Search results
People also ask
Is Tamil a language?
Who are the Indian Tamils?
Where did Tamil language come from?
Where do Tamils live in India?
Most Tamils in India live in the state of Tamil Nadu. Tamils are the majority in the union territory of Puducherry, a former French colony. Puducherry is a subnational enclave situated within Tamil Nadu. Tamils account for at least one-sixth of the population in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. [citation needed]
- 237,890 (2021)
- 1,800,000
- 69,026,881 (2011)
- 3,135,770 (2012)
3 days ago · The Tamil area in India is a centre of traditional Hinduism. Tamil schools of personal religious devotion ( bhakti) have long been important in Hinduism, being enshrined in a literature dating back to the 6th century ce. Buddhism and Jainism were widespread among the Tamil, and these religions’ literatures predate the early bhakti literature ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
May 13, 2024 · Tamil language, member of the Dravidian language family, spoken primarily in India. It is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is also an official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore and has additional speakers in Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, and South Africa.
- Bhadriraju Krishnamurti
- Introduction
- Location and Homeland
- Language
- Folklore
- Religion
- Major Holidays
- Rites of Passage
- Interpersonal Relations
- Living Conditions
- Family Life
The Tamil are a people of southern India, speaking the Tamil language and unified by a common culture. Their name is derived from "Damila," the name of an ancient, warlike non-Aryan people mentioned in early Buddhist and Jain records. The Tamil language is Dravidian in origin, with its roots in western India, Pakistan, and areas farther to the west...
The 2001 census records 62,405,679 persons in Tamil Nadu, of which some 60.8 million belonged to the Tamil people. In addition, there are about one million Tamils in Pondicherry and another 5 million elsewhere in India. Allowing for population growth, there are currently an estimated 71 million Tamils in India. Th is figure does not include the nea...
Tamil is the language of the Tamil people. It belongs to the Dravidian language family and is considered by Tamils to be the "purest" of the Dravidian tongues. Several regional dialects (e.g., Pandya, Chola, Kangu) are spoken in the area, and the Tamil spoken in northern Sri Lanka may also be considered a dialect of this language. Different forms o...
A figure highly venerated in South India is the sage (rishi) Agastya. According to legend, all the sages once assembled in the Himalayas. Such was the weight of their wisdom that the earth started to sink. The sages asked Agastya, who was heavier than the rest, to go south so that the earth could rise to its original position. Agastya took with him...
Tamils are mostly Hindus, although there are some Tamil Muslims and Christians. Hindus follow the rites and practices of the Hindu religion. Devout persons of all castes perform daily prayers (puja) at home or in the temple. Shiva is the most important deity, although Vishnu and other Brahmanic gods and their consorts are worshipped. Vinayaka, a fo...
Although Tamils celebrate the major Hindu festivals, the most important regional festival is Pongal. This three-day celebration falls in mid-January and marks the end of the rice harvest. It also coincides with the end of the northeast monsoon in South India. Newly harvested rice is ceremonially boiled in milk and offered to Surya, the sun god. On ...
Tamils have various superstitions that influence the behavior of a pregnant woman. For example, she is not supposed to cross a river or climb a hill during pregnancy. During the fifth or seventh month of her pregnancy, she is given bangles or bracelets, by her husband's family. After the baby is born, the mother and child are kept in seclusion for ...
Tamils use the typical Hindu namaskar, the joining of the palms of the hands in front of the body, as a sign of greeting and farewell. Expressions such as "please," "thank you," and "excuse me" are rarely used. This is not a sign of rudeness or impoliteness; it is just the custom. A typical welcome on the arrival of a visitor is a straightforward "...
Tamil villages are compact, either square or linear in shape, and often have a tributary hamlet where the untouchable castes live. Each village is built near, or around, a temple, with the priests (usually Brahmans) living close to it in areas known as agraharam. Other castes have their own distinct neighborhoods in the village. The village is like...
Tamil family relations are strongly influenced by the Dravidian emphasis on matrilineal ties, that is, links with the wife's relatives. Marriage between cousins is common, and the preferred match is with a man's mother's brother's daughter. In some castes, the marriage of a man to his sister's daughter is customary. Tamils marry within their caste....
Tamil culture is the culture of the Tamil people. The Tamil people speak the Tamil language, one of the ancient languages in the world. Archaeological evidence points to the Tamilakam region being inhabited for more than 400 millennia and has more than 5,500 years of continuous cultural history. Hence, the culture has seen multiple influences ...
The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar, Tamilians, or simply Tamils, are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, to the union territory of Puducherry, and to Sri Lanka. The Tamil language is one of the world's longest-surviving classical languages, with over 2000 years of Tamil literature ...
Tamil people, a Dravidian people from the Indian subcontinent, have a recorded history going back more than two millennia. [3] The oldest Tamil communities live in southern India and north-eastern Sri Lanka. A number of Tamil emigrant communities resided scattered around the world, especially in central Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Africa ...
