Scholars should bridge malicious Aryan-Dravidian divide: Padma Subrahmanyam

Sanskrit is vital for national integration and the need of the hour is to revitalise the language, which will automatically unite the regions of India and connect Southeast Asia, Bharatanatyam dancer Padma Subrahmanyam said.

Speaking at the 90th anniversary celebrations of The Samskrta Academy in Mylapore, she said, “An immediate necessity is to ask a group of scholars to work together and get all the relevant references from Sanskrit sources to prove the concept of Pancha Gowda and Pancha Dravida and wipe out the two colossal enemies — the imaginary wall between Tamil and Sanskrit, and the malicious Aryan-Dravidian divide”.

Ms. Subrahmanyam, president, Nrityodaya, said nowhere in the puranas Dravida has been mentioned as a race.

‘PM is a Dravidian’

“While Arya was a term used in a qualitative sense, the word Dravida was used in our country in geographic sense. Our puranas have been condemned as stories of no credence. It is our puranas that are a mine of information on the history and history of geography,” she said. “If we understand the true meaning of Dravida, it would be interesting for the politicians of today to realise that our Prime Minister can be described as a Goorjara Dravida. He is a Dravidian,” Ms. Subrahmanyam said.

She added that the artificial iron curtain, particularly between Tamil and Sanskrit, has to be destroyed.

“This anti-Sanskrit Dravidian politics is an outcome of the intellectual conspiracy of our European rulers, to divide and rule our country. This deep-rooted cancer of separation injected a couple of centuries ago has still not been cured,” she said.

Ms. Subrahmanyam requested the Academy to publish a highly academic book that laymen can understand “to prove the invalidity of the Aryan–Dravidian race theory”.

Bibek Debroy, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said: “Very few of us now speak Sanksrit as a mother tongue…it is either second or even third language. There is an increasing interest in Sanskrit. There needs to be increased responsibility to ensure that it thrives,” he said.

Mr. Debroy said about two-thirds of the 40 million manuscripts in India are in Sanskrit.

“The National Manuscript Mission has listed about three million (manuscripts) in India. The total estimate of manuscripts floating around in India is about 40 million. Out of this, 95% have not even been translated,” he said.