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Yes, the Sinhalese have their origins in Bengal, Odisha

One could make the case the Moors are mostly Tamil by DNA, even the ones that trace lineage to Arab traders etc..

Common mistake made, Eastern Muslims originally from South India are categorized as Sri Lankan Muslims along with Moors and the Malays, But the Moorish are distinct with origins in Middle east and North Africa, If one would travel to area's they predominantly reside like the South West Coast and the Kandy region you can clearly see the difference both in appearance and certain ways of life, While Eastern Muslims (Those who largely reside in Colombo are also Eastern Muslims) only speak Tamil, While the Moors speak Sinhalese and English along with a bit of Tamil

Oh btw as i mentioned before those who are categorized as Tamils mainly in the East are actually Malayali and Telingu, Later Tamilzed over the centuries, Even the LTTE leaders origins were traced back to Kerala

Eastern Tamil Muslim, CM of the Eastern province, Naseer Ahamed
Naseer%20Ahamed.jpg


Head of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Min Rauf Hakeem, A typical Moor from Kandy
rauff-hakeem.png
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Sri_Lanka

Sinhalese + Tamils = 90% according to your 2012 census. Still the vast majority. Btw what is your ethnicity ?

I'm what you would call is a mongrel of sorts

@Nilgiri The thing is brah all the complexities of the ethnic melting pot what we call Sri Lanka has been trivialized over the years of war, The world only knows Tamils and Sinhalese, Some even dont realize the majority are Sinhalese but there are many many underlying distinct communities, cultures and origins within, It took years of struggle for the Malay community to recognize them self's as a distinct ethnicity before they were all grouped as Muslims, Even though they have their own language Bhahasa Malayu.. I think as the country opens up to the wider world outsiders will get to know about these unmentioned people and it's intricacies living in this small island
 
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Common mistake made, Eastern Muslims originally from South India are categorized as Sri Lankan Muslims along with Moors and the Malays, But the Moorish are distinct with origins in Middle east and North Africa, If one would travel to area's they predominantly reside like the South West Coast and the Kandy region you can clearly see the difference both in appearance and certain ways of life, While Eastern Muslims (Those who largely reside in Colombo are also Eastern Muslims) only speak Tamil, While the Moors speak Sinhalese and English along with a bit of Tamil

Oh btw as i mentioned before those who are categorized as Tamils mainly in the East are actually Malayali and Telingu, Later Tamilzed over the centuries, Even the LTTE leaders origins were traced back to Kerala

Eastern Tamil Muslim, CM of the Eastern province, Naseer Ahamed
Naseer%20Ahamed.jpg


Head of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Min Rauf Hakeem, A typical Moor from Kandy
rauff-hakeem.png

I have seen and talked with both SL and Indian moors (in Tamil may I add), for the most part they look pretty much the same as the Tamil people...since I can clearly find great variance in skin tone and overall look among the Tamil people in general.

Same goes for the Sinhalese. Ethnically all the dominant groups are quite similar, its proven by the genetic studies too:

http://www.nature.com/jhg/journal/v59/n1/full/jhg2013112a.html#fig2

It is quite clear from Supplementary Figure S1 that the Vedda population was genetically separated from other Sri Lankan ethnic populations, with genetic distance being less between them. Indian Tamils established the closest genetic relationship with their Sri Lankan ethnic counterparts. Up-country Sinhalese formed close genetic affiliations with Sri Lankan Tamils and Low-country Sinhalese.

Figure 2 illustrates more insights into the genetic relationships among the studied populations, with the description of genetic variation among subgroups within each ethnic population. From this unrooted neighbor-joining tree, it was confirmed that there was a greater genetic distance between the Vedda people and the rest of the populations. Two Vedda subgroups (VA-Dam and VA-Hen) were intermingled with the Sinhalese, both Up-country and Low-country, but not with any of Tamils. The Tamils, both Sri Lankan and Indian, clustered together. The genetic matrix in which the Tamil and Sinhalese subgroups, that cannot be clearly separated from each other, were observed towards one major branch of the tree, with the majority of the Vedda people towards the other. Interestingly, some Sinhalese groups (SU-Mul, SU-Mee and SL-Lan) were relatively closer to Tamils than to the rest of Sinhalese subgroups.

