South India are still current in Jaffna. The medial demonstrative u, which is exemplified in words like utu and uvan, and the interrogative termination-e, occurring in words such as vantāre, are now unknown in South India, except among scholars well-versed in Tamil literature. An endearing expression used in addressing a female child as mahane (son), which is mentioned in the Tolkāppiyam, the grammar of the śangam age, is met with in ordinary usage among the people of Jaffna.

The Tamils of Jaffna have retained some of the characteristics of old Tamil. The Tamil spoken by them is, to a great extent, free from the admixture of Sanskrit words. In śangam literature, we find only a small percentage of Sanskrit words, and even in regard to these words, they are used in conformity with some rules of Tamil phonology laid down in the Tolkāppiyam, according to which, for instance, the consonant r should not be used at the beginning of a word, unless it is preceded by an appropriate vowel. This rule is scrupulously observed even today by the illiterate villagers of Jaffna. Sanskrit words like ruci and raktam, for instance, are pronounced by them as urusi and irattam.

VII. Tamil and Sanskrit in South-East Asia

The use of Sanskrit in South-East Asia is no indication of the ethnic origin of those who used it. Sanskrit served as an official language of the courts and of religion, and Tamil speakers and Tamil kings as well as the kings and priests of South-East Asian kingdoms used Sanskrit during what is called the 'Hindu period' of their history.

The following reading is taken from the presidential address of Professor JEAN FILLIOZAT published in the Proceedings of the International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies, Vol. I, pages 7 to 9, Kuala Lumpur, 1968.

THE CULTURAL AND commercial intercource between India and South-East Asia across the ocean as well as the propagation of the Buddhist religion and of Indian sciences along the ways of central Asia towards the Far East, have been prominent since nearly twenty centuries. Many archaeological remains, records of travellers, and texts and inscriptions in Indian languages existing in all Eastern Asia are direct testimonies of this fact. Borrowings of Indian words in the languages of this part of the world, and Indian features in the original arts of many countries are also indirect evidence of the same fact.