Historical Dictionary of the Tamils

Historical Dictionary of the Tamils PDF

Author: Vijaya Ramaswamy

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-08-25

Total Pages: 519

ISBN-13: 1538106868

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The Tamils have an unbroken history of more than two thousand years. Tamil, the language they speak, is one of the oldest living languages in the world. The only people comparable to the Tamils in terms of their hoary past and vibrant present would be the Jews with one marked difference. The Tamils have always had their homeland 'Tamilaham' (alternately pronounced and spelt 'Tamizhaham') known today as Tamil Nadu which to them represents their mother and is revered by them as 'Tamizh Tai' literally ‘Tamil Mother’. This is in striking contrast to the Jews who have been through a long and arduous struggle to gain their homeland, a deeply contested site to this day with Hebrewisation of Israel being a key marker of Jewish identity in the region. Tamils, by contrast have a clear numerical majority in the region that now comprises Tamil Nadu and the language unites rather than divides adherents of different faiths. The second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Tamils contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Tamils.

A Comprehensive History of India

A Comprehensive History of India PDF

Author: M. K. Dhavalikar

Publisher: Manohar Publishers

Published: 2013-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9788173049743

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This thoroughly researched firstvolume on the history ofIndiashows that the development of human culture in South Asia can be properly understood only by studying the prehistoric past. The prehistoric phase forms the longest period in human history, covering a few millennia, whereas the knowledge of writingwas acquired by manjust 5,000 years ago. The antiquity of man now goes back to 3.6 million years, and since then man has been progressing against all odds. This book details the systematic excavations that have been carried out and the data that has been scientifically analyzed to show the stages of cultural evolution from food gathering to food producing, including contributions from acknowledged experts in the field. It also places significantemphasis on scientific evidence to demonstrate the role of the environment in the evolution of cultures."

The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities

The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities PDF

Author: Dilip K. Chakrabarti

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13:

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This book offers a definitive archaeological perspective on the history of early urban growth in India. It does this by looking at both the protohistoric and the early historic periods, coming down to about AD 300 and later. Geographically, it covers all the major areas of the subcontinent. The existing archaeological data have been synthesized to yield a comprehensive picture of the morphology of ancient sites and their place within what is currently known of their settlement perspectives. This book addresses itself to some of the cardinal issues of South Asian archaeology - the origin and decline of the Indus civilization; the issue of its merger in the main flow of India's later cultural development; the archaeological basis of its long chronology; aspects of Indus urbanism; the reasons for the growth of neolithic-chalcolithic inner India; and the patterns and problems of urban growth in the early historic period on the subcontinental scale. In each case the author's concern is with understanding the situation at the grassroots level within an essentially South Asian framework. The hypotheses offered in this book should lead to some major rethinking about the story of archaeological development in the subcontinent.