118-399: Tolkāppiyam , also romanised as Tholkaappiyam ( Tamil : தொல்காப்பியம் listen , lit. "ancient poem"), is the most ancient extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature . It is the earliest Tamil text mentioning Gods, perhaps linked to Hindu deities . There is no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author. There
236-468: A lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes . Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person , number , mood , tense , etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination , which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or
354-591: A talai , while the line is referred to as the ati . The sutras of the Tolkappiyam – particularly after sutra 315 – state the prosody rules, enumerating the 34 component parts of ancient Tamil poetry. The prosody of an example early Sangam poem is illustrated by Kuruntokai : Traditional ciṟuveḷ ḷaravi ṉavvarik kuruḷai kāṉa yāṉai aṇaṅki yāaṅ kiḷaiyaṇ muḷaivā ḷeyiṟṟaḷ vaḷaiyuṭaik kaiyaḷem maṇaṅki yōḷē – Kuruntokai 119 , Author: Catti Nataanr The prosodic pattern in this poem follows
472-484: A , as with other Indic scripts . This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi , to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a ) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama , but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without
590-759: A 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu , Puducherry , (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , Maharashtra , Gujarat , Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and
708-729: A bardic corpus. It comprises an Urtext of oldest surviving Tamil grammar (Tolkappiyam), the Ettuttokai anthology (the "Eight Collections"), the Pathuppaattu anthology (the "Ten Songs"). The Tamil literature that followed the Sangam period – that is, after c. 250 CE but before c. 600 CE – is generally called the "post-Sangam" literature. This collection contains 2381 poems in Tamil composed by 473 poets, some 102 anonymous. Of these, 16 poets account for about 50% of
826-531: A description of the Chola capital, the king Karikal, the life in a harbor city with ships and merchandise for seafaring trade, the dance troupes, the bards and artists, the worship of the Hindu god Vishnu , Murugan and the monasteries of Buddhism and Jainism. This Sangam era poem remained in the active memory and was significant to the Tamil people centuries later, as evidenced by its mention nearly 1,000 years later in
944-519: A family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent . It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue ). The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam ; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of
1062-521: A few purists is that the name of the work derives from the author's name Tolkāppiyan, but this is a disputed assumption because neither the author(s) nor centuries in which this masterpiece was composed are known. The dating of the Tolkappiyam is difficult, much debated, and it remains contested and uncertain. Proposals range between 5,320 BCE and the 8th century CE. The tradition and some Indian scholars favor an early date for its composition, before
1180-637: A fine edition of Tirukkuṟaḷ by 1860. Navalar – who translated the Bible into Tamil while working as an assistant to a Methodist Christian missionary, chose to defend and popularize Shaiva Hinduism against missionary polemics, in part by bringing ancient Tamil and Shaiva literature to wider attention. He brought the first Sangam text into print in 1851 ( Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai , one of the Ten Idylls ). In 1868, Navalar published an early commentary on Tolkappiyam . C.W. Damodaram Pillai , also from Jaffna ,
1298-607: A number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi . The earliest long text in Old Tamil
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#17327726455721416-671: A number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur . Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin. Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi . These were sent to Beta Analytic in Miami , Florida , for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
1534-518: A number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions, and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic. Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with
1652-653: A part of Ettuttokai ): These claims of the Sangams and the description of sunken land masses Kumari Kandam have been dismissed as frivolous by historiographers. Noted historians like Kamil Zvelebil have stressed that the use of 'Sangam literature' to describe this corpus of literature is a misnomer and Classical literature should be used instead. According to Shulman, "there is not the slightest shred of evidence that any such [Sangam] literary academies ever existed", though there are many Pandya inscriptions that mention an academy of scholars. Of particular note, states Shulman,
1770-399: A scholar of Tamil language and literature, the Tamil tradition believes that the Sangam literature arose in distant antiquity over three periods, each stretching over many millennia. The first has roots in the Hindu deity Shiva , his son Murugan , Kubera as well as 545 sages including the famed Rigvedic poet Agastya . The first academy, states the legend, extended over four millennia and
