Author: Rover - mworth8@gmail.com
Sinhala is a distinct language that evolved in-situ in Sri Lanka, and Tamil language evolved in India, but still, Sri Lankan Tamil is distinguishable from Indian Tamil. Sinhala has a more unique word repertoire than Sri Lankan Tamil, when compared to any other language in the world. In other words, almost no Sinhala will be identified by any Indian (or any other race), whereas most of Sri Lankan Tamil would be understood by at least 65 million Indians. Here the mechanisms that may have been important in the evolution and development these two languages are considered.
The roots of Sinhala is Indo-Germanic (Aryan) in origin but is very distinct from its Indian mother language. The reason for this is probably allopatry (evolving in isolation), which is an important mechanism in the evolution of new languages (as much as the evolution of new species). To gather a fairly substantial repertoire of unique words that the Sinhala language has, Sinhala must have evolved in isolation for over a long period of time in Sri Lanka. It may have both retained some ancestral words that have now gone extinct in its mother language, and also would have evolved unique words. Given the fact that there are so many disparate languages in the Indo-Aryan group of languages even within India were strict isolation is not possible, it is not surprising that Sinhala quickly evolved to be a unique language in isolation.
The most parsimonious explanation to the origin and evolution of Tamil would have been in India, as it has the greater population (that use Tamil) in India and the roots to other Indian languages (like Kannada and Malayalam) is quite distinct. There are only a fewer unique words peculiar to 'Sri Lankan Tamil' when compared to Indian Tamil; but a little bit more so with other south Indian Dravidian languages; and the Sri Lankan Tamil grammar is also slightly different from that of Indian Tamil. This too would have happened due to the isolation of Sri Lankan Tamil language, but to a lesser degree, when compared to Sinhala.
It is hard to imagine a scenario where Sinhala evolving in India and then, the whole population migrating over to Sri Lanka (without leaving many traces of this language in India); or that after part of this hypothetical population moved over to Sri Lanka, the ancestral population going extinct in India (I don't think in India languages would readily go extinct, evidenced by the number of languages that persists together). However the languages that persist today in India are closely interrelated to each other, and hence the roots of these languages are embedded very much in India. These alternative explanations are less parsimonious than the one mentioned above.
Hence Sinhala must have evolved in isolation over a longer period of time (it would be hard to determine how fast a language evolves as many complex factors are involved), when compared to Sr Lankan Tamil.
However, Tamil people have also lived in Sri Lanka for over a very long period of time, and they also have some words that are not used by Indian Tamils. For example, names with a –koon ending (like Gnanakoon) are not known from India. However, these names have even filtered into Sinhala names (like Tennakoon ect.). The grammar of Sri Lankan Tamil people is also distinct from that of Indian Tamils. This shows that isolation of the Sri Lankan Tamils from India have given rise to this.
All the natural languages in the world are closed systems, this means that you don’t need to go outside the rules of grammar of a given language to find explanations for meaningful statements that it can make. Grammar, in a given language, is a system in which words are put together to express something meaningful; contrary to popular belief, however in natural languages, grammar evolves a long time before writing, and most of the rules of grammar are based on speech/sound, rather than writing.
If grammar is based on sound/speech, can all of these languages use a single script to write in that language?! Yes in theory it can (we can write a Tamil sentence that is sounded out, using Sinhala letters right?), but the script must be flexible enough to write all these sounds effectively. Ancient Brahmi script was used to write in many languages, it was the root script for most of contemporary scripts in the Asian region, including surprisingly even perhaps Korean (Brahmi script also is the basis for the alphabetical order for Japanese Kana). However, some of the sounds, for example that you find in Sanskrit, cannot be written using Brahmi script, so another slightly different system developed, which is called Prakrit (but even for Prakrit, the roots are in Brahmi script). However, I should mention, despite this short coming, that early Sanskrit has also been written in Brahmi script.
It is pertinent to talk a little bit about King Asoka and his inscriptions, as he greatly influenced the establishment of Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka. Asoka’s inscriptions were written in Prakrit, to be precise, Magadhi Prakrit. Some think that Pali (the language of Theravada Buddhism) and Maghadi Prakrit are the same. And when Mahinda Thero, Asoka’s son who introduced Buddha Dharma to Sri Lanka during the reign of King Devanampiyatissa, he also introduced Pali to Sri Lanka. Though Pali was not significantly absorbed into Sinhala, the Sinhalese lay people maintain the Pali language as a religious oral tradition in the form of Buddhist gathas and sutras, and currently write and perpetuate these in Sinhala script.
