Let me state unequivocally that, by any criteria
one may choose, Tamil is one of the great classical literatures and traditions
of the world.
The reasons for this are many; let me consider them one by one.
First, Tamil is of considerable antiquity. It predates the literatures of other
modern Indian languages by more than a thousand years. Its oldest work, the
Tolkappiyam,, contains parts that, judging from the earliest Tamil
inscriptions, date back to about 200 BCE. The greatest works of ancient Tamil,
the Sangam anthologies and the Pattuppattu, date to the first two centuries of
the current era. They are the first great secular body of poetry written in
India, predating Kalidasa's works by two hundred years.
Second, Tamil constitutes the only literary tradition indigenous to India that
is not derived from Sanskrit. Indeed, its literature arose before the influence
of Sanskrit in the South became strong and so is qualitatively different from
anything we have in Sanskrit or other Indian languages. It has its own poetic
theory, its own grammatical tradition, its own esthetics, and, above all, a
large body of literature that is quite unique. It shows a sort of Indian
sensibility that is quite different from anything in Sanskrit or other Indian
languages, and it contains its own extremely rich and vast intellectual
tradition.
Third, the quality of classical Tamil literature is such that it is fit to
stand beside the great literatures of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Chinese, Persian
and Arabic. The subtlety and profundity of its works, their varied scope (Tamil
is the only premodern Indian literature to treat the subaltern extensively),
and their universality qualify Tamil to stand as one of the great classical
traditions and literatures of the world. Everyone knows the Tirukkural, one of
the world's greatest works on ethics; but this is merely one of a myriad of
major and extremely varied works that comprise the Tamil classical tradition.
There is not a facet of human existence that is not explored and illuminated by
this great literature.
Finally, Tamil is one of the primary independent sources of modern Indian
culture and tradition. I have written extensively on the influence of a
Southern tradition on the Sanskrit poetic tradition. But equally important, the
great sacred works of Tamil Hinduism, beginning with the Sangam Anthologies,
have undergirded the development of modern Hinduism. Their ideas were taken
into the Bhagavata Purina and other texts (in Telugu and Kannada as well as
Sanskrit), whence they spread all over India. Tamil has its own works that are
considered to be as sacred as the Vedas and that are recited alongside Vedic
mantras in the great Vaisnava temples of South India (such as Tirupati). And
just as Sanskrit is the source of the modern Indo-Aryan languages, classical
Tamil is the source language of modern Tamil and Malayalam. As Sanskrit is the
most conservative and least changed of the Indo-Aryan languages, Tamil is the
most conservative of the Dravidian languages, the touchstone that linguists
must consult to understand the nature and development of Dravidian.
In trying to discern why Tamil has not been recognized as a classical language,
I can see only a political reason: there is a fear that if Tamil is selected as
a classical language, other Indian languages may claim similar status. This is
an unnecessary worry. I am well aware of the richness of the modern Indian
languages -- I know that they are among the most fecund and productive
languages on earth, each having begotten a modern (and often medieval)
literature that can stand with any of the major literatures of the world. Yet
none of them is a classical language. Like English and the other modern
languages of Europe (with the exception of Greek), they rose on preexisting
traditions rather late and developed in the second millennium. The fact that
Greek is universally recognized as a classical language in Europe does not lead
the French or the English to claim classical status for their languages.
To qualify as a classical tradition, a language must fit several criteria: it
should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on
its own not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and
extremely rich body of ancient literature. Unlike the other modern languages of
India, Tamil meets each of these requirements. It is extremely old (as old as
Latin and older than Arabic); it arose as an entirely independent tradition,
with almost no influence from Sanskrit or other languages; and its ancient
literature is indescribably vast and rich.
It seems strange to me that I should have to write an essay such as this
claiming that Tamil is a classical literature -- it is akin to claiming that
India is a great country or Hinduism is one of the world's great religions. The
status of Tamil as one of the great classical languages of the world is
something that is patently obvious to anyone who knows the subject. To deny
that Tamil is a classical language is to deny a vital and central part of the
greatness and richness of Indian culture.
