Glimpses of Tolkappiyam: c. 300 BCE (The Classical Tamil Grammatical Text)

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This book titled 'Glimpses of Tolkappiyam (c. 300 BCE): The Classical Tamil Grammatical Text' is the outcome of a two-day national workshop on 'Disseminating Classical Tamil Literature (Tolkappiyam) Among Non-Tamils', sponsored by the Central Institute of Classical Tamil, Chennai, held at the Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, on 21-22 September 2022. With the aim of providing insights to bridge the gap between ancient and contemporary times, the effort is undertaken to illuminate the significance of Tolkappiyam, its impact on linguistic studies, and its enduring relevance to our times.

Dr. Senthil Prakash S has obtained his Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. He holds a Master's degree in Psychology from TNOU, Chennai, and a Diploma in Epigraphy from PSG CAS, Coimbatore. He began teaching and research activity at NGP Arts & Science College, Coimbatore in the faculty of arts. He is the certified student assessor for the 'International Student Evaluation program' conducted by the World Bank and NCERT, New Delhi. He participated and presented 21 research papers in National and International Seminars. Joined Visva-Bharati Central University, Santiniketan in 2011 and currently he is working as an Assistant Professor of Tamil at the Institute of Languages, Literature & Culture.

Tamil is, as historically proven, one of the worlds earliest and living classical languages, comprising outstanding works of grammatical treatise and literature. As legends account for it, all grammatical and literary works of the pre-Christian era were presented before the academic body called 'Sangam' which comprised hundreds of erudite Tamil poets. There were three Sangams that existed roughly for 4,400, 3,700 and 1,850 years respectively. All the grammatical texts and works of literature of the first Sangam were said to be untraceable for several reasons which include natural calamities. However, Tamil society is fortunate to have Tolkappiyam (c. 300 BCE), the earliest extant grammatical composition of the second Sangam, authored by Tolkappiyar. The grammar work is "indisputably, a multivalent classic of towering dimensions, going far beyond the achievement of any individual writer of the day in any of the classical tongues of the world" (Murugan 2000). We come across over two hundred and forty references in the Tolkappiyam which provide substantial evidence of the existence of many classical and grammatical works in Tamil prior to the same composition in verse. This very age-old piece of Tamil grammar had become the rule book for the poets of the third Sangam (c. 200 BCE-200 CE). Evidently, one can find a large number of norms and conventions on linguistics and poetics, and diverse theories of language and literature expounded by Tolkappiyar in the third Sangam literature i.e., Ettuttokai (Eight Anthologies) and Pattuppattu (Ten Idylls). As rightly stated by V. Murugan in the introduction to his translation work titled Tolkappiyam in English (Institute of Asian Studies, Chemmancherry, Chennai, 2000), the grammatical composition "embodies significant insights into phonology, morpho-phonemics and semantics, which in the West are but developments of the past two centuries. Here is a masterpiece in the Tamil language that merits placement alongside "the monumental works of human intelligence" both ancient and modern" (Ibid.).