Why the Lord Murugan is referred as forefather of Tamilians?

 Good Question.

You must read a master piece “Tamil Pirappu Rahasyam” by one Mr N R V Appasamy in his blogspot (7 articles). It is not appreciated to give a link of it in Quora, I am providing a gist of his first article “What is in a Sound”.

It is a belief among Tamils that they are one of the first civilized society which existed before Rock and Sand in this planet. Like other socities of this holy land, they worshipped first nature, then kuldev before identified as Saivities worshipping Shiv, including its tantric rituals of Sakthism and Shaiva Siddhantam. Their agamas are pre vedic.

#According to legends, Agasthiyar got the Tamil Language from God Shiva and written Tamil Grammer and its Syntex to the Tamil people in Podhigai Hills.

#One litmus test for any classical language is its Structue with Sound (Uyir Mei Mantram), corresponding light (Visual Form) and environment (Mandalam). Simply put Mantra, Yantra and Mandalam.

#Lord of Kurinji (Podhigai Hills) is Murugan, a War God. Kurunji is one of five landscapes mentioned in Sangam literature referring to Hill and adjacent areas. He has chosen as the Yantra or Visual Form of Tamil.

Yantra [form] - Light:

The visual form of Tamil language is Lord Muruga. He is born on the day of suklapaksha (sixth day of bright half of lunar month) carried by Lord Agni (Manipuragam Chakram) with six faces (2x6 vowels; 3x6 consonants), wield a Vel (spear or ak or ayudham). His beauty can be well defined as that of sun’s rays and is considered as a war God. (Anahatam Chakram). Worshipping this form makes one Success in wars and endurance.

Mantiram [Tamil Sounds] - Sound

Visuddhi Chakram- a aa e ee u uu ae aea I o oo ou (uyir) [Communication]
Anahatam heart chakram and Manipura chakram (mei) [Warrior & Materialism]
Right – ka sa da ta pa ra (Hard consonants)
Left - ngha nggha na nha ma nhha (Soft consonants)
Swadhistanam - Ya, ra, va, la, lha, zha (Eternal consonants)
Aagya – Ak (Ayutha) (vision-trinetra)

Mandalam - Environment

The mandalam or piece of environment where it puts its ownership rights and encompasses cosmic elements of temples, art, architecture and music. The mandalam will act as an auric centre (protective seal) and the effect is now felt in the subtler dimension of consciousness of over 70 million people.

Tamizh is Murugan and

Murugan is Tamizh.

It is appropriate to consider Murugan as the Forefather of Tamizhians as they breathe Tamizh Vibrations 21600 times a day.

Is there any difference between Indian Tamil and Sri Lankan Tamil?

 Differences are many.

1. Written and Spoken: As Tamil is a diglossic language, the differences between the standard written languages across the globe is minimal but the spoken varieties differ considerably.
2. Iyal, Isai and Nadagam: In the sangam age in Tamil Nadu, the classical form of Tamil is classified into three - Iyal (literature), Isai (music) and Nadagam(theatre). Tamil, in any point in Time and Space, has borrowed the influence of these three in varying propositions. You can see how the dialogues of Tamil films in Sivaji Ganesan era (1970s) and now (2018) changed. So as the Tamil words written in India and a distant Sri Lanka. However these differences are minimal in comparison with spoken language.
3. Indian Tamil Dialects: Coming to dialects - Tamil spoken in India differs every 250 kilometres - Kumari Tamil, Madurai Tamil, Chetti Nadu Tamil, Kongu Tamil, Madras Tamil and many.
4. Sri Lankan Tamil Dialects: It has four dialects. i)Jaffna Tamil - close to Tamil Nadu Tamil II)Batticaloa Tamil is more literary and unique Tamil iii)Negomba Tamil - Fishermen Tamil - bilingual, strongly influenced by sinhala iv)Moors Tamil - Spoken by Moors strongly influenced by Arabic
5. Commonality: The spoken varieties in Sri Lanka although different from those of Tamil Nadu share some common features between the Southern dialects (Kumari, Madurai) of Tamil Nadu and the northern Sri Lankan Tamil dialect, the language of Jaffna. Sri Lankan Tamil dialects retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently.
6. Influencers of Indian Tamil: Indian Tamil dialects are influenced by Sanskrit and English.
7. Influencers of Sri Lankan Tamil: Sri Lankan Tamil dialects are inflenced by Portugese, Dutch as well as English and Sinhalese.
8. Conservative: In general, Sri Lankan Tamil is considered to be more conservative than continental Tamil.

Migration History of Sri Lankan Tamil:

Languages get diluted with space and time. But descendents who migrated maintain the purity of the time in which they migrated. That is why it is importnt to understand the migration history. It is outside the purview of the question and given as an information.

