Date of The Tolkappiyam - Dates Proposed

Dates Proposed

  • Iravatham Mahadevan, an Indian epigraphist, argues that epigraphy sets an upper limit of around the 7th century CE on the date of the Tolkappiyam, on the basis that the Tolkappiyam is familiar with the use of the puḷḷi – a diacritical mark to distinguish pure consonants from consonants with an inherent vowel – which does not occur in inscriptions before that time.
  • Vaiyapuri Pillai, the author of the Tamil lexicon, dated Tolkappiyam to not earlier than the 5–6th CE.
  • Kamil V. Zvelebil, a Czech Indologist specialised in the Dravidian languages, dates the core of Tolkappiyam to pre-Christian era.
  • Robert Caldwell, a 19th century linguist who prepared the first comparative grammar of the Dravidian languages, maintains that all extant Tamil literature can only be dated to what he calls the Jaina cycle which he dates to the 8th–9th CE to 12–13th CE. However, Caldwell did not have the benefit of reviewing a large section of ancient Tamil literature (including ancient texts such as the Tamil: பத்துப்பாட்டு paththuppaattu and Tamil: புறநானூறு puranaanooru) that were later uncovered and published by U. V. Swaminatha Iyer.
  • Dr. B. G. L. Swamy, a botanist and historian, contends that the Tolkappiyam cannot to be dated to anything earlier than the 10th century CE.
  • Takahashi Takanobu, a Japanese Indologist, argues that the Tolkappiyam has several layers with the oldest dating to 1st–2nd CE, and the newest and the final redaction dating to 5th–6th centuries CE.
  • T.R. Sesha Iyengar, a scholar of Dravidian literature and history, estimates the date when the Tolkappiyam has been composed to lie "before the Christian era".
  • Dr. Gift Siromoney, an expert on ancient languages and epigraphy, estimates the date of Tolkappiyam to be around the period of Asoka (c. 300 BCE), based on an analysis of the Tamil Brahmi inscriptions found at Anaimalai in Tamil Nadu.
  • V. S. Rajam, a linguist specialised in Old Tamil, in her book A reference grammar of classical Tamil poetry: 150 B.C.–pre-fifth/sixth century A.D. dates it to "pre-fifth century AD".
  • Herman Tieken, a Dutch scholar, who endeavours to trace the influence of the Sanskrit Kavya tradition on the entire Sangam corpus, argues that the Tolkappiyam dates from the 9th century CE at the earliest. He arrives at this conclusion by treating the Tolkappiyam and the anthologies of Sangam literature as part of a ninth century Pandyan project to raise the prestige of Tamil as a classical language equal to Sanskrit, and assigning new dates to the traditionally accepted dates for a vast section of divergent literature (Sangam literature, post-Sangam literature and Bhakti literature like Tevaram). Hermen Tieken's work has, however, been criticised on fundamental, methodological, and other grounds by G.E. Ferro-Luzzi, George Hart and Anne Monius.
  • A C Burnell, a nineteenth century Indologist who contributed seminally to the study of Dravidian languages was of the view that the Tolkappiyam could not be dated to "much later than the eighth century."

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