2 The Nature of the History of Ancient Tamil Nadu
The history of a country may exist either written or unwritten. Written history may be true or false or partially true. Unwritten history may be extinct or descriptive or narrative. As the Tamil nation (or for that matter the Dravidian race) is of Lemurian origin, and as all the pre-Aryan Tamil literature and the post-Vedic pre-Sangam works, with a few exceptions, have been destroyed the pre-Christian history of Tamil Nadu can only be of descriptive nature.
The post-Christian history of Tamil Nadu has already been written fairly well by many historians and historiographers.
The South Indian historians as a rule, acquit themselves admirably well in writing the post-Christian history of Tamil Nadu; but become entirely inactive and uninterested with regard to the pre-Christian history of the same, and suddenly turn to the North and base everything on the Vedas. They are even prone to grossly misre present facts, as they know for certain that a true representation of ancient Tami Nadu will only reveal the glory of Tamil, and rebound to the credit of ancient Tamils. Their guiding principle is always to uphold Sanskrit and the Vedic system of culture. The two exceptions in this regard were the late Mr.P.T. Srinivasa Iyengar and Prof.V.R.Ramachandra Dikshitar, both of whom adorned the University of Madras as Head of the Department of History during different periods. If there was any other, it was T.R. Sesha Iyengar. All the others are of one mould and flagrantly betray their bias towards Sanskrit. They make a mountain of a molehill if it be in favour of the Aryans, and a molehill of a mountain if it be in favour of the Tamilians.
The South Indian historians as a rule, acquit themselves admirably well in writing the post-Christian history of Tamil Nadu; but become entirely inactive and uninterested with regard to the pre-Christian history of the same, and suddenly turn to the North and base everything on the Vedas. They are even prone to grossly misre present facts, as they know for certain that a true representation of ancient Tami Nadu will only reveal the glory of Tamil, and rebound to the credit of ancient Tamils. Their guiding principle is always to uphold Sanskrit and the Vedic system of culture. The two exceptions in this regard were the late Mr.P.T. Srinivasa Iyengar and Prof.V.R.Ramachandra Dikshitar, both of whom adorned the University of Madras as Head of the Department of History during different periods. If there was any other, it was T.R. Sesha Iyengar. All the others are of one mould and flagrantly betray their bias towards Sanskrit. They make a mountain of a molehill if it be in favour of the Aryans, and a molehill of a mountain if it be in favour of the Tamilians.
Under these circumstances, to expect a true and faithful history of pre-Aryan Tamil Nadu to be written by any of the pro-Sanskrit historians of today, is “to set the fox to keep the geese.”
