The irresistible mating of languages

The International Mother Language Day falls in Feb. My blogger-friends, Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed, have chosen a theme related to IMLD for their Feb’s blog hop. I thought it’s a good opportunity to write about my mother language, Malayalam, which has quite a fascinating and potentially controversial history. The history of Malayalam is linked with that of Tamil, of the Brahmin migration from North India to the South, and the subsequent influence of Sanskrit. 

The origins

Malayalam originated from ancient Tamil, which was the primary language spoken in southern parts of India, particularly in the region that encompasses modern-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Over time, Malayalam evolved as a distinct language due to geographical, cultural, and political factors.

Malayalam belongs to the Dravidian language family along with Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Tulu. It emerged as a separate language around the 9^th-13^th centuries CE, though its linguistic roots can be traced back to Proto-Dravidian, the ancestral language of all Dravidian languages.

Initially, Malayalam was very akin to Tamil. The Chera dynasty, which ruled over the area corresponding to present-day Kerala, primarily used Tamil as their administrative and literary language. However, Malayalam had its own distinct flavour. ‘Mala’ means hill and Malayalam, the language of the hill-people, belonged to the population of the Western Ghats.

The influence of Sanskrit

 The arrival of a group of Brahmins called Namboothiris significantly contributed to the Sanskritisation of Malayalam. The Namboothiris were a different sort of Brahmins, different from the Tamil Brahmins who were already present in many parts of Kerala. But the Tamil Brahmins were confined to certain areas and they didn’t mingle much with the Malayalis. Namboothiris, however, mingled freely with Malayalis, most probably for selfish reasons like establishing their superiority and appropriating the lands.

Land was not anyone’s private property in Kerala when Namboothiris came first. There was no cultivation and the land was all forest which belonged to everyone. You gather whatever you want from the forest: food, timber, etc. Namboothiris changed all that. They colonised the land as well as the people, not very unlike what the Europeans did to the original inhabitants of what came to be known as America. The mother language of the Namboothiris was a version of Pali, but being Brahmins they were proficient in Sanskrit. They used Sanskrit, the language of the gods, very effectively to subjugate a whole people and to take away the lands which the people had treated as property of everyone including animals.

Eventually the Sanskrit flavours surpassed the Tamil ones in Malayalam. Along with Sanskrit came the Brahminical caste system too. Namboothiris became the custodians of gods and their temples. The local gods that belonged to Dravidian religious traditions and rooted in animism, ancestor worship, and local tribal customs, with little or no influence from Vedic traditions, now underwent metamorphosis. Most of these indigenous practices were gradually absorbed and transformed within the framework of Brahminical Hinduism. Local deities and traditions were Sanskritised, sacred groves (kavu) became temples, and Vedic rituals replaced or blended with the old customs. Hinduism became the religion of Malayalis and Malayalam was enriched with Sanskrit shlokas, poetry, and other literature.

One of the oldest Malayalam poems is Unnuneeli Sandesam, written in 14^th century CE. An ordinary Malayali who reads it today won’t understand it at all though the poem is supposedly written in Malayalam and is about a lover sending a message to his beloved who is far away. Let me give an example, just a couplet:

മണിമാളികമര്‍ദ്ധകലശമാനം സമുദയമയോരാനനവന്ദിതം മണിപ്രവാലഗണദൂതി സംഖേദമുദിതം തവ സമുദ്രം വന്ദേ।।

Transliteration:
Manimālikamardhakalaśamānam samudayamayorānana-vanditam
Manipravāla-gaṇa-dūti samkhedamuditam tava samudram vande.

Meaning:

"I bow to the sea, the messenger with rows of sparkling gems adorned, carrying the weight of love and longing, uniting separated lovers across the waves."

The entire poem, as most others written in those days, mirrors the refined rhythm of Sanskrit poetry while retaining local flavours. A poet of today might write that couplet as:

ഒരുനാള്‍ നിന്നെത്താന്‍ ഞാനില്ലെങ്കിലും
നിനക്കായ് വീശും കാറ്റിന്റെ ഭാഷയിൽ ഞാൻ ഉണ്ടാകും.

Transliteration:
Orunaal ninneththaan njan illengilum
Ninakaaay veeshum kaatinte bhaashayil njan undaakum.

Meaning:

"Even if I am not there to come to you one day,
I will exist in the language of the breeze that blows for you."

That is written by one of the best Malayalam poets of 20^th century: O N V Kurup.

How will a young poet of today write a love poem? Let me imagine:

മണ്ണ് തിന്നു പോണ ദേഹം ഓർത്തുനോക്കൂ ബേബി

നമ്മളൊന്നിണ ചേർന്നാലെന്തു ചേതം മോളു?

Transliteration:
Mannu thinnupona deham orthunokku baby

Nammalonnina chernnalenthu chetham molu?

Meaning:

Hi Baby, our bodies are going to be worm-eaten

Why not mate a bit before that, eh?

 

The Evolution

Malayalam, as well as Kerala, has undergone a tremendous lot of evolution ever since its encountering the Namboothiris. The history of Malayalam is also a history of miscegenation, not only of races and castes but also of languages. Today’s Malayalam has countless words from other languages too, particularly English. When we take pride in our mother language, it is also important to give due consideration to its associations with other languages. Even languages don’t exist as separate entities; they are in symbiotic relationship with many other languages.

PS1. This post is a part of ‘Embrace the Native Blog Hop’ hosted by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed under #EveryConversationMatters

PS2. I have jumped on the Blogchatter (a blogger community) bandwagon of #WriteAPageADay and so from today till the end of Feb I’m going to write almost daily. I’ll write good stuff, I promise. Here we go.

PS3. Tomorrow’s post will be a review of Mani Shankar Aiyar’s latest book, the last part (so far) of his memoirs. And the day after, I’ll take you back to this language problem in the New Education Policy, NEP 2020, of our beloved PM Modi. Does it really promote mother languages?