Exploring Tamil culture through the lens of etymology

The deployment of salli as prize money gave rise to the Tamil sport of Jallikattu. Like this, there are many not-so-well-known Tamil words. To explore more such words, city entrepreneur Anantha Narayan has started an online series called Very Tamil Things. “It is a simple initiative to learn something new in Tamil, every day. We take one word daily and talk about its pronunciation, meaning, and cultural context. We use social media to put out the content in an easy snackable form. The idea is to help Tamils and non-Tamils to see the language in a new light,” Anantha Narayan tells DT Next.

A few words Anantha has explored include Sadagopam, Salli, Arana Kayiru and Vinaadi. Sadagopam is a crown placed on the head of worshippers in temples. The crown has the footprints of Lord Vishnu. Salli was the smallest unit of the copper currency that was in use for centuries.

There are a lot of Tamils who’ve lost touch with their language due to various reasons and Anantha says that he is one of them. “I decided to rekindle my love for Tamil by starting a 365-day project to discover the wonderful world of our culture through the lens of etymology. When I jumped into the project, I spotted so many pearls that I decided to share my learnings on social media. Within a couple of posts, the series got a lot of attention from people I’ve never known in my life. So now, I know that many like me would love to reconnect with their roots. I have to ensure they enjoy the process through my posts.”

A trivia buff, Anantha has been a collector of oddities. “Researching words are part of my job because I run a brand naming company. I rely heavily on books and dictionaries to understand the word nuances. Fortunately for us, many great linguists have left behind a legacy of authoritative publications. I pore over them. Then I cross-verify the context using the internet copiously. After that, I add a little touch to make it relevant for today,” he explains the process.