1888-618: A scholar of both Tamil and Sanskrit, quotes from Parimelalakar's works. Alexander Dubyanskiy , veteran Tamil scholar from Moscow State University stated, "I am sure that Tolkappiyam is a work which demanded not only vast knowledge and a lot of thinking but a considerable creative skill from its composer." Dubyanskiy also said that the authority of the text was undeniable: "It is a literary and cultural monument of great importance." Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] )
2006-504: A sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go" and consists of the following morphemes : போக pōka go முடி muṭi accomplish Sangam literature The Sangam literature ( Tamil : சங்க இலக்கியம், caṅka ilakkiyam ), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' ( Tamil : சான்றோர் செய்யுள், Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ ), connotes
2124-647: A small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults. Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada , the United States , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , South Africa , and Australia . Tamil is the official language of
2242-610: A subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion . In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations, Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India , Abdul Kalam , who
2360-463: A variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil . These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese , Dutch , and English. In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on
2478-438: A vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives . Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology . In addition to
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#17327726455722596-470: A window into some aspects of the ancient Tamil culture, secular and religious beliefs, and the people. For example, in the Sangam era Ainkurunuru poem 202 is one of the earliest mentions of "pigtail of Brahmin boys". These poems also allude to historical incidents, ancient Tamil kings, the effect of war on loved ones and households. The Pattinappalai poem in the Ten Idylls group, for example, paints
2714-584: Is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia . It is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India , along with Sanskrit , attested since c. 300 BCE. The language belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian language family and shares close ties with Malayalam and Kannada . Despite external influences, Tamil has retained a sense of linguistic purism, especially in formal and literary contexts. Tamil
2832-542: Is a classical Tamil poetic work and traditionally the fifth of the Eight Anthologies ( Ettuthokai ) in the Sangam literature. According to Tolkappiyam , Paripadal is a kind of verse dealing only with love ( akapporul ) and does not fall under the general classification of verses. Sangam literature (200 BCE to 500 CE) mentions Mayon or the "dark one," as the Supreme deity who creates, sustains, and destroys
2950-594: Is a tradition of belief that it was written by a single author named Tolkappiyar , a disciple of sage Agastya who is one of the scholar in Tamil Sangams (1500–1200 BCE). The surviving manuscripts of the Tolkappiyam consists of three books ( atikaram ), each with nine chapters ( iyal ), with a cumulative total of 1,610 (483+463+664) seiyulgal in the nūṛpā meter. It is a comprehensive text on grammar, and includes sutras on orthography, phonology, etymology, morphology, semantics, prosody, sentence structure and
3068-405: Is also evidence of innovations. The author(s) had access and expertise of the ancient Sanskrit works on grammar and language. According to Zvelebil, another Tamil tradition believes that the earliest layer by its author(s) – Tolkappiyan – may have been a Jaina scholar, who knew aintiram (pre-Paninian grammatical system) and lived in south Kerala, but "we do not know of any definite data concerning
3186-453: Is an example of mutual love poetry. Similar tiṇai s pertain to puram poems as well, categories are sometimes based on activity: vetchi (cattle raid), vanchi (invasion, preparation for war), kanchi (tragedy), ulinai (siege), tumpai (battle), vakai (victory), paataan (elegy and praise), karanthai , and pothuviyal . The akam poetry uses metaphors and imagery to set the mood, never uses names of person or places, often leaves
3304-461: Is assumed in the Tolkappiyam . The language of the Sangam literature is same as the one described in Tolkappiyam , except in some minor respects. The Tolkappiyam is a collection of aphoristic verses in the nūṛpā meter. It is unintelligible without a commentary. Tamil scholars have written commentaries on it, over the centuries: The commentary by Ilampuranar dated to the 11th or 12th century CE
3422-457: Is based on the dialect of Jaffna . After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava . The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels , 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam . The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel
3540-517: Is based on the location or landscape in which the poetry is set. These are: kuṟiñci (குறிஞ்சி), mountainous regions; mullai (முல்லை), pastoral forests; marutam (மருதம்), riverine agricultural land; neytal (நெய்தல்) coastal regions; pālai (பாலை) arid. In addition to the landscape based tiṇai s, for akam poetry, ain-tinai (well matched, mutual love), kaikkilai (ill matched, one sided), and perunthinai (unsuited, big genre) categories are used. The Ainkurunuru – 500 short poems anthology –
