Browsing by Author "Arunakirinathan, T."

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The role of “Panchakammalar” in the Jaffna society: a social and linguistic perspective
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Arunakirinathan, T.
The main focus of this study is to identify the role of “Panchakamalar” from a social and linguistic perspective. “Panchakammalar” is an umbrella term which includes the five artisan castes of the Sri Lankan Tamil community, namely the Thatcher(carpenters), Thattar (goldsmiths), Kollar (iron workers), Kannar (metal craftsmen using metals other than gold, silver and iron) and Kalthatcher (craftsmen working with stone) castes.These castes occupy the middle strata of the caste hierarchy in the Tamil society. These artisan castes are usually endogamous, and marriage within these castes is rarely practiced. They comprise approximately 1.5% of the Jaffna population. According to the information obtained from social service officers and through individual interviews, a majority of the families from these castes belong to the middle income level, but there are a few who belong to the high income group since they have special skills such as chariot building or making statues for temples. Those who belong to the low income groups, especially of the Kannar and Thattar castes migrated to India during the three decades of war since they had connections with Indian artisan communities. However, those who had special skills remained here since they relied mostly on temples for their income and that was not much affected. These castes have their own myths which claim that they are descendants of Vishvakarma, or the architect of the gods, and call themselves “Visvakarma kulam”. The men from these castes wear a cord across their chests similar to Brahmins, but it consists of a single strand of thread whereas the cord worn by Brahmins contains three strands of thread, explanations to which practices are found in Hindu scriptures. All these castes are ardent Saivites and live mostly around Hindu temples as they are dependent on them for their incomes. The artisan castes maintain close connections with South Indian artisan communities for business reasons. Some of the families still have marital ties with Indian communities. These castes still maintain a distinct vocabulary and usage patterns.Their spoken language was recorded or noted down during participatory sessions with their consent and then analyzed and certain features such as special vocabulary, sentence structures and usage patterns which distinguish from others were identified. They also have special ritual practices and religious practices which are not practiced by others.The methodology adopted was largely participatory. Direct participation, interviews, and observation were the main methods of data collection. Social service officers and Grama Niladaris were also interviewed to obtain background information.
Variations in Dialect and Usage of Specific Vocabulary among Different Castes in the Jaffna Peninsula
(University of Kelaniya, 2012) Arunakirinathan, T.
Jaffna Peninsula, the northern most part of Sri Lanka, has a population of around 632 thousand and is predominantly Tamil speaking. Tamil is “Diglossic” in nature. The highly codified variety is considered “standard” and used for writing, while there are various dialects spoken in India and in Srilanka. Sociolects within a dialect could be observed in India where the social segregation on the basis of caste is rigid but it is not so in Sri Lanka where the social segregation is not strictly followed. However, specific vocabulary and usage patterns unique to each caste could be identified in the Sri Lankan context. This paper illustrates this with examples found in a study which is currently underway in Jaffna Peninsula which has its own dialect/s. Even though there are various social changes taking place,the unique vocabulary and usage patterns still exist and each caste preserves its uniqueness. This study is descriptive and participatory in nature. Direct participation, observation, interviews and focus group discussions were used to obtain information. Further, secondary sources such as journals, books and web resources were also used. Sri Lanka has three major Tamil dialects: namely, Jaffna, Batticaloa and Hill Country dialects. Jaffna Tamil is considered the oldest, most archaic, and claimed to be closest to old Tamil. It preserves many archaic features that predate Tolkappiam, the grammatical treatise of Tamil. Further, there are a number of Prakrit loan words too.A sociolect of “Paraiyar “of Kayts still has a number of archaic words and Prakrit loans not found in any other dialect or sociolect of Tamil. A similar phenomenon could be observed in the language of other castes in Jaffna. Even though there are 17 identifiable castes in Jaffna now, this presentation will focus only on the Velalar (Farmers), Paraiyar (Drum beaters), Sakiliyar (Leather workers) and Kusavar (Clay workers/Potters).