167-696: Sri Lankan Tamils ( Tamil : இலங்கை தமிழர் , ilankai tamiḻar or ஈழத் தமிழர் , īḻat tamiḻar ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils , are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka . Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province , form the plurality in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in
334-468: A lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes . Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person , number , mood , tense , etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination , which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or
501-741: A nation state . The Federal party decided to sign the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact in July 1957. As the name goes, it was merely an agreement between the two individuals and lacked any legality. It was never approved by the parliament or the ruling party or the Cabinet. However, soon afterwards the agreement was abandoned by the Sinhala party. In 1965, another pact, the Senanayake-Chelvanayakam Pact
668-484: A , as with other Indic scripts . This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi , to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a ) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama , but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without
835-759: A 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu , Puducherry , (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , Maharashtra , Gujarat , Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and
1002-454: A Bank ( Bank of Tamil Eelam ), a radio station ( Voice of Tigers ) and a Television station ( National Television of Tamil Eelam ). Following the clearance of Kilinochchi by government troops which had been the administrative capital of the de facto LTTE controlled area on 2 January 2009, the LTTE's civil administration system was suspended as the "state" of Tamil Eelam was gradually crushed by
1169-663: A DTP operator for a Tamil magazine 'Penne Nee' doused himself with kerosene at the Regional Passport Office, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and set himself on fire to highlight the Tamil plight. In April 2012 DMK president M. Karunanidhi said that India should prevail upon the United Nations to help carve out a separate Tamil Eelam from Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka. Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha during zero hour, DMK leader T.R. Baalu said tyranny in
1336-709: A Sinhala– Buddhist nation state . Though both the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact and the Senanayake-Chelvanayakam Pact were signed, they were not approved by the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan Parliament in 1957 and 1965, respectively. The failure of the Sri Lankan Parliament to implement these agreements caused further disillusionment and isolation among Tamils. In the 1970 Sri Lankan parliamentary election ,
1503-599: A Tamil independent state where the rights and freedoms of the Tamils could be protected and nurtured. By 1975, all Tamil political parties merged and became known as the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), which was led by prominent Tamil politician S. J. V. Chelvanayakam . In 1976, the first national convention of the TULF was held at Vaddukoddai , where the party adopted a unanimous resolution called
1670-771: A clan name— veḷ , a name related to velir from ancient Tamil country . Once Prakrit speakers had attained dominance on the island, the Mahavamsa further recounts the later migration of royal brides and service castes from the Tamil Pandya Kingdom to the Anuradhapura Kingdom in the early historic period. Epigraphic evidence shows people identifying themselves as Damelas or Damedas (the Prakrit word for Tamil people) in Anuradhapura,
1837-519: A family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent . It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue ). The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam ; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of
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#17327726981312004-574: A historian, the system of standardisation of marks required the Tamil students to achieve higher marks than the Sinhalese students to get into university. A similar policy was adapted for employment in the public sector, leaving less than 10 percent of civil service jobs available to Tamil speakers. The Federal Party opposed these policies and Chelvanayakam resigned his parliamentary seat in October 1972. The new constitution in 1972 further exacerbated long standing grievances and sense of discrimination for
2171-669: A lot more than what the Sri Lankan government is prepared to give. Nearly a year after the LTTE's loss in the Sri Lankan Civil war the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in its manifesto for the 8 April general election , renounced its demand for Tamil Eelam and instead campaigned for greater regional autonomy. The TNA said it would settle for a "federal structure" in the northern and eastern provinces with power over land, finance, and law and order, and "if
2338-599: A man can only marry in one of his sampantha kudi s not in the sakothara kudi s. By custom, children born in a family belong to mother's kudi . Kudi also collectively own places of worship such as Hindu temples . Each caste contains a number of kudis , with varying names. Aside from castes with an internal kudi system, there are seventeen caste groups, called Ciraikudis , or imprisoned kudis , whose members were considered to be in captivity, confined to specific services such as washing, weaving, and toddy tapping . However, such restrictions no longer apply. The Tamils of
2505-469: A map in 1681 CE. Upon arrival of European powers from the 17th century CE, the Tamils' separate nation was described in their areas of habitation in the northeast of the island. The caste structure of the majority Sinhalese has also accommodated Tamil and Kerala immigrants from South India since the 13th century CE. This led to the emergence of three new Sinhalese caste groups: the Salagama ,
2672-662: A new Tamil political party, named the Federal Party , was formed and was led by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam who earlier broke away from All Ceylon Tamil Congress because of the latter's decision to tie up with the UNP . In 1956 the government enacted the Official Language Act (commonly known as the Sinhala Only Act ) which made Sinhala the sole official language of Sri Lanka. The Ceylon Citizen Act and
2839-607: A number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi . The earliest long text in Old Tamil
3006-671: A number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur . Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin. Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi . These were sent to Beta Analytic in Miami , Florida , for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
3173-518: A number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions, and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic. Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with
3340-531: A physical entity but remains as political aspiration among sections of the Eelam Tamil and Eelam Tamil diaspora . In May 2010, New York based lawyer Visvanathan Rudrakumaran formed a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam intending to use soft power to reach its end. This organisation continues to claim that they represent the Eelam Tamils. Historically, Tamil settlements had been established in
3507-466: A resident ritualist or priest known as a Kurukkal . A Kurukkal may belong to someone from a prominent local lineage like Pandaram or Iyer community. In the Eastern Province, a Kurukkal usually belongs to Lingayat sect. Other places of worship do not have icons for their deities. The sanctum could house a trident ( culam ), a stone, or a large tree. Temples of this type are common in
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#17327726981313674-503: A sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go" and consists of the following morphemes : போக pōka go முடி muṭi accomplish Tamil Eelam Tamil Eelam ( Tamil : தமிழீழம் , tamiḻ īḻam ; generally rendered outside Tamil-speaking areas as தமிழ் ஈழம்) is a proposed independent state that many Tamils in Sri Lanka and