3658-519: Is broadly classified into akam ( அகம் , inner), and puram ( புறம் , outer). The akam poetry is about emotions and feelings in the context of romantic love, sexual union and eroticism. The puram poetry is about exploits and heroic deeds in the context of war and public life. Approximately three-fourths of the Sangam poetry is akam themed, and about one fourth is puram . Sangam literature, both akam and puram , can be subclassified into seven minor genre called tiṇai (திணை). This minor genre
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3776-451: Is combination of sounds, orthography, graphemic and phonetics with sounds as they are produced and listened to. The phonemic inventory it includes consists of 5 long vowels, 5 short vowels, and 17 consonants. The articulatory descriptions in Tolkappiyam are incomplete, indicative of a proto-language. It does not, for example, distinguish between retroflex and non-retroflex consonants, states Thomas Lehmann. The phonetic and phonemic sections of
3894-401: Is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature. The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness". S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound". Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages ,
4012-563: Is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam . Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th-century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam , with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu , col , poruḷ , yāppu , aṇi . Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. Tamil words consist of
4130-511: Is found in Tholkappiyam , which is dated as early as late 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription , inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela , the Jain king of Kalinga , also refers to a Tamira Samghatta ( Tamil confederacy ) The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'. Southworth suggests that
4248-405: Is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme, the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic . In grammar, the most important change
4366-409: Is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ . Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example,
4484-410: Is in koṭuntamiḻ , and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' koṭuntamiḻ , rather than on any one dialect, but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai . In Sri Lanka, the standard
4602-481: Is no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author. Tholkapiyam , some traditionally believe, was written by a single author named Tolkappiyar, a disciple of Vedic sage Agastya mentioned in the Rigveda (1500–1200 BCE). According to the traditional legend, the original grammar was called Agathiam written down by sage Agastya, but it went missing after a great deluge. His student Tolkappiyar
4720-771: Is not always consistently applied. ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script , and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English. Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well. Tamil also uses several historical fractional signs. /f/ , /z/ , /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic. Tamil has two diphthongs : /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ ,
4838-417: Is not much else in any Indian literature equal to these quiet and dramatic Tamil poems. In their values and stances, they represent a mature classical poetry: passion is balanced by courtesy, transparency by ironies and nuances of design, impersonality by vivid detail, austerity of line by richness of implication. These poems are not just the earliest evidence of the Tamil genius." The Sangam literature offers
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4956-592: Is predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu , India, and the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . It has significant speaking populations in Malaysia , Singapore , and among diaspora communities . Tamil has been recognized as a classical language by the Indian government and holds official status in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Singapore. The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate
5074-409: Is the Tolkāppiyam , an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE. Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature . These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE. The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil , which
5192-529: Is the acai (metreme ), itself of two types – ner and nirai . The ner is the stressed/long syllable in European prosody tradition, while the nirai is the unstressed/short syllable combination ( pyrrhic (dibrach) and iambic ) metrical feet, with similar equivalents in the Sanskrit prosody tradition. The acai in the Sangam poems are combined to form a cir (foot), while the cir are connected to form
5310-606: Is the historic evidence of indigenous literary developments in South India in parallel to Sanskrit , and the classical status of the Tamil language. While there is no evidence for the first and second mythical Sangams, the surviving literature attests to a group of scholars centered around the ancient Madurai (Maturai) that shaped the "literary, academic, cultural and linguistic life of ancient Tamil Nadu", states Zvelebil. On their significance, Zvelebil quotes A. K. Ramanujan , "In their antiquity and in their contemporaneity, there