http://www.fsigenetics.com/article/S1872-4973(08)00143-9/abstract

Allele frequencies and statistical parameters of forensic interest are presented for 11 autosomal microsatellites (CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01, D16S539, D13S317, D7S820, F13A, F13B, FESFPS, vWA and LPL) of four ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. A total of 513 unrelated individuals from Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamil, Indian Tamil and Sri Lankan Moor population groups were included. Sri Lanka is an island with a multi-ethnic population whose genetic composition has not been previously studied at the ethnic group level. All the 11 microsatellites were found to be highly polymorphic, with the combined power of exclusion being greater than 0.99999, in all four ethnic groups. Overall data analysis suggests that a single combined genetic database could be used for genetic-based identification purposes for the four ethnic groups.
 
I have seen and talked with both SL and Indian moors (in Tamil may I add), for the most part they look pretty much the same as the Tamil people...since I can clearly find great variance in skin tone and overall look among the Tamil people in general.

Mate the variance is not just in the complexion, But facts traced back to centuries, The first Moorish settlements were from traders from Arabia, They first settled in Beruwala then known as Bayroo by the Arabs, And they were settled all over the South Western coasts, Both archaeological and genealogical records still exist, The Moors of the hinterland mainly in the Kandy area were descendants of these Arabs that were given protection by the Sinhalese kings during the Portuguese annexation of Coastal Ceylon.. There is a reason why to this day Moors speck Sinhalese as thier mother tongue and the Eastern Muslims prefer Tamil

The issue in those studies you have posted is they dont make the distinction of the sub groups of Sri Lankan Muslim community but band all Sri Lankan Muslims as one.. That does not disprove what i have mentioned

Just because they all categorize all Muslims as Moors for consensual purposes, Those who are on the know knows the distinctions, Another common mistake made is Colombo is inhabited mainly by Tamil Muslims so invariably outsiders tend to think that they represent the whole Muslim community on the island, It isn't so

And probably the classification of a Moor differs from TN to that of Sri Lanka
 
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There is a reason why to this day Moors speck Sinhalese as thier mother tongue and the Eastern Muslims prefer Tamil

Wait you are saying the Moors are just those found in the western part and that they all speak Sinhalese?

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20836916?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Also from wiki:

Tamil is stated to be the mother tongue of more than 99% of the community. Moorish Tamil bears the influence of Arabic.[6] Furthermore, the Moors like their counterparts[4][16] in Tamil Nadu, use the Arwi which is a written register of the Tamil language with the use of the Arabic alphabet.[17] The Arwi alphabet is unique to the Muslims of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, hinting at erstwhile close relations between the Tamil Muslims across the two territories.[4]

Religious sermons are delivered in Tamil even in regions where Tamil is not the majority language. Islamic Tamil literature has a thousand-year heritage.[3]

=======

http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Moor-of-Sri-Lanka.html

A consensus on the name for Sri Lanka Muslims has not been arrived at. The appellation "Moor" (from the Portuguese) is not used by the population to identify themselves. The Sinhalese use the term "Muslim" or "Marakkala" after a leading Muslim family name. Sri Lanka Muslims occasionally call themselves "Sonakar" or "Sonar," therefore setting themselves apart from the Muslims of south India. TheUrduappellation "Musalman" is used principally around theColomboarea (the Sri Lankan capital). In government publications the designation "Tamil" implies Hindu or Christian; Muslims are listed asMoors. The motivation is political, to represent a larger proportion of Sinhalese to Tamil speakers in the population.

Muslims represent 7.36 percent of the total population of Sri Lanka (1989). Sri Lanka Muslims represent a number of different ethnic groups, three of which are recognized in the 1984 government census: Sri Lanka Moors (1.1 million); Malays (60,000); and Indian Moors, the majority of whom are ethnic Tamils from southern India (40,000). Tamil is the established tongue of the Sri Lanka Moors. In recent years, because of political considerations, many have learned theSinhala languageand some children study it in school. A handful speak Sinhala in the hill areas at home; however, Tamil remains the language of education for the majority up through the university level. All religious literature and sermons are given in Tamil. Malays speak Malay at home, although they do not write it, and they prefer to educate their children in English. With the exception of the Bohras, who are Shiites, all of the other groups areSunniMuslims.

