.
..
most highly
cultivated
high
degree of culture
tamil
alone stands apart
unbroken
literary traditions
most
primitive language
telgraphic
transmission
oldest
language
tolkappiyam
nedunalvaadail
melodious
language
exception
of tamil
most elaborate
philosophical
literature
reacted
on Aryan thought.
tamil trade
most intellectual
people
cradle
of human race
most important
original
inhabitants
neolithic
culture.
tamil architecture
tamil culture
STATUS OF
TAMILGeorge L. Hart
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MELODIOUS LANGUAGE
·Tamil is one of the most melodious languages
of the world. The Tamil literature shared antiquity with other ancient
and classical lit eratures of the world but at the same time continued
to flourish as a vigorous medium of speech and writing. This is something
that cannot be said of some of the ancient languages.
DATUK SERI DR.MAHATHIR MOHAMAD.
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TAMIL THOUGHT
Classical Tamil texts revealed even to the casual
thinker that Tamil thought projects only universal human, spiritual and
moral values which are acceptable to all mankind.Tamil thought is against
any form of chauvinism or violence. These and many other values contained
in Tamil works should be made known to the rest of the world in as many
languages as possible. A greater degree of world understanding could be
achieved by propa gating the universal messages of the ancient Tamil literature.
DATO 'SRI S.SAMY VELLU
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.PRE~EMINENTLY
OF THIS WORLD
The Tamil classical poetry is pre~eminently of
this world; makes almost no allusions to the supernatural meddling in wondI
affairs. When quite marginally and exceptionally, it reflects some kind
of religion, it is mostly the rites and ceremonies connecte with the daily
life of the people; or, in bardic war poetry, reflectiot oftribal cults
and their survivals. The presence of vedic religion a Bhahmanism, in early
Tamil poetry may be traced only with diffculty as a very feeble, unimportant
superstratum.
DR. KAMIL ZVELEBIL
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LITERARY EXCELLENCE
The early Tamil poetry was rather unique not only
by virtue of the fact that some of its features were so unlike everything
else in, but by virtue of its literary excellence, those 26,350 lines of
poetry promote Tamil to the rank of one of the great classical languages
of the world, though the world at large only just about begins to realise
it.
DR. KAMIL ZVELEBIL
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GREAT LITERARY HERITAGE
Tamil classical poetry belongs to the great literary
heritage the whole world. Matter if we consider carefully just one of th
great literatures of the South: the Tamil literature. There, and only there,
we are able to point out a whole complex set of features so to say a bundle
of diagnostic isoglasses - separating this Dravidian but from other Dravidian
literatures as well.
DR. KAMIL ZVELEBIL
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INDEPENDENT OF ARYAN
The Tanil literature is the only Indian literature
which is, atleast in its beginnings and in its first and most vigorous
bloom, almost entirely independent of Aryan and specifically Sanskrit influences.
DR. KAMIL ZVELEBIL
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CLASSICAL AND MODERN
Tamil literature is the only Indian literature
which is both classical and modern; while it shares antiquity with much
of Sanskrit lit erature and is as classical, in the best sense of the word,
as e.g. the ancient living modern writing of our days.
DR. KAMIL ZVELEBIL
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EXCELLENT WORKS
There are excellent works in Tamil poetry on the
subject of the divine attributes and nature of virtue.
CONSTANTINE JOSEPH BESCHI
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TAMIL LITERATURE MOVED ME
The intrinsic interest of its subject matter,
and the atmosphere of its literature, especially the earliest Sangam (ancient
Tamil) literature, moved me.
DR JOHN R MARR
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RICH, PURE AND ELEGANT
How rich, pure and elegant in words and phrases
the ancient Tamil literature had been, how simple, yet how lovely , original,
edifying and true to nature had the conceptions of its poets and prose-writ
ers shone, but to what a poor, mixed inelegant and low style has the language
of its modern literature fallen, and to what an artificial, ugly, slavish,
corrupted and false mode of strain the thoughts andideas of its authors
are fettered, a slight comparison of the two lit eratures will easily disclose.
MARAIMALAI ADIGAL
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CHARACTERISTICS OF TAMIL
The pure simplicity of thought, the close and
minute observa tion of nature, the vivid and sublime portraits presented
of the so cial, moral, religious and intellectual conditions of the hoary
Tamilian life, the energy and artistic beauty beaming through with a sterling
freshness, and last, but not least the great historic value which it possesses
all combine to invest Tam il poetry with a peculiar charm and splendour
that can hardly be surpassed by the poetry of any great language in the
world. These characteristics of Tamil poetry accord to Tamil quite a unique
place in the history of culti vated languages in the civilised world.
MARAIMALAI ADIGAL
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VAST, VARIED, ORIGINAL, USEFUL,
INTERESTING LITERATURE.
When one grasps the importance of this circumstance
which controls the fate and destiny of a language, it would become clear
to his or her mind why Tarnil has lived so long and still continues to
live in all its youthful vigour, even after such cultured languages of
high antiquity as the Egyptian, the Accadian, the Assyrian, the He brew,
the Aryan and so on have ceased to exist. So far as we can compute on historical
grounds, it is for more than ten thousand years that the Tamil language
is being spoken and written. And to invigo rate its constitution in addition
to its innate vitality it possesses a vast, varied, original ,useful and
highly interesting literature pro duced from 5000 B.C. up to the present
times. The great and momentous fact must be borne in mind that, of the
few cultivated lan guages of the ancient world, Tamil alone, as I just
pointed out, is still living in all its richness and youthful vigour, all
others of the modem world being only five or six hundred years old and
even among these, except some European languages, few own original literatures
as pure Tamiil.
MARAIMALAI ADIGAL
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