Panelists Sri Jagannath Dasar , Sri Bimal Trivedi,Dr. M.A.Alwar,Dr. S.Venugopalan – Moderated by Prof. K.S.Kannan
Through perpetuating Dravidianism in Tamil Nadu, a narrative has been sought to be set – viz. the culture, intellectual tradition, religion and the very ethos of Tamil Nadu is distinct and different from the so-called Aryan rest-of- India. While Tamil Nadu has a character, culture and tradition of its own (as does every region for that matter) that makes it unique, the politics of Dravidianism tries to portray it as something that is far removed from the pan-Indian Vedic heritage, bringing into play the colonialist-concocted Aryan Invasion Theory (or its recent diluted version as the Aryan Migration Theory) to pit Tamil Nadu against the “other”. The secessionist subterfuge is, however, not very opaque. All evidence from varied branches of knowledge – such as numismatics, manuscriptology, philosophy, and literature – gives lie to the claim of Tamil Nadu being a different civilization altogether. This panel brings to the fore some portion of this evidence such as – the scripts and the numismatic evidence, Ayurveda and Siddha traditions, the deployment of the delectable Mani-pravala language-blend, Sri Vaishnava tradition and performing arts, and the impact of Buddhism – and discusses how the evidence in fact underscores the pan-Indic nature of the various aspects of the culture and tradition of Tamil Nadu.