Which of these qualify as a classical language?
Around 2004,the politics of according classical language status made its presence felt for the first time in the national polity. The DMK chief,M. Karunanidhi,drove a hard bargain with the UPA to declare Tamil as one,in return for precious numbers he brought in to the coalition. In an interview,Karunanidhi said that the classical stamp on Tamil from the Government of India could prompt the UNESCO to give it the same tag. That would qualify Tamil,along with other classical languages,to be interred in a time capsule by the UNESCO.
To embed his language in the future is a dream worthy of a litterateur like Karunanidhi. But there was a glitch in the details. The UNESCO had pretty much kept away from explosive issues linked with linguistic pride. They do not maintain a scroll of classical languages,neither do they have a set of criteria to measure classicalness. In 2007,in response to a query from V.C. Kulandaiswamy,vice chairman of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil,the UNESCO said as much,and more. They felt it is a matter which is beyond UNESCOs mandate.
When the Tamil Nadu governments representation for classical language status reached Delhi,the situation was not different. Political expediency called for immediate action and the paper was passed on to the Sahitya Akademi. An expert committee constituted by its chairman was quick to note that the criteria for defining a classical language are not mentioned anywhere. But abstracting the standard features of what are universally accepted as Classical Languages (such as Sanskrit,Latin and Greek),it was agreed that following criteria be applied in the case of such designation henceforth.
The four criteria arrived at were consistent with the broad understanding of the phrase,classical language. One,high antiquity of the literature and a recorded history of over 1,500 to 2,000 years. Two,a body of ancient texts that have heritage value. Three,the literary tradition should not be derivative; it should be original and not borrowed from another speech community. Four,the classical language and literature should be distinct from the modern,and there could be a hiatus between the classical language and its extant variants. In other words,classical languages are dead.
Soon after Tamil was declared classical by the government,the temperature of competitive classicism rose in south India. Telugu and Kannada subsequently bagged the prefix. Malayalams initial application,forwarded during the Lefts tenure,was rejected,ostensibly for not meeting the criteria. Finally,after several rounds of PowerPoint presentations,tweaking of guidelines and high-level political lobbying,Ambika Soni did Malayalis at least some of them proud by successfully piloting the proposal in the Union cabinet,and let in the fourth member of the Dravidian language family into the classical fold.
Central to the idea of a classical language is that it is a body of literature relating to a particular period. Which period of Malayalam literature will be named classical is not known yet. If we are to surmise that the label is for the language itself,including the robustly thriving 21st-century Malayalam,then it becomes a case of cynically wrong categorisation in an election season.
Malayalams strengths are its eclectic and catholic traditions. Shorn of false linguistic pride,which is now being foisted on its speakers,the language had welcomed words from a wide spectrum of tongues,from Sanskrit to Syriac. When Thunchath Ezhuthachan (circa1495 – circa1575),regarded as the father of modern Malayalam literature,was writing Adhyatma Ramayanam,the Portuguese had already started making forts on the Malabar coast. The period saw a fresh infusion of words into the language from Portuguese,and later,from the Dutch.
The present-day Malayalam script was also popularised by Ezhuthachan. But that was not the only way Malayalam was written. Sheik Sainuddin,a contemporary of Ezhuthachan,wrote about life and times in the Malabar in Arabi-Malayalam,using the Arabic script. In the oral tradition,Chinna Thampi Annavi,the great librettist of coastal Christian theatre,chavittunatakam,narrated the legends of Charlemagne in a language that was predominantly Tamil,with a sprinkling of Aramaic and Latin. Archives of Malayalam written in Syriac,which are now receiving academic attention,are available in churches. Which of these Malayalams is classical?
Proponents of Malayalams classical status are quick to point out an immediate and direct benefit,a grant of Rs. 100 crore flowing from it no apparent seeking of eternity here,like Karunanidhi. This reminds me of an 18th-century Malayalam ditty by the great humorist,Kunchan Nambiar. At the inaugural function of a much-admired lighthouse constructed by the Maharajah of Travancore,he is credited to have said,The lighthouse is the greatest wonder/Now I should get money. The money is welcome for the fund-starved language. As for classical status,better fictions are available in modern Malayalam.
Madhavan is a noted Malayalam writer
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