Historical
Survey of Eelam
By K.T.Rajasingham.
The history of the Tamils, is the story of the world. The history
of the world is not complete, if the true story of the Eelam is
not included. Up to date, a few historians wrote bits and pieces
about the Tamils and Eelam, but those were not the complete
story. Writing the true story demand researches to uncover the
distorted, as well as the deliberately ignored details, to
rewrite the discarded facts, the missing pages, into a true
historical treatise.
Thiruvalluvar the great Tamil poet, in the opening chapter of his
treatise on moral aphorism called Thiru Kural, in the first
chapter "Praise of God" and in the very first Kural -
prosody, a unit of two line verse, called couplet or distich,
states -" 'Aah,' is the first letter of alphabets (in
Tamil), God, is primordial to earth." He gave God the
supreme position, as one that existed ever since. Now the
question arises regarding the emergence of the world. According
to Rig-Veda, the Aryan concept, the world emerged from, Soonya,
which means from the Void or Nothingness :-
Then even nothingness was not, nor existence,
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
Who covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?....
But, after all, Who knows, and who can say,
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
The gods themselves are later than creation,
So who knows truly whence it has arisen? - The Wonder That was
India by A.L.Basham,
(Rig Veda Translation).
Earlier, the entire land area of the world formed one continent.
Later, due to grave impact of the Lunar and Solar gravitational
pull including other violent process that took place deep inside
the earth's core, the earth's lateral movements or the drifting
of the earth, caused the split of the continent into two
proto-continents, Laur Asia, the Northern hemisphere, that
includes Europe, North America, greater part of Asia and
Gondawanland, the Southern hemisphere. Geologists believed that a
great continent called Gondawanland composed of South America,
Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica. Researchers concluded
that, Gondawnland remained one single continent, nearly 300
million years, subsequently after 180 to 150 million years, it
began to break up.
Many millions' years after the break up of the Gondawanland, a
land-mass named Lemuria continent emerged, for the first time
surrounded by the ocean. This land-mass that came into existence,
was the old oriental continent that stretched in unbroken land
formation from Madagascar to Malay Archipelago, to Australia,
including Polynesia and northwards to the present valley of
Ganges. The Ganges valley, earlier occupied by the sea, spreading
westward across Persia (Iran), Arabia (Middle-east) and the
Sahara regions, forming the southern limit of the Palae-Arctic
Continent, that embraced Europe, North Africa and Europe.
The land-mass of Lemuria, the eastern part of the Gondawanland,
took credit for the human evolution. Paleontologists, gave
Lemuria great importance as the place from where man emerged.
According to findings, the ape - Homo-Erectus evolved into man -
Homo Sapiens, from Lemuria.
Three phases in the human history were recorded before the
knowledge and use of metals, are often distinguished as, the
Eolithic Age - or the early period of the Stone Age, when crude
stone tools were used, followed by Paleolithic Age - when
primitive man used unpolished chipped stone tools and finally the
Neolithic Age - characterized by primitive farming and the use of
polished stone and flint tools and weapons. An advance state of a
society began to emerge, when man became a farmer, which led to
the dawn of the human civilization. The interaction of the
human-beings in a creative way, led to the emergence of the human
civilization.
The earliest people to form the real cities in the world were
those who lived in the region between the Euphrates and the
Tigris river basins. The land bordering and between the Euphrates
and Tigris rivers was called Mesopotamia. Historians consider the
people who lived in the lower Mesopotamia as
"mysterious" people and called them Sumerians, in
short, Sumers. Western Historians had simply ignored the language
they spoke as agglutinative language which has no clear or close
relationship to any known language family. Later, researchers
concluded that, the Sumers as proto-Dravidians. Even today,
historians are not that comfortable to accept Sumers as
Dravidians, speakers of the language, described in the historical
parlance, Thamil or Tamil, the speakers of an eternal language
and acclaimed, pioneers of human civilization.
