Understanding the 'Tamizh' in the Tamil

Tamil Customs & Beliefs

INTRODUCTION
Civilisation often implies the external and visible marks/symbols, understood with reference to the material achievements, articles of daily use, inclusive of the dress and jewels- evolved to suit the environment and depending on the availability of sources, combined with the organising abilities of people at a given time and in a given place.

Culture is always with reference to the values cherished, the ideals and ideas evolved, the attitudes and aspirations of the people at a given period of time and place. Thus culture is internal. Culture manifests in a variety of ways such as belief systems and customs and traditions followed.

Thus culture is basically mental and spiritual. Culture is complementary to civilisation. All civilised people need not be equally cultured. Cultured people are always civilised. Yet all educated people need not be cultured.

Each and every race has its own individual behaviour and customs. These can be revealed from their activities, games, recreation, social and political actions. In the following pages, Tamil Civilisation and Culture in its day to day life is examined.

It is now universally acknowledged that Tamil Culture has a long antiquity. Many of the ancient Tamil customs are still in practice. Some of them have undergone changes. A few have become extinct. Most of the customs can be traced from literatures, inscriptions, from the folklore and so on. For convenience the daily life can be divided in to the beginning of the day, bathing, dressing food etc.

BEGINNING OF THE DAY

Getting up early before the Sunrise is a must for the Tamils.
This is followed still in all rural parts and by a majority in the urban areas. Avvaiyar in her didactic poem the AATHICHUDI, advised the children and youth to get up before the day break.

The first thing one does after waking up was to clean the entrance of the House, by sprinkling the cow dung mixed water. Then the floor is decorated with ornamental figures called the done with the rice flour mix. On occasions it is mixed with water to make a paste and used in combination with a red coloured paste. () Now days lime powder or white stone powder is normally used. Only on special and festive occasions do people practice the art in the true form.

Bharathiar, the revolutionary patriot poet of Tamilaham whose writings and thoughts inaugurated Renaissance Movement in Tamil Society and Tamil Language and Literature, hailed these daily morning routine of the women at Home in the celebrated poem 'Kudumba Vilakku,' The Tamils start their daily life with external cleanliness processes.

Temples were constructed in vicinity of the local pond. People started the day by having their daily ritual bath here, and proceeded to the temple to offer their prayers. Turmeric and oil were used by men and women alike as a part of the cleansing process. Women washed their hair on Tuesdays and Fridays and the men on Wednesdays and Saturdays (which was based on the lunar movements).Shikakai – a powder made from medicinal herbs was used to wash the hair. The bathing styles have changed through time, from common bathrooms, to ones in the backyard, and ones in the home. Today the fad of using turmeric has faded away, owing to the distinct colour it leaves on the skin.

MODE OF DRESSING

Dress forms an important part of study in understanding the quality of life and civilisation of a people. It depends on people's mental and physical requirements, age-old customs, and climatic conditions of a country.The arid temperature in Tamil Nadu makes cotton the most preferable fabric. Tamil nadu even today has the largest number of handloom weavers owing to this. However silk that came from China through trade gained popularity and with passage of time became customary to wear silk saris on festivals and occasions.

With the advent of industrialisation synthetic fabric found its way into the state and the tamil household. The influence of movies, other regional clothing changed the look of the average Tamilian. The Salwar Kameez, Bell bottomed pants , printed synthetic stripes made their impact on different style periods of Tamil Nadu. New clothes were customary for occasions and festivals. Like all things good and new, the clothes too were first offered to the gods by applying a tika in sandalwood. Through time, the clothing is highly westernised or ‘north indianised’. Today, the identity of the sari as the attire of the south Indian is being replaced with these.

WIDOW'S DRESS

It has been the practice to avoid the white garments by the young maiden and by the married women as it is considered the widow's dress. Some widows wear red colour instead of the white. Due tot he spirit of enquiry that has characterised the era of Tamil Literary Renaissance in the forties and fifties has resulted in the decline of this practice even in rural areas. Today the widows either wear pale coloured saris or white saris with borders. The bindi with which we identify with married woman are generally avoided by widows even today.