5428-540: Is the most comprehensive and probably the best, states Zvelebil. The commentary by Senavaraiyar deals only with the second book Sollathikaram . The commentary by Perasiriyar, which is heavily indebted to the Nannūl , frequently quotes from the Dandiyalankaram and Yapparunkalam , the former being a standard medieval rhetorica and the latter being a detailed treatise on Tamil prosody. Naccinarkiniyar's commentary, being
5546-594: Is the tenth-century CE Sinnamanur inscription that mentions a Pandyan king who sponsored the "translation of the Mahabharata into Tamil" and established a "Madhurapuri (Madurai) Sangam". According to Zvelebil, within the myth there is a kernel of reality, and all literary evidence leads one to conclude that "such an academy did exist in Madurai (Maturai) at the beginning of the Christian era". The homogeneity of
5664-793: Is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English, Malay and Mandarin. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi , Pakistan , which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka. There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Many in Réunion , Guyana , Fiji , Suriname , and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but only
5782-599: The Mahabharata , Kama, goddesses such as Ganga, divine characters from classical love stories of India. One of the poems also mentions the "merciful men of Benares ", an evidence of interaction between the northern holy city of the Hindus with the Sangam poets. Some of the Paripaatal love poems are set in the context of bathing festivals ( Magh Mela ) and various Hindu gods. They mention temples and shrines, confirming
5900-465: The Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams , which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name
6018-599: The University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages. A strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil. It received some support from Dravidian parties . This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain. According to
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#17327726455726136-479: The Velir . The evidence on the early history of the Tamil kingdoms consists of the epigraphs of the region, the Sangam literature, and archaeological data. The fourfold Vedic system of caste hierarchy did not exist during the Sangam period. The society was organised by occupational groups living apart from each other. The Sangam literature was composed by 473 poets, some 102 anonymous. According to Nilakanta Sastri,
6254-500: The nūṛpā meter, though some versions of its surviving manuscripts have a few less. The sutra format provides a distilled summary of the rules, one that is not easy to read or understand; commentaries are necessary for the proper interpretation and understanding of Tolkappiyam . "Eluttu" means "sound, letter, phoneme", and this book of the Tolkappiyam covers the sounds of the Tamil language , how they are produced (phonology). It includes punarcci ( lit. "joining, copulation") which
6372-491: The 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai , a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech. For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak
6490-534: The 11th- and 12th-century inscriptions and literary work. Sangam literature embeds evidence of loan words from Sanskrit, suggesting on-going linguistic and literary collaboration between ancient Tamil Nadu and other parts of the Indian subcontinent. One of the early loan words, for example, is acarya– from Sanskrit for a "spiritual guide or teacher", which in Sangam literature appears as aciriyan (priest, teacher, scholar), aciriyam or akavar or akaval or akavu (a poetic meter). The Sangam poetry focuses on
6608-412: The 4-4-3-4 feet per line, according to akaval , also called aciriyam , Sangam meter rule: = – / = – / – = / = – – – / – – / = – / – – = – / = – / = – = = / – = / = – / – – Note: "=" is a ner , while "–" is a nirai in Tamil terminology. A literal translation of Kuruntokai 119 : little-white-snake of lovely-striped young-body jungle elephant troubling like
6726-473: The 8th or 9th century. According to Kamil Zvelebil, the earliest sutras of the Tolkappiyam were composed by author(s) who lived before the "majority of extant" Sangam literature , who clearly knew Pāṇini and followed Patanjali works on Sanskrit grammar because some verses of Tolkappiyam – such as T-Col 419 and T-Elutt 83 – seem to be borrowed and exact translation of verses of Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya and ideas credited to more ancient Panini. Further,
6844-481: The Indian state of Haryana , purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab , though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi , in 2010. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction . The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by
6962-474: The Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India . It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore . Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala . It was once given nominal official status in
7080-600: The Kali meter in Kalittokai and the mixed Paripatal meter in Paripatal . The works of Sangam literature were lost and forgotten for most of the 2nd millennium. They were rediscovered by colonial-era scholars such as Arumuka Navalar (1822–1879), C.W. Damodaram Pillai (1832–1901) and U. V. Swaminatha Aiyar (1855–1942). Arumuka Navalar from Jaffna first inaugurated the modern editions of Tamil classics, publishing
