Sourashtra Language is an Indo-Aryan language derived from Sauraseni Prakrit. It is now spoken by about a million people throghout the State of TAMIL NADU in INDIA. The community is 'Sourashtra'. They are also termed as 'paTTunuulkaaran'. This means one who deals in
silk threads. That is they are silk weavers.
It is said their homeland is SAURASHTRA in Gujarat State, INDIA.
It is not known when they migrated from Gujarat to South India.
They passed through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra and finally settled in Tamil Nadu. They are concentrated more in Madurai.
Dr. H.N. Randle of India Office Library, London wrote an article in BOAS long back about this language.
This evinced interest in Dr.Uchida Norihiko, of KOBE, Japan, when
he was in Germany. He came to India in 1972 and studied this language. He has published 'Oral Literature of Saurashtrans' in 1979 and 'Saurashtra-English Dictionary' in 1990.
He continues to do research on this language. For this he visits
every year Madurai.
1st January 2006.
O.S.Subramanian
silk threads. That is they are silk weavers.
It is said their homeland is SAURASHTRA in Gujarat State, INDIA.
It is not known when they migrated from Gujarat to South India.
They passed through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra and finally settled in Tamil Nadu. They are concentrated more in Madurai.
Dr. H.N. Randle of India Office Library, London wrote an article in BOAS long back about this language.
This evinced interest in Dr.Uchida Norihiko, of KOBE, Japan, when
he was in Germany. He came to India in 1972 and studied this language. He has published 'Oral Literature of Saurashtrans' in 1979 and 'Saurashtra-English Dictionary' in 1990.
He continues to do research on this language. For this he visits
every year Madurai.
1st January 2006.
O.S.Subramanian
