Tamil Nadu
The Dravidian culture of Tamil Nadu is one of the grandest cultures that ever flourished this land of Bharata. Tamil Nadu means “nation of Tamils” and the language Tamil basically is known as the mother of all south Indian languages and as history suggests the Dravidian scripts finds its influences even in Sri Lanka. The sangam literature is one of the most famous literatures of Dravidian era. This state has been home to the Cholas, Pandyas and the Pallavas. One can find great monuments at Mamallapuram which is down south from Chennai on the way to Pondicherry.
The five Pagodas and other caves of Mamallapuram prove the magnificence of sculpting which prevailed during the different dynasties that ruled here. Even to this day the culture of stone sculpting is followed in Mamallapuram. The Cholas proved their golden rule for a long time with Raja Raja Chola being the greatest of the Chola kings. He constructed the famous Brihadeeswara temple which stands tall and proud in the city of Thanjavur which is also a district.
Tamil Nadu is known for its great contribution towards art, culture, philosophy, religion, science and astronomy, mathematics and much more. One of the foremost and most enlightened saints was Tiruvalluvar who wrote the Tirukkural. The Tirukkal is a great piece of treatise written for man to follow his daily duties and also maintain a pious and spiritual life. The great works of Tirukkural can be seen sculpted at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai which is the capital city of Tamil Nadu. The vastness of the Sangam literature and also the greatness of the poets, literary writers cannot be neglected as they have all contributed to enrich the Dravidian culture.
Recent research even showed that Dravidian manuscripts and inscriptions were discovered at the Mohenjodaro and Harappan civilization which is in Pakistan today. Excavations suggest that these two cities were wiped out by heavy floods, which is why the residents moved away without leaving any traces. Archeologists suggest that the early Dravidians might have moved further down to south India which is the present day Tamil Nadu.
The culture of Tamil Nadu has its own style of Carnatic music and classical dance which is the Bharatanatyam. Great composers like Saint Thyagaraja have made immense contributions towards Carnatic music. Saint Thyagaraja was born in a small village of Thiruvaiyar, on the banks of the river Cauvery. It is known that he was so overjoyed with his devotion for Lord Rama, words of melody just flowed spontaneously from his mouth. Even to this day there is a musical culture which exists in this small village and everybody either sings or listens to Carnatic music. Muthuswamy Dikshithar and Shyama Shastri are two other great composers of Carnatic music.
Other folk arts include Karagattam, a form of art in which a dancer places a couple of potson his/her head with one on top of the other and performs a dance sequence with folk music and instruments played are Nagaswaram which is a wind instrument, and Mellam (drums). Apart from this economy has been thriving in Tamil Nadu through paper industries and Railway Coach Factory. Chennai has been booming with Information Technology off late. The road transport is known to be among one of the best in the whole of India.
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