Sumerians were neither Aryans, nor Caucasians, and not even
Semites, furthermore from where they originated, nobody knows,
moreover they were characterized as mysterious people. Their
brown complexion, locks of long dark hair, the language they
spoke and the kind of writing - the first of it's kind, they used
to scratch upon clay tablets, clearly differentiated their
individuality and confirmed them of being belonged to the
proto-Dravidian origin. When their writing deciphered, it became
apparent that, they were not a distinct ethnic group, but were
proto-Elamites. Ela or Illa denote earth and Elamites means
"Earthly people."
Sumer is the ancient name for Southern Mesopotamia. Sume in Tamil
means, the word denoting a country. The name Mesopotamia derived
from Greek word, Mesos -middle and Potamai means -Rivers and so
literally means, 'between the rivers. Sumer does not indicate any
special ethnology, but people who lived in the country of Sumer.
The capital of Sumer was Ur. This is a Tamil word, referring 'a
city,' or 'a place of abode of people,' or 'a settlement'.
During the Protoliterate period (3200 - 2850 BC), the city states
dominated by the temples emerged and writing was also invented.
The earliest writings were in the form of pictograms, or
simplified pictures on clay tablets, usually baked after
inscribed with a reed. Subsequently, their writing gradually
evolved towards cuneiform, a way of arranging impressions stamped
on clay, by the wedge-like section of a chopped-off reed. Name of
places, cities and other names clearly indicated them as the
early form of Tamil. Available information leaves beyond doubt,
that, Sumerians spoke Tamil, as spoken in the pre-historic days.
Sumerian civilization had deep roots. The people lived in
villages and also had a few cult centers. One of the cult center
was located at Eridu, probably originated in about 5000 BC. It
grew steadily and by the middle of the fourth millennium, there
was a temple, which provided the original model of the
Mesopotamian monumental architecture, but today only a platform
where it rested, remains to be seen. Excavation conducted at
Eridu, beneath the earliest Sumerians buildings and foundations,
revealed that, there existed an early Neolithic culture, before
the invention of writing or the use of bronze, amidst the other
ethnic groups in the rest of the world. They used to harvest
agricultural crops by earthenware sickles. The researchers
concluded that, pre-Sumerian people were proto-Elamites and
confirmed their findings, when they discovered similar Neolithic
remains at Sausa, once the capital of Elam. The word Sausa in
Tamil means cleanliness. (Elam, Ilam and Eelam are the corruption
of the same word. Authors and historians modified foreign names
according to the predilections of their tongues. Confusion of the
name became inevitable as the Western historians were neither
Elamites nor Tamils.)
On the other side of the Tigris, lived Sumerians' neighbors, the
warlike people, called the Elamites. The name of the country was
Elam, and those who lived in the country were Elamites - the
earthly people, who influenced the civilization, culture, writing
and economy of the ancient Sumer. They were the most ancient
civilized human race, who lived during the early Neolithic
period, eight thousand years before Christ. Elamites were the
first to use the "Wheel" for transportation. The
invention, a milestone, a forerunner to the industrial
revolution, but the Western historians however credited the
invention to the Summers, who adopted it at a later stage.
Khuzistan, a region in Iran, located in the east of the Tigris,
presently identified as the location of former Elam. The capital
city of Elam was Sausa. The Elamites were believed to be Negroid
in type and there was a strong Negroid strain in them. Elamites'
civilization flourished some 8000 years ago, with city-states,
distinctive culture and a written language. The language of the
Elamites, after analysis found phonetically and morphologically
similar to that of the Tamil.
Earlier, Elamites had a pictorial graphic writing system, called
pictograms, followed by hieroglyphics. After the middle of the
third millennium BC, most of the Elamites texts discovered were
in the cuneiform scripts. According to a research, it became
apparent that, Elamites spoke a language cognate with that of the
Tamil language. Historical details of Elamites disappeared from
the face of the world, as the Western historians felt that
crediting the Tamils of being the pioneers of human civilization,
may not place them in any advantageous position, therefore
Elamites became a forgotten race and today Persian (Iranians)
lives in the ancient land of Elam, once roamed by the glorious
predecessors of the Tamils.
