THOLKAPPIYAM

LESSON 1


THOLKAPPIYAM  


Tholkappiyam is considered to be the oldest and the first Tamil  work, now available to us. It dates back to 3rd to 6th century BC.
   
It is believed to have been written during the Second Sangam Age. The Second Tamil Sangam is also called Middle Tami Sangam.


Tamil Sangams : It is believed that there were three Tamil Sangams. 


The first Sangam is believed to have been in existence in a port town called Vada Madurai meaning North Madurai.


The Second Sangam was operating from a town called "Kapadapuram' . Both these towns have disappeared now. 


The third Sangam was in  Thenmadurai meaning South Madurai 
(the present Madurai in the State of Tamilnadu) which was patronized  by the Pandian Kings. 


 Tholkappiyam was composed during the period of the Middle Sangam. 


 The name of the author of Tholkappiyam is not known. It is a practice in the field of Tamil Literature to name the author by the name of his work. So, the author of this work is called Tholkaappiyar.          


Tholkaapiyam: It is a large book or rather treatise of Tamil grammar. It is divided into  three well defined and designed parts. Each Part is called athikaram in Tamil. The first part called Ezhthu Athikaram deals with the grammar of Tamil alphabets .  The second part called Sol Athikaram (grammar of words) deals with the grammar of the Tamil words i.e syntax. The third part of the book called Porul Athikaram deals with the grammar of the subject matter of poetry i.e semantics. 


It is said that the third classification Porul Athikaram dealing with the subject matter of poetry is unique to Tamil. 


While the other two parts dealing with the grammar of alphabets and words are common to other languages also, this third part dealing with the subject of matter poetry is unique to Tamil.


This third part offers guidance to poets about the subject matter of poetry. 


A few of the relevant information are: 


 It gives guidance to the poet that the subject matter of poetry depends on the nature of the land. The land is divided into five regions 
1.Mountainous,  2. Forest Region, 3. Agro region (consisting the green paddy fields) 4. Sea-side Region and 5 the  Desert Region. Though there were no sandy deserts in Tamilnadu it was well defined that the land which once was a forest or mountainous region    
turned into a parched arid land where nothing could grow which wa called a desert.
The other classification Tholkappaiyam offers to the poet is that the human life can be divided into two divisions 1 aham &2.  puram meaning inside life i.e. personal life and external life i.e social life respectively.    
The aham deals with the personal life of men and women while  puram deals with their social life. Normally poetry used to deal with these aspects.


The third important guidance Tholkappiyam offers to the poet is that the poetry should essentially contain three components 1. muthal 2 karu and 3 uri.  muthal porul refers to the land where the characters belong to.  karu porul refers to the other surroundings that help the story to evolve around. While the uri porul refers to aspect of life that is dealt with in the poem whether it the personal life of men and women or their external social life.


Thus, Tholakappiyam deals elaborately with the complete grammar which is essential for Tamil Literature which enables the same to stand the test of time. One great thing is that Tholkappiyam is available in full even after a lapse of 2500 years.   


Though, it was written as a work of grammar of Tamil Tholkaappiyam can be called a work of anthropology of the Tamils of ancient times.


Tholkaappiyar, the author mentions in many places of his work 'enmanar pulavar' meaning "so say the earlier poets, my predecessors". From this we can understand that Tamil had a well defined grammar even before Tholkaappiyar which was codified by him.