Coimbatore: The Tamil language was India's pride and reflects “concepts intrinsic to India's society”, said President Pratibha Patil at the inauguration of the five-day World Classical Tamil Conference on Wednesday.
"The Tamil people have enriched cultural richness of the world and India," she told the thousands of delegates from India and abroad gathered for the event.
"As our nation progresses economically, we have sought to follow an inclusive growth paradigm so that growth brings benefits to all sections of society," she said.
"The history of Tamils is our nation's pride. Many concepts intrinsic to India's society and basic to its polity are found in Tamil discourse over the millennium. For example, respect for each other's religion has long been part of Tamil cultural tradition."
"Tamil language, with its vibrancy and richness, has made India a proud multilingual society," she said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, in his address, said all world languages had some words originating from Tamil. "Hence Tamil has the status of the first mother tongue in the world," Karunanidhi claimed.
Quoting from Sangha period and the Mahabharatha, he said there were 11 well-defined yardsticks for a language to be termed classical: antiquity, individuality, common character, neutrality, parental kinship, linguistic principles, literary prowess, noble ideas and ideals, culture, art and wisdom born of experiences.
"That Tamil possesses all these merits has been accepted unanimously not only by scholars in Tamil Nadu and other Tamil scholars in the rest of India, but by foreigners who learnt the language and attained enviable proficiency in Tamil," he said.
Earlier, Patil gave away the first Kalaignar Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award to Finnish scholar Asko Parpola. The award contains a citation, a cheque for Rs 10 lakh and a statuette of saint Tamil poet, Tiruvalluvar.
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