Tolkappiyam

Why in news?

• Minister of State for Education, Dr. SubhasSarkar released the Hindi translation of Tolk?ppiyam and the Kannada translations of 9 books Classical Tamil literature.

About Tolkappiyam:

• Tolk?ppiyam (“Old Composition”) is the most ancient extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature.
• The surviving manuscripts of the Tolkappiyam consists of three books (atikaram), each with nine chapters (iyal), with a cumulative total of 1,610 sutras.

Content:

• It is a comprehensive text on grammar, and includes sutras on orthography, phonology, etymology, morphology, semantics, prosody, sentence structure and the significance of context in language.
• It also offers information on social life, human psychology, political and economic conditions during the Sangam Age.

Author:

• There is no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author. However, some traditionally believe, was written by a single author named Tholkappiyar.

Add ons:

• Tamil writing systems dates back to 250 BCE and Tamil sangam poetry contains 2381 poems in Tamil composed by 473 poets, some 102 anonymous.
• Most scholars suggest the historical sangam literature era spanned from 300 BCE to 600 CE to be among the finest of world literature.
• Though it is reasonable to believe that the ancient Tamil itself had a long poetic tradition and a large body of literature, only a grammatical treatise in verse called Tolkappiyam, the eight anthologies (Ettuttokai) and Ten Songs (Pattuppattu) have survived the ravages of time.
• Ettuttokai consists of Nattrinai, Kuruntokai, Aignkurunuru, Pathittrupattu, Parip?dal, Kalittokai, Akananuru and Purananuru.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding Tolkappiyam?

1. It is a comprehensive text on grammar

2. There is no firm evidence to assign the authorship of this treatise to any one author.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer