Literature—India, Tamil

Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!

Of the four Dravidian literary languages, Tamil has the oldest recorded history. Its earliest records, inscriptions in an Asokan Brahmi script, date to around 254 BCE. Tamil literature, preserved in copper-plate inscriptions and on palm-leaf manuscripts, covers more that 2000 years. It is the only Indian language with an uninterrupted continuity between its classical and modern forms. Its vigorous literary development begins with short bardic poems about love and war. The grammar, Tolkappiyam, is characterized by richness and rigor in phonetics and phonology, morphology, semantics, prosody, and conventions of literary composition.

The bardic corpus (200? BCE–250? CE) is represented by two large collections of poems in two main genres: agam (love poetry) and puram (war poetry). The collections Ettuttogai (Eight Anthologies) and Pattuppattu (Ten Songs) are both of very high quality. The postclassical period (250–600 CE) is exemplified by the Tirukkural (c. fifth century), a collection of 1,330 couplets on ethical order, social activities, and pleasure, and by the Silappadigaram (The Stolen Anklet, fifth–sixth century), a narrative-dramatic poem ascribed to Ilangovadigal. Silappadigaram is a tragic story about Kannagi, a woman who proves the innocence of her husband, who has been accused of the theft of a golden anklet belonging to the queen, but only after her husband is executed. In anger, Kannagi destroys the city with fire before being taken up to heaven as a goddess.

Tamil is famous for the devotional literature of Saiva and Vaishnava poets (poets devoted to Siva and Vishnu, respectively). The two greatest Saivia poets were Appar (seventh century), also known as "The Lord of the Divine Speech," and Manikkavasagar (ninth century), whose mystical poems stress the love of the soul for God and his response with grace, as well as his immanence in all things. The lives of the sixty-three Saiva saints were told in Periyapuranam (The Great Purana) by Sekkilar (twelfth century) in 1,286 stanzas. Among the Vaishnava poets, the best known is the female poet Andal (eighth century), who sang about her love for and intense devotion to Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu.

Kamban's (c. 1180–1250) magnificent poem The Descent of Rama (Iramavataram) in 40,000 lines is based on the Sanskrit Ramayana. According to many scholars, Kamban was the greatest of all Tamil poets.

Modern Tamil literature may be said to begin with the first genuine novel Kamalambal (Fatal Rumour, 1895) by B. R. Rajam Iyer (1872–1898), and the patriotic and lyrical poetry of S. Subrahmanya Bharati (1882–1921), the national poet of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Contemporary Tamil writing begins in the 1930s, with 1933 representing a watershed in the development of Tamil poetry and prose. In that year, Manikkodi (The Jewel Banner), a literary journal that has become a legend, was founded in Madras and soon attracted the best creative writers and critics of the period.

Tamil poetry went though decisive changes after 1959, when C. S. Chellappa (b. 1912) began publishing his review Eluttu (Writing), which opened its pages to things new and experimental. By 1965, avant-garde poetry, dissociated from stock phrases, traditional conventions, classical meters, and repetitive themes, was firmly established in Tamil writing, represented by poets like S. Mani (b. 1936), T. S. Venugopalan (b. 1929), S. Vaitheeswaran (b. 1935), and Shanmugan Subbiah (b. 1924).

The novels of T. Janakiraman (1921–1982) are rich, colorful, and realistic portrayals of rural life. Amma vantal (The Sins of Appu's Mother, 1972) has become a classic. In honesty, courage, social involvement, realism, and skill, Rajam Krishnan (b. 1925) is a superb novelist. She is noted for her scrupulous documentation, psychological insight, realistic approach, and great thematic variety. She has published many novels, including Kurincitten (Honey of the Kurinci Flower, 1953) on the life of a tribal community in the Nilgiri Hills of South India.

D. Jayakanthan (b. 1934) is in many respects the most complex and the most widely read author among Tamil prose writers. Strongly influenced by Freud and Marx, as well as by Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, in his later writings he has become a great humanist, uncommitted to any particular ideology. The heroine of Some People at Some Time (Cila nerankalil cila manitarkal, 1970) is sexually exploited by her old sadistic uncle and ostracized by society. Almost the entire work is set within her interior monologue. In her figure, Jayakanthan has created an unforgettable character— a courageous and tragic woman.

L. S. Ramamirtham (1916) is a master craftsman and unsurpassed stylist who explores character and emotion with striking and multifaceted imagery. In 140 stories and 6 novels, his major concerns are language, emotions, and Hindu religious philosophy. Similes and metaphors of startling beauty abound in his works. Among his novels, Apita (The One Who Cannot Be Touched, 1970) is the Indian illustration of Goethe's "The eternal feminine raises us to spiritual heights," while Putra (The Son, 1965) expresses the author's belief in the indestructible chain of all life. Among Tamil writers, Jakanthan and Ramamirtham, though different in language, theme, and style, deserve highest praise.

Zvelebil, Kamil V. (1973) The Smile of Murugan. On Tamil Literature of South India. New York: E. J. Brill.

——. (1974) Tamil Literature. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz.

——. (1995) Lexicon of Tamil Literature. New York: E. J. Brill.

This is the complete article, containing 858 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).