Tamil is a Dravidian language family member that is mostly spoken in India. It is the official language of Tamil Nadu, an Indian state, and the union territory of Puducherry (Pondicherry). It is also an official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore, and it has a sizable population in Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, and South Africa. This article will explain to you about Tamil which will be helpful in Ancient History preparation for the UPSC Civil service exam.

Origin of Tamil

• The roots of Tamil, like those of the other Dravidian languages, are unclear, but unlike the majority of India's other recognized literary languages, it is independent of Sanskrit.
• Tamil has the oldest literature among the Dravidian languages, however exactly dating the language and literature is challenging.
• In India and Sri Lanka, literary works were kept either in palm leaf manuscripts (implying repetitive copying and recopying) or by oral transmission, making direct dating impossible.
• External historical records and internal linguistic evidence, on the other hand, imply that the oldest existing writings were most likely written in the second century CE.
• Tamil is a member of the southern branch of the Dravidian languages, a group of about 26 languages indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.
• It is also classed as a member of the Tamil language family, which contains the languages of around 35 ethnolinguistic groups, including the Irula and Yerukula languages.
• Malayalam is Tamil's closest significant cousin; the two began splitting during the 9th century AD.
• Although many of the characteristics between Tamil and Malayalam show a prehistoric split of the western dialect, the process of separating into a different language, Malayalam, did not occur until the 13th or 14th century.
• The Tolkappiyam, a treatise on poetics and grammar that portrays the language of the classical period, is the earliest existing Tamil document; the oldest pieces of this book may date back to approximately 200 BCE.
• Apart from this, the oldest evidence of Tamil writing that we have today are rock inscriptions from the third century BCE written in Tamil-Brahmi, a modified variant of the Brahmi script (Mahadevan, 2003).
• Tamil literature and language are divided into three periods by linguists: old Tamil (500 BCE to 700 CE), Middle Tamil (700 CE to 1500 CE), and modern Tamil (1500 CE to the present).
• Several Sanskrit loan words were adopted by Tamil during the medieval period, which several 20th-century purists, such as Parithimaar Kalaignar and Maraimalai Adigal Letters, attempted to eradicate.

Old Tamil

• The term "Old Tamil'' refers to the time of the Tamil language from the 10th century BC to the 8th century AD.
• The earliest Old Tamil documents are small inscriptions in Adichanallur dating from 905 BC to 696 BC.
• These inscriptions are written in Tamil-Brahmi, a variation of the Brahmi script.
• The Tolkappiyam, early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, is the first extended book in Old Tamil, with layers dating back to the late 2nd century BC. Many Old Tamil literary masterpieces have also survived.
• This includes a corpus of 2,381 poetry known as Sangam literature. These poems are often dated between the first and fifth centuries BC.

Middle Tamil

• The transition from Old Tamil to Middle Tamil, which is usually thought to have occurred around the 8th century, was marked by a series of phonological and syntactic modifications.
• The most significant phonological changes were the virtual loss of the aytam, an ancient phoneme, the merger of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic.
• The most significant change in grammar was the introduction of the present tense.
• The present tense came from the word kil, which means "to be feasible" or "to happen."
• This verb was employed as an aspect marker in Old Tamil to signify that activity was micro-durable, non-sustained, or non-lasting, generally in conjunction with a time marker.
• This usage evolved into a present tense marker–kia–in Middle Tamil, which integrated the old aspect and time markers.

Modern Tamil

• The Nannul is still the mainstream normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which is based on Middle Tamil from the 13th century rather than Modern Tamil.
• Colloquial spoken Tamil, on the other hand, has undergone a lot of alterations. Negative verb conjugation, for example, is no longer used in Modern Tamil; instead, negativity is represented morphologically or syntactically.
• Modern spoken Tamil also exhibits a variety of sound changes, most notably a tendency to lower high vowels in starting and medial locations, as well as the loss of vowels between plosives and between plosives and rhotics.
• Contact with European languages had an impact on both written and spoken Tamil.
• The introduction of European-style punctuation and consonant clusters, which were not permitted in Middle Tamil, are among the changes in written Tamil.
• With the introduction of additional aspectual auxiliaries and more complicated sentence structures, as well as the creation of a more strict word order that mimics the syntactic argument structure of English, the syntax of written Tamil has also altered.
• Simultaneously, in the early twentieth century, a strong strain of linguistic purism evolved, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement, which advocated for the eradication of all Sanskritic features from Tamil.
• Dravidian parties supported it to some extent.
• This resulted in the replacement of numerous Sanskrit loanwords with Tamil counterparts, however many others survive.

