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.

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.

'Tamil' is one of those words whose origin and root-meaning are wrapped up in mystery. All that we can say at present without any fear of contradiction is, that it is a pure Tamil word being current as the only name of the language of the Tamils, from the days that preceded the First Tamil Academy established at Thenmadurai on the river pahruli in the submerged continent. After some of the Vedic Aryans migrated to the South, Tamil got the descriptive name 'Tenmoli' lit. 'the southern language', in contradistinction to the Vedic language or Sanskrit which was called 'Vadamoli', lit. 'the northern language'. The word 'Tamil' or 'Tamilan' successively changed into 'Dramila', 'Dramila', 'Dramida' and 'Dravida' in North India and at first denoted only the Tamil language, as all the other Dravidian dialects separated themselves from Tamil or came into prominence one by one only after the dawn of the Christian era. That is why Sanskrit and Tamil came to be known as Vadamoi and Tenmoli respectively. This distinction could have arisen only when there were two languages standing side by side, one in the North and the other in the South, both coming in contact with each other. The Buddhist Tamil Academy which flourished in the 5th century at Madurai went by the name of 'Travida Sangam'.

A Selection From Old Tamil, Prakrit And Sanskrit Poetry While The Striped Frogs Croak And The Toads Peep, The Rains Have Begun. And Now, He Will Be The Monsoon Guest Of Your Fine Wrists And Ample Shoulders. Driving His Tall Chariot With Its Tinkling Bells, Our Lover Will Come Back Today. Ainkurunuru 468 Dating From The First To Late Fourteenth Centuries Ce, This Collection Of 188 Poems Is Gleaned From The Three Literary Languages Of Classical India Old Tamil, Prãkrit And Sanskrit. Martha Ann Selby Combines Her Unique Mastery Of These Languages With Her Scholarship And Poetical Skills To Offer A Pan-Indian Flavour Of The Changing Seasons. The Poems Celebrate The Rhythm And Beauty Of The Cycle Of Time: Summer, The Rainy Season, Autumn, Early Winter, Late Winter, And Spring. Nature Is Portrayed Through A Range Of Sensual, Sexual And Colourful Images And Allegories. The Autumn Poems, For Example, Depict A World Washed Clean By Rains, Ready For Love, Specifically, Clandestine Love, Set In The Hills Among Mists And Blooming Wild Cane At Night. Readers Will Appreciate The Collection S Fine Poetic Quality And Be Spellbound By The Unique Beauty Of India S Six Seasons.