Tamil Sangamams

Prelims level : Ancient History Mains level : GS-I Art & Culture
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Why in News?

  • Government to organise Tamil Sangamams in Saurashtra and Uttarakhand.

Highlights:

  • The Union government is set to hold the Saurashtra-Tamil Sangamam in Gujarat from April 17 to 26 similar to Kashi-Tamil Sangamam under the Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat initiative.
  • The Sangamam would celebrate the cultural links between Gujarat and Tamil Nadu that have been formed due to the large Saurashtra Tamil community.
  • The 10-day event would be held in four different places, i.e., Somnath, Dwarka, Rajkot and the Statue of Unity at Kevadia.
  • It is planned by the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, and Saurashtra University in Rajkot.
  • The third will be the Kedarnath-Tamil Sangamam, which will celebrate the civilisational links between people from southern states and the sacred shrines of Uttarakhand in the north.
  • The event is at an ideation stage, and work is underway to conceptualise the links between the two places.

Gujarat-South Connection:

  • Originally from the Gujarat region, the Saurashtrian community now mostly resides in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.
  • A significant Saurashtrian community lives in the Madurai region of Tamil Nadu.
  • Their migration to the southern parts of the country is believed to be primarily a result of the desecration of the Somnath Temple, their religious centre, by Mahmud Ghazni in 1024.

Kedarnath-South Connection:

  • Kedarnath, one of the four sacred shrines of Shiva among the Char Dham (four shrines), situated on the banks of Mandakini, 3,583 metres above sea level, is the eleventh out of 12 jyotirlingas (shrines dedicated to Shiva) of India.
  • The Char Dham also comprises Badrinath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri temples.
  • Every year thousands of people from Tamil Nadu and other southern States, including Karnataka and Kerala, visit Kedarnath.
  • The priests of Kedarnath were chosen by the Rawals, who belonged to Karnataka’s Veerashaiva Lingayat community.
  • Apart from Kedarnath, people from the south also visit the Badrinath shrine in large numbers, to perform Pind Daan and Tarpan (part of the last rites in Hinduism), at the Brahm Kapal temple situated in Badrinath.
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