Influence of Tamil

• The majority of people in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry (in India), and the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka speak Tamil as their first language.
• Small minority communities speak the language in other Indian states such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, and in some districts of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and the hill country.
• Tamil or varieties of it were widely employed as the primary language of governance, literature, and general usage in the state of Kerala until the 12th century AD.
• Until the 12th century AD, Tamil was commonly employed in inscriptions unearthed in the southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore.
• Tamil-speaking people derived from colonial-era immigration can now be found in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Mauritius, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam.
• Tamil, along with English, Malay, and Mandarin, is utilized as a language of instruction in Malaysia.
• In Karachi, Pakistan, there is a sizable Tamil-speaking population, which comprises Tamil-speaking Hindus, Christians, and Muslims - including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka.

Tamil Literature - Sangam Age

• The earliest Tamil literature may be traced back to the Sangam period, which lasted from 600 BC to 200 AD.
• The Sangam literature is a compendium of the corpus of literature generated in this Congress (Sangam).
• Three sangams are thought to have existed in Madura, Kapatapuram, and northern Madura.
• The majority of the works associated with the first two sangams were primarily concerned with music and dance.
• Unfortunately, Tolkappiyam is the only work of these two Sangams that is available.
• Tolkappiyam is the first existing work of Tamil literature and a study on the grammar of the Tamil language. It's written in the form noorpaa (short formulaic compositions)
• The primary literature of the third Sangam includes a collection of songs known as Ettu-thokai or Eight Anthologies and another of lengthier poetry known as Pattu Pattu or Ten Idylls.
• In terms of beauty and magnificence, Sangam poetry is unique and unrivaled.
• Ettu(eight) thokai's anthologies are Natrinal, Kuruntogai, Ainkurunuru, Padiruppattu, Paripadal, Kalittogal, Ahanuru, and Purananuru.
• Thirumurugatrupadai, Porunaratruppadai, Cirupanarruppadai, Pattinappalai, Kurinjipattu, Nedunalvadai, Madurai Kanchi, Malaipadukadam, Mullaippattu, and Perumpanarruppadai are the 10 idylls of Pattuppattu.
• Padinen-kizhkkanakku, a collection of minor works dealing mostly with moral values, was also published during the third Sangam period.
• The most important is Tiruvalluvar's Thirukkural oru Kural, which focuses on philosophy, ethics, and wise maxims.
• Unlike the Rig Vedic scriptures, Sangam literature was secular in character and centered on the themes of numerous heroes and heroines.
• The Sangam literature has a wealth of information on the social, economic, and political lives of people living in deltaic Tamil Nadu in the early Christian years. Silappadikaram, Manimekalai, Jivaka chintamani, Valaiyapati, and Kundalakesi were all written during the post-Sangam era (200-600 AD).
• Some Jain authors contributed the five minor works, Yasodhara Kaviyam, Chulamani, Perunkathai, Naga Kumara kaviyam, and Nilakesi.
• Between 600 and 900 AD, Tamil literature was influenced by Saiva and Vaishnava saints known as Nayanmars and Alvars, respectively.
• The hymns of the Saiva saints were eventually compiled into twelve Thirumurai collections.
• The Periya Puranam, also known as Tiruttondar Puranam, was written in the 12th century AD by Sekkizhar and was regarded as the twelfth Tirumural.
• Nathamuni (824-924 AD), a Vaishnava saint, gathered the Vaishnava hymns into four volumes named Nalayira Divya Prabandham.
• Other Vaishnava saints who have contributed to Tamil literature include Pariyalivar, Poigai Alvar, Bhutattalvar, and Andal.
• Andal is the only female saint among them.

Tamil Language - Current status

• Tamil is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and it is one of the 22 languages included in Schedule 8 of India's constitution.
• It is one of the official languages of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, both union territories.
• Tamil is also one of Singapore's official languages. Tamil, along with Sinhala, is one of Sri Lanka's official and national languages.
• It was originally granted nominal official status in the Indian state of Haryana, ostensibly as a rebuke to Punjab, despite the fact that the state had no recorded Tamil-speaking population, and was eventually replaced by Punjabi in 2010.