Again, historians identified the Elamites in the Sahara region,
located in the northern Africa. Sahara was once an inhabitable
region, consisted of vast grassy plains and luxuriant forests,
traversed by rivers with extensive swamps. It was the home of
pastoral peoples herding cattle, sheep and goats. In those days,
before 3000 BC, what is now a stretch of a largest desert and
arid canyon, was a fertile Savannah region, intersected and
drained by rivers running down to Niger and by another system
running nearly seven hundred and fifty miles into Lake Tehad.
The region earlier had a large lake called the Triniton Lake,
almost bordering the Northern shores of Africa. Due to an
earthquake, the European-African isthmus breached and forced the
waters of the Triniton lake to flow into the land-locked
Mediterranean sea. When the lake and other rivers, that once
traversed the fertile plains of Sahara flowed into the
Mediterranean sea and elongated it, the region began to dry up
and by 1250 BC, the entire region turned into an arid zone, that
led to the emergence of the world's largest desert. When Sahara
began to dry-up, the people who lived in the region disappeared.
What happened to them? After the world war II, scientist began to
explore the Nile Valley region in the Sahara area and discovered
traces of the early human existence, the "Asselar Man."
While a section of the Elamites remained stationary in Elam even
after 2000 BC, a large section, according to the migratory
tendency of the early civilized man, another section of them were
on the move. Elamites suddenly disappeared from the Euphrates and
Tigris river basin area. What happened to them? "About the
ninth century BC, Elam and Elamites whose capital was Sausa, a
people which possessed a tradition and civilization at least as
old as the Sumerian, suddenly vanish from history. We do not know
what happened. They seem to have been overrun and the population
absorbed by the conquerors. Susa is in the hands of the
Persians." The Outline of History by H.G.Wells. Whilst the
Elamites were in Elam even before the Great Flood, they were also
identified in the Sahara region, and whilst being in the Sahara
region, a section of them was on constant move, migrating all
over. They were on the move through the Ural mountain region,
ultimately established themselves in India by entering through
the North-west. Their dispersal ranged from Central Asia to the
Mediterranean regions in Africa, the Islands in the Aegean Sea,
into Eastern Europe, ultimately to India and beyond.
Elamites, described as long-headed from front to back,
(dolichocephatic) mixed with short-headed, from front to back
(brachycepphalic) Armenoids along their migratory routes and
established themselves in India, before the 5th millennium BC.
Those immigrants might have possibly come into prolonged contact
with the Ural-Altic (Ural - Hungarian, Finnish; Altic-Turkish,
Mongol) speakers, thus explaining the striking affinities between
the Tamil language and Ural-Altic language groups. Subsequently,
this particular race of people, the Elamites, the people with the
Neolithic culture, spread eastward, through the East-Indies to
Polynesia, Australia and beyond. The Tamils lived in those
countries, before the Neolithic period, which period ascribed to
the evolution of the mankind.
They began to evolve into a new human race and in 1816, Francis
W.Ellis, a British civil servant was the first European to
recognize the Tamils and the Language family of the Tamils. Later
in 1856, Robert A. Caldwell, in his, "A Comparative Grammar
of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages," used
the Sanskrit word 'Dravidian' to name the independent family of
the Tamil language group. Caldwell based his interpretation of
the word Dravida, according to a 7th century Sanskrit text, to
conclude to mean, Tamil. Many consider it a disgraceful
arrangement to name one of the greatest, oldest and eternal
language, an independent group of language, by a Sanskrit word.
Many scholars found the word Dravida derisive, and to date, the
Tamil scholars have not come forward to rectify or amend the
injustice done to the oldest and eternal language family, by
naming it with a derisive Sanskrit word and to put the record
straight.
On the other hand, Dravida is purely philological and is a name
of a linguistic family and is not an isolated linguistic group,
with uninterrupted continuity over a period of more than eight
thousand years, covering the period from the proto-Elamites,
pre-Mediterranean, pre-Hammito-Semitic languages up to the
present day. A language, considered one of the oldest, eternal,
spoken by the mankind from the very day human civilization
emerged, but still young and vibrant, spoken even today by more
than 80 million speakers, scattered all over the world.
When the Elamites were identified in India, earlier their
distinct ethnicity ignored, but since 19th century, ethnologists
identified them Dravidians, based on their language, as the
speakers of Tamil. Even though, the Tamils' ethnic identity
continued to transform, they continue to remain, staking their
claim of being the oldest civilized nation, based on their
linguistic and cultural continuity.
