VIII
PROSE

“Poetry” has preceded “Prose” in literature, the world over.¹ In Tamil, prose as a separate form of literature is comparatively of recent origin. Tolkāppiam does possess references to prose, but until today, no ancient prose literature has been unearthed.² Commentators on Tolkāppiam also mention a couple of prose works but these are yet to be discovered.

In the Cilappatikāram the author on rare occasions dispenses with poetry and attempts prose, but these expressions sound and appear more like poetry. Commentaries on poetical works and grammar Cūttirams were written in prose. Inscriptions have been written in prose but the style is predominantly administrative and not purely literary. All these bear witness to the fact that prose did exist and the Tamils were well-versed in it, but they did not treat it as an independent species of literature, nor did they indulge in it. On the contrary, they dived deep in the realm of poetry.

The credit of expanding prose (in which commentaries and the like were written) and converting it into a separate entity of literature goes to European Missionaries.³

Robert de Nobili’s works are the earliest prose works available today. We are aware however that there were certain Missionaries who wrote in Tamil Prose. Ziegenbalg’s letters which were

1. Emerson, R. W.; Poetry and Imagination, P. 439

2. Paramasivanandam, A. M.; Tamiḷ Urainaṭai ; 1959, P. 14

3. Mayilai Seeni Venkadaswamy: Kṛistavamum Tamiḷum, 1936, P. 15
Chengalvaraya Pillai : History of the Tamil Prose Literature, 1928, P. 15
Pillay K. K. : The Western Influence on Tamil Prose, in Tamil Culture;
Vol. VI; 1957: Pp. 159-175
Xavier S. Thani Nayagam, Rev.: The First Books printed in Tamil, in Tamil Culture, Vol. VII; 1958: Pp. 288-308
Murdoch, Classified Catalogue of Tamil Printed Books, Preface, P. XXVI