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Sanskrit and Tamil

The six most ancient languages in the world are Sanskrit, Tamil, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Latin. All these six are classical languages as well. Of these six classical languages Tamil and Sanskrit are the two classical languages, which flourished in India since very ancient times.

Sanskrit, the mother of all European languages and of many Indian languages is as old as the hills. The exact antiquity of Sanskrit cannot be established with any degree of certainty. This is because, we have written records only for the past 5000 years. Therefore, history beyond that period is in the realm of fancy and conjecture. The Rig Veda, the oldest among the Vedas is said to be 10,000 years old, if not older. But, there are no written records to prove this fact. But, the fact remains that Sanskrit was the lingua franca of India for thousands of years.

Sanskrit is the foundation of Hinduism. In fact, it can be said without fear of contradiction that without Sanskrit, there is no Hinduism. The four Vedas and the Upanishads, the Brahma-Sutra written by Veda Vyasa, the two epics Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Bhagavad-Gita which forms part of the Mahabharata are all in Sanskrit. There are numerous devotional works and hymns in Sanskrit

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Sanskrit literature is one of the richest in the world. The number of standard works in Sanskrit is mind-bogging and runs into several hundreds.

Sanskrit is a veritable storehouse of knowledge and there are standard text-books in it in all faculties or disciplines including science, technology, mathematics, astrology, astronomy, botany, medicine etc. So, it is not as if Sanskrit is literature alone, including devotional literature and nothing else. It is gratifying that the Government of India is doing its level best to promote the learning of Sanskrit in India, including spoken Sanskrit The greatness and glory of Sanskrit must spread throughout the world. This is possible only if all the important works in Sanskrit are translated into English.

I shall now give a brief resume of Tamil literature. If there is any Indian language which is equal to Sanskrit it is Tamil only and not any other Indian language for that matter. Sanskrit is a match for Tamil. Conversely, Tamil is a match for Sanskrit in grandeur and greatness.

It is difficult to say how old Tamil is. But, it is the considered opinion of Dr.M.Varadarajan, an outstanding Tamil scholar that it is 25,000 years old. It has a vast repertoire of classical works. The earliest extant classic in Tamil is, of course, Tolkappiam, which is said to be 5000 years old. But, there are references in Tamil literature about works earlier to Tolkappiam, but these have been irretrievably lost to posterity. Generally speaking Silappadigaram, Chintamani, Manimekalai, Valayapathi and Gundalakesi are considered as five great classics in Tamil literature, of which the last two have been lost to posterity. But, the greatest classic in Tamil literature is undoubtedly Kamba Ramayanam, an epic poem of around 12,000 verses, written in grandiose style. The number of literary works in Tamil is legion. And each literary work has a distinctive flavor of its own. For example, Villibharatam, excels in the use of choice diction and resonant rhymes while Kalingathu Bharani glorifies heroism on the battlefield. There are also several devotional works in Tamil like Devaram, Tiruvachagam, Thiruppavai, Tiruvembavai, Nalayirathu Divya Prabandam, Thiru Arutpa and Thiruppugazh, to mention only a few among them. This is because piety has been the hallmark of Tamils since antinquity.

One of the greatest works in Tamil which is of timeless value is, of course, Tirukkural, containing nuggets of wisdom. There are several commentaries on it, but that by Parimalazhagar is regarded as the best by erudite scholars. Modern students of Tamil literature can make profitable use of the rendition of the Tirukkural into simple prose by Dr.M.Varadarajan, a name to conjure with Tamil literature. His work Kallo Kaviyamo is a masterpiece, which has won wide acclaim.

The history of Tamil literature can be divided into two periods namely Tamil literature before the advent of British rule and Tamil literature after the establishment of the British rule in India.

Before the British set foot on our soil, Tamil literature had a stunted and lopsided growth. There was superabunclant poetry, a small amount of turgid prose and little else.

The renaissance of Tamil language/ literature took place only during the British regime. New forms of writing in Tamil never known before, like skit, modern prose, article, essay, drama, one-act play, short story, novel, satire etc. blossomed only after scholars and writers in Tamil were exposed to English and its literature. Thus, English contributed to t