In the early ages, the name Manu, applied to 13 successive
mythical progenitors and sovereigns of the earth and two of those
Manu's descendants were Saman and Elam (Ilam). Saman was the
brother, who ruled the northern portion of the sub-continent,
while his sister Elam, ruled the Southern portion, consisting of
Thonda Nadu, Vanda Nadu, Kapatapuram, Elamandalam (later called
Eelam or Ilankai), Madura and Viramahendrapuram. Due to a great
cataclysm, a vast portion of the Southern India submerged under
the sea. The first Tamil Academy, (Sangam), located at the
Southern Madura too submerged about 2500 years ago, before the
birth of Christ. Due to the flood, Elamandalam separated from
India, emerged in the form of an island and this island is Eelam.
Regarding the great deluge and the separate entity of Eelam,
there are several Tamil literary records available and the
following are few of those recorded evidences:
"The Cruel ocean engulfed the river Pakhruli and a row of
hills including the mountain Kumari." - Cilapathikaram - the
Tamil lyrical epic - Chapter 11:20-21.
"In order to compensate the area lost to the sea, King
Pandia moved tirelessly, to other lands and captured them."
- Kalitokai
"The Roaring sound of the ocean water trembled the peak of
the mountain." - Kuruntokai
"Before the ocean engulfing, lies few countries, and the
southern boundaries were described." - Ilampuranar - a
commentator of Tolkapiam.
P.E.P.Deraniyagala, a former Commissioner, Department of
Archeology, in his lecture on "Some Aspects of the Fauna of
Ceylon (Sri Lanka)." delivered at the Royal Asiatic Society
on 28 May 1965, describes on the geographical isolation of Ceylon
as follows:
"The presence of Jurassic deposits both in the North-western
Ceylon and in the Ramnad district of India shows that the two
were once connected, but since the Island lacks many of the
consecutive deposits, it appears to have broken off from the
mainland during this period. The two countries became reattached
by early Miocene times but shortly afterwards they broke away
again, and several such unions and separations have occurred.
During each interval of isolation plants and animals had evolved
new subspecies which had invaded the neighboring country whenever
the land connection was renewed."
"Geographical isolation is one of the essentials for
subspecies formation and in living things the amount of latent
ability to undergo future modification is termed 'plastic'
whereas a species that no longer respond to the environment and
is unable to modify itself has reached the limits of its
plasticity and should be designed "constant" or
"fixed."
"Although geologists generally consider Ceylon to be a part
of one of the most stable areas of the earth, this view is only
partially correct and some parts of the Island have undergone
alteration as will be seen from the following:
(1) Early records mention that there were about a hundred Islands
off its coasts (Fahien 410 AC) and also that there was a large
Island named Giri adjacent to it, which had disappeared (Skanda
Purana and Dipavamsa).
(2) Portuguese record mention heavy earth quakes with explosion
and the formation of numerous fissures.
(3) The disappearance of many Islands that appear in Dutch and
early British maps has been studied and attention drawn to their
inability, to the oscillation that is so evident towards the
North-west of Ceylon and the elevation of the Negambo beach area.
(4) The raised beaches from Mundel and Eluvankulam areas to the
north-west and others in the South-east.
(5) The ring of waterfalls in the highlands indicate that they
have been produce by recent thrust.
(6) The river gravel in the north-western and northern provinces
and pot holes especially in the southern and eastern provinces
which are now remote from the rivers that had produced them.
(7) Submarine canyons at the mouths of such rivers as the Daduru,
the Valave, the two Maha Oyas, the Galoya and Mahavilli.
(8) Borings in the Bere lagoon near Colombo have revealed
alternate layers of marine, fluviatile and swamp conditions of
Pleistocene age.
(9) The rivers frequently display river captures and a change of
their courses, e,g, Mahavilli and Valave rivers.
(10) The original beds of some of the larger rivers such as the
Kalu and Kalani rivers are ten to twenty feet lower than the sea
bottom from their mouths up to a distance of about a mile inland.
(11) The abundance of thermal and mineral springs.