7198-400: The Sangam poetry a "wonderful conciseness, terseness, pithiness", then an inner tension that is resolved at the end of the stanza. The metrical patterns within the akaval meter in early Sangam poetry has minor variations. The later Sangam era poems follow the same general meter rules, but sometimes feature 5 lines (4-4-4-3-4). The later Sangam age texts employ other meters as well, such as
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#17327726455727316-401: The Supreme god of Tamils where as Skanda was considered young and a personal god of Tamils . Mayon is indicated to be the deity associated with the mullai tiṇai (pastoral landscape) in the Tolkappiyam . Tolkappiyar Mentions Mayon first when he made reference to deities in the different land divisions. The Paripādal ( Tamil : பரிபாடல் , meaning the paripadal-metre anthology )
7434-590: The Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows a relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking. According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil)
7552-696: The Tamils who settled there 200 years ago. Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada . Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Recently, it has been rolled out as
7670-491: The Tolkappiyam to no earlier than the 2nd century CE, as it mentions the puḷḷi being an integral part of Tamil script. The puḷḷi (a diacritical mark to distinguish pure consonants from consonants with inherent vowels) only became prevalent in Tamil epigraphs after the 2nd century CE. According to linguist S. Agesthialingam, Tolkappiyam contains many later interpolations, and the language shows many deviations consistent with late old Tamil (similar to Cilappatikaram ), rather than
7788-467: The ancient Tamil culture, sociology, and linguistic geography. It is first mentioned by name in Iraiyanar's Akapporul – a 7th- or 8th-century text – as an authoritative reference, and the Tolkappiyam remains the authoritative text on Tamil grammar. The word Tolkāppiyam is a attribute-based composite word, with tol meaning "ancient, old", and kappiyam meaning "book, text, poem, kavya"; together,
7906-442: The ancient language ( sankattamiḻ ), a modern literary and formal style ( centamiḻ ), and a modern colloquial form ( koṭuntamiḻ ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ , or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ . In modern times, centamiḻ
8024-468: The area known as southern India today, consisting of the territories of the present-day Indian states of Tamil Nadu , Kerala , parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka . Sri Lanka is distinguished from it and is known as Ilam or Eelam , although also influenced by the Sangam Period. In Indian history, the Sangam period or age ( Tamil : சங்ககாலம் , caṅkakālam ) is the period of
8142-603: The author(s) lived after Patanjali, because various sections of Tolkappiyam show the same ideas for grammatically structuring a language and it uses borrowed Indo-European words found in Panini and Patanjali works to explain its ideas. According to Hartmut Scharfe and other scholars, the phonetic and phonemic sections of the Tolkappiyam shows considerable influence of Vedic Pratishakhyas , while its rules for nominal compounds follow those in Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya , though there
8260-426: The common era, and state that it is the work of one person associated with sage Agastya. Other Indian scholars, and non-Indian scholars such as Kamil Zvelebil, prefer to date it not as a single entity but in parts or layers. The Tolkappiyam manuscript versions that have survived into the modern age were fixed by about the 5th century CE, according to Zvelebil. Scholars reject traditional datings based on three sangams and
8378-401: The context as well that the community will fill in and understand given their oral tradition . The puram poetry is more direct, uses names and places, states Takanobu Takahashi. The early Sangam poetry diligently follows two meters, while the later Sangam poetry is a bit more diverse. The two meters found in the early poetry are akaval and vanci . The fundamental metrical unit in these
8496-509: The culture and people. It is religious as well as non-religious, as there are several mentions of the Hindu gods and more substantial mentions of various gods in the shorter poems. The 33 surviving poems of Paripaatal in the "Eight Anthologies" group praises Vishnu , Durga and Murugan . Similarly, the 150 poems of Kalittokai – also from the Eight Anthologies group – mention Krishna, Shiva, Murugan, various Pandava brothers of
8614-689: The culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India, but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization . Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). About of the approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages. In 2004,
8732-952: The dialect of Madurai , and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear " akkaṭṭa " meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently. Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect , Kongu Tamil , Madras Bashai , Madurai Tamil , Nellai Tamil , Kumari Tamil in India ; Batticaloa Tamil dialect , Jaffna Tamil dialect , Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada . The dialect of
8850-399: The differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of the formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from
8968-647: The district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in