In the historical past Proto-Dravidian was
spoken throughout India. When the Turanians and the Aryans came to India
through the Khyber and the Bolan Passes respectively, and mingled with the
local population of the North, the North Indian languages of Proto-Dravidian
origin changed to a great extent. As a consequence Praakrit and Paali emerged
as the languages of the masses in the northern part of India. Despite the
commingling of local and foreign ethnic elements, a section of Proto-Dravidians
maintained their ethnic and cultural identity in some isolated areas, spoke
corrupt forms of Proto-Dravidian languages and these have survived, to this
day, as living examples of ancient Dravidian languages. Languages such as
Kolami, Parji, Naiki, Gondi, Ku, Kuvi, Konda, Malta, Oroan, Gadba, Khurukh, and
Brahui are examples of Dravidian languages prevalent in the North. Today
Proto-Dravidian speakers are increasingly mingling with other linguistic groups
and learning their languages. Therefore, their numerical strength is on the
decline. People living in the Rajmahal mountains in Bengal and in the areas
adjacent to Chota Nagpur are good examples of the intermingling. A section of
people living in Baluchistan speak Brahui, which has many linguistic features
similar to the Dravidian languages spoken in South India. Scholars are
surprised today to note many linguistic similarities between Tamil and Brahui,
especially in numerals, personal pronouns, syntax and in other linguistic
features. The Indian Census report of 1911 classified Brahui as a language
belonging to the Dravidian family. It was then spoken by about 170, 000 people,
although this number over the years dwindled to a couple of thousands. Whatever
be their numerical strength now, they are proof of the fact that the Dravidians
in some age of the historical past were spread in the region between
Baluchistan and Bengal and spoke the Proto-Dravidian idiom.
Since the Dravidians lived throughout the Indian
subcontinent at some historical past, certain syntactical affinities are
noticeable even today between the South and a large number of North Indian
languages.
When Praakrit and Paali became popular in the North, the Proto-Dravidian
language lost its ground there, and confined itself entirely to the South. Even
in South India it did not remain as one single language for a long time.
Dialectical differences arose partly due to the political division of the Tamil
country into three distinct Tamil kingdoms and partly due to the natural
barriers created by rivers and mountains. The absence of proper land
communication among the three Tamil kingdoms also accentuated this process of
dialectal differences. As a result the Dravidian language spoken by the people.
who lived in the regions north and south of the Tirupati mountains, varied to
such an extent as to become two independent languages, Tamil and Telugu. The
language spoken in the region of Mysore came to be known as Kannada. Malayalam
emerged as yet another distinct language in Kerala. All these far-reaching
changes occurred at different periods of time in the history of the Dravidian
languages. Among these four languages, it is only the Tamil language which has
a long literary tradition.
The term Dravidian, which refers to the language of South India, is of a later
origin. Originally it was derived from the word tamil /tamiz> . This
word in course of time changed into dravida after undergoing a series of
changes like tamiza, tramiza, tramiTa, trapida and travida.
At one time the languages spoken in the regions of Karnataka, Kongu and Malabar
were respectively known as Karunaattut-tamil, Tulunattut-tamil
and Malainattut-tamil. Today however, these regional languages are
classified under the blanket term "Dravidian family of languages".
Many common linguistic features are still
discernible among these Dravidian languages. Some five thousand words are
common to these languages. Many grammatical forms are common. The overwhelming
influence of Sanskrit scholars and the indiscriminate borrowing of Sanskrit
words resulted in the emergence of Kannada and Telugu as distinct languages from
Tamil some fifteen hundred years ago. The influence of Sanskrit on Malayalam
language came to be felt only about eight centuries ago, and therefore, the
areas of difference between Tamil and Malayalam are not many. Tamil was the
language of bureaucracy, of literati and of culture for several centuries in
Kerala. In fact, fifteen centuries ago the rulers of Kerala were all Tamils. Up
to the tenth century the Pandya kings ruled Kerala with royal titles such as
'Perumaankal and 'Perumaankanar'. It was a Tamil poet from Trivandrum who in
fact presided over the academy of Tamil scholars, when they met to evaluate the
famous Tamil grammatical work Tolkappiyam. From the third century 13.C.
to the first century A.D., many poets from Kerala composed poems in Tamil and
their compositions are included in Tamil anthologies such as Akananaru
and Purananaru. All the one hundred poems in the anthology PatiRRuppattuextol
the greatness of the kings of the Kerala region. The author of the famous Tamil
epic Cilappatikaram was a poet from Kerala. The shrine in honor of
KaNNaki, the heroine of Cilappatikaram, was built at Tiruvancikkulam in
Kerala. Among the Saiva and Vaisnava composers, CEramAn PerumAl Nayanaar and
KulacEkara Alvaar respectively, belong to the Kerala region. AiyanEritanaar,
the author of the tenth century grammatical work PuRapporul VeNpaamaalai,
hailed from Kerala. Many scholars and pundits from Kerala contributed much to
the Tamil language and literature and the historical evidence shows that the
region now known as the State of Kerala was once an integral part of Tamil Nadu
at some period of time. Because of these reasons there is greater affinity
between Tamil and Malayalam than between Tamil and Kannada or Telugu.