FASCINATION FOR FLOWERS

Tamils have given much importance for bodily adornment right through the ages. Flowers and Jewels had the supremacy in all ages. There are references in the classical texts to this practice equally by men. All parts of the body such as hands. Body, head were decked with flowers and decorated with jewellery.
specific flowers used for adornment used as garlands. There are references to garments made of leaves. There is no function without flowers whether it is a happy or sad one. Women adore their tresses with flowers even now. As flowers are considered as auspicious, they are used while leaving home to visit Temples, of relatives or friends. Visiting women guests are offered flowers, in particular when they take leave from their hosts. Flowers are carried to places of worship, taken to the Homes of friends and relatives even during formal/casual visits.

ADORNMENT WITH JEWELS

The ornaments used by men and women include Toti, Rings, Kalal, Chain etc. Women bedecked their bodies with a variety of ornaments. In his Silappadikaram, Ilango describes the jewellery adorned by Madhavi from head to foot. Gold is still widely used and is worn as a symbol of wealth. The more the gold, the richer the family of the woman. The jewels were considered an essential part of any woman’s dressing which also served as security for dire needs. Even the dowry given by the girl’s father is mostly gold. Gold is offered to gods and purchased on special occasions.

COLLYRIUM

The Tamil women have also other ways of adding to their beauty. From the very early days the habit of putting Collyrium to the eye is very familiar. (Kanmai.)

HAIR STYLES

The Indus Valley believed to be of the Dravidian origin, through various finds such as seals, terracotta figurines, bronze mirror etc, throw light on the existence of 400 different hair styles.

Tamil classics refer to the practice of applying the vapour of the eagle wood and other such thing fragrances to the hair by the Tamil women. The hair oils were also mixed with sever types of herbal perfumes.Different styles of hair dresses are found to have been used in

Length of the hair which was once considered a beauty trait has seen transistion.Women with the passage of time have adopted short hair as a part of their lifestyle. However the ‘poo pinnal’ which is a flower arrangement stitched on to palm leaves, is still used on family occasions (which is slowly loosing its identity).

USE OF SANDAL PASTE

Both men and women gave importance in those days to the smearing the bodies with the sandal paste. The residue of this custom has been found in important functions, festivals and among the prosperous using during the hot summer days. Sandalwood is used in religious ceremonies and hence has spiritual overtones. It is smeared on the forehead while offering prayers and is believed to cool the body’s temperature. Even offerings to the Gods are made with sandalwood paste.

USE OF HENNA LEAF PASTE (marudhani)

Applying henna on the hands and feet was part of the tradition and was in vogue for a very long time. Unlike the north of India where designs were drawn, here it was used more for its scientific properties than its aesthetic. Hence the henna was applied as caps for the fingers and a circle in the centre of the palm. This however had a charm of its own and is still considered a south Indian aesthetic.

USE OF KUMKUM.(kungumam.)

Another important custom is to have Kumkum on the fore head. Like the use of flowers this too is also considered very auspicious. Along with the Turmeric paste(Manjal, ) it is offered as a blessing in particular to the married women (Sumangalis.). From early times the widows are deprived this privilege of using Turmeric, Kumkum and Flowers. Kumkum, or the modern version of it, the bindi is considered to be a part of the South Indian aesthetic even today. All south Indian girls (hindu and even Christian protestants) consider the bindi as a part of their attire. This was the identity of a south Indian anywhere in India until recently. However this has changed and the bindi is spotted only when traditional attire is worn (usually weddings and occasions)

KOLAM is a decorative design drawn in a variety of sandpainting using rice powder by female members of the family in front of their home, especially near the threshold. It is widely practised by Hindus in South India. A Kolam is a sort of painted prayer -- a line drawing composed of curved loops, drawn around a grid pattern of dots. They are generally symmetric.

Kolams are thought to bestow prosperity to the homes. For special occasions limestone and red brick powder to contrast are also used. Though kolams are usually done with dry rice flour, for longevity, dilute rice paste or even paints are also used. Modern interpretations have accommodated chalk, and the latest "technology" in kolams are actually vinyl stickers (that defeat the original purpose).
Every morning before sunrise, the floor is cleaned with water, the universal purifier, and the muddy floor is swept well for an even surface. The kolams are generally drawn while the surface is still damp so that it is held better. Occasionally, cow-dung is also used to wax the floors. Cow dung has antiseptic properties and hence provides a literal threshold of protection for the home. It also provides contrast with the white powder.

