Eelam or Eela Naadu is a Tamil name for Sri Lanka. It is also spelled also as Eezham, Ezham, Iizham and Ilam. Tamil Eelam is the name given by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the independent state to which they aspire in the Northern and Eastern portions of Sri Lanka. Area of Sri Lanka claimed for Tamil Eelam Political status Unrecognized state Languages      Tamil (de facto official) English Capital Trincomalee[1][2] Time zone UTC +5:30 Tamil Eelam (Tamil: தமிழ் ஈழம், tamiḻ īḻam) is the name given by Tamil separatists to the independent state to which they aspire in the Northern... This article is about Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. ... For other uses, see State (disambiguation). ... Image:North province Tamil Eelam. ...

Origin of the word

Some believe the word is a Tamil derivation of Sinhela or Simhela an ancient Sinhalese name for the island nation where as others believe its derived from the Tamil term for Coconut tree which is very common in Sri Lanka.^[1] It is also believed that perhaps this word dates back to Ila the daughter of Manu, the founder of humanity. The entire Indian Plate (India and Sri Lanka) is known as Ilavarta and so Ilam or Eelam could have originated from Ila.[2] Furthermore, this word means mother and hence the peoples of the first Hindus labelled this entire land as the Mother Land. Sinhalese or Sinhala (සිංහල, ISO 15919: , IPA: [], earlier referred to as Singhalese) is the mother tongue of the Sinhalese, the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka. ... For other uses, see Coconut (disambiguation). ... Ila may refer to: Ila people, an ethnic group in Zambia Ila, Nigeria, a city Ila, Trondheim, a borough in Norway Ila, the first woman on Tutuila in Samoan mythology Ila, the wife of Commander Adama in the original Battlestar Galactica, played by Sophia Loren Ila may also refer to...  The Indian plate, shown in red Due to continental drift, the India Plate split from Madagascar and collided with the Eurasian Plate resulting in the formation of the Himalayas. ...

Iizham also means the golden land in Tamil.

Controversy

It is a controversial subject as each partisan point view is supported by nationalists on both the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamil point of view. Language(s) Sinhala Religion(s) Theravada Buddhism, Christianity, small groups of atheists, agnostics, Muslims, others Related ethnic groups Indo-Aryans, Dravidians, Veddahs, Bengalis The Sinhalese are the main ethnic group of Sri Lanka. ... see Sri Lankan Tamils ...

Early attestation

The word is attested in the Sangam era name of a poet supposedly from Sri Lanka as Eelattu Poothanthevanar or Poothan Thevan from Eelam. Thus chronologically, the word Eelam is attested prior to Simhela or Sinhela in Sri Lanka. It is also is attested in place names in Chola era inscriptions both as a guild of Toddy tappers and in place names in Tamil Nadu and Kerala for settlement of Toddy tappers.^[3] For other uses of Sangam see Sangam (disambiguation). ... Eelattu Poothanthevanar; Classical Sri Lankan Poet Poothanthevanar constitutes the earliest known Sri Lankan Tamil poet and his poems were included in the Tamil cankam (sangam) poetry anthologies compiled in southern India before 250AD. A distinctly Sri Lankan Tamil literary tradition first developed in the 1940s with the works of the... The Cholas were the most famous of the three dynasties that ruled ancient Tamil Nadu. ... Tamil Nadu (தமிழ் நாடு, Land of the Tamils) is a state at the southern tip of India. ... , Kerala ( ; Malayalam: കേരളം; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Palm wine. ...

Even today one can find Eelacherry or settlement of Eelas in Kerala. It still survives as name of a prominent caste in Kerala called the Ezhavas. Ilam Kadungo is also the name of Chera dynasty king. , Kerala ( ; Malayalam: കേരളം; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India. ... Caste systems are traditional, hereditary systems of social classification, that evolved due to the enormous diversity in India (where all three primary races met, not by forced slavery but by immigration). ... Ezhava is a sect among the Hindu community in India. ... The Chera dynasty (Tamil: சேரர்) was one of the ancient Tamil dynasties that ruled southern India from ancient times until around the fifteenth century CE. The Early Cheras ruled over the Malabar Coast, Coimbatore, Karur and Salem Districts in South India, which now forms part of the modern day Kerala and...

See also

• Ezhavas a caste of Kerala
• Tamil Eelam A term traditionally reserved for Northeast of Sri Lanka.

Ezhava is a sect among the Hindu community in India. ... , Kerala ( ; Malayalam: കേരളം; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India. ... Area of Sri Lanka claimed for Tamil Eelam Political status Unrecognized state Languages      Tamil (de facto official) English Capital Trincomalee[1][2] Time zone UTC +5:30 Tamil Eelam (Tamil: தமிழ் ஈழம், tamiḻ īḻam) is the name given by Tamil separatists to the independent state to which they aspire in the Northern...

References

• ^ Madras Tamil Lexicon, Page 194

External links

• Derivation of Ilam from Simhalam