The earliest inscriptions in Sri Lanka, before the evolution of the Sinhala script, are in Brahmi script; and both Sinhala and Tamil scripts evolved from this. Sinhala adopted a more circular style (some argue that this style was easier to be written on Palm leaves -Thalpath- without damaging them) the origin of this again occurred in Sri Lanka and Tamil script evolved into a more angular style, and the origin was in Southern India. (At a time when we are only talking about differences, I thought I should highlight what we share).
According to William Geiger, some of the unique sounds that are not seen in Indo-Aryan or Dravidian languages arose in Sinhala during the 6th century AD. And these sounds were accommodated in its script, which had at this point evolved very close to its present form. Sri Lankan Tamil people, possibly very recently, perhaps due to the influence of mass media, have slightly adopted these sounds, but most still cannot pronounce these sounds. However, it is not present in their written grammar, as Tamil script cannot accommodate these sounds. So again we see a recent attempt by Sri Lankan Tamil people to adopt these Sinhala sounds, even when their script does not really allow it.
Considering that language is one of the causes for the ethnic tension between the two groups, it is high time that both ethnicities in Sri Lanka work together, enjoying the common origins that we share, appreciating things that we don’t share, and respecting the attempts at integration of some of the unique features of these languages. This is the best way to prevent terrorist groups like the LTTE that play to the lower instincts of people from gaining a foot hold in our Sri Lankan society.
This is a rewrite of one of my brief notes that appeared here. The bloggers Wijayapala, ReallyCold and Swarnajith Udana are acknowledged for highlighting a couple of issues that needed to be clarified.
Showing posts with label Asoka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asoka. Show all posts
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Smart extremists know when to give up
Author: Rover
Throughout history, various violent extremists have been in positions of power or have tried to achieve positions of power, but of these, the smarter ones knew when to give up, they knew when to strategize. Here I will take two examples to depict a success and failure, of two extremists, from our own region, and try to illustrate this point; while briefly describing the repercussions of these to Sri Lanka.
King Asoka (2nd century B.C.) inherited a huge kingdom through succession, from King Bindusara (his father) and king Chandragupta (his grandfather). Chandragupta’s Maurya kingdom extended from present day Afghanistan to Mysore (in India); some of the most Westerly parts of this kingdom were wrestled away from even one of Alexander the Great’s most ablest generals Seleucus, highlighting the Indian king’s adeptness at waging war. Asoka during his early tenure adopted an expansionist scheme, to further the borders of his Maurya kingdom; his greatest war was with the massive state of Kalinga (present day Orissa), a bloody battle that left thousands of civilians and soldiers dead.
Asoka’s war with Raja Padmanaphan (king of Kalinga) was thought to have been fought on the Dhauli hills that borders Daya river, and when the war ended, legend says that the river ran red from the blood of slain 100,000 Kalinga Deshis (civilians and soldiers) and 10,000 of Asoka’s soldiers. Nevertheless, this was a great triumph for Asoka as even his grandfather (Chandragupta) had not been able to annex the Kalinga desha, despite waging an earlier war. So king Asoka was a violent extremists, who went to extreme measures to annex a kingdom that his predecessors failed to win over. However, soon after the Kalinga war was won he changed completely; this was his culmination point (“Culmination point” is also a term that Clausewitz introduced, in his book “On War”).
Though Asoka had become a Buddhist just prior to the Kalinga war, he only became pious in this order after associating Sangha (Buddhist clergy). This association changed him completely and led to the formation of the FIRST Buddhist state in the world. He not only gave up violence, but encouraged other states (Antiochnus Syria, Ptolemy of Egypt, Antigonus of Macedon, Magas of Cyrene, Alexander of Epirus, Kingdom of Chola and Pandyans and Thambapanni – Ceylon or Sri Lanka) to do so. His system of morality is called Dharma (Dharma included ideas such as proper treatment and liberality towards relations, friends, gurus of other religions, companions, servants, poor and the unfortunate; gentleness, saintliness, devotion to morality; prevention of cruelty to animals; and moderation in spending ect.) and the formulation of Dharma helped Buddhism to become a universal religion. To make sure that Dharma reached all people, he formed Dharma Mahamatras (ministers) who spread the message. He also initiated Dharma Yatra, to visit far off places that were significant to Buddhists and Buddhism. He prohibited killing animals, especially on Buddhist Uposath days (full moon or Poya days). He also formed a welfare system for the people and beasts. All in all, he helped his own people and the whole world in general (especially Sri Lanka) by giving up his extremist ways and actively spreading the message of Dharma.
