Tamil shastric literature

ABSTRACT: This article will explore the various conceptions underlying the use of the expression ticai-c-col (approximately “regional words”). After describing the role assigned to these by Tamil grammarians and Tamil grammatical commentators, we shall present a sketch of traditional Tamil linguistic geography, with its central and peripheral regions, and the way it has been reinterpreted in the course of history. We will also try to examine the actual linguistic data, the differences of opinion about it, and what they tell us about Tamil literature and the movement hiding below its classical surface.

After a long preliminary exposition, this article will examine, as its core topic, the strategy used by traditional Tamil grammarians for dealing with the ninth vowel of standard (ancient) Tamil, which is usually represented by “ai” in transliteration. That vowel is initially presented as being a long vowel, possessing a duration of 2 māttirai (Skt. mātrā), but verifying the “real” existence of that long vowel inside native Tamil words turns out to be problematic, while, on the other hand, a “variant” of “ai”, which is discussed in grammatical literature, and is referred to as aikārak kuṟukkam “reduced ai” turns out to be more “real” than its elusive full counterpart. The duration of the “reduced ai” can be 1½ māttirai or 1 māttirai, depending normally on whether it is in the first syllable of a word or in another position, which fact has important consequences on the scanning of verses, as remarked by traditional Tamil grammarians, who are also metricians, because the central object of their attention is the Tamil literary language, which is almost exclusively composed in verse. The initial part of this article examines, taking as a central topic the technical term eḻuttu, the general organization of that section of the Tamil śāstric literature which deals with the sounds of standard literary Tamil. It also tries to confront it with what is known, thanks to the labours of epigraphists, of the Tamil writing system as it was at the time when grammatical doctrines started to be codified.

This article examines a subset of the vocabulary which has been used over the centuries for referring to “language professionals” in the treatises and the thesauri which constitute Ancient Tamil technical literature. It concentrates on two important terms, pulavaṉ “scholar, grammarian, poet” and kavi “poet”. The first one, pulavaṉ, is used (in the plural form pulavar) 80 times inside the Tolkāppiyam for referring to the scholars who were the creators of the “grammar” of Poetical Tamil, during the Sangam [Caṅkam] period. It is also used in other works for referring to creative poets (who could also be performers too). The second term, kavi, appears in Tamil at a later period, and medieval treatises (and kōśa-s) subdivide it into four subcategories, the “fast poet” (ācu kavi), the “sweet poet” (matura kavi), the “extreme poet” (cittira kavi) and the “vast poet” (vittāra kavi), whose qualifications are expounded for instance in treatises belonging to the “grammatical” genre called pāṭṭiyal. Those developments take place against a religious background which is influential for the development and the sustained existence of the scholarly community whose multi-faceted expertise with words is a “raison d’être” in the eyes of Tamil society.

ABSTRACT: In writing a history of the Tamil Grammatical Tradition, one must try to make explicit the genesis, the constituent elements and the purpose of an ensemble that was gradually put together during the First Millenium of the Common Era. The main purpose of that collective endeavour seems to have been the detailed characterization of a refined language, which was possibly one of the components in a diglossic situation (analogous to that of Tamil today). That refined language would be used for the metrical composition (yāppu) by poets of a variety of poetical texts (ceyyuḷ) falling under different genres, the dominant one being pāṭṭu “song/verse”. As a consequence, we observe the simultaneous transmission of a poetical corpus, progressively enriched, and of a series of grammatical treatises. The oldest treatise available is the Tolkāppiyam, which gives in its penultimate chapter, the Ceyyuḷiyal, a characterization of the thirty-four “limbs” (uṟuppu) of poetical compositions. Those limbs are subdivided into several groups, which are examined in this article, particularly with a view to matching them with phenomena attested in the existing poetical corpus and to assessing how naturally they fit the Tamil language. This is followed by an examination of the relationship between the conceptions found in the Tolkāppiyam (and its first commentator, Iḷampūraṇar) and those found in later metrical treatises such as the Yāpparuṅkalam (and its commentary).