3841-529: A settlement of people with burial practices similar to that found in the Tamil Nadu region in India and further North was excavated at megalithic burial sites at Pomparippu in the western coast and in Kathiraveli in the eastern coast. These are dated between the 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD. The Jaffna Peninsula was referred to in the Manimekalai (2nd century AD) as Naga Nadu, inhabited by
4008-658: A significant Christian population. Sri Lankan Tamil literature on topics including religion and the sciences flourished during the medieval period in the court of the Jaffna Kingdom. Since the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War in the 1980s, it is distinguished by an emphasis on themes relating to the conflict. Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are noted for their archaism and retention of words not in everyday use in Southern India. The cultures of
4175-504: A significant amount of evidence points towards these Muslims being ethnic Tamils , they are controversially listed as a separate ethnic group by the Sri Lankan government . Sri Lankan Tamils (also called Ceylon Tamils) are descendants of the Tamils of the old Jaffna Kingdom and east coast chieftaincies called Vannimais . The Indian Tamils (or Hill Country Tamils) are descendants of bonded labourers sent from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka in
4342-647: A small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults. Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada , the United States , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , South Africa , and Australia . Tamil is the official language of
4509-522: A solution. Though the TULF had adapted a separatist platform, they were still open to peaceful negotiations and decided to work towards a political agreement with President J.R Jayewardene . The outcome was the District Development Councils scheme (DDC) passed in 1980. The District Development Councils scheme was based, to some extent, on decentralization of the government within a united Sri Lanka. DDCs were soon abandoned because
4676-555: A subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion . In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations, Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India , Abdul Kalam , who
4843-602: A tributary fief of the Pandyan Empire in modern South India in 1258, gaining independence in 1323 with the fragmentation of Pandyan control. By the 11th and 12th centuries AD the upper half of the eastern province had a large Tamil community. Eastern Tamils had feudal organizations that centered around Ur Podiyar at a village level and the Kudi system that controlled social interactions. They also were organized politically as Vannimai chiefs who came nominally under
5010-406: A variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil . These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese , Dutch , and English. In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on
5177-438: A vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives . Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology . In addition to
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5344-635: Is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia . It is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India , along with Sanskrit , attested since c. 300 BCE. The language belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian language family and shares close ties with Malayalam and Kannada . Despite external influences, Tamil has retained a sense of linguistic purism, especially in formal and literary contexts. Tamil
5511-743: Is a necessary adjunct to the agriculture. The Tamil-inhabited Vanni consists of the Vavuniya , Mullaitivu , and eastern Mannar districts. Historically, the Vanni area has been in contact with what is now South India, including during the medieval period and was ruled by the Vanniar Chieftains . Northern Tamils follow customary laws called Thesavalamai , codified during the Dutch colonial period . Western Tamils, also known as Negombo Tamils or Puttalam Tamils, are native Sri Lankan Tamils who live in
5678-464: Is also known as the "Catholic belt". The Tamil Christians , chiefly Roman Catholics, have preserved their heritage in the major cities such as Negombo , Chilaw , Puttalam , and also in villages such as Mampuri . Some residents of these two districts, especially the Karaiyars , are bilingual, ensuring that the Tamil language survives as a lingua franca among migrating maritime communities across
5845-457: Is based on the dialect of Jaffna . After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava . The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels , 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam . The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel
6012-566: Is believed to be a pragmatic one based on the reality of the political situation in Sri Lanka: the Tamil Tigers have been defeated, the Sri Lankan government/military have the support of the regional super powers (China, India and Pakistan), there is no international support for independence and it is illegal in Sri Lanka to support separatism. However, the TNA's watered down demands are still
6179-415: Is considered diverged from its original source (due to Sinhalese language influence). According to K. Indrapala , cultural diffusion , rather than migration of people, spread the Prakrit and Tamil languages from peninsular India into an existing mesolithic population, centuries before the common era . Tamil Brahmi and Tamil-Prakrit scripts were used to write the Tamil language during this period on
6346-401: Is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature. The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness". S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound". Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages ,
6513-479: Is derived from the ancient Tamil name for Sri Lanka, Eelam . In 1956, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), the most dominant Tamil political party in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon), lobbied for a united state that would give the minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese equal rights, including recognition of two official languages—Tamil and Sinhala —and considerable autonomy for
6680-563: Is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam . Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th-century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam , with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu , col , poruḷ , yāppu , aṇi . Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. Tamil words consist of
6847-511: Is found in Tholkappiyam , which is dated as early as late 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription , inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela , the Jain king of Kalinga , also refers to a Tamira Samghatta ( Tamil confederacy ) The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'. Southworth suggests that
Sri Lankan Tamils - Misplaced Pages Continue
7014-405: Is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme, the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic . In grammar, the most important change
7181-409: Is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ . Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example,
7348-410: Is in koṭuntamiḻ , and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' koṭuntamiḻ , rather than on any one dialect, but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai . In Sri Lanka, the standard
7515-552: Is in Anuradhapura and one is in Matale District . Literary sources make references about Tamil rulers bringing horses to the island in water crafts in the second century BCE, most likely arriving at Kudiramalai . Historical records establish that Tamil kingdoms in modern India were closely involved in the island's affairs from about the 2nd century BCE. Kudiramalai, Kandarodai and Vallipuram served as great northern Tamil capitals and emporiums of trade with these kingdoms and
