The Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம்) is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language and the earliest extant work of Tamil literature. It is written in the form of noorpaa or short formulaic compositions and comprises three books - the Ezhuttadikaram, the Solladikaram and the Poruladikaram. Each of these books is further divided into nine chapters each. While the exact date of the work is not known, based on linguistic and other evidence, it has been dated variously between the third century BCE and the 10th century CE. Some modern scholars prefer to date it not as a single entity but in parts or layers. There is also no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author.

Etymology of the name

There are two different etymologies proposed. One of them proposes that the name Tolkāppiyam is derived from the combination of the two words Tol and kāppiyam. Tol means ancient and Kappiam means literature. Another proposes that it is derived from the author's name Tolkāppiyan. The latter seems more likely as there is a long tradition in the ancient Tamil milieu of naming treatises, especially grammatical ones, after the author. For example, Kākkaipāţiniyam after Kākkaipāţini, Avinayam after Avinayan, Vāyppiyam after Vāyppiyan. (See: "Maraintu Pōna Tamil Nūlkaḷ", Mayilai Cini. Venkatacami). Moreover there are attested poets from the same era with names containing kāppiyan as in Kāppiyārruk Kāppiyanār (Kāppiyanār from Kāppiyāru) the author of one of the decads in Patirruuppattu.

Tolkappiyar was the author of the Tamil grammatical work of Tolkāppiyam. There is no evidence available for his existence or of the precise period he might have lived. Tolkāppiyam is attributed to him by convention. Tolkāppiyam sets out the syntactic rules and of Tamil and its use in prose and poetry.

Overview

Tolkappiyam, deals with orthography, phonology, morphology, semantics, prosody and the subject matter of literature. The Tolkāppiyam classifies the Tamil language into "sentamil" and "kotuntamil". The former refers to the classical Tamil used almost exclusively in literary works and the latter refers to the dialectal Tamil, spoken by the people in the various regions of ancient Tamilakam..

Tolkappiyam catergorises alphabet into consonants and vowels by analysing the syllables. It grammatises the use of words and syntaxes and moves into higher modes of language analysis. The Tolkāppiyam formulated thirty phonemes and three dependent sounds for Tamil.

Dating of the Tolkappiyam

The dating of the earliest Tamil grammatical treatise Tolkappiyam has been debated much and it is still imprecise and uncertain and has seen wide disagreements amongst scholars in the field. It has been dated variously between 800 BCE and 10th CE.

While most of the antediluvian datings which stem mostly from a descriptive commentary in an 8th century work called Iraiyanar AgapporuL, about the existence of three Tamil Academies, which have been rejected as being devoid of any evidence, the genuine disagreements now center around widely divergent dates lying between the third century BCE and 10th CE. Some modern scholars prefer to date it not as a single entity but in parts or layers which are estimated as written between the third century BCE and the fifth century CE. There is also no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author.

Authorship

Not much is known about who the author was or when he lived. Traditionally, it was thought that there could have been only one author but given the fairly long time it seems to have taken for the final redaction of the book to become available, it is reasonable to ascribe the work to multiple authors. Zvelebil speculates that the final redaction may even have been the work of a systematised school of grammar than the work of individuals.

Many authors however, ascribe the work to Jaina traditions and the earliest of the possibly many authors, who has been identified as Tolkappiyanaar to a heterodox Jaina order. Some authors have also speculated that Tolkappiyanaar might have been a Brahmin belonging to the village of kappiya. Vaiyapuri Pillay has suggested that Tolkappiyanaar may have belonged to a heterodox Jaina grammatical tradition called aintiram(a view which other scholars like Burnell, Takanobu and Zvelebil share) and that he was a native of Tiruvatankotu in present day Southern Kerala.

