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e.g. He wrote with a pen.
Man cannot live by bread alone. } Instrumentality
He came with his son.
The sentry stood by him. } Association.
The Latin grammar recognizes only five cases
and the Greek six. It was only the Tamil grammar that enumerated eight
cases first.
The Aryan languages are derivative and much
altered and corrupted beyond recognition, and hence their case terminations
are stereotyped and inseparable. But, the Tamil language is primitive
and still representing the primitive condition to a great extent, and
hence its postpositions and case-endings are significant, separable and
replaceable by synonyms. The number of cases depends upon the number of
relationships and not upon the number of words employed as case endings.
The fact that the Tamil Nominative has no
case ending only denotes its primitiveness.
All the eight cases in Tamil are denominated
not only by their numerical order, but also by their descriptive appellations
and case endings, as follows:-
| |
Numerical
order |
Descriptive
Appellations |
Case-endings
|
| |
|
|
|
| (1) |
The
First |
Subjective
( E‰uvƒy
) |
Unaltered
nouΠ|
| |
|
|
|
| (2) |
The
Second |
Objective
( Seyporu˜ ) |
‘ai’
|
| |
|
|
|
| (3)
|
The
Third |
Instrumental(
Karuvi ) |
‘ƒl’
|
| |
|
|
|
| (4)
|
The
Fourth |
Dative
( Kodai ) |
‘ku’
|
| |
|
|
|
| (5) |
The
Fifth |
Ablative
( N…kkam ) |
‘in’
|
| |
|
|
|
| (6)
|
The
Sixth |
Possessive
( Ki˜amai ) |
‘adu’
|
| |
|
|
|
| (7)
|
The
Seventh |
Locative
( Idam ) |
‘kan’
|
| |
|
|
|
| (8)
|
The
Eighth |
Vocative
(Vi˜i ) |
Vocative
nouΠ|
It
is a pity that Dr. Caldwell didn’t know this.
The arrangement of cases in Sanskrit was
indeed an imitation of Tamil. That is why the Conjuctive or Associative
is included in the Instrumental in Sanskrit also. So, Dr. Caldwell's hollow
criticism respecting the Tamil Instrumental applies to the Sanskrit Instrumental
as well.
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