Can you find me one Sri Lankan muslim song in Sinhalese?

Here's one in Tamil:


Worth reading how the whole division from the broader Tamil community really took off:

https://books.google.ca/books/about...nkan_Muslims.html?id=C322g0fCcMkC&redir_esc=y

Also worth reading:

http://spot.colorado.edu/~mcgilvra/Dennis_McGilvray/Publications_files/McGilvray 1998 Arabs Moors and Muslims CIS.pdf

Another article:

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/in...te-tamil-hindu-converts-not-arab-descendants/

Tamil is the mother tongue of over 99% of the Sri Lankan Muslims. The Islamic sermons are overwhelmingly delivered in Tamil even in the Sinhalese majority districts of Kandy, Matara and Galle. Gujarati Muslims in Sri Lanka like myself cannot follow the Islamic sermons in that inpenetrable Dravidian language.

The Sri Lankan Muslim claim of Arab ancestry is not corroborated by the Arabs themselves. They treat the Sri Lankan Muslims as lowly converts speaking a strange tongue. Many Tamil-speaking Muslims from Sri Lanka have gone to the Middle-East looking for a homecoming. But, the homecoming was not forthcoming, as the cruelty inflicted on Rizana Nafeek shows.
 
Wait you are saying the Moors are just those found in the western part and that they all speak Sinhalese?

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20836916?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Also from wiki:

Tamil is stated to be the mother tongue of more than 99% of the community. Moorish Tamil bears the influence of Arabic.[6] Furthermore, the Moors like their counterparts[4][16] in Tamil Nadu, use the Arwi which is a written register of the Tamil language with the use of the Arabic alphabet.[17] The Arwi alphabet is unique to the Muslims of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, hinting at erstwhile close relations between the Tamil Muslims across the two territories.[4]

Religious sermons are delivered in Tamil even in regions where Tamil is not the majority language. Islamic Tamil literature has a thousand-year heritage.[3]

=======

http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Moor-of-Sri-Lanka.html

A consensus on the name for Sri Lanka Muslims has not been arrived at. The appellation "Moor" (from the Portuguese) is not used by the population to identify themselves. The Sinhalese use the term "Muslim" or "Marakkala" after a leading Muslim family name. Sri Lanka Muslims occasionally call themselves "Sonakar" or "Sonar," therefore setting themselves apart from the Muslims of south India. TheUrduappellation "Musalman" is used principally around theColomboarea (the Sri Lankan capital). In government publications the designation "Tamil" implies Hindu or Christian; Muslims are listed asMoors. The motivation is political, to represent a larger proportion of Sinhalese to Tamil speakers in the population.

Muslims represent 7.36 percent of the total population of Sri Lanka (1989). Sri Lanka Muslims represent a number of different ethnic groups, three of which are recognized in the 1984 government census: Sri Lanka Moors (1.1 million); Malays (60,000); and Indian Moors, the majority of whom are ethnic Tamils from southern India (40,000). Tamil is the established tongue of the Sri Lanka Moors. In recent years, because of political considerations, many have learned theSinhala languageand some children study it in school. A handful speak Sinhala in the hill areas at home; however, Tamil remains the language of education for the majority up through the university level. All religious literature and sermons are given in Tamil. Malays speak Malay at home, although they do not write it, and they prefer to educate their children in English. With the exception of the Bohras, who are Shiites, all of the other groups areSunniMuslims.

Can you find me one Sri Lankan muslim song in Sinhalese?

Here's one in Tamil:


Worth reading how the whole division from the broader Tamil community really took off:

https://books.google.ca/books/about...nkan_Muslims.html?id=C322g0fCcMkC&redir_esc=y

Also worth reading:

http://spot.colorado.edu/~mcgilvra/Dennis_McGilvray/Publications_files/McGilvray 1998 Arabs Moors and Muslims CIS.pdf

Another article:

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/in...te-tamil-hindu-converts-not-arab-descendants/

Tamil is the mother tongue of over 99% of the Sri Lankan Muslims. The Islamic sermons are overwhelmingly delivered in Tamil even in the Sinhalese majority districts of Kandy, Matara and Galle. Gujarati Muslims in Sri Lanka like myself cannot follow the Islamic sermons in that inpenetrable Dravidian language.

