Portal:Tamils

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The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar (Tamil: தமிழர், romanized: Tamiḻar, pronounced [t̪amiɻaɾ] in the singular or தமிழர்கள், Tamiḻarkaḷ, [t̪amiɻaɾɡaɭ] in the plural), Tamilians, or simply Tamils (/ˈtæmɪlz, ˈtɑː-/ TAM-ilz, TAHM-), 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, including the Sangam poems, which were composed between 300 BCE and 300 CE. People who speak Tamil as their mother tongue and are born in are considered Tamils.

Tamils constitute 5.9% of the population in India (concentrated mainly in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry), 15% in Sri Lanka (excluding Eelam Moors), 7% in Malaysia, and 5% in Singapore.

From the 4th century BCE, urbanisation and mercantile activity along the western and eastern coasts of Tamilakam -- what is today Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- led to the development of four large Tamil empires, the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas, and velirs and a number of smaller states, all of whom were warring amongst themselves for dominance. The Jaffna Kingdom, and vanni chieftaincies inhabited by Eelam Tamils, was once one of the strongest kingdoms of Sri Lanka and controlled much of the north of the island. (Full article...)

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Mangulam Tamil-Brahmi inscription at Dakshin Chithra, Chennai. It was discovered by Robert Sewell in 1882, and deciphered by Subrahmanya Aiyer in 1924.

Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamili or Damili, was a variant of the Brahmi script in southern India. It was used to write inscriptions in the early form of Old Tamil. The Tamil-Brahmi script has been paleographically and stratigraphically dated between the third century BCE and the first century CE, and it constitutes the earliest known writing system evidenced in many parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka. Tamil Brahmi inscriptions have been found on cave entrances, stone beds, potsherds, jar burials, coins, seals, and rings.

Tamil Brahmi resembles but differs in several minor ways from the Brahmi inscriptions found elsewhere on the Indian subcontinent such as the Edicts of Ashoka found in Andhra Pradesh. It adds diacritics to several letters for sounds not found in Prakrit, producing ṉ ṟ ṛ ḷ. Secondly, in many of the inscriptions the inherent vowel has been discarded: A consonant written without diacritics represents the consonant alone, whereas the Ashokan diacritic for long ā is used for both ā and short a in Tamil-Brahmi. This is unique to Tamil-Brahmi and Bhattiprolu among the early Indian scripts. Tamil-Brahmi does not, however, share the odd forms of letters such as gh in Bhattiprolu. This appears to be an adaptation to Dravidian phonotactics, where words commonly end in consonants, as opposed to Prakrit, where this never occurs. According to Mahadevan, in the earliest stages of the script the inherent vowel was either abandoned, as above, or the bare consonant was ambiguous as to whether it implied a short a or not. Later stages of Tamil Brahmi returned to the inherent vowel that was the norm in ancient India. (Full article...)

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General images

Image 1Katar, Tamil dagger which was popular throughout South Asia (from Tamils)
Image 2Sage Agathiyar, one of the contributors of Old Tamil literature. (from Tamils)
Image 3Distribution of Tamil speakers in South India and Sri Lanka (1981). (from Tamils)
Image 4Sri Kamakshi Ambaal temple in Hamm, Germany (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 5A 400 years old hero stone in Salem depicting bull-taming sport Jallikattu. (from Tamils)
Image 6Expatriate Sri Lankan Tamil children in traditional clothes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 7Aiyanar, guardian folk deity of Tamil Nadu (from Tamils)
Image 8A Malbar temple in Réunion. (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 9The Brihadeshswar Temple at Thanjavur, also known as the Great Temple, built by Rajaraja Chola I (from Tamils)
Image 10Two Tamil girls who follow Vaishnavaite Hinduism (from Tamils)
Image 11The golden Vimana over the sanctum at Srirangam midst its gopurams, its gable with Paravasudeva image. (from Tamils)
Image 12Grey pottery with engravings, Arikamedu, 1st century CE (from Tamils)
Image 13Batu Caves temple built by Tamil Malaysians in c. 1880s. (from Tamils)
Image 14Erwadi durgah in Ramanathapuram district is a major pilgrimage shrine of the Tamil Muslims. (from Tamils)
Image 15Bharatanatyam dancers (from Tamils)
Image 16Megalithic sarcophagus burial from Tamil Nadu (from Tamils)
Image 17Celebrations of Murugan by the Sri Lankan Tamil community in Paris, France (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 18A Megalithic burial jar from north-western Sri Lanka, 5th-2nd century BCE, similar to South Indian and Deccan jars of the time. (from Tamils)
Image 19Sri Kandaswamy Temple, Brickfields, Malaysia. (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 20Krishna with his consorts Rukmini and Satyabhama and his mount Garuda, Tamil Nadu, India, late 12th-13th century (from Tamils)
Image 21The hall in front of Ranganayaki's shrine, Srirangam, where Kambar is said to have recited his works on Kamba Ramayanam (from Tamils)
Image 22Tamil girls in Malaysia (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 23Tamil people in Medan, Indonesia (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 24Meenakshi Amman temple, dedicated to Goddess Meenakshi, tutelary deity of Madurai city (from Tamils)
Image 25 Map of ancient oceanic trade, and ports of Tamilakam (from Tamils)
Image 26One of the most popular overseas branches of Chennai-based Saravanaa Bhavan, the world's largest Indian vegetarian restaurant chain, is located in Edison, New Jersey, U.S. (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 27Tamil girls dressed in traditional attire, ca. 1870, Tamil Nadu, India. (from Tamils)
Image 28The Mahishasuramardhini cave bas relief at Mahabalipuram from 7th century CE (from Tamils)
Image 29Tamiḻakam during Sangam Period (from Tamils)
Image 30The New York City Metropolitan Area, including Central New Jersey, as well as Long Island and Staten Island in New York, is home to the largest Tamil American population. (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 31 Virampatnam jewelry from funerary burial, 2nd century BCE, Tamil Nadu (from Tamils)
Image 32Tamil woman in traditional attire, c. 1880, Sri Lanka. (from Tamils)
Image 33The Om symbol in Tamil script (from Tamils)
Image 34 Souttoukeny jewelry, 2nd century BCE, Tamil Nadu (from Tamils)
Image 35Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Velankanni, Tamil Nadu (from Tamils)
Image 36Murugan Temple, Sydney (from Tamil diaspora)
Image 37The Tamil Chola Empire at its height, 1030 CE (from Tamils)

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Velupillai Prabhakaran (listen (US English); Tamil: வேலுப்பிள்ளை பிரபாகரன்; [ˈʋeːlɯpːiɭːaɪ pɾaˈbaːhaɾan]; 26 November 1954 – 18 May 2009) was an Eelam Tamil revolutionary. Prabhakaran was a major figure of Tamil nationalism, and the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE was a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka in reaction to the oppression of the country's Tamil population by the Sri Lankan government. Under his direction, the LTTE undertook a military campaign against the Sri Lankan government for more than 25 years.

Prabhakaran was the youngest of four children, born in Valvettithurai, on Sri Lanka's Jaffna peninsula's northern coast. Considered the heart of Tamil culture and literature in Sri Lanka, Jaffna was concentrated with growing Tamil nationalism, which called for autonomy for Tamils to protest the discrimination against them by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government and Sinhalese civilians since the country's independence from the United Kingdom in 1948. (Full article...)

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Topics

Tamil People

Tamil People Countrywide: India • Sri Lanka • Canada • Malaysia • Singapore • South Africa • England

Related Ethnic Groups: Brahui • Gond • Kannadiga • Khonds • Kodava • Oraon • Malayali • Telugus • Tuluvas

Related indigenous Groups: Badagas • Toda • Kuruba

Tamil Nadu

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