Tolkāppiyam translated into Hindi

Tags: National News

• Translated by - Central Institute of Classical Tamil
• Released by  - Minister of State for Education, Dr. Subhas Sarkar
• Aim - To provide accessibility and wider readership to the Classical Tamil texts.
• Tolkappiyam is the most ancient text of Tamil grammar and poetics. It is part of the Sangam Literature that flourished under the royal patronage of the Pandya kings of Madurai around 3rd Century BC to 3rd Century AD.

Detailed-

Minister of State for Education, Dr. Subhas Sarkar released the Hindi translation of Tolkāppiyam and the Kannada translations of 9 books of Tamil Sangam literature.

Tolkappiyam

• Tolkappiyam is the most ancient Tamil grammar text and the oldest work of Tamil literature. 
• Some in the Tamil tradition place the text in the mythical second sangam, variously in 1st millennium BCE or earlier. 
• Tolkappiyam, a unique work on grammar and poetics, in its three parts of nine sections each, deals with Ezhuttu(letter), Col (word) and Porul (subject matter). 
• Almost all levels of the human language from the spoken to the most poetic lie within the purview of Tolkappiyar’s analysis as he treats in exquisitely poetic and epigrammatic statements on phonology, morphology, syntax, rhetoric, prosody and poetics.

Tamil Literature

• Tamil writing systems dates back to 250 BCE.
• According to the Tamil legends, there were three Sangams (Academy of Tamil poets) held in the ancient South India popularly called Muchchangam.
• The First Sangam, is believed to be held at Madurai, attended by gods and legendary sages. No literary work of this Sangam is available.
• The Second Sangam was held at Kapadapuram, only Tolkappiyam survives from this.
• The Third Sangam was also held at Madurai. A few of these Tamil literary works have survived and are a useful sources to reconstruct the history of the Sangam period.
• Tamil sangam poetry contains 2381 poems in Tamil composed by 473 poets, some 102 anonymous.
• Most scholars suggest the historical sangam literature era to be among the finest of world literature. 
• Out of the large body of literature, only a grammatical work in verse called Tolkāppiyam, the eight anthologies (Ettuttokai) and Ten Songs (Pattuppattu) have survived the ravages of time. 

Union Minster of Education - Dharmedra Pradhan

Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) 

• CICT formerly known as the Centre of Excellence for Classical Tamil (CECT) is a body established by the Government of India with a view to promoting the cause of Classical Tamil. 
• Headquarters - Chennai.
• It awards the Kural Peedam Award, a lifetime achievement presidential award given to eminent scholars of classical Tamil since 2005.