Commentaries in Tamil literary tradition

Commentaries to literary works remain one of the most important aspects of the Tamil literary tradition. Commentaries to ancient Tamil works have been written since the medieval period and continue to be written in the modern era. Many ancient Tamil works continue to remain in comprehension chiefly due to commentaries and exegesis written on them. The most famous examples of such works are the Tolkappiyam and the Tirukkural, with the latter remaining the most reviewed work in the Tamil literature.

Background

Tamil is one of the most ancient and classical languages with a rich literary tradition in the world.[1] Along with Sanskrit, it remains one of the languages of the Indian subcontinent that are richest in literature. Ancient India is known for its unique oral tradition wherein knowledge was chiefly passed on as word of mouth from parents to their children and from preceptors to their students from one generation to the next.[2] The gradual buildup of this oral transfer of ideas through several generations resulted in an extensive corpus of knowledge, which eventually had to be written down on manuscripts.[2] This process generated a vast scholarship in every domain of life in the Indian subcontinent, and both Sanskrit and Tamil, along with other languages, saw an exponential growth in their literature over the millennia. Unlike Western tradition, where only critics abound, Indian literature is rife with commentators who both analyze the works and write exegesis on them.[3] Tamil literary tradition is no exception to this pan-Indian phenomenon, with commentary writing having developed as a distinct domain in the scholarly world over the millennia.[3] V. Suba Manikkanar cites the ancientness of the language as a reason for such development.[3]

History

Commentaries to literary works did not exist during antiquity. According to Perasiriyar, verses 653 and 656 of the "Porul" section of the Tolkappiyam assert this fact.[2] Commentaries to work was literally non-existent during the Sangam era.[2] The development of commentaries is thought to have begun around the medieval times and developed over the centuries. The exegesis to the work Iraiyanar Kalaviyal is considered the first commentary in the Tamil literary tradition.[4] According to A. M. Paramasivanandhan, it is the first prosaic commentary to a composition in verse.[4] Iraiyanar Kalaviyal was passed on orally to nine generations from Nakkiranar till Nilakandanar. It was written down in manuscripts only in the 8th century CE.[2]

See also

Citations
  1. Hart, 2000.
  2. Mohan and Sokkalingam, 2011, p. 11.
  3. Mohan and Sokkalingam, 2011, p. 9.
  4. Mohan and Sokkalingam, 2011, p. 10.

References
  • R. Mohan and Nellai N. Sokkalingam (2011). உரை மரபுகள் [Conventions of Commentaries]. Chidambaram: Meiyappan Padhippagam.
  • Hart, George L. (11 April 2000). "Statement on the Status of Tamil as a Classical Language". Institute for South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley. University of California Berkeley Department of South Asian Studies – Tamil. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.