The Sri Lankan Muslim claim of Arab ancestry is not corroborated by the Arabs themselves. They treat the Sri Lankan Muslims as lowly converts speaking a strange tongue. Many Tamil-speaking Muslims from Sri Lanka have gone to the Middle-East looking for a homecoming. But, the homecoming was not forthcoming, as the cruelty inflicted on Rizana Nafeek shows.

Again you have made a few simple mistakes here

First a mere anthropological studies does not reveal the whole story of a race, As it has been done here and that with a number of short comings, It needs a good dose of Genealogical evidence to be more credible, I study genealogy quite rigorously for obvious reasons. And am quite aware of many Ceylonese roots

I'm not here to argue the purity of Arab blood in modern day Sri Lankan Moors of cause they intermarried to both Sinhalese and Tamil communities but to say they are of manly Tamil DNA is false

From what you have provided there is no definition of the origins of Muslims in Sri Lanka, They have grouped all Muslims in to one ethno religious group that itself

And they have used the term Moor to categorize all Muslims in the island bar the Malay, Which is also wrong, This may be true for the Muslims in Tamil Nadu but not Sri Lanka, The original Moors and their descendants have roots in Arabia the other Muslims in South India

"The unbreakable relationship between the Sinhalese and the Muslims for several thousand years through major inter-twined factors that are intermarriage, conversions, hereditary house names, and Sinhala language. These integrated factors never gave space to break the relationship among these communities. He describes extensively that the Arabs freely intermarried with the daughters of the land, thus giving rise to the present-day Muslim community and such intermarriages seems to have lasted for several centuries and has even continued to the present day. Sinhalese blood might have also entered the Muslims by way of conversions which seem to have even taken place during the days of Portuguese colonization. Further, he adds that the Muslims of old had a habit to purchase children of other communities (especially from Sinhalese) from their parents so that they could be brought up as Muslims. These children were assimilated into the Muslim community, so that it was possible that they too contributed a significant infusion of Sinhalese blood to the Sri Lankan Muslim community. And this would also suggest that there are Muslims whose Sinhalese ancestry has been acquired not only through the maternal line as seen earlier, but also in the paternal line. According to his finding, many Muslims of the Kandyan districts had had definite hereditary patronymics of the Vasagama type found among the Sinhalese as interacting factor. Furthermore, he identifies that most of the Muslims are bi- or trilingual and speak languages depending on their geographical locations. This language skill coupled with their wide disbursement throughout the island has given them a unique interaction with the majority Sinhalese.

http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol20-issue5/Version-6/H020566570.pdf

The first Muslims settled in parts of the island where the Sinhalese were the majority, So that itself gives the reasons for the intermarriage between the majority community and the new settlers and the exposure to the majority culture and thier language rather than the language of an Ethnic group that was found elsewhere in the island, Likewise when the south Indian indentured labor was bought in first by the Dutch they assimilate quite easily with the inhabitant of those area's by the 15th century were predominantly Tamil, and given that the new comers mother tongue was also Tamil there was no need for those people to learn Sinhalese

By time those Tamil Muslim migrants outnumbered the original Moors as it happens, That changed the demographics and they included themselves in as the Moors

"
The Arabs also expanded eastwards, towards India and China, in search of trade. In the 9th and 10th centuries, an assortment of Persians, Arabs, Abyssinians, all Muslims, speaking Arabic and therefore conveniently called 'Arabs' dominated the overseas trade from Baghdad to China. The Muslims of Sri Lanka were a part of this trade operation. There is evidence that there were Muslim merchant settlements in Sri Lanka as early as the 7th century. M. A. M. Shukri has used the Arabic (Kufi) inscriptions in Sri Lanka to throw light on the origins of Sri Lanka's Muslims. He says that the Sri Lanka Moors originally came from Aleppo, a city in Syria. ('Sri Lanka and the Silk Road of the Sea' p181). Apparently there is an Arabic document in the possession of one of the oldest Moor families in Beruwela. It said that in 604 AD two sons of the Royal family of Yemen came to Lanka, one settled in Mannar the other in Beruwela (Daily News 25.9. 98. p 16).

