The dating of Tolkappiyam, like much of the rest of Sangam literature is problematic^[1][2][3] and has seen wide disagreements amongst scholars in the field.^{[3] [4][5]} It has been dated variously between 8000 BCE and 10th CE.^[3][4][1] The Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம் in Tamil) is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language. ...

While most of the antediluvian datings which stem mostly from the Pavanar school have been rejected as being devoid of any evidence^[4][5], the genuine disagreements now center around widely divergent dates lying between the early CE and 10th CE.^[1][4] As the Tolkappiyam is often claimed as the earliest extant work of Tamil literature, the dating of Tolkappiyam is inherently tied to the dates ascribed to the birth and development of Tamil literature as a whole. Devaneya Pavanar (; ; also known as G. Devaneyan, Ñanamuttan Tevaneyan; lived 1902–1981), was a prominent Tamil author. ... Era Vulgaris redirects here. ... Era Vulgaris redirects here. ...

Dates proposed

• Herman Tieken, a Dutch indologist, who traces the influence of the Sanskrit Kavya tradition on the entire Sangam corpus, argues that the Tolkappiyam dates from the 9th century CE in his book, "Kāvya in South India : old Tamil Caṅkam poetry".^[6] Tieken's work has, however, been criticised on methodological and other grounds.^[7][8]
• Dr. B. G. L Swamy, a renowned botanist by profession and an acknowledged historian in his own right, contends that the Tolkappiyam cannot to be dated to anything earlier than the 10th CE.^[9][3]
• Robert Caldwell, a 19th century linguist who, for the first time, categorised all Dravidian languages as one language family, maintains that all extant Tamil literature can only be dated to what he calls the Jaina cycle which he dates to the 8th-9th CE to 12-13th CE.^[5]
• A C Burnell, a renowned indologist of the nineteenth century who has contributed seminally to the study of Dravidian languages dates the Tolk., to the 8th CE in his book.^[10]
• Vaiyapuri Pillai, the author of the Tamil lexicon and towering figure in the field dated it to not earlier than the 5-6th CE^[1][11].
• Takahashi Takanobu, a Japanese Indologist, argues that the Tolkappiyam has several layers with the oldest dating to 1st-2nd CE, and the newest and the final redaction dating to 5th-6th centuries CE.^[4]
• V. S. Rajam, a linguist specialised in Old Tamil, in her book A reference grammar of classical Tamil poetry: 150 B.C.-pre-fifth/sixth century A.D. dates it to "pre-fifth century AD".^[12]
• Kamil V. Zvelebil, an Indologist specialised in the Dravidian languages, considers Tolkappiyan to be a Jain scholar, well versed in a pre-Paninian form of grammar, lived in the southern Tamil Nadu around third - first century BCE.^[13]
• Iravatham Mahadevan, an Indian epigraphist, in his work on epigraphy published in 2003, advances a "not earlier" than 2nd CE.^[14]

Kavya is a popular first name for an Indian girl. ... Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814 -1891) was an orientalist who pioneered the study of the Dravidian languages with his influential work Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages (1856; revised edition 1875). ... Arthur Coke Burnell (1840–12 October 1882), English scholar in Sanskrit, was born at St. ... Indology is a name given by indologists to the academic study of the history, languages, and cultures of South Asia. ... Prof. ... JAIN is an activity within the Java Community Process, developing APIs for the creation of telephony (voice and data) services. ... Iravatham Mahadevan is an Indian epigraphist, National Fellow of the Indian Council of Historical Research, an expert on the Indus script and Early Tamil epigraphy and the Dravidian substrate in Vedic Sanskrit. ...

See also

• Tolkappiyam
• Aindra school of Sanskrit grammar
• The Gajabahu synchronism

The Tolkāppiyam (தொல்காப்பியம் in Tamil) is a work on the grammar of the Tamil language. ... The Aindra (of Indra) school of Sanskrit grammar is one of the eleven schools of grammar mentioned in Paninis Ashtadhyayi. ... In the Silappadikaram, there is an allusion to a certain Kayavaku, the king of Ceylon. ...

Notes

The Hindu is a leading English-language newspaper in India, with its largest base of circulation in south India. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). ...

References

• Caldwell, Robert. 1974. A comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages. New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corp.
• Zvelebil, Kamil. 1973. The smile of Murugan on Tamil literature of South India. Leiden: Brill.
• Trautmann, Thomas R. 2006. Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Vaiyapuri Pillai, S. 1956. History of Tamil language and literature; beginning to 1000 A.D.. Madras: New Century Book House.
• Takahashi, Takanobu. 1995. Tamil love poetry and poetics. Brill's Indological library, v. 9. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
• Tieken, Herman Joseph Hugo. 2001. Kavya in South India: old Tamil Cankam poetry. Groningen: Egbert Forsten.
• Burnell, A. C. 1976. On the Aindra school of Sanskrit grammarians, their place in the Sanskrit and subordinate literatures. Varanasi: Bharat-Bharati.