A Brief History of SumeroTamil

A Brief History Of SumeroTamil

The discovery that Sumerian is Archaic Tamil, in fact possibly the Tamil of First CaGkam is certainly the most momentous event in the history of not only the Tamils, but the whole of India. 

It is this discovery that is putting an end to Aryan Invasion Theory that was propounded and fostered by many Europeans more as a story of re-reading the past to present a glorious picture of the Europeans  even in the deep past. It is unfortunate that this theory was also allowed to flourish even in India especially among the Brahmanahs and other upper caste Hindus in the North, which led to the  neglect and marginalization of Tamil literature culture and so forth.

With the discovery of Sumerian as Archaic Tamil and the study of the large number of literary texts already made available by the archaeologists, we can see Agamic Hinduism with its worship of Siva Tirumaal Ambal Muruka and so forth as ALREADY present in a matured form in Sumeria, the ancient Iraq of more than four thousand years ago,  which was also a TEMPLE centered culture. 

Thus Agamic Hinduism goes to the beginnings of civilization itself. 

It also emerges that the language Rig Veda-   Rigkrit, and hence Sanskrit is also another variant of this SumeroTamil and hence perhaps the whole range of languages in India are basically Tamil! I have shown that Pali is such though not  extensively  yet.

I have been studying the Sumerian language and literature for the last 25 years and have published many articles to support my claim. I have also written many SumeroTamil texts with commentaries in both Tamil and English.

The time has come for these books and essays to be collected together and published as hardcover books for the general public especially the youths. I am full of hope that some publishers will soon volunteer and make all these studies better known among the Tamil public so that they understand the real essence of their culture and religion and how influential it has been in shaping the world civilizations.

  

I provide below a rough history of SumeroTamil for the benefit of those scholars who want to have a bird’s eye view of the matter.

My knowledge of Sumerian is secondary and therefore the information I provide below is simply a summary of what I have learnt from Sumerian texts. I just provide some details. The corpus of Sumerian literature is enormous and stretches a period of three thousand years ( 4000 B.C to 1000 B.C) of which the classical period is said to be 3000 B.C to 2000 B.C. the time during which some of the great texts of outstanding merits were composed.

1. We have as the earliest written text Suruppak's NeRi that I am now posting with both Tamil and English commentaries. The earliest tablet is dated around 2500-2600 B.C. but probably composed several centuries earlier and perhaps survived as an oral text for long.

2. Then we have the writings of En Hudu Anna ( ~ 2200 B.C) the Sirbiyam, Kesi Koyil Paattu and numerous Hymns on Temples. The Kes Hymns and Sirbiyam are philosophically very profound and seem to contain the seed forms of the ideas that later matured as Saiva Siddhanta. Sirbiyam is also a Bakti text , very moving in fact.

3. We have then the Royal Hymns of Sulgi that number around 20 and of which the Murariibiyam (Hymn B) has been completed with Tamil commentary. 

4. During the same classical period we have the itikasa Gilgamesh, the Epic tales related to  Lugal Banda ( Pandiya?) , Studies of Dreams like Dumuzi's Mamu, the puraNaas related to the journeys of Inanna into nether world, many proverbs, dialogues and debates, scientific texts on astronomy and agriculture and so forth.

There are also many letters , commercial records, edicts of the famous Kings , catalogues of books in the libraries and so forth.Most of these are now available in the internet world

5. Subsequent to this and during the Old Babylonian period (~ 1800 B.C) we have many interesting incantation texts such as Er Semma (> Sembu vari), Udug Hul ( Odukku ol) and so forth that parallel in some ways the Atharva Veda and other Vedas. These mantra texts also contain the nuclear ideas of the latter siddha tradition in India. In fact the whole of Vedic hymns may be related to this corpus. I have made a detailed study of some of these and written a series of articles on "The Word Magic of the Sumerians" ( available in the archives of akandabaratam).

6. Now I also feel that Rigkrit , the language of Rig Veda is a later variant of SumeroTamil and where there is reference to the Sumerian Suruppak as Suuruppak. Considering the more evolved nature of Rk, it has to  be a later text and probably around 1500 Bc- 1000 BC. The Athrava Veda may be linked with the Sumerian Incantations texts that were composed during the Old Babylonian period ie. c 1800 BC. This remains to be studied more carefully.

7. During the whole of SumeroTamil literature there is NO VarNasrama Dharma being propounded and supported though individual differences are recognized and that any one can become the ur-sag ( caanRoon) and ulu-gula ( the Kuravan) the teacher. It is only in the later part of Rig Veda that you see VarNa concepts emerging with even agni being addressed as Brahamonoagni and so forth.

Such views are singularly absent in Tamil literature and in that has kept the philosophy of human equality of the Sumerians quite  alive.

Even Tolkaapiyam that mentions Antanar Vaiciyar as groupings of people also describes the Munaivan as one who enjoys understanding free of prejudices( Vinaiyin niiGki viLangkiya aRivu) implying thereby that anyone can become the Munivan and that it is NOT matter of birth but rather that of understanding.

8. Now with respect to Sumerian Prehistory, the studies of Egyptian the African Nubiyan Sub Saharan language and culture may be very relevant. Dr. Winters has done a lot of work in this direction.

I sincerely believe that the roots of Tamil and Indian past is contained in these texts and their neglect in Indological studies is surely to be regretted. 

This neglect may be because it goes counter to the Aryan Invasion Theory of some of Western Indologists who twisted and turned historical facts to establish the superiority of the Aryan Race.  An added reason may that the whole of Tamil literature goes against VarNasra Dharma that almost every Sanskrit literature supports directly or indirectly. 

I am glad to note that this view has been discredited by modern and more objective scholarship. I am glad also to note that many Indian scholars are slowly waking up to the enormous importance of SumeroTamil studies and through that understand the enormous contribution of the Tamil folks to world civilization.

Loganathan @ Ullaganar  

( the above was written in 2004, now there are more evidences to support this claim )