Topic started by Robin (@ f17-155.intnet.mu) on Fri Dec 12 15:03:35 EST 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Hi everyone
I hope someone could clear my doubts the sooner

Here in Mauritius, we've had people coming from many regions of Southern India.

The strange thing is that I’ve never heard of Malayalam & Kannada here: Tamil and Telugu have religions and languages....so what are the religions of the malayalees and Kannada people?
...and how come the Malayalees surnames and even village names sound so much Tamil?

And could you also tell what gods and deities Hindu people in the four southern states of India worship, namely Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh?

Responses:

• From: BlitzHawk (@ 61.95.194.182) on: Thu Dec 18 00:04:42 EST 2003
  
  malayalam n kannada r languages buddy...not religions..n they tooo hv christians, hindus, muslims among them.....
  
  
• From: T3 (@ 61.95.199.95) on: Thu Dec 18 06:06:29 EST 2003
  
  Hi Robin,
  
  check out this site:
  
  http://www.atributetohinduism.com
  
  If you can, get hold of this book - A Survey of Hinduism by Klaus K Klostermaier. I have heard that is the best book on Hinduism.
  
  Malayalam is the State Language of the State of Kerala, Tamil of Tamil Nadu, Kannada of Karnataka and Telugu of Andhra Pradesh.
  
  
• From: T3 (@ 61.95.199.95) on: Thu Dec 18 06:11:11 EST 2003
  
  You can join this yahoogroup to discuss about hinduism
  
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indiancivilization
  
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hinduopenforum
  
  
• From: Robin (@ f17-78.intnet.mu) on: Sat Dec 20 13:15:41 EST 2003
  
  Thanks for your response guys.
  
  Well, just like you say that the people from the different states in south India speak different languages, they must also follow different aspects (I don’t find the right word) of Hinduism…what I mean is that even when you are saying that their religion is Hindu, I wish if you could be a little more precise… Are the Malayalees Tamils? Are the Kannadigas Telugus mostly…Hope you get my point and if I’m wrong do correct me.
  
  And the strange thing in Mauritius (where the majority of the population is Hindu), there’s still no trace of Malayalam and Kannada Cinema…I just happened to get to know about them in South Indian Filmfare Award (by Manikchand I’m not sure)– presented by Madhavan. And next year, I’ll make sure to follow the South Indian film festivals to try to trace out some Malayalam and Kannada!
  
  And if you know the history of your motherland well (I mean India), could you tell me from where immigrants were embarked on the western coast. By the way I still cannot believe how can there not be a single Malayalam and Kannada- speaking person in Mauritius.
  
  
• From: Madurai Veeran (@ adsl-67-113-151-40.dsl.sntc01.pacbell.net) on: Sat Dec 20 14:34:59 EST 2003
  
  Well, just like you say that the people from the different states in south India speak different languages, they must also follow different aspects (I don't find the right word) of >>Hinduism?what I mean is that even when you are saying that their religion is Hindu, I wish if you could be a little more precise? Are the Malayalees Tamils? Are the Kannadigas Telugus mostly?Hope you get my point and if I'm wrong do correct me.
  
  Robin:
  
  You are right. There is no such thing as 'Hindu'. Hinduism is a terme coined by the Persians, and given legitimacy by the British. The bewildering variety of beliefs, customs, rituals, modes of worship and scriptures really confounded the British and were unable to reconcile Indic religious practices in terms of their Western understanding of religion. They tried to equate everything that had something to do with brahminical religious thoughts and practices to the so called Hinduism, since brahmins, the self-appointed custodians of 'Hinduism' served in large numbers in the British bureaucracy.
  
  The right wing 'Hindu' fanatics like T3 (or whatever) want every one to believe that brahminism is 'Hinduism', which it is not. If you are wondering what is brahminim, it is nothing but casteism - they call it varnashrama (a)dharma by the brahminists. In fact, when asked to highlight the most significant aspect of Hinduism (aka Brahminism), the moderator in yahoo groups Indian Civilization claimed that varnashrama is the core of Hinduism.
  
  And if you are wondering what is varnashrama, it is the philosophy that divides people on the basis of birth, wherein the brahmins become the highest caste, to whom the rest of the castes are supposed to serve.
  
  Malayalam is a sister language of Tamil. As a matter of fact, the present day Malayalis were all Tamils till 1000 ACE. Telugu and Kannada are also related to Tamil, though not that that closely.
  
  It is possible that the language of the majority got adopted by the rest in Mauritius. In Fiji for example, Hindi got adopted by all the non-Hindi speaking settlers from India. Same goes for those Indians who settled in the Carribean and Suriname.
  
  
  
• From: Indianoble (@ wc09.ym.rnc.net.cable.rogers.com) on: Sat Dec 20 16:43:50 EST 2003
  
  well said Veeran ...very well said indeed.
  
  
• From: robin (@ f17-123.intnet.mu) on: Sun Dec 21 04:18:08 EST 2003
  
  Thanks Madurai for your answer…
  
  Is it true that Malayalees’ names and village names sound much Tamil?
  
  So can I reach the conclusion that the religion of most or part of the Hindus in Kerala are specifically Tamil even though they speak Malayalam?
  
  And what’s the origin of “Karnataka”. To me, it sounds like Karnatic…so is that Tamil??? And what specifically are the religions of the people in Karnataka?
  
  According to what I’ve read, Malayalam script and Tamil are related, though same script in Tamil and Malayalam represent different sounds. Likewise Kannada and Telugu are closely related, isn’t it?
  
  And yes I know that India is a very large country at least compared to my island, Mauritius…hope u know where it is!!! So I imagine there must be kovils in all of the southern states…and how do you call Telugu temples? Is it Mandiram???
  
  Telugus greet by saying Namaskaram…was that word used by Tamils earlier?
  
  I don’t know exactly how many South Indian (Hindu) religions there are, but the main ones are Tamil and Telugu? If a great majority of the Malayaless are Tamils, then the population of Tamils (even non Tamil-speaking) is greater than Telugus, isn’t it???
  
  And yes do you imagine how many hours of Tamil music we get over a day in Mauritius…1/2 hr in the morning 6.30 to 7.00 (so if you wake up late, you miss it!) and ½ hr in the afternoon 17.30 to 18.00 of FM channel. & on AM channel, 1 hr (11.00 to 12.00) and ½ hr (19.00 to 19.30)…with devotional songs mostly and poor sound quality.
  How is it over there in India? Just guess what the majority of the programmes is??? One day I think I’ll have to correct that!
  
  

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