9086-628: The early Tamil poems of Eṭṭuttokai and Pattuppāṭṭu . The Tolkappiyam contains aphoristic verses arranged into three books – the Eluttatikaram ("Eluttu" meaning "letter, phoneme"), the Sollatikaram ("Sol" meaning "Sound, word") and the Porulatikaram ("Porul" meaning "subject matter", i.e. prosody, rhetoric, poetics). The Tolkappiyam includes examples to explain its rules, and these examples provide indirect information about
9204-414: The early classical Tamil literature and is the earliest known literature of South India . The Tamil tradition and legends link it to three legendary literary gatherings around Madurai and Kapāṭapuram: the first lasted over 4,440 years, the second over 3,700 years, and the third over 1,850 years. Scholars consider this Tamil tradition-based chronology as ahistorical and mythical. Most scholars suggest
9322-528: The eighth century CE – describes this legend. The earliest known mention of the Sangam legend, however, appears in Tirupputtur Tantakam by Appar in about the seventh century CE, while an extended version appears in the twelfth-century Tiruvilaiyatal puranam by Perumparrap Nampi. The legend states that the third Sangam of 449 poet scholars worked over 1,850 years in northern Madurai (Pandyan kingdom). He lists six anthologies of Tamil poems (later
9440-651: The entire Tolkappiyam was likely a guide for bardic poets, where the first two books led to this third on how to compose their songs. The third book's linking of literature ( ilakkiyam ) to the grammatical rules of the first and the second book ( ilakkanam ) created a symbiotic relationship between the two. The literary theory of Tolkappiyam , according to Peter Scharf, borrows from Sanskrit literary theory texts. Epigraphical studies, such as those by Mahadevan, show that ancient Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions found in South India and dated to between 3rd century BCE and 4th century CE had three different grammatical form. Only one of them
9558-499: The first book show the influence of Vedic Pratisakhyas, states Hartmut Scharfe, but with some differences. For example, unlike the Pratisakhyas and the later Tamil, the first book of Tolkappiyam does not treat /ṭ/ and /ṇ/ as retroflex. "Sol" meaning "word", and the second book deals with "etymology, morphology, semantics and syntax", states Zvelebil. The sutras cover compounds, some semantic and lexical issues. It also mentions
9676-536: The fragrance; among the stones, you are the diamond; in speech, truth; among virtues, you are love; in valour—strength; in the Veda, you are the secret; among elements, the primordial; in the burning sun, the light; in moonshine, its sweetness; you are all, and you are the substance and meaning of all. To Seyyon ( Skandha ): We pray you not for wealth, not for gold, not for pleasure; But for your grace, for love, for virtue, these three, O god with
9794-699: The hill country . Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bengaluru . There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia , Singapore , Philippines , Mauritius , South Africa , Indonesia, Thailand, Burma , and Vietnam . Tamil
9912-405: The historical Sangam literature era, also called the Sangam period , spanned from c. 300 BCE to 300 CE, while others variously place this early classical Tamil literature period a bit later and more narrowly but all before 300 CE. According to Kamil Zvelebil , a Tamil literature and history scholar, the most acceptable range for the Sangam literature is 100 BCE to 250 CE, based on
10030-425: The history of ancient Tamil Nadu and Kerala (then known as Tamilakam ), and parts of Sri Lanka from c. 300 BCE to 300 CE. It was named after the literature of poets and scholars of the legendary Sangam academies centered in the city of Madurai . In the period between 300 BCE and 300 CE, Tamilakam was ruled by the three Tamil dynasties of Pandya , Chola and Chera , and a few independent chieftains,
10148-529: The influence of Patanjali's Mahabhasya . "Porul" meaning "subject matter", and this book deals with the prosody ( yappu ) and rhetoric ( ani ) of Old Tamil. It is here, that the book covers the two genres found in classical Tamil literature: akam (love, erotics, interior world) and puram (war, society, exterior world). The akam is subdivided into kalavu (premarital love) and karpu (marital love). It also deals with dramaturgy, simile, prosody and tradition. According to Zvelebil, this arrangement suggests that
10266-432: The introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam , thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. The Tamil Lexicon , published by
10384-625: The known Sangam literature, with Kapilar – the most prolific poet – alone contributing just little less than 10% of the entire corpus. These poems vary between 3 and 782 lines long. The bardic poetry of the Sangam era is largely about love ( akam ) and war ( puram ), with the exception of the shorter poems such as in Paripaatal which is more religious and praise Vishnu and Murugan . The Sangam literature also includes Buddhist and Jainist epics. Sangam literally means "gathering, meeting, fraternity, academy". According to David Shulman,
10502-461: The latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class , number , and case , verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages . Much of Tamil grammar
10620-403: The linguistic, prosodic and quasi-historic allusions within the texts and the colophons . The Sangam literature had fallen into oblivion for much of the second millennium of the common era, but were preserved by and rediscovered in the monasteries of Hinduism , near Kumbakonam , by colonial-era scholars in the late nineteenth century. The rediscovered Sangam classical collection is largely
