தமிழ் மக்கள் மற்றும் தமிழ் மொழி வரலாறு

PEOPLE AND LANGUAGE

The land of Tamil speech and people was in ancient times ruled by three famous lines of king, the Chera, Chola, and Pandiya. . The land ruled by them was called Chera Nadu (Chera country), Chola Nadu (Chola country), and Pandiya Nadu (Pandiaya country) respectively.

The landmass covered by the present-day Kerala State in the South India formed a major part of Chera Nadu, the Central and Northern parts of present Tamil Nadu were the then Chola Nadu and the Southern part of Tamil Nadu was the Pandiya Nadu.

Tamils are of Dravidian origin. Many historians claim that the Dravidians, before the dawn of the history of the Tamils, were spread all over India. For various reason they split into small groups. Consequently, the original language also split into different languages. Tamil is found to have retained about 80 per cent of the features of the original Dravidian language.

There are three major sub-groups in the Dravidian family of language, namely, South Dravidian, Central Dravidian, and North Dravidian.

The languages of the South Dravidian sub-group is mainly,

 1. Tamil

2. Malayalam

3. Kodagu

4. Kota

5. Toda

6. Kannada

7. Tulu

The languages of the Central Dravidian sub-group are mainly:

1. Telugu

2. Gondi

3. Konda

4. Pengo

5. Manda

6. Kui

7. Kuvi

8. Kolami

9. Nayki

10. Parji

11. Gadba

The languages of the North Dravidian sub-group are mainly:

v  Kurukh

v  Malto

v  Brahui

Tamil is spoken predominantly in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is spoken also in several other Indian states. In addition, Tamil speaking populations are found in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji Islands and South Africa. Recent Tamil immigrants are found all over the world. The distribution of Tamil-speaking population found in the States of India according to the book ‘Distribution of Languages in India in States and Union Territories’, 1971, is given below:

State/Union Territory Tamil-Speaking

v  Population Percentage

v  Andhra Pradesh 552,42 1.27

v  Assam & Meghalaya 2992 0.02

v  Bihar 15,167 0.03

v  Gujarat 15,995 0.06

v  Jammu & Kashmir 823 0.02

v  Kerala 505,340 2.37

v  Madhya Pradesh 28,735 0.07

v  Tamil Nadu 34,817,421 84.51

v  Maharashtra 233,988 0.46

v  Karnataka 990,409 3.38

v  Orissa 9160 0.04

v  Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. 6128 0.02

v  Rajasthan 3564 0.01

v  Uttar Pradesh 9222 0.01

v  West Bengal 21,454 0.05

v  Andaman and Nicobar Islands 14,518 12.62

v  Delhi 37,343 0.92

v  Lackshadeep, and Minicoy Islands 113 0.35

v  Manipur 834 0.08

v  Tripura 82 ----

v  Dadra and Nagar Haveli 11 0.01

v  Goa, Daman, and D 3347 0.39

v  Pondicherry 419,830 88.95

v  Nagaland 469 0.09

v  Arunachal Pradesh 638 0.14

TAMIL LITERATURE

The recorded history of the Tamil literature can be grouped broadly into seven periods. They are:

1. Sangam Period - 3rd Century BCE-2nd Century CE

2. Later Sangam Period - 2nd Century CE- 6th Century CE

3. Pallava Period - 6thCentury CE-9the Century CE

4. Chola Period - 9th Century CE-12th Century CE

5. Nayak Period – 13th Century CE-17th Century CE

6. European Period - 17th Century CE-19th Century CE

7. Present Period - 20th Century CE onwards