7682-771: Is not always consistently applied. ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script , and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English. Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well. Tamil also uses several historical fractional signs. /f/ , /z/ , /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic. Tamil has two diphthongs : /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ ,
7849-475: Is now South India were brought to Anuradhapura between the 7th and 11th centuries CE in such large numbers that local chiefs and kings trying to establish legitimacy came to rely on them. By the 8th century CE Tamil villages were collectively known as Demel-kaballa (Tamil allotment), Demelat-valademin (Tamil villages), and Demel-gam-bim (Tamil villages and lands). In the 9th and 10th centuries CE, Pandya and Chola incursions into Sri Lanka culminated in
8016-592: Is predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu , India, and the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . It has significant speaking populations in Malaysia , Singapore , and among diaspora communities . Tamil has been recognized as a classical language by the Indian government and holds official status in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Singapore. The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate
8183-575: Is principally dominated by the maritime Karaiyars , along with other dominant groups such as the Paravars . In Gampaha District, Tamils have historically inhabited the coastal region. In the Puttalam District, there was a substantial ethnic Tamil population until the first two decades of the 20th century. Most of those who identify as ethnic Tamils live in villages such as Udappu and Maradankulam . The coastal strip from Jaffna to Chilaw
8350-490: Is reached and implemented within five years. International reaction to the LTTE's proposals was generally positive. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage gave a cautious welcome, saying that the proposal is "the first time I have seen such a comprehensive delineation of the aspirations of the LTTE...it is significant". The European Union's Head of Mission in Colombo welcomed the proposals as an "important step forward in
8517-409: Is the Tolkāppiyam , an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE. Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature . These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE. The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil , which
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#17327726981318684-415: Is the kudi system. Although the Tamil word kudi means a house or settlement, in eastern Sri Lanka it is related to matrimonial alliances. It refers to the exogamous matrilineal clans and is found amongst most caste groups. Men or women remain members of the kudi of their birth and be brother or sister by relation. No man can marry in the same kudi because woman is always become sister to him. But,
8851-793: Is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English, Malay and Mandarin. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi , Pakistan , which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka. There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Many in Réunion , Guyana , Fiji , Suriname , and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but only
9018-562: The Durava and the Karava . The Tamil migration and assimilation continued until the 18th century CE. According to the 2012 census there were 2,270,924 Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka, 11.2% of the population. Sri Lankan Tamils constitute an overwhelming majority of the population in the Northern Province and are the largest ethnic group in the Eastern Province . They are minority in other provinces. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in
9185-667: The Nalavar , Pallar , Parayar , Vannar and Ambattar . The castes of temple priests known as the Kurukkals and the Iyers are also held in high esteem. The artisans who are known as Kammalar also serve as Kudimakkal, and consists of the Kannar (brass-workers), Kollar (blacksmiths), Tattar (goldsmiths), Tatchar (carpenters) and Kartatchar (sculptor). The Kudimakkal were domestic servants who also gave ritual importance to
9352-414: The Batticaloa Lagoon , Kokkilai Lagoon , Upaar Lagoon and Ullackalie Lagoons . Much of the coastline has a number of inlets from the sea, making them excellent inland ports and fishing harbours. The East has a rich biodiversity and is the natural habitat to many species. Following the declaration of independence, which saw large scale movements of people in search of better economic opportunities, and
9519-545: The British colonial era to Singapore and Malaysia, the civil war led to more than 800,000 Tamils leaving Sri Lanka, and many have left the country for destinations such as Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and India as refugees or emigrants. According to the pro-rebel TamilNet , the persecution and discrimination that Sri Lankan Tamils faced has resulted in some Tamils today not identifying themselves as Sri Lankans but instead identifying themselves as either Eelam Tamils, Ceylon Tamils, or simply Tamils. Many still support
9686-407: The Chola annexation of the island , which lasted until the latter half of the 11th century CE. Raja Raja Chola I renamed the northern throne Mummudi Chola Mandalam after his conquest of the northeast country to protect Tamil traders being looted, imprisoned and killed for years on the island. Rajadhiraja Chola 's conquest of the island led to the fall of four kings there, one of whom, Madavarajah,
9853-555: The Constitution of Sri Lanka prohibits violation of territorial integrity of the island nation, outlawing any advocation of Tamil Eelam as a separate nation. During 2009–2010 a number of referendums were held in Eelam Tamil diaspora communities to ascertain support for an independent Tamil Eelam, despite attempts by the Sri Lankan government and its supporters to prevent them. The referendums, although organised by Tamil groups, have been conducted by independent organisations with independent observers. Voters have been asked their opinion on
10020-420: The Eelam Tamil diaspora aspire to create in the north and east of Sri Lanka . Large sections of the North-East were under de facto control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for most of the 1990s–2000s during the Sri Lankan Civil War . Tamil Eelam, although encompassing the traditional homelands of Eelam Tamils, does not have official status or recognition by world states . The name
10187-447: The Eelam Tamil people . This had emboldened younger Tamils to seek ways to form a Tamil homeland (nation) where the rights and freedoms of the Tamil people could be protected and nurtured. In 1973, Tamil parties' call for regional autonomy was replaced with the demand for a separate state called Tamil Eelam; Eelam is the ancient Tamil name for Sri Lanka. Two years later, in 1975, all Tamil political parties merged and became known as
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#173277269813110354-407: The Naga people . They were early ancestors of the Eelam Tamils who adapted Tamil culture and language. The Pallava dynasty trace their origin back to a fusion between the Chola king Killivalavan and the daughter of the Naga king Pilli Valai . Tamil royal dynasties in this period are known to have patronized Tamil Saivite culture in the east that paralleled the growth of the community in
10521-518: The Northern Province after receiving more than 278,000 votes (68%). In the Eastern Province the TULF won 4 of 10 seats after receiving nearly 140,000 votes (32%). Eelam Tamils constituted 92% and 43% of the population in each of the provinces respectively. In March 2010 the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest political group representing the Eelam Tamils, dropped its demands for an independent Tamil Eelam but continues to demand greater autonomy through federalism . The TNA's change of policy
10688-402: The Official Language Act were seen as discriminatory policies towards the minorities and led to increased ethnic and political tensions between the two communities. The Federal Party (FP) opposed both the Ceylon Citizenship Act and the Sinhala Only Act and as a result became popular amongst the Tamil population. As a result of their popularity the Federal party became the most dominant party in
