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Man is the best of all God's creations, for he is endowed with the art of communicating his thoughts to others through language, which elevates him from all animate beings. There are many theories about the origin of language; but all are mere theories and they differ as widely as possible. Can we definitely say anything about the origin of Sun or of its heat and light? How does the lion roar, the dog bark and the lark sing? We can simply say that it is due to its instinct. So also it will hold good to say that the instinct of man is to speak, as it is with the lion to roar. The difference is that man is improving or rather changing his mode of speech from century to century and from place to place, while the lion is not doing so. There is no difference between the barking of an English dog and an Indian dog or between the barding of the 10th century dog and a 20th century dog. But a Russian in the streets of Moscow speaks in one way and a Tamilian in the streets of Madurai speaks in another way. There is no difference in the mode of vibrating the sounds but in the mode of articulating sounds. Man's work begins when he tries to articulate his sounds and the difference arises, as no two individuals resemble each other in their bodily movements, unless they try to imitate each other. So the language is the work of man, the product of man's mind and the vocal organs.
What we said about the origin of language will hold good about the origin of the Tamil language. The ancient Tamil poets said nothing about the origin of the Tamil language. But there are many evidences to show that they called the Language as moli and named their language Tamil.
The word moli means what is spoken. First a single word was called moli and then the language that is built up by words began to be called moli. So it is to be inferred that the spoken language naturally preceded the written language. They spoke before they wrote.
The Tamil language is one of the National Languages of India mentioned in VIII Schedule to the Constitution of India. It is spoken mainly in Tamilnadu, scatteredly in most of other states like Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra, and also in the other cities of Bombay Calcutta, Ahmedabad and Delhi. It is one of the two languages of Sri Lanka and one of the three languages of Singapore and Malaysia. Tamil is an international language in the sense that it is the mother tongue of a number of groups in many independent States all over the world -Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, South Africa, East Africa, Europe, Australia and America.
Amongst the Dravidian languages, Tamil developed an excellent literature from earlier to the Christian era and its writing system, unlike the systems of other Dravidian languages, still preserves the unique Dravidian features whilst the alphabet system of others is completely modeled on the Sanskrit.
Among the Dravidian languages Tamil has preserved its earlier literature. The cave inscriptions of the extreme South, going back to the second century B.C. are in Tamil language. It is known that there were three Tamil literary academies one after the other. The earliest literature available is attributed to the third academy (or Sangam), probably beginning before the Christian era and continuing up to the end of the third century A.D.
The earliest Tamil grammar now extant is Tolkappiyam. The Sangam poetry consists of eight anthologies of short verses and another anthology of ten long verses, the shortest of which contains more than a hundred lines. Sangam poetry is divided into two categories - aham and puRam. Aham treats of love whereas puRam treats of war.
The influence of Buddhism and Jainism made the ethical Tamil literature prominent in the country after the Sangam age. ThirukkuraL, the Tamil Bible and the world famous ethical literature, provides the universal principles of better life, so as to be acceptable, as far as possible, to all. Dharma, artha and kaama are the three-fold divisions of this work. The work consists of 1330 couplets called kuRaL each being an epigram, simple, forcible and at the same time captivating. Everywhere the ideal is described but always in terms of the practical life, common sense and humanism.
In ancient times it was Tamil literature which the Keralites accepted as their own. The great Tamil epic Cilappatikaaram is considered to have been written in Kerala. Ceeramaan perumaaL, the Saivite Tamil poet of Naayanmaar was a Kerala King; so was the Tamil poet of Vaishnavite Aalvaar, Kulaseekara PerumaaL. VeeNaaTTaTikaL was a Saivite poet of Kerala. It was only later than the tenth century that Malayalam literature was born with the writing of Raamacarita, though some would claim that it is also in Tamil. But later literature especially the one developed by the Nambudiris in the ManipravaaLa style was in Malayalam or Kerala Tamil.
Even as late as the Nineteenth century many of the records of the Travancore Kingdom were kept in Tamil. The story of the ThiruviLayaaTal puraaNam describing the merciful leelaa or miraculous plays of Siva of Madurai especially Valai viiciya TiruvilaiyaaTal, the story of God coming to fish with a fishing net was so very popular that a Malayalam translation from Tamil was made and it is now available.
Contact with the Christians, though begun earlier, comes to be felt strongly from the fifteenth century. They bestowed more emphasis on education and Bible study even to the lowest strata of society. Simpler and even more colloquial Tamil begins to be written with an eye on children's education. The earliest catechisms belongs to the sixteenth century though written in Roman letters and printed in Roman letters and printed in Europe. By the end of the sixteenth century, books containing the Christian stories came to be written and printed in India. In the seventeenth century, Father De Nobili advanced to write in Tamil, books on Christian philosophy and religious criticism. In the eighteenth century, Father Beschi has written a number of works in Tamil but what will live amongst them is his paramaartha Guru kataikaL, the adventures of a foolish Guru and his four idiotic students.
It is proud to state that such a very old and familiar language has got the status of classic language by the Indian Government.
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Rajiv Srivasthav- Allahabad
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