Influence of Sanskrit

The grammar expounded by the Tolkappiyam owes a great deal to Sanskrit according to a few scholars. The influence or relationship of various Sanskrit works like Manavadharmashastra, Arthashastra, Natyashastra and grammarians like Panini and Patanjali is evident in the Tolkappiyam. Parts of the Collathikaram are, for instance, almost a translation of the Sanskrit texts. The eight feelings or meyppaadu mentioned in the Porulathikaram seem to agree with the eight rasas or the rasa theory of the Natyashastra.Tolkappiyam refers to Vedic mantras as " the exalted expression of great sages ".

The relationship between the Tolkappiyam and the various Sanskrit grammatical schools has also been debated. The preface to the Tolkāppiyam says that its author was well versed in aintiram. Burnell takes this to be a reference to the Aindra school of grammar referred to by other Sanskrit grammarians. He suggests that this was a pre-Paninian school, and argues that the first two books of the Tolkappiyam, the Vedic Pratisakhyas, a Sanskrit grammar called the Katantra from the 3rd or 4th century, and Kaccayana's Pali grammar show significant similarities in terms of their organisation and the terminology they use, suggesting that they all belong to the same school. Takahashi, citing the views of Zvelebil and Vaiyapuri Pillai, suggests that the Aindra school is a post-Paninian school, of which the Katantra is an example. Rajam argues that these studies are methodologically flawed and, after re-examining the question in relation to the first book of the Tolkappiyam, comes to the conclusion that whilst the Tolkappiyam does share characteristics with various Sanskrit works indicating a relationship, it also shows dissimilarities which are significant enough to make it unlikely that they share a common source. Instead, she suggests that these are best viewed as individual nodes within a manifold grammatical tradition.

Commentaries

Starting the 11th-12th CE, several commentaries came to light. Of these, the one by Ilampuranar dated to the 11th or 12th CE is considered one of the best and most comprehensive. This was followed by a commentary dateable to 1275 AD by Cenavaraiyar which however, dealt only with the Collatikaram. A commentary by Peraciriyar which is heavily indebted to the Nannūl followed. This commentary which can be dated to the 12th or 13th CE, if not later, frequently quotes from the Dandiyalankaram and Yapparunkalam, the former being a standard medieval rhetorica and the latter being a detailed treatise on Tamil prosody. Naccinarkiniyar's commentary, which can be dated to the 14th if not 15-16th century follows. Naccinarkiniyar, himself being a scholar of both Tamil and Sanskrit quotes from Parimelalakar's works. Teyvaccilaiyar's commentary follows in the 16th or 17th century. Finally, the latest available commentary, that of Kallatar comes to light. Of these commentaries, those of "Ilampooranar", "Deivachilaiyaaar" and "Natchinaarkiniyar" is regarded highly and the triumvarate are also called "Urai-asiriyargal".

Chapters

The Tolkāppiyam consists of three books each of which is divided into 9 chapters. The books are called atikarams (Sanskrit:adhikara). The three books are

1. Ezhuththathikaaram
2. Sollathikaaram
3. PoruLathikaaram

Ezhuththathikaaram

Ezhuththathikaaram is further subdivided into the following 9 sections - Nuul Marabu, Mozhi Marabu, PiRappiyal, PuNaRiyal, Thokai Marabu, Urubiyal, Uyir Mayangial, PuLLi Mayangial and the KutriyalukarappunaRiyal.

Nuul Marabu - This section enumerates the characters of the language, organises them into consonants, vowels and diacritic symbols. The vowels are sub classified into short and long vowels based on duration of pronunciation. Similarly, the consonants are sub classified into three categories based on the stress.

Mozhi Marabu - This section defines rules which specify where in a word can a letter not occur and which letter can not come after a particular letter. It also describes elision, which is the reduction in the duration of sound of a phoneme when preceded by or followed by certain other sounds. The rules are well-defined and unambiguous. They are categorised into 5 classes based on the phoneme which undergoes elision.

1. Kutriyalukaram - the (lip unrounded) vowel sound u
2. Kutriyalikaram - the vowel sound i(as the vowel in 'lip')
3. Aiykaarakkurukkam - the diphthong ai
4. Oukaarakkurukkam - the diphthong au
5. Aaythakkurukkam - the special character (aaytham)

PiRappiyal - This is a section on articulatory phonetics. It talks about pronunciation methods of the phonemes at the level of diaphragm, larynx, jaws, tongue position, teeth, lips and nose. The visual representation of the letters is also explained.