10855-402: The Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams , which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name
11022-405: The Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna kingdom in 1619 CE. The coastal areas of the island were conquered by the Dutch and then became part of the British Empire in 1796 CE. The Sinhalese Nampota dated in its present form to the 14th or 15th century CE suggests that the whole of the Tamil Kingdom, including parts of the modern Trincomalee District, was recognised as a Tamil region by
11189-521: The Romans from the 6th–2nd centuries BCE. The archaeological discoveries in these towns and the Manimekhalai , a historical poem, detail how Nāka-Tivu of Nāka-Nadu on the Jaffna Peninsula was a lucrative international market for pearl and conch trading for the Tamil fishermen. In Mahavamsa , a historical poem, ethnic Tamil adventurers such as Ellalan invaded the island around 145 BCE. Early Chola king Karikalan , son of Eelamcetcenni utilised superior Chola naval power to conquer Ceylon in
11356-490: The Shaiva sect. The rest were mostly Roman Catholics who converted after the Portuguese conquest of Jaffna Kingdom . There is also a small minority of Protestants due to missionary efforts in the 18th century by organisations such as the American Ceylon Mission . Most Tamils who inhabit the Western Province are Roman Catholics, while those of the Northern and Eastern Provinces are mainly Hindu. Pentecostal and other churches, such as Jehovah's Witnesses , are active among
11523-405: The Tamil Nadu weekly Ananda Vikatan found 55.4% of Indian Tamils in the state supported the separation of Tamil Eelam, while 34.63% supported a federal Tamil Eelam. Notable supporters of independence include politicians Vaiko , Thol Thirumavalavan and Nedumaran . Directors Bharathiraaja , Seeman and Ameer Sultan are strong advocates of the independence of Tamil Eelam. K. Muthukumar ,
11690-495: The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). In 1976, the first national convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front was held at Vaddukoddai , where the party adopted a unanimous resolution called the Vaddukodai Resolution. This resolution charged that the Sinhalese government, with the use of the constitution of 1972, had used its power to "deprive the Tamil nation of its territory, language, citizenship, economic life, opportunities of employment and education thereby destroying all
11857-419: The United Front led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike came to power. This new Sri Lankan government adopted two new policies that were considered discriminatory by the Tamil people; the government introduced a policy of standardisation to regulate university admissions, which was interpreted as a scheme to reduce the intake of Tamil and other minority students into the Sri Lankan educational system. A similar policy
12024-599: The University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages. A strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil. It received some support from Dravidian parties . This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain. According to
12191-559: The Vaddukodai Resolution . This resolution charged that the Sri Lankan Government had used its power to "deprive the Tamil nation of its territory, language, citizenship, economic life, opportunities of employment and education thereby destroying all the attributes of nationhood of the Tamil people." The resolution further called for the "Free, Sovereign, Secular Socialist State of Tamil Eelam". Evidence of
12358-533: The kingdom of Kandy . The most important social group were the Mukkuvar , who had originated from South India and had repeatedly invaded Sri Lanka as evidenced by Sinhalese literature of that period, the Kokila Sandeśa and Mukkara Hatana . One of the local traditions that records the landing and settling of eastern Sri Lanka is called Mattakallappu Manmiyam ( Tamil : மட்டக்களப்பு மான்மியம் ). Among
12525-557: The state sponsored Sinhalese colonization of Tamil territories, the demographics of the North and East had been heavily altered. The three decade long Civil war that followed the anti-Tamil policies further affected the North and the East with over 80,000–100,000 people estimated to have been killed and over 400,000 Tamils fleeing their homes. Many people still live in IDP camps in the North and
12692-486: The 10th century CE. According to the anthropological and archaeological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have a very long history in Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since at least around the 2nd century BCE . The Indigenous Veddas are ethnically related to people in South India and early populations of Southeast Asia . It is not possible to ascertain what languages that they originally spoke as Vedda language
12859-491: The 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai , a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech. For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak
13026-630: The 19th century to work on tea plantations. Most Sri Lankan Tamils live in the Northern and Eastern provinces and in the capital Colombo , and most Indian Tamils live in the central highlands. Historically, both groups have seen themselves as separate communities, although there has been a greater sense of unity since the 1980s. In 1948, the United National Party government stripped the Indian Tamils of their citizenship . Under
13193-537: The 3rd century BCE. Ko, meaning "King" in Tamil, is comparable to such names as Ko Atan, Ko Putivira and Ko Ra-pumaan occurring in contemporary Tamil Brahmi inscriptions of ancient South India and Egypt . Potsherds with early Tamil writing from the 2nd century BCE have been found from the north in Poonagari , Kilinochchi District to the south in Tissamaharama . They bore several inscriptions, including
13360-564: The Australian flag, Tiger symbol and picture of Velupillai Prabhakaran . The Tamil National Alliance stands on a platform for Tamil aspirations of self-determination and equality, having won at elections held in the north and east. The alliance is the largest Tamil political party in Sri Lanka. It has had two manifestos since 2001. The policies are based on what is known as the Thimpu principles amongst Tamil nationalists. They are Further
13527-429: The East and the present-day demographics of the region has been changing due to more and more Sinhalese settling in these territories . Large changes in the demographics of the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Muslims also occurred during the war. In 1987, widespread anti-Sinhalese violence caused 20,000 Sinhalese to flee the Eastern Province, although they were later resettled. In 1990, the LTTE expelled 72,000 Muslims from
13694-484: The Eelam Tamil community, dropped its demand for a Tamil Eelam, in favour of a federal solution. There were ongoing bilateral talks between President Rajapaksa's UPFA government and the TNA, on a viable political solution and devolution of power. Pro Tamil groups advocating independence for Tamil areas of Sri Lanka continue to run websites and radio telecasts. Since 19 May 2009 Tamil Eelam has ceased to exist as
13861-588: The God of Tamils Tenavarai Nayanar. The admiral invoked the blessings of Hindu deities at Temple of Perimpanayagam Tenavaram, Tevanthurai for a peaceful world built on trade. The 1502 map Cantino represents three Tamil cities on the east coast of the island - Mullaitivu , Trincomalee and Panama , where the residents grow cinnamon and other spices, fish for pearls and seed pearls and worship idols, trading heavily with Kozhikode of Kerala . The Arya Chakaravarthi dynasty ruled large parts of northeast Sri Lanka until
14028-481: The Indian state of Haryana , purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab , though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi , in 2010. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction . The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by
14195-474: The Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India . It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore . Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala . It was once given nominal official status in
