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 India, but by virtue of its literary excellence; those 26,350 lines of poetry (Sangam 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.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
It is only the Tamil Culture that has produced – uniquely so in India – an independent indigenous literary theory of a very high standard, including metrics and prosody, poetic and rhetoric.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
There is yet another important difference between Tamil and other Dravidian literary languages: the metalanguage of Tamil has always been Tamil, never Sanskrit.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
In most Indian languages, the technical gobbledygook is Sanskrit; in Tamil, the gobbledygook is ultra-Tamil.
A.K Ramanujan (from the book “Language and Modernization”)
The creation of a literature of very high standard and of a rich and redefined linguistic medium – found expression in the excellent descriptive grammar Tolkaappiyam, one of the most brilliant achievements of human intellect in India.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
The very beginnings of Tamil literature manifest clear traces of Aryan influence just as the very beginnings of the Indo-Aryan literature, the Rgvedic hymns show traces of Dravidian influence. This too, is today an undisputed fact.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
Tamil cultural tradition is independent, not derived, not imitative; it is pre-sanskritic, and from this point of view Tamil alone stands apart when compared with all other major languages and literatures of India.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
Tamil literature is the only Indian literature, which is, at least in its beginnings and in its first and most vigorous bloom, almost entirely independent of Aryan and specifically Sanskrit influences.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
Tamil literature is the only Indian literature, which is both classical and modern; while it shares antiquity with much of Sanskrit literature and is as classical, in the best of the word, as e.g. the ancient Greek poetry, it continues to be vigorously living modern writing of our days.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
Tamil, one of the two classical languages of India, is the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past.
A.K Ramanujan (from the book “Language and Modernization”)
The classical Tamil poetry is pre-eminently of this world; it makes almost no allusions to supernatural meddling in worldly affairs.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
The genre of akam poetry, i.e. poetry of the “inner world”, speaks of private life. This is the tender, intimate love-poetry, anonymous, stereotyped, including some of the greatest love poems ever composed in world literature: a poetry based on a concept definitely broader and deeper than the Sanskritic kaama.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
Sangam poems - These poems are 'classical,' i.e., early, ancient; they are also 'classics,' i.e., works that have stood the test of time, the founding works of a whole tradition. Not to know them is not to know a unique and major poetic achievement of Indian civilization.
A.K Ramanujan (from the book “Language and Modernization”)
Sangam poems - These poems are not just the earliest evidence of the Tamil genius. The Tamils, in their 2,000 years of literary effort, wrote nothing better.
A.K Ramanujan (from the book “Language and Modernization”)
In Sangam poems, the poet’s language is not only Tamil: landscapes, the personae, the appropriate moods, all become a language within a language.
A.K Ramanujan (from the book “Language and Modernization”)
யாமறிந்த மொழிகளிலே தமிழ்மொழி போல் இனிதாவது எங்கும் காணோம்
மகாகவி சுப்பிரமணிய பாரதியார் (32 மொழிகளில் புலமை பெற்றவர்)
The Dravidians, and in particular the Tamils, have contributed a great deal to the cultural richesse of the world: Pallava and Chola temple architecture, Chola bronze sculpture, the dance-form known as Bharathanatyam, the so-called Carnatic system of music. But, probably the most significant contribution is that of Tamil literature, which still remains to be “discovered” and enjoyed by the non-Tamilians and adopted as an essential and remarkable part of universal heritage.
Kamil Zvelebil (from the book 'The Smile of Murugan')
