Tamils

Tamil has borrowed from Hindustani, Arabic, and Persian a large number of revenue, political, and judicial terms, and more recently a good many English words have crept in, such as tiratti, treaty, patlar, butler, dkt, act, kulob, club, kavarnar, governor, pinnalkodu, penal code, sikku, sick, mejastirattu, magistrate. Of Tamil words which have found a permanent home in English may be mentioned curry (kari), mulligatawny (milagu, pepper, and tannir, cool water), cheroot (suruttu), pariah (pareiyan).

The Older Literature.

The early existence, in southern India, of peoples, localities, animals and products the names of which, as mentioned in the Old Testament and in Greek and Roman writers, have been identified with corresponding Dra vidian terms, goes far to prove the high antiquity, if not of the Tamil language, at least of some form of Dravidian speech (Cald well, loc. cit., Introd., pp. 81-106; Madras District Manual, i., Introd., pp. 134 seq.). But practically the earliest extant records of the Tamil language do not ascend higher than the middle of the 8th century of the Christian era, the grant in possession of the Israelites at Cochin being assigned by the late Dr. Burnell to about A.D. 75o, a period when Malayalam did not exist yet as a separate language. There is every probability that about the same time a number of Tamil works sprung up, which are men tioned by a writer in the nth century as representing the old literature (Burnell, loc. cit., p. 127, note). The earlier of these may have been Saiva books ; the more prominent of the others were decidedly Jain. Though traces of a north Indian influence are palpable in all of them that have come down to us (see e.g., F. W. Ellis's notes to the Kural), we can at the same time per ceive, as we must certainly appreciate, the desire of the authors to oppose the influence of Brahmanical writings, and create a literature that should rival Sanskrit books and appeal to the senti ments of the people at large. But the refinement of the poetical language, as adapted to the genius of Tamil, has been carried to greater excess than in Sanskrit ; and this artificial character of the so-called Sen-Tamil is evident from a comparison with the old inscriptions, which are a reflex of the language of the people, and clearly show that Tamil has not undergone any essential change (Burnell, loc. cit., p. 142).

The rules of Sen-Tamil appear to have been fixed at a very early date. The Tolluippiyam, the oldest extant Tamil grammar, is assigned by Dr. Burnell (On the Aindra School of Sanskrit Grammarians, pp. 8, 55) to the 8th century (best edition by C. Y. Tamodaram Pillei, Madras, 1885). The Virasoliyam, another grammar, is of the nth century. Both have been superseded by the Nanniil, of the Isth century, which has exercised the skill of numerous commentators, and continues to be the leading native authority (English editions in Pope's Third Tamil Grammar, and an abridgment by Lazarus, 1884). The period of the prevalence of the Jains in the Pandya kingdom, from the 9th or loth to the 13th century, is justly termed the Augustan age of Tamil litera ture. To its earlier days is assigned the Ndladiydr, an ethical poem on the three objects of existence, which is supposed to have preceded the Kural of Tiruvalluvan, the finest poetical production in the whole range of Tamil composition. Tradition, in keeping with the spirit of antagonism to Brahmanical influence, says that its author was a pariah. It consists of 1,33o stanzas on virtue, wealth and pleasure. It has often been edited, translated and commented upon; see the introduction to the excellent edition published by the Rev. Dr. Pope, in which also a comprehensive account of the peculiarities of Sen-Tamil will be found. To the Avvei, or Matron, a reputed sister of Tiruvalluvan, but prob ably of a later date, two shorter moral poems, called A ttisiidi and Konreiveyndan, are ascribed, which are still read in all Tamil schools. Chintdmani, an epic of upwards of 3,00o stanzas, which celebrates the exploits of a king Jivakan, also belongs to that early Jain period, and so does the Divdkaram, the oldest diction ary of classical Tamil. The former is one of the finest poems in the language; but no more than the first and part of the third of its thirteen books have been edited and translated. Kamban's Rdmdyanam (about A.D. I I00) is the only other Tamil epic which comes up to the Chintdmani in poetical beauty.