for the survival of Tholkappiyam, the existence of literary works in Tamil before 1000 B.C. could not have been believed and it would have been considered as one of the legends gathering round Sangam literature. Now it is asserted that Tholkappiyam is a work written during a period when literary activity in Tamil reached its high watermark.

The first part deals with phonetic rules and different assimilations of sounds in words in a scientific manner. The second part elaborately explains the parts of speech, the formation of simple and compound words and syntax. It is a peculiarity in Tamil that the grammarians have based gender on the signification of words, not on the endings of words. There is no such thing as grammatical gender in Tamil even as early as Tholkappiyam. Modern philologists are of the opinion that Tholkappiyam is an advanced grammatical treatise and their view is based on the study of the first two parts of the work.

The third part, called Porulathikaram, treats of literary conventions, rhetoric, prosody, etc. and is the most important part and reflects such a mature culture as to lead us to infer that the Tamil people should have had a high degree of civilisation for many centuries before such a work could arise. As V. R. R. Dikshitar says, this part gives us a glimpse of the political, social and religious life of the people and the importance of the work is further enhanced by several commentators of great repute. According to Tholkappiyam, the subject-matter for a literary composition may be either Akam the esoteric treatment of love, or Puram, the exoteric treatment of war and administration and morals.¹ He also deals with sentiments expressed in poetry, rhetoric, prosody, idioms and traditions. Simile is the basis of all the figures of rhetoric, and it is analytically treated in one chapter. The chapter on prosody explains all the metrical devices of the language. The early Tamil literature possesses varied and polished forms of verse which are indigenous and independent of any Sanskrit model. This also proves the existence of an age-long poetic literature in Tamil before 1000 B.C. which enabled the author of the ancient grammar Tholkappiyam to explain in detail the different metres and their rules as deduced from the poetical works of his age. "Dravidian genius", says T. Sesha Iyengar, "was conspicuous not merely in the sphere of language, but also in that of literature. Of all the races of India, the only people who had a poetical literature independent of Sanskrit are the Tamils, a typical Dravidian people."

As convention and system play an essential part in the literary

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¹ Studies in Tamil Literature, p. 26.