14362-506: The Jaffna kingdom instead of taxes. The tribute was in cash, grains, honey, elephants, and ivory. The annual tribute system was enforced due to the greater distance from Jaffna. The Federal Party (Sri Lanka) (FP) became the most dominant Tamil political party in 1956 and lobbied for a federal state which gave the Tamils and Sinhalese equal rights, including recognition of two official languages (Tamil and Sinhala) and considerable autonomy for
14529-835: The Negombo dialect continued to evolve in the Coromandel Coast before it arrived in Sri Lanka and began to get influenced by Sinhala. So, in some ways, the dialect is closer to those spoken in Tamil Nadu than to Jaffna Tamil. Some Tamil place names have been retained in these districts. Outside the Tamil-dominated northeast, the Puttalam District has the highest percentage of place names of Tamil origin in Sri Lanka. Composite or hybrid place names are also present in these districts. Although Sri Lankan Tamils are culturally and linguistically distinct, genetic studies indicate that they are closely related to other ethnic groups in
14696-530: The Northern Province. The United Kingdom gained control of Sri Lanka in 1815 and administratively unified the island with a legislative council in 1833 with three Europeans and one each for Sinhalese , Eelam Tamils and Burghers . British Governor William Manning , who arrived in Ceylon in 1919, created a reformed legislative council in 1921 and actively encouraged Sinhalese communal thinking in
14863-614: The Northern and Eastern Provinces; a typical village has up to 150 such structures. The offering would be done by an elder of the family who owns the site. A coconut oil lamp would be lit on Fridays, and a special rice dish known as pongal would be cooked either on a day considered auspicious by the family or on the Thai Pongal day, and possibly on Tamil New Year Day . Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] )
15030-505: The Northern and Eastern provinces. Modern Sri Lankan Tamils descend from residents of the Jaffna Kingdom , a former kingdom in the north of Sri Lanka and Vannimai chieftaincies from the east. According to the anthropological and archaeological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have a very long history in Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since at least around the 2nd century BCE . The Sri Lankan Tamils are mostly Hindus with
15197-538: The Northern and Eastern provinces. There are no accurate figures for the number of Sri Lankan Tamils living in the diaspora . Estimates range from 450,000 to one million. The two groups of Tamils located in Sri Lanka are the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils . There also exists a significant population in Sri Lanka who are native speakers of Tamil language and are of Islamic faith. Though
15364-510: The Sri Lankan Tamils are also very distinctive and unique, even though the cultural influence of modern South India has grown and become prevalent since the 19th century. Since Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948, relations between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil communities have been strained. Rising ethnic and political tensions following the Sinhala Only Act , along with ethnic pogroms carried out by Sinhalese mobs in 1956 , 1958 , 1977 , 1981 and 1983 , led to
15531-549: The Sri Lankan state continues its present style of governance without due regard to the rights of the Tamil-speaking people" it will launch a Gandhi-style civil disobedience campaign. In the manifesto the TNA also demanded the re-merger of northern and eastern provinces, which were separated in 2006, and has also made a pledge to lobby the international community, including India and has called for power sharing arrangements between both parties. The Sixth Amendment to
15698-457: The TNA, said "The ISGA proposal...bears historical importance in the political history of Tamils in the island. The ISGA provides a base to find a permanent political solution to the Tamil national question". The main pledge made by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in its manifesto for the 1977 parliamentary election was " to establish an independent sovereign, secular, socialist State of Tamil Eelam... ". The TULF won all 14 seats in
15865-542: The Tamil areas. However, the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956, more simply known as the Sinhala Only Act , was passed in the Parliament of Ceylon in 1956. The act replaced English as the official language of Ceylon with Sinhala ; due to the lack of official recognition to the Tamil language, the act was widely viewed by the Tamils as a sign of the Sri Lanka state's ambition of establishing
16032-555: The Tamil districts after the 1956 elections . Pongu Tamil (or Tamil Uprising) (பொங்குதமிழ்) is an event that is held in support of "Tamils Right to Self-Determination" and "Tamil Traditional homeland". Pongu Tamil was first organized in Jaffna in January 2001 by students of the Jaffna University. The event was organized in response to alleged disappearances , mass graves and abuses under the government's military rule and
16199-590: The Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows a relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking. According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil)
16366-519: The Tamil people. First, the government introduced a discriminatory system regulating university admissions, specifically targeted at reducing the intake of overachieving Tamils and other minorities in the Sri Lankan educational system. The scheme allotted up to 40% of the university placement to rural youth (primarily from Sinhalese areas). The government claimed that this was an affirmative action scheme to assist geographically disadvantaged students to gain tertiary education. According to K. M. de Silva ,
16533-495: The Tamil regions of the country. However, the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956, more simply known as the Sinhala Only Act , was passed in the Sri Lankan Parliament in 1956. The act replaced English as the official language of Sri Lanka with Sinhala ; due to the lack of official recognition of the Tamil language, the act was widely viewed by Tamils as a sign of the Sri Lankan state's ambition of establishing
16700-585: The Tamils who settled there 200 years ago. Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada . Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Recently, it has been rolled out as
16867-583: The Trincomalee district have different social customs from their southern neighbours due to the influence of the Jaffna kingdom to the north. The indigenous Veddha people of the east coast also speak Tamil and have become assimilated into the Eastern Tamil caste structure. Most Eastern Tamils follow customary laws called Mukkuva laws codified during the Dutch colonial period . Jaffna's history of being an independent kingdom lends legitimacy to
17034-478: The alliance stands for: Three of its sitting Members of the Parliament K. Sivanesan, Joseph Pararajasingham and Nadarajah Raviraj have been assassinated since 2006, which the TNA party blames on the Sri Lankan Government's army and paramilitary forces. On 31 October 2003 during the peace talks, with the ceasefire still holding, the LTTE issued their proposals for an ISGA. The ISGA would have broad powers such
17201-442: The ancient language ( sankattamiḻ ), a modern literary and formal style ( centamiḻ ), and a modern colloquial form ( koṭuntamiḻ ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ , or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ . In modern times, centamiḻ
17368-662: The area, and by the 6th century, a special coastal route by boat was functioning to the Koneswaram temple of Trincomalee and Thirukkovil Sithira Velayutha Swami Kovil in Batticaloa . The 12th century saw the rise of a significant Tamil Hindu social formation in the Jaffna Peninsula , with the Jaffna kingdom . Established as a powerful force in the north, north east and west of the island, it eventually became
17535-515: The area. The dry-land forests house rare species of trees, such as the satinwood, ebony, ironwood, and mahogany. The Eastern part of the Tamil Eelam has an area of 9,996 square kilometers (3,859.5 sq mi). The Area is surrounded by land to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, and the central highlands to its west, south and southwest. The Eastern coast is dominated by lagoons, the largest being