Muslim settlements started in Mantai, and thereafter spread systematically in the trading ports. Archaeological evidence, such as tomb stones, indicate that there were Muslim settlements in 10th century, in Anuradhapura, Trincomalee and Colombo. Thereafter, there were Muslim settlements in the port towns along the southwestern seaboard, such as Beruwela and Galle"

" As we all know, the Muslims use their Arabic or Persian names very openly and proudly. Even today, the Muslims in Kandyan areas have 2 names, a traditional Sinhala family name denoting the person's ancestry and profession and an Arabic name. For all practical purposes, only the Arabic name is known and used. The Sinhala name is used only in legal documents and is useful in proving long residence in the island and ownership of land. (Dewaraja. p 12-13)."

"The second wave of Muslims came to Sri Lanka from South India. They were the descendants of earlier Arab traders who had settled in South Indian ports and married local women. Thus Tamil and Malayalam came to be written in Arabic script, and was known as Arabic Tamil. The Koran was translated into Arabic Tamil. It was translated into Sinhala only recently. Since it was compulsory for Muslim children to read the Koran, they had to know Arabic Tamil. This partly explains why Muslims who have lived for centuries in wholly Sinhala speaking areas retained Arabic Tamil as their 'mother tongue'. Generations of Sri Lankan Tamils went to theological institutions in Vellore to study Islamic learning. It has also been suggested that Muslims speak Tamil because Tamil was widely used in maritime commerce in the Indian Ocean (Dewaraja p 17)."

https://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/srilanka.htm

Bro.. You might not agree with me but since the Tamil Sinhala conflict arose there have been a systematic attempt by the Tamil supremacist's to include Sri Lankan Muslims as a whole to their narrative of Tamil nationhood, This has been rejected over the years staunchly by Muslim scholars and others in neutral perspectives for it's false connotations , Thus it leads to believe some of those works that try to portray the whole community as one homogeneous entity can be attributed to that propaganda

I shall continue to submit other sources and studies as time permits, Especially on genealogical records
 
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Again you have made a few simple mistakes here

First a mere anthropological studies does not reveal the whole story of a race, As it has been done here and that with a number of short comings, It needs a good dose of Genealogical evidence to be more credible, I study genealogy quite rigorously for obvious reasons. And am quite aware of many Ceylonese roots

I'm not here to argue the purity of Arab blood in modern day Sri Lankan Moors of cause they intermarried to both Sinhalese and Tamil communities but to say they are of manly Tamil DNA is false

From what you have provided there is no definition of the origins of Muslims in Sri Lanka, They have grouped all Muslims in to one ethno religious group that itself

And they have used the term Moor to categorize all Muslims in the island bar the Malay, Which is also wrong, This may be true for the Muslims in Tamil Nadu but not Sri Lanka, The original Moors and their descendants have roots in Arabia the other Muslims in South India

"The unbreakable relationship between the Sinhalese and the Muslims for several thousand years through major inter-twined factors that are intermarriage, conversions, hereditary house names, and Sinhala language. These integrated factors never gave space to break the relationship among these communities. He describes extensively that the Arabs freely intermarried with the daughters of the land, thus giving rise to the present-day Muslim community and such intermarriages seems to have lasted for several centuries and has even continued to the present day. Sinhalese blood might have also entered the Muslims by way of conversions which seem to have even taken place during the days of Portuguese colonization. Further, he adds that the Muslims of old had a habit to purchase children of other communities (especially from Sinhalese) from their parents so that they could be brought up as Muslims. These children were assimilated into the Muslim community, so that it was possible that they too contributed a significant infusion of Sinhalese blood to the Sri Lankan Muslim community. And this would also suggest that there are Muslims whose Sinhalese ancestry has been acquired not only through the maternal line as seen earlier, but also in the paternal line. According to his finding, many Muslims of the Kandyan districts had had definite hereditary patronymics of the Vasagama type found among the Sinhalese as interacting factor. Furthermore, he identifies that most of the Muslims are bi- or trilingual and speak languages depending on their geographical locations. This language skill coupled with their wide disbursement throughout the island has given them a unique interaction with the majority Sinhalese.

