Question

Attempt an essay on the foundation and development of Tamil Renaissance in the 19th Century.

Answer 1

1. In the nineteenth century, Tamil scholars like C. W. Damotharanar (1832-1901) and U. V. Swaminathar (1855-1942) spent their lifetime in the rediscovery of the Tamil classics.
2. C. W. Damotharanar collected and edited different palm-leaf manuscripts of the Tamil grammar and literature.
3. His editions included such texts as Tolkappiyam, Viracholiyam, Iraiyanar-Akapporul, Ilakkana Villakkam, Kaliththokai, and Chulamani.
4. U. V. Swaminathar a student of Meenakshi Sundaranar took efforts to publish the classical texts such a Civakachinthamani (1887), Paththupattu (1889), Chilapathikaram (1892), Purananuru (1894), Purapporul-Venpa-Malai (1895), Manimekalai (1898), Ainkurunuru (1903) and Pathitrupathu (1904).
5. The publication of these ancient literary texts created an awareness among the Tamil people about their historical tradition, language, literature, and religion.
6. In 1816 F. W. Ellis (1777-1819) founded the College of Fort. St. George formulated the theory that the South Indian languages belonged to a separate family which was unrelated to the Indo-Aryan family of languages.
7. Robert Caldwell (1814-1891) expanded this argument in a book titled A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian family of Languages in 1856.
8. He established the close affinity between the Dravidian languages in contrast with Sanskrit and also established the antiquity of Tamil.
9. Tamil intellectuals of this period identified the fundamental differences between Tamil/ Dravidian/Egalitarian and Sanskrit/Aryan/ Brahmanism.
10. They argued that Tamil was a language of Dravidian people who are Non-Brahmin and their social life was casteless, gender-sensitised, and egalitarian.
11. These ideas are exemplified in the Tamil invocation song in the play, Manonmaniam written by R Sundaranar (1855-1897).
12. Abraham Pandithar (1859-1919) gave prominence to Tamil music and published books on the history of Tamil music.
13. C. W. Damotharanar, U. V. Swaminathar, Thiru. Vi. kaliyanasundaram (1883-1953), Parithimar Kalaignar (1870-1903), Maraimalai Adigal (1876-1950), Subramania Bharathi (1882-1921), S.  Vaiyapuri (1891-1956), and the poet Bharathidasan (1891-1964) in their own ways and through their writings, contributed to the revival of Tamil literature.
14. V. G. Suryanarayana Sastri one of the earliest scholars to identify the influence of Sanskrit on Tamil and adopted a pure Tamil name for himself (Parithimar Kalaignar).
15. He was the first to argue that Tamil is a classical language and demanded that the University of Madras should not call Tamil a vernacular language.
16. Maraimalai Adigal (1876-1950) is considered the father of Tamil linguistic purism and the founder of Tani Tamil Iyakkam.
17. His daughter Neelambikai complied a dictionary that provided pure Tamil equivalents to Sanskrit words that had crept into Tamil vocabulary.