble a group of reformists under the leadership of Shree Narayana Guru, a social reformer from Kerala. But it worked out well in Kerala and some other places. At the entry of Christainity, most of the Adi Dravidas converted themselves massively to wipe off the name of the castism that normally go with their names for identification and was treated by others as "untouchables".

After 1945, Mr. E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, a one time Justice Party breaker and an insolvent, who hailed from neighbouring Mysore State, due to some political ambition started his Dravida movement at a place named "Erode" at Madras state and it gained momentum due to arrogant talks and punishing innocent forward rank Hindus. But was unable to lift his finger on Christians and Muslims. He used call Hindus as "wild animals and the language (tamil) they spoke is irrelevant" etc and called himself as an etheist and his followers were/are ware black dress all the time.

But the achievement was the vote bank. An offshoot of the EVR naicker, DMK, lead the general elections for the first time in 1967 and came to power in Madras state. Since then they are ruling and those people who elected them are still repent for doing a wrong thing due double minded policies. The leadership looted the government treasury, highly corrupt and all the dealings are done to personal benifits only.

On visiting India and in Madras State one can see only black and red flags every where and people like me feel "red for blood thirsty and black for evil mind" - They preach social hatred, divide and rule the innocent common public and they still have support, for false promises before the polls.  

This history of Dravidian can be wrttten in volumes as every one notice that these modern Dravidian have discovered Tamil and all those who did very hard work to bring it to print media from palm leaf, not at all have any recognition.

Answer 5

Dravidam is a name of a place, more specifically, a peninsula. I'm assuming, it's situated in India. The ppl who live there are called dravidians.

I'm not sure bout Aryam, but if u're talking bout the issue that's involving the two, then you might be talking about the Aryans. Aryans are said to mean 'noble' in the sankskrit language.

basically, Aryans are the ppl (tribe) from North of India and Dravidians are the ppl from the south. And like and opposites, they there's always space for disagreements.

anyways, if you wanna know more, try http://adaniel.tripod.com/aryans.htm

Answer 6

it is the most popular festival in tamilnadu,if u have a chance den go and watch this

Answer 7

aryan and dravid theory came in early 19th century by european.  they came up with this theory for two reasons

1. divide and rule & divide and convert

2. for their religious, social and poltical reasons.

arya in sanskrit means noble

dravid is not a race but its land in southern part of india.

200 years before non of the indians either from south or from north have heard about aryans and their invesion. none of our ancient scripture from south or from north mention any invation. Today’s Dravidians have absolutely no memory of ever having lived in north India. In fact, their ancient traditions suggest that their forebears came from the south, not from the north

Our source of history is vedas.

max muller, british scholer, who proposed this theory says aryans came from central asia between 1500 to 2000 BCE, push the natives to south india and settled in northern india and they have written vedas around 500 BCE.

but he forget that vedas have astronomial calculation date back to 6000 BCE , ships and indian ocean mentioned in it and there is mention of saraswati river which dry up in 2000 BCE.

How invaders from a landlocked country can write about ships and navigation????????

early historians have already dameged our mindset. we people divided by british still not ready to accept that we are one. we are two branches from the same family. Lets be united and proud to be a Indian.

when the last BJP government try make correction in history textbooks , which are full of fairy tales, they were opposed by congress for saffronisation.

Did you know East India company has paid 10000 pound to Max Muller to translate vedas in english in such a way that would destroy the belief in newly english educated  hindus at that time.

Answer 8

Yes - Dravidam and Aryam encompass to competing ideas and cultural groups. It is part of an ethnic and linguistic divide which cuts india in two - separating the north and south.  

The idea comes from the linguistic basis of the South Indian languages.

The languages of the India's four southern-most states Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are all derived from a common ancestor and are closely related to each other. The languages - Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu - are known as Dravidian languages.

The languages of North India are COMPLETELY unrelated. They are Aryan, more specifically Indo-Aryan languages deriving from Sansrit. Sanskrit shares a common origin with English, Latin, French, Greek, Iranian and many other languages. In fact Hindi is more closely related to English as a language than it is to Tamil.

After independence there was a move to impose Hindi as a national language in India. This was vehemently opposed in the South, where hindi is a completely alien language and has no connection to Tamil or the others. The movement was at its strongest by far in Tamil Nadu, largely because Tamil has been least influenced by North Indian languages. Kannada and Telugu, although they are still Dravidian languages, have many sanskrit-origin loanwords and have had much greater interaction with the North.

The idea led to a movement for independence for the south, under the name Davidstan or Dravidam - initiated by Tamil politician E.V. Ramaswami 'Periyar'. The idea came about before independence but was much stronger in its immediate aftermath, and was the origin of Tamil Nadu's ruling party - the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Eventually the movement largely died out, as Nehru was wise enough to see the nationalist sentiment and redrew the borders of the states to give them a strong linguistic identity, gave them a lot of regional power and abandoned hindi imposition.

