Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India and is spoken by 2.88% of Indians. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé), and is spoken by 34 million people worldwide. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Nilgiris and Kanyakumari, districts of Tamil Nadu. Due to Malayali expatriates in the Persian Gulf, Malayalam is also widely spoken in the Gulf countries.
Malayalam script is a Brahmic script used commonly to write Malayalam, which is the principal language of Kerala, India, spoken by 45 million people in the world. It is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India Malayalam script is also widely used for writing Sanskrit texts in Kerala.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a social-democratic and Dravidianist political party in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is one of the two main political parties in Tamil Nadu, along with the rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Since the 2021 state election, it has been the ruling party of Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil script is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere to write the Tamil language. Certain minority languages such as Saurashtra, Badaga, Irula and Paniya are also written in the Tamil script.
The Grantha script is a South Indian script, found particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Originating from the Pallava script, the Grantha script is related to the Tamil and the Vatteluttu scripts. The modern Malayalam script of Kerala is a direct descendant of the Grantha script. The Southeast Asian and Indonesian scripts such as Thai and Javanese respectively, as well as South Asian Tigalari and Sinhala scripts are derived or closely related to the Grantha through the early Pallava script. The Pallava script or Pallava Grantha, emerged in the 4th century CE and was used until the 7th century CE, in India. This early Grantha script was used to write Sanskrit texts, inscriptions on copper plates and stones of Hindu temples and monasteries. It was also used for classical Manipravalam – a language that is a blend of Sanskrit and Tamil. From it evolved Middle Grantha by the 7th century, and Transitional Grantha by about the 8th century, which remained in use until about the 14th century. Modern Grantha has been in use since the 14th century and into the modern era, to write classical texts in Sanskrit and Dravidian languages. It is also used to chant hymns and in traditional Vedic schools.
Dravidar Kazhagam is a social movement founded by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, also called Thanthai Periyar. Its original goals were to eradicate the ills of the existing caste system including untouchability and on a grander scale to obtain a "Dravida Nadu" from the Madras Presidency. Dravidar Kazhagam would in turn give birth to many other political parties including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and later the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
This article is about the number words of the Tamil language, as well as the dedicated symbols for them used in the Tamil script.
Dravidian nationalism, or Dravidianism, developed in Madras Presidency which comprises the four major ethno-linguistic groups in South India. This idea was popularized during the 1930s to 1950s by a series of small movements and organizations that contended that the South Indians formed a racial and a cultural entity that was different from the North Indians. Dravidianists have claimed that the Brahmins and other upper castes were originally Aryan migrants from the north, and that they imposed their language, Sanskrit, religion and heritage on the southern people.
Dravida Nadu is the name of a hypothetical sovereign state demanded by Justice Party led by E. V. Ramasamy and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by C. N. Annadurai for the speakers of the Dravidian languages in South India.
Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science & Technology is a private deemed-to-be-university located in a rural part of South India accredited by NAAC. The university headquarters is in the town of Vallam in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. It was earlier named "Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women". The campus sprawls in 216 acres of land and it is situated 45 km East of Tiruchirapalli and 10 km West of Thanjavur
Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy, revered as Periyar or Thanthai Periyar, was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the 'Father of the Dravidian movement'. He rebelled against Brahminical dominance and gender and caste inequality in Tamil Nadu. Since 2021, the Indian state of Tamil Nadu celebrates his birth anniversary as 'Social Justice Day'.
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy was a Dravidian social reformer and politician from India, who founded the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. Periyar placed great importance on the Tamil language for its benefit and upliftment to the Tamil people and advocated for its preservation. In the wake of the imposition of Hindi throughout the Indian sub-continent and in Tamil Nadu, Periyar stated that "the love of one's tongue is the foremost of all loves that are required of the people born in our land. He said that has no love for his tongue has no love for his land. A nation functions on the basis for the love of one's language. So it is my prayer that Tamils love for their tongue should grow. I affirm again and again that love of the mother-tongue is a must for those born in Tamil Nadu. The Bengalis love Bengali. The Maharashtrians love for the Marathi language. The Andhras love the Telugu language. But the Tamils have no love for the Tamil-tongue. The Tamils will never progress unless they bestow love on their mother-tongue. If I love Tamil, it is not merely because it is the mother-tongue or the language of the Tamil Nadu State. Nor am I attached to Tamil by reason of its uniqueness or its antiquity. If I love Tamil, it is because I am aware of the advantages I expect through it and the measure of loss that will occur by the absence of it".
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, also known as Ramaswami, EVR, Thanthai Periyar, or Periyar, was a Dravidian social reformer and politician from India, who founded the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. In 1919 Periyar Ramaswamy joined the Indian National Congress after quitting his business and resigning from public posts. He was the chairman of Erode Municipality and undertook Constructive Programs spreading the use of Khadi, picketing toddy shops, boycotting shops selling foreign cloth, and eradicating untouchability. In 1921, Periyar was imprisoned for picketing toddy shops in Erode. When his wife as well as his sister joined the agitation, it gained momentum, and the administration was forced to come to a compromise. He was again arrested during the Non-Cooperation movement and the Temperance movement. In 1922, Periyar was elected the President of the Madras Presidency Congress Committee during the Tirupur session where he advocated strongly for reservation in government jobs and education. His attempts were defeated in the Congress party due to a strong presence of discrimination and indifference. He later quit the party on those grounds in 1925.
[[File:Periyar with Rajaji cropped.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Periyar E. V. Ramasamy]
Moovalur Ramamirtham (1883–1962) was a Tamil social reformer, author, and political activist of the Dravidian Movement, who worked for the abolition of the Devadasi system in the Madras Presidency. Born in Thiruvarur, she was brought up at Moovalur, a village near Mayiladhuthurai.
The rupee sign “₨” is a currency sign used to represent the monetary unit of account in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius, Seychelles, and formerly in India. It resembles, and is often written as, the Latin character sequence "Rs", of which it is an orthographic ligature.
Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu, Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and central Kerala, and Bellary, South Canara. Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema were separated to form Andhra State in 1953, while South Canara and Bellary districts were merged with Mysore State, and Malabar District with the State of Travancore-Cochin to form Kerala in 1956. Post State Reorganization in 1956, the remaining Madras State was renamed to Tamil Nadu, meaning "Tamil country" on January 14, 1969.
Standardisation of Tamil script includes various attempts in the past as well as ongoing attempts to uniformalise the Tamil script.
Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy Nagammai was an Indian social activist and women's rights activist. She was known for her participation in the Temperance movement in India and the Vaikom Satyagraha. She was the first wife of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy who headed the Self-Respect Movement.
Extended-Tamil script or Tamil-Grantha refers to a script used to write the Tamil language before the 20th century Tamil purist movement. The origin of Tamil-Grantha script is unclear; some scholars posit that the script is a direct descendant of the Pallava-Grantha script which extensively developed during the Middle Tamil period to write Middle-Tamil; others contest that Tamil-Grantha is a mixed-script: a combination of the conservative-Tamil script that independently evolved from Pallava script, combined with consonants imported from a later stage evolved full-Grantha script to represent non-Tamil consonants.
