Search:

From the Bhakti List Archives

krish • December 18, 1995 


I am still a lay man and so my comments may not
be corrrect. Dating is done based on style. Some
work
on stle in Gita or other works tries to differentiate
author ship. Based on that here is my remark.
All the alwars' songs are in fairly pure Tamil.
There is some connection to early Tamil in style
(see Vasudha Naryan's book Tamil Veda, Chicago U
Press). The intrspersping of Sanskrit words in
SriVaishanva works came after Ramanuja. Sanskrit
was pronounced the court language in Tamilnadu
by Pallava kings( Mahendra, a contemporary of
Harshvardhana ). This should date most of the 
Alwars to pre 8th century.
The term "mani-pravalam"  refers to mixing of 
Sanskrit in Tamil writings. Nowadays I think
it refers to usage of English in Tamil, which
is very common in India. I think pure Tamil
usage is difficult ( Tholai-pesi for phone,
Per-oondhu vandhi for bus etc. ). The purists
seem to have no objection for forign swear
words!
Krish