PURPOSE OF KOLAM
Decoration was not the sole purpose of a Kolam. In olden days, kolams used to be drawn in coarse rice flour, so that the ants don't have to work so hard for a meal. The rice powder is said to invite birds and other small critters to eat it, thus inviting other beings into one's home and everyday life: a daily tribute to harmonious co-existence. It is a sign of invitation to welcome all into the home, not the least of whom is Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity. The patterns range between geometric and mathematical line drawings around a matrix of dots to free form art work and closed shapes. Folklore has evolved to mandate that the lines must be completed so as to symbolically prevent evil spirits from entering the inside of the shapes, and thus are they prevented from entering the inside of the home.

HEALTH AND KOLAM
Not to be underestimated is the benefits for the artist to bend down each morning - it is said to help her digestive system, reproductive organs and to help overall stretching of the body. Kolam requires the artist to be well focussed and improves the concentration with which the artist begins her day.
It used to be a matter of pride to be able to draw large complicated patterns without lifting the hand off the floor (or unbending to stand up). The month of "Margazhi" was eagerly awaited by young women, who would then showcase their skills by covering the entire width of the road with one big kolam. It was indeed a test of mastery, as one cannot repeat a pattern for 30 days.
When people get married, the ritual kolam patterns created for the occasion can stretch all the way down the street. Patterns are often passed on generation-to-generation, mother to daughter.

FOOD HABITS

VEGETARIAN: Generally food habits reveal the civilisation and culture of a people. Rice has always been the main(staple,) diet of the Tamils through the ages. Seated on the mat spread on the floor is the normal custom to eat their food. A variety of greens are consumed a part of their vegetarian diet. The Plantain and the Mango are the popular fruits forming as part of the daily food. ( Mangoes in seasons only.) Eating in the plantain leaves is an important Tamilcustom to this day. In Sangam age teak wood leaf was also used for this purpose. On special and festive occasions and while honoured guests are expected, plantain leaves become a compulsory part of the treat.

Sangam people consumed a variety of food items such as rice of water lily, flattened rice, thick gruel, the baked bulbous root of palmyra, the common millet rice with milk and honey, fried food, and ghee etc. They also consumed fish items like lamery, (Eral,) murrel, (varal,).

Surprisingly even today the food for occasions are very similar to what was served earlier. The north Indian dishes have seeped into the food palette but a majority of it is truly south Indian in its form.

In mediaeval period non-vegetarian diet was no longer popular due to the spread and influence of Jainism in Tamil Nadu. Presently Non-Vegetarian diet is no longer a taboo among various communities Tamils other than Brahmins. Yet on several days in a year, due to festivals and fasting days/ days of austerity, (Nonbu,) meat is avoided by a majority of the Tamils. In earlier days the morning food used to be the night rice soaked in water and kept to the coolness of the night. This cold rice mixed with curd, or millet gruel, was the healthy breakfast preferred by all irrespective of class and castes. This practice is fast disappearing even in rural areas was under modern influence of consuming more popular items such as the Idlis and Dosas, styled in the north as Madrasi diet. Earlier the morning drink used to be the night-rice water- a nourishig liquid and in modern times replaced by familiar drinks such as coffee (the popular south Indian filter coffee), tea etc. Among the sweet liquids the Payasam, a kind boiled porridge mixed often with milk, and cereals with dry fruits and nuts and spices is still familiar on special occasions. Ulunthu kali or the paste pottage made of black gram flour was consumed in olden days normally on oil-bath days. Among these, Payasam is the only dish that has sustained and is a part of the meal on special occasions.


USE OF BETEL CHEWING:

Betel leaves (Thamboolam,) its usage's for auspicious occasions continue to this through the ages. Normally betel is chewed after meals for digestion and as a matter of pleasure. Thamboolam is exchanged whenever marriages are finalised, when guests leave after their stay, while inviting for the weddings and while offerings are made to the Deities. To the visitors it is offered as a mark of courtesy. Today the betel leaf has taken the avatar of the north Indian ‘Paan’ garnished with grated coconut and is offered after meals.

OFFERINGS TO THE CROWS:

This custom of offering food to the crows on auspicious occasions, as well as the anniversaries of the departed souls in the family are observed. Normally, after the due worship of the family Deity, the food is offered to the crows and only when they begin to taste, the feeding by the family members takes place. Many households until the last decade made the first offering of the food to the crows as a sign of respect. Today with congestion and apartments being commonplace, this sight has become something of a rarity.

