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Re: Sanskrit and Tamil

From the Bhakti List Archives

Venkatesh Elayavalli • January 1, 1998 


On the issue of Sanskrit words being used/borrowd in Tamil Works, this
seems
to be a gradual development. For example, P.S. Sundaram, in his
introduction on
Tirukkural, observes that the proportion of Pure Tamil words as compared
to that
of words borrowed or modeled after sanskrit is much higer than what one
might
find in the works of Alvars and Nayanmars. On the other hand this
proportion gets
smaller when compared to the Sangam Works which he claims to have lesser
Sanskrit influence.

Smt Vasudha Narayanan, in her book, The Way and the Goal, talks about two

ancient tamil works: ettutokai and pattupaattu. I am not sure if these
are part of the
Sangam Tamil or prior to that. These, however, predate works like
Tolkapiyam,
Manimekhalai and Ceevaka cintAmani, which are considered post sangam
works.

I gather from browsing the WEB that A.K. Ramanujan has published
translations of
few Sangam era Tamil works. I would appreciate if Smt Vasudha Narayana or
other
learned members of the list familiar with the Sangam and PreSangam era
works to give
a  background on history of Ancient Tamil literature.