PuNaRiyal - This section talks about the changes to words due to the following word i.e. it specifies rules that govern the transformations on the last phonem of a word (nilaimozhi iiRu) because of the first phonem of the following word (varumozhi muthal) when used in a sentence.

Thokai Marabu

Urubiyal - This section talks about the word modifiers that are added at the end of nouns and pronouns when they are used as an object as opposed to when they are used as subjects.

Uyir Mayangial

PuLLi - Pulli concept is one of the distinguishing feature among the Tamil characters. Although it is not unique and brahmi also has pulli. It is distinguished by placement . According to tolkappiam which talks about pulli and its position, that is on top of the alphabet instead of side as in Brahmi. This is also one of the characteristics of Tamil brahmi according to Mr. Mahadevan. The first inscription of this type of pulli is in vallam by pallvas dated 7-8th century AD by Mahendra varman pallava. KutriyalukarappunaRiyal

Sollathikaaram

Sollathikaaram deals with words and parts of speech. It classifies Tamil words into four categories - iyar chol(Words in common usage, thiri chol(words used in Tamil literature), vata chol(words borrowed from Sanskrit), thisai chol(words borrowed from other languages. There are certain rules to be adhered to in borrowing words from Sanskrit. The borrowed words need to strictly conform to the Tamil phonetic system and be written in the Tamil script.

The chapter Sollathikaaram is sub divided into the following 9 sections - KiLaviyaakkam, VEtRumaiyiyal, VEtrumaimayangial, ViLimaRabu, Peyariyal, Vinaiyiyal, Idaiyiyal, Uriyiyal and the Echchaviyal.

KiLaviyaakkam- KiLaviyaakkam literally translates to word formation. This section deals with gender, number, person etc. VEtRumaiyiyal

VEtrumaimayangial

ViLimaRabu

Peyariyal - This section deals with nouns.

Vinaiyiyal - This section deals with verbs.

Idaiyiyal

Uriyiyal - This literally translates to the nature or science of qualifiers and deals with adjectives and adverbs.

Echchaviyal

PoruLathikaaram

The Tolkāppiyam is possibly the only book on grammar that describes a grammar for life. PoruLathikaaram gives the classification of land types, and seasons and defines modes of life for each of the combinations of land types and seasons for different kinds of people. This chapter is subdivided into the following 9 sections - AkaththiNaiyiyal, PuRaththiNaiyiyal, KaLaviyal, KaRpiyal, PoruLiyal, Meyppaattiyal, Uvamayiyal, SeyyuLiyal and the Marabiyal.

AkaththiNaiyiyal - This section defines the modes of personal life i.e. life of couples.

PuRaththiNaiyiyal - This section defines the modes of one's public life.

KaLaviyal -

KaRpiyal

PoruLiyal

Meyppaattiyal

Uvamayiyal - The name Uvamayiyal literally translates to the nature or science of metaphors.

SeyyuLiyal - This section deals with a grammar for classical Tamil Poetry based on principles of prosody.

Marabiyal

See also

• Date of the Tolkappiyam
• Aindra school of Sanskrit grammar

Footnote

References

• Zvelebil, Kamil. 1975. Tamil Literature, Leiden, Brill, ISBN 90 04 04190 7.
• Zvelebil, Kamil. 1973. The mile of Murugan on Tamil literature of South India. Leiden: Brill.
• Takahashi, Takanobu. 1995. Tamil love poetry and poetics. Brill's Indological library, v. 9. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
• Hart, George L. 1975. The poems of ancient Tamil, their milieu and their Sanskrit counterparts. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Burnell, Arthur Coke (1875). On the Aindra school of Sanskrit Grammarians: their place in the Sanskrit and subordinate literatures. Mangalore: Basel Mission Book and Tract Depository, 8-20.

External links

• Tolkappiyam fulltext (PDF format)