Although the Tamil lexicographic tradition has a long history and could play a more important role in improving our understanding of the many ancient Tamil works which have reached us (technical, literary and devotional), it is not often studied for itself nowadays, possibly because it is (wrongly) imagined that the thesauri (or kōśa-s, or nikaṇṭu-s) composed by ancient Tamil lexicographers have been rendered obsolete by the modern dictionaries available to us, such as the Madras Tamil Lexicon, which is the best-known production of twentieth-century Tamil lexicography.
The present study examines some features in the structure of the Piṅkalam, which is the second oldest traditional Tamil thesaurus and contains 4121 (versified) sūtra-s, split up into 10 chapters, and dealing approximatively with 15 000 (semantically) distinct items.  A preliminary typology is attempted, where three main groups of sūtra-s (labelled A, B and C) are distinguished according to their functions: A. definition-giving and/or enumeration of quasi-synonyms; B. rendering explicit the polysemy of individual items (found only in chapter 10);  C. presentation of traditional groupings of notions (the highest concentration being found in Chapter 3). Because of limitations of space however, only the first group of sūtra-s receives an in-depth preliminary treatment here.
In addition to that main focus, importance is also given to an examination of the initiatives taken by modern editors (taking as example the 1968 “Kaḻakam edition”) in their attempts to bridge the gap between “Modern scholarly Tamil” and the “Medieval Tamil” in which the Piṅkalam was composed.

"This article examines, from the perspective of the History of Linguistics, the specifications and the genesis of two distinct lists of four sets of words which are often found in the ancient shastric corpus of the Tamil-speaking South. One of those lists, which is found inside the “pure grammar” component of that technical literature, enumerates ‘nouns’ (peyarc col), ‘verbs’ (viṉaic col), ‘particles’ (iṭaic col), and uric col (lit. ‘appropriate words’), whereas the other list, which reflects the fact that one of the main aims of “grammar” was to describe literature, enumerates ‘simple words’ (iyaṟcol), tiricol (lit. ‘mutant words’ or ‘twisted words’), ‘regional words’ (ticaic col), and ‘Northern words’ (vaṭacol). In both lists, there is an item for which it is difficult to find a simple translation, namely uriccol for the first list and tiricol for the second list. T he difficulty in identifying and explaining the intention of those who coined those terms seems to be in part due to the fact that the texts which the Tamil tradition has transmitted to us are an assemblage of various parts that were once fragments of a “work in progress”, now fossilized, which was partly abandoned, either because another śāstra (that of lexicography) took over part of the descriptive effort, and/or because the ambition to compile a dhātu-pāṭha (the Sanskrit term for a list of verbal roots) for the Tamil language was abandoned, if such a project ever existed. The fact that discontinuities in the transmission of Tamil śāstric literature do exist is attested to, for instance, by the hesitation of traditional commentators, while explaining sūtra TP 385i (alias TP 392p), which is a characterization of marapu (approx. ‘usage’), said to be dependent on the power of ‘the four words’. The commentators are cautious in deciding which of the two lists of ‘four words’ is meant, possibly hoping to suggest that the sūtra might refer to both, because they believe in the “beauty of compromise”. [Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on South Asian Languages and Linguistics [ICOSAL],
which took place at Moscow State University and Moscow University for the Humanities on 5-7 July 2012,
edited by Alice Davidson, Hans Henrich Hock and Liudmila V. Khokhlova]"

and key words In what we have of ancient Tamil literature (and notably its sizeable devotional component) a pervasive feature is the repetition of some sequences of phones and this results in the highly visible alliterative quality of that literature, the most frequently seen device being the second syllable rhyme which is called /etukai/ (Skt. /dvitīya-anuprāsa/). Repetitions of wordsize sequences of phones are also seen, although much less frequently (not to talk about the exceptional repetition of line-size sequences) and a striking example is seen in four hymns composed by Campantar, one of the three /Tēvāram/ authors, who probably lived in the 7th century. Those four hymns were called „/yamaka/” by posterity, and every line in them follows an AZBZ pattern, where the Z sequences correspond either to two homophonous words or to two distinct meanings of a polysemic word, another possibility being punning, in which case one of the Zs is not a full word, but a proper substring of a ...