Hope that helps!

Answer 9

A settled civilization erupted wherever water and food resources were found. Our Indus valley civilization is not an exception to this. A few thousand years before Indus Valley civilization there existed the Dravidian civilization in the south end part of India . The word Dravidam is Tamil oriented word. The people of dravidam are called Dravidians. It has many meanings. The first is, Thiru+Idam means Respected+Land. In another way, Tri+Kadal+Idal means Three+Sea+Land, that is, a land surrounded by sea in three sides and on one side connected to the main land. Which, in turn, means a peninsula.



A few thousand years back the southern part of Indian subcontinent was connected to another continent namely Lemuria continent. This was the original place of Dravidians. A northern part of the said Lmuria continent is connected to the Indian subcontinent and the other three sides were surrounded by sea. Due to natural calamity the Lemuria continent over flooded by Indian Ocean . So most of the people i.e. Dravidians who lived there had been also washed away by sea. Some escaped and swam to the south of Indian subcontinent and began to live with other Dravidians in the subcontinent. So the remaining small northern portion of Lemuria continent and southern part of Indian Subcontinent is now known as Dravidam. Which is constituted with the present states of Tamilnadu Kerala, Karnataka and Andra Pradesh.



The present Dravidam, in true sense, ie. Tamilnadu and other states are fertile and irrigated by perennial and rain fed rivers like Godhavari, Krishna , Cavery, Palaru, Pennai, Vaigai and Thamirabarani. So the Dravidam is having well agricultural resources. Dravidians speak Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu. As per the geographical and environmental background. Among which Tamil language is grammatically and literarily rich and senior most language.



Till 19th century Virudhanagar was a tiny Village. Due to the development of agriculture and business it has developed into a big town. During 1800 AD for the sake of military movement to attack KattaBommu Virudhanagar was enrooted to Kasi-Kanyakumari Highway by British to have a straight route.



The town Virudhanagar is situated in the southern part of Tamilnadu that is approximately 500 KM south of the state capital Chennai. It is in the national High way No 7. It is a railway junction. Before getting the present name Virudhanagar, it was called by many names at many times namely, Virudhapatti, Viruthaketti, Virudhuvetty, Virudhupady, Virudhuvetri. And also it is called as Veiluganthal Pattanam, which means a town protected by the goddess Veilugunthal Amman. Politically it is addressed as Virudhi.

Till 19th century Virudhanagar was a tiny Village. Due to the development of agriculture and business it has developed into a big town. During 1800 AD for the sake of military movement to attack KattaBommu Virudhanagar was enrooted to Kasi-Kanyakumari Highway by British to have a straight route.



As far as political importance is concerned Virudhi was never directly under any ruler. It was a peripheral unit of local Zamindars who represented the rulers of then Sivaganga, Madurai Pandyas and Thirumalai Naiker from time to time. Around 1650 AD Siva temple at west car street in Virudhanagar received Aid from then Pandya ruler of Madhurai. During the British Regime Virudhanagar was in the revenue district of Ramnad and in due course it was Trifurcated and a separate district of Virudhanagar was formed with Virudhanagar as its capital.



Virudhanagar is in hot climate and low rain belt range. It's temperature varies from 36* to 42* c. During Northeast monsoon, that is from Sep. to Nov. It receives sparing drizzling here and there. Geologically it has soft lime rock Structure and black soil ground. Under ground is water is sour hard water mainly non potable.



In olden days the people for drinking and agricultural purpose used river Koushika in south of the town. But now it has become a small rivulet, slushy and dirty due to the pollution by local drainages. As far as cultivation is concerned. crops such as cotton, groundnut. Gingerly, Black gram, Toor gram, Green gram are cultivated and these crops are the best ones for the black soil and dry climate. These crops have been established themselves as commercial products and make Virudhanagar as a commercial town. And some minimum industrial activities are also established such as cotton ginning mill, oil crushing mill, dall mill. Veiluganthamman is the Goddesses of virudhanagar. GodSangilee karuppaswammy in the south car street is another protecting god of Virudhanagar.



The first settlers of the place were the Mud pot makers who are mentioned as salupars. Then came the plastic and glass had ring chettiars who are called as Vallayakara Chettiars and setteled near Sangalee Karuppa Swamy temple. Then Nadar, Pandarathu Pilli, Pallars, Ashari Moopar, Kasukadi Chettiars, Thevars settled one by one. Every communal people addressed according to his or her profession and lived amicably supporting everyone in a vicious circle and formed a synthesized social structure. And this became their living culture.



