Chapter 11. Tamil Language and Literature

The language. Tamil is a Dravidian language with a literary history of more than two thousand years. It is an official language of Sri Lanka and is spoken widely in India and in communities across the world. It was declared a “classical language” by the Government of India in 2004 [25][26].

The script. Tamil is written in an abugida. The traditional description lists 12 vowels (uyir), 18 consonants (mei), 216 combined consonant–vowel letters (uyirmei) and one special character (āytam), giving 247 letters [25].

Grammar. Tamil is agglutinative: suffixes mark case, tense, person and number. Traditional grammar is organized into ezhuttu (letters), sol (words), porul (meaning and themes) and yappu and ani (prosody and figures of speech), as in the classical grammar Tolkāppiyam. There is a marked difference between literary and spoken Tamil (diglossia) [25].

Literary traditions [26]

Sangam literature (roughly 300 BCE to 300 CE): anthologies of akam (love) and puram (public life) poetry, such as Ettuthokai and Pattuppāṭṭu.

Ethical and epic works: the Tirukkural of Thiruvalluvar, a collection of 1,330 couplets on virtue, wealth and love; the epics Silappatikāram (by Ilango Adigal) and Manimekalai.

Devotional (bhakti) literature: the Shaiva Tirumurai and the Vaishnava Divya Prabandham.

Medieval and later literature: Kamban’s Ramavataram (Kambaramayanam), and later works including folk literature.

Modern Tamil literature: the novel, short story, essay and poetry from the 19th and 20th centuries, including the work of Subramania Bharati and a rich tradition in Sri Lanka and the diaspora [26].

Tamil in Sri Lanka. Tamil literature in Sri Lanka includes classical scholarship, devotional and folk traditions, modern fiction and poetry, and reflects the island’s history. Tamil is an official language, and Tamil-language education and publishing are important parts of national life [5][6].

Writing and exam skills. Practise spelling, grammar, essay writing, letter writing and literary appreciation with textual evidence.

Review: How many couplets does the Tirukkural contain? (Answer: 1,330.)