#The migration consists broadly in two stages -who arrived in 7th to 10th centuries ago, during Chola Rulers to Anuradhapura mainly soldiers; and during British in 19th century as a trade workers.

Foot Note - The outward Indian migration on an organized scale came during British Rule. The commissioning of railway line in 1860 made the trading easy across India. In overseas, Parsis running into China; Gujaratis into Red Sea, Persian Gulf; Sindworkies into Ports in Americas, Europe. For the Nattukottai Chettiars of Tamil Nadu, the chief investment destination was South East Asia. From around 1830, confined Chettiars in Madras presidency, started exporting their capital to Ceylon(Sri Lanka), Burma (Myanmar), Straits settlement (Singapore, Malacca and Penang) and Indo-China. As per the Indian Estimate, the working funds of Chettiars were deployed 64% in Burma, 20% in Malaya, 11% in Ceylon, 4% in Indo China. Less than 1% is deployed in Madras. Chettiars taken the plantation workers all over the places.

When did South Indians also came to identity themselves as Hindus?

 #My views are based on my limited understanding and limited to Tamil Mandalam.

Part 1 - Hindu

I will go backwards in time line.

#South Indians as Hindus in 20th Century: After world war I, that is after 1920s, eventually, any person of Indian origin (including Tamils) who did not practice Abrahamic religions came to be branded as a Hindu, thereby encompassing a wide range of religious beliefs and practices.

#North Indians as Hindus in 18th Century: Towards the end of the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists referred collectively to the followers of the Dharmic religions in Hindustan — which geographically referred to most parts of the northern Indian subcontinent — as Hindus.

#Land of Hindus as Hindustan in 13th Century:The Arabic term al-Hind, referred to the land of the people who live across the river Indus. From 13th century, the word Hindustan began to be used as a popular alternative name for India, meaning the "land of Hindus".

#People Live Across Indus River as India in 5th Century: The word Hindu or Indu was used by Greeks to denote the country and people living beyond the Indus river. Megasthenes' 'Indica' epitomizes the name for India and Indians around the 5th Century B.C.E

Hindu is the Sanskrit Word and Shindu is the Local word for River Indus.

Part 2 - Tamil Religions

I will go forward in time line.

The Tamil area had an independent existence outside the control of northern empires. The Tamil kings and chiefs were always in conflict with each other mostly over property. The royal courts were mostly places of social gathering rather than places of dispensation of authority; they were centres for distribution of resources.

# Tholkappiam between the 5th century BCE and the 3rd century CE: In Sangam poems, there is relatively meager reference given to religion in general. In the akam songs, Tholkappiar has made reference to deities in the different land divisions:

Thirumal (Vishnu) for mullai (Forest)

Murugan (Karthik) for kurinji (Mountains)

Indhiran (Indra) for marutham (Plains or Agri Lands)

Varunan, for neithal (Sea Shores) and

Kotravai (Sakthi or Kali) for palai (Desert)

#Early Religions after Sangam Period: Gradually the rulers came under the influence of vedic beliefs. Shaivite, Vaishnavism and Shaktism come into existance.

#First Five Centuries: Buddhism, Jainism and Ajvika co-existed with early Shaivite, Vaishnavism and Shaktism. It is just to mention that Ajvika survived for nearly 2,000 years through the 14th century CE in Tamil Nadu. Kalabhras period is termed as “Dark Age” of Tamil History

#6th to 13th Centuries: Saivism and Vaisnavism dominated and replaced Buddhism and Jainism. Some of the earliest temples that are still standing were built during this period by the Pallavas. Rock cut temples were the order of the day.

#13th to 17th Century: Saivism and Vaisnavism dominated. It is one of the Golden periods of Temple Architect. Damaged temples of invaders were rebuilt and new structures built and existing structures were expanded by Vijayanagara Kingdom, Madurai and Tanjavur Naickers.

#18th to 19th Century: It is a chaos in Tamil Land - full of conflicts among Local Polygars of Maduari, Tiruchi, Senji, Marathas, Nawabs, British, French.

Christianity and Islam co-existed with majority Saivism and Vaisnavism (together were over 88%). Christians are mainly concentrated in Southern districts - Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin.

#Post Independence: The trauma of the partition did not impact Tamil Nadu when India was granted Independence in 1947. There was no sectarian violence against various religions. There had always been an atmosphere of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence between all religions in Tamil Nadu.

Do Tamil Brahmins [Iyers and Iyengars] consider themselves to be Aryans or Dravidians?

