most highly cultivated ab intra of all Dravidian idioms, can dispense with its Sanskrit altogether, if need be, and not only stand alone, but flourish without its aid.”¹

     All the pre-Aryan Tamil literature, technical as well as general, displaying perfect, purity of word and thought, have been destroyed. Even the earliest extant Tamil literature is enough to prove the complete independence of Tamil language and literature from Sanskrit. The linking of the Tamil language, Music and Drama together as Muttami‰, ‘threefold Tamil,’ the division of Grammar into Orthography, Accidence and Syntax, and that which comprises classification of literary themes Prosody and Rhetoric; the division of subject-matter into Aham (Erotic) and Puram (non-Erotic); the five fold geographical treatment of erotic poems as Kurinji (hill-side), Mullai (pastoral regioŒ, Marudam (agricultural regioŒ, Neydal (littoral), and Pƒlai (desert); the four principal metres, viz., Ve-bƒ, ƒsiriyappƒ, Kalippƒ and Va½jippƒ and their varieties, not to speak of the various allied and auxiliary metres; the eightfold classification of poetic works, each class called by the common name Vanappu, into Ammai, A‰agu, To‹mai, T†l, Virundu, Iyaibu, Pula‹, and I‰aibu; the 20 types of simple rhythm described by Tolkappiyam, the 100 types of complex rhythm described by Avinayam, and the numerous types of technical rhythm displayed by Arunagirinather; are all peculiar to Tamil.

(v)   Material for reconstruction of Ancient Dravidian History      furnished by Tamil alone

      The traditional account of the Three Tamil Academies, the references to the river PahŠu˜i (in Silappadikƒram and PuŠam), the enumeration by Adiyƒrkkunallƒr of the 49 regions forming a great part of the submerged Pandiyanadu, short notices of some Pandiyas of the First Academy found in Tamil literature and the like, are, in the absence of a regular history, valuable materials for reconstructing the ancient history of the Dravidians, at least in very broad outlines, whereas there is nothing of the kind in all the literatures of the other Dravidian languages.