10738-861: The monastery head Subrahmanya Desikar for access to its large library of preserved manuscripts. Desikar granted Aiyar permission to study and publish any manuscripts he wanted. There, Aiyar discovered a major source of preserved palm-leaf manuscripts of Sangam literature. Aiyar published his first print of the Ten Idylls in 1889. Together, these scholars printed and published Kalittokai (1887), Tholkappiyam , Nachinarkiniyar Urai (1895), Tholkappiyam Senavariyar urai (1868), Manimekalai (1898), Silappatikaram (1889), Pattuppāṭṭu (1889), Patiṟṟuppattu (1889). Puṟanāṉūṟu (1894), Aiṅkurunūṟu (1903), Kuṟuntokai (1915), Naṟṟiṇai (1915), Paripāṭal (1918) and Akanāṉūṟu (1923) all with scholarly commentaries. They published more than 100 works in all, including minor poems. The Sangam literature
10856-786: The most mentioned god in the Sangam literature. Cēyōṉ "the red one", who is identified with Murugan , whose name is literally Murukaṉ "the youth" in the Tolkāppiyam ; Extant Sangam literature works, dated between the third century BCE and the fifth century CE glorified Murugan, "the red god seated on the blue peacock, who is ever young and resplendent," as "the favoured god of the Tamils." There are no Mentions of Shaivism in Tolkappiyam . Shiva and Brahma are said to be forms Of Maha Vishnu and considers Vishnu as The Supreme god in Paripāṭal . There are two poems depicted as example of Bhakti in Ancient Tamil Nadu , one in
10974-413: The myth of great floods because there is no verifiable evidence in its favor, and the available evidence based on linguistics, epigraphy, Sangam literature and other Indian texts suggest a much later date. The disagreements now center around divergent dates between the 3rd century BCE and 8th century CE. The datings proposed by contemporary scholars is based on a combination of evidence such as: There
11092-423: The name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech". Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ , with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and " -iḻ " having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < * tav-iḻ < * tak-iḻ , meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)". However, this
11210-537: The old aspect and time markers. The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil. Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically. Modern spoken Tamil also shows
11328-430: The original author or authors". This traditional belief, according to Vaiyapuri Pillai , is supported by a few Jaina Prakrit words such as patimaiyon found in the Tolkappiyam . The Tolkappiyam deals with ilakkanam (grammar) in three books ( atikaram ), each with nine chapters ( iyal ) of different sizes. The text has a cumulative total of 1,610 (Eluttatikaram 483 + Sollatikaram 463 + Porulatikaram 664) sutras in
11446-419: The poets came from diverse backgrounds: some were from a royal family, some merchants, some farmers. At least 27 of the poets were women. These poets emerged, states Nilakanta Sastri, in a milieu where the Tamil society had already interacted and inseparably amalgamated with north Indians (Indo-Aryan) and both sides had shared mythology, values and literary conventions. The available literature from this period
11564-413: The praise of Maha Vishnu and other of Murugan To Tirumal ( Maha Vishnu ): தீயினுள் தெறல் நீ; பூவினுள் நாற்றம் நீ; கல்லினுள் மணியும் நீ; சொல்லினுள் வாய்மை நீ; அறத்தினுள் அன்பு நீ; மறத்தினுள் மைந்து நீ; வேதத்து மறை நீ; பூதத்து முதலும் நீ; வெஞ் சுடர் ஒளியும் நீ; திங்களுள் அளியும் நீ; அனைத்தும் நீ; அனைத்தின் உட்பொருளும் நீ; In fire, you are the heat; in blossoms,
11682-408: The prosody, language and themes in these poems confirms that the Sangam literature was a community effort, a "group poetry". The Sangam literature is also referred sometimes with terms such as caṅka ilakkiyam or "Sangam age poetry". In Old Tamil language , the term Tamilakam ( Tamiḻakam , Purananuru 168. 18) referred to the whole of the ancient Tamil-speaking area, corresponding roughly to
11800-461: The rich garland of kaṭampu flowers with rolling clusters! – Pari. v.: 78–81 The other gods also referred to in the Tolkappiyam are Vēntaṉ "the sovereign" (identified with Indra ) and Korravai "the victorious" (identified with Durga ) and Varunan "the sea god". The Sangam literature also emphasized on fair governance by Kings, who were often described as Sengol-valavan,
11918-405: The significance of context in language. Mayyon as ( Vishnu ), Seyyon as ( Skanda ), Vendhan as ( Indra ), Varuna as ( Varuna ) and Kotṟavai as (Devi or Bagavathi) are the gods mentioned. The Tolkappiyam is difficult to date. Some in the Tamil tradition place the text in the mythical second sangam, variously in 1st millennium BCE or earlier. Scholars place the text much later and believe
12036-565: The significance of such cultural festivals and architectural practices to the Tamil culture. Religion in the Sangam age was an important reason for the increase in Tamil Literature . Ancient Tamils Primarily followed Vaishnavism (Who consider Vishnu as the Supreme Deity) and Kaumaram (who worship Murugan as the Supreme god). According to Kamil Zvelebil , Vishnu was considered ageless (The god who stays for ever) and
12154-470: The standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script , which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit , and other languages. The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology, remains, but