17702-583: The attributes of nationhood of the Tamil people." The resolution further called for the "Free, Sovereign, Secular Socialist State of TAMIL EELAM". As a result of the Vaddukodai resolution, the Tamil United Liberation Front became the first Tamil political party to run its campaign on a separatist platform. It swept the parliamentary elections in the Tamil-dominated districts of the North and East in 1977, winning 18 seats and became
17869-448: The capital city of Rajarata the middle kingdom, and other areas of Sri Lanka as early as the 2nd century BCE. Excavations in the area of Tissamaharama in southern Sri Lanka have unearthed locally issued coins, produced between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE, some of which carry local Tamil personal names written in early Tamil characters, which suggest that local Tamil merchants were present and actively involved in trade along
18036-413: The central Vanni region . The Jaffna peninsula has a number of bays and lagoons along its coastline and much of the coast consists of sandy beaches. A chain of both inhabited and uninhabited islands are also found along the Jaffna peninsula. The sparsely populated Vanni region is covered in tropical forests with numerous rivers flowing through them, making agriculture and forestry the primary industry in
18203-689: The culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India, but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization . Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). About of the approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages. In 2004,
18370-521: The date back to 15th century BCE. In Sri Lanka, there is radiometric evidence from Anuradhapura that the non- Brahmi symbol-bearing black and red ware occur in the 10th century BCE. The skeletal remains of an Early Iron Age chief were excavated in Anaikoddai , Jaffna District . The name Ko Veta is engraved in Brahmi script on a seal buried with the skeleton and is assigned by the excavators to
18537-952: The dialect of Madurai , and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear " akkaṭṭa " meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently. Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect , Kongu Tamil , Madras Bashai , Madurai Tamil , Nellai Tamil , Kumari Tamil in India ; Batticaloa Tamil dialect , Jaffna Tamil dialect , Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada . The dialect of
18704-399: The differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of the formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from
18871-647: The district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in
19038-473: The dominant castes. People in the Vanni districts considered themselves separate from Tamils of the Jaffna peninsula but the two groups did intermarry. Most of these married couples moved into the Vanni districts where land was available. Vanni consists of a number of highland settlements within forested lands using irrigation tank -based cultivation. An 1890 census listed 711 such tanks in this area. Hunting and raising livestock such as water buffalo and cattle
19205-466: The dry semi-arid territories of the island. The region is subdivided into three sections, the North, the East where the majority of the native Tamils live, and the northern part of the Puthalam district which had a large Tamil influence in the pre-colonial times. The Northern province is 22 miles (35 km) south of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu . The Adam's Bridge (Sethu Bridge) is located between
19372-422: The final months of the civil war. In January 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that the estimated 20,000+ disappeared Sri Lankan Tamils were dead. The end of the civil war has not fully improved conditions in Sri Lanka, with press freedom not being restored and the judiciary coming under political control. One-third of Sri Lankan Tamils now live outside Sri Lanka. While there was significant migration during
19539-511: The first century CE. Hindu Saivism , Tamil Buddhism and Jainism were popular amongst the Tamils at this time, as was the proliferation of village deity worship . The Amaravati school was influential in the region when the Satavahana dynasty established the Andhra empire and its 17th monarch Hāla (20–24 CE) married a princess from the island. Ancient Vanniars settled in the east of
19706-614: The following statement: " I aspire for the formation of the independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east territory of the island of Sri Lanka on the basis that the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka make a distinct nation, have a traditional homeland and have the right to self-determination ." To date referendums have been held in ten countries ( Norway , France, Canada, Switzerland , Germany, Netherlands , United Kingdom, Denmark , Italy and Australia). Referendums were expected be held in other countries with significant Tamil diaspora population. A survey in late 2008 by
19873-457: The formation and strengthening of militant groups advocating independence for Tamils . The ensuing civil war resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people and the forced disappearance and rape of thousands of others. The civil war ended in 2009 but there are continuing allegations of atrocities being committed by the Sri Lankan military . A United Nations panel found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in
20040-699: The hill country . Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bengaluru . There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia , Singapore , Philippines , Mauritius , South Africa , Indonesia, Thailand, Burma , and Vietnam . Tamil
20207-833: The idea of Tamil Eelam , a proposed independent state that Sri Lankan Tamils aspired to create in the North-East of Sri Lanka. Inspired by the Tamil Eelam flag , the tiger also used by the LTTE , has become a symbol of Tamil nationalism for some Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. There is little scholarly consensus over the presence of the Sri Lankan Tamil people in Sri Lanka, also known as Eelam in Sangam literature . One older theory states that there were no large Tamil settlements in Sri Lanka until
20374-529: The internally displaced and refugee populations. The 2012 Sri Lanka Census revealed a Buddhist population of 22,254 amongst Sri Lankan Tamils, i.e. roughly 1% of all Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Hindu elite, especially the Vellalar , follow the religious ideology of Shaiva Siddhanta (Shaiva school) while the masses practice folk Hinduism , upholding their faith in local village deities not found in formal Hindu scriptures. The place of worship depends on
20541-432: The introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam , thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. The Tamil Lexicon , published by
20708-523: The island in the first few centuries of the common era to cultivate and maintain the area. The Vanni region flourished. In the 6th century CE, a special coastal route by boat was established from the Jaffna peninsula southwards to Saivite religious centres in Trincomalee (Koneswaram) and further south to Batticaloa ( Thirukkovil ), passed a few small Tamil trading settlements in Mullaitivu on
20875-496: The island while being related to the Indian Tamils from South India as well. There are various studies that indicate varying degrees of connections between Sri Lankan Tamils, Sinhalese, and Indian ethnic groups. A study conducted by Kshatriya in 1995 found that both ethnolinguistic groups of Sri Lanka, including the Tamils, were closest to the Tamil population of India and also the Muslim population of South India. They were found to be
21042-595: The island. During the protohistoric period (1000–500 BCE) Sri Lanka was culturally united with Southern India , and shared the same megalithic burials, pottery , iron technology, farming techniques and megalithic graffiti . This cultural complex spread from southern India along with Dravidian clans such as the Velir , prior to the migration of Prakrit speakers. Settlements of culturally similar early populations of ancient Sri Lanka and ancient Tamil Nadu in India were excavated at megalithic burial sites at Pomparippu on
21209-606: The island. Negombo Tamil dialect is spoken by about 50,000 people. This number does not include others, outside of Negombo city, who speak local varieties of the Tamil language. The bilingual catholic Karavas are also found in the western coastal regions, who trace their origins to the Tamil Karaiyar however identify themselves as Sinhalese . Negombo Tamil indicates that the Karavas immigrated to Sri Lanka much later than Tamils immigrated to Jaffna. This would suggest that
21376-510: The judges had very little standards or training and acted as agents to the LTTE; it also accused the LTTE of forcing Tamils under their control to accept their judicial system. Furthermore, within areas controlled by the LTTE the Tigers performed state functions, including the operation of a civil police force, Human Rights organizations, offices for the coordination of humanitarian assistance board, health boards and education boards. It also ran
21543-535: The king of Jaffna, was a usurper from the Rashtrakuta Dynasty . These dynasties oversaw the development of several kovils that administered services to communities of land assigned to the temples through royal grants. Their rule also saw the benefaction of other faiths. Recent excavations have led to the discovery of a limestone Kovil of Raja Raja Chola I's era on Delft island, found with Chola coins from this period. The decline of Chola power in Sri Lanka
21710-422: The largest opposition in Parliament. The reason for the success of the TULF was seen as the result of growing Tamil agitation for self-determination . During the time of the Vaddukodai declaration, there were several Tamil militant organizations who believed that armed struggle was the only way to protect the sovereignty of the Tamil areas. TULF, however, believed in peaceful parliamentary ways towards achieving
21877-461: The latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class , number , and case , verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages . Much of Tamil grammar
22044-542: The legislative council. As a result, the Tamils started to develop communal consciousness and began to think of themselves as needing to be represented by Tamil leadership. It was this development that made way for the development of the Tamil political organization called the All Ceylon Tamil Congress headed by G. G. Ponnambalam . Sri Lanka achieved independence from the British in 1948 and in
22211-409: The medieval Vanni chieftaincies, those of Panankamam, Melpattu, Mulliyavalai, Karunavalpattu, Karrikattumulai and Tennamaravadi in the north of the island were incorporated into the Jaffna kingdom. The chieftaincy in Trincomalee was at times incorporated into the northern kingdom. Hence Vannimais just south of the Jaffna peninsula and in the eastern Trincomalee district usually paid an annual tribute to
22378-648: The most distant group from the Veddahs, and quite distant from both North-West Indians (Punjabis and Gujratis) and North-East Indians (Bengalis). In comparison to Indian Tamils, the Tamils of Sri Lanka had a higher admixture with the Sinhalese, though the Sinhalese themselves share a 69.86% (+/- 0.61) genetic admixture with the Indian Tamils. The study stated that any admixture from migrations several thousand years ago must have been erased through millennia of admixture among geographically local peoples. In 1981, about eighty percent of Sri Lankan Tamils were Hindus who followed
22545-576: The name Demala-pattana (Tamil city). In this work, a number of villages that are now situated in the Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Trincomalee districts are mentioned as places in Demala-pattana. The English sailor Robert Knox described walking into the island's Tamil country in the publication An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon , referencing some aspects of their royal, rural and economic life and annotating some kingdoms within it on
22712-423: The name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech". Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ , with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and " -iḻ " having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < * tav-iḻ < * tak-iḻ , meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)". However, this
22879-447: The north coast. The conquests and rule of the island by Pallava king Narasimhavarman I (630–668 CE) and his grandfather King Simhavishnu (537–590 CE) saw the erection and structural development of several Kovils around the island, particularly in the north-east —these Pallava Dravidian rock temples remained a popular and highly influential style of architecture in the region over the next few centuries. Tamil soldiers from what
23046-672: The notion and it has become an annual event in the countries they reside. In 2008, the event was held in New Zealand , Norway , Denmark , Italy, South Africa, France, Australia, England and Canada. According to TamilNet , a pro- rebel website, the event attracted thousands of people in these countries including over 7,000 in France, 30,000 in England and over 75,000 in Canada. Australia is said to have attracted about 2000 people displayed
23213-474: The oath. The parts of northern and eastern Sri Lanka which were formerly under the control of the LTTE were run as a de facto state with its own government in these areas. The Tamil Tigers military included land and naval (the Sea Tigers ) forces and an air wing ( Tamil Eelam Air Force ). LTTE ran a judicial system complete with local, supreme and high courts. The US state department alleged that
23380-512: The object of worship and how it is housed. It could be a proper Hindu temple known as a Koyil , constructed according to the Agamic scripts (a set of scriptures regulating the temple cult). More often, however, the temple is not completed in accordance with Agamic scriptures but consists of the barest essential structure housing a local deity. These temples observe daily Puja (prayers) hours and are attended by locals. Both types of temples have
23547-537: The old aspect and time markers. The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil. Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically. Modern spoken Tamil also shows
23714-498: The peace process". Sri Lankan reaction was mixed. The GOSL reacted by stating that the proposal "differs in fundamental respects from the proposals submitted by the GOSL. The GOSL is convinced that the way forward lies through direct discussion of the issues arising from both sets of proposals". The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main political party representing Eelam Tamils, welcomed the proposals positively. R. Sampanthan, leader of
23881-644: The political claims of the Sri Lankan Tamils, and has provided a focus for their constitutional demands. Northern Tamil society is generally categorised into two groups: those who are from the Jaffna peninsula in the north, and those who are residents of the Vanni to the immediate south. The Jaffna society is separated by castes . Historically, the Sri Lankan Vellalar were in northern region dominant and were traditionally husbandman involved in agriculture and cattle cultivation . They constitute half of
24048-424: The population and enjoyed dominance under Dutch rule, from which community the colonial political elites also were drawn from. The maritime communities existed outside the agriculture-based caste system and is dominated by the Karaiyars . The dominant castes (e.g. the Vellalar or Karaiyar ) traditionally use the service of those collectively known as Kudimakkal . The Panchamars, who serve as Kudimakkal, consists of
24215-498: The resurgent Sri Lankan Army. The last pocket of territory controlled by the LTTE was captured by the Sri Lankan Army on 18 May 2009. During this operation almost the entire civil and military leadership of the LTTE were killed. Tens of thousands of LTTE cadres surrendered to government troops. Following the defeat of LTTE, pro-LTTE political party Tamil National Alliance (TNA), also the largest political group representing
24382-439: The right to impose the rule of law, collect taxes, run the administration and oversee the rehabilitation process in the north and east, and it would be controlled by the LTTE until elections were held. Crucially however, the LTTE had dropped their demand for an independent Tamil Eelam in favour of regional autonomy . The key points of the LTTE's proposals are: Democratic elections will be held if no final negotiated settlement
24549-581: The same year the government of Sri Lanka, with the acceptance vote from G.G. Ponnambalam , passed a new act called the Ceylon Citizenship Act which disenfranchised the Indian Tamil plantation workers. Though Ponnambalam did not vote for all the bills pertaining to the Ceylon citizenship act (including the offending bill), his silence in parliament made the Tamil public believe that he was not interested in Indian Tamil rights. In 1949
24716-921: The southern coast of Sri Lanka by the late classical period. Other ancient inscriptions from the period reference a Tamil merchant, the Tamil householder residing in Iḷabharata and a Tamil sailor named Karava. Two of the six ancient inscriptions referring to the Damedas (Tamils) are in Periya Pullyakulam in the Vavuniya District , one is in Seruvavila in Trincomalee District , one is in Kuduvil in Ampara District , one
24883-416: The standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script , which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit , and other languages. The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology, remains, but
25050-428: The terms of an agreement reached between the Sri Lankan and Indian governments in the 1960s, about forty percent of the Indian Tamils were granted Sri Lankan citizenship, and most of the remainder were repatriated to India. By the 1990s, most Indian Tamils had received Sri Lankan citizenship. Sri Lankan Tamils are categorised into three subgroups based on regional distribution, dialects, and culture: Negombo Tamils from
25217-428: The two sides were not able to agree to the number of District Ministers in the Tamil districts. In 1983 the Sixth Amendment was passed and required Tamil members of parliament and Tamils in public office to take the oath of allegiance to the unitary state of Sri Lanka. The Sixth Amendment forbade advocating a separate state even by peaceful means. Consequently, the TULF was expelled from the parliament for refusing to take
25384-401: The waters of the Mannar islet and the Indian mainland. The North is surrounded by the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay to the west, Palk Strait to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Eastern, North Central and North Western provinces to the south. It has a total area of 8,884 square kilometers (3,430.1 sq mi). It is divided into two distinct geographic areas: Jaffna peninsula and
25551-537: The west coast and in Kathiraveli on the east coast of the island. Bearing a remarkable resemblance to burials in the Early Pandyan Kingdom , these sites were established between the 5th century BCE and 2nd century CE. Excavated ceramic sequences similar to that of Arikamedu were found in Kandarodai (Kadiramalai) on the north coast, dated to 1300 BCE. Cultural similarities in burial practices in South India and Sri Lanka were dated by archaeologists to 10th century BCE. However, Indian history and archaeology have pushed
25718-494: The western Gampaha and Puttalam districts. The term does not apply to Tamil immigrants in these areas. They are distinguished from other Tamils by their dialects, one of which is known as the Negombo Tamil dialect , and by aspects of their culture such as customary laws . Most Negombo Tamils have assimilated into the Sinhalese ethnic group through a process known as Sinhalisation . Sinhalisation has been facilitated by caste myths and legends. The Western Tamils caste hierarchy
25885-419: The western part of the island, Eastern Tamils from the eastern part, and Jaffna or Northern Tamils from the north. Eastern Tamils inhabit a region that spans the Trincomalee , Batticaloa , and Ampara districts. Their history and traditions are inspired by local legends, native literature, and colonial documents. In the 16th century the area came under the nominal control of the Kingdom of Kandy , but there
26052-419: The word for "here"— iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore , inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad , and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka . Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli , Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in
26219-467: Was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004. The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia : there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status , a high register and a low one. Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example,
26386-435: Was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are
26553-419: Was created by Lord Shiva . Murugan , revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya , brought it to the people. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language , which was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of
26720-450: Was designed as peaceful protest. The event attracted between 4000 and 5000 students amid the event being banned in Jaffna, an area controlled by the Sri Lankan Army, and allegations of intimidation and death threats by the police. In 2003, the event was held again and attracted over 150,000 people and has become an annual event in the LTTE held areas of Sri Lanka. In the recent years some members of Eelam Tamil diaspora have also picked up on
26887-432: Was followed by the restoration of the Polonnaruwa kingdom in the late 11th century CE. In 1215, following Pandya invasions, the Tamil-dominant Arya Chakaravarthi dynasty established an independent Jaffna kingdom on the Jaffna peninsula and other parts of the north. The Arya Chakaravarthi expansion into the south was halted by Alagakkonara , a man descended from a family of merchants from Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. He
27054-445: Was later adopted for employment in the public sector that caused less than 10 percent of civil service jobs to be available for Tamil speakers. According to historian K. M. de Silva , the system of standardisation of marks (or grades) required the Tamil students to achieve higher marks than Sinhalese students to gain entrance into university. Under the United Front's constitution during the early 1970s, Tamil students sought ways to form
27221-467: Was scattered leadership under Vannimai chiefs in Batticaloa District who came with Magha's army in 1215. From that time on, Eastern Tamil social development diverged from that of the Northern Tamils. Eastern Tamils are an agrarian-based society. They follow a caste system similar to the South Indian or Dravidian kinship system. The Eastern Tamil caste hierarchy is dominated by the Mukkuvar , Vellalar and Karaiyar . The main feature of their society
27388-501: Was signed but also not implemented. The failure of the Sinhalese dominated government to implement devolutionary agreements through the 1950s and 1960s, abrogation of power-sharing promises, worsening economic conditions, and lack of territorial autonomy caused further disillusionment and isolation among northern Tamils. In the 1970 election the United Front (UF) led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike came into power. The new government adopted two new policies that were considered discriminatory by
27555-504: Was the lingua franca for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Egypt . The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature , consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later, the vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations. Tamil
27722-457: Was the chief minister of the Sinhalese king Parakramabahu V (1344–59 CE). Vira Alakeshwara, a descendant of Alagakkonara, later became king of the Sinhalese, but he was overthrown by the Ming admiral Zheng He in 1409 CE. The next year, the Chinese admiral Zheng He erected a trilingual stone tablet in Galle in the south of the island, written in Chinese , Persian and Tamil that recorded offerings he made to Buddha , Allah and
27889-451: Was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil ( கில் ), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ ( ன் ). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa ( கின்ற ) – which combined
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