Tolkāppiyam

Common card · No. 321645

Tolkāppiyam, also romanised as Tholkaappiyam (Tamil: தொல்காப்பியம் , lit. "ancient poem"), is the oldest extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. The surviving manuscripts of the Tolkappiyam consists of three books (Tamil: அதிகாரம், romanized: Atikāram, lit. 'Chapter or Authority'), each with nine chapters (Tamil: இயல், romanized: Iyal), with a cumulative total of 1,610 (483+463+664) sutras in the Tamil: நூற்பா, romanized: nūṛpā, lit. 'verse' meter. 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. Mayyon as (Vishnu), Seyyon as (Murugan), Vendhan as (Indra), Varuna as (Varuna) and Kotṟavai as (Devi or Bagavathi) are the gods mentioned. The Tolkappiyam is difficult to date. Some in the Tamil tradition place the text in the historical Pandya kingdom Second tamil sangam, variously in 1st millennium BCE or earlier...

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