(12) The presence of diamond, chalcedony and natural glass."
"Geological movements such as faulting, tilting and
dislocation that occurred during the last few geological periods
are among the more important factors that have influenced
evolution, especially after Ceylon had become isolated."
Confirming P.E.P.Deraniyagala's findings that through the
existence common fauna and flora in Ceylon and in the South
Indian coast of the earlier land links of Ceylon with India, S.U.
Deraniyagala writes in his "The Prehistory of Ceylon,
"The fauna and flora of peninsular India clearly suggest
prehistoric land connects with Lanka at various times during the
Quaternary, as firmly indicated by the presence of Elephas
maximus, an Upper Pleistocene form, on either side of the Palk
Starit. Land connections with the mainland would of course have
been prime importance for prehistoric settlement of the island
prior to the advent of seafaring."
Compilers of Ceylon annals, purposely avoided the historical
geography of the country. They have failed to analyze the
geographical side of the time wrought changes that took place in
the formation of the insular country. This study helps to know
the past, as well as helps to reconstruct the past more vividly.
The geographical study of the pre-historic era of Ceylon,
illuminates the physical evolutionary changes that took place in
the landscape of the country from the very ancient period and
provides a vivid picture of the early inhabitants, whether they
were there when the country separated, or they migrated after the
separation and how they happened to live in the island along with
other details, such as the pre-historic society, their social
interaction, civilization, the government and all the other
details needed to discern a pattern of the past, to conclude the
true historical background.
Mention regarding the origin of Eelam as an insular country, is
also found in the Holy Bible. The Bible describes that Elam,
'became the maritime nations in various lands, each with a
separate language.' Genesis 10, The Descendants of Noah-
1These are the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were the
three sons of Noah; for sons were born to them after the flood.
2The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal,
Meshech, Tiras.
3The Sons of Gomer,: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah.
4The sons of Javan, Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Dodanim.
5Their descendants became the maritime nations in various lands,
each with a separate language.
21 Eber descended from Shem the oldest brother of Japheth. 22
Here is the list of Shem's other descendants: Elam, Ashur,
Arpachdad, Lud, Aram.
Following description provided in The Holy Bible, Genesis 7:19,
about the deluge, the greatest cataclysm recorded in the human
history:
"All the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens
came to be covered." -
Also in, 2 Peter, 3:6,- "the world of that time suffered
destruction."
As indicated in the Holy Bible, the deluge occurred in the year
2370 BC. The flood began - "in the second month on the
seventeenth day of the month." - Genesis 7:11
The second month corresponds to the latter part of October and
the first part of November on the present calendar. Many people
around the world commemorate the 'Day of the Dead' or the 'Feast
of Ancestors,' at the time of the year, to reflect the memory of
the destruction caused by the Deluge and to remember the deaths.
After the deluge, according to The Holy Bible, descendants of
Noah became the Maritime nations of the world. One of such
descendant is Elam, also a maritime nation. The present Eelam,
according to The Holy Bible, came into existence, after the
Deluge. Therefore, the Eelam of today, is a creation by God, and
according to The Holy Bible, the Elamites are a blessed maritime
nation and not denotes the earlier nation Elam by the river basin
of Euphrates and Tigris. The descendants of Elam, who descended
from Noah and the maritime nation Elam came into existence, are
both blessed in the Holy Bible and this act of God goes to prove
the eternality of the country and the nation.
The Tamils of Eelam had their own rulers after the country
separated from the mainland India, due to the second universal
deluge. The land-mass that separated from the Kumari (Comarin)
continent called Elamandalam, came into existence as Eelanadu or
Lanka, the resplendent country, in the midst of the Indian Ocean.
As prophesied in the Holy Bible, the maritime nation Eelam became
a reality.
Courtesy : Weekend Express - Saturday April 24 - Sunday, April
25, 1999.
E-Mail: ktraja@loxinfo.co.th
T.phone: 0066-25176253 or 0066-1879070, Telefax: 66-2-517 6253
K.T.Rajasingham, House No: 8/6, Muban Amoronpan Nakorn, Sukapibal Road 2, Suan Siam, Bangok 10230, Thailand.