Tamil

01The Sangam poems

The oldest Tamil literature is gathered in the Ettuthokai, eight anthologies, and the Pattuppattu, ten long poems. They divide life into akam, the inner world of love, and puram, the outer world of kings, war and giving. Each landscape has its flower, hour and mood: kurinji for the hills and lovers’ meeting, mullai for the forest and patient waiting. Tradition, recorded in the commentary on Iraiyanar’s Akapporul, tells of three Sangams of poets at Madurai under Pandya kings.

02Kural, epic and bhakti

The Tolkappiyam is the oldest surviving Tamil grammar. Thiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural sets out dharma, artha and kama in 1,330 couplets, and it has been translated into more languages than any other Tamil work. Ilango Adigal’s Silappatikaram tells of Kannagi and her anklet. Then came bhakti: the Shaiva Nayanmars Appar, Sambandar and Sundarar, whose hymns form the Tevaram, Manikkavacakar’s Tiruvacakam, and the twelve Alvars, Andal and Nammalvar among them, whose four thousand verses make the Nalayira Divya Prabandham.

03Palm leaves rescued

By the 19th century much Sangam poetry survived only in a few decaying palm-leaf bundles in mathas and private homes. C. W. Damodaram Pillai and above all U. V. Swaminatha Iyer travelled from village to village to find them, and Swaminatha Iyer’s printed editions of the Silappatikaram and Purananuru in the 1890s brought the old poetry back into Tamil life. Subramania Bharati gave the language a fresh modern voice in the freedom struggle.

04Today

In 2004 Tamil became the first language declared classical by the Government of India. It is the official language of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and is spoken by large communities in Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa and the Gulf. The 2011 Census counted 6,90,26,881 Tamil speakers in India. In the Margazhi month, temples and homes still ring with Andal’s Tiruppavai at dawn.

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