Some language varieties are acquired in a natural (or effortless) way and are called “mother tongues” [பிறந்து மொழி பயிறல்], whereas other language varieties are learnt “the hard way”, through explicit training and personal effort [கசடறக் கற்றல்], but of course, seen from the outside, this fundamental distinction appears often blurred because
(A) on the one hand, there are people (such as “foreigners”) who try to learn “the hard way” (through explicit training) that which is somebody else’s mother tongue,
(B) on the other hand, everyone sooner or later discovers that his or her mother tongue (potentially) “contains” various “Extension Modules”, such as the ones required for doing calculations, or the ones necessary for composing poetry, and that the mastery of those extension modules will not come without a prolonged effort and that they will have to undergo schooling, in order to acquire from someone already proficient the mastery desired, which will turn them into an accomplished calculator, or a proficient poet,  or both, or still someone else ...
My concern, in this short essay, will be on the second type of language acquisition, the one obtained through effort [கசடறக் கற்றல்], which is probably not sufficiently studied by descriptive linguists. My general remarks on the existence of “Extension Modules” will be given specificity in what follows, by concentrating on a famous “உரிச்சொற் பனுவல்”, called பிங்கலம், which has been considered as important by the தமிழ் கூறும் நல்லுலகம் from an early stage onwards, being for instance explicitely mentionned in the 459th சூத்திரம் of நன்னூல். [...]

ABSTRACT: Classical Tamil made a threefold spatial division (between « distant », « proximate » and « intermediate ») by means of a set of three deictic clitics {a-, i- & u-). The Tamil grammatical tradition refers to these clitics by the term  /cuṭṭu/. The technical term /cuṭṭu/ also appears inside the formulas that characterize several sets of lexemes, including the deictic (pro)nouns, for which this three-fold division is relevant. The term /cuṭṭu/ is also connected with a verb, /cuṭṭutal/, which can denote the act of physically pointing to someting, but can also express the relationship, simple or complex, between a sign and what is signified by it. This paper examines how /cuṭṭu/ and /cuṭṭutal/, are used inside classical Tamil texts, literary or technical. What remains to be done by some of its potential readers would be to find out whether this constellation of values is the adaptation to Tamil of conceptions originally formulated in Sanskrit.

Cet article examine les proprietes et les caracteristiques (sur les plans formel, semiotique, et epistemologique) de l'exemple comme fait de discours, a partir de la confrontation et de la comparaison de plusieurs traditions differentes (grecque, latine, arabe, tamoule, et francaise). Il montre ensuite quelles solutions ces traditions ont apportees a un certain nombre de problemes impliques par le processus d'exemplification : insertion de l'exemple dans le discours grammairien, validite de l'exemple, representation en extension ou en comprehension, etc. Enfin, la comparaison des differentes traditions debouche sur une tentative de typologie des exemples, fondee sur leurs formes, leurs proprietes et leurs fonctions.

In what we have of ancient Tamil literature (and notably its sizeable devotional component) a pervasive feature is the repetition of some sequences of phones and this results in the highly visible alliterative quality of that literature, the most frequently seen device being the second syllable rhyme which is called /etukai/ (Skt. /dvitīya- anuprāsa/). Repetition of word-size sequences of phones are also seen, although much less frequently (not to talk about the exceptional repetition of line-size sequences) and a striking example is seen in four hymns composed by Campantar, one of the three /Tēvāram/ authors, who probably lived in the 7th century. Those four hymns were called "/yamaka/" by posterity, and every line in them follows an AZBZ pattern, where the Z sequences correspond either to two homophonous words or to two distinct meanings of a polysemic word, another possibility being punning, in which case one of the Zs is not a full word, but a proper substring of a word, formally identical with the other Z, a full word.

As an illustration of this literary device, this article contains a detailed examination of the manner in which word-play is performed in one stanza taken from Tēvāram 3-113, gradually translated here, by progressive steps, so as to preserve the didactic (or initiatic, or hypnotic) effect, which the stanza may have had on the śaiva devotees who exercised themselves in singing it.

