LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 17:7 July 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
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Historicity in the Tamil Grammatical Tradition:
A Study of IraiyanarAkapporul

Janani K., M.Phil.

Abstract

Ancient texts are often considered an ideal window into the past, and essential for an understanding of cultures. In the context of the Tamil language and literary culture, such an understanding of the past is considered particularly important as the existence of an uninterrupted literary culture is one of the linchpins of the identity formation of the Tamil people in modernity. This paper therefore looks at one of the key texts of the Tamil grammatical tradition, Iraiyanar Akapporul and its commentary, and some of the issues around its interpretation and reception by modern scholars. Through this, the paper attempts to distinguish two different modes of association with the past, one that is typical of pre-modern commentators and writers, and the other a typically modern one that is based largely on the principles laid down by classical philology.

Keywords: Indian Grammatical Tradition, Tamil grammar, philology, modernity.

Iraiyanar Akapporul

Iraiyanar Akapporul, also known variously as Kalaviyal enra Iraiyanar Akapporul or simply Iraiyanar Kalaviyal (henceforth IA) is a treatise on the akam conventions of poetry in Tamil literature, composed around the fifth century CE by Iraiyanar, an author whose identity is unclear. The text itself consists of sixty nurpas or formulaic verses which talk about love poetry of the akam genre, which is the interior landscape as expounded first in the Porulatikaram (henceforth TP) of the Tolkappiyam. The IA as it exists in its modern form has certain problems with its exact dating, as linguistic evidence dates different sections of the text to different eras. It is therefore now uncontroversially considered by scholars to be a layered text, with the main text consisting of the nurpas, and its commentary and a set of poems consisting of the other two layers.

The poetry section, known as the Pantikovai, consists of poetry in the kovai form, which refers to a collection of serially inter-linked poetry, about Netumaran, a 7th century Pantiya king. This work illustrates the conventions that the main text of the IA talks about and clearly preceded the commentary layer as it is often referred to by the author of the commentary. The final layer, the commentary, was authored by Nakkiranar, likely in the 8th century CE. It is also not free of later interpolations, and its author is named by the text itself. The commentary is considered a very important work of its own right for its explication of the akam poetics, and for the fact that it is the earliest surviving prose commentary in Tamil. It is also a valuable though fragmentary source of medieval texts as it is full of references, quotations and illustrations.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Janani K., M.Phil.
Centre for Linguistics
School of Languages, Literature & Culture Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067
India
janani.kandhadai@gmail.com

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