http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol20-issue5/Version-6/H020566570.pdf

The first Muslims settled in parts of the island where the Sinhalese were the majority, So that itself gives the reasons for the intermarriage between the majority community and the new settlers and the exposure to the majority culture and thier language rather than the language of an Ethnic group that was found elsewhere in the island, Likewise when the south Indian indentured labor was bought in first by the Dutch they assimilate quite easily with the inhabitant of those area's by the 15th century were predominantly Tamil, and given that the new comers mother tongue was also Tamil there was no need for those people to learn Sinhalese

By time those Tamil Muslim migrants outnumbered the original Moors as it happens, That changed the demographics and they included themselves in as the Moors

"
The Arabs also expanded eastwards, towards India and China, in search of trade. In the 9th and 10th centuries, an assortment of Persians, Arabs, Abyssinians, all Muslims, speaking Arabic and therefore conveniently called 'Arabs' dominated the overseas trade from Baghdad to China. The Muslims of Sri Lanka were a part of this trade operation. There is evidence that there were Muslim merchant settlements in Sri Lanka as early as the 7th century. M. A. M. Shukri has used the Arabic (Kufi) inscriptions in Sri Lanka to throw light on the origins of Sri Lanka's Muslims. He says that the Sri Lanka Moors originally came from Aleppo, a city in Syria. ('Sri Lanka and the Silk Road of the Sea' p181). Apparently there is an Arabic document in the possession of one of the oldest Moor families in Beruwela. It said that in 604 AD two sons of the Royal family of Yemen came to Lanka, one settled in Mannar the other in Beruwela (Daily News 25.9. 98. p 16).

Muslim settlements started in Mantai, and thereafter spread systematically in the trading ports. Archaeological evidence, such as tomb stones, indicate that there were Muslim settlements in 10th century, in Anuradhapura, Trincomalee and Colombo. Thereafter, there were Muslim settlements in the port towns along the southwestern seaboard, such as Beruwela and Galle"

" As we all know, the Muslims use their Arabic or Persian names very openly and proudly. Even today, the Muslims in Kandyan areas have 2 names, a traditional Sinhala family name denoting the person's ancestry and profession and an Arabic name. For all practical purposes, only the Arabic name is known and used. The Sinhala name is used only in legal documents and is useful in proving long residence in the island and ownership of land. (Dewaraja. p 12-13)."

"The second wave of Muslims came to Sri Lanka from South India. They were the descendants of earlier Arab traders who had settled in South Indian ports and married local women. Thus Tamil and Malayalam came to be written in Arabic script, and was known as Arabic Tamil. The Koran was translated into Arabic Tamil. It was translated into Sinhala only recently. Since it was compulsory for Muslim children to read the Koran, they had to know Arabic Tamil. This partly explains why Muslims who have lived for centuries in wholly Sinhala speaking areas retained Arabic Tamil as their 'mother tongue'. Generations of Sri Lankan Tamils went to theological institutions in Vellore to study Islamic learning. It has also been suggested that Muslims speak Tamil because Tamil was widely used in maritime commerce in the Indian Ocean (Dewaraja p 17)."

https://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/srilanka.htm

Bro.. You might not agree with me but since the Tamil Sinhala conflict arose there have been a systematic attempt by the Tamil supremacist's to include Sri Lankan Muslims as a whole to their narrative of Tamil nationhood, This has been rejected over the years staunchly by Muslim scholars and others in neutral perspectives for it's false connotations , Thus it leads to believe some of those works that try to portray the whole community as one homogeneous entity can be attributed to that propaganda

I shall continue to submit other sources and studies as time permits, Especially on genealogical records

I agree in the end it is up to the moors individually to decide if they are Tamil or not. I think I will rest it there....and we can agree to disagree on whatever else.

Genetically there is too much going on anyway to properly delineate ethnicities...I remember reading somewhere in South Asia ( and even the world globally) there is actually more difference within ethinc groups than across ethnic groups in perceptible markers of geographic areas.
 
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