Velupillai Prabhakaran is also an extremist, but who didn’t know when to give up, and this has brought about his demise, together with the demise of the people that he aimed to represent. Unlike King Asoka, Prabhakaran does not have a succession worth speaking of, as a teenager he was an ordinary boy who extraordinarily dropped out of school (a high school dropout may sound like nothing much for a person living in the West, but it is a big deal for someone in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans -both the Sinhala and Tamil people- care enormously about their education, this is what they strive to do more than anything else). Then he got interested in Tamil nationalistic politics and formed a violent organization called the Tamil New Tigers (1973) and later changed it to Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelaam (LTTE), these organizations he formed and nourished explicitly to fight for a small stretch of Sri Lanka which they call Eelaam; due to the unconventional tactics use in this fighting, LTTE is now infamous as a terrorist organization. His violent war with the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) over the past 30 years has left more than 75,000 Sri Lankans dead.
The culminating point at which Praphabhakaran should have given up terrorism was when he signed the peace agreement (CFA – Cease Fire Agreement in year 2002) with Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe (then prime minister of Sri Lanka, who is now the leader of the opposition). The CFA gave LTTE a vast area of land to rule, together with several other attractive perks (such as cessation of aerial bombardment and the naval, and right of self-administration, to name just a few, which the government didn’t gain anything out of, but yielded to the efforts of the LTTE). One of the modalities of the ceasefire is so ridiculous that I still sit down and think when I read it: “Modality 1.3 The Sri Lankan armed forces shall continue to perform their legitimate task of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka without engaging in offensive operations against the LTTE.”. However, the Prabhakaran did not realize this, and did all he could to violate the CFA; not stopping at that, he actively used terrorists tactics to prevent a democratic election being held in Sri Lanka, resulting in the defeat of Ranil W. - this was Prabhakaran’s Waterloo.
Sometime after President Mahinda Rajapakse came into power, the LTTE actively engaged him into an all out war in 2007. However, the “unity of effort”(again a Clausewitz principle) between the political entity and the armed forces led to the defeat of the LTTE, which is as I write is restricted to a very small area in Wanni. The whereabouts of LTTE chief remains unknown and it is believed that he may have fled to another country.
The people under the LTTE also suffered much; and in general Sri Lanka’s economy also didn’t do as well as it should have perform. The brief respite the civilians of Wanni had under the CFA was soon over and Prabhakaran did all that he could to terrorize the civilians (taxation, forced recruitment for military and other duties, use as human shields, use as suicide bombers and to support their operations, ect.). All this happened because the LTTE supporting Tamil diaspora put all their eggs in the Velupillai Prabhakaran basket. A basket that held an illiterate, bigoted imbecile, who did not know that he had already got what he had been fighting for, several years ago!
In conclusion, a smart Indian king (who was once an extremist) enormously helped Sri Lanka in defining its moral and spiritual background while a bigoted mindless extremist fool of a Sri Lankan has pulled us all down into a pit where it will be hard for us to clamor out of.
Throughout history, various violent extremists have been in positions of power or have tried to achieve positions of power, but of these, the smarter ones knew when to give up, they knew when to strategize. Here I will take two examples to depict a success and failure, of two extremists, from our own region, and try to illustrate this point; while briefly describing the repercussions of these to Sri Lanka.
King Asoka (2nd century B.C.) inherited a huge kingdom through succession, from King Bindusara (his father) and king Chandragupta (his grandfather). Chandragupta’s Maurya kingdom extended from present day Afghanistan to Mysore (in India); some of the most Westerly parts of this kingdom were wrestled away from even one of Alexander the Great’s most ablest generals Seleucus, highlighting the Indian king’s adeptness at waging war. Asoka during his early tenure adopted an expansionist scheme, to further the borders of his Maurya kingdom; his greatest war was with the massive state of Kalinga (present day Orissa), a bloody battle that left thousands of civilians and soldiers dead.
Asoka’s war with Raja Padmanaphan (king of Kalinga) was thought to have been fought on the Dhauli hills that borders Daya river, and when the war ended, legend says that the river ran red from the blood of slain 100,000 Kalinga Deshis (civilians and soldiers) and 10,000 of Asoka’s soldiers. Nevertheless, this was a great triumph for Asoka as even his grandfather (Chandragupta) had not been able to annex the Kalinga desha, despite waging an earlier war. So king Asoka was a violent extremists, who went to extreme measures to annex a kingdom that his predecessors failed to win over. However, soon after the Kalinga war was won he changed completely; this was his culmination point (“Culmination point” is also a term that Clausewitz introduced, in his book “On War”).