 

1. Iyers and Iyengars are caste names, whereas Aryans and Dravidians are race names. The former is relavant in day to day usage whereas the latter is relavant for researchers who work on races and confuse the mass with their own theories..
2. Iyers and Iyengars are Tamilians.
3. The division as found in North, like Samvedi, Dubey, Trivedi, Chaturvedi, Pandey, Mishra do not exist in Tamil Nadu.
4. Iyers follow advaitam and Iyengars follow vishistatvaitam.
5. Once Kanchi was epitome of learning on the lines of Nalanda and Takshila and Sanskrit was also a School of Study. Intelligents, they learned this scientific language so introduced to some of their children. They are neither good at it like North Indians and their Vedic Rituals are as well inferior to North Indian Brahmins as the language is still foreign to them.
6. They are respectable communities in Tamil Nadu. Both the names originate from the same respectable tamil root - “Ayya”
7. Later years saw few Iyers migrated to Karnataka(Mysore) and Kerala (Palakkad).
8. Iyengars are also migrated to Karnataka, called Hebbar Iyengars and Mandyam Iyengars. They are grand.
9. Within Iyengars, there is a division - Vadakalai and Thenkalai.
10. Iyers and Iyengars Tamil are much superior than Brahims of rest of India in intellect.
11. Jamshad Chethirakath, a Keralite is known by stage name Arya and Rahul Dravid is a Marathi. Tamils are also crazy in keeping their names as Stalin, Bose etc

What is the mantra to be changed for Lord Murugan? I have health issues so I was advised to worship him. What should I chant for Lord Subramanyeswara?

 You may recite - Om Sa Ra Va Na Ba Va - 125000 times. Decide yourselves the numer of rounds of 108 times per day (say 90 or 60 or 30 rounds); no of days(say 15 or 30); same time -morning or afternoon or evening or night; Same Place. Take bath before reciting, light a lamp, incense. Have some fruits after.

If it is convenient, you may visit a temple called Kalugumalai in Tamil Nadu. It is recorded that this God bless healthy body. (Those who seek wealth are not recommended)

If it is not possible to visit the temple for you - I am enclsoing his picture for your worship while chanting his mantra.

Which is the youngest Dravidian language?

 There are about 22 Dravidian languages.

Badaga, Brahui, Gondi, Jatapu, Kannada, Kodava, Kolam, Konda, Koya, Kurukh,Malayalam, Mukha Dora, Sankethi, Savara, Sunuwar, Suriyani Malayalam, Tamil,Telugu, Toda, Tulu, Yerukula

We cannot tell any language as the youngest. Some of the languages are spoken by tribes which we may think as the youngest, but its origins are unknown.

1.Suppose if I Put a native speakers of about 4 lakh, Badaga is one such language, spoken in Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. It is closely related to Kannada. In 2009 only, new alphabets are deivsed to write it. Toda, another languages is also spoken in the same area by a community of 1600 native speakers.

2.Another mystic language is Yerukula, spoken in Andhra, with a native speakers of over 70000 (larger than Sanskrit) more distantly related to Tamil. Mastery over this language gives one the ability to tell fortunes and the most of the fortune tellers are Women of Kurrus. Can we say this as a Mystic Women’s language?

Why do people with Telugu ancestry in TN consider themselves Tamilians?

 I am writing more blindly, so that the Telugus, including Mr Chandrababu Naidu should internalize the message:

1.One piece of information to all, Telugu spoken (dielects) in Tamil Nadu differs in various geographic regions (Southern Tamil Nadu, Kongu Nadu, Northern Tamil Nadu) according to the period they migrated which started in 1394 till date.

2.Telugu Speaking People in Southern Tamil Nadu migrated between 1394 - 1526 beyond and the Telugu spoken by them is the Telugu spoken 600years before. Actually this is the original Talli Telugu. Whatever spoken today in Andhra is mixed with Sankrit / Marathi and nothing proud in saying that, but majority Telugus proud about it.

3.For Andhra, telugu speaking people in TN are forgotten or unknown history. (Managu Teliyene Mana Charithra)

4.On the contrary Tamils proudly say that, Sri Lankan Tamil is better than the Tamil Spoken in Tamil Nadu today, in usage of old classic words. Tamils also proudly accept Malyasian / Singapore Tamil as the Pure Tamil spoken by us two centuries ago. This proud is not found in Telugu people or Governments in Andhra or Telungana.

5.Without any links with their Telugu Mandalam, it is really heartening that these people in TN still speaks Telugu over 6 centuries, maintains their tadition and culture, celebrates Ugadi, maintains genetic purity, that is marriges within close nets. Their family name typically sounds - Pemmasani, Ravilla, Siramuni, Bellam, Kilari etc. - Is it not Telugu names? Hats of to these people…