HOSPITALITY

The Tamils have been giving much importance to Hospitality, through the ages. Valluvar says, "The Goddess of wealth will gladly abide where pleasing smiles welcome worthy guests." .Accommodating the guest by satisfying their desires were part of the hospitality custom. As a sign of being pleased with the guest, the ladies are given KUMKUM while taking leave from their hosts. South Indians are believed to be very warm people and like many Indian families considered it a duty to serve the guest. In the course of time, along with the kumkum, the guest was offered other gifts/ symbolic gifts like material for blouse and food.

WORSHIP

Despite their many Gods and Goddesses, the Tamils also worship Nature. Daily worship of the Sun in the mornings used to be once a common practice. Pongal the Harvest festival is celebrated mainly to celebrate the Sun worship. In rural areas it is almost equal to the thanks giving festival. Daily Lighting of the Lamps in the evenings, offerings of flowers fruits and in rural areas paddy and other agricultural produce is a common practice. Diwali is the festival of lights and is another major festival where new clothes are adorned and sweets are home-made and exchanged with neighbours as a sign of good will. Tamils observe several austerity days such as Krittigai, New Moon Day and so on. Practices such as Fasting, worship of Ancestors with food offerings are observed to this day.





SOME TAMIL HABITS

FLOWER DECORATION

The habit of spreading flowers as in Kerala was once popular ,However in rural areas the flowers of the Poovarasan is decoratively placed on the cow-dung balls are artistically arranged at the entrances to the Homes.


AUSPICIOUS TIMINGS AND OMENS:

As in the case of many Hindus all over India, Tamils of all Castes and even Religious communities, are in the habit of observing auspicious timings. Besides the Tamils also meticulously observe OMENS of all kinds while undertaking journeys/travel.

In the olden days people had several ways of spending leisurely hours both indoors and in the social recreations at common places. In the Tamil Classical period, (Sangam age, literary pursuits such as debates, discussions, pattimanrams on literary, arts as well as political themes were conducted.


ROLE OF WOMEN IN DAILY LIFE

Women were respected and honoured. At home they reigned and their counsels were taken seriously by womenfolk. The mother attends to the childcare. Their songs of lullaby made the children to sleep. The lullabies are familiar at all levels both in the rural and urban areas. Women spent their time fruitfully engaged in handicrafts and were permitted to participate in social work.

CONCLUSION

We can see that every day affairs of the Tamils contain seeds of morality and culture. Bharath Dasan elaborates with minute details of the daily Family- life styles of the Tamils in his classic work 'The Kudumba Vilakku.' As the well known Tamil proverb asserts namely that a single rice from a boiling pot would reveal the nature of the entire quantity inside the pot, so also the study and understanding of some Tamil Customs or Habits would enable to understand the sure pointers that go in the making of THE TAMIL CULTURE AND CIVILISATION.












The living culture of the Tamils

The words "Tamil culture" immediately evoke the image of the towering gopuram (entrance gateways) of the Hindu temple, at once a commanding grandeur and solemnity; of a beautiful dancing girl, decked out in all her finery, graceful and lovely; to the literary minded, of the squatting sage Tiruvalluvar with his palm-leaf and stylus; to the gastronomically inclined, of idli (a rice and lentil batter) and sambar (lentils, vegetable and tamarind).

When we attempt to understand what constitutes Tamil culture in terms of an average man's life, particularly in the context of the present day, we encounter elements which cannot be isolated and defined, yet are deep rooted in a society which has always been instinctively aware of its strengths and weaknesses.

Over the centuries Tamils have spread outside their territory and in this process have planted signs of their presence many of which can be found even today. The Tamil community thus represents a population outside Tamil Nadu also. In their own land Tamils have been subject to significant foreign influences and, today, the admixture of these influences is so complex that it is difficult to talk about "typical" or "native" Tamil culture. Today's fashions, food habits, life-styles, values are all products of this long history of interaction.

Tamil Nadu’s boundary today is roughly what it was for the last two thousand years.

In Tamil Nadu the demands of the film world gave birth to a "poster-culture". When talkies were introduced, the population was largely illiterate and magazines were only just beginning to appear. Posters were the only major medium to announce new films. Now poster-oriented publicity has spread to other areas of public life and today one finds th walls of Tamil Nadu plastered with posters, with those for the cinema still the largest and most colourful.
The Tamils, though slower than their north Indian counterparts, have adopted to the westernisation of culture. However, even today, a majority of them confine to the moral codes laid down many a decade ago. Though there is a likely chance to end up with confused identities, the Tamils have managed quite well knowing where to draw the line.
The farmlands have taken up mechanisation with tractors and chemical fertilizers, but the distinct sound of the folk song resonates through the fields as the women harvest the crop.
A large percentage of the Tamil population are inhabitants of Chennai. The city is growing with time, but just a few kilometres from the city, the first village remains unaffected by urbanisation and the fast life. With urbanisation comes the space constraint. There are more number of flats and apartments sprouting through the city, which brings in the need for the ‘sticker’ kolams and restricted communication with the neighbours. However, the houses are modelled like houses from Kerala or Chettinad bringing in a little bit of tradition into an otherwise modern setup.

