Books for self-instruction in Classical Literary Tamil

[Stephen Hodge]

Swaminathan Madhuresan wrote:

> For classical Tamil grammar, consult:
> V. S. Rajam, A reference grammar of classical Tamil poetry,
> American Philosophical Society, 1992. 1081 p.

The problem with this book, valuable though it may be in other
respects, is that it is not designed for self-tuition nor does it
contain all that one might need to learn the language successfully.
I also expressed an interest in learning classical Tamil early last
year on the list and, combined with my own independent investigations,
I have the distinct impression that classical Tamil is very poorly
served for learning purposes.  This I find extremely surprising given
the obvious importance of Tamil studies as we learn on a weekly, if
not daily basis, on this list.  The end result has been that I have
given up the idea and decided to concentrate on other better served
languages
Books that deal with modern Tamil do not seem to be much help since,
as far as I understand, the modern grammar is considerably different
to the classical.   When I began learning classical Mongolian several
years ago, it was not difficult to find at least four suitable books
despite the fact that one might assume classical Mongolian has a
rather more restricted appeal than classical Tamil.   Perhaps one of
the Tamil experts might like to fill the gap and consider creating
such a book for independent study ?  I am sure that they would find a
good market for it :)

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge