76-461: Thirunamam ( Tamil : திருநாமம் ; Tirunāmam ) represents the 'Sacred name of God'. The phrase Namam also represents the white clay found at the deeper layer of earth, which is used as the powder to wear a flame shaped mark. The Ayyavazhi people wore this Namam, starting from the central point between the eyebrows, going straight up near the top edge of the forehead. The flame shape represents Aanma Jyothi or Atman . Which in turn means that, Aatman
152-495: A Flag mast and a number of vahanas which are used to carry Ayya as processions during the festivals. And at present Swamithoppe and Ambalappathi has temple cars . The Palliyarai designing in Pathis were different from that of Nizhal Thangals. No chairs or any other wooden structure are used but instead strictly raised pedestals in which a saffron cloth is wrapped. Above it there will be an armour-shaped brass structure which
228-468: 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
304-484: 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
380-759: 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
456-474: A Pathi. Avatharappathi , the place at which Vaikundar incarnated from the sea is considered as a Pathi by Akilam. Akilam call this Chenthur Pathi . But as some of the followers believe that the place at which the present temple is located is not the exact place where Ayya Vaikundar incarnated from the sea, they disagree with the rest of the devotees. The list of Pathis announced by the headquarters of Ayyavazhi does not include Avatharappathi. Also Vakaippathi
532-519: 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
608-523: A little of it believing it to be medicinal. The 'Thiru mun' (sacred soil) for preparing the Thiru Namam is collected from Swamithope pathi for Nizhal Thangals after conducting the Pothippu . But some Thangals prepare them as their own. Akilam , the primary scripture too accredit this ritual practice to be ceremonial and sacred. And it was practiced and treated with high religious importance and as
684-607: 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
760-671: 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
836-518: 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
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#1732801701076912-418: A relatively large structure like that of a temple . They are seven in number. The Pathis obtain their significance from the fact that Ayya Vaikundar and his religious activities were historically associated with them. There are seven Pathis, ("Seven places where God is") which appeared during the time of Ayya Vaikundar. According to Akilattirattu Ammanai the source of Ayyavazhi mythology , these Pathis are
988-548: 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 Pathi Pathi ( Tamil : பதி - "The place where God is") is the name of the primary centres of congregational worship for the South Indian religious system of Ayyavazhi , having
1064-647: 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
1140-610: 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
1216-463: 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
1292-438: 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
1368-789: A year while the Vaikunda Avatharam is celebrated simultaneously at all Pathis during Ayya Vaikunda Avataram. But only in Swamithoppe the Kodiyetru Thirunal is conducted thrice in a year during the Tamil months of Avani (August/September), Thai (January/February) and Vaikasi (May/June) and each last for eleven days. Also, during every Sundays special prayers are conducted in all Pathis. The first Sundays of every Tamil month are considered sacred and special prayers are conducted in Swamithope Pathi. During
1444-635: 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
1520-485: Is a basic need, to reform a society (19th century Travancore ), religiously the same is performed just with a religious belief. The religious definition for the practice 'Tottu Namam' is as The Name of God . The Atman is assumed to be in a flame shape and it as the name of God . That is, the Atman is God and the supreme self. It was religiously taught that, one who pay extreme belief over Vaikundar will be turned of to
1596-457: 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
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#17328017010761672-466: Is called a Santhana Veethi . Since Ayyavazhi is not an organised religion the Swamithope pathi though considered as religious headquarters, it officially does not control the rest of the religious centers. And hence all the Pathis are independently managed by different formed committees or by organisations. Some Pathis are maintained by the native Ayyavazhi followers of that particular area after
1748-490: Is called as Nama Vel is erected and a saffron or silk cloth wrapped around it forming the shape of an asana in which it is believed that, "The invisible God is seated" . In all other Pathis except Ambalappathi , saffron cloth is used. The Sivaye Medai in Pathis are similar to that of Nizhal Thangals. All Pathis has an inner corridor around the Palliyarai and outer corridor surrounding the whole Pathi. The outer corridor
1824-577: Is conducted and consecrated to Ayya every day on every pathis. Thiru-Eadu Vasippu is also conducted frequently in all Pathis. The important festivals in Pathis are Kodiyettru Thirunal for eleven days, the Thiru Eadu Vasippu for seventeen days and the Vaikunda Avathara Dinam , the celebration for a couple of days during Ayya Vaikunda Avataram . The first two festivals are conducted in Pathis at different times once in
1900-544: Is considered as a Pathi by the scripture in a sense that it was the northern entrance of 'Dwaraga Pathi ' which is believed to be inside the sea. This site have another yet importance. It was here, the historical Thuvayal Thavasu conducted following the instructions of Vaikundar. Another common listing is prevalent in which the Swamithope is replaced by Vakaippathi in Panchappathis and considering Swamithoppe as
1976-443: Is considered sacred and as the name of God . Zealous devotees smeared it on the exterior of the upper arms, over the chest and below the spinal cord area at the back. This white mark was unlike the one worn by a Hindu of Vaishnavism tradition who wore it on the forehead in the shape of 'U', or of Saivism tradition who wore it horizontally as three parallel lines. This Thirunamam is also called as Tottu Namam and Thiruman . In
2052-401: 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 ,
2128-563: 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
2204-511: 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
2280-405: 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
2356-409: 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,
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2432-410: 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
2508-771: 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 ,
2584-592: 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
2660-409: 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
2736-793: 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
2812-504: The Atman reaches the state of supreme self or becomes unified with the supreme Ekam , when it reaches Sahasrara after moving towards the seven other chakras . Some Nizhal Thangals use this symbol Thirunamam as building architecture. Mostly all Thangals use to mount the symbol at the top either with a lotus or not. Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] )
2888-465: 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
2964-521: The Tavam . This Thirunaman, a white flame-shaped mark, is treated as the symbol of Ayyavazhi since the 1940s and then the present symbol Lotus and Namam was accepted as the symbol. Even in the present symbol the Thirunamam is used with the same religious definition as the Atman . In Ayyavazhi symbolism this Atman is placed above Sahasrara which is symbolised as Namam above Lotus. It shows that,
3040-599: 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
3116-491: 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
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3192-575: The Ayya Vaikunda Avataram people use to go on pilgrimage to all holy places of Ayyavazhi, mainly the Panchappathis . Different processions are conducted from different places to the pathis, especially to Swamithoppe and Ambalappathi . In this the procession from Tiruchendur and Thiruvananthapuram to Swamithoppe is associated with the scriptures. For a long period of time this term "pathi" has been discussed. Generally,
3268-481: 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
3344-474: 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
3420-511: The Jeevas from Kali in order to attain the sacred feet of God. (i.e.)Wearing the gods name purifies the jeevas and transform them to the absolute self. Presently this practise is considered as the primary ritual to be performed in Pathis and Thangals. Those who 'serve' in every Pathis or Nizhal Thangals , wear this white mark for the people and give a portion of it in their hands. People carry it home as holy object, and some of them even swallow
3496-521: The Pathi status is given for a site based on the scriptures and seeking, how much the site is important in the incarnation of Vaikundar . Another way of understanding this pathis is also prevalent, by seeking direct reference for a site as pathi in Akilam or Arul Nool . Anyway, commonly, a site which is not directly associated historically with any of the religious activities of Vaikundar is not accepted as
3572-590: 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)
3648-696: 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
3724-442: 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
3800-689: 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,
3876-952: 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
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#17328017010763952-399: 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
4028-487: The different activities of Vaikundar at each Pathis. In addition to the panividais at Palliyarai and Sivayi Medai , in each Pathis there are different Panividais performed at the exact spots where Ayya performed the religious activities. Also these particular places were considered sacred too. Also in addition all Pathis will have a Pal Purai where the Nithya pal is consecrated every day for Ayya. Also all pathis has
4104-647: 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
4180-466: The head of these Panchappathis. Regarding Marunthuvazh Malai , an attempt is made there to kill Vaikundar by adding poison to milk. More over, he is said to be penanced here. So the Vaikunda Pathi is also considered as a Pathi. These three sites are not included in the list of Pathis released by the religious headquarters, Swamithoppe too. Except these, all other Pathis are accepted as so by
4256-699: 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
4332-432: 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
4408-461: 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
4484-431: The meaning, 'a mark with a personal touch'. In Ayyavazhi universe primarily, Ayya Vaikundar seems to have personally touched the forehead of followers and worn it for them. This dimension of personal touch stood out to the public eye and was much appreciated by the then society. It presented itself to be a symbolic site wherein new and alternative modes of social relations were proposed, forged and legitimated. It recast
4560-423: 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
4636-668: The name of God (Atman). And hence the 'purified jeeva ' is an Absolute Atman or God. Also the Thirunamam is smeared between the 'central point of the eyebrows' where the Ajna Chakra is situated. This chakra is viewed in relation to the Kali Yuga of the 'Eight yuga circle' as per Ayyavazhi scriptures. Since the present yuga is the Kali, the 'Thiru Namam' or the name of God is to be smeared there in Ajna (place of Kali ) for purifying
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#17328017010764712-455: The nineteenth century Travancore society, the social setup is highly marked for the discriminative hierarchical caste order and the inhumanities unfold from this, such as untouchability , unseeability and unapproachability accordingly some people were shunned from the public approach and sight. This caste based social reality is transformed into a religious institution. The then political faculties duly safeguarded this order. Even in temple
4788-537: 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
4864-653: The period of Vaikundar . In all the Pathis three-time worship is conducted as per the Ayyavazhi scriptures. Ukappadippu in the Morning and Evening and the Ucchippadippu conducted for seven times at noon. Vhanam Eduppu is conducted twice a day in Swamithope pathi , once in a week in Ambalappathi on Tuesdays and at least once in a month in other pathis. The main form of ritual Nithya pal (Pal vaippu)
4940-568: The places where Ayya Vaikundar performed the Avatara Ekanai (a means of divine revelation). These are the sacred places for the people of Ayyavazhi. These five Pathis are collectively called as Panchappathis. Sometimes Vakaippathi and Avatharappathi is added to this list. Generally Pathis were structurally different from Nizhal Thangals . Unlike Nizhal Thangals the Pathis were not only considered as mere worship centers but also as holy places. Also each Pathis have their own significance due to
5016-415: The priest-devotee relationship to bear upon the social reality of the time. The alternative relationship and close contact brought up by this ritual practice meant a reversal of the hierarchical social relationship and discrimination based on purity and pollution . In other words, with the under-lying ritual ambience, this 'Tottu Namam' acted fast against the caste based and other inequalities prevalent in
5092-558: The priests while handing over the Prasadam (a ritual object) to devotees after worship, they approach freely with the higher castes , whose nearness and touch would not pollute them, and use to throw the Prasadam on to a platform from where the lower caste devotee (whose touch may pollute him) has to collect this. In such a social conscience, the alternative form of ritual marking 'Tottu Namam' generated. The very name 'Tottu Namam' says
5168-496: The primary ritual from the celebration conducted in Swamithope pathi even during the period of Vaikundar . The secondary scripture Arul Nool too refers that, Ayya personally touched the devotees and wore Thirunamam for them. Since Vaikundar used ordinary soil as 'Thiru Namam' during his Tavam (austerity) period, ordinary soil is kept there now in alternative of the white soil in the Vatakku Vasal , where Ayya performed
5244-470: 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
5320-481: The then Travancore Kingdom and Tamil society . Under sociology, the then 'social discriminative force' is termed as the evil spirit of Kali . And this Kali is said to be get destroyed by the ritual practise of wearing 'Thiru Namam'. The break-point of social hierarchy is channeled in a religious way. Unlike the social definition for this ritual practice, the religious or ritual importance for Thirunamam fits to all period of time. Sociologically, while this practice
5396-526: 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
5472-534: 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,
5548-600: 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
5624-540: 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
5700-504: 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
5776-451: 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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