Nadar people came to this village in the later part of 17th century from a nearer village Pavali. They came for their Bullock-cart load business. In the beginning of 18th century Nadars from Tinnaveli came to Virudhanagar for livelihood. In the middle of 18th century Nadars from Tuticorin to escape the forceful conversion pressure by the Portuguese, Dutch and English came here where there was nil foreign pollution. In 1870's Nadars from the South Eastern Coast came here for business and settled in due course. In 1899 Nadars from Shivakasi came to then Virudhapatty due to communal clash. By this way Nadars came and settled in Virudhapatty in different periods of time under different grounds and for different purpose. They are individually addressed by the prior settlers and by other locals by nicknames instead of their real names considering their physical appearance, behavior, their origin place etc. That nickname has become their family name and their heirs to identify them from time immemorial have used that name.

This unique way of Nickname addressing is prevailing only in Virudhanagar. There are many family groups nicknamed as Aaror, Kilakadi , Malakadai, Pavalian, Vembar, Pavalam, Mundakan, Tholandi, Megavarnam, Kochar, Karuppa Nadar, Natanmai, Velrikan alias Vedarakann, Kallatan, Kutty, Chennapattian etc. Thus there are nearly 130 family groups and many sub groups exist in virudhanagar. Another unique thing about virudhanagar is that every family group has a family god of their own to worship. To name a few of them is Karkuvel Ayanar, Arulmigu Kamakshi Amman, Karuppa Swamy, Arunjunai Katha Ayanar, Salaikari Amman, Veeriya Kariamman, Peria Andavar, Matha parameshwari, Ulaga Matha and so on.



Those who had come to Virudhanagar for settlement had taken a fistful of sacred sand from their native place temple and installed it near their living place as a mark of their native temple and began to worship it. In course of time it has become their family god and is worshiped by their heirs. Some other settlers amicably joined with some pre settlers and began to worship their family god as their own god. Yet some other settlers yearly once go to their native origin worshiped their native god and return back to virudhanagar.



The male members of the same family clan who worship the same family god will be called as pankalees i.e. paternal bloods related make heirs. Each son who got married will be considered as a single and separate Thalaikattu i.e. separate family for the account sake of number of families of same clan to worship the family god.



Apart from worshiping the family god in a grand manner once in a year virudhanagar nadar worship the family god on some special family occasions also. The first sacred head tonsure of the newborn baby will be conducted in the family god temple. For new marriage alliance they go to their family temple to have good omen and good symptoms. They call it in tamil "Poo Kati Parthal".. It is done in the fallowing manner. Two different colors of flower, say white and red will be placed before the family deity and a child will be asked to select one. If that child select white flower they consider it as a good omen and even they consider it as a permission from the family deity to proceed with the work. If it is other flower they will stop the work. To start a new business or even for the opening of new yearly business account they go to the family god to invoke the blessings. For small functions like head tonsuring, marriage alliance fixing, opening new business account, the immediate family members will be invited. For routine yearly worship all the pankalees will gather and worship the family god.



Our family ancestors namely Megavarnam, Kotchar and Karuppanadar may be considered as pioneer in worshiping the family god system. Because our family temple i.e. Ulstreet Arulmigu Kamakshiamman temple is noted as a landmark in "TOWN DEVASTANAM ANNUAL JOURNAL".

In addition to this our family ancestors pioneered in National development, TownDevelopment. They led a successful life in business also. Not only this they contributed a lot to the temple construction and development and educational improvement. The VeiluganthaAmman Temple compound wall was constructed in 1831 by our family ancestor Natanmai Adimuthu Nadar and Karuppa nadar. For this the fund was raised through a conventional type of saving called “Pidi Arisi Kalayam”

Moreover the Valasubramania Swamy Temple was constructed by Sriman Mudalalee Katchi Katti Thiruvannamalai Nadar in 1856 at his own site. His family deity is kour Ull st. KamakshiAmman.

If we come to talk about our Nation Indepentent struggle , Tamil nadu state development , educational, social, industrial economical and why the over all development it will not be a wholesome without the contribution of the Kingmaker,vKala Gandhi, PerumThalivar . K. Kamarajar. To note his work we need a separate book to write. The matter to be proud is that he is from our Megavarnam clan.

Some may doubt the ability and possibility of the VIRUDHUNAGAR HINDU NADARS involvement in temple construction and establishing school institution



Establishing school institutions a 150 years back when there is no a welfare state like the one what we are having at present. Nobody except the virudhanagar Hind Nadars thought of such public feoman works. So the question arises about the sources of the virudhanagar hindu nadars “ finance and their arrangements in utilising the same finance.



The clarifications and answers for the doubt and question are "Mahamai", "Pidi Arisi kalayam", "Thalari kattu vari". Let us see elaborately one by one.

Answer 10

The word dravidam is Tamil oriented word. The people of dravidam are called dravidians. It has many meanings. The first is  hiru+Idam means Respected+Land.

In another way, Tri+Kadal+Idal means Three+Sea+Land, that is, a land surrounded by sea in three sides and on one side connected to the main land. Which, in turn, means a peninsula.

The political parties named their party just to say that they are working towards the improvement of dravidians.