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of
the Brahmans; the majority of the words expressive of religious ideas
in actual use in modern Tamil are of Sanskrit origin, and though there
are equivalent Dravidian words which are equally appropriate, and in some
instances more so, such words have gradually become obsolete, and are
now confined to the poetical dialect; so that the use of them in prose
compositions would sound affected and pedantic. This is the real and only
reason why Sanskrit derivatives are so generally used in Tamil religious
compositions.”1
Tamil, on account of its phonological simplicity
and verbal richness, has a natural aversion to all foreign words, especially
to Sanskrit ones, and in cases of unavoidable necessity naturalisation
of foreign words, even to the extent of obliteration of identity, is an
indispensable prerequisite, according to the orthodox tradition. Tamil
is maintaining or is able to maintain its purity both glossarially and
morphologically, even after the total extinction of the pre-Aryan Tamil
literature and the submergence of the whole of ancient Pandinadu. Most
of the words and inflexions in the Dravidian languages are either alterations
or corruptions of the original forms which are treasured up only in Tamil.
(iii) Earliest cultivation of Tamil Tolkƒppiyam,
which is mainly a recast of an earlier work, or compilation of materials
collected from many earlier works and presupposes a long evolution of
literary culture, was composed about the 7th century B.C.Literary tradition
affirms that the First Academy which flourished more than 6000 years before
Christ, both preserved earlier literature and produced new works exactly
like its two successors. Though the periods of duration given for the
Three Academies are incredibly long, the incredibility soon vanishes when
we consider the aboriginality of the Tamilians, the high degree of linguistic
and literary cultivation of Tamil and the geological antiquity to the
Lemurian continent, in which the seats of the first two Academies were
situated.
“The relatively high antiquity of the literary
cultivation of Tamil being a matter of interest considered in itself,
irrespective
1.
Ibid pp46-7
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