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THE WORLD CLASSICAL TAMIL CONFERENCE INAUGURATED BY THE PRESIDENT.

Posted on: 24/Jun/2010 2:32:52 AM

Coimbatore has become feverish; totally into festivel mood with anything else is beside the point.The first World Classical Tamil Conference got off to a flier on Wednesday. President Pratibha Devisingh Patil inaugurated the five day event one of the grandest to happen in Coimbatore, hailed Tamil, which has the oldest literature among the living languages of the world.

The President said in her speech that many concepts intrinsic to India`s social and cultural spirit were reflected in Tamil discourse over centuries. The message of peace, universality and the spirit of equality was propounded in a Sangam poem more than 2000 years ago, she said, referring to a poem in Purananooru.

She presented the Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award to Asko Parpola, renowned Indologist, for his work on the Dravidian hypothesis in the interpretation of the Indus script. He said Old Tamil was best preserved in Dravidian linguistic traditions.

Tamil is an old living language with an extraordinary volume of literature and grammar, the President said Tirukkural, written by Thiruvalluvar, was a remarkable treatise on life in total Silapathikaram and Manimekalai were classics, as were the epics of Jeevakachintamani, Kamba Ramayanam, and the soul-stirring hymns of Nayanmars and Alvars. The poems and songs of Subramania Bharati evoked in the minds of the people “deep feelings of patriotism during our freedom struggle.”

Emphasizing that “the history of the Tamils is our nation`s pride,” she said the Tamil ethos based on pluralism, tolerance and a humanistic approach had contributed in a variety of ways to India`s progress and in shaping its identity as a nation that was rich in art, music, architecture and literature.

The next generation of Tamils must anchor as well as equip themselves with knowledge of Tamil culture, literature and values, the President said.

Professor Parpola said the Union government had rightly recognised Tamil as a classical language, the status that it fully deserved in view of “its antiquity and its rich literature that in quality and extent matches many other classical traditions of the world.”