Monday, July 21, 2008

Origins of Malayalis - ?.2.0

Nambudiri Brahmins, popularly credited to have turned Tamil into Malayalam by adding Sanskrit words to it, were originally Tamils, according to this new paper. (Via Indo-Eurasian_Research Yahoo Group).

That makes sense to me if I agree with that Tulu Brahmin who claimed they were originally Malayalis who came along with Sankara. That also tells us that Malayalam didn't adopt Tulu Grantha script at a later time. It was already there in Malayalam region before its appearance in Tulu region.

update(22-Jul):If I think about it, I suppose this also accounts for Na, La, in Brahmin dialect of Tulu. Non-brahmin dialect of Tulu lacks these retroflexes.

4 comments:

milieu said...

Hey Manju,
Thanks for the very interesting paper you linked to. The theory is well argued and unfortunately i do not have any strong arguments to attack it with.
There are two things which seem to be not clear here
a) the reason for the extreme isolation between the two allegedly same cultures after the kalabhra period. There would have been lot of cultural exchange (if not migration) through the palghat gap after the kalabhra period and so this is a puzzle.

b) Another striking thing is the similarity between stories, fables etc between the Kerala and Kashmir brahmin culture. Apart from the length of the two mahabharata epic stated in the poem, i recently came to know that there is a story of kashmir being under a lake and being reclaimed by sage kashyapa. This is ofcourse similar to the parashurama story prevalent in Kerala and certain other brahmin traditions. Perhaps these stories have a common origin.

Manju Edangam said...

i recently came to know that there is a story of kashmir being under a lake and being reclaimed by sage kashyapa. This is ofcourse similar to the parashurama story prevalent in Kerala and certain other brahmin traditions. Perhaps these stories have a common origin.
Thank you for the information. Kashyapa story is really intriguing. It has many parallels with Kerala Mahatmya.
1. Reclaiming the land
2. Inviting Brahmins
3. Problems with native tribes

But that again indicates migration of Brahmins to Kashmir in the first place. The origin of myth probably might have been somewhere else.

Ravindra Mundkur said...

Recycling of old myths! Quite interesting!

Anonymous said...


Stop your crap oh "Tamil Bastard". You mind your own language before sitting to make some sense on others'. Your story seems good about you meeting a Tulu brahmin and he saying he is actually Mallu LOL LOL LOL. Go tell it to someone else or else tell it to a Tuluva like me, will show what we are. Son of a bitch Tamil, bloody Africans, orangutans will rape your whole families and state.