VII
LEXICOGRAPHY

Early History

Tamil lexicography has been very slow to develop. Its earliest beginnings are evident in Tolkāppiam but a regular lexicon consisting of an alphabetical arrangement of words appeared in the eighteenth century only.

The earliest grammatical work in Tamil now avilable is the Tolkāppiam and its author is Tolkāppiar. The date of this work is still not quite definitely established though we may suppose that it must have been written sometime before the Christian era. There might have been books earlier than Tolkāppiam but these are lost to us and we have no remanants also.

The old work Tolkāppiam is in the Cūttira style and like other Tamil metrical measures make use of the initial rhyme for memorative purpose. The initial rhyme has determined the arrangement of words and their synonyms in the chapter on Uriyiyal. We do not meet with a very logical or strict alphabetical order in this arrangement. The chapter on Uriyiyal is not quite exhaustive and deals only with those words which are used as poetical epithets. The author feels that words in common use need no special explanation. The earlier chapter to this is on “particles” (iṭai-y-iyal) and the other is on marapiyal i.e., literary usage in Porul-atikaram. The chapter on Ecca-v-iyal (miscsellanea) says that words in Tamil can be divided into four classes i.e., (1) Common native words, (2) Literary words, (3) Words of foreign and (4) Words of Sanskrit origin. The author no doubt has revealed the various sources by which Tamil vocabulary was influenced during that early era. He, however, says that it is impossible almost to determine the origin of words. In this respect, one has to remember with great awe the monumental work of Dr. Caldwell who has taken great pains to ascertain the sources