Cities of Tamil Nadu
The Dravidian roots.......!!
High Court of ChennaiTamil Nadu represents the nucleus of Dravidian art and culture. Ancient customs and traditions, going back 3000 years, still flourish, woven inextricably into the lives of the people. Their mother tongue, Tamil, is the oldest living language of the world.
The history of the Tamils presents an exciting pageant of a powerful civilization whose origin dates back to ancient times. It is clear that the Tamils, who belong to the Dravidian race, were the first major occupants of the country and settled in the north-western part of India long before the coming of the Indo-Aryans. Excavations have revealed that the features of the people of the Indus Valley Civilization bore a strong resemblance to this race.
Enchant the mantra of spiritual grace!!
Temples and worship are the dominant characteristics of Tamil Nadu. Even the small towns around Chennai, as the Capital Madras is called today, are replete with temples- each more famous than the other and all of them engraved with the finest carvings, for that was the temple architect's highest offerings to the Gods they worship round the year, when in trouble and when joyously happy.
The Tamils have always been a God-fearing people and are ardent worshippers of Siva, Vishnu, their consorts Parvati and Lakshmi, Vinayaka, Subramanya (also known as Muruga). And each of these gods take on different names at different temples depending on the legend of the temple. For example, at Rameshwaram, Ramanathaswamy, which means 'He who was worshipped by Rama' and at Chidambaram He is called Nataraja or the 'Cosmic Dancer'. In simple terms, for the sake of identification it is enough to know that whenever 'Eswaran' is the suffix in the name of the presiding deity, the temple is dedicated to Lord Siva. The South has very few temples where Siva is depicted as anything other than a lingam. A few notable exceptions are the temple of the Cosmic Dancer at Chidambaram and the Ardhanareeswarar temple at Tiruchengodu
