Tamil Language - One of the Oldest Language in the world, Tamil Literature, Languages in the World

"வ்ண்க்க்ம் என்கிற் தமிழ் வார்த்தைக்கு மிகமிக தெளிவான் விள்க்க்ம் தேவை"

Tamil Language and Early Literature

Classical languages of the world are Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Tamil, Sanskrit, Chinese & Persian.

TAMIL is a classical antiquity accepted Unique around the world.

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia and Mauritius. *There are Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Indonesia, Thailand,Burma, and Vietnam. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil medium.

Tamil is the first Indian language to be declared as a classical language by the government of India in 2004. Tamil is considered as the only Indian language having a non Sanskrit version for almost every word and also as the mother of 22 Dravidian Languages. Paavaanar Devaneyan showed there are many Tamil words that went to Sanskrit through root analysis, But whenever people saw a word in Tamil and Sanskrit they automatically assumed it was a Sanskrit word. The Most Tamil Influenced Language is Malayalam.

There is no Confirmed evidence for the name / Word ‘Tamil’, but most accepted explanation is that the word TAMIL is arrived from ‘Tam+mil’ ie Tammil –Self / Self Speech or in the sense ‘one’s own speech’.

The earliest period of Tamil literature is dated around 500 BC. Tamil is considered as one of the Oldest languages in the World, More than 55% of the Epigraphical inscriptions – about 55,000 – found by the Archaeological Survey of India are in the Tamil language.

• About 60,000 of the one-lakh odd inscriptions in India are in Tamil Nadu, ·  Of them, only about 5 per cent are in languages other than Tamil -  The Hindu, Online edition of India's National Newspaper ( Tuesday, Nov 22, 2005 )
• A broken storage jar with inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi script has been excavated at Quseir-al-Qadim, an ancient port with a Roman settlement on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. This Tamil Brahmi script has been dated to first century B.C. One expert described this as an “exciting discovery.” – The Hindu, Online edition of India's National Newspaper ) Wednesday, Nov 21, 2007)
• A unique Tamil-Brahmi Inscription on pottery of the second century AD has recently been excavated in Thailand. A Thai-French team of archaeologists, led by Dr. Bérénice Bellina of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, and Praon Silpanth, Lecturer, Silpakorn University, Thailand, has discovered a sherd of inscribed pottery during their current excavations at Phu Khao Thong in Thailand. – The Hindu, Online edition of India's National Newspaper(Sunday, Jul 16, 2006)

The earliest form literature dated between 500 BC. and 200 A.D of the Tamil is called as Sangam Tamil. Sangam literature or Sangam Tamil consist of 2381 Poems Composed by 473 Poets. These poems are dated from 1st and 5th C AD, which makes them the oldest extant body of secular literature in India.

       Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural is acclaimed to be the greatest Tamil classic, The book is divided into 133 chapters each containing 10 verses.  The book is considered to be a posterior to Arthashastra by some historians and to precede Manimekalai and Silapathikaram since both the latter acknowledge the Kural text. Thirukkural is and remains to be the book that has been translated into the most number of languages. *Thirukkural is translated to Russian and pasted in the walls of Russian parliament. Some of the Translations and Translater’s name are

Saurashtra (Language), Writer: Ram, 1980

Sanskrit (Language), Writer: Srirama Desikan, 1961 -68

Russian (Language), Writer: Glazov, JJ Krishnamurthi and later by Ibragimov in 1974

Polish (Language), Writer: Umadevi, Wandy Dynowskiev, in 1958

Latin (Language), Writer: Graul, Charles in 1866

Japanese (Language), Writer: Shuzo Matsunaga in 1981

German (Language), Writer: Cammera, A F in 1803, (till date a total of 6 German Versions are available by varies Auth0rs)

French (Language), Writer: Ariel, M, in 1848 (till date a total of 6 Versions are available by varies Authors)

English (Language), 25 Versions are there, Written by Ellis, F.W is the First in 1812

Urdu (Language), 2 Versions are available, First being Surawathi Hasarat’s Version written in 1966

And other Languages such as Telugu, Swedish, Sinhala, Malayalam, Rajasthani, Oriya, Malay, Hindi, Gujarati, Finnish, Fijian, Bengali, Burmese Chinese, Dutch and Czech.

         About the 3rd century A.D., Tamil produced two epics Silappadhikaram and Manimekhalai which are considered twin epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Silappadhikaram is one of the Epic of Ancient Tamil Literature. The Book has unusual praise of the Sun, the Moon, the river Kaveri and the city of Poompuhar at its beginning, the contemporary tradition being to praise a deity.

         The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature are 1. Silappathikaram (Non Religious, 1st C, CE), 2. Manimegalai (Buddhist Religious, 1st C, CE), 3. Civaka Cintamani (Jain Religious), 4. Valayapathi (Jain Religious, 9th C, CE), 5. Kundalakesi (Buddhist Religious, 5th C, CE)

       Around 13^th to 15^th Centuries, Umaruppulavar has composed a long poem of 5000 verses on the life of Prophet Muhammed. Jain, Buddhist , Muslim and European authors contributed to the growth of Tamil literature.


Notes:

The language that shares a greater part of sanskrit is Malayalam. More than Hindi.
For all those Sanskrit-borrowed words Tamil has its equivalent.

For Eg: The Tamil word for night is Iravu and the vernacular word is derived from the Sanskrit word is Rathri.