Though Asoka had become a Buddhist just prior to the Kalinga war, he only became pious in this order after associating Sangha (Buddhist clergy). This association changed him completely and led to the formation of the FIRST Buddhist state in the world. He not only gave up violence, but encouraged other states (Antiochnus Syria, Ptolemy of Egypt, Antigonus of Macedon, Magas of Cyrene, Alexander of Epirus, Kingdom of Chola and Pandyans and Thambapanni – Ceylon or Sri Lanka) to do so. His system of morality is called Dharma (Dharma included ideas such as proper treatment and liberality towards relations, friends, gurus of other religions, companions, servants, poor and the unfortunate; gentleness, saintliness, devotion to morality; prevention of cruelty to animals; and moderation in spending ect.) and the formulation of Dharma helped Buddhism to become a universal religion. To make sure that Dharma reached all people, he formed Dharma Mahamatras (ministers) who spread the message. He also initiated Dharma Yatra, to visit far off places that were significant to Buddhists and Buddhism. He prohibited killing animals, especially on Buddhist Uposath days (full moon or Poya days). He also formed a welfare system for the people and beasts. All in all, he helped his own people and the whole world in general (especially Sri Lanka) by giving up his extremist ways and actively spreading the message of Dharma.
Velupillai Prabhakaran is also an extremist, but who didn’t know when to give up, and this has brought about his demise, together with the demise of the people that he aimed to represent. Unlike King Asoka, Prabhakaran does not have a succession worth speaking of, as a teenager he was an ordinary boy who extraordinarily dropped out of school (a high school dropout may sound like nothing much for a person living in the West, but it is a big deal for someone in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans -both the Sinhala and Tamil people- care enormously about their education, this is what they strive to do more than anything else). Then he got interested in Tamil nationalistic politics and formed a violent organization called the Tamil New Tigers (1973) and later changed it to Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelaam (LTTE), these organizations he formed and nourished explicitly to fight for a small stretch of Sri Lanka which they call Eelaam; due to the unconventional tactics use in this fighting, LTTE is now infamous as a terrorist organization. His violent war with the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) over the past 30 years has left more than 75,000 Sri Lankans dead.
The culminating point at which Praphabhakaran should have given up terrorism was when he signed the peace agreement (CFA – Cease Fire Agreement in year 2002) with Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe (then prime minister of Sri Lanka, who is now the leader of the opposition). The CFA gave LTTE a vast area of land to rule, together with several other attractive perks (such as cessation of aerial bombardment and the naval, and right of self-administration, to name just a few, which the government didn’t gain anything out of, but yielded to the efforts of the LTTE). One of the modalities of the ceasefire is so ridiculous that I still sit down and think when I read it: “Modality 1.3 The Sri Lankan armed forces shall continue to perform their legitimate task of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka without engaging in offensive operations against the LTTE.”. However, the Prabhakaran did not realize this, and did all he could to violate the CFA; not stopping at that, he actively used terrorists tactics to prevent a democratic election being held in Sri Lanka, resulting in the defeat of Ranil W. - this was Prabhakaran’s Waterloo.
Sometime after President Mahinda Rajapakse came into power, the LTTE actively engaged him into an all out war in 2007. However, the “unity of effort”(again a Clausewitz principle) between the political entity and the armed forces led to the defeat of the LTTE, which is as I write is restricted to a very small area in Wanni. The whereabouts of LTTE chief remains unknown and it is believed that he may have fled to another country.
The people under the LTTE also suffered much; and in general Sri Lanka’s economy also didn’t do as well as it should have perform. The brief respite the civilians of Wanni had under the CFA was soon over and Prabhakaran did all that he could to terrorize the civilians (taxation, forced recruitment for military and other duties, use as human shields, use as suicide bombers and to support their operations, ect.). All this happened because the LTTE supporting Tamil diaspora put all their eggs in the Velupillai Prabhakaran basket. A basket that held an illiterate, bigoted imbecile, who did not know that he had already got what he had been fighting for, several years ago!
In conclusion, a smart Indian king (who was once an extremist) enormously helped Sri Lanka in defining its moral and spiritual background while a bigoted mindless extremist fool of a Sri Lankan has pulled us all down into a pit where it will be hard for us to clamor out of.
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