Conclusion

Tamil is one of the world's longest-surviving classical languages. The word 'Tamil' is an anglicized form of the three-letter native name of the Dravidian language spoken mostly by people in Tamilnadu, an Indian subcontinent state. It is a Dravidian language from the southern branch. It is the official and administrative language of Tamil Nadu and the Union territory of Puducherry. It is one of India's twenty-two scheduled languages.

FAQs

MCQs

1. Which period is associated with the flourishing of Tamil literature in ancient India?

A) Maurya Period
B) Gupta Period
C) Sangam Period
D) Mughal Period

2. What is the significance of the "Tirukkural" in Tamil literature?

A) It is a religious text focusing on Shiva worship
B) It is a work of Tamil classical literature focused on ethics and morality
C) It is a historical record of Tamil kings
D) It is a Tamil dictionary of ancient words

3. Tamil belongs to which language family?

A) Indo-European
B) Sino-Tibetan
C) Dravidian
D) Austroasiatic

4. The Tamil language has significantly influenced which of the following regions outside India?

A) China
B) Southeast Asia
C) Middle East
D) Central Asia

5. Which ancient Tamil text focuses on the ethics of life and moral philosophy?

A) Manimekalai
B) Silappadikaram
C) Tirukkural
D) Tholkappiyam

GS Mains Questions and Model Answers

Q1: Discuss the role of Tamil literature in shaping the cultural identity of ancient South India.

Answer: Tamil literature played a pivotal role in shaping the cultural identity of ancient South India. The Sangam literature, which is among the oldest and richest literary traditions, is a reflection of the social, political, and religious life of the time. It offered insights into the values of heroism, ethics, love, and moral living. The Tamil texts provided a medium for the transmission of knowledge, philosophy, and ethics, helping to solidify a shared cultural and linguistic identity among the Tamil people. Tamil literature also became a foundation for the religious practices of the region, particularly in relation to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Over time, it became an important tool for preserving history, customs, and the Tamil language.

Q2: How did the Tamil language influence the development of other Dravidian languages in ancient India?

Answer: As the oldest Dravidian language, Tamil had a profound influence on the development of other Dravidian languages, such as Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. Tamil served as the basis for the phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary of these languages, especially in the southern part of India. Over time, these languages evolved their own literary traditions but retained much of the linguistic framework established by Tamil. The shared linguistic heritage among the Dravidian languages created a cultural bond in the region, contributing to a shared identity that persists in the Southern Indian states today. Tamil’s role as the lingua franca in ancient South India also ensured its lasting influence on other regional languages.

Q3: Analyze the contribution of Tamil literature to the religious and cultural life of ancient India.

Answer: Tamil literature made significant contributions to the religious and cultural life of ancient India, particularly through the Tamil bhakti movement, which emphasized devotion to deities like Lord Shiva and Vishnu. The Tamil saints and poets wrote devotional hymns that became central to the religious practices of the time. Tamil literature also contributed to the philosophical discourse in ancient India, particularly in works like the "Tirukkural," which discusses ethics, morality, and the ideal way of living. Furthermore, Tamil literature helped preserve and transmit the cultural practices, art forms, and religious rituals of the region, fostering a rich and enduring cultural heritage that continues to shape South Indian culture today.

Previous Year Questions on Tamil Language

1. UPSC CSE Prelims 2019:

Question: Tamil is classified as which type of language in the Indian context?

A) Indo-Aryan
B) Dravidian
C) Sino-Tibetan
D) Austroasiatic

Answer: (B)

Explanation: Tamil is classified as a Dravidian language, which is one of the major language families in South India, alongside languages like Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.

2. UPSC CSE Mains 2018 (GS Paper 1):

Question: How did the Tamil language and literature contribute to the socio-cultural life of ancient South India?

Answer: Tamil language and literature played a central role in shaping the socio-cultural life of ancient South India. The Sangam literature, which dates back to the early centuries of the Common Era, provided insight into the social norms, customs, values, and governance systems of the Tamil-speaking regions. The literature also reflected the religious life, particularly the development of the Tamil bhakti movement, which had a profound impact on the region’s religious and cultural practices. Tamil literature preserved the historical and cultural identity of South India, facilitating the transmission of knowledge and ethical values across generations.