Tamil, a clear and logical language: Russian scholar

By R. Sujatha

 "Tamil is a very clear and logical language. It is very condensed. The strongest opinions can be expressed briefly," says Alexander M. Dubianski, a Russian, who is an Indologist and Tamilologist.

Dr. Dubianski is here on an invitation of the French Institute of Indology to participate in the Winter School for Classical Tamil in Pondicherry. He will be reading Sivaka Chinthamani, a 10th century poem.

"Colloquialism has crept into the language. Many English words are being used. Even Russian has this problem. I speak chaste Tamil," he says but he can understand the language when spoken to, despite the different regional inflections. "There have been radical changes in the use of some words."

Words like kuzhandai (child — it is generally koindai now, he says), kinaru (kanaru for well), kulir (kulur for cold) put him in a spot. Yet, he says more people understand the word `coffee' better than `kulambi.' "Grammar reflects the way of thinking. That is the most difficult part of a language. When you speak a language you should be able to think like the people who speak the language. The mind has to adjust to the way of thinking," Dr. Dubianski says.

He took up Tamil classes in 1965 at Moscow University's Institute of Oriental Languages. It was a chance happening, he says. A musician by profession, he served the Russian army for three years. From playing the piano he moved to learning Tamil on a friend's suggestion. His teachers were students of Poornam Somasundaram and Mani Verma, who worked in Moscow Radio.

In 1978, he received his Ph.D. and his thesis was on Sangam poetry. He has read Tolkappiam, Agananuru, Purananuru and Kurunthogai and has published an anthology of translations from Tamil texts. He has read Bharathiyar's poems and keeps in touch with the current trend in poetry. He has read short stories by Jayakanthan, Akilan, Indra Parthasarathy and Neela Padmanabhan.

Dr. Dubianski recalls his first visit to Chennai when he spent nine months as a student of the Madras University. This is his 10th visit but regrets that many visits had been very short, some times it was just a few days. He hopes to speak Tamil like a native. "It will take two years of living here to understand the language as it is spoken," he says.

He wants to visit Tamil Nadu more often, "to feel the pulse of the people." He feels Tamil culture has been neglected. The five elements of Tamil poetry — mullai, kurunji, marudham, palai and neidhal — are unique to Tamil poetry and not found in the literature of other Indian languages. He has visited the six abodes of Murugan, a Dravidian deity that has figured in his works and has participated in the international conference on Skanda Murugan in 1998