12272-413: The text evolved and expanded over a period of time. According to Nadarajah Devapoopathy the earliest layer of the Tolkappiyam was likely composed between the 2nd and 1st century BCE, and the extant manuscript versions fixed by about the 5th century CE. The Tolkappiyam Ur-text likely relied on some unknown even older literature. The Tolkappiyam belongs to second Sangam period. Iravatham Mahadevan dates
12390-516: The title has been translated as "ancient book", "ancient poem", or "old poem". The word 'kappiyam' is from the Sanskrit Kavya . According to Kamil Zvelebil – a Tamil literature and history scholar, Tamil purists tend to reject this Sanskrit-style etymology and offer "curious" alternatives. One of these breaks it into three "tol-kappu-iyanratu", meaning "ancient protection [of language]". An alternate etymology that has been proposed by
12508-415: The twelve dialectical regions of Tamil speaking people, which suggests the author(s) had a keen sense of observation and inclusiveness for Old Tamil's linguistic geography. According to Peter Scharf, the sutras here are inspired by the work on Sanskrit grammar by Panini, but it uses Tamil terminology and adds technical innovations. Verb forms and the classification of nominal compounds in the second book show
12626-590: The universe and was worshipped in the Plains and mountains of Tamilakam .The Earliest verses of Paripadal describe the glory of Perumal in the most poetic of terms. Many Poems of the Paripadal consider Perumal as the Supreme god of Tamils . He is regarded to be the only deity who enjoyed the status of Paramporul (achieving oneness with Paramatma ) during the Sangam age . He is also known as Māyavan, Māmiyon, Netiyōn, and Māl in Sangam literature and considered as
12744-526: The word for "here"— iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore , inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad , and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka . Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli , Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in
12862-496: The young-girl sprouts-brightness toothed-female bangle(s) possessing hand(s)-female" – Translator: Kamil Zvelebil English interpretation and translation of Kuruntokai 119 : As a little white snake with lovely stripes on its young body troubles the jungle elephant this slip of a girl her teeth like sprouts of new rice her wrists stacked with bangles troubles me. – Creative translator: A.K. Ramanujan (1967) This metrical pattern, states Zvelebil, gives
12980-534: Was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004. The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia : there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status , a high register and a low one. Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example,
13098-402: Was asked to compile Tamil grammar, which is Tolkappiyam . In Tamil historical sources such as the 14th-century influential commentary on Tolkappiyam by Naccinarkkiniyar , the author is stated to be Tiranatumakkini (alternate name for Tolkappiyan), the son of a Brahmin rishi named Camatakkini. The earliest mention of Agastya-related Akattiyam legends are found in texts approximately dated to
13216-622: Was categorised and compiled in the tenth century CE into two categories based roughly on chronology. The categories are the Patiṉeṇmēlkaṇakku ("Eighteen Greater Texts") comprising Ettuthogai (or Ettuttokai , "Eight Anthologies") and the Pattuppāṭṭu ("Ten Idylls") and Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku ("Eighteen Lesser Texts"). According to Takanobu Takahashi , the compilation of Patiṉeṇmēlkaṇakku poems are as follows: The compilation of poems from Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku are as follows: Sangam literature
13334-600: Was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are
13452-540: Was created by Lord Shiva . Murugan , revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya , brought it to the people. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language , which was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of
13570-518: Was located far to the south of modern city of Madurai, a location later "swallowed up by the sea", states Shulman. The second academy, also chaired by a very long-lived Agastya, was near the eastern seaside Kapāṭapuram and lasted three millennia. This was swallowed by floods. From the second Sangam, states the legend, the Akattiyam and the Tolkāppiyam survived and guided the third Sangam scholars. A prose commentary by Nakkiranar – likely about
13688-504: Was the lingua franca for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Egypt . The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature , consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later, the vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations. Tamil
13806-526: Was the earliest scholar to systematically hunt for long-lost manuscripts and publish them using modern tools of textual criticism. These included: Aiyar – a Tamil scholar and a Shaiva pundit, in particular, is credited with his discovery of major collections of the Sangam literature in 1883. During his personal visit to the Thiruvavaduthurai Adhinam – a Shaiva matha about twenty kilometers northeast of Kumbhakonam , he reached out to
13924-451: Was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil ( கில் ), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ ( ன் ). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa ( கின்ற ) – which combined
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