There is a number of problems connected with the study and teaching of any Oriental literature in general and of Tamil literature specifically which have to date been mostly ignored, although they are indispensable for solid knowledge and correct interpretation and understanding of the literature in question. These include problems of authenticity and authorship, of transmission and tradition, writing tools and materials, of relationship of orality to literacy, of Sanskrit to Tamil, the prehistory of Tamil written literature, the numerous texts that have been lost, scholarly lineages and the rediscovery of ancient Tamil literature etc. The book deals with all these problems as well as with some specific Tamil cultural phenomena such as the concept of "threefold Tamil" or the relationship of literature ('marked') to grammar ('marker'), with the derivation of the term "Tamil" and with the history of Tamil literary historiography. It will be indispensable as an introduction to the study of the more than 2000 years of Tamil literary history. By addressing questions which have thus far been almost completely neglected, it has also decisive impact on the interpretative comprehension of Tamil literature and on the teaching of this very rich heritage of verbal art.

The book addresses problems and topics which have so far been largely ignored, in spite of being of fundamental importance for successful teaching and correct understanding of Tamil literary heritage which spans some 2000 years of development.

Lexicon of Tamil Literature is a reference-dictionary of Tamil literature of South India from its early beginnings more than 2000 years ago until the present time (ca. 1980). It includes in the order of Roman alphabet names and short biographies of authors, lists of their works, anonymous literary works and most important matters of Tamil prosody, rhetoric and poetics. Whenever available, bibliographic data are given with individual entries in selection. Brief contents and evaluative statements are given with literary works of greater importance, whether ancient or modern. An introduction is included. The work is the first of its kind in a non-Indian language. It is an indispensable source of data and work of reference for Tamil literature in particular, and for the totality of Indic literatures in general.

Spoken by eighty million people, Tamil is one of the great world languages, and one of the few ancient languages that survives as a mother tongue. David Shulman presents a comprehensive cultural history of Tamil, emphasizing how its speakers and poets have understood the unique features of their language over its long history.

Manuscripts have played a crucial role in the educational practices of virtually all cultures that have a history of using them. As learning and teaching tools, manuscripts become primary witnesses for reconstructing and studying didactic and research activities and methodologies from elementary levels to the most advanced. The present volume investigates the relation between manuscripts and educational practices focusing on four particular research topics: educational settings: teachers, students and their manuscripts; organising knowledge: syllabi; exegetical practices: annotations; modifying tradition: adaptations. The volume offers a number of case studies stretching across geophysical boundaries from Western Europe to South-East Asia, with a time span ranging from the second millennium BCE to the twentieth century CE.

Adopting The Voice Of A Mother, Poets Lovingly Praise Gods And Men. For Hundreds Of Years Tamil Poets Have Been Composing Devotional Texts In Which They Adopt The Voice Of A Mother And Address Praises To An Extraordinary Child. The Poems, Called Pillaitamil (Literally Tamil For A Child ), Form A Major Genre Of Tamil Literature. Since The Twelfth Century, When The First Known Pillaitamil Was Written In Honour Of A Chola King, Many Of These Poems Have Been Composed In Praise Of The Quintessentially Tamil God Murugan And South Indian Goddesses, As Well As Saints And Venerated Monastic Abbots. In Recent Times Pillaitamils Have Been Dedicated To Prophet Muhammad, Virgin Mary And Baby Jesus, As Well As Notable Political Figures And Movie Stars. Extraordinary Child Provides A Sampler Of Translations From, And Analyses Of, Seven Pillaitamils Of Particular Religious, Aesthetic Or Political Significance. Paula Richman S Insightful And Comprehensive Introduction Initiates The Reader Into The Pillaitamil Tradition By Explaining What A Pillaitamil Does And How Contemporary Audiences Can Learn To Savour The Subtleties Of The Verses.

Old Tamil Caṅkam poetry consists of eight anthologies of short poems on love and war, and a treatise on grammar and poetics. The main part of this corpus has generally been dated to the first centuries AD and is believed to be the product of a native Tamil culture. The present study argues that the poems do not describe a contemporary society but a society from the past or one not yet affected by North-Indian Sanskrit culture. Consequently the main argument for the current early dating of Caṅkam poetry is no longer valid. Furthermore, on the basis of a study of the historical setting of the heroic poems and of the role of Tamil as a literary language in the Caṅkam corpus, it is argued that the poetic tradition was developed by the Pāṇṭiyas in the ninth or tenth century. This volume deals with the identification of the various genres of Caṅkam poetry with literary types from the Sanskrit Kāvya tradition. Counterparts have been found exclusively among Prākrit and Apabhraṁśa texts, which indicate that in Caṅkam poetry Tamil has been specifically assigned the role of a Prākrit. As such, the present study reveals the processes and attitudes involved in the development of a vernacular language into a literary idiom.

This collection of essays explores the history of the book in pre-modern South Asia looking at the production, circulation, fruition and preservation of manuscripts in different areas and across time. Edited by the team of the Cambridge-based Sanskrit Manuscripts Project and including contributions of the researchers who collaborated with it, it covers a wide range of topics related to South Asian manuscript culture: from the material dimension (palaeography, layout, decoration) and the complicated interactions of manuscripts with printing in late medieval Tibet and in modern Tamil Nadu, to reading, writing, editing and educational practices, from manuscripts as sources for the study of religious, literary and intellectual traditions, to the creation of collections in medieval India and Cambodia (one major centre of the so-called Sanskrit cosmopolis), and the formation of the Cambridge collections in the colonial period. The contributions reflect the variety of idioms, literary genres, religious movements, and social actors (intellectuals, scribes, patrons) of ancient South Asia, as well as the variety of approaches, interests and specialisms of the authors, and their impassionate engagement with manuscripts.

A true tour de force, this book documents the transformation of one Indian literature, Tamil, under the impact of colonialism and Western modernity. While Tamil is a living language, it is also India's second oldest classical language next to Sanskrit, and has a literary history that goes back over two thousand years. On the basis of extensive archival research, Sascha Ebeling tackles a host of issues pertinent to Tamil elite literary production and consumption during the nineteenth century. These include the functioning and decline of traditional systems in which poet-scholars were patronized by religious institutions, landowners, and local kings; the anatomy of changes in textual practices, genres, styles, poetics, themes, tastes, and audiences; and the role of literature in the politics of social reform, gender, and incipient nationalism. The work concludes with a discussion of the most striking literary development of the time—the emergence of the Tamil novel.