INTRODUCTION

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CATALOGUE OF TAMIL PRINTED BOOKS.

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THE TAMIL LANGUAGE.

Importance.-Max Muller divides all languages, exclusive of Chinese and the dialects of America and Africa, into three grammatical families-the Semitic, the Aryan, and the Turanian. The third family includes a large number of languages, spoken by nations scattered over a vast region, extending from Australia to Finland. Of all the Turanian languages Tamil is probably the most highly cultivated, and possesses the richest stores of indigenous literature. Its name signifies sweetness*, and though it has not the softness of the Telugu," the Italian of the cast," it is an harmonious tongue. "Perhaps no language," remarks the Rev. P. Percival, "combines greater force with equal brevity; and it may be asserted that no human speech is more close and philosophic in its expression as an exponent of the mind. The sequence of things-of thought, action, and its results-is always maintained inviolate."+ Dr. Caldwell thus estimates its lite. rary stores:

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Though Tamil literature, as a whole, will not bear a comparison with Sanscrit literature as a whole, it is the only vernacular literature in India which has not been content. with imitating the Sanscrit, but has honorably attempted to emulate and outshine it. In one department, at least, that of ethical epigrams, it is generally maintained, and I think must be admitted, that the Sanscrit has been outdone by the Tamil."

As it is only about thirty years since the Tamils

*This is the etymology according to Tamil grammarians; but Dr. Gundert derives it from Dravida, through the Canarese.

The Land of the Veda, p. 97.

Dravidian Comparative Grammar, p. 84.

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began to print any of their classical works, many of them, as yet, are found only in manuscript, and are little known. Ample fields lie open to reward future research.

Territorial Limits.-The great plain of the Carnatic is the seat of the Tamil race. From a short distance beyond Pulicat, about 20 miles north of Madras, it stretches along the coast nearly to Trevandrum in Travancore. Westward it is bounded by the Ghats. It includes a great part of the districts of Salem and North Arcot, and the whole of the Madras, South Arcot, Coimbatore, Trichinopoly, Tanjore, Madura and Tinnevelly Collectorates, with South Travancore. Tamil is also the language of about half the population of Ceylon. Most of the military stations in the Dekhan and British Burmah contain Tamil communities. Tamil coolies have emigrated to Mauritius, Natal, and the West India Islands.

Including North Ceylon, the area of the Tamil country is about 58,000 square miles, the same as that of England and Wales. Tamil is the vernacular of about 12 millions.

Three Stages of Language-Max Muller shows that originally language was monosyllabic, and every word was distinctly significant. This he terms the Radical Stage. It is best represented by ancient Chinese.

In the second stage, of two roots which coalesce to form a word, one retains its radical independence, and the other sinks down to a mere termination. This is called the Terminational or Agglutinative Stage. "The conjugation and declension can still be taken to pieces; and although the terminations have by no means always retained their significatory power as independent words, they are felt as modificatory syllables and as distinct from the roots to which they are appended."* The root must never be changed, as in the English take, took, though the terminations, in

* Science of Language, p. 297.

some cases, may vary. Formerly languages of this class were grouped under the title of Scythian, Max Muller proposes the term Turanian, from tura, swiftness, expressing the wandering character of the tribes, It is essential in Nomadic languages, that the radical portion should stand out clear to be intelligible to many, though their intercourse be but scanty.

In the third stage all the roots may coalesce or have their original distinctness blurred by phonetic corruption. This is called the Inflectional or Amalgamating Stage. It is best represented by the Semitic and Aryan families. "The difference between an Aryan and a Turanian language is somewhat the same as between good and bad Mosaic. The Aryan words seem made of one piece, the Turanian words show clearly the sutures and fissures where the small stones were cemented together."

Every inflectional language was once agglutinative, and every agglutinative language was once monosyllabic. The three stages, to some extent, blend into each other. Some dialects of Modern Chinese show signs of agglutination; Turkish has made great advance towards inflectional forms,

Dravidian Family of Languages.-The largest number of languages probably belong to the Agglutinative Stage. Among them are included Australian, Japanese, Malay, Siamese, the Dravidian languages of India, Turkish, Magyar, and Finnish.

The languages of India may be divided into two great classes, the Northern, with Sanscrit as the preponderating element, and the Southern, with an independent basis.

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"The colloquial languages of India," says Dr, Caldwell, are divided by the Sanscrit Pandits into two classes, each containing five dialects. These are denominated respectively the five Gauras', and 'the five Draviras.' By the Gauda or Gaura languages are meant the 'bhashas,' or popular dialects of Northern India, at the head of which stands the Bengali, the Gaura proper. ......The five Dravidas or Draviras, according to the Pandits, are the Telinga, the

Karnataka, the Maratha, the Gurjara and the Dravira,' or Tamil proper. The Maratha and Gurjara are erroneously included in this enumeration. Both possess certain features of resemblance to the languages of the South, which are possibly derived from the same or a similar source; but, notwithstanding the existence of a few analogies of this nature, those two languages differ from the Dravidian family so widely and radically, and are so closely allied to the northern group, that there can be no hesitation in transferring them to that class."

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Properly speaking, the term 'Dravida' denotes the Tamil country alone (including Malayalam), and Tamil Brahmans are usually styled 'Dravida Brahmans.' 'Dravida' means the country of the Dravidas;' and a Dravida is defined in the Sanscrit lexicons to be a man of an outcaste tribe, descended from a degraded Kshatriya.' This name was doubtless applied by the Brahmanical inhabitants of Northern India to the aborigines of the extreme South prior to the introduction amongst them of Brahmanical civilisation, and is an evidence of the low estimation in which they were originally held."*

The term Dravidian, adopted by Sanskrit writers, is used to designate the Southern languages.

In addition to the Tamil, the principal Dravidian languages are the following:

TELUGU. This language, the Andra of Sanskrit writers, is spoken along the eastern coast from about Pulicat to Chicacole, where it begins to yield to the Uriya. Inland, it extends to about the middle of the Peninsula. Formerly Telugu appears to have been spoken as far north as the mouths of the Ganges. There are numerous Telugu settlers in the Tamil country and in Mysore. The Telugu language is spoken probably by fourteen millions.

CANARESE. This language, properly the Kannadi, is spoken throughout the plateau of Mysore, and northward about as far as Beder in the Nizam's Territory. It is also the prevailing language in Canara on the Western Coast. The Canarese people may be estimated at nine millions.

*Dravidian Comparative Grammar, p. 26.