“The Tamil language, can, not only stand alone, but flourish without the aid of Sanskrit” - Robert Caldwell
Robert Caldwell did not hold a roadshow in an open flower-decked vehicle to announce what he had contributed to show the unique character of the Dravidian languages. Nor did the people on both sides of the road hail him showering petals of flowers, as most commoners hardly knew who he was and what he had done to Tamil and her sister languages.
What such commoners have recently heard of him is that he was a “school dropout”, who “claimed” himself a philologist and the one who came from Britain to India just to convert every creature into a Christian. Indeed, he did come here as a missionary. But his decades-long mission was discovering the root of Dravidian languages, comparing the similarities between their words and phrases, and proving, beyond doubt, that they are independent of Sanskrit.
To the faint praise of a few audience in a recent video, Caldwell’s A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages is commented on as a ‘fake’ book. But the ones who know Caldwell’s erudition only laughed at this comment and wondered whether one’s lifetime be enough to complete reading his 816–page research book on linguistics and cross-check his points from the list of numerous other books of knowledge he has mentioned in the bibliography.
Learned linguists and philologists would only poke fun at the slander that Caldwell was a “school dropout”.
At the University of Glasgow, when Caldwell’s first year of a course commenced, he stood second in the special examination in Latin and fourth in Greek. In his second year of studies, he was second in Logic and received a prize for an essay on a subject in Greek literature. Then, when he went up for his Bachelor’s degree in the same university, he was bracketed first in Mental and Moral Science and received accordingly half of Sir Robert Peel’s prize for the person who stood first in the list of graduates.
Taught and inspired by Daniel Stanford, a Professor of Greek and eminent scholar in Comparative Philology, Caldwell formed a resolution even while as his student in his twenties at the University of Glasgow.
“If I ever found myself amongst strange races speaking strange languages I should endeavor so to study those languages as to qualify myself to write something about them that should be useful to the world. This early-formed resolution was the seed, out of which, eventually my Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages grew.” Caldwell still remembers his resolution.
After taking his degree, Caldwell went to London and prepared to set out for India. On leaving home he had a poignant parting with his sick mother, who was confined to her bed. When he knelt down by her bed, his mother put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
The poor mother said:
“I freely give you up to God without one murmuring word”
Caldwell then rose and went forth on his journey never to see his parents again.
His mother believed that she was presenting her fond son to God. But She had little chance to know that her valuable gift was not to God but to Tamil! Had she not done so, the greatness of the Tamil language being independent of Sanskrit could never have come to light.
Caldwell’s research into the Dravidian languages in his monumental work A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages substantiates that Tamil, not only can stand alone but flourish without Sanskrit.
“Tamil, the most cultivated ab intra of Dravidian idioms can dispense with its Sanskrit altogether if need be, and, not only, stand alone but flourish without its aid, “ writes Caldwell in a chapter in his book.
While comparing the relationship between Tamil and Sanskrit with that of English and Latin, Caldwell is fair and impartial in his decision.
“English cannot abandon its Latin without abandoning perspicuity. But Tamil can readily dispense its greater part or the whole of its Sanskrit, and by dispensing with it, rises to a purer and more refined style”