Lesson - 4 : A04144

HISTORY OF TAMIL LITERATURE
IN THE 19th CENTURY

���The 19th century saw the firm establishment of British rule in India. While Saivaites and Vaishnavaites were engaged in a cold war, Christianity and Islam spread their roots in Tamil soil. The art of printing and publishing developed. Newspapers, dictionaries, and research works appeared. Prose works began to be written. Great men like Ramalinga Adigal, Aarumuga Naavalar, Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, Masthaan Saahib, G.U. Pope and Caldwell lived at this time.

��������The growth of printing and publishing led to the publication of many ancient Tamil works. Prose became popular. Traditional puraanas, and religious and grammatical works appeared during the first half of the century, while operas, classical songs, dictionaries, anthologies, research works and stage plays came to be written during the second half of the century. The habit of reading increased among the Tamils.

��������Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, also called �Maha Vidwan� and �Modern Kambar� wrote 61 works. Ramalinga Adigal, who preached humanitarianism, wrote two significant prose works -- �º�� ���� ����� and ���裼��� ����. �Dandapaani Swamigal wrote ����� ������ and ��������� wrote ���� ������. The first Tamil novel, Prataapa Mudaliar Charithram, was written by Vedanayagam Pillai.

�����颰� Masthaan Saahib, also known as Islamic Thaayumaanavar, wrote ��������������, �������� ����, ������ ����, ����� ����� and ��������.

���Notable among European Christians who came to South India, and contributed their writings to Tamil literature, mention must be made of G.U. Pope, who not only translated the Thirukkural, Naaladiyar and Thiruvaasagam into English, but also wrote an Elementary Tamil Grammar in three parts. Similarly, Rhenius wrote A Grammar of Tamil Language, Caldwell A comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages, and Lazarus translated the Thirukkural and Nannool, and published a collection of more than 10,000 Tamil proverbs.

��������Thus, the 19th century saw the printing and publication of many old works, as well as the production of several new grammatical works, dictionaries and research works.