ًwhich is the ancient langauge in india tamil or sanskrit?

Question

There are more than 70 million people speaking tamil all over the world.If it is so ancient (compare to hindi) why tamil language was not spread other than tamilnadu in india?what reason behind that?

Answer 1

Tamil and the Dravidian languages have a much longer history in India. Sanskrit came into the Indian subcontinent from Central Asia within the last 3000 years or so. The first two answers are completely wrong. Sanskrit is NOT the mother of all languages. That is complete rubbish. Sanskrit is the ancestor of the northern Indian languages that are members of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. Tamil is a descendant of Proto-Dravidian. The Indo-Aryan languages entered northern India about 3000 years ago or so and because of their superior technology at the time they conquered the majority of Dravidian and Austroasiatic tribes that inhabited north India. There are a few pockets of the original inhabitants still left in the eastern part of the country from the southern tip up to Bengal. In addition, the Dravidian language Brahui is in northwestern India in a remnant pocket.

EDIT: I don't know how many times I have to say this in Yahoo! Answers, but Sanskrit is NOT the most ancient of languages (it is a descendant of other languages), it is NOT the oldest written language (Sumerian and Egyptian are at least 2000 years older), it is NOT the oldest language of India (Old Tamil and Sanskrit writings are about the same age and Sanskrit actually originated outside India), it is NOT the most perfect language (no such thing), it is NOT a "purification" language (it is just another human language). Get a LIFE!

Answer 2

Sanskrit is the mother of all the Indian languages ( except south india) and is an ancient language in which all the religious manuscripts of ramayana and vedas were written.

Tamil is one of the Dravidian languages ( 73 languages originated from this).
Even though the Dravidian languages are thought to be distinctly different from the Indo-European languages, there are thirty to seventy per cent Sanskrit words in south Indian languages like Telugu and Tamil, which is much higher percentage than north Indian languages like Hindi. In addition both north and south Indian languages have a similar construction and phraseology that links them close together. In the oldest Vedic Sanskrit are similar sounds to Dravidian languages (the cerebral letters, for example), which are not present in other Indo-European tongues. This shows either that there were already Dravidians in the same region as the Vedic people, and part of the same culture with them, or that Dravidian languages could also have been early off-shoots of Sanskrit, which was the theory of the modern rishi, Sri Aurobindo. In addition the traditional inventor of the Dravidian languages was said to have been none other than Agastya, one of the most important rishis of the Rig Veda, the oldest Sanskrit text.

Tamil (தமிழ் tamiḻ) is a classical language and the oldest of the Dravidian language family. It is also the Dravidian language with the oldest extant literature. Spoken predominantly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, it has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. As of 1996, it was the eighteenth most spoken language, with over 74 million speakers worldwide. It is one of the official languages of India, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

I WOULD SAY A LOT OF PEOPLE SPEAK TAMIL!!!

Answer 3

The Tamils predate the Aryans in Indian sub continent.The Tamils in fact coexisted with the Indus Valley People and Tamil therefore predates Sanskrit in the Indian Sub continent. Tamil also seems to be close to Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Sanskrit all languages of what is now Pakistan, these languages have the same strucrure as Tamil, there is a possibility that Tamil also contains some influences of the language of the Indus Valley people who wrere definately not Aryans. The Dravadian and the Indus Valley People seem to be related tribes as there is evidence of the co existance of the Dravadian and Indus Valley Poelple .

Answer 4

There were a lot ancient languages and all those have been purified into one as Sanskrit - 'Sanskar' means purification. Sanskrit means that is purified, clean without any waste. The ancient languages were the voices that were related by human and animals and enironment. When a voice is heard from a Lion, man imitates the same to get acquintance with. This is the birth of language and later they were named or called in different names and thereafter grammer came to make it acceptable for more people. All those were purified in India and Sanskrit was born by Rishi Patanjali - Please read more....

Answer 5

sanskrit is much older than tamil, but yes, both developed indigeneously
however, tamil was developed to suit a handful of people in what is now modern-day tamil nadu. it never spread around much, unlike sanskrit, which gave birth to our national langauge Hindi, which is spoken in tea shops, restaurants and around the country (and don't forget Bollywood!)

Answer 6

Sanskrit the language of the Aryan people that settled India and founded the first Dynasty

Answer 7

Sanskrit

Answer 8

tamil has not same origin as sanskrit and has older roots in India...Older language are not always the most widely spread.
But it influence other languages around.

Answer 9

tamil is the most ancient but it is not the same tamil they speak now a days. sanskrit came later but it is the same sanskrit used today as in the older days.

Answer 10

Tamil is the ancient language.

It is difficult to learn since the number of words available for each activity is unique by itself.

Whereas in Hindi same words are used and the meaning varies depending upon the situation and other words used alongwith it.