Changed conditions have resulted in a need to adapt traditional modes to the new constraints. Women are more free and have better opportunities to get education and jobs. However, they continue to be bound by traditional tasks and modes of behaviour such as looking after the home and maintaining a distance from men. Even in Madras city, there are still State Government buses meant exclusively to carry women during peak hours.

Marriage as an institution is a good example of how tradition and modernity can co-exist or be a source of friction. Marriage is an important event in the life of an individual in any society, but in Tamil Nadu in reveals a great deal about Tamil society's attitude to the man-woman relationship and its place in society. Most marriages are still arranged by the parents and determined by the astral bodies governing the individuals' chart.

Religion continues to be a dominant force in the lives of Tamils. In fact, one observes more pronounced increase in the interest in religion and occult beliefs. At a time when the average man's life is determined by economic motives and security, this may be the new kind of insurance he seeks against economic and physical insecurity.

Observance of religious ceremonies is marked among the newly educated, employed population--both men and women. However the loud speakers have intruded the temple and devotional songs are sung to the tunes of popular filmy numbers. No important function, domestic or business is organized without consulting the almanack and fixing an auspicious hour. Magazines pour our information on the movements of astral bodies and their effect on the average Tamil's life.

The Tamil language has been spoken in Ceylon, it would seem, at least for the last three thousand years. The punch marked coins of an early era point to connections that Ceylon may have had with Mohenjodaro and the Indus Valley civilisation. Tamil poetry composed in Ceylon has been included in the earliest Tamil Anthologies and the Tamil spoken in Ceylon represents a pre-Pallava period with its ancient morphological and grammatical forms and its repertoire of words considered obsolete for centuries on the neighbouring continent.

A language is always a mirror of a people’s genius. The Tamil language has been spoken basically in its present form for the last two thousand years, and it continues even now to be the living language for thirty to forty million people -about thirty million people in India, more than two million people in Ceylon, nearly one million people in Malaya, Vietnam and Indonesia, and many thousands scattered over Fiji, Mauritius, Madagascar, Africa and even Trinidad and the Martinique islands.
Tamil is as much a classical language as Greek, Latin or Sanskrit, with this difference that while her ancient contemporaries have changed beyond recognition or been long regarded as “dead”, Tamil continues to be one of the most vigorous of modern languages, and perhaps offers the only example in history of an ancient classical tongue which has survived to this day and yet remains young as it was two thousand years ago.
The ancient Tamils lived in close touch with nature. Astronomy and astrology very much influenced their lives. With regard to the year, the Tamils started it with the Vernal Equinox. In ancient days the sun entering Aries and the Vernal Equinox, that is the day when the sun rose exactly in the east, coincided. With the lapse of centuries, the New Year falls now, about three weeks after the Vernal Equinox. The Hindu solar year is sidereal, and since it is in excess of the tropical year by twenty four minutes, it does not keep step with the seasons. The seasons fall back one and half days for every hundred years...






As a part of our research and understanding both of us learnt that we had a lot in common when we discussed our individual communities and customs. One from a Brahmin community , a community which is large and spread across the country, whereas the other being the Chettiars, a very small community confined to the group of villages called Chettiand. The common professions and food of both communities vary, and so do the customs, however we still found that we had a lot in common. Our everyday lives were almost similar, with exceptions of festivals, which had overlaps of rituals in common too. This journey of probing through not only our past, but that of our parents and grandparents too has been an exciting and educative one. We have seen how life with all its customs , rituals and practices has seen changes through time and have been highly enthused and touched by it.





Swetha Thiagarajan
Sita Laxmi Mani
PGDPD Textile Design



Acknowledgements
Google Mata
Wikipedia
KMC
A one MR. S. Ramakrishnan for his insight into Tamil culture through the ages
Kamala R, Ranganathan and Usha Thiagarajan for contributing their share of inputs for this essay about life in Chennai through the last few decades.