This is followed by an outline of the /kōśa/-s "thesauri", which were probably composed slightly later in Tamil Nadu, originally in order to help the sudents of ancient Tamil literature in overcoming the difficulties inherent in the intensive use of polysemy and quasi-synonymy. Those /kōśa/-s could also provide weapons to aspirant poets, desirous of displaying their virtuosity in word-play.

{This text is the written version of an oral communication which was presented (in English) at the Colloquium “Sens multiple(s) et polysémie : perspectives croisées, Orient & Occident” [https://www.academia.edu/2253927/Sens_multiple_s_et_polysemie_perspectives_croisees_Orient_and_Occident_Aix-en-Provence_4-6_juin_2013_] in Aix‐en‐Provence [4th‐ 6th June 2013], organized by Sylvain Brocquet, Julie Sorba and Christophe Cusimano. A French translation of this text will appear in issue 35 of the Études Romanes de Brno (ISSN 1803‐7399).} (SEE: http://digilib.phil.muni.cz/xmlui/handle/11222.digilib/112967)

In order to become a scholar in classical Tamil (South India), one had to master a grammatical system, which included being able to translate poetical texts in an artificial language, used for paraphrases. Theoretical discourse displays an innovative linguistic activity, when it coins a terminology and when it designates complex entities. While some descriptions of grammatical traditions deal mostly with their results (classifications, rules, etc.), this paper is more concerned with their means, i.e. with their practical component.

Ecrire l’histoire de la tradition grammatical tamoule, c’est essayer d’expliciter la genese, les elements constitutifs et la finalite d’un dispositif qui s’est progressivement mis en place au cours du premier millenaire de notre ere. La cible principale de ce dispositif semble avoir ete la caracterisation detaillee d’une langue raffinee, qui etait peut-etre l’un des composants dans une situation de diglossie, ressemblant a la situation actuelle, et qui serait adequate pour la composition metrique (yāppu) par des poetes d’une variete de textes poetiques (ceyyuḷ), repartis en differents genres, le plus important etant pāṭṭu «chanson/ poeme » . En consequence, on observe la transmission en parallele d’un corpus poetique qui s’enrichit progressivement et d’une serie de traites grammaticaux. Le plus ancien traite disponible est le Tolkāppiyam, dont l’avant-dernier chapitre, le Ceyyuḷiyal, donne une caracterisation des 34 «membres » (uṟuppu) de la poesie. La liste des membres peut etre divisee en sous-groupes, dont certains sont examines dans cet article, notamment du point de vue de leur adequation descriptive par rapport au corpus poetique aujourd’hui disponible, ainsi que du point de vue du caractere naturel (par rapport a la langue tamoule) des categories utilisees. Vient ensuite un examen de l’articulation entre les categories utilisees par le Tolkāppiyam (et son premier commentateur Iḷampūraṇar) et celles que nous trouvons dans des traites posterieurs tels que le Yāpparuṅkalam (et son commentaire).

... (ni) arum « difficile » = ariya « quiestdifficile » (n2) ila « jeune » = ilaiya « qui -est -jeune » (n3) in « doux » = iniya « qui-est-doux » (n4) of « brillant » = olliya « qui-est-brillant » (n5) nal « beau/bon » = nalla « qui-est-bon ». ... « review : The Smile of Murugan : On Tamil Literature of ...

Abstract : This article is devoted to a brief examination of a set of eight Tamil technical terms: {ammai, aḻaku, toṉmai, tōl, viruntu, iyaipu, pulaṉ, iḻaipu}, for which I am tempted to give as approximate set of English equivalents {prettiness, elegance, antiquity, shield, new-comer, agreement, clarity, reeling (as of a yarn)}, for reasons which I hope will have become clear at the end of this article. Those eight terms appear at the end of an enumeration of 34 terms which is found in the first sūtra of the Ceyyuḷiyal. They are later explained in eight successive sūtra-s (see chart 2) found at the end of that same Ceyyuḷiyal, which is the penultimate chapter among the 27 chapters (or iyal-s) of the Tolkāppiyam (henceforth T), an ancient Tamil treatise, probably dating back to the first half of the first millenium, which was meant to characterize both the Tamil language and its literature, and contains 1595 sūtra-s when read accompanied by the commentary of Iḷampūraṇar.